I took the red-eye flight out of San Francisco. Normally, it’s not too big a deal for me because I can sleep on planes, but for some reason, I had a hard time sleeping this time around. Probably because I gloated to a coworker that I could sleep on planes. I did sleep for most of the flight, but mostly in 45 minute chunks or so. And, of course, the flight was only 4.5 hours, so I probably only got about 4 hours of sleep all told.<\/p>\n
But I arrived, got my checked bag, and then navigated the subway system to the East Village. And, even better, the scheme that the guy I’m subletting from had cooked up to get me the keys worked out fine, which was the thing I was most worried about. So I’m crashing at this place near Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. It’s a tiny place, but, hey, it’s bigger and yet cheaper than a hotel room.<\/p>\n
The first thing I did was crash for another three hours of sleep, dragging myself out of bed at 12:30 to at least make an attempt to get myself onto New York time. I grabbed lunch at Rai Rai Ken, a ramen house that I’d read about in the New York Times travel section<\/a>, and then went looking for the East Village Safari<\/a>. I was, alas, unable to locate them, and so I was on my own for the afternoon.<\/p>\n First order of business: actually get a NYC map and\/or guidebook. I’d meant to before I left, but had run out of time. I knew there was this awesomely huge used bookstore somewhere near where I was, but I couldn’t remember where. So I walked into a Barnes and Noble, picked up a guidebook, found the address of the Strand bookstore<\/a>, and then went there to buy a guidebook. While poking around their New York guidebook section, I happened to see a New York Access guide<\/a>, which is edited by Richard Saul Wurman. I really liked Wurman’s book, Information Architects<\/a>, so I was curious what the guidebook was like. It seemed to have a decent breakdown of the city, and good maps, and it was only $5 used, so I got it. Whee!<\/p>\n From there, I wandered up to Union Square and hung out there in the sun reading the guidebook, while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do this afternoon. I didn’t have any brilliant thoughts, so I figured I’d just wander through Greenwich Village and Soho, because that’s always fun. I don’t think I’d ever been in Soho during the day before – it’s fabulous. I loved browsing at moss<\/a>, even though everything there was outrageously out of my price range. I was particularly amused by the “Internal Rolex” bracelet<\/a> that I saw, designed by Leon Gilliam Ransmeier, which is a Rolex replica, wrapped in leather so that it is totally useless as a timepiece, and is merely a watch-shaped bracelet.<\/p>\n The other store I liked was Room and Board<\/a>, which had a bunch of interesting furniture. They looked like an intermediate level between Ikea<\/a> and Design Within Reach<\/a>, which is where I aspire to be. I didn’t see much that would really work at my place, except for the Gallery leaning shelves<\/a>, which I liked a lot. If I were ready to drop $1000 on bookshelves, I’d lean towards those, because I think they’d look good at my place.<\/p>\n And then I was tired of walking, so I saw a cafe that advertised Wifi access and bought a mocha. Alas, my computer can’t find a wireless network in range, so I don’t know what’s going on. But I figured I’d at least type up my notes so far. For kicks. Of course, this isn’t the deep thinking that I’m supposed to be doing. I’m not sure when I’ll get to that. I think my current plan is to hit a museum or other touristy thing in the morning\/early afternoon, spend a couple hours each afternoon writing, and then head out to dinner with a friend, or to a club or show or something. Yeah. Something like that. We’ll see how it goes.<\/p>\n