I'd rather be in France.

{Thankful November} 13: City Sounds

November 15th, 2011 | Rachel

Join me in the comments or on your own blog as I give thanks every day this month.

My first roommate in the city (technically the second, if you count Davina) thought I was a little weird because she’d come home from work to find me sitting on couch in silence.  No television, no music, just silence.  Most of the time I’d be typing on my laptop, so it wasn’t like I was silently staring at the wall.  THAT would be a little strange.

When I lived by myself for the first time, I played a lot of music so I wouldn’t get too freaked out by all of the bumps and creaks and hisses of my apartment, but now I am back to sitting in silence.

Silence is an inaccurate term because there really isn’t any such thing as silence in New York City.  Whether it is footsteps from the apartment above you or the radiator clanking or a truck outside with squeaky brakes, there are always sounds.  Right now, I can hear a car driving up the hill on my street, the shutting of a door somewhere else in the building, the rumble of the subway as it heads underground at 123rd Street and the hum of this computer.  During the day I can hear the murmur of people’s conversations as they walk by on the sidewalk along with church bells that chime every half hour.

That first year in the city, I had trouble sleeping because the recycling trucks would do their rounds in the middle of the night and the noise would wake me up despite the fact that I was in a 20th floor apartment.  Eventually I got used to it.

I love listening to the sounds of the city because it reminds me how many people are here going about their own business and living their own lives.  I also feel we are so inundated by sounds throughout the day that it is nice to spend some time in (near) silence while I gather my thoughts and reflect on the day.

Thank you, quiet city sounds.

{Thankful November} 12: Days Off

November 15th, 2011 | Rachel

Join me in the comments or on your own blog as I give thanks every day this month.

Weekends never feel like weekends anymore because I am usually scheduled to work.  My “weekend” occurs sometime in the middle of the week and may or may not involve two consecutive days off.  This week I was fortunate to have Sunday and Monday off, although all of Sunday was spent moving (see previous post).  That left Monday for relaxing before heading into what is sure to be a crazy week-before-Thanksgiving at the bakery.

As fortune would have it, Steve came back from the ship last night, so we were able to enjoy a much needed day off together.

We started with brunch at one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood, Community, where we sat outside because it was a beautiful 68 degree day (very strange considering we had snow two weeks ago, but I’m not complaining).  Without any plan for the day, we elected to walk south through the Upper West Side, occasionally stopping to run errands like dropping off something at the post office, returning my cable modem to Time Warner Cable, exchanging a pair of gloves that had a torn seam, and picking up some new sunglasses at Urban Outfitter.

After stopping by a juice bar to hydrate ourselves, we spent a couple of hours at the Apple store, which is across the street from a movie theater.  We thought it’d be fun to see a movie, but didn’t agree on anything that was showing (he wanted to see A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, while I wanted to see Puss In Boots).  We weren’t far from the American Museum of Natural History, and I had heard it had a cool planetarium, so I looked up what was showing there.  As it turns out, they were hosting a lecture on astrophysics — which is one of Steve’s favorite subjects — entitled “The New Universe and The Human Future with Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams.”  Looking back it makes sense that we ended up going to a lecture over a movie because the only thing Steve and I can agree to watch on Netflix are documentaries.

We still had a couple of hours to kill, so we continued our walk southward and ended up at Columbus Circle.  One of our friends had just gotten a job as a bartender at one of the restaurants there, so we decided to stop by and say hello (after browsing the cool kitchen gadgets at William-Sonoma, of course).  Turns out it was happy hour, so we drank a couple of half-priced fancy cocktails and had a cheese sampler while catching up with our friend.

The weather was still perfect when we left, so we walked up Central Park West to the museum, which was also hosting a fancy black tie reception.  We contemplated going home and changing into fancy clothes so we could crash the party but ended up just going to the lecture.  The speakers were a husband and wife duo out of Santa Cruz, California, and they spoke about the world in the context of the universe and used a lot of cool multimedia visualizations.  Steve ended up buying one of their books and having them autograph it.

The last stop of the night was all the way down in the East Village at Momofuku Noodle Bar.  We weren’t that hungry but still stuffed ourselves with steamed buns filled with beef brisket and huge bowls of ramen with pork belly.  Afterward, we walked over to Union Square to give all of that food some time to settle and then took the subway home.

It was my favorite kind of day off.  It started with only a few plans and open minds to whatever came our way and ended up being one of my favorite days with Steve in the city.  I now feel refreshed and ready for another day at the bakery.

Thank you, days off.

{Thankful November} 11: Productivity

November 15th, 2011 | Rachel

Join me in the comments or on your own blog as I give thanks every day this month.

I’m a little behind on sharing thanks this week, mostly due to the fact that I moved out of my old apartment.  Despite donating an SUV-full of stuff last year and several boxes this year, I am still disgusted by how much stuff I have.  I hope I have a chance for another purge of nonessential belongings before I drag it all over to California.

Moving is one of those things that is a huge inconvenience to do but always feels good when it is over.  Perhaps this is because the productivity of it is clearly measurable.  These twelve pieces of furniture and twenty three boxes used to be here, and now they are there.  Mission accomplished.

A huge thanks to the two bakers from Three Green Ducks for carrying all of that furniture and boxes down three flights of stairs and delivering it to two different locations.

Thank you, productivity.