the first 28 hours...

Wow – so it’s already been a busy 28 hours in nyc! i’m writing this around 9:30 saturday night, in my room into ms word because I don’t have a connection in my room, and found out that the “modestly-priced” internet access is charged by the minute. So I’ll be looking for free wifi pretty soon. anyhow, i arrived around 5:30 Friday night into jfk, and took a cab to where I’ll be living. It’s an all-female house in midtown, 3 blocks from penn station/Madison square garden. My room, quite frankly looks much like a convent cell, but it has a vanity sink, bed, locking closet, armoire, bookshelves, and a fan. i.e. no air conditioning, and according to jake, it’s been unusually humid the past 2 days. Anyhow, I arrived, and the wonderful maryam was waiting for me, helped me check in, get my stuff in the room, and see where the basics in the building were (i.e. toilets – it’s like a dorm with its shower stalls and community toilets, dining room, etc.) then, we hopped on the a train (and no, I was unable to stop singing “take the a train” all night long. Maryamamama promised that proclivity goes away pretty quickly) to Brooklyn where we got pizza at grimaldi’s and did some visiting. We talked about our 10-year high school reunion that just passed on july 9 (neither of us attended, and she hadn’t heard about it at all), caught up on mutual friends from high school and college (we both started college in boston – she finished there, I transferred to new Orleans), and suddenly she stopped talking. Then she said, do you remember someone from high school who was a year ahead of us named eva? And I said, yes – with curly dyed black hair, very pretty? And she said, yes, it’s really funny because that woman waiting for a table outside looks just like her. So I looked out the window, and sure as all get out, she looked JUST like her. A little too much so. So we finished visiting, paid our check, and maryam stopped at her table on the way out to find out if it was her, and, you betcha, it was eva. (small world theory to be applied here)

eva’s living in Brooklyn, working at the whitney, finishing her ph.d. in art history and writing articles. Maryam said she is an opera singer (she is) and eva said that her current topic that she’s writing on these days is on violence in opera and how it is manifesting in violence today. She asked what I was doing, and I told her the nature of the internship (global disarmament and nonproliferation, and she had a weird cosmic moment where 3 women from a small town in Redlands met in a pizza place in Brooklyn and were the embodiment of her papers. So that was weird.

Anyhow, we left, and decided to walk over the Brooklyn bridge to get back to manhattan, and it was a lovely walk. I got home around 11:30, and decided I needed to unpack as much as possible. So I did, and in the process, lost my mailbox key. Not usually an issue, but the policy at my facility is to leave the room and closet keys in the mailboxes, and only take the mailbox key out of the building. So Saturday, I tore my newly arranged room apart 3 separate times. I must have lost it in the lobby or elevator or somewhere, because it’s just not in here. Writing about it made me determined to find it so I got on my hands and knees to look for it under the carpets even, and nope, it ain’t here.

Anyhow, I partook of the breakfast on Saturday morning that is included in my rent (apple pancakes, apple juice, and special k hold the milk), took a shower and went walking into the fashion district. If I had an internet connection, I’d look for the lys that jess at fig and plum told me is there, since it’s right by me. But alas… anyhow, then I came back, did a few repeats on yaymee’s branching out on the rooftop garden. The rooftop garden has gorgeous views of the new Yorker (hotel, not magazine) and the empire state building, uptown and downtown, and the jersey suburbs (hi yaymee, I thought of you!). realizing I had knitted through lunch, I went to wendy’s and sat by two extremely attractive Italian men, from italy, and eavesdropped as much as I could (I don’t speak Italian… I understand some, but nothing useful). I called my parents and told my mama about what I’d done, and then jake called.

Jake was my best friend in college when I transferred to new Orleans halfway through my college career. And he’s a lousy friend to have long distance (yes, I’ve told him this to his face, and he agrees. No slander here) because he doesn’t keep in touch with people. In fact, the last time I heard from him was in maybe may of 2003 when he was moving from paris to Copenhagen. He’s in Brooklyn now, and I only know that because I mailed a letter to him care of his parents in north Carolina telling him he needed to email me. And he did 6 months later, telling me he was in Brooklyn, working on his novel, working at a hotel, and had fallen in love with a woman from argentina. Anyhow, he called me this afternoon and we met up at penn station, and went to central park’s summer stage to see, of all things, Kermit ruffins, someone else, and ReBirth brass band, all from new Orleans. And we also met up with amber and tom, from college in new Orleans. It was another school reunion! The music was fun, and it was sticky and hot (hotter and stickier than any of us had experienced since new Orleans), and we were joined by romina, jake’s argentinian girlfriend. The music ended, and jake, romina, and I grabbed dinner on our way to the subway (romina, by the way is awesome. She is the sort of person that you – or more specifically, I – like as soon as you make eye contact). I’ve walked about 12 miles (not an exaggeration) since I landed in newyork yesterday.

Since I’ve done so much walking, I must give a shout out to teva for making the world’s Most Comfortable Walking shoes (their flip flops I got at REI). Make no mistake, my feet are TIRED (and filthy – I just scrubbed them with soap and a pumice stone in my sink), but the shoes don’t rub funny, give blisters, or feel otherwise uncomfortable. Thanks teva!

Anyhow, tomorrow, I’m going to take the e train to the u.n. to see how that goes, and walk back to see if I want to ride or walk to work. And I have to find a wifi café to work on my research paper for the telecommuting job, too. All in all, for someone who didn’t want to ever live in new york, it’s been a good 24 hours. Old and new friends, concerts in the park, and the cult meeting down the street (meet amma – many call her a living saint! Get a hug from her, too!). no, I didn’t meet amma, and shame on you for thinking I did.