Okay, the last of the retro NYC journals...
1/20/02 Sunday
2:34pm
JFK Airport
New York City
The snow turns to slush outside as I wait for my flight back to San Francisco. It’s been a really good week here in New York. I have to admit that I’m a bit sad to go but at the same time I’m relieved to go back home to SF. It’s interesting…Sitting right here with some extra time in the lounge before boarding the flight, this is exactly the moment that I named my site cozyairport for. You know, a time to think back on the experience I had in New York. I’m blessed, cuz it’s a luxury to have time to ponder about my life, especially in the frantic world that we live in.
So, before I even write about how I feel about the whole trip, I have to talk about yesterday. It was such an eventful day. First I headed down to Chinatown with DaLu to get some wonderful Shanghainese food. We totally splurged but I hope Yahoo! will pay for it….hahaha….well, maybe….anyway, so then I headed down to Ground Zero and it started to snow! It was the soft, fluffy type, and not the hard hale type. It was so nice to see snow in New York. As I walked down towards Ground Zero it started snowing harder and harder. When I was there I couldn’t get the tickets to see the observation deck. What I did see though is a crowded scene of tourists, policemen, street vendors selling nypd beanies and pictures of the 767 crashing into the WTC. Why anyone would buy such a picture and hang it up is beyond me. It was kinda eerie. Here are all these people, probably who are like me, from out of town, and we’re all paying respects to the people fallen here. It was a somber mood, and yet, there were also picture taking. All in the while rescue workers and still working on the site thru the now heavy snow. I got a chance to read all the encouraging and sympathetic notes pinned to the side of the wall, and the pictures of victims and flowers lying on the ground for them…For a west coast boy who saw all of it happen on TV, the tragedy finally hit home. I also felt a sense of camaraderie among the people there. It didn’t matter where you were from, being there at Ground Zero made you connect with what happened there and it really hits deep in the heart. It’s interesting, but when I was gingerly asking for directions to Ground Zero, it seems like the eyes of the locals would kinda well up, which is pretty revealing from the usually unemotional New Yorkers. Usually when I walk around I can’t get a clue how people feel, seems like people put up fronts to protect themselves, but if you ask about Ground Zero, you see the human side.
After that I took the subway to 85th and Lexington and went to the Guggenheim to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. I loved it! It’s pretty intense to see Ground Zero and then the patriotic and iconic paintings of Rockwell. I think it was timely for Guggenheim to have this exhibit. I loved all his paintings, especially the freedom from want ,the prom date, coming and going, and freedom of speech. I bought an 8x10 print and I’m gonna frame it in our house. Well, as if that wasn’t enough, I was in for a special treat because they were also showing Brazilian art and I got to see Candido Portinari’s Coffee, which was one of the favorite paintings of my friend SaLe. It was such a plesant surprise to be able to see it and I spent a good 5 minutes looking at every detail. Portinari draws about the laborers of Brasil, such as the workers harvesting coffee beans. I also got to see a beautiful video of Brasilia, which was a totally planned city built around the 1950’s with modernist aspirations. Hmm…made me want to go to Brasil. There was yet another video about capoeira, which is a dance-like fighting style or a martial arts-like dance, depending on how you look at it. AND on top of that, there was Brasilian jazz on the first level of this beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed museum. I was like 2 feet away from the musicians and I could see the guitar player’s fingers dancing on the guitar strings. It was a beautiful experience I tell you! Can you tell that I had a good time? That it was such a beautiful day? And the night has not even started!
I met back up with DaLu before heading out to Chinatown to meet up with his college friends. It’s good to see him having a good time talking to his old buddies. I do have to say that there was a classic moment when he was chatting with like 6 girls at the end of the table. The scene is all too familiar…Where’s the camera when I needed it? : )
On the topic of girls…after dinner my friend said he was finally going to introduce me to some of his “girls” in nyc. So we headed over to Grammercy and as I walked in, surprise! It was my friend SaLe! I was totally taken back! I thought she was in Texas but apparently she came to nyc for a wedding. I mean, I was surprised the same way as seeing the Portinari painting at the Guggenheim. I have to say what DaLu and SaLe did was very nice, a wonderful surprise to top off a great day. What can I say, I feel loved…and unabashedly cheesy.
So the house turned out to be owned by Sandra’s longtime friend Wendy, who has a warm and bold interior decoration. The kitchen is painted green which reminds me of a Taiwanese café while the living room is painted with a pastel-ish yellow. Little cartoon-like sculptures and frames with comic characters dotted the room. Apparently her brother used to be an illustrator for the Simpsons. Wow, that’s cool, period. It’s good to be chilling with some friends, talking about what’s going on in our lives, guessing movie soundtracks (DaLu did well), talking about design (Wendy loves Charles Eames furniture), the Rockwell exhibit, and where to travel. I think we’re truly blessed to be able to spend quality time like this. Thanks be to God. Finally, it was our time to go, I bid farewell to SaLe and Wendy, and as we head out to the street, the snowfall had stopped and all that was left was nothing short of a beautiful scene of Winter in New York. The ground was smooth from the snowfall and there’s a tiny snowman sitting on the hood of a car by the sidewalk. The trees were decorated with lights and the air was cold but fresh. I think the English language must have more varieties of the word beautiful because that’s what I’ve been saying the whole time. I need to change it up a little. The day was beau-terrific!
