cityblog

You know what is weird? Manhattan is an island. It’s very easy to forget. The buildings and pavement and people look like any normal city until the very edge, where the water is suddenly in front of you. I wish I’d spent more time out by the water this summer.

Had a bit of a crazy weekend - I ended up staying in the city.

I spent Friday night at home vegging out and eating everything in the house . . . I was very hungry.

Saturday I slept in, then went to the gym for a class. It said on the website that it was kind of a ballet/pilates fusion. It was pretty intense but very good - I think if I could take it on a regular basis I’d be in great shape, but it’s only offered during the workday or on Saturday. I’ll find something.

I came home and met up with Brendan, who’d driven up from the Philadelphia area for the weekend. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art after wandering around a bit, trying to find it. I’d never been on the Upper East Side - it is lovely! At least the area around 83rd and 5th.

And the Met was obviously very cool. I think you could spend months in there and not see everything, and get very, very lost. It’s also quite an experience to see all these famous paintings that you’ve seen in books and realize that they really exist - the Monets and Van Goghs in particular were stunning. And I was very excited to get to see the weapons & weaponry. It all made me want to re-read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg - one of my favorite books of all time ever since my 4th grade teacher read it aloud to us at lunch one fall.

After the Met, we played subway-hopping trying to get back to the lower west side. Clearly we are not threatening people - got approached by an abnormally high number of people looking for directions or money - most notably, the who guy claimed he’d been “left by a spaceship” in Manhattan and needed to get back to Patterson, New Jersey. Ludicrously, that’s common that most people don’t bat an eyelash.

We ate at a little publike place near my apartment, the Slaughtered Lamb. The food was marginal but we got to sit at one of the sidewalk tables. No joke, West 4th Street on a Saturday night is one of the best places in the universe for people watching. I saw a guy who walks around with the cat on his head! Three people parked some extremely shiny motorcycles at the sidewalk in front of us and the quantity (and quality) of people commenting on them left us in hopeless smothered laughter half the time.

Sunday I went to church, and then to a luncheon of sorts with a bunch of women, mostly twenty-somethings, at one of their apartments. It was great fun to finally meet people. Not being here on weekends does restrict that to a degree.

I came home and pulled out my guitar on impulse in the quiet apartment - thank God it was in tune, because I don’t have a tuner and it would bother me to tune to nothing. I haven’t played in three years, if I count correctly, but it’s rather surprising how much of that comes back. I don’t have a piano to play anymore. Guitar is an appropriate outlet. My fingers burn now. Around 7, I met up with Charlotte and had great lamb korma at an Indian place (called Mirchi) at 7th & Morton.

Filed at 12:24 pm under Life, New York City
Comments Off

I did it.

I enrolled in an Accelerated French I & II class at NYU for the fall semester. (It starts at the end of September but I enrolled now to keep it from filling up.)

Really, am I nuts?

Filed at 10:23 am under Life
Comments Off

It’s Friday, at last. And it is pouring cats and dogs outside.

I’ve gotten some real work to do this week, and a glimpse at what I will be doing in the very near future. I also got to meet my boss and sort of dive headfirst into a couple of issues.

Additionally, we were informed that they’re moving us to a different floor - which I think will be great. They’re putting us on a mezzanine level which overlooks the main trading floor, which means there will be a lot more excitement and noise . . . which I think I will like.

My mom had the misfortune of tearing a ligament in her ankle this week, but she can still walk and is doing alright. My dad is of course still in the hospital, sort of on the low point of his white blood cell and platelet levels, and there is a nasty sore on his lip that won’t heal, but he’s hanging in there.

I spent one evening at the gym with the personal trainer showing me what I should do . . . and I have been so sore that it hurts to move since then. Hopefully this too shall pass.

New York is big and crazy, as always. I started riding a different train to work last week (the F instead of the 1) and I really like it. It’s not full of tourists, it’s a quick ride because it stops twice below 34th instead of four times, and it’s usually not too crowded.

I ate out twice this week - once at a Cuban place that is near the Christopher Street 1 train stop, and at a Mexican place on 7th Ave. Both were great. I read a statistic recently that said you could eat at a different restaurant in NYC every week for 50 years and not run out (assuming you froze the current state of restaurants, since they change constantly). Yeesh.

Tonight, as always, I catch my 7:10 Amtrak train out of Penn Station to be home for the weekend.

Filed at 11:37 am under Life, New York City, Daily Goings-On
Comments Off

A lot has happened since my last entry.

Most of the world seems to know by now that my Dad was diagnosed with acute leukemia two weeks ago. He’s now in the hospital receiving treatments. I’ve been going home each weekend to be with my family. The prognosis is exceptionally good, but of course this is still hard on everyone. Our family and church friends have been wonderful in helping out with rides, financial support, food . . . It’s wonderful to have that kind of support around you when you are in a tough time.

Other than that, the big news is that training ended last Friday. Despite how much brainwork it was, I made some great friends (most of whom, unfortunately, live elsewhere) and had a good time.

So now I’m in the office, at 9 West 57th. It has been quiet and I haven’t had too much to do right now. That will pick up shortly, I’m sure.

Filed at 11:07 am under Life
Comments Off