New York, New York
Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2007 8:31 PM
"The worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt
It all began on Thursday morning before the crack of dawn. I found myself sitting next to a woman on the plane who was on her way to South Carolina to see her granddaughter. She showed me pictures of her grandchildren and told me how she misses them more than anything in the world. We shared a lifetime together in the span of 3 hours. I couldn't help but think to myself that you rarely find people like that anymore, people who are willing to open up like a book and share their lives with you. We parted ways in Chicago. My destination was NYC, hers was Philadelphia.
I flew out of Chicago around 9:30 AM, staring out the window at the city below. I always choose a window seat because I love to look out the window as the plane takes off and lands. I like to watch the houses grow smaller, see the layout of the streets and roads as they twist and curve leading to some far off destination; the golf courses... the baseball and football fields.... the automobiles. It's like peeking down through the sky watching the world spin madly on.
My thoughts drifted off as I looked down on the windy city where I once visited a lifetime ago. I couldn't help but think as we flew over the downtown area how small the Sears tower looked from so high above. I searched for the house that my dad grew up in a long time ago, just another brown brick home blending in with every other brown brick home. Did I see it? It's a rare possiblity.
I landed in NYC around 12:00 PM. I stayed at the Belmont hotel located on the upper east side of Manhattan. The room had a king size bed and a marble bathroom covered in mirrors. The bathtub/shower only had half a sheet of glass to block the water from spraying out onto the floor. I had lunch at an Italian cafe where the owner gave me free tiramisu just for visiting the city. I visited Central Park. I saw the CNN building where Anderson Cooper's show AC360 airs and took a photo of the building, found myself drifting towards the Chrysler building only to end up at the top of the Empire State Building where a worker gave me a Kansas City high five. The next day in the middle of a snow/rain mix I had lunch at a cafe, went to the Museum of Modern Art located close to the ghetto, visited Rockefellar Center, Maddison Square Garden, and drifted by Times Square since I had all ready been there before. I bought a scarf and a hat to ward off the snow at some boutique located near a comic book store I found myself passing through. I had dinner at a vietnamese restaurant then attended a cheesy horror flick where I almost tripped over a homeless man on my way out of the building. On Saturday I went shopping in the West Village, East Village, and even down in Noho and old Soho (so called because they stand for North of and South of Houston street). I bought a retro $50 purse at some strange dive, had dinner at an Italian restaurant located in Chelsea and ended the night drinking at a gay bar located near the Hudson river. I caught a cab back to the hotel driven by an African immigrant who barely spoke a word of English. On Sunday I found myself riding the subway to Tribeca where I caught the ferry to stand in front of the Statue of Liberty and see Ellis Island. I was surrounded by a million foreigners speaking a thousand different languages. I saw the construction of ground zero taking place through a hole in some plastic that was blocking it all from street view. I passed vendors in the street asking me if I wanted to buy a Rolex. I walked through Battery Park, saw City Hall, and drifted down Wall Street. I found myself eating pizza at a seaport mall overlooking the East River, almost gagged when I went into the women's restroom because every stool was covered in piss, walked into another world when I ventured into Chinatown, and was glad to find myself on the subway headed back to the hotel because my feet hurt. And in between all these moments of random sightseeing, I overloaded myself on Starbucks Hot Chocolate with a shot of mint. Monday came quickly. I had lunch with my brother at the airport and spent the rest of the day flying back home.
Yes, New York City, the city that never sleeps. I found myself flying into it not knowing what the future had in store for me. I flew out of the city knowing I was leaving a part of me behind. I can see it all clearly before me like a picture left to fade inside a photobook. And while it will never hold a place in my heart the way Boston does, it changed me.
