My Own Planet

Hell, I still love you, New York
It took me a while to remember why I heart NY. Almost 48 hours, to be exact. Although I'd done my favorite walk, from the Christopher Street subway station down Bleecker Street in the West Village, almost immediately after I arrived, it didn't hit me until I retraced the same steps again, two days later, on a picture-perfect Sunday morning. As I strolled down the tree-lined streets, I came to the realization that I've come to many times before on the walk to my beloved Magnolia Bakery: that I could only love living in New York if I lived in this neighborhood. Which means I won't be living in New York until I'm a great deal richer, which could be very far in the future, or very soon indeed, depending on how quickly I am able to rocket to fame as an internationally renowned hand model. Until then, I'll just have to be content with visiting.

The thing with visiting, though, is that it's almost impossible to avoid the Times Square area, as authentic New Yorkers such as Anne and Danielle do, because that's where most of the hotels are concentrated.



See all those little dots down on the sidewalk? Yeah, now imagine me, as another little dot, trying to navigate my suitcase through the rest of the million little dots. It was exactly as fun as it sounds.

Of course, Times Square is not so bad when your friend's company hooks you up with the pimp suite on the 41st floor with an entire wall of wrap-around windows. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Times Square is much nicer when you are perched high above it.



Here, Lee, Danielle, Chris, and I party like P. Diddy in our sweet suite. If P. Diddy partied by eating a pint of raspberry sorbet, drinking one beer, and falling asleep, this caption would totally be accurate.

The next morning, I got a grand tour of the outer boroughs as I helped Danielle move from her semi-crappy apartment in Queens to her really cute new apartment in Brooklyn.



As you can tell from this picture, Danielle was super-excited about her cute new apartment, particularly the yellow chair behind her. She was also excited about her cool new hipster roommates, although they are not pictured.

While Danielle got settled, I took the opportunity to climb out onto her roof to see if she had any sort of view. You kind of have to be in the extreme corner of the roof to see it (and maybe leaning slightly over the edge), but the Manhattan skyline is totally visible.

See? There's the Empire State Building! And the Chrysler Building! OK, you kind of have to squint to see that one.

After a slice and some shopping in Danielle's new neighborhood (Williamsburg), we met the boys back at the hotel and headed to a charming little organic Italian bistro in Nolita.



There, I attempted to take a picture of Chris in which he did not look retarded. I considered this a pretty stellar effort.

After dinner, Danielle and I headed to the Upper East Side for a mini Mizzou reunion, at which we drank way too much beer and wine and ate way too much seven-layer dip. (The latter indulgence was not appreciated by Chris and Lee later that night when we drunkenly pounced on them while they were trying to sleep.)

Why is it that hung-over Laguna Beach-watching marathons seem so much more cool when you're in a room with a view like this?

After watching a few episodes of Laguna Beach the next morning, I dragged everyone down to the Magnolia Bakery. ("These cupcakes had better be laced with crack" was Danielle's comment upon seeing the crowd inside.) On the way there, I spotted Dan from The Real World: Miami also strolling around the neighborhood, causing me to bemoan the fact that the only "celebrities" that I ever seem to run into are former Real World/Road Rules cast members. (Seriously. I've also seen Sarah from the Miami season at Lilith Fair, Rachel from the second New York season at a college party, and Piggy from Road Rules Australia while shopping in London.) Of course, none of my friends believed me and chastized me for not saying anything to him ("But he's not a real celebrity!" was my defense), until Chris and Lee saw him poke his head into the bakery while Danielle and I were waiting in line to buy our cupcakes.



Danielle prepares to take her very first bite of a non-crack-laced-but-still-very-tasty Magnolia Bakery cupcake.

After feasting on the cupcakes (and lunch from the Whole Foods in the new Time Warner Center), we spent some time chillin' in the park, alternately watching the gay male sunbathers and the skywriting advertisements overhead.



Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the gay male sunbathers. Try to contain your disappointment.

Finally, as we left the park to head back to the hotel, I was able to achieve the one goal I had set for myself for my weekend in New York: Hear and/or say something worthy of submission to Overheard in New York. As a family walked by us, we heard the dad scream at his kid, "It's Sunday in the park! It's beautiful! Cut it out!"

Priceless.