Randomize!

-I drove by an apartment complex that had a sign outside with "Pets free" on it. I assume that means there is no charge to have a pet while residing there, but couldn't one reasonably think that it means there are no pets in the complex? (I'm not going to propose that one might be misled to think they are giving away pets.)

-Difference I noticed between visits to New York City in March and August: going up flights of stairs from the subway platform was less taxing. Exercise on the recumbent bike has made a difference.

-I need a vacation from coming back from vacation.

-It would seem that my new common wall neighbor is quiet. Since they've moved in, I've not heard anything from that place. Color me relieved.

-While I was out of town, I think the person who lives below me moved out, but I can't say for certain. If so, I can open up the glass sliding doors and sit on the balcony more. The previous (?) occupant smoked really rank cigarettes.

-While working out tonight I saw an ad for a pizza place I haven't been to in a long time. So of course I picked up dinner from them on the way home. Advertising works sometimes.

Sunday in the park and more

In an effort to make my last day of this trip to New York City count, I sacrificed sleep so I could get into midtown Manhattan early enough to get a good spot in the TKTS line. I'd decided to forsake a Mets game at Citi Field in favor or another play. Professional baseball games are readily available to me; Broadway productions are not. Since most of the performances--and all of the ones I was interested in--were matinees, I needed to be up and about fairly early.

I got my top pick, which surprisingly has some knitting content in it...but more on that in a moment.

With my ticket in hand I set out north for Central Park. I didn't have anywhere in particular I wanted to see. I just wanted to get a good sense of the place. I walked around for close to 90 minutes and had little sense of where I was in relation to anything. When I thought I surely was close to the Upper West Side, I was instead over by the Upper East Side. I entered at 60th Street and emerged at W. 90th and Central Park West, if that tells you anything.

The park was gorgeous, and I wish I'd had more time to explore (or get lost). A much-needed lunch beckoned, and I had 45 city blocks south to walk. Sure, I could have taken the subway, but I figured I needed the exercise and could see the city more this way.

I went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which stars Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. Yes, Harry Potter is in it. He seemed to be quite a draw, if the raucous reception and crowds by the stage door are good indicators. He's fine in the play, although he still has a lot of growth to undergo as an actor. (Also, he's short. Maybe it's exaggerated when he stands next to Larroquette, but he doesn't seem to be very tall.)

Anyway, in the play Larroquette's character is a more or less secret knitter to alleviate stress. It gets some laughs, especially when Radcliffe's savvy character pretends to be a knitter too to hit it off with the company president.

I could say much more about this day in New York City, but as has been the theme with this trip, I'm getting to bed pretty late. Since I'm driving home Monday, I need to get to bed and thus wrap up.

This has been a very busy vacation, to say the least, but I've had a lot of fun. Before I left I was kind of feeling like I was ready to be home. I haven't missed it while I've been away, and I'd love to have more time in NYC. Still, I'll be glad to be back at my place by this point Monday night.

Saturday in the city

Another full day in the big city. I had a couple locals I met at a film festival who helped show me around, which made for what felt like a bit more authentic experience of New York. Above you'll see the food truck event at the South Street Seaport where we began the day. Some of the lines were awfully long, especially at the Korean trucks, so one had to pick wisely.

I wanted to see some of Brooklyn, and Prospect Park seemed like a good reason for going to the borough and getting a breather from the throngs in the city.

And since I need to get up relatively early so I can get back to The Big Apple on Sunday, I'm going to wrap today's post here. More details and ruminations on what's been a busy and fun trip to follow.

Contrasts

I stopped at this rest area in Delaware simply because it meant I could remove all ambiguity over whether I could count it as a state I've been to. (I drove through it once before but never got out of the car.) I planted my feet on the ground and bought breakfast there. So cross it off the list for certain.

I left early--and on five hours' sleep--so I could get to this place in time and stand here in Times Square. It's the TKTS line. Long story short, I got a half price ticket to see Anything Goes at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. It was a terrific show, but I'm wiped out. As with so much else on this trip, time's a-wasting and not there for a-writing.

In mind

Various things occupying my head space right now:

-I'm deliberating over some vacation plans in August and trying to determine if I can swing a few night in the greater New York City area. Staying in New Jersey definitely takes the bite out of hotel expenses, especially if I go just a little farther west than when I visited my brother. Going to New York City really captured my imagination, and I'm dying to get back there less than four months removed from my first time there. (Staying with my brother will not be an option as he's back home in Indiana...although perhaps not for long. He has a job offer in South Carolina and is leaning strongly toward accepting it last I knew.)

