Hot Child in the City

Day Four

Most of the people I know live somewhere in the Midwest (mainly Ohio), and recently they have all been complaining about how hot it is due to the heat wave attacking them. I laughed it off, as we were having comfortably warm temperatures with a slight breeze.

That is, of course, until yesterday, when I woke up to find that it was 95* and not yet noon.

Elke and I tried to avoid the heat for a little while, but it became impossible - we both needed bagels and she needed food. She's a vegetarian AND a very picky eater, so she wasn't able to find much at the corner grocery store. So we walked the 3-mile round trip in the 95* heat to Zabar's, a gourmet Jewish grocery store. Thankfully, the slight breeze is still with us.

As soon as we got back we quickly changed into nicer clothing and headed down to Karma, the hookah bar we've been wanting to go to since we got here. It was a bit different than the website suggested it would be - MUCH more low-key and sadly, it had no food (the website promised some delicious-sounding Indian appetizers). However, slightly overdressed though we might have been, we had a fantastic time. We got a honey-flavored hookah and some beer (Guinness on tap for me) and just sat there for an hour and a half, smoking and drinking and laughing. And the music they were playing was great. DEFINITELY a place we intend to revisit, especially with how easy it was to get there.

However, we had planned on stuffing ourselves on aforementioned Indian appetizers, so we had to leave relatively early in order to find something else to eat. Panna II was only a few blocks away, but we decided to try something new. We remembered the models living in a billboard in Times Square, so we decided to head there in hopes of making fun of them while eating something delicious.

Sadly, we did not find any models living in a billboard. I guess they weren't living there for very long. We ate at a little cafe a couple blocks from Time Square. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't expensive and we were seated immediately, which at that point was all that mattered. I had worn heels out because the original plan was to stay at Karma all night and then take a cab home, so it involved very little walking. I had no way of knowing that I was actually going to have to walk miles in my heels.

And then we had a bit of difficulty involving the subway. The schedule was all messed up because they were repairing some trains and we had to switch trains at least 400 times. At one point, we had to wait for a train for 25 minutes. Keep in mind that there is NO breeze underground and that the tunnels act like ovens, so it was at least 10-15* hotter down there than it was above ground, which was currently experiencing a heat wave. I was literally melting. I felt like I was in a sweat lodge.

After about an hour we finally got on the train that would take us home. However, after a few stops, the driver informed us that this train would be going no further, and we had to get on yet another train, the identity of which was very ambiguous, in order to finally get to our stop, from where we would have to walk another half mile.

Fuck that shit. We climbed out of the subways, completely covered in sweat, and hailed a cab. The asshole talked on his cellphone the entire time (which is illegal in New York) and then didn't even drive down our street, but at that point it didn't matter.

We came home, showered, smoked and then settled down to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I bought off some lady in the subway. It worked pretty well, but the framing was AWFUL - 1/3 of every shot was cut out.

And then we went to bed. Despite the crap with the subway, it was a fantastic day.

posted by Megan @ 1:15 PM