Back from New York!

Well, I actually got back on Monday night, but...whatever.

New York was still awesome, as New York is, but not quite as fabulous as usual. We arrived Wednesday evening which was, y'know, just fine and all, and we had dinner somewhere that must have been unremarkable, since I remember nothing about it. Friday, however, was when the hijinks truly began - namely, hijinks surrounding electricity.

The power went out. The shower was failing to work very well and although we had hot water, we had no idea how long it would last. The power was working in the building, just not the apartment we were staying in - which led to long and confusing interactions with the owner of the building, the person who rents the apartment, the super, etc, etc. Seeing as it was about 85 degrees that day (and my body has been running really hot lately - I can't seem to get cool enough), we had to end up staying in a hotel and Thursday basically became a wasted day. Unfortunately, said hotel was over a subway and so we didn't end up getting much sleep anyway.

Friday was a Met day, which was amazing as ever - my mom and I did the Francis Bacon exhibition with headphones, which was seriously freaking awesome. It was one of those great things we just wandered into but ended up being so incredible. We also went to the Models as Muses exhibit (the actual reason I really wanted to go to the Met, if we're being perfectly honest here), which was also incredible, but crowded and loud. The sets around the clothes, the photographs, and the music was all stunningly chosen - the 60s mod era had "My Generation" playing, the late-80s-early-90s-supermodel era had George Michael's "Freedom" video playing, the grunge era had "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and so forth.

I think I need some pictures of models here now.

Miss Christy Turlington, who appears in the "Freedom" video, among others:


Ms. Lauren Hutton:


Miss Twiggy, of course. Sweet Jesus, look at those eyes.


Miss Kate Moss. I love her and don't care what anyone says.


Anyway.

My brother also came in Friday night and was there till Sunday (and he'll be here again tomorrow! yay!) Saturday I saw Allison and Lianna (yay again!) and that evening hung out in the Meatpacking District, one of the few Manhattan neighborhoods I haven't spent a lot of time in, and I LOVED it.

And Sunday was, of course, Pride. We went to Midtown to watch it and, well, holy shit. Just amazing. The combination of the 40 years after Stonewall floats and the Michael Jackson music playing out of them actually got me a little bit teary-eyed over both. And I saw Miss Jaslene Gonzalez again, this time on top of a float, proving that I am fated to run into her every time I'm in New York. Work it, ChaCha Diva.

Monday was our last day, so we didn't do a whole lot. Overall, it wasn't the greatest trip. My body was seriously uncooperative, which led to some frustrated crying jags because damn it, I was in New York and it was summer and I wanted to get the most out of it so bad, but I just couldn't get there. (Monday is my epilepsy clinic appointment, so maybe I'll at least START to get some answers.) And while the electricity mostly cooperated, it was in and out, which made the whole thing kind of stressful.

Still, it was New York Fucking City. Hard for it NOT to be awesome.

Well, I've been in New York since Sunday evening (and will be here until Saturday.) It's my longest trip ever to the city - the most I've stayed before has been four days or so - and I'm really happy about that. I just love it here.

I spent most of the day doing my reading in Starbucks (read about 400 pages in a few hours - I can thank my Western Classics courses for inadvertently teaching me how to speed-read!), then went out to dinner with my mom somewhere in the East Village. I'm staying at the lower part of Chelsea. I haven't spent much time in this neighborhood in my visits to New York in the past, but I really really like it.

I spent yesterday in Brooklyn with Lianna - my first Brooklyn visit! - which was cool. It's a lot more "neighborhood"-y than Manhattan (at least, any of Manhattan that I've seen.) I like how fast-paced Manhattan is, though. I like my New York visits to seem like something of a fantasy.

I also had my first "celebrity sighting" of the trip - a minor celebrity, but still - while on the subway with Lianna. Jaslene Gonzalez, winner off the 8th season (or "cycle", as the show ridiculously calls it), of America's Next Top Model:



She was wearing these horrible capri-length hot pink sweatpants with boots and just a few inches of skin in between (the reason I noticed her was the sweatpants and how freaking skinny her ankles were) and a baseball cap so that most of her face was covered. Still, she's so distinctive-looking that it was pretty immediately obvious who she was. Despite the somewhat unfortunate outfit, she's gorgeous in person nonetheless.

More to come. I love New York so, so much.