(written this AM, posted much later!)
Hello, world! Writing this from Big Bear Cafe, which has changed radically since I used to live in the neighborhood back in 2008 and hang out here every single night. For one, they now apparently turn off the wifi on parts of the weekends. Boo. For two, I used to drink here for free, and illegally. Now I pay, but it's legal, so trade-off? For three, I used to wait 10 minutes for my yogurt and granola; now I wait 15. I kid. But they really have done great things with the place, and the food is amazing, and the community is great, so I can't complain. Too much. Except about the wifi.
What else to write about? It feels a bit premature to write a Weekend Report, since I have this plan-free Sunday in front of me -- such a luxury -- and who knows what magic could await. Like, more coffee. Maybe a trip to Eastern Market to find some more decor for my apartment (it's still in need of some wall art). Maybe THE CROSSWORD. Await the scintillating post later this evening or tomorrow.
In other news, it won't surprise you to hear I've been running a lot. The Pacers running coach set up a brutally hilly 14 mile run yesterday AM, which really fatigued me. Have you ever run up Mass Ave, then to 34th/Reno? It goes a bit like this: /\/\/\/\/\ ow. I'm on a rest day today (thank god) but the rest of my week looked like this:
Monday: Easy 3 miles (oops, skipped this, due to being in NYC for work and unable to wake up early enough to run and get to my 8am conference)
Tuesday: 6-7 hilly miles, done in Central Park. Good lord. If I had a place like this to run in DC, I think I'd be running twice a day:
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 6 miles, 2 of them at marathon pace (8 - 8:10 minutes per mile)
Friday: Easy 4 miles
Saturday: 14
Then Saturday night, because I'm insane, I signed up for and ran the Crystal City Twilight 5k. It was a cool night, the course was flat and fast, and there was beer at the end. What not to like? I ended up running it in just over 23:00 minutes, which was good enough for 11th in my age group (out of 350 ladies or so). One day, an elusive age group win in a race will be mine… (life goal).
Week total: ~34 miles
So I'm ready to enjoy a respite today.
In addition to running in Central Park and thoroughly enjoying it, I think I've developed a beyond-serious crush on New York City. What a surprise. I mean obviously, it's an amazing city. But it used to sincerely terrify me. Every time I went up there, I was overwhelmed, overstimulated, and constantly lost. But in the past few years I've gone up more and more and started to develop a feeling of comfort, and, more importantly, a feeling of mastery over the subway. (It helps that smartphones and trip planning apps have come on the scene so I can figure out how to get from spot to spot via the subway or walking really easily.)
Sunday night, I got in and met up for a drink & dinner with Zach, who happened to be in the city (we're friendly, it's nice). We were stuck in midtown so hit up a couple of places there, including a beer at The Cannibal and a glass of wine at the Ace's John Dory Oyster Bar (we'd hoped to get food there, but, uh, it was super expensive). We eventually ended up getting Korean BBQ at Miss Korea. Very tasty.
Monday, I worked worked worked. My conference was located at NYU, so I ate the conference take-out lunch in Washington Square, which looked like this:
That evening, I headed to Park Slope to visit with Fletcher and Lauren and their adorable newborn, Felix. Then I strolled over to Taro Sushi with Claire & Blair & Natania, and then we got tasty Thai ice cream at a place nearby called Sky Ice. Amazing. I had ginger honey & black sesame seaweed.
Tuesday, it was work work work. The conference was over in mid-afternoon, so I stopped at Think Coffee near NYU to do some more work and drink some, well, coffee. Then there was the closing reception for the conference, and eventually I made my way across the Brooklyn Bridge (I walked it, I do this nearly every time I'm in NYC and never get tired of it), then went to Franny's in Park Slope for dinner, which was a glass of wine and pizza. The pizza was great, the wine was tasty, can't complain (except I did a bit on Twitter, saying I thought Menomale in DC was better than Franny's, but what do I know).
Afterwards I went to meet my Twitter buddy James and his friends at Bar Sepia for a few drinks, and finally, it was near 1 AM, an insanely late weeknight for me, so back to Times Square to my hotel.
Anyways, there's a random mishmash of my latest running and NYC adventures. I'm off to finish my iced coffee and yes, maybe even do the crossword on this lazy Sunday. Enjoy yours!
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