new york in the summer

It's been two summers now, living in the big apple. And each summer I forget completely about the absolute styfling heat. The old buildings have the window airconditioners humming away in the window sills, looking like so many beehives attached to the brick outer walls. They drip water on the unsuspecting passing pedestrian.
This summer, however, I'm not just visiting the city in a futile attempt to do something meaningfull, but I'm actually visiting friends.
We went to a small senegalies restaurant where the food was very reasonable and quite african, not the strange mix you can get other places. The waitress herself exuded an air of being in a different place, wearing the cultural outfit of some african country, but she wore it familiar like. This was her clothing of choice, her comfort clothes. I guess she wore them like a t-shirt and jeans.
T and I havn't seen each other since she got engaged. She's married now, has been for a year. What a strangely long time to not see a friend. Luckily we picked up right where we left of. She and I discussed our changes, and our sames. I got to talk to E also and pick his brain on life and future plans.
The City was mostly a blur to me as we wandered around, looking at tourist places, which have become old friends to me.
You know, things are never worth seeing just once. They can't speak to you on just one quick visite. IT's the repeating vieuwings that create the layers and familiarity that cause admiration and understanding. I've seen the statue of liberty, and the staten Island ferry, I've been on one of them. But to wander past it and look up to see it and to feel not excitement, but a quite knowing, and an enjoyement of the fact that I knew what it looked like before I looked up, creates a different exitement, a much quiter one. and deeper
I am enjoying the idea that I am getting to know this city, that there are places that won't dissapoint.
we spent 3 hours in the Met, and I had a better time than all those times I felt like I had to rush through to see it all. we stuck to the modern wing and speed walked through a turner exhibit. over rated. But could that man ever produce!
One of my favorite songs, by Rufus wainright, is about a poor little rich girl who fell in love with her art teacher over a Turner, but I don't see much to spark the romantics in them.
We also went to a belgian frites place, found a belgian beer place and a belgian waffle cart, the only one in New York! real belgian waffles too, not just diner variety limp waffles but the luikse wafel! I could smell it from a block away. Needles to say, we grabbed cards and made them promise they would be in the same place next time we were in town. We also found a hooka bar, that was a first for me.
We own a hooka, but I've never been to a place where they set them up for you.
It was beautifull. The entire weekend was very enjoyable, especially since I was able to convince T to come home with me, and we wandered around my little town for a morning.
Once she left, I understood how much she's meant to me over the years, and how much she and I used to work as a team. I am missing her like crazy now, but she's only a plane ride away.
I am trying to make plans to visit next summer.
such a versatile person... visits from all over and to all over. It's how I was raised I guess.