nyc experiment: week seven

I am concluding our seventh week with a plane ride from California back to New York. The purpose of my quick 36-hour trip was to bring our 100 lb dog home so that we can experience the last four weeks of our New York experiment without the constraints the dog creates. To be entirely transparent, our schedule in New York often means having dinner later than we normally do in the suburbs of the Bay Area, an average time of 8 or 8:30 pm rather than 6:30 or 7 pm. We are going almost every night and getting to bed later than usual as well but then having to get up early the next morning with the dog to let her go to the bathroom. 

After about ten straight nights of being out, ending last week, we were entirely exhausted. Let me be clear, I am absolutely not complaining. Having a tiny apartment, barely functional kitchen and friends from every stage of our life showing up in New York are all very solid reasons to be out most nights. I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that we are having a really good time and the dog was wonderful company, but we took the opportunity to spend our last weeks of our NY experiment without any dog related obligations.

As of this week, we have seen 50 people we know from California here in New York. We had no idea this would be the case when we embarked on this experiment but each week when I publish this blog, I inevitably hear from one or two people who are coming to NY and want to get together. By the time we leave here, we will have seen friends from high school, college, grad school, family and close friends we raised our kids with. I am getting quality time with a few of my friends’ kids who are in school in NY (huge shout out to CL for touring me through the Met and AD who made me a comprehensive things-to-do list). For someone who doesn’t need much alone time, I am very thrilled to have a full schedule and so many fun things to do.

We have also become friends with a couple who moved to New York on the day they became empty nesters. They lived in the suburbs of Boston for 23 years and on the day their third child left for college in fall 2019, they moved into an apartment in Tribeca. Their initial launch was thwarted by Covid but they stuck with it and are absolutely soaking in city life. Lucky for them, their two older daughters moved to NY as well and their son plans to join them after graduation next spring. They have provided us with tons of recommendations including plays, restaurants, bars, jazz clubs, tennis clubs, gyms, grocery stores, foot massages, and a gay bar with a nightly singalong across the street from our building. This couple has been a huge part of making this experiment more fun and less intimidating.

Aside from our California friends visiting and our new friends in Manhattan, we have been regularly seeing a few people who we know from college and life right after college. While CJ was here, we reunited after 24 years with a friend who was a bridesmaid in my wedding and our roommate in SF. During our initial meeting, we had to cover more than two decades of back story and, by our second get together, it felt like we hadn’t missed that much time. I visited her at her apartment on the Upper East Side which is adjacent to Carl Schurz park, Gracie Mansion and the East River. She took me to a diner on Madison Avenue where I immediately noticed that it felt a lot more like the Bay Area suburbs and not a lot like the West Village*. Another friend AT (previously profiled in “Austin Weekend“) and I have been having lunch once a week, and she has stayed with us in the city for a few nights. She has helped me locate the best chocolate cookie in our neighborhood, the best bagel in Manhattan and brought me a scone I have thought about since I first had it while visiting New York in 2002. Without the dog with us, we can also head out to her house in Montclair, NJ and play pickleball all day and sleep in the quiet of the suburbs. 

I guess I have to admit that besides getting up early for the dog and staying out late, the other factor that is causing us to be exhausted is that we live in spot that my husband believes is “inappropriate for our age.” Our building is at the Sheridan Square/Christopher St. subway stop and steps aways from more great restaurants than we can count. The downside of this location is the noise. On Fridays, there is an informal drag show by the subway stop. Last week, a man started playing a horn (trombone?) in front of the CVS on 7th Ave at random times throughout the night. The big nights out are Thursday, Friday and Saturday – unless it is raining. There are cars honking, sirens blaring, people yelling and seemingly constant trash pick up. On two Friday nights in a row, someone in the apartment above us has been moving furniture or building a fort from 2:00 to 3:30 am. Last Friday, I was tempted to get out of bed and go up to his apartment in my pajamas to tell him to “SHUT THE F*** UP!” Not a very neighborly move but it seemed appropriate at the moment. Tonight, I am going to try wearing a eye mask with built-in ear buds and see if that drowns out the building and neighborhood chaos.

As we start week 8, we are looking forward to replacing our morning dog walk with sleeping in and finally resolving the apartment issues (the leak was fixed, the ceilings were painted, parts of the clothes dryer were replaced but it still takes three hours to dry a load of laundry and the cracked window remains cracked and I have given up on it getting fixed while we are here.) On my short trip to California, I brought home our summer clothes and, just in case we join the Halloween festivities at “The Monster” in our building, I brought back two adult onesies, a chicken and a pig (yes, photos will be posted.)

* We are told that the West Village is great until you have kids and then you move to either Tribeca or the Upper East Side. Unless you are Andy Cohen who is making it work in the West Village with two young kids.