Ann & Anne

A couple of weekends ago I received my first official visitor-Ann! (my roommate senior year, for context). She took a chance coming in March, a month that can yield snow one day and beams of sweet sun the next. To our delight, it was sweet SWEET sun, all weekend long! In a city where you can't help but experience the weather as a part of your everyday life, you wouldn't believe how it can affect your mood!

Ann arrived by train at Penn Station Thursday evening in the absolute pinnacle of rush hour. I think the midtown subway traffic may have overwhelmed her a bit. Don't be fooled - seas of people can provoke just as much stress as can seas of cars, and having an oversized, overstuffed (a little overboard on the packing, Ann?) suite case trailing behind you doesn't make it any easier to navigate the non-existant spaces between the sardines packed into the subway trains. Nevertheless, we made it home WITH the luggage, and then hopped back onto a train for our first New York adventure, a trip to the East Village. For dinner we found a quaint Italian place with an edgy twist, meaning the candlelight was unexpectedly accompanied by the tunes of Kings of Leon. Afterward we took a stroll trough the vibrant restaurant, shop, and bar-filled area that landed us at Butter Lane, one of New York's many "cupcakeries" (warning: that's my word - don't try to start saying it thinking you sound like you're in the new york know). They only offer three kinds of cake, but the icing options are plentiful. Mix and match for endless possibilities!

Friday I sent Ann away for a Museum and park-filled day while I unsuccessfully tried to forget how much Vitamin D I was missing, cooped up in my office. Finally I joined her for an adventure to Brooklyn, via the historic Brooklyn Bridge, constructed in 1875.

Finally a shot with people in it!

Another shot with people in it, though I don't think we know them...

All of those cables that hold up the entire weight of the bridge converge to these few points

Looking back at Manhattan

These adorable condos are in Brooklyn Heights, looking back across the East River toward Manhattan - some of the priciest real estate in the city I believe

"The Promenade" in Brooklyn (where the condos above are), again, with a view of the East River and Manhattan

Still Brooklyn Heights, I love this stretch of Montague Street. It's still urban, but smaller and quainter than Manhattan. We enjoyed a caprese salad appetizer at an outdoor table to tide us over until our 9:45 dinner reservations. Ode to sidewalk cafes on sunny days! (I will write that ode someday; for now it's just my heart song)

Can you find the statue??

I've seen a surprising number of sunsets here; the big tall buildings can't stop me!

To get back to Manhattan, we decided to walk across the bridge again instead of taking a subway in order to see the city lights at night. Breathtaking! The photo doesn't show the bright colors of Midtown. I should mention I walked over 6 miles Friday between the time I got off of work and the time we sat down for dinner. Ann had walked over ELEVEN all day. I felt a little guilty, as I was, of course, the activity planner. Sorry Ann!

After walking back into Manhattan, we headed for the "Ninja Restaurant," where Amy (roommate/bff) and Stacy (UT architecture friend) met us. We were guided perilously through a winding and climbing passageway by a ninja, who then took us to our private hut, with multiple scares along the way. There may have been some inadvertent profanities, but we were being attacked by NINJAS after all. The food was spectacular and plentiful, especially my "ninja art dish," a Cesar salad, which had a thin, crispy piece of wafer-like bread covering the bowl that I had to pierce with my chopsticks in my best ninja move in order to access the salad.

Saturday night we saw Mary Poppins!! I realized when I was first disappointed by every changed from the movie that I had probably seen it too many times, but by the second half I was wrapped up in the new characters and story lines. I didn't think anyone could ever compare to Julie Andrews, but I will admit this Mary Poppines gave a pretty convincing performance. Sadly I couldn't say the same about the legs that replaced Mr. Van Dyke's.

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

The most magical theater! So whimsical! If you look carefully, you can see that the balconies are actually bowed up in the middle.

Times Square on a Saturday was NOT my cup of tea. At one point we were actually stalled out on the sidewalk for about a minute because we simply could not move in any direction.

The capstone of our trip (I intentionally use "our" because I was also on vacation): New York Style Cheesecake! Good think they warned us they were big enough for 2-3 people...try 5-6!

