Gates and West Village II
Woke up to a friend banging on my door and telling me to come downstairs to a luncheon. I'm not one to refuse an invitation to food so I got dressed up and down I went. Had a nice luncheon with my downstairs neighbors and company then went for a walk with a few of them in Central Park to see the gates. Large, orange flag toting monstrosities that cost some fool 21 million dollars. If you want pictures, just ask. Came home and tried to do some work but became quickly distracted by a friend at NYU who was bored. Finally we made plans to get dinner so around 9PM I headed down to the village. I ended up walking down the wrong street and having to backtrack/run in circes, etc. I suck at getting anywhere as soon as the streets stop involving letters and numbers. Finally found her place and off we went. At my request we went to Lombardis in Little Italy. I'd heard from a friend that it is arguably the best pizza in NY. He may be right. They use fresh mozarella and everything. Great crust too. I must say it's the best pizza I've had so far in NY. Not cheap like Koronets though. And quite a shlep. But I'll keep it in mind for when I'm down in the village. Anyway, it was about a 20 minute walk and we took in many of the sights and smells of the village and Little Italy on the way. After dinner we went hopping through bakeries looking for the perfect Canoli, or at least something exciting enough to settle on for dessert. The Italian places didn't satisfy us so we went to Cosi's, a trendy little place not too far from NYU. The cool thing about it was they had s'mores. They came unassembled in a wood tray with a little brasier and two wooden skewers to roast the marshmellows with. Very cute. They also had both graham crackers and giant Oreos (with no filling, just the cookie part). Quite a tasty little treat. Had a lot of fun. Dropped her off at her place and marched to the subway. It was getting pretty chilly, about 27 degrees. Spent the subway ride text messaging and watching drama unfold between some lady and a saxophone player. He was playing terribly and she was berrating him for it and trying to make him stop. She was quite abusive and he finally cracked and started threatening to kill her kid (for the record, he claims he's not a crackhead; he takes LSD). They finally got separated and then some old black lady started in on how Jews and foreigners run the city. I was about to take offense and speak up when I looked around and realized that out of 40 people on the car I was the only white guy. I figured not only was discretion the better part of valor, but that she was right anyway. Really it's a compliment. I missed my subway stop due to all the distraction and ended up in Harlem. I think this is the second time I've done this. I noticed the only other white guy in the station was about the right age to be a college student and sure enough he was a guy visiting Columbia from Wharton who made the same error as me. His name was Josh Shanker and he knew my Barnard friends from Philly so we decided to walk back together. Got all twisted about but finally made it back to campus. Saw lots of giant rats on the way rooting through the garbage. Lovely scene in Harlem at night. Climbed the stairs up Morningside Park and landed safe and sound back at my apartment. That's enough walking for one day I think :-)
