We've been in New York now for a week. Its really gone by fast. We've been having a lot of fun just hanging out with different people. We have a bunch of friends who have moved here from Chicago or other parts of the Midwest to hang out with, and they have introduced us to some of their friends so we've never been at a loss for something to do or someone to hang out with. At first, this fact was allowing myself to feel really cool. Last night I met this girl from the UK who was here traveling by herself. She was telling me what a great time she was having, how much she was doing and how many cool people she kept meeting. This made me reflect that there is always something to do in New York. While we are lucky to have friends who live here, we would still be busy little bees going around seeing all kinds of amazing stuff even if we didn't know anybody because you just can't get around it. Everywhere you look, there are masses of people and something going on. This is a very colorful city both literally and metaphorically.
This is a fast city.
a view of 5th avenue
Although we've been doing some touristy things, we've been mostly just hanging out. We've been staying with Nora and Jeff, who have been amazingly hospitable and have let us crash at their house all week. We generally have a rule which we instated at the beginning of the trip that we do not stay in any one place longer then 5 days. It seemed 5 days was the number when the welcome started to wear out. Our hosts would change subtly, becoming slightly less gracious for wanting their regular life back without our shit all over their house, and we ourselves would start to get antsy and want to get back on the road. After making this rule, we have only broken it twice since. Once in San Francisco where we stayed a week with Trevor and Camille and now in New York. Both couples, Trevor and Camille and Nora and Jeff have been incredibly amazing to us in terms of allowing us full reign of their homes and personal freedom to come and go at will. Both cities are so amazing, I don't see how anyone with the ability to stay as long as possible could leave before a weeks end.
Nora and Jeff had a really fun BBQ last weekend. Nora and Jeff both being from Wisconsin, had gone home in the past couple of weeks and brought back brats. Of course to us Midwesterners, Bratwurst is a staple. Here in NY, it is more of a delicacy. So they invited friends over, fired up the coals and spent a lazy afternoon cooking up the imported brats as well as other food items different friends brought over.
A massive downpour could have disrupted our entire day, but Ira came to the rescue and erected a tarp structure across the patio and it saved the day (and night). Thank god he had so much practice on this trip, he has finally become truly proficient.
We got together with our friend Katie for an afternoon of drinking beer.
Later in the night, she took us to her friends birthday party which was being hosted in a daycare center.
We drank many beer and then raced around on small trikes. It was fun. I won both races, although due to a drunken race official, first place was awarded to the person who came in dfl (last place) so I was robbed of one of my trophies. Oh well. I still beat Ira both times and that's all that counts.
We've hooked up with our friend Anita a couple of times, which is always nice. I love hanging out with her because she is very calm and this helps me to relax. Paticularly in this frenzied city, she takes everything in stride. We've been hanging out at her apartment, which she is lucky enough to have to herself, as well as on her roof. She has a great view of the Chrystler building which I think is the most beautiful sky scraper especially by night.
Our goooood buddy Marcus also came up from Richmond to hang out and is staying with Anita.
We've also been hanging out with our friend Shawn a lot. He is an old friend from Chicago. Ira and he used to wrench together at Rapid Transit. We've been riding around town and eating lots of food which I will tell you about in other posts because it would take up too much space here.
All in all, I heart the big apple.
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