a day in new york

despite recent upheavals and unpleasantnesses, ben and i decided that yesterday we would do as planned: spend the entire day together, alone, in new york, doing the things we like to do, in celebration of our turning 4 years old.

our day began early. we left the apartment while metal grates protected still-groggy stores. and we walked south. down the bowery, past lil italy (which barely registers anymore), into and through chinatown with a detour into the most self-serious and ceremonial bank i've ever seen. eventually we stopped for dim sum and we decided to eat with impunity. although we couldn't bring ourself to order pork buns outright, we feasted on all kinds of dumplings and rolls and our bellies were content with our minor rebellion.

from there, down to the brooklyn bridge, and over it. the sky twinkled on the water; it was that sort of day. also it was around 25 degrees. the wind stayed quiet though and we had a giddy crossing. once in dumbo, we turned right and headed up to the movie theater in brooklyn heights that shows weekend matinees for $6.50. we were just in time! hooray! the movie theater, unfortunately, had no heat, so we couldn't remove any of our bundling. the movie, fortunately, was good enough that the cold didn't reach us. in fact the only problem with the movie was that i was waiting for the twist that a nyt headline had warned me would come.

afterwards we required hot drinks to revive us. we found them at a cute-ish place on montague street and indeed we liked them so much, and had found such an excellent cushioned corner just for us, that we remained there for two more hours, reading, before heading out again.

uptown! this time not on foot. we caught the last half-hour of a fantastic jazz memorobilia display before the action in the time-warner building: ella fitzgerald's performance gowns, dizzy's trumpets, miles' letters to his mother. hobnobbing with rich new yorkers, appreciating the droppings of success, was kind of awesome frankly. we topped that off with dinner downstairs at whole foods and a nighttime walk through the gates. ben hadn't seen them before and at night they looked like a benevolent standing army, awaiting orders. two weeks is too short a time to have them up. i think the city should petition for another two, at least.

some wrangling with the subway led us back to the east village where we settled in a bar to watch the john grace band. two accordians on stage at once! they were fun to watch. but at that point we'd been on the go and out of the house in the increasing cold for 12 hours and i was beat. when they finished we wound our way back home.