-I'm thinking that I might have turned a corner when it comes to exercise. I ran in the 5K race on Monday and had some pretty sore legs to show for it the next couple days as I hobbled around. In spite of the pain, on Tuesday I went to the gym to put in my standard hour on the recumbent bike. Not only did I complete my typical routine, I crushed it with some hard work. I took off the last two days, in part because I figured I needed the recovery, and then cruised through the workout this evening. Maybe this is an indication that I need to increase the level. Anyway, it's the best I've felt in awhile after working out this hard.

-The summer so far has been a relatively mild one in these parts. No complaints.

-Periodically I get the feeling like I ought to sign up for a Facebook account. That feeling has returned. Although I'm on Twitter and use it quite happily (and publicly), I've never had a Facebook profile and haven't felt compelled to join everyone else. I have some big reservations about the site, but I'm slightly favoring signing up before the summer is out. What's changed? Nothing, really. Then again, I'm still not on that social network.

Noteworthy

During my visit to New York City last month I purchased a weekly pass for taking the train from Secaucus, New Jersey to Manhattan. By my calculation, it would be worth the expense due to the number of trips I'd be making.

The problem was that I made the decision based on faulty data. I'd been a little confused by the purchase--and shocked by the amount it cost me--to go from Penn Station to three stops into New Jersey. It turns out that I messed up and purchased the same trip twice, with one good enough to get me as far as Seacaucus, the first New Jersey stop, and another to go two stops more. I thought I'd bought a ticket to Seacaucus and another ticket from that hub to my destination. (In other words, I thought I bought a ticket from A to B and another from B to C. Instead I bought a tickets from A to B and A to C.)

I bought the weekly pass on a Saturday, the first day one could use it, but almost immediately after doing this I wondered if it would be good for rides not originating from or ending at Secaucus. (My train trips would begin and end two stops down the line on Monday and Tuesday.) I stopped into the station's office to see if I would be OK using this weekly pass or if there would be an additional cost for catching and taking the train farther. I assumed so, as that's how New Jersey's system worked, but I wasn't sure in this case.

The transit employee didn't seem all too certain but ultimately said that I would be fine. As the weekend went along, and the more my brother and I thought about it, this didn't seem correct. So, on Sunday night we popped into the office again and asked a different transit worker. She said that it couldn't be used the way I needed to use it and went about filling out the forms and making the copies necessary to request a refund.

She also told me that the weekly pass didn't start losing prorated value until a weekday passed, so she thought I'd be refunded for the entire thing. I had used it four times over the weekend--twice going into NYC, twice returning--and was happy to pay for the trips I'd taken, yet if the refund went through, I would end up benefiting from my obliviousness and a loophole.

It was kind of a time-consuming process to get everything ready to request the refund, not that I minded, as I was otherwise going to have wasted around $20. The transit employee was patient and very helpful--she knew the ins and outs much better than the person I previously spoke with--and I made a point of writing her name down in the event that I got some or all of my money back.

A month after the request was made, a full refund was credited in my bank account. Now I have a letter to write. That employee gave terrific customer service, and I feel like she ought to be recognized for it. Where one of her co-worker's provided me with bad information that would have cost me even more--I would have had to make up the difference and pay a penalty to the conductor--she fixed a mistake I made. Although it was a nice victory to come out ahead--a fact that won't go in the letter--that wasn't what I was looking for. For that, the least I can do is let her superiors know how much I appreciated her efforts.

Stumbled upon

New York is so stuffed with amazing/noteworthy things that you can run into them without even looking for them. Why, there's the Chrysler Building!

And that gallery at MoMA that we almost skipped? It has Les Demoiselles d'Avignon!

And you know how you'd seen the Empire State Building from a distance but hadn't had a closer view? It was behind you outside Penn Station and Madison Square Garden the whole time! (Seriously, the last day I was there I realized this iconic New York building had been the direction I hadn't looked pretty much every day.)

Statuesque

Posting some New York City photos while I'm catching up on things/preparing to head to Cleveland for a couple days. This is, of course, the famous bull near Wall Street. It was especially crowded the day I was there, as people took turns getting their picture taken with--or on--it.

In the Museum of Modern Art's sculpture garden.

