it's hot

I got off the Subway at the wrong stop this morning, Broadway and Lafayette. I was heading towards midtown, Rockefeller Center at 50th street, but since I was riding the train alone for the first time, and it was so crowded I felt like the woman to my side was close to nearly climbing on top of me, I decided the minute I heard "Broadway" to just get off. It sounded familiar enough, I'll find my way. I should have known better. Broadway stretches the entire length of Manhattan. I ended up in the tiny but mighty fancy neighborhood of Nolita (North of Little Italy), a mere 40 blocks from where I needed to go. Whatever, walking could do me some good. 

After wandering north on Broadway for almost an hour and seeing so many designer stores & boutiques where all I could afford is asking for a business card, I found the nearest Subway and made my way uptown, iced coffee in hand. When I went to Rockefeller Center in January, during my first time in New York, a man stopped my roommates and I right before the GE Building's main entrance and told us to wait, "They're filming a movie right now." We were all so excited about the prospect of seeing a film set, that the fact that it was early January, 10 degrees, and practically snowing, didn't even set in. He was lying, of course he was. He wanted us to buy a hat. And I did. It said New York on it. Of course it did. 

30 Rock in June is much different. There are still obnoxious merchandise peddlers, but there no longer remains the 100 foot Christmas Tree standing in the center, and people dancing on the ice skating rink way too well. Instead there's a 50 foot Jeff Koons art installation, that's half Dinosaur head, half rocking horse head, with over 100 thousand flowers placed strategically to fill it in. The GE building, with the address 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is one of the most striking in the city, and has some incredible panoramic views of Manhattan. Rockefeller Center is actually 19 total commercial buildings located between 48th street and 51st street in Midtown. Today, like most days I assume, it was a hive of businessmen and women buzzing around in chic clothes, texting on their phones, smoking cigarettes, having important conversations.

Christie's Auction House 

30 Rock / the GE Building 

There are a lot of things to admire about these buildings, and the tour I went on showed me none of them. Where's was the "Saturday Night Live" Studio, or "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", where is Liz Lemon, and Jack Donaghy? All kidding aside, I did learn quite a bit about how wealthy John D. Rockefeller was, and how he was the inspiration for Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons", and that his wife Abby was the sole reason any fine art was anywhere near the place, and that art deco is amazing. But it was the top, the Top of the Rock, that I really wanted to see.

From 70 stories up, everything is quiet, and the city looks like a lego set built by a very ambitious toddler. It's punctuated by spikes, arches, and spires, and then right in the middle of the concrete jungle, an actual jungle, Central Park. A green rectangle of peace. It's nice to appreciate and see the city from this perspective, up high and away from the chaos. After the Rockefeller Center history lesson and tour I had a thought, it's really freaking hot here.

green peace

 * * *

You don't realize you live in a desert until you don't anymore. Being in San Diego, you often take for granted what the word "weather" actually means, because there isn't any. Let me define weather for you, "the state of the air and atmosphere at a particular time and place". Since the air never changes in San Diego, I was in for a rude awakening in New York City. At this particular time of year, the air is thick and wet, like walking through a warm cloud. My roommate described it like this, "Living here, one day is like living three days anywhere else. In the summer it's even harder." The air weighs you down, making you tired at 3 pm, when you should be jazzed until 3 am.

After stopping by Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library which was just 7 blocks south of Rockefeller Center on 42nd street I decided the weather had won, I needed water, food of substance, and a nap. So I did just that, right after almost dozing off on the 4 back to Brooklyn. When later on I took a walk to Prospect Park with my roommate and his "runt" Great Dane named Bro, short for Abroham, we talked a lot about the weather. He explained to me how it wasn't that different from where he grew up in Indiana, and that ignoring it is the best way to forget about it. Exactly, accept I'm from a place where it's dry as a bone, and that Brooklyn is melting me away.

I soon quickly forgot about the weather, because as I was walking in Prospect Park and then onto a dreamy tree-lined street with brownstones so beautiful I could cry something came over me, who cares that I'm sweating more at 7 pm here than after the gym in San Diego? Who cares that I have to take 2 cold showers a day? I'm living her now, so I decided to just ignore the humidity and shut up about it. We'll see how long that lasts.