#4 Week 2 in NYC, a Novella

Sunday (6/20)

This was our first full day with all 3 roommates assembled, so we decided to check out the Chelsea neighborhood.
Some highlights:

Roomies enter the Chelsea Flea Market which felt like the contents of my grandma’s attic turned inside out (dust included).
My Favorite Flea Market Find (this friend was nestled in right along side the musky rugs and VCRs like it was no big deal)
Roomies take Chelsea Market & the High Line!
Roomies have a comical run-in with Folsom Street East (tbh I’m not actually sure if that’s the name of the event or the location – I would click on this link myself to figure it out, but I’m also at work with my screen in full view of whoever strolls past me to get to the kitchenette so I’m gonna hold out and y’all can explore and read up to your heart’s content) but basically it was a street festival celebrating fetishes and if I were to describe it in 3 words it’d be: men, straps, butts.

It was also Father’s Day, so I took the liberty of calling home from the COMFORT of our FIRE ESCAPE (pictures to follow) (literally nothing makes me feel more hip than j-chilling on our frickin’ FIRE ESCAPE). More importantly, sent lots of love to the Pops (and assurance that our neighborhood isn’t quite as sketchy as we were all led to believe) and hit the hay.

Monday ~ Thursday (6/21 ~ 23)

Basically a lot of Target runs and naps. Both Gabe and I kept waking up with sore throats and/or stuffy noses (which often escalated to a bloody nose), so we decided to take it easy after the crazy schedule of the previous week.
Highlights include:

Kenzie’s curtain/blinds struggle. Basically, her blinds crashed to the floor not 3 days after her arrival. Approximately 3 Target runs later, the problem was solved with the jank usage of command hooks, random rods from around the apartment, oddly cheap curtains, and nail clippers in lieu of a screwdriver.
Speaking of jank, my hoarding tendencies are flourishing in this city of reusable (or not, but I force them to be) take-out cartons and boxes. A used (AND WASHED don’t worry I’m not that gross) Chinese take-out box now hold all 5 of our combined writing utensils, for example. But hey, I’m only here for 2 months and am not about to spend money on household organizational items that could be spent on, say, oh, I don’t know, FOOD. (See below for some of my snack-ish splurges so far)

AMPLE HILLS ICE CREAM

Dinner with my pal Masa! We went to a Japanese restaurant (specializing in “tonkatsu”), candy store, DVD store, AND bookstore. Especially considering I hadn’t spoken Japanese with anyone in a while, IT WAS REALLY NICE to get my, for lack of a better word, Japan-fix. We actually go way back – he was my next-door neighbor when my family still lived in Tokyo. This is his last summer in NYC (he’s been here for 3 years now!), so the plan is to live it up by going to karaoke all the time.
Happy Hour with the Research department! (Technically, my department, Research Communications, is within the Marketing Communications department, but my cubicle is stationed right in the Research department hub so I happily tagged along) (PLUS Kenzie and Sarah, who are both Research interns, also went so it was just all in all a very pleasant evening).

Friday (6/24)

We got off early again (lovin’ these “Summer Flex Fridays”) and we really fit an incredible number of things in. It also happened to be Sarah’s 21st birthday, so our evening was kept busy too! Just thinking about it is exhausting, frankly.

Sarah, Gabe, Kenzie and I headed off to Magnum New York, a make-your-own-ice-cream-bar bar (lol) . During Happy Hour the day before, a coworker had highly recommended Magnum “for the experience more than anything”, so we decided we couldn’t pass this up.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was $7 for a bar but completely and utterly (udderly? It that too weak of a pun for this context? It may be fancy ice cream but it’s still DAIRY) worth it.
Met up with Maribeth & Olivia to watch a modern dance performance in Bryant Park (or, well, the last 10 minutes of it #rip), and afterwards grabbed dinner & headed up to Olivia’s apartment’s rooftop for some girl talk & A+ views LOOK AT THIS:
Hit the streets to meet up with Sarah & co. After a vaguely uncomfortable experience hanging out in an 18+ bar (it was filled with people so small that it could’ve been a Bat Mitzvah) (thankfully Kenzie was with me & we danced around somewhere in the back for a little so it wasn’t all bad), we headed over to the 2nd rooftop of the evening (Sarah’s friend’s!) and continued hanging out! Didn’t get back home until 3am #casual but, despite our exhaustion and sore, sad-looking feet, it was a great day.

Saturday (6/25)

Gabe and I visit the beautiful relic that is the NYPL (specifically the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building) while Kenzie explores the Discovery Times Square museum. (I tried to get an audio tour headset but they stopped passing them out right when I arrived) (“we stop distributing them within an hour of closing” so they say) (“that is very lame all I want to do is learn why r u keeping me from that u r a library” I reply)
I also tried to take pictures inside to ~capture~ the ~beauty~ (no I’m not being sarcastic actually, it TRULY IS BEAUTIFUL) but my wimpy iPhone 5 camera doesn’t do it justice so y’all should go visit yourselves. (BUT, don’t bother until the fall, when the Rose Main Reading Room renovations will wrap up and you can actually go inside) (I’m so bitter that I can’t) (to “make up for it” the library put up this mini-exhibit of the Rose Room with photos/artifacts of/from when it was in its prime and ALL I WANT TO DO IS ENTER AND READ or SOMemthING ugh)
Roomies go watch Kenzie’s high school-era friend Corbin perform in a set of one-acts! There were 5 different short skits/plays, and it was set up so that at the end, the audience would rank them but BEST to Eh. Since it was a competition (this was the semi-finals, but the eventual winner gets $1500 ay), there was no collaboration across plays and each had their own individual set of actors/directors/writers. It was a very fun event, despite the fact that 4/5 plays were extremely morose. Common themes included death, regret, and I can’t think of a good 3rd one to round out this list so death again, I guess. Anyways, Corbin was terrific and we celebrated over mapo tofu and sesame chicken afterwards. Hooray for new friends! We have plans to eventually head to Coney Island together so stay tuned.

Sunday (6/26)

HAPPY PRIDE DAY! This was a whirlwind. Long story short, thanks to our Rice friend @ Buzzfeed (hey Rahul), me, Mickyle, and Jeff (more Rice friends! HOORAY) got to march in the Pride Parade with the Buzzfeed crowd. Once we were handed the super cool, and really, very soft Buzzfeed shirts, you couldn’t tell the difference between us impostors and actual Buzz interns. So, well, no one could complain that we held the banner or hopped on the float (it was just blasting tunes the whole time and felt like one giant mobile dance party). Honestly, what a GREAT DAY. Although the parade took on a slightly somber note with Orlando having happened so recently, I was overwhelmed by how full of love it all was. Okay that was a) not descriptive at all and I wish I was better with words so I could better convey what I mean and b) sounds cheesy to a fault but I’m serious – there was just a lot of very pure joy. Anyways, I’m gonna stop mulling over my wording and instead, present you with FOOTAGE (read: mostly saved and/or screenshotted snapchats):