Home, Sweet, Home? or seven giddy smiles

There's a question mark there, because I wonder whether or not I can call a place I'm subletting home.  I mean, I'm using someone else's furniture, and roommate.  All the same it feels spectacular to be back in New York. (That's right, spectacular.) I just came from a town of 4400 people.  I think there is no need to elaborate.

In just 4 weeks, some things have already changed here, and although I thoroughly enjoyed the experience in Sullivan, I am so giddy about being back that everything seems extra amazing to me!  Here's a list of things in the city that are putting smiles on my lips:

1. the gentleman sleeping next to me on the train, "snoring".  it sounds more like a moose mating call, and it makes everyone around us smirk, giggle and exchange glances.
2. i peek over someones shoulder on the same train and see her putting together a jigsaw puzzle on her iPhone.  there's an app for that!?  awesome!
3. in one month away, 8 avenue in midtown somehow manages to install a shake shack!  (i'm not particularly a fan of shakes, but i know it will make my honey happier than a clam)
4. speaking of my honey, i get to meet him at the stage door again!
5. speaking of my honey, he gets a smoothie from juice generation, and (gasp) can not finish it, so he gives it to me!  talk about a role reversal!
6. my brother calls me to say he's coming to visit me in this amazing city! (a perk of living in an amazing place: visitors like never before!)
7. all the dried mango i can eat!!!! yum!

:)

super girl

so remember when i went to that veggie pride parade.  i met someone there who said something that i can't get out of my head.

i'm there wearing my super hero shirt.  it is this red t-shirt with every comic book female super hero ever on it.  i always get lots of compliments from men who love these ladies when i wear it (sometimes it gets a little awkward because the superheroes are across my boobs, and they start pointing them each out by name).  In light of this, I don't think unusual when a certain gentleman (i'll call him ed (because that may or may not be his name, i can't remember)) compliments me on it.  Ed, however, is super enthusiastic about it, so I tell him that i had a super hero party on my 22nd birthday and everyone dressed up as a super hero.  This intrigued him even more, and he began to talk about the impact that super heroes have on our culture in a positive way. He loves the idea of some normal person having a great capacity to make an impact,  and how we all possess these powers, even beyond our understanding, or imagination.

Ed's words plus summer stock remind me that I am capable of so much more than I know.  Physically, creatively, and even in relationships.  Working at a summer theatre, in which I'm working on two shows at a time, forming substantial relationships, and challenging myself on every level - all at lightning speed is the quintessential super natural experience, evoking an energy and assertiveness that I forget that I have! 

Here are some pictures from this super natural experience.  :)

Whoa!

So, I know it's been a while since I posted - but my heavens, 21 days??!  Here's what's been keeping my away:

A couple Sundays ago I attend my first meetup with the NYC Vegan Eatup..... the Veggie Pride Parade!  I meet lots of friendly vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians!!!  There's lots of free food, (even from the V spot (delectable empanadas)) coupons, and random packets of emergenC!  

The following Wednesday, my friend Annie comes to visit!  My first visitor!!! We see Billy Elliot right away (2nd time for me, but it was so wonderful all over again), and attend an artist alliance meetup.  The next day we go to the Broadway Show League Softball games in Central Park (CK is on the Billy Elliot team and they played the American Idiot team (they lost that week, but this week they kicked In the Height's butt!)) We have a deliciously amazing lunch at Harry's Burrito, (they are surprisingly super vegan friendly, and have better cheeze than blokheads)

Then we (with my friend Amanda go wedding dress shopping at the Macy's on 34th street.

The next day we have a picnic in beautiful Prospect Park, and i show Annie where Chris proposed!

Then we go to Ripley Grier to have a tap lesson with Chris/CK.

Saturday we both fly out of town - but not before having breakfast at Cafe Luluc (delicious Chickpea Salad just down the street from me) and going to the dance parade on 14th street!  Of course this is all interspersed with a lot of girl talk, as I really haven't had much of that since I've moved to New York.  I realized how much I need that!

Now I am in Sullivan, IL putting together Showboat and Sleeping Beauty.  And really this is the first break I've had in which I haven't been eating, faxing things home, wedding planning, or sleeping!!!

