Day Twenty-Six
Alas, I am a day behind. My computer's gone a bit nuts on me. For some reason it deleted all my favorites and Internet preferences, so I've been spending all my computer time fixing all that again.
Wednesday... what did I do Wednesday? Oh yes! Wednesday was the day I visited NYU and then walked around the Village for 5 hours!
New York University Law School is my dream - my obsession. Even though there's not even a shot in hell of me getting in, I allow myself to wallow in my own delusion. To feed the frenzy, I went and visited the "campus" - and I use the term very, very loosely.
I was actually kind of disappointed. The visitors' center at the law school was closed, so I couldn't get so much as a map of the damn place. Luckily, I had written down a few key locations before leaving the apartment, so I was able to check out of a few of the places. However, with no visitor's center, I was unable to get a visitor's pass, which meant I couldn't go any further than the entrance to most of the buildings.
I was amazed at how spread apart all the buildings are. I thought they'd be at least in the same area. I guess the law school buildings are all together, but the school is just sprawled out over blocks and blocks and blocks of the city. My favorite building, of course, was the old
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. I've always been fascinated by the story, and the building is now owned by the school. I think they use it for lab space. It was just neat to be able to get an idea of why the fire turned into such a disaster.
After I visited all the law school buildings and the bookstores, I picked a direction and went with it. I knew the confines of what defined the Village, and I was pretty successful staying within them. There were some pretty cool stores, but I didn't buy much. The thrift stores were REALLY picked over, but I managed to find a NYU Law ringer tee at one and a really cool bag at another. There were also a TON of shoe stores, but not a single pair even came close to being as perfect as
the most perfect shoes in the world. I did find one pair that was just completely beautiful, but they were green, had HUGE heels and were $400. Considering I was looking for brown flats, that seemed like a bit much to spend.
Elke met me down there after her classes, which are really close. We headed off in the direction of one of the two
Miss Sixty stores in the city so that I could finally buy my shoes. Of course, there was no store - it had closed. So then we had to walk down to the OTHER store, which wasn't too far away, but it still sucked. Then, when we got to that store, they informed us that my perfect, beautiful shoes were sold out and they wouldn't be getting anymore in because they were now stocking for fall. I was very, very sad.
We wandered around for a bit more, but I soon realized that I hadn't actually sat down for over five hours. Instead, I had been walking at a rather rapid pace, trying to see as much of the Village as possible. Also, all I'd had to eat was the sandwich I ate on my way out, so I was both tired AND starving.
We kept walking along Broadway, but found NOTHING - we were definitely in a shopper's haven, but there wasn't much there for two starving shoppers. Finally we found a Mexican restaurant, Gonzalez y Gonzalez, that was really tacky looking but hey, it was food and that's all that mattered at that point.
We should have known better. The service was TERRIBLE. Now, most service in New York City is awful, but this woman made even me look like a good waitress (I'm pretty forgetful). My meal turned out to be so spicy I could barely eat it, even though she told me she'd request that it not be. Elke's meal had this gross sauce on her meal that looked like poop that had melted in the sun and pretty much tasted accordingly. So we ate all the nachos and I left our sorry-ass waitress a 50 cent tip - I figured it was a more effective "fuck you" than not tipping her at all, because then she could pretend I forgot or something.
After that we just headed home. Elke needed to eat something that wasn't covered in poop but didn't want to spend more money on food and I was still really tired from my day.
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.
Day Twenty-Four
Even though the weather was shitty, I chose to tour Columbia University Wednesday. Even though their law school is even harder to get into than NYU's, it's one of the schools I'm considering applying to, so I figured I might as well check the place out while I'm here.
But before I got there, I did a bit of shopping. I bought a new LSAT prep book - one that doesn't suck, hopefully. I also bought an eye mask from Claire's. I know it's a stupid store, but it was only $5 and I cannot continue to be woken up by the sun every morning at like 8. Even when I go back to sleep, it's crappy sleep because there's so much noise. But if there's no light to wake me up, the noise won't bother me nearly as much.
Before I got here, I didn't realize Colubmia was so far uptown - it's actually RIGHT on the edge of Harlem. The dividing line is only a block or so north of campus. The campus itself was really pretty. I was pleased to see that they actually have a campus even though they're in such a big city. The main library is an amazingly beautiful building. It's just very impressive looking.
I wandered around the campus for a bit, mainly looking at the different buildings associated with the law school. However, I guess this week is orientation or something, because there were tons of people milling about wearing nametags. It was almost intimidating - these people have to be SO smart and at least kind of wealthy in order to be attending just Columbia, not to mention Columbia Law School.
