more comfortable than the 6

When I left NYC on Friday morning Meghan rode the 6 train with me to 51st instead of the usual express to 86th.  Somewhere between Union Square and Grand Central she said, "I wish you could ride the subway with me every morning".

My gut reaction was to reply with, "me too" but I stopped myself.  It only took a quick glance around our train car to remember all the reasons I was glad I didn't have to take the 6 train every day for my commute anymore.

I was going to title this post "better than the 6" but I realized I would get arguments from the subway fanatics (I'm looking at you Dan and Will) who will forever stand behind public transportation.  And it is a marvel, really, especially when everything goes according to plan.

But visiting new york during a heat wave was such a good compromise between "oh I miss this magical fairytale city" and literally walking through piles of steaming hot garbage spread across the sidewalks.  Yes, I wish I could commute with Meghan every day, but do I wish I could go back to riding the 6 every day?

Nah, I'm happy with the benz.  And I don't think anyone will argue that the scenery is definitely better.

i shouldn't have gone

I knew in my gut it was a bad idea but when Kim asked me if I wanted to go to the Petco in Union Square and look at the kitties I couldn't resist.

: ( ( (

Somebody needs to go there immediately and save this precious angel.

an afternoon with my favorite cheese monger

While waiting for Lilly to meet me I was staring at this corner and trying to figure out why it looked so strange.  I finally realized that this was where the Virgin store used to be.  What a sign of the times that it's a bank now eh?

It was really nice getting to reconnect with Lilly.  Who knew that you could find a flower filled enclave in Union Square to sit and have a juice?

After a thorough discussion of my life and its lack of direction we made our way to Anthropologie where Lilly was looking to burn through a gift card.  I think she should have gone with this torture chair:

Perfect for handcuffing a person to, and it's open bottom is perfect for when your victim loses control of their bowels from the torture.  I can't imagine what else this chair would be for since it was the least comfortable thing I have ever sat on.  And i've sat on some uncomfortable things.

The biggest thing is just that I got to reconnect with an old friend, which I think is really important for me right now.  I'm feeling very "I remember me" these days.  Or more like "I need to remember me".  Too many dumb people trying to make me do things that I don't want to do.

Mmm, I think it's time to have a jam out to J-Hud.  Thank's Meghan for giving me the run of your place so I can lip synch in my underwear to my hearts content.

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.

nyc with meg

It's been hard for me to find time lately to see people i want to see, and as it gets colder outside I can feel myself preparing to become a hermit for the winter.  Meghan has been sweet and walked me to work and things like that as a means to see me so on Saturday we planned to hang out for real for reals.  

Our day started with some good old fashioned people watching in Union Square.  I think it's one of the best places to people watch in the city because I feel like it tends to be more new yorkers than tourists.  In front of the Met is always crawling with tourists but there's not really too many reasons why they would make a point to go to union square.  I mean, there's the numbers that don't make sense and the bullet hole that smokes, that's about it.  

But for locals it's a treasure trove.  You get such a fun mixture of new yorkers, from the bouj who shop at whole foods to the fly girls who shop at forever 21.  Sometimes there are farmers markets or tables set up which can be cool, but it's just as fun when nobody is there cause you can sit on the steps and watch people to your hearts content.  

One treasure we found was this guy who was either working at one of these tables or just hanging out with the people who worked there:

So from what we could figure he was basically wearing a floor length skort.  You might have to click on the picture and see it bigger to get better detail but the legs of his pants, while clearly separated at the shoe, are connected only a few inches higher where they become a voluminous skirt.  Now I thought this was awesome and that I bet it was really warm having all that heat caught in there.  Meghan on the other hand said that it seemed like you wouldn't be able to take very long strides and would, rather, have to walk like a geisha.  I don't think that's necessarily true, I imagine they have more stretch than she is giving them credit for.  I mean there is a lot bunched up by the shoe.  I imagine they're more like hammer pants; providing the ultimate mobility with the maximum amount of fabric.  

After people watching we walked down a few blocks and had ramen.  We still hadn't formulated a plan for the day, we thought a good bowl of stew would inspire us.  Apparently all it inspired us to do was eat more.  We decided that the best plan would be to make some kind of fall bounty and watch Hocus Pocus.  

On the way uptown we walked over to the river to enjoy my favorite park in new york city.

The old Carl Shurz.  I've been coming here since I was 19 and lived on 85th St.  I like it for a lot of reasons, but I definitely think the views of the water are a big part of why I'm drawn to it.  There's something so calming about watching the water, especially for somebody from Florida.  I feel like seeing the edge of manhattan like this really puts in to perspective how big and how small the city is.  

We walked the rest of the way uptown by the river, getting home at the perfect time to start carving pumpkins and making rice krispie treats.  I think I've been trying to deny that time is going by so quickly and that it's actually almost halloween, but it was really nice to get in to the spirit of it.