the rest of the day

It was literally lightning and thunder with the rain all afternoon.  I was still so tired that after I ate I fell asleep and completely missed 5:00.  I'm submitting this as the best approximation:




I had set my alarm to wake me up at 6, though I could have slept through the rest of the day and long in to the night.  But I forced myself awake at 6 and when I opened my eyes it was to this guy all curled up next to me:

I'm telling you, it was one of those kinds of afternoon.  But by 6 the rain had let up so I gathered myself and rode my bike over to Wilton by 7:

My favorite part of the parade was the marching band that played mamma mia.  I stayed until after 8 to see my friend Victor who was in the parade but not much longer after that.  As you can tell, by 8 I was really feeling like it was the longest day of the year:

Not the most exciting longest day of the year but judging by costume changes alone I did ok.

I made it through yesterday, now I just have to make it through tomorrow.

of course

When I left my apartment after posting it was the same bright beautiful day it had been all morning.  Literally 15 minutes later, maybe a half a mile away from my house, this is what it turned in to.  At first I stayed under the shelter of the Walgreens waiting to see if the storm would pass, then I remembered I had left the windows down on my truck.

So I had to return home, and get soaking wet.  Once back in my apt I couldn't help but feel the sun being covered by storm clouds was a sign that it was ok to take a nap.

I actually took that at 2:30.  I set my alarm to wake me up in case I overslept the 2:00 mark.  Oh I could have slept the rest of the afternoon.

But I've forced myself to get up even though it is still pouring rain outside.  I've decided to make myself some food and wait to see if the sun will ever return.

The oven finished pre-heating right at 3:

it begins

I'm actually doing it!  I was awake when it was still dark and made it to the beach in time to see the sun break the horizon!!  And I've so far resisted the overwhelming urge to get back in bed and sleep more.

The fact that it is the most beautiful day ever helps motivate me to keep going though.

Sunrise happened at 6:30 this morning so I stayed at the beach until 7:

Afterwards I required coffee.  Since Daniel RUDELY ditched me for our early morning coffee date I had to spend 8 all by myself:

After coffee I headed out for a run at 9:

Where I saw this:

And this:

10:00 got me as I was walking back home from my run:

And I had just enough time to shower and get myself together for Daniel to pick me up for coffee round two at 11:

By 12 we were ready to leave so I demanded a quick selfie:

And here we find ourselves.  At 12:30 and I am resisting the urge to take a nap.  The question is, do I go to the beach or do I go to the pride event that's happening downtown?

...or do I take a nap...

happy longest day of the year!

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Both Elliot and Sergio seemed confused and skeptical when I told them today was going to be the longest day of the year.  Elliot was convinced that it had to do with daylight savings times and sated himself with that regardless of my corrections.  Sergio at least listened to my explanation of the earth revolving around the sun, but I could tell he was suspicious that I was just bullshitting him.

I swear I'm not though!  It really is the longest day of the year.  Sadly I will have to work today and as I still haven't been able to shake this cough I was in no mood to get up at daybreak this morning.  That being said it's only 8:45 and the sun is already blazing through my living room window.

I am at least going to go for a run today and enjoy some of the sun before I reluctantly hide myself away in the cold and shadowy mall.

It's definitely crazy to look back to a year ago today and think about how much my life has changed.  I wonder where I'll be next year.

3:00pm, 4:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, 7:00pm, 8:00pm

Colin walked me back to Meghan's and we had grand intentions of doing fun things, but instead just sat on the couch talking which was lovely.  It was also overcast earlier in the day so I was trying to seek refuge, but as you can see here the sky had opened up again by three so I decided it was time to head back out in to the world.

By four we found ourselves in Union Square looking for food:

What we found was delicious sandwiches.  Nothing is a better chaser for a green juice lunch than a blt.  Mmmm, now my mouth is watering.

At this point Colin and I parted ways, he headed to his church, me headed to meet esha, and meghan at her work when she got out at five:

and even though I got THOROUGHLY chastised for sneaking these pictures of the McQueen exhibit I just couldn't resist because it was SO INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLE!!!

Pictures really don't do it justice.  I don't know how else to say it.  You really need to find your way here to see it for yourself before it goes away in August.