I also visited the bookstore, which was much more relaxed. They had some pretty cool stuff, but I didn't buy anything. One of the things I fell in love with was a planner a nearby stationary store had. It was just a regular At-A-Glance student planner with a notebook style cover, but it was amazing. It had weekly pages, monthly pages, pages for keeping track of monthly expenses, pages for notes for each month, a page before each month to list special events, pages for addresses. Despite all this, it was a great size - not too big, not too small. However, there were a few minor things wrong with it, so I didn't buy it, but I'm keeping it in mind in case I don't find something better. I just so happen to have this thing with planners. Crazy, I know.
By the time I left the bookstore, it had been raining for almost an hour. Regardless, I headed over to
Grant's Tomb armed with my pink umbrella (to match my pink backpack and my pink t-shirt). It was a lot creepier than I thought it would be. I didn't realize that it was so massive. I thought it was just going to be in a cemetary or something. But no - it's a HUGE mausoleum (largest in the country) and he and his wife are in the center of it in these enormous stone coffins. Very, very creepy.
After leaving the tomb, I hopped back on the train to head home. However, just as I was approaching the subway (which for some reason was 3 stories ABOVE the street and you had to take these creepy stairs up to a rickety platform) I saw, across the street in Harlem, a
Taco Bell! For some reason there are only three in the entire city - one in Harlem, one in Queens and one hidden somewhere on the lower west side that we have not been able to find yet. Elke feels as strongly about Taco Bell as I do about
McDonald's, and I am also a big fan. So I crossed over into another world and bought us a bunch of delicious food.
I was very taken aback by the stark difference between the city north of 125th Street and south of it. South of it is Morningside Heights, aka as Columbia University territory - it's very wealthy and very intellectual. On the north side, however, is Harlem. The difference is striking. You go from cute little brownstones and apartments filled with young well-dressed, well-spoken, well-read wealthy people to crumbling skyscraper projects filled with black, loud-spoken, poorly-educated black people just by crossing the street. I'm not saying everyone in Harlem is dumb and poor, but there is definitely an income gap represented by that one block.
Of course, I was the only white person in Taco Bell (complete with my pink shirt, backpack and umbrella), and it was kind of weird. I'm not used to being a minority. But it was all worth it for the deliciousness of the Crunchwrap Supreme and Cheesy Gordita Crunch. Of course, I didn't admit this until after I was safely on the subway. I wasn't afraid of the people, just that the platform would collapse under the weight of the approaching train.
The weather continued to be shitty the rest of the day, so we just stayed in. We wanted to watch the second episode of
Weeds. And then we watched
Breakfast at Tiffany's, which was perfect, as always. Audrey Hepburn is a pure icon.
Day Twenty-Three
Sunday wasn't the most exciting day in the world. Elke and I were supposed to go to Time's Square for the
kiss-in being held in honor of the 60th anniversary of V-J Day. To do this we had to be out the door by 12.30. I got up a little after 11.30, but when Elke still wasn't up at 12.15, I went back to bed. I'd been up late the night before and a car alarm went off 4-5 times between 10 and when I got up, so I didn't sleep very well.
When I got up later, Elke still wasn't up. I dicked around on the computer and then Garrett called. He went upstate to Saratoga Springs this past weekend to visit one of his best friends from high school and wanted someone to talk to on his way home. I was supposed to go visit him Monday evening in New Jersey, but was a bit nervous about navigating my way around the train schedules. Then I had the brilliant idea of him picking me up on the way home - it wasn't TOO far out of his way, as he already had to drive around the city.
So I hopped in the shower and started getting my things together. Elke finally got up sometime during my shower - probably around 3.30. I said a quick farewell and then off to Jersey I went.
The first thing Garrett and I did was stop at a liquor store so I could stock up on rum. The alcohol taxes there are much, much cheaper than even Ohio, so it was worth it. Then we went back to his house (he's living in the house his grandfather lived in for the past 30-40 years before moving in with Garrett's mom) so he could shower and then went to this crazy restaurant called Snuffy's. It used to be owned by the mob, and so was really overdone. They made it really cheaply ostentatious so that they could fluff up the expenses on their taxes or something.
Dinner was delicious. Afterward we headed back to his house to watch some Sunday night television (aka Family Guy). I also got to try out his new TurboGrafx video game console that he got off Ebay a few weeks ago. It was great fun.
He had to work Monday and was really tired from his weekend, so he went to bed earlier than I did. I just was NOT ready to go to bed when he was, even though I knew I had to be up by 9.00 at the absolute latest Monday morning.
