Well, this isn't really much of a Thanksgiving thing; the day itself is already past, and your dutiful diarist wasn't. Here I am in New York again. There's something about New York that makes you lonely; the presence of crowds somehow increases the desire to be out doing something, and makes less attractive the thought of sitting at home and getting some work done. This is not an original observation, but it does come home rather forcefully when living alone in a NYC apartment for a few days.
The real reason I'm writing here, I suppose, is to have somewhere to stick the pictures that I'm taking. Incidentally, they will all be terrible pictures: It's been clear to me since I was a child that I have no native ability to take good pictures. Mind you, I'm sure that practice and thoughtful study would reverse this, but frankly it's not important enough to me to warrant the expense.
One thing I find a little depressing here is my inability to get any exercise. I can't swim (no pool), I can't ride (no bicycle). I suppose I should be running. Running in Manhattan doesn't sound like that much fun. Actually, I'm pretty close to the reservoir in Central Park. I could run around that. That might be nice, actually. On the other hand, it's getting dark, and I don't know how safe it is. In the past, I didn't worry about things like that.
I wonder whether it's ultimately a good thing or a bad thing that I brought my laptop; on the one hand, it's a great security blanket. On the other hand, it's a great security blanket. I've got enough work to do that I can essentially hole up here and not go outside at all, which makes me wonder why I came to New York at all.
Well, the real reason that I came to New York was to see my friends and family, and on that count I'm doing pretty well. I had a divine Thanksgiving meal with the family, and then today I saw Jen and Mike and Matthew. We got to wander around Union Square-ish for a few hours, which was simultaneously extraordinarily pleasant and a little bit sad; time was, ... [Ed note: reminiscing about Terrace omitted for space reasons>.
I certainly do like coffee.
What the heck am I going to do tonight?
That's the nice thing about long car trips; whenever you get bored, you just jump in l'auto and keep on driving. It looks like I'm going to get to drive from Maine back down to Houston in a month or two, and that should be a lot of fun, especially because I won't be doing it by myself. Yay!
Well that's just pathetic, isn't it. I mean, it's not like I've really even been all that busy in the last two days. Lemme tell you about it. **twinkly sounds of flashback here**
Okay, yesterday. Oy vey. Yesterday, here's what I did:
Today was infinitely more hectic. Rising early, I struggled briefly in a futile attempt to repair the galaxy of minor disasters I'd inflicted on the apartment of the family friends foolish enough to leave me alone in their apartment. Well, actually it was just that darn screen that fell out of the seventh story window. And I didn't even get to see it fall! Life is not fair. It's okay, though, I'm going to get them flowers.
Remember, nothing says "oops, I screwed up but now I'm kissing your butt to try and weasel out of it" like flowers.
So then I braved the whirling morass of central park to have breakfast with Ben, which was very nice indeed. Very nice. And then I went back to Ben's apartment, where I got to drink MORE COFFEE and witness the SOCIAL MAELSTROM that is located there. In the space of five minutes, I witnessed the arrival and departure of visitors from Australia, ... okay, so it was just Australia. But come on, Australia is a long way away. Plus, Amy called, and so I got to meet her for dinner. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The major activity of today was a TOTALLY POINTLESS trip to Princeton which was nice anyway: it's always good to roil up that big pool of college memories: it reminds you of times past, but it also mixes them up in your mind. I guess that's inevitable: it's better to subject those memories to the tumble cycle of examination than to simply let them fade.
I got to Princeton at 3:45. I left at 5:15. In between I had time to wander over to Terrace, take a few pictures, and say HI to Tucker and Andrea.
I came back to New York and met Amy and Alice for dinner, at one of the more humble Polish restaurants it has been my pleasure to patronize: I ordered Knackwurst, and I got two big hot dogs, cross-sliced at the ends, with a slice of carrot and a tiny sprig of parsley. The borscht was good, though.
Alice and I went to see Alphaville, which is a whole damn story in itself. Perhaps another day's story. It's late, and I'm getting up at SIX OH FIVE tomorrow morning to catch a plane. Today has been kind of an ALL CAPS day, in case you hadn't noticed, and now I'm all tuckered out. So to speak.
'Til then,
Ta.
| John Clements / gruesome_incident@brinckerhoff.org |
| last modified 12/1/98; 10:25:17 PM |