Week #5 (plus some): I now hate the words "stand by"

I slacked a bit this week on my blog-posting, but better late than never, right?

I have about a week and a half to talk about, so here goes! Last Saturday was press day #3 at UDP. I spent most of the time sewing together chapbooks (small books of poetry). At one point, one of the other interns and I decided to grab some lunch, and halfway to the café it started POURING. Getting caught in the rain is starting to become a trend, but fortunately a very nice lady stopped her car and handed us her daughter’s tiny Snow White umbrella for us to use. A perfect example that New Yorkers CAN be generous and kind. It is possible.

Saturday night I went with some NYAPers to an Asian club that Matt got us into for free (because apparently he has connections). We were definitely in the minority (besides Matt), but it was still pretty fun. And the club had bathroom attendants–you know, the people who squirt soap for you and hand you paper towels? It seems like a pretty unnecessary job to me…but I suppose it’s nice for the germaphobes of the world.

Sunday about a dozen of us went to Central Park for a picnic. We each brought something—peanut butter, jelly, crackers, cheese, fruit etc. Then, we put it in the middle of our blanket square and chowed down! Mmmmm….

They were having “Ecofest” in the park, and this guy came over dressed in a giant inflated ball-shaped costume. When we asked the people who were walking with him why he was dressed that way, they responded, “It’s for climate change!” Wait, it’s FOR climate change? I wasn’t aware that anyone was FOR climate change. I think they meant that it’s to raise awareness about climate change. I sure hope so anyway! Nevertheless we all gathered ‘round and took a group picture:

Monday was my free afternoon, so I trekked over to E 45th St to find this new place that just opened called Kolache Mama! For those of you who don’t know, Kolaches are a type of Czech pastry. My grandma used to make them all the time when I was younger, so I was pretty excited when I found out about this place. I had two—tomato mozzarella basil and baked apple. The baked apple was definitely my favorite. Here’s a picture of the ultimate deliciousness:

I also discovered another new love in the city. Trader Joes!!!!!! Trader Joes is a grocery store that has the best prices I’ve seen yet. All the food is organic, and the selection is great! I got a basket full of food for only $17. The lines wrap around the store, and it’s a subway ride away, but it’s so very worth it. I then made some delicious banana pancakes with my newly bought groceries. And yes, I did pretend it was the weekend while I was doing so. Thank you to all of you who get that reference ;-)

There’s not much to say about Tuesday. A bird pooped on me while I was eating lunch in Washington Square Park. I was not ok with that. Oh, I also went to a free dance concert in Bryant Park that day after work. It was part of their “fall festival” where they have free concerts of all kinds every weekday for two weeks. Unfortunately, it ended today, but I’m so glad I got to see that dance concert—it was amazing, and best of all, FREE.

Wednesday was the windiest day I think I have ever experienced. On my way to work in Brooklyn, the lid from a grill flew off of a balcony and landed literally a few feet in front of me. When pieces of metal are flying, you know it’s windy! After work, I grabbed some dinner, and I was planning to eat it outside before checking out a museum, but I could hardly even stand outside with the wind, let alone eat, so I sought refuge in the Staten Island ferry building. While I ate my sandwich, a woman played the Simpsons theme song on a saw. Talk about some dinner-time entertainment…only in New York, right? She also played Edelweiss from the Sound of Music. Well, at least she’s musically versatile!

After wandering around in the wind for a while because Hopstop yet again gave me terrible directions, I found the museum I wanted to check out – NYC’s Jewish heritage/Holocaust memorial museum. No, I’m not Jewish and no, I don’t have Jewish heritage, but I’ve always

been oddly interested in the holocaust and WWII in general, and it was “pay what you can” night, so I figured I’d take a look. Wednesday night was the usual ice cream run to Baskin Robbins, always a highlight of the week!

Thursday I finally finished inventory at Granary. Woo! I also got some time to sit and talk with my boss about how he ended up in NY and life in NY in general—I’m always fascinated by how people end up here, especially people from the mid-west (he’s from Iowa).

When I got back to our housing after work, I had to wait outside for about 5-10 minutes because there were people shooting a scene for an independent film in our front “yard” (we have a small gated area). Hey, maybe the NYAP building will be famous one day! Ha, doubt it because the film didn’t look very good from what I saw, but I’ll keep my opinions to myself.

Friday I went with a guy, Ben, to try to get stand-by tickets to Saturday Night Live. We got there about 1:30 or 2am and waited in line allllll night. There were some interesting people there, for sure. Some were really intense about it and brought air mattresses and everything. Apparently, in the winter, people bring tents and turn it into a sort of urban camping trip. At 7am, they gave us a free breakfast and our tickets—numbers 48 and 49. Stand-by tickets don’t guarantee admission, but we were hoping we were high enough on the list that we’d get in. There were probably about 100 people behind us… so we showed up at 10:45 for the show. After they took the first 30 people up to the studio, they took the next 30 (including us), and had us go through the metal detectors and line up outside the elevators. We then waited in anticipation for the “signal” if we were going to get to go up or not. It was all very official. They took a handful of people in front of us, and then about five minutes before the show, we got the announcement: “Sorry, we’re full, thanks for coming! Try again later!” It was horribly depressing after ALL that waiting to be turned away. Not a good night to say the least.

I had to wait in line AGAIN last night for the free improv show of Upright Citizens Brigade (a comedy club, more or less). We waited for about an hour, and then we were put toward the beginning of the stand-by line, which meant we had to wait another hour to get in, but hey, at least I got in this time! The show was very funny, and I’m sure I’ll be back again sometime this semester.

And that's all I have for now. To end, here's a picture of the Statue of Liberty taken from Battery Park on that horribly crazy windy day!