After our immersion in culture we found our way to Central Park for the six o'clock hour:

I really love this specific spot, I think because it's the entrance that I would have used the most when I first lived in the city.  I've also had many a good picnic on that hill.

Esha and Meghan and I walked through the park and enjoyed each others company before separating shortly before seven so Meghan could go feed the cat she is cat sitting for.  I was all excited to take a picture of this precious precious angel cat but when we arrived we found that the people had come home from vacation early, making for a very awkward exchange when we opened their front door.  I felt like the situation was weird enough without me asking if I could take a picture of their cat so unfortunately my seven o'clock picture is of the hallway outside their apt:

I feel like this happens every year.  I try really hard to be somewhere interesting at the top of the hour but inevitably there are one or two pictures of the most random and mundane thing.  Like the year we had to put the camera in the cheese case at the grocery store and take a picture of us with the sandwich artists making our lunch at noon.

So yeah, not exciting but that was 7:00 and by this point I was (and still am) EXHAUSTED.  But oh god, it was still daylight.  So bright!

I had to come back to the apt because I needed water and a change of shoes and to not be wandering around anymore so Meghan took me down to the Bette Midler garden for some H2O and evening conversation.  I thought I could make it to nine but surprisingly eight o'clock was the final hour of daylight, and I am pleased that I spent it in the garden that Bette built:

And I am secretly pleased that this day is FINALLY over.  Omg, talk about the longest day of the year.  It was like, really long.

So goodbye, enjoy, and I hope you all congratulate me tomorrow on my one year anniversary tomorrow.

12:00pm, 1:00pm, 2:00pm

I really miss juice.  I want to live here again for the juice.

I had lunch today at this new place that is just opening down the street from Meghan's apt.  It was super cute and fun and reminded me of the good old days when I used to open juice bars.

And the veggie juice I had was extremely good, and made me fit right in as I meandered around the lower east side.

I stopped off at a few of my favorite clothing stores but was unsure about the things I saw.  I need to go back with somebody else to help me decide if things are worth getting or not.

One thing that needed no thought regarding its worth was this swimsuit I found at topshop at 1:00

unfortunately they were not my size and they were the only ones.  I can only assume because they are couture.

In the spirit of me running in to everybody from my past on the streets of new york I met up with Colin and we have been meandering.  2:00 we found ourselves here, shading from the harsh UV light:

I love them, they are nice.

We also made our way back to the park because I had to come back to the apt to go to the bathroom, upload these pictures, and change out of my now extremely sweaty shirt.

Then it's on to the next activity.

11:00am

Hanging out with Sam at the apt, still waiting for my phone to finish charging.

I appreciate that these are the only dvds that they have displayed on their bookshelf.  Only the classics really.

They both emphatically told me what a good dvd the cheese one is.

10:00am

I can feel Bette's presence with me even now.

I'm still at Meghan's, enjoying the last of my coffee, waiting for my phone to charge a bit more.

Meghan told me that the spider plant I had given to her was dropping babies in to Bette Midler's garden so I've been trying to lean out and spy on them but I've yet to see any.  I may have to actually venture in to the garden to see them up close and personal.

OOH sam is awake now, time for a second trip to get coffee : )

7:00am, 8:00am, 9:00am

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I can only assume that this man is appealing to verizon and motorola in regards to my JANKY cell phone that never works and is always letting me down at the worst possible time.

Like today.  Oh today, how long have I been waiting for today.

Not only is today the longest day of the year, thusly one of my favorite days of the year, it's also the first full day that i'm in NY this week, AND today will be the final day of posting for the first year of my blog!

So you can imagine I had a lot planned for today, and you can also imagine that I am pissed off that my phone died yesterday afternoon and WILL NOT TURN BACK ON!!!

I think I finally got it charging for now, we shall see if it fully comes back to life.

In the meantime, I've had a fun three hours of daylight so far already.  Meghan and I went for coffee at 9th St. Espresso before I walked her to Union Square so she could catch her train, then I meandered back through the east village and pretended like I was a new yorker again.

Now I'm freshly showered, feeling better, and I have 40 minutes to charge my phone before I have to do something interesting...