I've spent so much time simply finding things to do each day, seeing the neighborhoods and sites I've always imagined visiting, eating anywhere I fancy, that it's amazing I've found the time to form relationships and meet new people at all. And now that I've seen most everything I've wanted to, it's nice to get together with those I've met, actual New Yorkers, and get a sense of what living in the city is actually like. As I wrote before and realize now, people have lives here, and they are busy with jobs and relationships of their own as anyone would be. So I want to express my eternal gratitude to those who have carved out time for me, made New York just a little bit easier, and allowed me to get to know them and become their friends.
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| having plans means having friends, so here's the "Friends" building glowing at dusk |
Last week I got to be the native New Yorker. It was a welcome change to the norm of making my way around town alone. An old friend of mine who had been living in London was making the move across the pond, as it were, to New York City. She had never been in the city before, and was unfamiliar with the Subway and apartments, being more accustomed to the Tube and flats. I have to tell you that every time someone stops me on the streets or in the train and asks for directions I beam with happiness. I beam even more when I can actually answer the question. After 10 weeks I can usually point them in the right direction. But being able to give small tidbits and facts about neighborhoods and take my old friend to some of my favorite food spots, and side streets was something I wasn't expecting I would be able to do when I first came here. It's as if I was a local: jay-walking, being loud.
They say you can truly call yourself a New York once you've lived here for 10 years, a decade. Well, I've been here 10 weeks and feel like I've experienced a decade's worth of sites. I may not be able to call myself a New Yorker just yet, but I have learned a lot, and seen even more. My old friend and I met at Grand Central and I told her my favorite fact about the station. (There is a small black rectangular patch at an odd spot on the spotless, cerulean blue ceiling. Decades ago, when the station was a hub for the homeless and derelict, and everyone smoked non-stop indoors like they do in "Mad Men", the entire ceiling was the color of that small rectangle. Grand Central was a disgusting place. It took 9 months and thousands of workers to repair the ceiling from the smoke and other damage. They leave the patch to remind everyone how much this landmark has transformed to be what it is today.)
Our day continued with Central Park, the Met (my fourth time), hot dogs for lunch, and a tour of the Village and Meat Packing and I got us everywhere we needed to be, without losing my way once, no muss, no fuss. The next day I met up with her once again to go shopping in SoHo. If you shop anywhere in New York it should be SoHo, because not only is there a wealth of amazing boutiques and retail stores, but the cast iron buildings and people watching are enough to entertain and keep you satisfied. A hilarious joke I heard about the neighborhood goes like this: 30 years ago, no one came down to SoHo for fear of being mugged, jumped, or killed. Nowadays, the only way you'll die is if you go into one of the hundred of boutiques, look at a price tag, and have a heart attack at the number you see.
Before we began window shopping (I've bought enough here already), we ate at Cafe Gitanes in Nolita on Mulberry Street. The only reason I'm mentioning this is because while we were there, in the back corner practically facing the bathroom we had a very peculiar celebrity sighting. Jared Leto, the recent Academy Award winner himself, tumbled his way into the Cafe alone, wearing a neon green tank top, a pink fanny pack, and short shorts of a color I cannot recollect. His hair was just as amazing as you think it would be, even if it did appear he hadn't washed it in days and his piercing eyes were unfortunately shielded by very large sunglasses. He bee-lined for the bathroom and remained inside for quite a long time. I don't think he locked the door, because about three people walked in on him, one after the other, until he emerged, leaving the cafe, and the leaving my friend and I thrilled and also a little concerned.
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I have seen so many celebrities. I will list them off for you, if you don't know them, google them, and you'll recognize their face. Jared Leto, Dylan McDermott, Rupert Grint, Jake Lacy, Walton Goggins, Brooks Wheelan, Adrian Grenier, Maya Rudolph, Danny Pudi. And I have definitely seen more, I'll just have to try to remember better.
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Last Sunday I got brunch with a couple of new friends I've made at Sarabeth's on Central Park South. We got the last table outside (the lighting is better that way). This was a nice restaurant, one of the few nice places I've gotten a chance to sit down at, and the company wasn't so bad either. I met these two girls through their roommate, a mutual friend. And as the three of us sat together, sipping mimosas, with Central Park on one side of the street, and photographers swarming around some NBA star on the other, we ate our omelets and I felt like the cream of the New York crop. They even told me how they go to the Plaza to get drinks and listen to jazz during the week sometimes, stopping a few blocks before the hotel to get a cab, just so they can arrive in style. Hey, if you're going to the Plaza, you might as well go all out.
That same night I went to a piano bar with my old roommates uncle who I have seen a handful of times since coming to the city. He has an apartment in Chelsea and has lived in New York almost 30 years. After we left the mainly empty piano bar on 45th and 3rd Avenue, he asked me what I hadn't seen yet, telling me the U.N. building was right around the corner. I almost gasped. I had completely forgot about the U.N., meaning to go see it while I was here. We walked the few blocks in the dark, and even though all the nations flags weren't flying, and it took some time to find the monument with the Isaiah quote, it was still quite a sight to see. Just the fact that this place is where most of the political leaders of the world come to meet is mind boggling. Most of them probably staying on the streets we were walking. So much power in so few blocks. It just goes to show you that even when you think you've seen it all, New York always has another landmark, another restaurant, another avenue.
