I used to hate this city. My blood pressure would rise as soon as we got within sight of one of the tunnels. I have to say that after being here for a few days, I can see the attraction. Every day I see something new, even though I traverse the exact same path. Walking around, Doug and I were both struck by how different each restaurant is from other restaurants. How different each store is. How dark and dreary apartment doors look (the grungy street level ones that you buzz up) but how they probably open up to gorgeous apartments. If you then add the crazy people on top of the interesting buildings, you could walk around in wonder all the time.
I did almost get runover by a nasty nasty woman on a bike within 15 minutes of my train arriving on Sunday. The cab stopped in the middle of the road (well to the right of the bike lane, but in the far left lane). I opened the door, got out, got my bags out and LOOKED to see if any bikes were coming and then crossed the street. She had apparently jagged to her left to avoid something and I didnt see her behind a delivery truck. She slammed on her brakes while hollering "WATCH OUT!" I apologized - even though I do not think this was at all my fault, but she said some choice words to me and rode off. The funniest part about this is that she looked like Joan Rivers. Not exactly who I picture as biker lady.
I also feel like I got the true New York experience as a subway rider. I quickly decided that I didn't want to spend $20/day on cab fare to and from the school when it was just a teeny bit slower to take the subway. My friend Mia assured me that the No. 6 train, which goes from the Upper East Side to Wall Street is clean and new and airconditioned. All went well on my first trip, so I committed and bought the bonus pack of tickets. My second ride went less well. I got on in the uptown entrance and had to waste a fare by exiting and crossing the street to go into a downtown entrance. Total rookie mistake. Then I made another rookie mistake and sat in the vicinity of a man who, I'm thinking, has no fixed residence. Aside from the aroma, the downside of my seating choice was the view I got of him going to the space between the train cars, urinating, coming back in without zipping, going back out and urinating again, coming back in and then spending a good 3 minutes figuring out his zipper. Only in NYC.
We also tried to make Ginny a city dog. We went to the dog park by Alex's place. Maggie isn't allowed into such places, since she views little yippy dogs as merely the appetizer course. But Ginny isn't jaded to the world (yet, or at least wasn't) and, quite frankly, we needed to wear her out. So in she went. She sniffed other dogs, made a big circle of the park. Then an evil little black dog that looked like a pot bellied pig came over and attacked her!! Poor little Ginny monster was pretty traumatized and went running over to Doug. That little rat followed Ginny over and attacked her again!!! Someone told the dog's owner that she needed to take the dog out, and she said she was going to, but then she sat back down and watched her little ugly, ugly excuse for a dog go around tormenting others. If I go back, I might "accidentally" kick the dog.
Ginny is definitely a suburb dog. So is Maggie. I think they yearn for grass to poop in - they both had to poop on the sidewalk last night. On the flip side, I think they both LOVE walking around smelling the trash in the street. Ginny got herself a nice leftover bite of ice cream last night on 7th Street. I thought I might pay for that later in middle of the night bathroom trips, but she did ok.
The rest of the week entails a trip to the Central Park Zoo (notably the location of Alex the Lion from Madagascar), a picnic in Central Park, and more than a few trips to the playground down the street, and a bachelorette party that the girls and Doug don't get to come to. Unfortunately I'll be in class for almost all of that time, but the girls should have fun. They might not ever want to leave, since Alex has a Wii and a big movie room.
OK, we're done with ridiculous questions and break, now we're doing retirement planning so I should pay attention. At least this speaker is really funny...
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