1/20/02 Sunday
2:34pm
JFK Airport
New York City
The snow turns to slush outside as I wait for my flight back to San Francisco. It’s been a really good week here in New York. I have to admit that I’m a bit sad to go but at the same time I’m relieved to go back home to SF. It’s interesting…Sitting right here with some extra time in the lounge before boarding the flight, this is exactly the moment that I named my site cozyairport for. You know, a time to think back on the experience I had in New York. I’m blessed, cuz it’s a luxury to have time to ponder about my life, especially in the frantic world that we live in.
So, before I even write about how I feel about the whole trip, I have to talk about yesterday. It was such an eventful day. First I headed down to Chinatown with DaLu to get some wonderful Shanghainese food. We totally splurged but I hope Yahoo! will pay for it….hahaha….well, maybe….anyway, so then I headed down to Ground Zero and it started to snow! It was the soft, fluffy type, and not the hard hale type. It was so nice to see snow in New York. As I walked down towards Ground Zero it started snowing harder and harder. When I was there I couldn’t get the tickets to see the observation deck. What I did see though is a crowded scene of tourists, policemen, street vendors selling nypd beanies and pictures of the 767 crashing into the WTC. Why anyone would buy such a picture and hang it up is beyond me. It was kinda eerie. Here are all these people, probably who are like me, from out of town, and we’re all paying respects to the people fallen here. It was a somber mood, and yet, there were also picture taking. All in the while rescue workers and still working on the site thru the now heavy snow. I got a chance to read all the encouraging and sympathetic notes pinned to the side of the wall, and the pictures of victims and flowers lying on the ground for them…For a west coast boy who saw all of it happen on TV, the tragedy finally hit home. I also felt a sense of camaraderie among the people there. It didn’t matter where you were from, being there at Ground Zero made you connect with what happened there and it really hits deep in the heart. It’s interesting, but when I was gingerly asking for directions to Ground Zero, it seems like the eyes of the locals would kinda well up, which is pretty revealing from the usually unemotional New Yorkers. Usually when I walk around I can’t get a clue how people feel, seems like people put up fronts to protect themselves, but if you ask about Ground Zero, you see the human side.
After that I took the subway to 85th and Lexington and went to the Guggenheim to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. I loved it! It’s pretty intense to see Ground Zero and then the patriotic and iconic paintings of Rockwell. I think it was timely for Guggenheim to have this exhibit. I loved all his paintings, especially the freedom from want ,the prom date, coming and going, and freedom of speech. I bought an 8x10 print and I’m gonna frame it in our house. Well, as if that wasn’t enough, I was in for a special treat because they were also showing Brazilian art and I got to see Candido Portinari’s Coffee, which was one of the favorite paintings of my friend SaLe. It was such a plesant surprise to be able to see it and I spent a good 5 minutes looking at every detail. Portinari draws about the laborers of Brasil, such as the workers harvesting coffee beans. I also got to see a beautiful video of Brasilia, which was a totally planned city built around the 1950’s with modernist aspirations. Hmm…made me want to go to Brasil. There was yet another video about capoeira, which is a dance-like fighting style or a martial arts-like dance, depending on how you look at it. AND on top of that, there was Brasilian jazz on the first level of this beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright designed museum. I was like 2 feet away from the musicians and I could see the guitar player’s fingers dancing on the guitar strings. It was a beautiful experience I tell you! Can you tell that I had a good time? That it was such a beautiful day? And the night has not even started!
I met back up with DaLu before heading out to Chinatown to meet up with his college friends. It’s good to see him having a good time talking to his old buddies. I do have to say that there was a classic moment when he was chatting with like 6 girls at the end of the table. The scene is all too familiar…Where’s the camera when I needed it? : )
On the topic of girls…after dinner my friend said he was finally going to introduce me to some of his “girls” in nyc. So we headed over to Grammercy and as I walked in, surprise! It was my friend SaLe! I was totally taken back! I thought she was in Texas but apparently she came to nyc for a wedding. I mean, I was surprised the same way as seeing the Portinari painting at the Guggenheim. I have to say what DaLu and SaLe did was very nice, a wonderful surprise to top off a great day. What can I say, I feel loved…and unabashedly cheesy.
So the house turned out to be owned by Sandra’s longtime friend Wendy, who has a warm and bold interior decoration. The kitchen is painted green which reminds me of a Taiwanese café while the living room is painted with a pastel-ish yellow. Little cartoon-like sculptures and frames with comic characters dotted the room. Apparently her brother used to be an illustrator for the Simpsons. Wow, that’s cool, period. It’s good to be chilling with some friends, talking about what’s going on in our lives, guessing movie soundtracks (DaLu did well), talking about design (Wendy loves Charles Eames furniture), the Rockwell exhibit, and where to travel. I think we’re truly blessed to be able to spend quality time like this. Thanks be to God. Finally, it was our time to go, I bid farewell to SaLe and Wendy, and as we head out to the street, the snowfall had stopped and all that was left was nothing short of a beautiful scene of Winter in New York. The ground was smooth from the snowfall and there’s a tiny snowman sitting on the hood of a car by the sidewalk. The trees were decorated with lights and the air was cold but fresh. I think the English language must have more varieties of the word beautiful because that’s what I’ve been saying the whole time. I need to change it up a little. The day was beau-terrific!
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