Prohibition's Here & Alcohol is Dead (Today's Fun Fact)

I have WONDERFUL news! Someone marvelous has moved into the Upper West Side!

OMG!

(Source - DNA Info)

Yes, NYC now has three Trader Joe's stores: one in Union Square, one in Chelsea and one 50 blocks down from me in the UWS. I have yet to make a trip down to visit my dear friend Joe, but it's on the agenda for the weekend. Unfortunately, also on the agenda is a separate trip elsewhere to buy wine, since this TJ's is not allowed to sell it.

Essuse Me?

(Unrelated puppy brought to you by Photobucket)

Today's Fun Fact comes to you from the prohibition-era (y'all know how I love my jazz age stories). I've been thinking a lot this week about silly, antiquated laws that have never been overturned... but it turns out some of them aren't so outdated after all. For example, the city of Kennesaw, Georgia, requires its citizens to own a gun. WHAT?! That law must be a million years old. False. Created in 1982 to protect the general welfare of the city.

But I digress. New York state has a law, supposedly dating back to prohibition, that forbids grocery stores from selling wine and liquor. Grocery stores can, however sell beer... but wine stores cannot. Big grocery chains, such as Trader Joe's, can own one wine outpost in the state - TJ's has selected the Trader Joe's Wine Shop near their Union Square location, which is very sad for us Upper West Siders.

TJ's UWS does have a beer section. If only I cared.

(Source - Racked)

In true New York fashion, this law has turned into a culture of boutique wine shops and local brands on every block, and most people who live here just accept it as a fact of life. Recently there has been a push to repeal the law, citing that wine sales in grocery stores would boost the economy. Supporters of the law say that not only does it help curb underage drinking (?), but overturning it would put a lot of local wine shops out of business and destroy NY's wine culture. Ultimately, the proposal was shot down, but there are still plenty of people (and grocery stores!) that would like the law changed.

Before this was called to my attention in Racked's article about the TJ's grand opening, I had noticed that wine wasn't available in the three grocery stores I've been to, but I didn't think anything of it. "I don't know my way around yet, I guess I just can't find it. Maybe there are no alcohol sales at all in NYC grocery stores. Ignore that beer over there, you are imagining it. Where the heck can I find some Pink Truck around here?" Now that I'm informed about the many silly NY wine-related laws (apparently you're also not allowed to ship it, wine stores can't sell wine paraphernalia, it's pretty ridiculous), I'm a little confused.

What gives, New York state? WINE promotes underage drinking? Have you ever met a 16-year-old who is just dying to get his hands on the fruity undertones of a Pinot Grigio? NO!

Honey, I need to talk to you. Your principal called, and he's very upset about the wine tasting club you started on the playground.

(Source - Citysearch)

First of all, let's not even go into how keeping kids from drinking does the exact opposite of getting them not to drink. Maybe it's just the crowd I've seen, but underage drinkers drink to get drunk, and most of the time, they're not drinking wine. Hell, nowadays they're not even drinking beer.

Hello, my name is Four Loko, and I'm here to ruin your life.

(Source - DJ Wiky)

And also to turn you into this guy.

(Source - Recent Trends)

One concession to the supporters of this law: I have not bought wine since I came to town. I have been to the grocery store lots of times. If the grocery store sold wine, I probably would have bought wine. So congratulations, your law has reduced the consumption of wine... by a perfectly legal, 21-year-old graduate student who drinks moderately and socially, and enjoys wine with her dinner from time to time.

It's A Quiet Village

First of all, I need to apologize about my comment features. Apparently not only did I have the "approve every single comment whenever you feel like getting around to it" feature turned on, I also had it so that people couldn't leave comments without a Google ID. Now, I know MOST people have some kind of ID they can log in with, but in the interest of family who may be reading this and want to comment, I've turned it off. Hopefully there aren't any crazy lurkers afoot.

Next, I need to introduce some terminology. This weekend, I had what is called a "This Is Not A Village" moment. Backstory? My first trip to NYC, in the summer of 2008, I was with my sister visiting one of her friends. This friend ran into an old beau... in the middle of Times Square, on a Saturday night. Busiest city in the country, busiest time of the week, busiest spot in town. So for the entire walk back, pretty much all she could say was "THIS IS NOT A VILLAGE! THIS IS NEW YORK CITY!"

