July 23, 2007
Summer Trip to NYC: Part 1
This past weekend I went to New York City to visit my friend, Emily, who's a summer associate at a big law firm. If you'd like to know what Emily does, check out this article in the New York Observer. Here begins my first installment of photos and narrative about the trip.
Originally, the plan was to go to DC. That changed, but I still had to fly to DC. I mourned a little my trip to DC that wasn't when I saw the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial from the airplane.
Apparently, there was bad weather on the East Coast only detectable by Doppler Radar. It seemed perfectly fine to me, but my 7:30 flight was delayed to 8:30. I sat down, pulled out my book (Franny and Zooey), and nibbled on a granola bar. A man came and sat next to me. He wore a three-piece suit and a hat, which he rested on the extended handle of his briefcase. He started talking to me in a low voice. Sometimes I couldn't hear what he said, and I adopted the smile and nod that I would use on my students when I couldn't understand them either. It worked just as well then. He shared some of his banana with me, and I watched his stuff while he went to talk to the people at the desk. While he was away, they announced that at that moment, they had a plane with 60 people on it and they could fit 60 more. Therefore, they would take the first 60 people who got in line. I abandoned my post and my Diet Pepsi, which I sadly left by the side of my chair. I felt bad for a minute about leaving Mr. Hat's stuff, but I really wanted to get to New York. It all worked out, though, because when I got on the plane, he had somehow also slipped on board. He wished me luck. It was sweet, really, as we sat talking. He warned me to get a cab rather than take public transportation until I told him what part of town Emily lived in. He figured it would be safe enough.
I ended up making it to New York at my scheduled time. Emily had suggested taking the shuttle that would drop me off at Grand Central. I had figured I would take the bus and the subway like I had before. But when I walked out of the terminal, the shuttle was right there already, so I hopped on. Unfortunately, due to the steam pipe explosion the day before, the bus wasn't stopping at Grand Central. Instead, I was let off in the heart of Times Square. I love how you never feel awkward walking around Times Square with a suitcase, no matter what time it is. I took the subway. The train was already there when I got down the stairs. I hurried in without really checking the directions, so I asked an older lady sitting by the door if it was headed toward Grand Central. She nodded, looked at the tag on my suitcase and asked if I were Katie. I nodded (and turned the tag inward so my information wasn't showing anymore). She got excited and said that she was Katie, too! She didn't have any teeth, and I couldn't really understand her. But apparently, our same names bonded us. She kept reassuring me where to get off. I looked out the window at the second stop, and she tapped my knee and said, "Next one." I guess I look really naive.
I finally made it to Em's and explained to her doorman who I was. You would think that we'd call it a night. I mean, it was almost 11 and I had been traveling all day, but I was also starving! So we started walking to find a place to eat and ended up at the Empire State Building. I have always wanted to go to the observatory of the Empire State Building. The desire came more from the classic musical, On the Town and King Kong than Sleepless in Seattle or An Affair to Remember. When I went to NYC for the day as a student at Smith, my goal (after the Met) was to make it to the Empire State Building. I went the wrong direction and was too scared to look at a map. I also tried to get my friend Julie to stop when we somehow ended up right in front of it on our roadtrip to DC for Thanksgiving in 1998. She didn't. So I was glad to finally get to the top of the Empire State Building.
I think we went at a pretty good time, too. Look at the length of this roped off pathway and imagine it full of people!
It was still pretty crowded, but not as bad as it could have been. We joined the throngs of people lining the fence to get a look at the city lights.
I really need to get a camera that works better at night. Or at least learn how to use mine better. It was really hard to get pictures of us at the Empire State Building.
(And it was really windy, so my hair was not behaving.)
The Empire State Building has style, though. Like these lights:
And even the bathroom was cool. But they never want you to forget that you're in the Empire State Building. They have little symbols in the elevator.
And of course, there's this big hint in the front lobby.
I made Emily walk home with me through Times Square. As a resident New Yorker (at least for 2.5 months), she hates Times Square, but I love it. I can't get enough of all those lights and people.
We didn't crawl into bed until 3 am that night, and while I was incredibly tired from not sleeping much the night before, I also felt a sense of satisfaction of being in the city and going to bed at 3 am while thousands of people were still up and about. I wasn't feeling so satisfied, however, the next morning when I had a whole city at my hands and all I wanted to do was sleep in.
Posted by kea at July 23, 2007 11:53 AM