After running around with Mikey all day, he is finally ready to hop the plane to Europe. It is too bad that he won't be here while I am in town, but he's off on his own adventures, and I am happy to be able to use his bicycle.
I grab my things to pack over to the place that I will be staying for the next week (and hopefully, maybe, possibly longer... *fingers crossed*). I get into the space, and it's completely amazing. It's a giant loft, with four bedrooms on the far side, and a mezzanine above the bathroom; this is where I will be sleeping.
I get in and decide to go to the grocery store to pick up some food for the next few days. I leave the house and head in the direction of Trader Joe's without really knowing where I am going. I somehow just trust that I will get there. It's a pretty giant grocery store, with boxes of no additive organic breakfast cereal for two dollars; this is my kind of place. The produce leaves something to be desired, but all of the staples are amazingly low priced and are not just processed garbage. Hurray!!
I'm all set for my evening; my plan is to make myself a big salad and then drift off to sleep. It has after all, been a long day.
When I get back home, my plans change instantly. My roommate, Jenner, tells me that our other roommate Matt, is at a party and that he's about to head out, and would I like to come. I briefly consider staying in instead, but quickly dismiss this thought from my head. I have a quick shower, make a pb&j sammich and grab a handful of carrots, and we're out the door. The party is only a few blocks away and there is free beer and margaritas, and there is also a cart with hotdogs. We go to grab one, and the girl working the cart knows that I will have a veggie dog just by looking at me. Drink some beers, and am feeling a little nervous, but pretty alright. I notice a cute boy who is friends with my roommates; he asks me for one of my carrots and we strike up a conversation. His name is Rich; he runs a gallery and works at Marc Jacobs. I find out later that he also has a degree in astro-physics.
More beers and more conversations. Sadly, Rich has to leave. He invites me to the party that he is going to, but I feel that I should stay near my new roommies for the evening. Soon, we leave. We grab some beers to drink at home, and head over to the meat packing district, where we are going to try to sneak into some posh swimming pool party. Matt knows the bouncer and has no trouble, but Mike and I do not make it in. Instead, I convince him to drink hennessy in an alley (as we do in Vancouver), before we hop in a cab to head home. We grab a snack, then hang out for a bit, before heading off to sleep.
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The next morning I wake up, and Phil is online and he suggests that we meet up in an hour to spend the day biking around the city. I make a quick salad, have a shower, and an hour later, I'm hugging Phil at the stop of the Brooklyn Bridge. I haven't seen Phil in a very long time, and we have never actually hung out one on one before and it seems so strange to run into him like this on the other side of the continent.
He takes me to his favourite parks, and points out various landmarks as we bike along the water's edge. The bike paths here look oddly familiar. Phil mentions that a current landscape architecture trend is 'Vancouverification', and it's definitely evident here; we could almost be on the Sea Wall in Coal Harbour.
We stop in at Phil's old work from when he lived here, and I grab a milkshake and he has a grilled cheese. Phil then insists that we grab a bottle of bubbly and we head over to Central Park. As the park comes into view, Phil is snapping photos from his bike, and getting more and more bold in his lack of attention to the road. All of a sudden, his handlebars twist, and he bails completely. SHIT! From my view it looks as though he's cracked his head on the pavement, but THANKFULLY, he is only covered in scrapes and bruises. The downside is that when I say covered, I mean COVERED. It seems that every time we look him over we discover a new patch of bloody scrapes. We have learned a lesson; don't take photos from your bike.
We get into the park and bike around for a bit before finding a nice picnic table to sit at; I am astounded by the sheer size of this park. It's enormous. It's amazing that you can head 5 minutes into this park and it just swallows you up and you can't even hear the city around you. We crack the bottle of champagne and then sit there talking about life and snuggling. What a perfect day in New York! Eventually, Phil has to go to a recording session, so we head down 7th ave and I say goodbye before continuing on to the Manhattan Bridge which will take me home.
I'm completely exhausted, and when I get home my roommates are getting ready to cook a huge dinner with some friends. The main course is rabbit and oysters (amazing), but as I'm a veg, I stick to the side dishes, which are also delicious.
Several beers later, I can barely keep my eyes open and I stumble up to bed.
It is now 1 pm on only my third day here; my goal today is to try to find a shitty cell phone and then to head over to a bbq for Jen's birthday.
I feel like so much happens every day that I can barely fit it all in... Also, I'll try to include some photos soon!
That's all for now.
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