My "This Is Not A Village" moment was running into a friend from middle and high school in the stairwell of a friend of a friend's apartment building in Union Square. Lucky for me, I had a few hours to kill, and he had a comfy couch, a big screen TV and Trader Joe's peanut butter cups. It was great to catch up with him, but I still can't get over how surreal it was that we ran into each other that way. I knew he was moving to New York, but it never crossed my mind that I would run into him.

I'm curious about your "This Is Not A Village" moments. Have you ever bumped into someone in a place you never thought you'd see someone you know? Bonus points for Disney World stories.

Calling Out to Idiot America

Last night, I saw American Idiot, part of a special production they do for college students called American Idiot U. It features a Q&A session after the show with the director, cast, some important members of the technical crew, and of course Billie Joe Armstrong. I am still unsure how I feel about this show. But since I've made it my mission to see as many Broadway shows as possible, I should probably talk about the ones I have the privilege of actually seeing.

The thing is, I'm not really sure how to talk about American Idiot. Should I tell you that the sets, lighting, video reel and costumes were absolutely wonderful? Should I tell you how much I respect the choreographer for creating moves to a musical style that's not exactly dancer-friendly? Should I tell you that the orchestration of Green Day music with harmonies and different ranges was absolutely fabulous? Should I tell you that having the band on stage and the characters playing guitar was a wonderful way to integrate the music more directly into the plot? Should I tell you that stylistically, musically and technically, the show was brilliant?

Or should I talk about how the plot was DRASTICALLY different from what I had imagined when listening to that Green Day album on repeat in my high school bedroom six years ago?

See, I did my research, way back in the day when I was obsessed with this album. I studied the lyrics and the music and the interviews and the Vh1 Storytellers. Billie Joe & the boys had a plot, a clear plot, about ONE BOY and his crazy, messed up journey. And one figment of his imagination. And one woman, who I always thought was kind of an outspoken protester type of girl.

But the musical is different. During the Q&A session, the director (Michael Mayer) said that the whole three guys leaving their town and returning as changed men was his idea. Before he said that, I was kind of mad at myself for creating a better plot than the guys who actually wrote the story. But once Mayer said that, I realized that a story about one guy wouldn't have made for nearly as good of a theatrical event as a story about three best friends on three different journeys would. And the ending I had envisioned wouldn't have left a good message with the youth of America, which is exactly who is seeing this show. So although the plot was a little weird and some things were clearly forced (a character named The Extraordinary Girl who is separate from Whatsername? C'mon.), I was okay with it. A lot of things were left up to interpretation, and I kinda liked that. I was able to fill in the blanks with my own previously-conceived plot, which was nice.

The one thing I couldn't get over, besides the main character's voice, was the use of Whatsername. She wasn't really rebellious. She wasn't a vigilante. I get that they wanted St. Jimmy to be the only "bad influence" around... but I don't necessarily think that Whatsername needed to be a BAD influence. She just needed to be an OUTSPOKEN influence. You see, American Idiot is basically Hair for today's generation. It's about a bunch of teenagers who sit around, drunk and high, bitching about how much the world sucks and waiting for change without actually doing anything about it. In my mind, Whatsername was the only character who was an active force for change. Sure, her methods were a little out there, and she wasn't exactly a pacifist. But she was an active member of the resistance. I know part of that was just my feminist brain wanting a larger role for the heroine, but I was a little disappointed.

Speaking of heroin, the one thing that I totally neglected in my previous interpretation of the plot was drug use. One thing I really loved about this show was that it didn't say, "drugs are good" or "drugs are bad." Pot is used with the same attitude as alcohol. And the main character becomes a heroin addict, with St. Jimmy almost as the personification of his addiction (which was a nice way to hone him in, since they split a one person plot into three characters, and he wasn't going to be a figment of all of their imaginations). Basically, the show says: "These are drugs. There are hard drugs, and there are less hard drugs. This is what they're like, and this is how they're used. This is what addiction is like, and this is what withdrawal is like." Not preachy. Not biased. Make your own decisions, make your own mistakes, but know that it's a slippery slope.

I'm not going to tell you about my favorite part of the show. It was a beautiful surprise, and for those of you who end up seeing it at any point, I want it to remain the same for you. There are a lot of other things that I loved and hated about the show, but I don't really want to go on for 100 years about this.

