i want to wake up in a city that never sleeps

part 3 of 3

so i did pretty much everything on my list, which would have made the trip glorious and beautiful itself, but let me tell you about all the little extra bits of excitement:

1) meeting, not one, but TWO crazy people on the subway. crazy people on the subway. isn't that so new york?

2)staying in HARLEM!! harlem. it is so cool. the only downer is that it wasn't as gritty as i'd hoped. i felt completely safe and people were so friendly. i'd walk out of my building and the garbage man would greet me. i felt like i was in a movie, except that i didn't find my true love in some quirky way within the first 90 minutes of being there.

3) hanging out in soho with all the richies. being a teacher in the worst paying state does not allow me to live the highlife (hence, harlem was my hood) but i have connections. tim and i went to dinner with some of his family members, one of whom was a wall street hedge fund guy (i did not even let on that i have no idea what a hedge fund is, because i was playing the part. so i let on that i had several hedge funds that were performing quite well, thank you.) we went to a pretty bar with very soft chairs where we saw KEIFER SUTHERLAND. well, that's who they all said it was, but i wasn't quite positive that it was him. that's why i had to walk by him to go to the bathroom, but i don't think keifer was fooled by my ruse. anyway, i was glad to see him because at this point, the only celebrity i had seen was the dinosaur bones from night at the museum. then we ate some delicious dinner at a restaurant with a fancy name where my cover was blown. when tim's cousin asked me what my plans were for the next day, i said we planned to go to the met. and he asked which one. and i got the deer in headlights look and slowly answered, "the museum." duh. i even knew that there was also the met that was the opera, but was completely thrown off guard. after this, they knew what i really was: a wide-eyed schoolteacher from out west in the big city for the first time. as if my pink floyd t-shirt didn't already give me away. then we RODE IN A YELLOW CAB! to the rockwood music hall for some hip live music. the first set was a predictably quirky girl playing the ukelele and then a guy who wouldn't stop talking about how old he was (i guessed 24, tim guessed 28 and he was actually 32) oh and the music was fine. mostly i was just trying to feel cool hanging out at a new york "club". then, on the way home (on the subway. i love that thing.) we saw what tim ABSOLUTELY SWEARS was a hooker. perfect way to end a great day.

4) i also went to the moma. this was surprisingly, my favorite museum of the four i visited. it was full of cool art and some things that are not really art, like shoe boxes. the piece de resistance, however, was the exhibit of monet's water lilies. it was a dream come true. i have wanted to see water lilies since the first time i illegally touched a monet at the national gallery of ireland. i couldn't help myself, i was so awed by it. i was snapped out of my reverie by the red blinking light that went off. sara and i quickly decided we had had enough of that museum. we left swiftly to avoid capture. anyway, 6 years later i was wiser (and 30) so i did not make that same mistake twice...plus, security at the moma is WAY more intense. i checked. oh, but also i saw some bonuses, van gogh's the starry night, andy warhol's soup cans, some by ray lichtenstein, jackson pollack, pablo picasso. i am not usually a fan of van gogh, but there is something enchanting about seeing the starry night in person. anyway, i still want to touch monet's waterloo bridge (where is that thing anyway?) and then my priceless art touching career will be over.

5)i did not see a show. i am not a fan of that sort of thing. no exceptions.

in conclusion, i heart new york. and what i thought would be a one week stand has blossomed into a romance beyond my wildest dreams. i will be back, new york. of course i will. i still have to find sesame street.