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Later that week I got together with my brother's girlfriend's best friend. My first night in New York I got a text from a random number from a girl explaining who she was, that she lived in Brooklyn and that she was fun, with an exclamation point. Initially I thought someone who announces their fun-ness must be either not fun at all or really really great. And it turns out after hanging out a few times, she was indeed very fun, but also incredibly funny, welcoming, and generous. She picked me up to take me to breakfast before her job was sending her to the Hamptons for a while. I wish my job took me to the Hamptons. We got breakfast at at place in Williamsburg called Egg. A lot of places in Brooklyn have just one word in them, clean and simple, and also impossible to Google. It was so nice getting to know her, her raspy voice, her opinions and her lovely apartment in Bed-Stuy. A renovated brownstone that is now a modernized four bedrooms with an exposed brick wall. It's lovely enough to have my favorite television show, "GIRLS" film on their block, actually right on their stoop, late at night a few weeks ago. When she showed me the flyer, I fell over.
The McCarren Hotel on Wednesday night was populated with the usual Williamsburg suspects. Except that the young people of Williamsburg are in fact quite unusual. And on Wednesday night at last I was one of them. My friend, the singer who works in SoHo and lives in Washington Heights had invited me to the McCarren's rooftop bar. Her friend who was wearing an all black ensemble, his shirt hanging below his knees, hair perfectly parted, multiple necklaces dangling on his chest, in fact got paid for the number of guests he brought in. I knew before coming that getting in would be free, which was fantastic, but I didn't know everything else was free too, including the multiple bottles of vodka that were shuttled back and forth from the table every 20 minutes. You can imagine how the night went and how I felt the entire next day.
I find it very hard to believe that anyone would pay people to come to a bar, especially one like this that looks over McCarren park and has the twinkling Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. It seemed a little too good to be true. I came dressed to the nines, in my new black button up from Topman, and I think I was most entertained looking at what everyone else was wearing. Girls in large felt hats and maxi dresses, guys in rolled up fitted chinos and biker jackets. Some say that the clothes define the person, so when one very enthusiastic guy whose curly hair bounced more than he did turned to me and whispered in my ear, "I mean come on, who the hell let that guy in? This isn't Monday morning at Duane Reade." I thought, you're white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts aren't that hot either. It was a tough crowd. Brooklyn is anti blend-in. But it turns out when everyone tries to be so different, difference and strangeness becomes the standard.
As the schizophrenic DJ kept changing songs just as people would begin to dance with the familiar beat, I continued consuming copious amounts of free vodka with what looked like orange and cranberry juice. I danced of course because who wouldn't? I also dropped my friend, like literally dropped her, when she tried a particular dance move where she was bending on the verge of doing the limbo. Instantly I felt as if everyone was looking at me, the new free loader wearing glasses who dropped his ticket into Williamsburg night life. But no one was looking at me, of course. People were making out on top of each other, laughing into their phones that lit up their faces, smoking cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs, vapes, among other substances, being genuinely engaged with a number of different distractions. And just like that I knew I had to leave. After walking myself over to the ledge after the embarrassment on the dance floor, avoiding the bystanders, I looked at the skyline across the river. In my drunken haze the city calmed me down. The Empire State Building was sparkling and the ambient noise of the Brooklyn streets below drowned out the thumping music. After too many goodbyes that didn't matter, I dragged myself home, taking my first cab ride alone and fell into a deep sleep.
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I spent the weekend in New Jersey with my best friend's Aunt where I relaxed and escaped the noise of Brooklyn, and my apartment. What a pleasure it is to have someone across the river be so welcoming and generous with their home. A place that has no distractions, working cable TV, and an abundance of space and time to edit pictures and work on this blog. Coffee shops ain't got nothing on Wayne, NJ. I took a walk around the Packanack Lake and tried to take in all the different experiences I've had this summer, everything I've seen, all the new people I've met who are now my friends. My friends who I have plans with. Even as I write this I'm going to see Sue on her rooftop tonight, a fitting finale. The first person I met in New York will be the one to send me off.
I've done all this in the past week or so: been a tour guide, saw Jared Leto, brunch near Central Park, piano bar and the U.N., breakfast in Williamsburg, the McCarren bar, New Jersey (and my first Port Authority Bus Terminal experience), a rooftop tonight in the Village. And it's all with new people, new friends. For everything that I've done, seen and eaten, and all the time I've taken to share photos and stories on this blog, it's the plans I've made and the concrete relationships that I've developed that I will cherish most when I leave New York City tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, you cannot get me back to San Diego with my friends and family and cats fast enough. But it's encouraging to know that I came to Brooklyn alone but I'm leaving with so much. I was brave, I came and did what I said I would, I tried my best, I wrote and explored, and I hope people can see that. And I know that when I come back (and I will come back), that being in New York City will be that much easier because I'll know people and I'll have plans.
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