Let's sum it up this way:
To make an American Idiot:
Start with 4 parts Hair
Mix in 1 part Fight Club
Shake with 2 parts Spring Awakening
Finish with a dash of Rent

The show is about walking the fine line between self-improvement and self-destruction. It's well-executed and technically magnificent. It is not perfect, and the Q&A session helped clear up a lot of my issues with it. I would recommend it to any Green Day fan or anyone who is interested in seeing musical theatre moving in an interesting direction. I would not recommend it to anyone over the age of 30 or any die-hard Broadway junkie... or anyone who has a problem with sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Marie! The Baguettes! Hurry Up!

also known as An Ode to Hungarian Pastry Shop
(that was going to be the title but it didn't fit with the song lyrics/movie quote theme... this one was BOTH!)

Ladies and gentlemen (Gentleman? Hi Dad!), I have found my zen.

There is a little coffee shop that has been in Morningside Heights for a million years. It's a local business, a piece of history, and a landmark. It combines everything I love and miss about quirky Gainesville (Coffee Culture Tuesdays, where did you go?) with everything I hoped for about artsy, local New York flavor. Am I exaggerating here? Is this place heaven on earth? I loved the mood lighting in this place too much to screw it up with my camera's flash, so I've graciously stolen these images from teh interwebz.

From the front, an unassuming local cafe. Nothing too special.
(Source - Plate of the Day)

But let me introduce you to...
THE PASTRY CASE.
There are actually two of them. Only one is pictured.
(Source - Ezter H. via Yelp)

Yes, I have been here three times, and I've never had anything that wasn't completely delicious. The first time, I was with my mom. We got two cappuccinos, an apple turnover, and some kind of peach pastry that I've since reordered as simply "Peach." I seriously can't stress this enough. Delicious.

Today I decided to mix it up and order an eclair. A puffy pastry is sliced in half, with rich creme filling the bottom half. It is then topped with fluffy chocolate mousse, followed by the other half of the pastry... which has been dipped in dark chocolate.

Seriously. Look yummier.
(Source - Cass A. via Yelp)

On my second and third trips, both this week, I discovered my second favorite thing about Hungarian Pastry Shop: free coffee and water refills, self serve. So you mean I could sit there ALL DAY and just keep drinking coffee? Um, yes. Obviously I don't since the coffee is decently strong, but it's nice to know during finals week I'll have the option. It's also nice to refill my water bottle from the icy pitcher!

Someone else's delicious setup. I'm pretty sure that's tea, but you get the idea.
(Source - phong-lan h. via Yelp)

So I order my pastry du jour and my coffee and find a table. I've been lucky, table-wise, so far. Today I snagged the last one. The company surrounding my study spot? Professors. Writers. Grad students. Maybe a few stray undergrads, but only the serious Ivy Leaguers. This place just makes me FEEL smarter. And every once in a while you'll get a local having a fascinating conversation; that's when having an iPhone with Pandora queued up and ready to go is a handy little tool. The lighting is dim, but there are sconces around the cafe, and my eyes were never straining to read my book. There's no wireless internet, but most of my reading is book-bound, so I don't mind. Also, the owner's kitties wander around, and they are quite adorable.

A fairly accurate description
(Source - Urban Photo)

Ok, bear with me on this one. I also love the bathroom. Sure it's small and there's usually a line. Honestly, in NYC, I'm just happy there IS a bathroom. But it's covered in graffiti. And not hateful, angry, racist graffiti like most of New York. Not even drunken, slutty, Greek life graffiti like most college towns. I mean, thought provoking, hippie protest, beautiful, quotable graffiti. Sure, there were some political statements I didn't agree with. But there wasn't any angry YOU'RE WRONG graffiti criticizing it - just differing opinions. My favorite piece?

Words to live by.
(Personal Photo)

And last but not least, the cafe is completely open, so you get the breeze, but you also get lots of street noise. I don't have a problem with this, since most of the street noise is bells coming from the towers of this famous Morningside Heights landmark, to be explored at a later date.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Magnificent.
(Source - American Guild of Organists, NYC Chapter)

To sum it up...
Five Things I Love About Hungarian Pastry Shop
1. THE PASTRIES
2. The free coffee refills
3. The ambiance
4. The bathroom graffiti
5. The neighbors

Whatever I Feel Like I Wanna Do, Gosh!

Sorry I've been such a bad little blogger lately. It's mostly because I've actually been exploring. It's also partially because of this:

Yep. I redo this baby at least every other day.
You should see it now. It's color coded and beautiful.

BUT on the I've-Actually-Been-Leaving-My-Room front, here's a short rundown of what I've been doing for the last week or so:

- I started my job. So far, so good. It's pretty straightforward and easy. It might get boring, but I'm happy to be working from home... at least I can play good music!

