I return! A lot has happened, this is a long entry, so buckle up! The last few days have been an almost humorous juxtaposition of proactivity and extreme laziness. My apartment has now reached the stages of being nearly unrecognizable from it's original [decorated] form, and my relentless trips to Goodwill down the street have turned into a farce. By this I mean, Goodwill is probably 700 feet from my front door, yet I've hailed a cab for three of my treks there. Luckily, four of the seven total trips I have made were accomplished sans NYC Taxi. It looks like I may not need to drop anything off again, thank god.
19 July: But alas, the point of this post is to discuss the "ever-present bureaucratic hurdle." Of course we all know that unending paperwork plagues today's world of anything serious (by that I mean, the paperwork re. getting ready to start school), but does it really need to be that way? So, to assuage my inherent anxiety that surrounds such matters, I ventured to a free clinic in the Bronx with Joe (fellow CCOM pre-M1), to inquire about my remaining "student health requirements". It was an interesting little odyssey, to say the least. We took the 2 to the
West Farms Sq - Tremont Ave stop, which, although we thought it was basically a block from the subway, was actually a mile away. Knowing there are essentially zero yellow cabs in the Bronx, we traipsed over to the clinic.
I should preface with the fact that I had called the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) that morning, to see if I was up to date with my immunizations. Luckily, I was up to date, but I still required my PPD test (the tuberculin skin test) and my hepB titre. So, once at the clinic, I asked if they provided these services, and of course they didn't. Ugh. But they quickly and smoothly gave me a list of facilities where those services are provided for little to no cost. Luckily, Joe ended up getting done what he needed to get done, while I sat there wondering what the hell I was doing in the Bronx. I must say, however, that the clinic was very clean, well run, and all-in-all a very smooth experience. I was impressed. If only I had harnessed the calmness of this guy before making much ado about nothing.
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Tai Chi in the midst of the chaotic and sweltering W 4th St station
(taken on the morning of 19 July 2012) |
So, after dealing with the Bronx, it was decided that we'd return to Manhattan. We lunched at this place called
Frankies 570 Spuntino on Hudson Street. I've wanted to try this place out, so the large awning allowed us to lunch alfresco while it rained. The ravioli was delicious (although the sauce was curious), and of course my beverage involved Campari. Quintessential Italian. A stroll on the Hudson was the perfect digestif.
Post stroll, I bolted back to my apartment for a power nap, quick run (again, on the Husdon), and a pre-dinner shower. I met up with my friends Haruka, Yizhuo, and Marcello for dinner at this fantastic Greek Restaurant,
Periyali. It was like Santorini and the Hamptons had a baby that grew into a restaurant on the garden level of a Chelsea brownstone. It was wonderful. I don't think I've ever had fresher octopus in my life. Which, oddly, is saying something, given that octopus isn't exactly a New England-coast aquatic animal.
As we stepped up onto street level after dinner, we decided to stroll (a recurring theme for 19 July 2012) to (you guessed it!) the Hudson. It was amazing. We had a little impromptu photo shoot in the dark. The long exposure shots on Christopher St. Pier with the skyline in the background are stunning, yet somewhat post-apocalyptic looking. The photo below is an example of the evening's snapshots.
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Christopher Street Pier (Pier 45) at roughly 10:30PM, 19 July 2012. Me, Haruka, Yizhuo and Marcello.
(courtesy of Yizhuo / inspirimint.com) |
After our dinner stroll, I met up with my biddies (a widely used term of endearment in my friend circle) Phil and Ralph at Le Bain in Meatpacking. This club is an ultra-swanky rooftop bar with incredible views of Manhattan. The drinks are solid, but the crowd can be über pretentious and snobbishly one-note. So Ralph, Phil and I (along with a few other "biddies" that joined us later) stole away to a cozy outdoor table that was directly up against a wall of glass that looked out over the West Village.
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Phil, Ralph, and Me, standing atop the Standard, reveling per usual. |
Of course, Meatpacking was followed with a classic descent upon the East Village. I didn't last long amidst the craziness of Alphabet City, as the exhaustion of the whole day began to set in, so I made my way home.
