If your Sunday does not include a hangover for some reason, I would strongly recommend while it is still nice out, taking a walk over to the west side before all the Hamptons folks return to repopulate the city with their eating disorders, coke habits, and far too expensive preppy clothing. The west side is where I spent most of Sunday solo enjoying the people watching which mostly included cute dogs, kids taking their bicycles for a first spin, and couples who clearly live uptown and consider running along the west side highway to be their foray into downtown life.
I made my first visit to the High Line and it was pretty sweet. The views were great, there are places to drink booze, watch people have sex at the standard, and even spots for the little ones to play. My only issue with the High Line is the issue I have with every other really fun/interesting/scenic spot in Manhattan, it was interminably crowded. From savvy suburbanites to high-heeled models, to the most adorable multi-cultural, bi-racial families one could ever imagine (genetic diversity is where its at folks)- the place was packed. Crowds aside, I would still recommend a trip up there as it really was pretty great. I’d imagine the view at sunset was even better but by the time the sun was setting I was pretty ravenous and after a brief stop at the gym (precipitated mostly by a need to pee), I headed to Whole Foods for another Sunday NYC tradition: grocery shopping. Also, absurdly crowded and I made the rookie mistake of hitting up the grocery store after a day where I only had a few cookies and a soy latte, so by the time I got to Whole Foods every food option seemed like a great idea.
I also deftly avoided, barely, a prominent partner at my firm as I didn’t think it appropriate to approach him while he is at the butcher and while yours truly was still a sweaty, disgusting mess donning a Yankees hat, pearls, and the same yoga pants I had on the day before. Walking around lower Manhattan in the same clothes two days in a row and I cannot figure out I haven’t secured a date all summer…
Now I really do love NYC, but I’m beginning to think that too much time spent here can totally mess with your head and make you a little bit insane and the city can be one hellish place to be. I will use today as a prime example. I know I have been in NYC for too long because this morning I was on the subway platform in Soho and was so hot, I was semi-enjoying the “breeze” that is created when two express trains going in different directions pass each other by in the spring street station for the 6. that is just really embarrassing. To make matters worse, I finally get on the subway and, oh wait for it, there is NO air conditioning. I decide on the spot that I’m probably either going to kill myself or someone else. I get off a few stops before my office because I would rather walk in the eighty degree heat than stay in the stuffy and oppressively hot subway car and potentially commit murder. I have never been more grateful for my over-air conditioned office building. We may be destroying the environment, but at least I haven’t killed anyone today.
i think i need to start a new website, “www.textfromthismorning.com”
today, i receive the following message from jersey: just woke up. still drunk. name and address on arm.
WHAT??!!!! my response is obviously where were you and who were you with???!!!
BROTHER JIMMY’S.
i will always have a special place in my heart for brother jimmy’s as i celebrated my 21st birthday there and i don’t think they could have been more accomodating. at least 21 free shots were consummed, i still have that brother jimmy’s t-shirt i was given as a gift, and i obviously danced on the bar because that is what you do when you’re 21 and in general when you are at brother jimmy’s. in addition to my t-shirt, that night i also left with the infamous brother jimmy’s gator. the gator has some special booze in it that is dumped into their swamp water cocktail, which you drink out of a fishbowl. no, i’m not kidding. not only are you drunk enough to think drinking out of a fishbowl is appropriate but you get a toy to take home.
follow-up text from jersey: i just found a plastic alligator in my purse.
i wish i could make fun of her for being trashy and from new jersey, but i collected those plastic gators back in the day like a little boy collecting classic baseball cards and could fairly easily be convinced to do the same today if someone asked me to…
when i turned twenty-five, one of the managing directors at my bank said, “you’re in the most perfect age range. old enough to know better, but young enough to not give a shit.”
well done on not giving a shit jersey, and hopefully the ink will be off your arm before you head into the office…
why do we have to work during the summer?
it just doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. the structure that worked for 18 or 22 years, was great and i’m not sure why it had to stop. i have a real problem going to work during june, july, and august (sometimes even early september is tough). i’m twenty-six and even though i worked summers during junior high, high school, and college it was a very different kind of work. it was the kind of work that lasted a maximum of eight hours and you maybe worked for two months instead of the full three AND (MOST IMPORTANTLY) your best friend ran the ice cream place in your town or if you’re really wealthy, your friend ran the ice cream place where you “summer.” anyway, even if you worked it was a truly delightful experience and you spent most of your time playing.
i want to play and hangout and enjoy the very few sunny days we have had here in nyc this summer and not be in an office. it just feels uncomfortable to have the same structure all year long. a three month break where you mostly just hangout with your friends really does sound like an ideal lifestyle and i’m not really sure why it has to stop at 18 or i guess 22 if you’re lucky. fickle man #1 has suggested that we create some sort of urban summer camp. a place where we can go to hangout, maybe have a few beers or just eat some ice cream, watch good movies, listen to music, etc. i think this sounds like a solid plan we just have to find someone who is interested in bank rolling urban summer camp and so far i’ve got nothing. it is hard enough to find someone to bank roll a non-profit during a recession but to find someone to just write a check out to a bunch of twenty-somethings who really want to spend their summer hanging out, probably isn’t going to happen but since we are pretty much over the whole being a grown-up thing, i think we might try.
imagine having a grown-up swing set and seesaw, waking up at 10 and having ice cream everyday?
it would just be so delightful. we could be as happy as this little boy on his swing set…
You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762