- I met the 2nd year students in my program. There are 8 of them (there are 3 of us), and they all seem really great. Two of them already have jobs, which they're using for their student teaching. Myself and the other two first years kinda see that as living the dream.

- I've been bonding with the people in my program, whom we'll refer to as Miss M and Mister M, no relation. We went out to dinner on Tuesday night, and I really think we got to know each other quite well. We haven't aired all of our baggage or anything yet, but we really do love each other already. It's nice that all of us jumped in and felt the same way: We're going to be a close-knit group. Let's skip the awkward phase and just be best friends.

- I've been taking pictures with my iPhone. Not of people though. Still working on that part.

This is the courtyard between my dorm and my school building.
Seriously, sometimes I feel like I go to Hogwarts. And this isn't even the pretty part.

- I went out with Roomie S's college friends, which was super fun. I got to explore Midtown East, which is a totally new area for me. Sure, there's some touristy stuff around there that I've seen, but the NYC bar scene is a whole new world for me.

- I watched the Gator game at one of the local Gotham Gators bars with my good friend and fellow Gator-transplant Jungle K. It was much more low-key than the Atlanta Gator bar I went to with my sister. But it was nice to see an old friend, make some new ones, and be served by a funny bartender. Overall, a good experience.

- I also got to explore Greenwich Village a little, since the Gator bar was downtown. Not too much to report except that I'm growing less afraid of it. And Washington Square Park is the best place in the world for people watching.

Today it was also a wonderful place for clear blue sky watching

Nothing too crazy, but it's been a good week. Too much time spent in bars for my liking, but I guess that's the standard "get to know the people around you" place for 20somethings. Oh well, at least we're getting pretty good at finding cheap drinks!

Hooray for School! Part II

Why yes, I am only taking four classes and still taking two full posts to write about them. Thanks for asking. Here's the rest of them!

Language Development & Habituation: The Foundations
My first linguistics class! I'm still unsure how I feel about this one, other than that I'm excited to learn more about the subject. We don't focus on ASL linguistics or teaching language to any special populations, but the class is a foundation for those classes which we will take later. We also share this class with the Deaf Ed program.

Cognition & Learning
I'm taking this psychology class online. Unlike UF's online courses, there is no taped lecture for me to watch or optional class for me to attend. It's basically a distance learning course, so most of the people in my class don't even live in NYC. What on earth do you do in a class that doesn't have a lecture? You read. A lot. You read textbooks, articles, and lecture notes. It seems ridiculous to pay the amount I pay in tuition to just read a book and not actually have someone lecturing, which is why the other people in my program have chosen to take the in-person option for this class, which meets on Monday nights.

So why on earth have I chosen to pay full tuition to read lecture notes instead of just taking the class like a normal human being? First, some background info: TC's classes started on a Wednesday, so no Monday or Tuesday classes. These missed dates are made up for during Thanksgiving, when Wed/Thurs/Fri classes are all canceled. HOWEVER, the second week of classes was Labor Day, so STILL no Monday classes. That's right, Monday classes will not meet for the first time until the third week of school. So how is TC making up for this? Fall semester ends on Monday, Dec 20th. Since I have yet to meet a single person with Friday classes, classes for most other people end on Thursday, Dec 16th. That's a whole four days earlier, folks.

Yep. That's my reason. It is not a good one. But traditionally, the weekend before Christmas is very important to my family. We lost my cousin to Hodgkin's Lymphoma on December 19th, 2005. Since then, we have spent the days surrounding Dec 19th celebrating his life and legacy, which is the love that our family shares. I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend the five year anniversary of his passing writing a final paper. Online class it is.

What Are You Doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?

Shana Tova, y'all!

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. I love Rosh Hashanah, not just because apples and honey are delicious, but also because it gives me a chance to make New Year's resolutions in the middle of the year. I know, I know, that's not a Jewish tradition. It's a me tradition. Besides, they also conveniently work out to be school year resolutions, which is usually much needed. Plus with the way my life has been going lately, promises I make to myself in January just may not be relevant in September.

I used to make my New Year's Resolutions really action-based. Lose five pounds. Sleep better. Keep up with your online classes. A few years ago, I switched to making them more attitude-based, and I think that's really helped me so far. Sure, it makes it really difficult to measure. But I kind of like that. I hate looking back and thinking I'm off track. Now, they tend to be half and half.

