Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Friend #68

Last week, Mike and I spent a blissful/hectic five days in NYC. It was my dream to be able to spend a few days just wandering the neighborhoods of my favorite city. I have been to NYC a few times before, but each visit was for a very specific reason and I was led to very specific places and very specific times.
When Mike asked me where I wanted to go for vacation, I hemmed and hawed...nothing sounded good. I don't like lazy, sit-on-the-beach-for-a-week vacations; I like to learn and see things on trips. So after pondering Jamaica, Hawaii, Napa, Austin (yes, Austin TEXAS...hey, they have a good music scene!), Seattle and Florida, New York popped in my head. "You know what would make me really, really happy?" I asked Mike. Strangely, he wasn't opposed to the idea of returning to his home state and visiting chaos for a few days. (Mike looooooves beach vacations.) And so it was.
Our only plans were to see the Museum of Natural History, the Met, and Central Park. I knew that the museums were on each side of the Park, so we hit the Met, walked through the park, and then hit the history museum. After that, the only other thing on our list was to visit Mike's college friend Joelle and her husband. Other than the things on our list, we allowed ourselves the freedom to literally aimlessly wander the streets of Manhattan through Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Financial District, the Village, and everything in between.
On the first night (before the sore feet and blisters), we decided to visit Joelle.
Joelle doesn't know how great she has it. She runs the catering and vegan portions of her long-run family grocery on the Upper East Side. The store is on street level and her apartment is above. I've never seen such a large, character-filled apartment anywhere, but especially in crowded NYC. Each hallway led to a new nook or room or outside patio. The hardwood floors and teeny kitchen screamed "East Coast" charm.
Joelle used to run her business out of her apartment, which justified the size for the time being. Since moving operations elsewhere, her husband and she share this glorious piece of New York City. Joelle, being one of Mike's oldest and dearest friends, voiced the typical shock that comes out of old friends' mouths when they hear that he lives with children. "I can't believe YOU have kids! It's...just...so...funny!"
We spent our too-short time together with Joelle forcing Mike to relive his most embarrassing college moments of drunkenness. These were stories I hadn't heard, and I craved more.
As we left, I told Joelle that one day I will live in NYC and we will hang out together.
(She doesn't know it yet, but I plan to move into her massive apartment in a few years...shhh!)

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