Try as we may, in the end we were only two people. Ann examines the remains of our endeavor with full and tired eyes.

Sunshine (the Great Thaw)

Yesterday I took a HUGE step. I left the house without wearing my huge puffy coat!! The sun was shining and the temperature was a steaming 48 so I headed down to the southernmost tip of Manhattan to catch some unobstructed rays and read my homework for my history class in Battery Park. I forgot how happy sunshine can make me! and water. I sat for a while on a bench overlooking the ocean and the Statue of Liberty (astoundingly small from afar).

Battery Park, on the southernmost tip of Manhattan

It's right on the water

A WWII Monument in the park

Interesting shadows!! At last! (You have to have sunlight for cool shadows)

One last pile of snow hiding in the shadows

Statue of Liberty if (if you squint you can see it)

After basking in the sun for a while, I gave myself a walking tour of Lower Manhattan, hitting up a couple of architectural attractions, like the Woolworth Building (see photo with greenish pyramidal top), and visiting a couple of small city parks and finally the World Trade Center Site, still a huge hole in the ground, but it is under construction.

I'd like to walk across that bridge

The Woolworth Building (95 yrs old and still in the top 50 tallest buildings in the US)

City Hall Park

Near the Ground Zero construction site; the sunlight caught this smoke perfectly

Laura's 30th

Living in the same city as 2 cousins, Carolyn and Laura, I get to be a part of events in their lives I wouldn't otherwise, like Laura's 30th birthday! Her husband Brown planned a dinner for last Saturday at this really nice restaurant in Tribeca called the Harrison. It was a seated dinner in a beautiful room in the basement. The food was delicious, especially the carrot birthday cake! Carol and William, my aunt and uncle, barely made it in after the big snow storm, as did a couple of her other relatives (Rita and Caroline).

The Birthday Girl and Brown

The birthday horns were a great source of entertainment!

Silly Willy

Aunt Carol taking the horn blowing to the next level by adding some rhythm

Attack!!!

Caroline, "Ching" (cousin Carolyn), and me

St. Patricks

Still catching up on old posts. Last Sunday I went to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown. GORGEOUS. I actually would rank it above all but one of the cathedrals I saw in Europe in terms of beauty on the interior. It was just such a clean and bright type of gothic, not the typical grungy, suppressing, dark gothic. Well, maybe that's because it was built in in the mid nineteenth century, and is therefore not covered in centuries and centuries of grime.

6B

Now for a look inside the apartment:

Our warm living area where all the post-work weeknight life happens. Already Amy and I have shared numerous happy meals at this table, talks on the tiny couch, and even a hard-core dance party (yes, just the 2 of us) in this magical space.

In the back right is the entry hall with coat pegs and a basket for cold weather accessories. Behind the awkward partitions is the kitchen.

My bedroom! This is a before shot. As a Valentine's Day present Amy is helping me paint it :) Who needs boys to lavish gifts on the 14th when you have a friend like Amy?

Again, a bit stark. I'm waiting for the paint before I adorn the walls a bit more. I'll post the after pics of course.

Calm After the Storm

Unfortunately in a big city, the cars respond quickly by dirtying and slushing the fluff, and I wanted to hang on to its beauty as long as possible, so I made a small excursion super early this morning before work. The snow had stopped falling, meaning I could walk in peace, without shielding my eyes from the assaulting blizzard (maybe I'm being a bit of a dramatic snow novice, but it was blowing HARD yesterday). Clad in my galoshes, I trekked over to Central Park (more than once finding myself suddenly shin-deep in an unforeseen snow mound) for some post-storm photos. It seemed I wasn't the only one with that brilliant idea. There were skiers, snow shoe-ers, joggers, and strollers everywhere, jump-starting their days in the gorgeous, sun-illuminated, white-washed park.

Impressively I made it into work by my usual 9:15.

Good thing I wore my galoshes!

As beautiful as those undisturbed blankets of white are, why is it SO satisfying to trample through and mess them up?

The fury friends were enjoying a rendez-vouz of their own at the park. If the photo were bigger, you would be able to see the adorable face of the middle doggie, excitedly greeting his friends. By the way, you can click the photos to see the big versions.