Hot Child in the City

Day Twenty-Five

It has come to my attention that my last few posts haven't been posting correctly, so sorry if they weren't there when you visited. I'll try to keep track of that in the future.

Tuesday was okay. I got a late start because I was up late Monday night trying to figure out what else I have to do before I leave. My big plan was to spend the day browsing the New York Public Library and then spend a couple hours doing a practice LSAT in the reading room. I had probably been looking forward to this day second only to Irish Dancing.

I got all excited walking in. My first stop was the Library Store. I spent a little bit of time browsing. They had a good collection of books about wordsmithing and obsession with words. I didn't buy any of them, but I did write down a couple of titles of books to look for at The Strand for half price.

They also have a student planner. It is absolutely amazing - even better than the one I saw Monday. It has absolutely everything you could want in a planner, but not to excess, PLUS literary quotes and pictures of things related to New York City. Brilliant. However, I decided to wait to see if NYU had an even more magical planner even more related to the city. I've seen the Library's planner all over the place - even Athens - so I knew I could get one later.

After leaving the bookstore I started exploring the rest of the library. I was very quickly disappointed. The building itself is truly beautiful. It's massive with high painted ceilings and huge oak doors. What it doesn't have, however, is anything to browse. Everything has to be retrieved by the librarians. All the browsing books are at other branches of the library. The one with all of fiction is just across the street, but sometimes you have to order a book from a Brooklyn branch. I was very disappointed - what good is a library if you can't browse? I went to the big reading room, but left after an hour because it was so horribly freezing in there.

I left the library, but I wasn't quite ready to go home. So I picked the direction opposite of home and just started walking. I ended up near the UN Plaza, but I've been before, and so didn't bother going in. The security process just seemed like too much hassle. I ambled my way back up to Madison Avenue and then passed by the park and walked through Columbus Circle and then finally got on the train home at 72nd and Central Park West. In case you don't remember, the library was at 42nd and Fifth Avenue and I walked even farther east from there. I think I walked for two hours straight.

Oh, as I was passing Columbus Circle, I saw people standing around cheering for different candidates for Mayor of New York - the elections are coming up soon. One candidate's last name is "Weiner," and so a bunch of people were chanting "Weiner, Weiner Weiner." Call me 12, but I found it to be hilarious.

Once home, I was exhausted. I hadn't eaten all day, and so I wolfed down four pieces of pizza as soon as I got home, so there was no point in going out to dinner.

posted by Megan @ 8:21 PM