At Rockefeller Center.

Uptown

I had my last full day in New York City relatively wide open. My brother would be working, so I was dropped off at the New Jersey Transit stop to venture into the city on my own. Whether it was the interrupted sleep for the third consecutive night, illness, or the effects of Dayquil, I wasn't feeling in tip top shape. The rainy, sort of snowy morning led me to wile away an hour in Penn Station reading the New York Times before meeting with a former student employed at Nickelodeon. It was nice to see how well she's doing.

I hadn't been uptown yet--the furthest north I'd gone to date was maybe 47th Street--so I hoofed it to Grand Central Station to take the 6 line to 86th Street. First stop: lunch at a place recommended to me. I'd been told Shake Shack would be busy, but the issue was more one of lack of seating than waiting in line to order. I got right in, ordered a single burger, fries, and chocolate shake, and then shared a table with another single stranger and a mother with two kids.

After that it was time to visit the Guggenheim Museum. The Frank Lloyd Wright building is such an architectural delight, so to see it in person and walk in the rotunda looking at the art was great fun. I was particularly glad to see several Kandinskys.

Before returning I had to set foot in Central Park for a little bit. The weather wasn't cooperative, but I wanted to get a small taste of this important part of the city.

Although I return to Ohio tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have more to say and show in forthcoming days. This has been a terrific trip, even if it's been close to exhausting. I don't know that I would want to live here, but it's been a fantastic place to explore.

A bridge and a pizza

I was pretty gassed after the last two days, and my brother and I were pretty slow in getting around this morning. We started the day in mid-afternoon at Grand Central Station, a beautiful place, bymeeting a couple of his friends who happened to be in town for this morning's half marathon. From there we hopped on the 6 train intending to go to Lombardi's Pizzeria, which lays a claim to being America's first pizzeria. It turns out that the subway stop is being skipped this weekend, so we went all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge. OK, that works. We had intended to walk to it at some point anyway. (And yes, that is a hat knit with my own hat appearing in the lower right corner of the photo.)

Thursday and Friday were gorgeous spring days, but Saturday and Sunday have reverted to the chilly side of the thermometer. We walked a quarter or halfway out on the bridge before turning around to get our first meal of the day, even if it was in the vicinity of 5:30 p.m. We walked north through Chinatown and arrived at the famous pizza place.

We wolfed down a margherita pizza. It was good, simple food. I was in the mood for something heartier, but I can't really complain. The crust was good, albeit thinner than I prefer. It wasn't a greasy, heavy meal that is usually associated with pizza, so in that sense it was probably the right thing to get.

We decided to call it a day from there. It's been a fun but wearying weekend. My brother has work on Monday. I have the day mostly free to explore. If anything else is going on in the world beyond my New York adventure, I'm barely aware of it.

On Broadway

Today's New York City adventures were not as numerous but perhaps more big time than Friday's. We were slow getting around after yesterday's jaunts, which made it perfect for a walk to Times Square, standing in the TKTS Discount Booth line, and landing half price tickets for Arcadia. After that it was time for lunch at supper time and a walk to look in and around Rockefeller Center.

I like the theater, but it's not something I've had much exposure to since college. I felt like going to a Broadway production was something I should do while here, even if I didn't have anything in particular I had to see. I favored Arcadia based on the cast (Billy Crudup, Raul Esparza, Margaret Colin, and one of Meryl Streep's daughters) and the playwright (Tom Stoppard). It would have been nice to have seen a musical, but the one I'd had most highly recommended to me wasn't among those being offered at a significant price break.

It turns out that our tickets put my brother and me in a box, which made me feel a little highfalutin. How exciting for this to be my first Broadway experience. We shared it with a couple and had a terrific view of the stage, although extreme stage right was blocked off. Fortunately this was not a major issue.

We could also scan the audience. Seeing as I'm in New York City, I've been wondering when I'd pass by someone famous. This was the time. At intermission I spotted Cornel West.

I really enjoyed the play, although I'm way too tired to begin parsing what it all means, at least on this blog. Suffice it to say it was a night well spent and what felt like a very New York evening.

In the city

I thought it was going to be a slow day in the greater New York City area. My brother had taken the day off work to do things but was also indulging his off day by sleeping in. I used that time to put in almost five miles on the treadmill in his apartment building's exercise room. How foolish of me. We probably ended up walking close to that over the course of the day.

