What would you do in NYC for 24 hours? I posted the question on FB, and various people replied. Most of the highlights: Central Park, Statue of Liberty, WTC memorial, the MET, or a Broadway show, I’ve done. But it brought back fond memories from having lived in the city years ago.
Last week, I traveled back to New York to attend the Backspace Writers Conference. As writers we are observers, taking in people, dress, smells, and the details to life. I decided to spend my brief free time doing just that. Here’s my list:
-ate freshly steamed Korean dumplings at a tiny hole-in-the wall
-heard a fight coming from the subway tunnel
-almost puked in the back of a cab
-walked through random neighborhoods and discovered a rhododendron in full
bloom (you can’t take the country out of me)
-stopped to talk with a man walking his dog, clearly disgusted by the mountains
of garbage piled high
-ordered black and white cookies from Macy’s basement (for the kids…)
-bought a very cool skirt (on sale, too!)
-smelled hotdogs and fried onions on the street corner
-walked down Avenue of the Americas, home of many publishing houses (and
fantasized about a book deal)
-watched two guys, wearing sideways baseball caps and gold chains, eat slices of
pizza on thin paper plates
-walked between skyscrapers at twilight, when the city looks like Gotham, and
missed my hubby
-heard two large bouncers laugh as a luxury bus was towed
-noticed extreme heals on women wearing D&G sunglasses
-took the subway to SOHO and was disappointed that it had been transformed
into an outdoor suburban mall
-walked through Greenwich Village and NYU, stopping for espresso at an old
Beat hangout
-heard jazz in Union Square
-used a bathroom in the back of a warehouse in the garment district (now that was
scary)
-bought a knock off purse for my daughter next to a guy selling Koran’s from the
back of his truck
-ate a BLT on challah, because why not?
-checked out the Forbes galleries
-bought a book for my nephew at the Strand
-took a picture of a neighborhood street in the Village that had a cheese shop next
to a sausage shop, next to a bar, next to a Cuban coffee house, next to a bread
bakery, next to an old record store. Pretty sure my husband and I could live on
that street.
-watched a celeb get interviewed from afar
-felt a little rain, and then blazing humidity
-remembered being here when I was 14 and missed my parents
-made my kids jealous by meeting a friend at CRAFT, (if you watch
Top Chef, it’s Tom’s restaurant)
-woke to jackhammers
-ducked dueling umbrellas
-drank a beer at a bar full of fleet week sailors with a friend of 25 years
-met lots of great writers, agents, and editors
-worked and wrote and worked and wrote and wrote and wrote and…
Okay, to be fair, this wasn’t done in 24 hours. The three day conference gave long lunch breaks and I bolted for the streets.
As you travel this summer, enjoy the sunsets, but remember the every day details!
