Queens for a Weekend

My trip to New York went . . . eh. My friend, L, was exhausted after her Law School finals and really did not feel like doing very much of anything.

The night before I came, I called and asked to make sure it was OK to come up. I knew she was tired, but she insisted that once I got there she’d be ready to paint the town . . .

So Friday night, after arriving at Penn Station and making our way to Queens by way of the ever lovely NYC Subway system, we just stayed home and ordered in Chinese food. One of her friends called and invited us to go out later that night – and I was totally up for it! Visions of Random Kath stylishly hitting the NYC clubs at 11:30 and having a few mojitos danced in my head! – but she told them she was way too tired. So we watched a lot of “What Not to Wear” and went to bed.

Saturday morning, my eyes flew open at 7 AM, raring to go. I’m so used to having Random Cat meowing in my face at that time that now I just wake up naturally. L was still fast asleep, so I got up and got showered and dressed and waited for L to wake up. I brought a book of Sudoku puzzles with me, so I polished off about 10 of them before getting bored and turning on the TV at 10:30 to watch "Paula's Home Cooking" on the Food Network. L finally got up at 11. We didn’t leave the house until 2, but part of that was getting locked INTO the apartment and having to get the super to let us out. The door was so old that the latch had worn down and wasn’t working properly. Excitement!

We took the long subway ride to SoHo. L made me bring along a bottle of water and a book, since she said the ride would take a while. The subway isn’t as clean as DC’s Metro, but it sure goes more places . . . and there was quite a diverse crowd on there. To get down to the subway is all stairs – no escalators – and I was amazed how many people were able to drag full double-strollers and shopping/laundry carts down all those stairs. The subway also uses something almost exactly like Metrocards and using the machines were pretty cool. Did you know that you pay $2 and can go anywhere in the system for that amount at any time, even if you transfer among trains? That seems like a so much better deal to me than DC, where you have to figure out how much the fare costs depending on where you’re going or if it’s rush hour. There were even stations that had places selling newspapers and snacks on the platform, and I immediately thought of the Seinfeld where Kramer would jump off the train, buy a Gyro really quick and jump back on before the doors closed. I always thought that was pretty cool . . .

Walking down the streets of Queens and riding on the subway brought me back to being 14 years old and living in Philly and riding the subway to school. Reminded me how much I missed being in the city and getting around so independently. Having lots of mom and pop stores and restaurants up and down the streets. The grime, the tell-tale urine-y laced smell, the crappy sidewalks, the diversity of people walking around – older people walking out in front of the synagogue in packs, group of kids on the subway train horsing around like my friends used to, people honking their horns in front of apartment buildings at all hours . . . it felt like . . . being home again. Being little again – the future stretched out before me and knowing that I could hold my own all by myself . . . My eyes grew wide, I had a spring in my step, I felt like “Yes! Let’s go!”

So we got to SoHo, where we were met with a teeming mass of people and tall buildings and stores everywhere. This is the New York I imagined! We walked around for a little bit, but we both were starving at this point – she didn’t have any actual food in the apartment since she was trying to lose weight. We found a cool little restaurant, with a kind of diner bar downstairs and a main dining room surrounded by windows upstairs, whose name escapes me (but the back of the card said “lofts 520”). There I ate the best turkey burger I have ever tasted, honest-to-goodness, the patty being thick and moist and so, so flavorful. The fries were thin and crispy, but not too thin and not too salty. I would go back in a heartbeat . . .

After lunch, we walked around a little bit more and I was dazzled by all of the stores, and even more dazzled by the street vendors. I was able to pick up some interesting souvenirs for my family, the best being a framed set of pictures – one of John Lennon wearing a New York City T-shirt, next to it a picture of near his gravesite (I’m guessing) with “Imagine” written in mosaics. Mr. Random loved it and now has it hanging on his office wall . . .

After only an hour or so, L was getting tired of walking around, although I could have gone for the rest of the day. So we took the subway all the way back to Queens, where we had a message that some friends wanted to catch the 9:30 showing of "The DaVinci Code" somewhere on the Upper East Side. I got really psyched about that, even though I had no desire to see the movie, because – hey! It’s the Upper East Side! I’ve only heard about that place . . .

However, we later got another call that there was a mix up and they could only get tickets for the 10:45 show. L didn’t want to be out late, so she declined. She spent the evening researching bar exam-related stuff, while I sat in the living room and watched Sabado Gigante. I went to bed at 11 for lack of anything else better to do . . .

You see, I was trying to be the good guest, just rolling with the punches and trying not to seem bored or way disappointed. I stayed as upbeat as I could and tried to stay out of her way and let her do what she needed to do . . .

Sunday morning, L slept in again, but at 11 she asked if I still wanted to go to the Algonquin for brunch. Since my train was leaving at 2, and it would take a while to go into Manhattan and then wait to get a table, I declined that idea. So we went to the train station and had lunch at the TGIFriday’s. She apologized for being a lousy host and said she felt real bad about how the weekend turned out. She promised that once she passed the bar she’d bring me back to NY and we’d go all sorts of places then. I told her that I had a good time anyway and not to worry . . . I knew she was a bit exhausted and I was just really glad to see her . . .

On the way home, I tried to put a happy face on the weekend, but I still kind of wish I had stayed home . . . I felt totally in the way there, and there was an arts festival going on here in VA that I was sad that I missed. At least now I can say that I spent a weekend in New York . . .

Sometimes I think that my expectations are much too high for things like this. I mean, all I wanted to do was 3 things: see Times Square at night, go hang out in SoHo for a day, and have brunch at the Algonquin and pretend I was Dorothy Parker for a while. If I wanted to sit around and watch TV, I can stay home . . . in fact, I don’t even do that at home very much – I’m always finding stuff to do and places to go. I do feel for my friend, she had had a rough semester and was really, really exhausted, but when I begging off from coming, she insisted that once I came we’d definitely do stuff. I feel like such a horrible friend, but I also feel bad because the weekend really did suck . . .

I do hope to go back again sometime soon and get to explore a bit more and look at things more closely. Maybe stay in a bed and breakfast closer to the action and try to see one of the infamous Off-Off Broadway shows and catch a comedy night somewhere. Hit the MoMA for a day. Explore the Village. I better start saving my money now . . .