...and the fact that my ears JUST NOW popped (as a side note). I slept restlessly last night, which seems to be the norm these days. I woke up and guzzled a glass of ice water, waking up every now and then to stick ice cubes in my shirt to cool down. Not that it is warmer here than Seattle has been-----but my god, the humidity! In betwixt waking spells I dreamt my teeth were falling out. Not just falling out, but being forced out of my gums because I was chewing on glass. Once I realized I was eating glass, I didn’t stop….but rather tried to move my teeth around so I could extract the glass from my flesh. This is a reoccurring dream. I woke up with what felt like lockjaw this morning…and an aching need to rinse my mouth with wash.
It was about ten thirty when I left this morning and I had about eight hours before I had to meet Gabriella and John, so I thought I would make my way down to the Natural History Museum. Somehow I had forgotten the Natural History Museum is more of a glorified taxidermy display center…Needless to say I stuck to the extinct mammals, galaxy, and dinosaur exhibits. This was only after I had walked into the room with the herd of elephants positioned in an ever so graceful dance of familial bliss. Stuffed elephants from 1920? Fantastic! Including a cute little baby elephant caressing it’s mother’s trunk. Precious. Stomach knotted, I wandered for a couple of hours through prehistoric relics and then made my way outside, and eventually to the East Village.
I was asked directions and advice on the city a total of ten times this afternoon, which leads me to believe....nothing really....but it became a bit of an issue. I knew the answers to all but two inquiries. Eek. Who knows on that one.
Gabriella and John? Wonderful! I exited the Lafayette Starbucks (there is no escaping the buck) and was about to cross the street when I turned my head to the left-immediately reccognizing John. Whoa. He waved, I rejoiced. We danced on opposite sides of the street. I crossed, hugged, chit chatted a bit. He told me Gabriella was on her way, and within minutes she came rushing up behind us and hugged us both. We made our way down St. Mark's in search of a place with both drinks and munchies. John insisted he knew of a little place somewhere down there that was nice so we trekked a bit. Sure enough we found it, Yaffa Cafe. Drinks were ordered, as well as food. I hesitantly tried something called cucumber yogurt soup....which was exactly what it advertised. Not bad.
John asked me my life story, which, he said, he was sure more interesting than theirs. I have never known where to begin with this question. I began a with being kicked out and running away from home. Gabriella then piped in with "was this when you went to Kansas?"
...
It took me a moment before I realized she was referencing my 25 things off of Facebook. Whoa-what an age we live in. They had apparently been in a debate as to whether my 25 things were actual or imaginary...I didn't realize how fantastical my life can appear to be.
John told me his mother's life story instead of his own, which I thought was fun. She reminds me a lot of myself. Odd. Gabriella went into her families past, I in mine, and a good time was had by all. Post Yaffa we made our way to a little yogurt shop and then sat in Washington Square for a bit....discussing Seattle, Palestine, the project, and goals for the future. I was very at peace....aside from the whole ears not popping thing.
Silly little me spent about an hour and fifteen minutes chasing subways home to Astoria. But that's another story altogether. I must say I had numerous people help me out with advice and 70% of it was accurrate. Decent odds, if you ask me. When I finally made it to my stop, I crawled out into the fresh air and bolted to the new favorite, Time Cafe. It seemed closed, but there were people inside drinking it up and...wha?...smoking inside? I thought I would try the door and if it opened they couldn't really say no, could they? I tip toed in and asked meakly "are you open?" and got a hearty 'Yes!" from my bartender friend from last night. I was greeted with a shot of tequila. Perfect.
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