New York journal, part II

Oct. 18

It's 5 p.m. and I'm at the corner of 42nd and Sixth Avenue, the edge of Bryant Park. More specifically: at the Belgian waffle stand. 

In the glass building to my right, I see a wavy, slightly distorted reflection of the Empire State Building behind me. The ping pong players are back in the park. The Christmas market kiosks are going back up. The city is throbbing.

Oct. 20

On the 190 bus

I stayed late at the library tonight with a plan to eat a belgian "waffel" from the stand in Bryant Park. And as I walked through the park to the kiosk at the far corner, every patio table was full. Groups were meeting, lessons appeared to be underway. A rock duo made their way through the Zeppelin catalog outside the Whole Foods, and every building was lit up.

I took the (slightly) less-trafficked 41st Street to Port Authority and slipped through the back of Times Square, mesmerized by the glowing, flashing screens. I never do that! I am never mesmerized! But this week, well, yes, quite mesmerized (thanks, Pandemic).

It is truly a thrill to be in NY! How starved I am for movement and engagement. There's not enough time for all the books I am requesting at the New York Public Library for my fellowship but I am thrilled to scan their contents even briefly, making note of anything I should investigate further.

Oct. 21

On a break from research at the Library, I walked through Union Square. It was a sunny Fall day. There was a Jazz quintet playing and I saw up close the large, golden bust of John Lewis. The smell of marijuana is everywhere (there's also a mobile "weed truck." Doesn't play the ice cream truck jingle but you get the picture). Need I say more?

Heading back uptown along Broadway, I hear a woman say, "Era stanca." Italians are everywhere!

Oct. 22

What I notice now in New York: the architecture. The glorious buildings. Some with figures chiseled into the stone facade. For example, the massive, marble Paramount on Times Square is a treasure, as is this passageway where I am presently writing (you could also call it an arcade, except that conjures up the dark storefront at the mall). It's off of W. 43rd Street; a piano player is at her work station while behind us (unfortunately) a persistent drill is at its work station.

Above my head in this "arcade" is an LCD display tracking the national debt in real time. That's what got my attention.

Later I approach Grand Central from the Vanderbilt Avenue entrance to hunt down a pastry in the underground market and above the station the top of the Chrysler Building sits like a shiny hat on the roof.

Oct. 23

New beloved places:

The New York Public Library

Bryant Park

Grand Central (I only visited occasionally growing up, since Penn was my station)

New shops that could very well become beloved:

Books Kinokuniya (a Japanese bookstore on Bryant Park)

The shop in the New York Public Library (they have journals and magnets and literary t-shirts and books and notecards and Christmas ornaments in the shape of stacks of books and...)

Old beloved places:

Gotham!

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