20 July: The following day's weather was a dramatic and painful contrast to the day before. I don't know what it is. If there's constant rain outside, I not only feel trapped, but utterly lethargic. So, while watching endless television on my computer, I continued packing boxes in slow motion. At 3:30PM, as cabin fever arrived in full force, I just HAD to leave my apartment. Naturally, I thought I'd poke around the Village for an outfit for my first day of med school. Luckily, the trip was a success, but the results of my scouring will remain a secret until the actual outfit surfaces on August 20th. After trudging in the rain, I returned home, took my 44th nap of the day, and made a quick jaunt to the gym. After running, lifting, and cooking up a little somethin' somethin' for dinner (dear god, someone needs to teach me to cook right now), I made my way up to Steve and Hanna's for a chill evening on the UES. We watched
The Pianist (you know, something light and comical always does you good on a Friday night (
sarcarsm)).
21 July: To continue NYC's bipolar weather trend, this past Saturday was incredibly beautiful. Knowing that I was set to depart for an afternoon trek to IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn at 1PM, I aimed to get myself out of doors as early as possible to read in some park. But, of course, instead of
just reading, I decided to hit up
Three Lives & Company. Undoubtedly my favorite bookstore in the entire city, this quaint little bibliophile's dream is at the corner of W 10th St and Waverly Place. Essentially right around the corner from my apartment, it has been an enabler of many impulsive book purchases in the past. It has also been the most prolific site for meeting academic celebrities, chatting about progressive/relevant recently published books, and endless inspiration for must-reads of the future.
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This source of academic curiosities is one of the loves of my life!
No joke.
(Three Lives & Company, 154 W 10th St, NY, NY, 10014, http://threelives.com/) |
I dropped into the little gem, and began perusing. I had been in a few months earlier to purchase a signed copy of
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by Robert Caro. I
really wanted to read that book, but had gifted it to a friend instead. So, given that my desire to read it still lingered, I re-bought the thing. Now, for anyone who already knows,
The Power Broker is a behemoth of a book; trimmed originally from 3000+ pages, the book is still roughly 1200 pages long. You could kill someone with the thing. Yet, for some reason, I found it necessary to purchase it, even though I knew full well I wouldn't begin reading it until after I'd made my move to Iowa. So, after contemplating why I would buy a 14-ish lb. book before making a cross-country move, I realized that this truly came down to a matter of allegiance and solidarity. I would not postpone purchase, for fear that the only option in the near future would be some corporate bookstore that's responsible for destroying utterly wonderful places like
Three Lives. Luckily, I do know that
Prairie Lights is in Iowa City, so I won't need to go far if I require a book that cannot wait for an NYC visit (actually, Prairie Lights is a magnificent (although definitely not as quaint as Three Lives) bookstore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Lights)).
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About a man who is credited with simultaneously creating and destroying the grandeur of NYC.
Inspired to read it after reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. |
Anyway, I picked up the book, and made my way to the Financial District (after dropping off said book at my apartment), in order to catch the "IKEA Ferry". It was fantastic. Only in New York City would people get to IKEA by ferry. I mean, people in the outer boroughs clearly get to IKEA by car; but Manhattanites? Hell to the no. We take ferries. So, anyway, we arrive at IKEA. I, personally, was going solely to get an idea of what I may need to purchase for my new apartment in Iowa. My friends Haruka and Rose, however, were actually purchasing all the furniture they needed to furnish their new apartment. Amazingly, after purchasing all of their furniture, they took it to the home delivery center, arranged the delivery, and returned to the ferry with essentially nothing more than the same things they initially brought with them (except for a hefty amount of IKEA's Swedish meatballs). Such a smart design. It was clear that the ergonomists and logisticians that arranged the Brooklyn IKEA had thought long and hard about the context of that store.
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We're basically a stock photo. Here, Abe, Rose, Haruka and I are feverishly discussing room dimensions. |
So, we leave IKEA to grab the ferry back to Manhattan. It's decided en route that we were all starving, and that we wanted to grab dinner in the Village. Naturally, there was no contest from me. I quickly brainstormed a few places, and we settled on trying
La Bota, this small Spanish tapas place on my street. Ugh, if only I had snapped some photos of the food, it was SO good. We split three tapas plates, before getting two paellas for all of us to share. The tapas were good (especially the charcuterie, the
Plato La Bota), but the real strengths of the dinner were the paellas. So, opinions differed, but we ordered the Paella de Campo (w/ chicken, short rib, chorizo, and morcilla) and the Paella Negra (w/ squid, shrimp, mussels, and LOTS of squid ink). Although some preferred the de Campo variation, I LOVED the Paella Negra. I think squid ink is a terribly underutilized ingredient, it doesn't have a very strong taste, but it adds an ever-so-subtle hint of sea-like saltiness. It was perfect with the shrimp, mussels, and little rings of squid sprinkled throughout the dish.
