5/31/2014

I was in the middle of Central Park, giving the place a proper wander, when the rain started.  At first, it was just teasing.  It was playful, baiting the tourists into pulling out oversized umbrellas before yielding to a patch of sun.  But eventually it got its point across, and I was drenched at the Central Park Zoo.

I had started, oddly enough, with plans.  I was going to get a haircut and head to a picnic with a couple of roommates.  But in a move that will surprise exactly none of you, I decided against all that, instead choosing to meander my way south, in the vague direction of a bookstore or maybe a theater.

I took a zig-zagged enough course through Central Park to defeat the grid system.  I took a lap around the Jackie Onassis Reservoir, I climbed up rocky hills, I cut down paths less travelled.  I contained myself within the limited infinity of the island Manhattan for a couple of hours without orientation.  For the first time since I’ve been here, I was actually lost, or at least misplaced.  I came out on 5th Avenue where I’d expected 59th Street, and I was pleased to discover my mistake.  

The rain started about halfway through the park, but a wonderful thing about rain is that it’s actually just water, and if you choose not to let it bother you then it won’t insist.  I found 59th Street and exited the park with a vague intention on the Empire State Building.  I let the sun dry my shirt and hair as I walked at a tourist’s pace--not that I had a choice, what with all the tourists.  

There is a Starbucks on 5th Avenue that has a department store inside of it, and that should be the other way around, but I promise it isn’t.  The Juicy Store was closed and this was disappointing to a number of people.  There were more people in line to go to Baby GAP than went to Andrew Jason’s high school.  Finally, I arrived:  The Empire State Building was hard to get a good luck at, but I was able to confirm that it is tall.  Men in bright vests halfheartedly hawked tickets to its top; I wholeheartedly refused them.  

I continued south, the sky now confidently sunny.  I passed a Shake Shack with a line longer than Baby GAP.  I passed the Flatiron Building, which was the shape of a triangular prism but produced no rainbow.  I reached the bookstore I’d had in mind, and it was okay, but I wasn’t in the mood to buy anything.  I am missing public libraries so desperately right now.  

I plotted a route to a sandwich place with a chicken tender and mozzarella monstrosity called a Dennis, but it was closed when I got there.  I wandered toward another couple of restaurants, but the Yelp pictures of Dennis had stolen my heart, and so I took an unnecessary number of trains home, toward a full refrigerator and a waiting bed.