So here they are, my Rosh Hashanah/School Year's/NYC Resolutions:
1. Appreciate the city in which you live.
2. Appreciate the opportunity you have been given.
3. Appreciate the people with whom you surround yourself.
4. Don't get overwhelmed by your reading.
5. Keep in touch with your many long-distance loved ones.
6. Reach out to the people in NYC when you need them (and even when you don't).
7. Update your blog as close to daily as possible.
8. Remember why you're here. You were meant for this.
9. Create (and maintain) an allergy-prevention routine.
10. Get to know your suitemates. They seem pretty fabulous.
11. Immerse yourself in the NYC Deaf community.
12. Find productive ways to de-stress. Fit them in even when it's difficult.
13. Do your physical therapy. You deserve not to be in pain.
14. Drink more water.
15. Eat as healthfully as possible.
16. Don't stress out when you're not eating healthfully.
17. Watch your budget. Adjust when needed. Don't go crazy.
18. Always remember what (and who) is important.
19. Survive New York winter.
20. Embrace change.
21. Don't be afraid. You can do anything. You deserve to do anything.
22. Be the best damn Maid of Honor in the world.
23. Find a way to fit painting back into your life.
24. Don't be so hard on yourself.
25. Love as much and as well as you can.
26. Put positivity in. Get positivity back.

Anyone else setting goals for the new year? It's never too late :)

Hooray for School! Part I

There are a few reasons I haven't talked about my classes yet. First, I had yet to have all of my classes. Well, we're a week in, so that one is taken care of.

Second, I wasn't sure how personal I wanted this blog to be. It was originally just going to be about New York City in general, no thoughts or anecdotes about my education at all. Recently I've decided that I'd rather use it to keep up with everyone that's far away than try to be Carrie Bradshaw and create a publishable character (a girl can dream). I don't want to feel like I can't say something on here because it doesn't fit with the "theme" of my blog. So basically, screw it, I'm going to write about school. I didn't move to New York to be a writer. I moved to New York to be a student, and eventually a teacher. School is my life. My life is school.

SO without further ado, thoughts after my first week of classes:

Designing Curriculum & Instruction
The first thing I learned in this class is that my professor is a Gator, so that was pretty awesome. Apart from that, this class freekin terrifies me. There's an unwritten prerequisite (Principles of Teaching & Learning), which is also on my program's course of study. Unfortunately, that class wasn't offered this semester, so we plunged head first into this class. Almost everyone else in the class is a second year student and/or has teaching experience. I'm bound and determined to do my damnedest in this class, but that 200-page curriculum project at the end of the semester is pretty daunting. Luckily the other people in my program are all in my section, so we should be able to form a group and create an actual ASL curriculum, which will basically be the coolest thing in the world, assuming we decode the language of our crazy textbooks and actually figure out how this curriculum design stuff works.

Intellectual History of the Deaf
This class is listed on my course of study as "Psychosocial Aspects of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Part I." Needless to say, I was overjoyed when I showed up and SURPRISE it's a history class. If you haven't noticed already, I'm a total history geek. I really liked learning Deaf culture in sign language classes because I enjoyed the historical aspect of it. On our first day, we learned about references to deaf people in the Torah and Talmud, so I was basically overjoyed. Let's just combine everything I love learning about into one class. I actually liked doing the reading for this class today. I'm sure my fellow teaching assistants down in the Swamp can understand how excited I was to read about Clerc, Gallaudet, Stoeke, Public Law 94-142 and the IDEA (bonus points if you all just did the signs for those things/heard Tuccelli in your head while reading this).

We're combined with the Deaf Education students for this class, and not everyone understands ASL. My program coordinator, who is Deaf, teaches the class entirely in sign, so we have a pair of voice interpreters. They are amazingly talented interpreters, and it was cool for me to actually see a pair working together, taking turns and feeding each other things that the one currently voicing might have missed. The professor's fingerspelling is INSANELY fast, and it's usually crazy words like "epistemes," so the fact that they were catching everything is pretty darn cool.

However, as my friend Gator B over at The Boston Buzz pointed out, hearing a voice interpreter say something when you're trying to focus on the signs that you've already seen and could probably comprehend is REALLY DIFFICULT. For me, it's easy to fall back into depending on my ears to receive the information instead of my eyes, which is really bad since it's my receptive signing skills that need the most work. Unlike Gator B's ASL class, the voice interpreter will NOT be going away since some people in the Deaf Ed program here don't know a single sign. I'm seriously considering ear plugs for tomorrow's class.

Lots of words and no pictures? Sounds like a two-part post to me.

