New York City

The following are excerpts from my journal, which I wrote while in New York.  Unfortunately this post will be pictureless, as all the photos are on my phone.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

I’m in New York!!!  Emily met me in front of Madison Square Garden, next to Penn Station, and I could see the Empire State Building from there.  It was right down the block!  We decided to take the subway to Annie’s so I could drop off my bags, and then we walked around Astoria.  It’s such a sweet area!  There are all kinds of little shops and restaurants.  Emily and I went to a little place called Front Toward Enemy, where we got cocktails that were much to strong for our taste.  Em still drank hers and half of mine, so she was pretty tipsy when we met Annie next door for Queens Comfort.  We both had macaroni and Annie had a chicken burger.  After dinner we walked around Astoria for a while.

Friday, July 25, 2014

I had such a great day!  I got up, showered and went down to Bagels + Brew, where Emily had told me to have breakfast.  They have amazing bagels!  Then I took the subway to Manhattan (by myself) and went to the Met.  It was amazing.  There’s so much work there that I’ve learned about and there’s a whole section of Impressionist art, with van Gogh and Monet and even The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur.  It was so nice to be around art again.  Afterwards I walked through Central Park, which was magical, to the Natural History Museum.  It was awesome knowing who Carl Akeley is and having a better appreciation of the displays since watching The Brain Scoop.  All of the animals were beautiful and it was really fun because there were a bunch of cute school groups there.

Later I met up with Emily and we had dinner at Island Burgers and walked around the Upper West Side where she used to live with her friend, and then we walked on the little trails in Central Park until we found Annie by one of the ponds.  We walked to the Upper East Side to find a pub they might go to for Emily’s bday, and then Annie had dinner at Bareburger while we had shakes.  Then we came back here and watched old family videos!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Okay so yesterday Emily and I went to the 9/11 Memorial.  It was so beautiful and well done.  Just from a curatorial perspective, they clearly didn’t want anything to be sensationalist and clearly had the survivors and families as viewers in mind when they designed the museum.

It was very moving, first seeing the fountains, Reflecting Absence, which are where the towers used to be.  The names of the all those who died are engraved around the sides.  Some of them had flowers in the letters.  One white rose.  The museum had pieces of the towers, like the only surviving staircase that people ran down, and Ladder 3 (a firetruck), and a set of crossbeams that they called the Cross of West Street.  There was also a wall of blue tiles around a quote by Virgil: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”  The tiles were called Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

I’m heading home and I’m starving.  What I wouldn’t give for a delicious Everything Bagel right now.

I’ve had such an amazing time in New York.  After the 9/11 Museum, Annie, Emily and I had dinner and drinks in Astoria.  We played this game called Lords and Ladies, which is like a Victorian Age card game, and you get people out by tearing their characters down with financial ruin or illegitimate children.  Our waiter was super cute, like Ewan McGregor, and he kept smiling at the game as he walked by our table.

On Sunday Emily and I went to the Frick and MoMA while Annie had some much-needed personal time.  The Frick is a collection of lesser-known paintings by well known artists.  There was a whole Fragonard room!  And MoMA–I got to see Starry Night!  It’s so, so beautiful.  MoMA has like everything I studied in Julie’s 21st Century and Contemporary classes.  Also, Dali’s Persistence of Memory is really small.  I was mildly disappointed.

After MoMA we met Annie to go the Alice’s Tea Cup, which is an Alice in Wonderland themed tea place.  It was so yummy!  After we walked around Midtown and went to this really cool store called Fishs Eddie that has all kinds of cool ceramics and kitchen supply.  And we got gelato at Grom!  Just like in Firenze!  It was wonderful.

And then on the subway, this guy who was eyeing us on the platform (“the one in the middle,” I heard them say, aka Emily) came up to Em and was like, “What’s your name?  How old are you?  How do you get to MSG?”  By the way MSG is NOT a thing.  It’s just Madison Square Garden.  Annie asked a bunch of people at work and they were like What?  So anyways, this guy and his friends got off the subway, and he banged on the window and started yelling, “Emily!  I love you Emily!”  And everyone looked at us.  Well, mostly her.  It was really uncomfortable.  I was like, “I should have pretended to be your jealous lesbian girlfriend.”

Yesterday I went to the Guggenheim, which was cool.  There was an installation with cymbals hanging from the ceiling and a bunch of padded drumsticks for people to use to play the cymbals.  Later Emily and I went to Simon & Schuster to see where Annie works and picked out books for her to send to us.

For our farewell dinner we went to Eataly, which was so much like the fresh market in Firenze, with separate places for salumi, formaggi, pani e vini.  We all got pasta and wine.

After dinner we went to Times Square, which was crazy crowded but fun.  We went in the Disney store because Annie wanted to show me the escalator–it has the lanterns from Tangled hanging above it!  It was so magical.

 

GUIDE

Food

Front Toward Enemy: 40-11 30th Ave, Astoria

Queens Comfort: 4009 30th Ave, Astoria

Bagels & Brew: 4305 Broadway, Astoria

Island Burgers and Shakes: 422 Amsterdam Ave, NYC

Bareburger: b/t 35th St and 34th, NYC; there are several locations around the city

Alice’s Tea Cup: three locations.  Chapter I: 102 W. 73rd

Chapter II: 156 E. 64th

Chapter III: 220 E. 81st

Eataly: 200 5th Ave., NYC