Day Twenty-Two
Saturday was quite a long day for Elke and I, especially given our normal level of activity.
Despite efforts to the contrary, we didn't get out of here until after 3.00. We headed straight to the
Museum of Sex, but this involved a lot of walking due to the shitty weekend subway schedule. Elke was hungry, so we had to stop to get some pizza, but we finally reached the Museum of Sex around 4.00.
The museum turned out to be pretty cool, albiet uncomfortable. There were three exhibits.
The first exhibit was an exploration of the male body and society's relationship with male nudity. It traced male nudity from the ancient Greeks through body-building beefcakes all the way up to gay porn. It was especially interesting to see the reaction of the men there. They all obviously came to the museum expecting to see a bunch of naked women, and a lot of them were REALLY, REALLY uncomfortable with the plethora of male nudity. Some went so far as to dash quickly through the exhibit and wait at the end for their fellow museum attendees.
The second exhibit made me want to run out of the room quickly. It was about the history of "stag" films, aka early porn. Basically, this exhibit consisted of early porn movies with a descriptions of them posted next to the screen. Some of them were silent films, which meant they had to go to a black screen to show the "sexy" dialogue. Despite the fact that some of these movies were from as early as the 1920s, they were all pretty hard core - the sex WAS pretty plain Jane, but the fact that there was sex on tape at all is nuts.
But all of this meant that I was standing in a room watching old-school porn with a bunch of strangers. It was really awkward. The men in the room were continuously adjusting their pants, making things that much more uncomfortable. I also kept thinking about the fact that if any of these people were still alive, they probably had great-grandchildren. I can't imagine how horribly, terribly taboo it must have been to be in "stag" films back then - espeically as a woman. Oh, and we found out that the person who put the whole exhibit together is a
TCom professor at Ohio UniversityThe last exhibit was just a bunch of weird sex artifacts. They had this insane chair that allowed gross men (and women, I suppose) to vicariously fuck a woman over the Internet by controlling a dildo installed in the chair with a video showing how it worked. My favorite thing, however, was the collection of old sex ed videos starting as early as the 1930s. They were completely ridiculous. They didn't even mention abstinence until the '50s because in order to mention the absence of sex they would first have to mention sex, and such a thing was just unheard of.
We spent a bit of time in the museum store and then headed back outside. We just picked a direction and went with it until we realized we had ended up in Union Square. We decided to go to
Heartland Brewery for dinner because Elke really wanted to try their Apricot Ale. We both got nachos, but neither of us really ate much of anything, so it kind of felt like a waste.
By the time we got done with dinner it was nearing 9.00. We were supposed to meet Shannon at the club she works at just a few blocks away from Union Square at 11.00, so there didn't seem to be any point in going home. So of course, at my urging, we went to The Strand. However, it was much, MUCH too hot to really look at much, even though most of the store is air conditioned. And by that point we were both too exhausted from walking in the 100+ degree weather to do much browsing anyway, so we found seats in the children's section and spent a good hour looking at kid's books.
After a bit more browsing, we were finally kicked out at 10.30. I was going to get a couple of books, but the line was REALLY long and I just didn't feel like waiting. So we went to the bank to get some cash and headed up to 21st Street to meet Shannon at Stitch. She wasn't there when we got there, so we went to the McDonald's around the corner to get some French Fries.
Shannon finally showed up and we spent the next two hours hanging out at the door with her (it's her job to take people's money). It was really interesting to watch the doorman - he determined how much each person had to pay to get in based on looks and gender. Girls were anywhere from free to $10 and guys were $5-$10. Kinda sick, isn't it. Shannon tried to explain the politics of bars and clubs in New York, but it mostly just made me want to avoid them completely in the future.
But we did have our first celebrity sighting. Tommy Lee stopped by the place for a bit. I didn't even see him come in, but Elke and Shannon informed me that the man who had just brushed against me and almost knocked me over was Tommy Lee. I did, however, see him on his way out. Yet again, they had to point him out to me - I wouldn't recognize him if we were making out.
After a couple of free beers and some nice people watching, Elke and I decided to head home. After all, not only had we been out for hours, but we definitely looked it - we were still in afternoon clothes and stuck out like sore thumbs. We weren't very near any subways, so we walked for about 20 blocks and then took a cab. We could have made it further, but it was just SO HOT neither of us could take it anymore. Plus, we both had to pee.
By the time we got home it was after 2.00. We hung out for a bit, but we were both exhausted, so we went to bed soon-ish. I think that was the night I was up until 4.30 on the phone, but I can't remember for sure.