The British Are Coming (Today's Fun Fact)

Tonight's Fun Fact about NYC comes courtesy of one of the lovely people in my program. Lady M's friend is a tour guide for Columbia's main campus and shared this little nugget of information with her earlier this week:

All Columbia University undergraduate students are required to take a physical education course, but they are also required to pass a swimming test. There are several theories about how this started (and why it still exists), but my favorite has something to do with the possibility of a British invasion.

No not THAT British Invasion!
(Source: BlogCritics.com)

I mean an ACTUAL British attack on the United States, as in the revolutionary war. You see, Columbia administrators way back in the day needed an escape plan for their students in the event that the Red Coats took over the city.

I know, crazy hacked road sign in Texas, it's a scary thought
(Source - KCBD and Arbroath)

They wanted to ensure that should the British intrude on their hollowed halls, all of their Ivy League men could swim across the Hudson. That's right. Swim. Across. The Hudson. To New Jersey. One major was (and still is) exempt, however: engineers. Why? Because they could build a boat.

Pretty solid, as long as the Others don't destroy it before you reach Joisey.
(Source - Lost Hatch)

So is it true? Who cares. It's great fun.

Let's Go Explore: Riverside Park

My To Do list for this week is pretty epic, but I'm refusing to let it get to me. As soon as possible, I need to switch cell phone plans, figure out where the heck my Apple iWork rebate ended up, AND find two long lost packages that made delivery attempts on Saturday before my mailroom opened. What's that, a cell phone company, technical support/customer service AND the US Postal Service? Maybe I'll go the DMV this week too, just for fun.

So this morning, after a failed trip to the post office to find my long lost textbooks, I decided I needed some kind of release. It's nice outside today, warmer than it has been, but not nearly as hot as it was last week. I decided to walk down to Riverside Park and see the Hudson, up close and personal.

Riverside Park stretches four miles along the Hudson River, from 72nd St to 158th St. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (of Central Park fame) in the late 1800s. I am constantly amazed at the park system in this city. The way the walkways accommodate the naturally hilly landscape just astounds me. Although I only saw a small portion of Riverside Park today, I look forward to getting to know one of my closest parks a little better over the next coming weeks.

And of course, I never go anywhere without my iPhone, so here are some shots of the park this morning!

Pretty trees on one of the walking paths

Trees along the soccer field, with the river in the background

Hello Hudson! And a soccer game going on

A lovely shaded pathway
Not pictured: a ton of people and puppies out playing today

Guys... Where Are We?

Living near Columbia, it's really easy to forget you actually live in one of the biggest, busiest cities in the world. I know that's kind of silly. It's clearly Manhattan. I look outside my window and see big buildings and yellow taxis. I walk five blocks in either direction and I hit a subway stop. But I'm serious - it's easy to sink into college mode and forget to enjoy the wonders of the city.

Yesterday was the first time I left my neighborhood in a week. Sure, I've been wandering around roughly a 20-block radius, but until yesterday, I hadn't gotten on the subway and gone anywhere for a looong time, which is why I haven't been blogging lately. Nothing to say, and nothing to show. And let me tell you, I had cabin fever. But I've had so much work to do and so many errands to run and so many people to catch up with. But yesterday, I simply refused.

I woke up early, finished my five page paper (welcome to the first week of grad school), ran a few errands, and hopped on the subway to the Upper West Side. After a few glasses of wine on Jungle M's rooftop, we followed a friend a few blocks away to a tiny Thai restaurant for late night spring rolls and drunken noodles. Then we went our separate ways - the boys to their nearby Fordham Law dorms, and Jungle M and I back to her studio apartment to watch 30 Rock and PTFO. And right before I fell asleep on an air mattress on the floor of one of my oldest friends, I thought, "this right here, is New York City."

Sure, you can drink beer at a friends house anywhere you live. But can you do it on a rooftop overlooking Central Park?

Not our view exactly but pretty close

Source - Oyster Travel Guides

So I decided last night that starting today, I will do something to make me appreciate the beautiful city in which I live every single day. And if you know the right Twitter accounts to follow, you know that there are a million things going on in this city every single day. And so many of them are free! Now, obviously there are going to be days where I can't just take in a Broadway show. But even if the only thing I have time to do is walk down to The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, or grab an apple turnover at the Hungarian Pastry Shop, or just sit on the quad of Columbia's campus and take in the magnificent, ancient buildings, that's okay.

So what's up first? Tonight, Jungle M and I are taking in one of the Metropolitan Opera's free outdoor screenings. Because why not?