THOUGHT CATALOG
I asked a guy I’d been out with twice before to go to a concert at Prospect Park with a group of my friends. He accepted the invitation and asked me to have dinner at his place first in Crown Heights, which is a mighty rapey neighborhood for a girl from the West Village. I was proud of myself for trucking all the way out there alone, but I started to get angry during the walk from the train that he had no regard for my safety. As we entered our second hour of waiting for his friend to prepare dinner, I mentioned that we were late for the concert, and he said, “you should just go by yourself.” A trip to the ghetto left me hungry and dateless.
[Later, in the comments]
“i was making fun of myself there, for being one of those ridic girls from the west village who doesn’t like to commute to rapey brooklyn neighborhoods with her balenciaga bag, but you didn’t get it, so i’ll keep trying! comedy…subjective…and whatnot.”
TEE HEE.
You may have more luck getting raped in Midtown or Greenwich Village than in Crown Heights. Though I can’t guarantee the safety of that Balenciaga…
31 plays
When you’re walking from the east up that slight hill to the Great Lawn you have no idea how many people will be there until you crest with shoes off, tee-shirts tied to heads, blankets spread out, all manner of recreational throwing objects in the air. You hope that you can move into the grass and stake out a place for you and your friends. Prior to the procurement of your plot of space you remove your shoes, because in New York City, there are few places where you feel OK to take off your shoes and socks and walk with your tender city feet on the ground directly.
You’re finally doing normal things that normal people do. Work week, weekends with friends, and as your train emerges from under ground and moves into and above the street you can look west and see the sun setting and Ryan is pleading, “Don’t charge me with your Rescue Blues.” and you ain’t gonna. It’s cool. Things are fine and you feel lucky, for all that you have, and for the way that the right song always seems to play when you need to hear it, or when it’s appropriate, just like in a movie sound track. The only difference is that the credits aren’t rolling yet.
Destiny’s Child — “Survivor”
One year ago today my friend and roommate Megan drove me to the airport at 5 in the morning, after a night of heavy partying, and I got on an airplane and flew to New York City with only 2 bags and nothing else. There was no real big send off. I had said goodbye to all my best friends a week prior as they left for vacation in California. I had worked my last shift at Whole Foods and was basically sitting around drinking coffee and whiskey all week leading up to my departure.
For me, Moving to New York, was an all or nothing venture. I knew if I stayed in Florida I would die. By my own hand, purposefully or incidentally and so going to NYC was putting it all on the line. I had never been here before until last May when I visited for 3 days, and I know I had to be here. I went back to FL and put my two weeks notice in at work, and got my affairs in order to move. I knew two people here who didn’t know each other, so I basically had no friends, no job, and no apartment lined up. I had about 2,000$, and that was it. I couldn’t have been happier.
The day I arrived it was hot and I hadn’t slept in like two days. I had been up all night chatting on AIM with Aaron because I couldn’t sleep, and he’s swell to talk to and once I was on the ground and finding a cab all I wanted to do was pass out. But I couldn’t. I immediately went to work finding an apartment, which I did later that afternoon: a sublet in Bushwick.
It’s been up and down this year. I tested and pushed myself. I worked 6 days, sometimes 7 every week this year. I found an incredible job, where I started at the bottom and now I’m the general manager of one of our locations. I’ve got a too expensive, gigantic bedroom in Park Slope and I’ve got amazing friends. It’s honestly more that I could ask for, and certainly more than I deserve. Sometimes the universe just allows things to happen.
Some real life people in NYC who let, and helped me laugh, cry, and vent and be happy:
- Matt Struble
- Tristan and Robin Henry - Wilson
- Darrin
- And tons of people from Tumblr who gave me encouragement who are literally too many to name, but you know who you are.
It’s now not about an “I did it!” moment. It’s sort of like, now, I’m doing it.
This quote from the movie Blow: “Sometimes you’re flush and sometimes you’re bust, and when you’re up, it’s never as good as it seems, and when you’re down, you never think you’ll be up again, but life goes on. “
"Having established storefront, flea-market, and now street-side supremacy, one can only imagine what's next for Luke's Lobster, which opened its first, unassuming storefront less than two years ago. Air and sea domination? A westward land grab? At this point, neither would be particularly surprising..."
Because I just got home from a 8 hour trip to Connecticut that should have taken 3, and working ALL day :) here’s a round-up of all the media mentions of my new job, as General Manager of the Luke’s Lobster Food Truck.
@LukesLobsterNY Follow me on twitter, eh?
Best Day in New York Yet. Rooftop beers, looking at the Manhattan Bridge.
And I’m like, “What train is that, where doe it stop?” like 12 times a day.
SOME things
Here they are
- Went to work today and CRUSHED it. Baller day.
- Ate a great turkey sandwich from around the corner. NOM.
- Talked with my pal Alex most of the day at work. He’s such a pal.
