nyc experiment: week nine

Thank you to everyone who sent feedback last week and especially to those who sent positive words about my guest contributor. I love when my husband is willing to take part in my blog for two reasons. One reason is because I love his writing and I want more people to know what a talent he has. The second reason is that, when he does contribute his thoughts, he is more invested in the reaction to the posts. A Bay Area friend who I don’t see as often as I used to wrote me the most wonderful text and described my blog as “observations both simple and complex described with direct language and a humble tone that is really endearing.” I am thinking of using that as my elevator pitch. My mom also told me that reading the blog feels like I am writing her a weekly letter and she likes reading it as much as she likes doing the daily LA Times crossword (except for Saturday, the most difficult puzzle of the week). 

A few people have reached out to tell me that they are considering their own, similar location-based living experiment in the future. Our friend Victoria emailed me last week and said, “You have inspired us to try an experiment like this of our own some day soon. Not sure where – the brainstorming is half the fun.” My husband responds to these sentiments with a sense of pride and feels like a high school kid who unexpectedly gets invited to the cool kids parties. I am proud of us as well for taking a leap and doing something unexpected. More so, I am really happy that we did this because the discomfort of living in a new setting (apartment, city, and outside of our suburban comfort zone) forced us to create new patterns for ourselves. Another unexpected upside has been having so many friends come to New York and make a point of carving out time to spend with us. I have been able to have real, quality time with so many people and it feels very rewarding and special.

Now, I want to give you a few updates from week nine including additional observations about New York living.

* Last week, I went to two live Peloton Classes at their studio in Hudson Yards. If you are a Peloton user, look for me in Selena Samuela’s 20 minute full body strength class on 10/28/22  and for my husband and me in Matty Maggiacomo’s 30 minute intervals run on 10/30/22. I highly recommend taking a live class if you are in New York or London and have several recommendations about navigating the complicated process of reserving a spot. The studios are really impressive and there are a ton of people working there. It is really hard not to think that the plans for these expansive, immaculate studios were put into place as the pandemic raged, when desperate people (like us) bought second and third bikes and the stock price reached its high of $162 in December 2020 (trading at below $10 recently.)

* We enjoyed a few stand out casual dining joints and bars last week. I know this is a controversial topic but we are currently voting for Denino’s Pizza in the Village as the best pizza we have had so far. Yes, we have tried John’s on Bleecker Street (picked up a whole pie and it may have lost something during transport) and no, we have not been to Prince Street Pizza in SoHo. My husband was beyond thrilled that I agreed to order the “garbage” pizza and we took home half the pizza which he ate for lunch the next day. We also loved Los Tacos #1 (Chelsea Market location) but we did not have the pork tacos which were specially recommended to us. We went there for a late lunch right after our Peloton running class on Sunday and had chicken and steak tacos and a quesadilla. Last Friday night, we went to the Up & Up Bar in the Village, which is walking distance from our apartment and very close to Denino’s Pizza. Make a reservation, don’t go hungry and enjoy the downstairs, window-less, exclusive but comfortable vibe.

* In my week eight blog post, I mentioned that we had some excellent bagels in midtown and a friend who has deep New York roots called me out: “likening getting bagels in Manhattan to getting bagels in the SF Marina is a crime.” I completely understand her point and I would like to clarify that I was referring to the experience of getting bagels, i.e. standing in line and eating on the street, and not the actual bagels themselves. NY bagels are 100% better than the SF Noah’s Bagels I remember from 1992-1994 and as good as, if not better than, the bagels I remember fondly from I and Joy Bagels in Encino, CA circa 1988.

* Halloween in the West Village is a huge event. There is an annual parade along 6th Avenue that attracts tons of people and, similar to parades in SF, creates all kinds of traffic and logistical problems. The NYPD lined all of the adjacent streets to our building with metal barricades and our entire block was filled with police cars. We went to the parade but it was not as compelling as we hoped which, I often forget, is how I feel about most parades. Based on our observations, the costume parties in our neighborhood started last Wednesday, Oct 26 and culminated in a giant blow out spectacle on Monday night at the Monster, the gay bar in the first floor of our building. Without a party invite or a bunch of friends to go out with, we opted out of all of this and stayed in. If we are here for Halloween in the future, I will absolutely need to costume and enthusiastically partake in the festivities.

* Here is something I have not seen on the West Coast: bicycle mitts and stroller gloves. Surprisingly, we have found that bikes are an excellent way to get around the city, especially if you are going east/west. Many deliveries in the city are made on bikes, standard and electric. As the weather gets cooler, I am seeing bicycle delivery people with gloves attached to their bikes, like these, and there is a version for strollers as well. Another slightly interesting observation is that people plant kale in their tree wells because it can weather cold temperatures and looks pretty cool.

I have to conclude this week’s post with a fairly disgusting topic: rats. In the last few weeks, I have seen rats in so many places: scurrying across Washington Square park when walking the dog at night, casually walking in the opposite direction as us on a sidewalk in the West Village at 9 am, eating trash on the sidewalk, run over in the street and, of course, hanging out on the subway tracks. Thankfully, I have not seen rats inside our building or in any restaurants. In the Bay Area, we have had a problem with rats in our backyard and know several people who have had their car engine literally eaten by rats. When we discovered that rats were eating parts and living in our bbq, my husband suggested that we pack our essentials and put the house on the market because there was no way we could comfortably remain living there. Now that we have seen rats in so many places, I am hoping that when we return to the west coast in just three weeks, he might consider using our backyard again.