I've earned a good night's sleep with all this walking, but I'll briefly touch upon the day's travels. After beginning at Penn Station and deciding to turn around (and some early difficulty figuring out how to get to the proper platform when not at the transportation hub), we went to lower Manhattan and unknowingly walked into Tribeca for lunch. Then it was off to Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange and the bull. Then it was over to the World Trade Center area and an overview of the site from the World Financial Center. We wandered out of that tower along the Hudson, which is pictured above. Yes, that is the State of Liberty way out there.

From there it was to the Museum of Modern Art and the free Friday evening admission. The floors with paintings impressed with all of the major works that you'd often just stumble upon. The surprise for me was often the size of the works. Oh, there's Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Matisse's Dance I (and so big!) and Dali's The Persistence of Memory (so much smaller than I expected).

There was no real plan after that. We wandered by Radio City Music Hall on the way to Times Square. We were both tired and hungry, but we couldn't really spot anywhere we wanted to eat. A barbecue place that seemed promising was struck from the list of options when we saw the length of the line to get in. Reluctantly we settled for Applebee's. Despite wanting to stay away from chains, I suggested it. My feet were tired, and I needed to eat.

From there we walked back to Penn Station and saw the crowd of Rangers and Canadiens fans walking north from Madison Square Garden. One particularly vocal guy in a Yankees cap kept accosting the Montreal hockey fans and telling them to get out of town. While we generally had good experiences throughout the day, I suppose that's New York City too.

The arrival

Although I managed only 3-3.5 hours of sleep last night, I was up and at 'em to fly into The Big Apple today. I've been a little nervous about the trip, particularly this first day, but all in all it went pretty well.

I should have known things would be fine when the flight went about as smoothly as any I've ever been on. Admittedly, that sample size is small. Both flight attendants had British accents, which was reassuring for some reason. (I also find the whole routine of explaining the procedures with the seat belts and such to be calming.) I've had problems with my ears on past flights. They don't pop upon the plane's landing. Thus I get to the destination feeling like my head is plugged up and as though my hearing is impaired. There were no such issues this time, and for that I'm grateful. Plus, the flight arrived about a half hour earlier than the itinerary listed.

Of course, figuring out how to fill my free hours was the big unknown putting me on edge. I decided to go to the IFC Film Center and see two movies because a) I knew how to get there and b) I wouldn't have to schlep the carry-on suitcase as much. And I suppose the fact that I wanted to see the films in question didn't hurt.

The subway ride was relatively easy to figure out. The smell was the first thing I noticed as I walked onto the platform at Jamaica Station, but it seemed right rather than off-putting. I boarded, took a seat, and sat back for my underground journey into Manhattan. Granted, I was pretty tired, but the whole thing felt kind of surreal, as if I'd been absorbed into a movie. I exited as I'd been instructed and *boom* there I was on the Avenue of the Americas and by the theater. I was worried about this?

Of course, it was a gorgeous sunny day, and having a plan made me feel better about it all. I got a quick bite to eat at a nearby diner. The waiter didn't mess around asking for an order or taking care of business. Welcome to the fast pace of the big city. I ambled over to the theater. Beyond sticker shock--$13 for one ticket at 12:40 p.m.?!?!--I was ready to see a film that's been among the year's best reviewed.

Which is why I went about the work of falling asleep off and on throughout the movie. The seats were comfortable, but the lack of sleep had clearly caught up with me. Such drowsiness dashed my thoughts about trying to get to Film Forum to see another of the early year's critical favorites. Instead I stuck around and plopped down for admission to another film in the same theater. I had much better luck staying awake this time.

And then it was to the subway to get to Penn Station. The St. Patrick's Day Parade is a huge deal here, and I was fortunate to miss the revelers. I had an easy ride, got some assistance figuring out how to buy a ticket for New Jersey Transit and find the right train, and eventually got to the stop where my brother picked me up about a quarter after six. The NJ train was a bit more difficult. There really wasn't room for my carry-on luggage, and I had no clue where to go without asking. All things considered, though, it was relatively painless.

So here I am in New Jersey, yet close enough to have a view of the Manhattan skyline from my brother's temporary residence. It's all a bit like a dream. New York City is one of those places so ingrained in the popular consciousness that, having never been here before, it feels like a mythological land I'm now visiting. After a good first day here, I'm hoping its charms will only increase with a good night's sleep and my brother's company as we search the city.