Xmas Post II: A Sojurn in New York

I had 28 hours on the ground in New York City before heading out to Long Island, but I managed to pack in a variety of activities that took advantage of being in such an amazing place.

First, the approach into LGA was from the south, so we got some great views--like flying right near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (between Staten Island and Brooklyn; it was the largest suspension bridge in the world from 1964 to 1981).


Also, we passed over the Unisphere and the New York State Pavilion--I waxed blogfully about these modern-day urban ruins during a 2008 visit.


Took the M60 bus from LGA to Manhattan (Bats to New York: a local bus from the airport into the city? WTF? That's even lamer than Boston's bus-rapid-transit Silver Line!). However, note that the mass transit from JFK is a bit more reasonable (MTA AirTrain).

I stopped for a felafel sandwich at my favorite Israeli-Yemeni restaurant on the Upper West Side ("Alibaba, a eight-seat glatt kosher restaurant and takeout shop specializing in Yemenite-Israeli cuisine—with a macrobiotic twist."), and dropped off my things at my sister's apartment.

The next stop was a trip downtown: one of my high school friends helped found a New-York based urban design, planning and architecture firm, and one of their recent project was a public art space called LentSpace. It is described as a...temporary project — made possible by the use of a Trinity Real Estate development site to LMCC — [which] creates an “in the meantime” activity for a vacant site awaiting future development. LentSpace is a free outdoor cultural space open to the public from 7am to dusk, made possible by LMCC. A pretty neat space, although I could only observe it from outside the chain link fence--it is closed over the winter.


While I was down in that area, I grabbed a latte at Gimme! Coffee's SoHo branch--shout out to my favorite Ithacans!


After this was dinner with my sister and her boyfriend (yep, they're still a couple all right). Conversations with my sister are actually more pleasant when there is a person with a slightly more normal frame of reference around... it convinces me that I'm not the crazy one when conversations take odd turns.

On the walk back from dinner, I thought, "Hey, I'm right in the neighborhood of Jazz at Lincoln Center... I wonder who's playing?" Punched it up on my BlackBerry... holy cats, Marcus Roberts?!?!? (gospel-influence blind pianist who toured with Wynton Marsalis' band for six years; I have several of his albums). And I can still catch the 9:30 set?!?! I stood in the standby line in eager anticipation...


Yesss!!! They put on a great show--standards, and a few Christmas songs, artfully redone. I realized that this was a perfect wrapup to the evening: sipping a Manhattan, listening to a jazz artist that I like a lot, with a view out onto Central Park and a glowing line of skyscrapers in the background. Day-umn. Okay, Jazz at Lincoln Center is now on my list--if you come to New York City, a strong recommendation to check it out.

The next day, I was having a slow groggy morning.... when I realized, "Hey, Anna is in New York now. I wonder if she's gone back home for the holidays?" It turns out that she was around... I just had to get across town, and she managed to schedule in lunch with me. She's doing a postdoc at Cornell Medical Center; she has safely moved to NYC and settled in quite well. I caught her before she headed out to Long Island to celebrate Christmas with friends--she's dashing off to Penn Station in a taxi here.


(Either that, or I take pictures of random blonde women getting into taxis. Um).

Anyway, back to Long Island later that day to celebrate Christmas. Whew!