Today I was at a seminar @ 67th between York and 1st. Instead of taking the subway at 68th home and having to switch, I decided to take a little walk to the 59th street stop and get a straight shoot home. On my way down 1st avenue, as I looked at menus of promising restaurants and enjoyed the first beautiful day of summer I noticed a woman dressed quite unlike pretty much everyone else. She was wearing black fishnets, black knee-high boots and hotpants-- I swear, though I had never seen anyone wear hotpants in public (well, for full disclosure or in private) before. And of course, the first thought in my head was the quite judgmental "wow, what is she a stripper or something?" Not two minutes later we rounded the corner onto 60th street and she walked into Scores. It was kind of impressive.
Walking over to 2nd Avenue I looked up and realized that I have never taken the Roosevelt Island Tram before. I like to pride myself on doing all those low-cost or free NYC experiences, but this is one I have not gotten to experience yet. Having recently moved to Jackson Heights, I can now take the F train home-- which just happens to stop on Roosevelt Island. Being pretty sure that the tram was a metro card ride (it was!) I started up the stairs and waited for the tram to appear. It came pretty quickly, and I found a nice place to stand. I looked at the guy standing next to me, and I smiled. He said hi to me and then I realized it was my oncologist! I made small talk for the trip as I looked at the beautiful city views. It turns out that the good doctor lives on Roosevelt Island! I asked him to direct me towards the subway and he asked if I was going to look around. He showed me the new rental building that was built and his building (condos). Then he offered to show me the view from the roof! I made my excuses and left, but decided to take Dr. C's advice and take a walk around the one street that exists on Roosevelt Island and look at the pretty views of Manhattan, the East River, and of course, my beloved homeland of Queens.
As I walked, I felt like Roosevelt Island looked a lot like Ithaca.
Granted, I never spent too much time in Ithaca, NY, except to go to the Haunt and for other occasional forays outside of lovely Geneva, NY. But, for some reason the feel of Ithaca started to fade, and Roosevelt island began to feel something like a small European town.
Which means one of two things: 1)I am crazy, and Roosevelt Island feels like neither of these things or 2) Ithaca feels like a small European town. You can discuss that among yourselves.
Alas, gentle reader, this is not the end of my adventure for the day. As I finished walking around Roosevelt Island, I came upon a small park with those sprinklers going off in them for young NYC children to play in so they don't feel the need to ruin fire hydrants. As I was walking past, contemplating the waste of water that these urban tools create, I found myself being gently dropped on with water. Amazed at the distance the gentle sprays of water from the sprinklers get, it took me a while to catch on that it was actually raining. Thunder started crashing and lightning was flashing and I got my jog on towards the nearest shelter. I braved a little bit of wet, stopped at Roosevelt Island's very own Starbucks to score myself a Marshmallow Crispy Treat (I have a slight obsession with Rice Krispy Treats, no matter what they're called) and hopped on the train home.
I love New York adventures, even in all their silliness.
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