New York Leftovers

I've got a few leftover thoughts about my trip to New York this past weekend. Enjoy!

-One of my favorite things about traveling to legit cities is seeing places I've heard name-checked in rap songs. This happened at seemingly every freeway exit in L.A. in April (e.g., Wilshire, Crenshaw, Hawthorne, etc.). This week, given that I stayed in Park Slope and explored both Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery, this song kept running through my head, though I stupidly neglected to actually listen to it until I was back home. Luckily, I did not get my pockets dug from all my Chemical Bankins.

 

-On that note, I really want someone to make a great documentary or a tell-all book about the Wu-Tang Clan. Or both.

-The family of the year award goes to the mother and father who were out drinking with their two daughters and son-in-law at 2:30 a.m. in Brooklyn.

-If you're drunk and it's 2 a.m. and you accidentally extinguish a candle at the bar, DO NOT, by any means, turn it over and attempt to relight it with your lighter. It will end poorly.

-Maybe there's another place on Earth or in some alternative universe where I can get two pieces of serviceable, fresh fried chicken and a bottle of my favorite brand of iced tea for $4.25 at 3 a.m. But I kinda doubt it.

-Larry David's thoughts upon taking a bite of Jerry Seinfeld's pancakes pretty well sum up my thoughts upon staying out until 3:30 a.m. in New York Friday and 2 a.m. in D.C. on Saturday. 

-I probably ate an entire apple's worth of free samples at the Prospect Park Greenmarket Saturday morning with no intention of buying any of them. It reminded me of the episode of Rocko's Modern Life when Philbert gets a job giving out free samples and fanatically denies them to everyone because he's paranoid about Heifer taking them all.

-We saw a mouse while waiting for our food at lunch on Friday. I could not have cared less. There are billions of foreign organisms living INSIDE MY BODY at all times, and I'm supposed to freak out because a cute, furry little mouse is in the same building where I'm about to eat? No thanks. Mice gotta live somewhere.

-I was informed by a real Indian person from India that NY Dosas are crap. My worldview has been shattered.

-The guy whose apartment I stayed in (via airbnb) had an interesting life story: lived in Montana for 20 years moving heavy machinery (or something like that); reconnected over the internet with a high school classmate from Grand Rapids, MI, who lived in Brooklyn; moved to Brooklyn and married her; had a son; then went through a nasty divorce about a year ago. What a roller coaster. He seems to be in fine spirits though, clearly loves and is completely devoted to his son, and is finishing up classes to become an elementary school teacher. Oh, and he also grows bonsais on a farm in Michigan. Eight million stories: not a cliche.