April 19th 10:48am.
So this is a fun new development in my trip. I somehow have managed to lock myself out. I feel like an idiot, and who knows when the superintendent will call me back. Robyn gave me her keys, and Elizabeth’s number, but both are going to voice mail right now. I need to be talked through how to open this door! Elizabeth is with family in Queens and Robyn is at work in Manhattan, so I don’t expect either to come all the way back to Brooklyn to let me in, I just need to figure out this lock! A lesson in assumption on my part for sure. Next time I need to make sure I know how to do something, and not believe I'm able because I watched someone else preform the task. I’ve tried to open the door about thirty times in ten minutes. It has an automatic lock and there’s a special way of opening it...
It’s not as if I’m without necessities or in danger of the elements. I just don’t like this zero control thing (hey, look my human nature!) Also, as I sit here trying to find things to do BESIDES fiddle with the lock again, I realize that I don’t seem to have Katie’s number in my cell phone. I must call her at some point; she said her fiancée would house me while I’m in DC.
1:38pm
I missed a train by a minute and have to wait ten minutes for the next one. This is how I ride the subway. I generally miss the train by moments, it’s roaring into the platform just as I get to the turnstile and by the time I get down the next flight of stairs I get to see the taillights departing down the tunnel. Yippee. Some trains are closer together but most are ten or more minutes apart. Cei la vie. Gives me more time for people watching and frantic looking at the subway map to quadruple and quintally check my route. (Quintally even a word? Probably not.) This excessive checking still does not keep me from getting turned around while underground. I go down two flights of stairs and I loose what little sense of direction I could claim to have.
I feel slightly productive because I did laundry. Being locked out of the apartment was the tipping point for my emotional side. “Dear God, I’m unable to get a hold of anyone but you, please help me to get the door unlocked.” And then there was a peace upon me and, scant moments after, a cheerful whistle floated up the stairs.
He held the package out to me, as if it were mine, I held out a set of keys to him in reply, “Are you any good with locks?”
“I’ll try sugar," he croons, "if it was meant to be then it was meant to be.” He sets the box down and applies hand to keys, key to lock. A wiggle, three tries, and a jiffy later he has the door open and the keys back in my hand. At my look of relief he cheerfully replies, “It was meant to be, sugar.”
I could have hugged him.
~
April 20th
Officially my last day here and I’ll spend half of it packing. I only brought as much will fit in this carry on and one shoulder bag... and I’m mailing stuff home, why is this such a process? Next thing I’m going to write about is how to survive out of a carry on and still look human.
I met up with Hiromi at the Japanese bookstore and we bought rice paper and she taught me how to fold origami roses! Then we made our way to Cafe Eruopa on 6th/26th. This was only after much debate of which coffee shop might be the closest/coolest/still open. Robyn met us there after she got off work in Times Square and then we went to Little Italy for a late and yummy dinner.
Before that I went all the way south to the World Trade Center (got on the wrong train, again, and I think that the new building looks like an upsidedown icicle) and then northward to Chelsea Market, dropped in to get 24 Kinder eggs (I hope they don’t melt, I’m mailing them home). Then to the Museum of Natural Science (it has an entrance directly from the subway, so I didn’t have to get rained on, again) got lost via Guggenheim and never actually made it to the round museum. Spent some time in an Apple Store. Discovered a yummy pizza place, a slice of Rustica feed me for lunch and evening snack. I also stumbled across a little market that had apples for less than a dollar apiece, which by this point of my stay in NYC I was very happy to find.
I walked a lot. Was “lost” most of the day. But every native I asked was very helpful with directing me closer to my destination. I’ve been told that the people in NYC are rude, maybe as a whole, but every individual I talked to was very cordial. It was damp and rainy most of the day. Even though I bought a travel umbrella the second night in NY, I was very glad that the Subway stop for the museum was directly into the lower story of the place. I got in there for a dollar, it says tickets are 18, but it’s suggested donation pricing. Got to read the fine print! I didn’t write about it before, but the Met is the same, I got in there for a nickle.
Well, I’m mailing home a box and then heading back into Manhattan. I am most definitely taking a nap on the subway.