For the next month my posts will be about Sullivan, and the show, and perhaps some random rants... but in a month we will pick up again with NYC exploration!!!!  I hope I still have your readership! :)

xoxo

the upper eastside is exhausting.

i'm sitting in the kitchen, looking out the window.  the sky is pale blue, the cloud i see looks like a turtle.   people are busy on smith street.  the breeze is coming in.  it's a good day to not explore.

i love exploring, don't get me wrong, but i think i'm still recovering from last saturday, which was ultimately too overwhelming to write about until today.

i set out at noon to discover the upper east side, i hop on the f train and it takes me straight to roosevelt island.  this is a tiny island with not much to do on it, except walk around, enjoy the quiet, green spaces, cobblestone streets, and the manhattan skyline.  that's perfectly fine with me.  i feel like i haven't seen a dandelion puff in ages...

i get back on the f and take it to 63rd street where there is this busy street fair. (a pleasant surprise)  as i'm walking i can't figure out if there is a particular theme for this here festival.  the vendors sell a random assortment of art, jewelry, cleaning supplies,  clothing, thai curry... i sift through this place quickly (the sun is getting hot), and then pop into a tiny store called "tender buttons".   this place is a museum-like button lover's heaven.  i never knew people were this serious about buttons. this youtube video pretty much sums up the shop. Tender Buttons

around this time i get a little lost and see jack nicholson eating on a patio outside of a restaurant.  i update my facebook status.  this is my  first celebrity sighting, and i didn't really believe my guide book when it spoke of the spots to see celebrities.  (although, daily,  i kind of hope to see one of the real housewives of nyc that supposedly lives in my neighborhood... if you can call her a celebrity)
 
i begin to walk north in search of food, and i pass this little boy who tells his nanny "i could fire you, you know?"  appalling!  i could puke all over that little spoiled brat, although he's probably just sad that his parents are not with him on a beautiful saturday afternoon.  i'm starting not to like this area.  the people aren't as open to chatting as in other parts i've discoverd, and it's kind of boring to walk around.  the fun places are spread out for blocks, and my feet hurt.

then i see "shakespeare and co. " a little bookstore with lots of great titles.  and an empty seat!!!! (never to be found in a border's on a saturday).  i get to sit down with a book called Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF.  this is a hilarious book about the crazy things people sell on Etsy.  I laughed out loud, and was often disgusted. (you should check out the website.)

 i now have a little over an hour before i babysit, so i go to one of my new favorite places, "hale and hearty soups".  half a hummus-veggie-sandwich and soup later, i'm back up looking to discover something interesting. ( don't get me wrong there are plenty of museums up here, but today i don't have the time or money) i was hoping for something a little more exciting in this neighborhood. but i just feel weird... and tired.

no more exploring if i can't take my time.

tomorrow i can, and i can't wait to tell you all about "the lower east side"...

but today i'm just gonna enjoy brooklyn... the turtle cloud looks like a goose now.

Long Island City and Astoria

When I originally began my quest - "to Discover New York One Neighborhood At a Time", I planned to start in Lower Manhattan and work my way up, so that each neighborhood would be connected in my brain.  But this Saturday is bright and sunny, I have to babysit in Astoria, so I decide, that maybe order is overrated.

I have to babysit at 5:15, so I make it out of the door at about 12:30. Banana, check, Map, check, Sunglasses, can't find them.  I decide to squint.  The F and G trains are  literally right below me, so I hop on the G and take it to Court Square in Astoria. I have to get out of the subway station to transfer to the 7, and as I walk there I see a big sign that says "PS 1 MoMA".  I had read about this "Contemporary Art Museum", and since it was right there, as clear as day, I decide to go on in and see some art.

Here's the thing with me and art museums - I can't spend hours at different exhibits, poking into different rooms.  I usually focus on one exhibit, sometimes even one or two paintings, I stare at it, take it in and leave.  It's easier for me to appreciate one piece than glance at hundreds, and have no memory to leave with.  This isn't the most cost effective way to look at art, (which is I was a frequent visitor of the Chicago Art Institute on Thursdays evenings when it is free!) but luckily they are installing a new exhibit today, and they're only asking for donations.  I donate the student rate: $2.  (General Admission is $5)

The museum is in an old public school, and as I walk through the hallways, it feels like I am in a nightmare, or a horror film that takes place in an old public school. (See the picture below) It is very raw, desolate, and institutional, and there aren't many signs directing me, so I end up on the 3rd floor where there is an exhibit called "100 years version #2".  This is a sort of multi-media history of provocative, groundbreaking performance art spanning the 20th century, including  videos of Martha Graham's "Lamentations",  Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" (in which she sits motionless on a stage while audience members cut pieces of her clothing off until she is almost nude) and a Cuban artist (whose name escapes me) painting with her body as the tool and blood as the paint.   

