Tuesday
11pm, Tweet – “Heading to NYC tomorrow morning!!! (insert millions of emojis about taxi cabs and hearts and buildings)”
Wednesday
3:30-4am - WAKE UP IT’S TIME FOR NEW YORKKKK, make espresso, eat hard boiled eggs, leftover carrots and sweet potatoes, put on 12 layers, pack backpack, start car
4:05am – depart from Providence, James is upset because we were supposed to leave at 4 on the dot.
4-7am – James drives, I have car anxiety, I hold my breath the entirety of the trip, Frankie Valli plays in the background and we talk about how 4am looks a lot like 11pm.
7am – I’m copilot, we’re on track, almost there, take wrong exit, almost cry, James says, are you going to cry? I say no, we turn around and see a sunrise on a bridge that makes me not cry.
7:30am – we park, go to a diner where there is a draft and stale coffee, we eat more eggs.
8am – James walks me three blocks this way, three blocks that way, to Stumptown Coffee/Ace Hotel where I plan to work remote for the day. We enter another Portlandia scene, where coffee is $18 per dixie cup and everyone dresses like they are in Mumford & Sons. I think of asking barista to teach me latte art and chalkboard writing. I don’t.
9am – James heads back to take a class for the day and I set up work station. I make friends with a girl. We have an unspoken agreement to watch each other’s laptops while the other pees. I notice it is extremely cold in this place as well. I keep all 12 layers on, put my hat back on and sip cappuccino slowly.
10am – I have a redheaded waitress now who calls everybody “love” and touches people a lot. I hope she doesn’t touch me but allow her to call me “love”. Every time she comes back over she has a new shirt on. I order a pot of lavender/chamomile tea.
11am – My ‘friend’ leaves and I feel abandoned. I order a coffee. I now have had too much coffee in too short a time period. I’m cold and have no one to watch my laptop. I go on Pinterest to pass the time.
130-2pm – First and oldest and dearest college friend meets me for lunch. We ask redheaded waitress for a seat for her. She says no. We share a seat and laugh and hug and take photos and order expensive salads that never come. She leaves without lunch, I should have peed while she was here.
3pm – My overpriced meatless salad shows up that is actually not a salad but a tarte filled with goat cheese and leeks and I’m not impressed.
4pm – I get anxiety that a weird NYC apocalypse will happen while James and I are separated in the city so I pack up my stuff and walk to where his class is, just in case. I see this sign and then the place smells like cigarettes and again, is almost as cold indoors as outdoors so I order another tea and try not to fall asleep on a couch.
6pm – James is done class, we hail a cab to the West Village and eat at Cafe Cluny which is pretty affordable as far as NYC goes and pretty adorable like a Parisienne bistro. They seat us in a horrible corner thing on top of another couple who is not amused. Our waiter tells us the types of sausages in James’ meal and I drink a glass of wine to my face.
7:30pm – We pay 62 billion dollars for parking and drive out of the city covered in a daze of caffeinated exhaustion and bright lights. I fall asleep with a hat and coat on that never actually left my body all day.
11pm – Almost home, but seems so far, I wake up and we play this game I made up once where you say a compound word and then the person has to say a new compound word using your last word: “daylight” “lightshow” “showroom” “roomaskdjalskdj” I quit, I can’t think of one. We talk about how 11pm looks a lot like 4am.
11:30pm, Tweet – “NYC update: we’re not in NYC anymore. Tiredest I’ve ever been! Ever. Goodnight.”
24 comments :
Ha! this was great! i remember seeing your tweet and was jealous. i love the city. no matter what, it always makes me happy bc it’s an adventure as it seems it was for you!
so adventurous! I was saying, being cold in NYC beats cold in most places! I love it for 2 days, and actually, I’ve never been in the summer and that’s my next travel goal…
i love this timeline.
the sad thing is that everyone that lives in nyc lives this life. too fast for me. and WAY too expensive!!
oh, btw you’re cute
seriously! SO FAST. We left like “I’m so glad we don’t live here…”
you are!
roommate.
you’d think after lunch with my own, I could think of that. Whenever I get stuck, I just use the word face…
“roomface?”
“stickface?”
“knobface?”
It has a 2% success rate.
Can I ‘like’ this entire post? I think I’ve asked you this before…can you just add a ‘like’ option for me? Thanks!
xoxo
just added. JUST for you!
This is wonderful!
Thank you Sarah! For some reason, your comment went into spam but luckily I caught it!!
Seriously love the timeline feature. The way you and James handle navigation is basically identical to the way we do: Matt drives, I GoogleMap everything, I end up getting something wrong, and I get unreasonably stressed out. So much so that he recently decided weekends are “directions-free” and we just groove around until we find whatever it is we’re looking for. Pretty much the best idea since ever.
omg so much stress. I feel like I’m somehow committing a crime if I get us lost, I watch the map so closely and always fail. I like the idea of direction-free navigating, although we would end up in Nebraska
Next time you should definitely ask the barista to teach you latte art. It’s probably warmer near the espresso machine. And chalk board writing sounds like a fun lesson, too. Did James take off his coat at all?
New York has such pretty tile work and natural stone everywhere.
Now I’m regretting not asking!! I’m going to google latte art classes. James took off his coat, got coffee spilled on his shirt and made a lot of friends in class. Big day in the big city for James
One time I went to cafe CLuny FOR BRUNCH and saw AMY POEHLER THERE! SHE WAS ADORABLY PREGNANT AND I STARED AT HER THE WHOOOOOLE TIME AND THOUGHT ABOUT ASKING TO RUB HER GIANT BELLY BUT (LUCKILY, THANKFULLY) HELD BACK.
I think I just typed that whole comment in caps lock because none of my words will capitalize? but also because of ALL THE EXCITEMENT (which should also be in all caps too, haaallllp)
YOU SAW AMY POEHLER PREGNANT AT CAFE CLUNY THIS DESERVES ALL THE CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAHAHA!! so…yes. caps lock was, in fact… ON.
I love how often you have been posting!
YOU DO!? Thank you. I read this out loud to James last night. I didn’t realize it had been more frequent… Thanks for noticing…
I loved reading ur post. But to be honest I live in the East Village and you can actually have a quite quiet life here as well. you just gotta know ur way around the city
But yes please do come back in the summer!! it’s so much better, actually spring, summers are too hot and sweaty lol and autumn. dont come in the summer!!
Oh I don’t doubt there can be a quiet life there at all! I’ll come in the Spring then!! We went in October once and it was lovely… We usually stay in Tribeca, which I love.
this is perfect. i was just in nyc too! overwhelming city for me.
such a fun post! i get the same sort of awe/anxiety with nyc. it’s like no other.
it REALLY is it’s own thing entirely – I’m glad you can relate… do you live in a small town?