After dinner, I had every intention of making my way to either the East Village or the Lower East Side for two respective get-togethers, but my post-prandial exhaustion got the best of me, so I decided to crash. I mean, I had showered and gotten completely ready. As I left my apartment, I made it about a block before I turned around and called it quits. I knew I had plans the next morning, so I decided it would be better to get some rest instead of partying all night. I'M SO RESPONSIBLE! It's clear that I'm either getting old, or just finally wising-up to the fact that I have limits.
22 July: Today was SO FUN. I woke up after a good night sleep (which NEVER happens after a Saturday night), and read in bed for a while (possibly my favorite thing to do in the entire world). I got ready and began collecting things for the day's excursion to Rockaway Beach in Queens. I had never been, so I was excited to make my way out there. I met up with my friend Amy at the Union Square Whole Foods to purchase some picnicking goods. I bought this cute little Whole Foods cooler, and we jammed it with ice, cured meats, quinoa cakes, coconut water, and tons of fruit. Oh, and pita chips. Which we devoured. Anyway, so we get to the beach right around noon, as the train to the Rockaways takes FOREVER. As we set up camp on the beach, I noticed that EVERYONE around us had a surf board. Not just a smattering of peeps with surf boards, EVERYONE. So, I impulsively make my way over to a rental tent on the beach and decide to rent a surf board for a couple of hours. This is my first (but definitely not last) time surfing. Despite not having knee and chest coverage (which is über necessary, as to avoid board rash), I took to the water.
It was amazing. The surf wasn't anything crazy, but that was perfect for me, given it was my first time. I swam out on the board (trying to act like I knew what I was doing), and sat there, waiting for some good waves to start breaking. It took me a while, but I eventually got it down. I knew when it looked like a good wave was coming in, I learned where to position myself to catch the wave right when it began to break, and knew when to start paddling like mad. I definitely didn't get up the first dozen tries, as I was swallowed under big waves that tossed me around like a small fish and sent my board flying away (only to pull firmly at my ankle attachment). But once I learned that you wait until the front of the board comes out of the water, I finally made some legitimate attempts. In the end, I stood up 3 times, each time for about 2-4 seconds. I don't know, pretty sure that's decent, having never surfed before, without an instructor, and while wearing the least compatible swim trunks ever.
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Yup, definitely struggling; but always smiling! :) |
Oh, I also learned I'm "goofy foot"!! Does that surprise anyone?
Anyway, we left the beach after a few hours of surfing, swimming, and relaxation. It was exactly what I needed after the rain of Friday, and the IKEA chaos of Saturday. So, after returning home to get all the salt off my body, I had a some fun with friends in Meatpacking, but quickly returned home to finish doing some reading. I ordered-in Thai.
Interestingly, typing all of this out makes it seem like my life is all over the place. Oddly, though, there has been nothing out of the ordinary the past few days. I'm always like this. I suppose my desire to chronicle almost every action is my way of bracing for an abrupt change in lifestyle. Med school is on the horizon, and I'm pretty sure that these spontaneous outings will diminish in frequency. Having this blog to read nostalgically will be a source of encouragement when I'm feeling stressed or secluded from the world outside. Maybe other people aren't really like this, but when I'm doing something like a 48-hour cram session at the library, I have a hard time remembering that a mere few weeks before I was visiting the Taj Mahal in India, snorkeling in the Galápagos, or surfing in (of all places) New York City. I just live so intensely in the "now", that I am sometimes overwhelmed that I'll never escape the monotony. Thank god for technology like this, which allows me to look back on the fun things I have had the privilege of experiencing. I am really blessed. That being said, I look forward to the last NYC updates ahead, and for the sure-to-be dramatic transition back to the midwest!
Tchüss!