Jay did his annual career exploration trip in NYC with a group of Smith students, and I tagged along to do some informal research at some of the museums. A few notes from our whirlwind trip:
1. If you see lots of helicopters, police cars, and ambulances all heading in the same direction, it may mean that a plane has just landed in the Hudson River. We didn't see any of the actual rescue efforts, but we were quite impressed with how the whole city seemed to be focused on what was happening without the place shutting down or getting chaotic. We were a few blocks away from the scene and didn't see anything other than a slight back-up in traffic.
2. I was sitting in a Starbucks in Soho to escape the cold (yes, I gave money to the evil empire--non-Starbucks coffee places with tables were surprisingly hard to find) and a guy sitting next to me asked me for marital advice "from a woman's perspective". He seemed like a nice guy--I wanted to ask him to let me know how it turns out!
3. I'm 90% certain I saw Susan Sarandon at the
Evolution store. I was standing next to this woman and when I heard her speak there was no mistaking the voice (kind of like when you hear Garrison Keillor). I didn't see her face-on, hence the 90% certainty, but through my Google-stalking I learned that she lives in the area and found recent photos of her with the same hairstyle. As for my own purchases at the store, since I did not have the $14,000 to buy a real skeleton (and question the provenance of their specimens anyway) I settled for a laminated
skeletal reference poster. Jay was not nearly as excited as I thought he would be, especially when I told him I wanted to hang it up at home.
4. Did you know there is an Irish Hunger Memorial in NYC?
We were a bit curious about why it was there, so we went to check in out. Turns out it's closed in the winter and there is no signage outside, so I wonder what people think when they walk by this little patch of land in the middle of the Financial District.
5. Speaking of districts, I found what can only be described as the Light Fixture District and the Restaurant Supply District. It was oddly fascinating to walk through several blocks worth of stores selling nothing but chandeliers and other light fixtures. Sadly, the single block worth of stores selling plumbing supplies did not seem to be sufficient to warrant identification as the Plumbing District, but perhaps I only stumbled across the edge of it and further exploration will reveal several glorious blocks worth of plumbing treasures.
6. It was pretty cold walking around the city, but every time we started to complain we thought about our friends and family in the Midwest and realized that the cautions about "extreme cold" in the Northeast are actually kind of funny. It was 21 degrees that day. That's 21 degrees ABOVE zero. The weather forecasters made it sound like everyone would freeze in place as soon as they stepped outside. It is colder back here in Massachusetts, but we still have enough Minnesota blood in us to laugh rather than cringe when we hear everyone get all worked up because the temperatures will be in the single digits.
All in all, a good trip. We both have one week left before the Spring semester begins, so we plan to make the most of the more relaxed schedule. And while we will still laugh at the extreme temperature warnings, we can't help but think that we did the right thing when we moved to a place that is currently about 40 degrees warmer than Minnesota. Stay warm, everyone!
There are hundreds of these "gingerbread" houses in the town of Oak Bluffs.