- Got a ride home in the work van. CLUTCH.
- Seeing some Florida bro’s band tonight at Bowery Ballroom. RADICAL!
- Thinking about getting a hair cut. I can dig it.
- Reading a good book. IT’S FUNDAMENTAL.
Get pumped, stay pumped. Jackin’ life pretty hard right about now.
Saw Ghostbusters in a theater…
and it was amazing.
Took a train, a cab, and then walked, because East Village traffic on a Saturday is the WORST. They should just close off the bridges and tunnels at sundown Friday and open them dawn Sunday mornings. h8 u b&t crowd.
Movie Highlights
- everyone cheered the first appearance of major characters
- everyone really booed Walter Peck “It’s true, this man has no dick…THAT’S WHAT I HEARD!”
- Key lines were quoted aloud by everyone (full house)
- I had a great seat, even though I was late
- lots of applause for everything
- the film looked real real good in a super large format. I should make a point of seeing older films like them whenever possible. Color, clarity were great. Negative was that the reel switches could have been smoother, ah well.
- BONUS it was only 9.99$ cheaper than seeing a new release.
So. Much. Fun.
On west 80th street in Manhattan, between Columbus and Amsterdam, about a dozen different households are just throwing out their Christmas trees
And that smell, however faint, no matter how snow-covered moves up. It’s comforting, and wholesome. It’s just all right. Shuffle on, past the curb.
Here’s the thing. If I had it my way, I’d be living somewhere in south Florida (though the photo doesn’t capture quite what I’m talking about, I still find it very captivating) on a sail boat. But I don’t have that kind of money, and I probably never will. But living in south FLA on a sail boat was my earliest “realistic” aspiration as a pre-teen/teen (due to, in no small part to Captain Ron), and if I could, I really would embrace that lifestyle. So, Kris Payne points out that I don’t have to live in NYC. He’s mentioned this before, but not in an arrogant or snotty way, but in a “Seriously, you don’t have subject yourself to this” way, which is nice and honest of him, and I’m all about nice and honest guys.
Why do I live here? I often find myself wondering. And I don’t really know. But here I am, and I like my job, and I like my friends and I don’t know what more I really want from life right now. One day I’ll get back to the water.
“You have just been charged $104”
EFFF. Pretty sure every New Yorker knows what I’m talking about.
MTA is just ATM spelled backwards. Down with the MTA, down with fare hikes, down with tourism, down with service outages, down with justin bieber, down with the Knicks, down with the heat going off in my apt, down with the MTA, down with Bloomberg and then entire upper east side of manhattan, may it fall into east river.
I may have overstated how awful the first-half of my day was…
See, I was trying to go to TACO BELL heretofore referred to as Heaven. Because I haven’t been there in like 7 months, and I thought that today was the perfect day to make the trip up to 34th street and put some Heaven in me. Boy, was I wrong. dun Duh DUHHHHH.
So I get to the train station, at Grand and board a D Train, and sit there for like 20 minutes before the conductor kicks everyone off the train because of a problem one stop away. “EVERYONE OFF, THERE’S ANOTHER TRAIN DIRECTLY BEHIND THIS ONE”. So not bad, right, wait a few minutes, another D Train right behind, to take me to Heaven.
30 MORE MINUTES PASS and that train to Heaven still hadn’t arrived. By this point (i was slightly under-dressed) I was freezing. I go back to my apartment, change, and press on, determined to make it to Heaven! I go to the Delancy station and catch an F but guess what, it’s not a F train, it’s a D train that’s running on the F tracks! Bullsiht. So, long story short I get on the D and transfer at W. 4th to a C train get off at 34th st and walk up to the Heaven. Upon reaching the Pearly Gates I notice that it’s a Heaven Express, with a combo Heaven/Dunkin Doughnuts! I get my food, and it’s NOT VERY GOOD. or NOT as good as I remember it being, all those months ago.
Feeling disgusting and dirty after my trip to, what I thought was Heaven, I get BACK on a C train and go to work.
A trip to Heaven cost me 6.75$ because I don’t have an unlimited Metro Card, because WHO CAN AFFORD AN UNLIMITED METRO CARD AFTER ALL THE FARE HIKES?
Work was pretty OK. Tips could have been better, but I got enough to buy a 40oz, a Twix Ice Cream Bar, and a Slim Jim, OH YEAH!
My pal sent me this picture from New Years Eve. Pretty great party. Dirty work sweater, Colt 45, Johnnie Walker, Zebra Cakes!
The New York Public Library, at Amsterdam and 81st St., known as St. Agnes is pretty great, and an infinitely better place to work than the Starbucks just around the block. Beautiful building, quiet, filled with reference materials, and better chairs. I can’t believe I’ve been fighting with assholes at S*bucks all this time. Good riddance.
The New York Public Library also keeps a tumblelog which is pretty cool in and of itself. Give them a follow!