(a stairwell in the museum/creepy school)

I let that marinate and find my way out of the museum.  (It's so cheap (and quite close to home)  that I'm sure I'll be back for more)  I hop on that 7 to Vernon Blvd, get out and walk through an industrial area that is turning up condos everywhere.  Here I find the most wonderful spot called Gantry Plaza State Park!  This is a beautiful green spot with 4 piers that stretch out into the East River.  On this sunny Saturday afternoon, there are families playing, and  couples strolling the boardwalk, but it's not nearly as crowded as I'd thought.  I sit, eat a banana, wish that it was Chris' day off, walk the boardwalk, watch two little girls fight over a doll, and then I get up and go look for a tea shop that is in my guide book.  I fail miserably at deciphering addresses in Queens, (It really is a different language) and I just get back to the train, happy to have found such a lovely treasure!

 (you can lay down on those wooden benches)

I'm on the 7, to the N, and I'm back in Astoria (Gantry Plaza State Park was in Long Island City) at Ditmars Ave.  I am super excited to find this cafe called Freeze Peach (my book says it's very vegan friendly).  I'm at the exact spot, I'm checking my address reading rules... this is it, right?  Why is there a bank here?????

My poor, unsuspecting  Columbia Guide to New York 2007 was written before the "economic downturn"  (later that night, a cab driver tells me that it closed in the fall) .  Lesson learned.  Double check before you hit the hot spots! 


I settle for a tiny cafe called Bistro 33: Side Door.  I can't eat much there, so settle for a salad.... it's a salad.  (They don't take plastic, so I have to find an ATM) Then I rush around the corner to "pretend to play Super Mario Brothers" with a 4 and a half year old,  and snuggle a chubby 6th month old. 

A lovely day!

new yorkers: an empire state of kind?

the other day i say to chris, "i think people are nicer in new york, than they are in chicago".  i didn't say this without thought,  i had been caught off guard by people in subways, cafes, on the street, who are just personable, friendly, and happy to help me.

of course chris replies "is it possible that they aren't actually nicer, but they are just more everything, because there are more people and they are more extreme in every way". hmmm, that would mean that they're really mean too... oh no!

i don't think so, i just haven't seen it. 

the day before i leave chicago, i get into a fight with a man in the alley behind my apartment.  he tells me i'm the dumbest girl in the world and that his son went to school with barack obama, he keeps going as i just pretend he isn't there.  so maybe i have a chip on my shoulder. maybe chicagoans deserve to be a little cranky, i mean, the weather for one thing, the politics for another, the cubs, i could go on...

it also occurrs to me that maybe i am different. maybe because i'm happier and more carefree, people find me more approachable and easier to be nice to.   i've only been here for a few weeks, and i've helped out a lot of strangers, mostly elderly people, asking for help.

one young man, a tourist, with a french/african accent, asks me if i am american, i say yes.  he asks, "what does this bull mean?"  (there is a huge statue of a bull in the financial district) i am actually able to share with him my knowledge from the amazing Columbia Guide to New York 2007!!  "the bull is a symbol of power and money"

speaking of money, i still haven't found a job. can you get paid for being happy and carefree, wandering new york, blogging.  let me know!

a puff of smoke

it's monday afternoon, about 3 o'clock, i hop on the f train, transfer to the a, transfer to the 5 and get off at bowling green. (this sounds tedious, but it's really quick, actually) this is battery park, and awfully familiar. i am conquering the financial district today, but i guess i didn't realize that i had been to battery park before. i am immediately excited because the blossoms on the trees are oh so beautiful, and they weren't here when i was here last, and it was also dark then. not today. today is a bright and sunny, blue sky, warm enough to take off my sweater day.

tourists are promenading along the promenade, and i feel like one of them, because i'm wearing tennis shoes with jeans. ( a new yorker would never wear such a get-up.) i'm also carrying the columbia guide to new york 2007.... and not working on a monday. (so when exactly do i stop being a tourist)

(an unnamed couple having a moment)

i wander for a while, sit down, and then i stand up and decide it's time to get financial already! i walk to wall street, where it seems like everyone and their hedge fund manager is outside smoking a cigarette, i mean really, i didn't stop to take pictures of the new york stock exchange because i thought i'd be enveloped in a puff of smoke. get me outta here! cough!

i pop into a borders to sit down for a minute and put a mailing address on a birthday card. i'm back out and i fall in line with the suits that were just released for the day, and i'm looking for a mailbox. i figure i'll find one if i just fall in line... and then there it is... as plain as day...not a mailbox - ground zero.

i'll be honest, i was not looking to visit the site of the world trade center. i'm that person who visited auschwitz and secretly regretted it right after. and 9/11 was a mere 9 and a half years ago, there is no way i want to visit the very spot it took place.

i'm standing here looking at this huge area. things are moving, in and out, construction workers, trucks, equipment, there is so much productivity. this may sound wierd, but i really feel, as i'm watching all of this movement, a sense of rebirth, and even... hope? is that a platitude? cliche? probably, but there is a sense of a new beginning here, and frankly that's kind of the theme of my life...

...so i'll go with it.