Thursday Adventure!

I was long overdue for an all day adventure. So on Thursday, as things fell into place, an all-day adventure emerged and not only was it a lot of fun but it also wore me out!

Thursday morning the group met Kathy in the lobby and then we did something we had all talked about doing but never did: ride the #1 to it's final downtown stop.

For those of you unfamiliar with the #1, it's the subway that I probably use at least once a day. There is a stop two blocks up from the hotel (on 79th Street) and then a larger station five blocks down from the hotel (on 72nd Street). With the #1 you can get pretty much anywhere on the west side of Manhattan and the Bronx -- from Times Square all the way to the Kingsbridge Library in the Bronx!

But we have never gone from 79th Street to Rector Street, the final downtown stop. It was a long ride, but we all found seats and relaxed.

As we got off at Rector Street, we only had a few blocks to walk to reach the National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is housed in the old customs building and is part of the Smithsonian network. It's the only Smithsonian museum not in Washington D.C.

But the group is really glad this museum is in NYC.

After going through security, our first stop was the big rotunda where the customs hub use to be. A giant circle of granite was in the middle and the space had high vaulted ceilings that allowed sunlight to stream in. It was a beautiful space and very grand.

Off to the side of this rotunda were several exhibits. There was both contemporary American Indian art as well as artifacts from tribes across the world. It was interesting to see all these varieties of art and the way it was set up allowed the viewer to have a greater appreciation for the artifacts. My favorite exhibits where C. Maxx Stevens House of Memory (contemporary and focusing around the idea of what "memory" is) and Julie Buffalohead Let the Show Begin (watercolor paintings focusing on storytelling and motherhood).

The group split up once we were finished touring the museum. Some headed back to the hotel, while Whitney and I caught a #4 train. This train covers the east side of Manhattan. Let the adventuring begin!

Our first stop was Dylan's Candy Bar. My friend, Anna, recommended we stop there. It is crazy.

I mean, a store full of candy is always crazy. This building was three levels, all filled with as much kind of candy as one can imagine. You could buy it by the pound, by the slice, by the piece, or by the packet. So many options. Whitney and I took advantage of some free samples but didn't buy anything else because there was almost TOO much to chose from.

After that little adventure, we walked down the street to Serendipity 3. This restaurant is popular for several reasons. One, it was a major meeting place in the 2001 Jon Cusack movie Serendipity and it boasts the creator of the frozen hot chocolate. Again, Whitney and I were here based on friends' recommendations.

Apparently we should have made reservations because we ended up waiting for 20 minutes before being seated. There was a man seated at a small table taking reservations over the phone and we later discovered this was the owner, Stephen Bruce. Whitney and I ended up ordering a frozen hot chocolate to share and a piece of pecan pie with butternut ice cream.

Beautiful menu

Owner Stephen Bruce

IT WAS SO RICH AND DELICIOUS. Sugar overload. And I don't say that very often.

Our sweets ;)

Good thing we had more walking to do to help digest all that delicious sweetness! We actually headed to the Union Square area just to say hello before heading back down to the National Museum of the American Indian. Susan had recommended a reading that she was going to and thought we would enjoy it as well.

The reading was in their conference room of sorts, which was a big beautiful room in the lower level of the museum. The museum had paired up with Poets House to host a weekend filled with American Indians sharing their writing. The official title of the event was Native Innovation: Indigenous American Poetry in the 21st Century. 

Joseph (center) and Joy (far right)

On Thursday night it was a reading and conversation with Joy Harjo. The conversation portion of the event was lead by fellow poet, peer, and friend Joseph Bruchac. It was a fascinating conversation and I really enjoyed Harjo's work. She has most recently published a memoir which she read from and also some of her poetry. After the reading, she just talked with Joseph and I learned so much about her and her style of writing. It was fascinating to hear her thoughts on the world, time, and writing. It was such a good way to end Thursday night.

And there you have it, a fun-packed Thursday adventure. One for the books, that is for sure!

 

Carmen, Rain, and Brooklyn

So last night...our group traveled a few subway stations away to see Carmen performed at the Metropolitan Opera. This was by far our fanciest shindig, so all ten of us were dressed up. Actually fun to see us in our prettiest dresses. Unfortunately, no photo was snapped due to the fact the opera finished around 11:45 PM and some girls were ready for bed!

Overall, the opera was good. Definitely a change of pace from the plays and music concerts we have already seen. I knew the plot of Carmen so I could spend more time focusing on attempting to understand the French (mildly successful) and watch the actors (little tough being up in the dress circle). Both Murray and Susan were along and Susan luckily brought binoculars which we passed around during the performance. That definitely helped.

As I mentioned in my last post, it was raining here this morning, putting a damper on things. But nevertheless, I made it to work, dried off, and was kept busy.

My first project was to listen to one final veteran oral history I hadn't heard yet. It was a fascinating interview, especially since this vet was part of a unit that responded to 9/11. He was there, amid all the gray dust when the towers had fallen. Throughout the interview, he had a lot of poignant moments and his passion to help foster father-daughter relationships is pretty incredible.

Sarah (one of my bosses) asked me if I would like to write for a NYPL blog channel called Freedom of Thought. The way blog writing works at NYPL is that they have several channels on a wide variety of library topics and then various librarians (or interns like myself), write and post content. Of course I told Sarah I would be more than happy/thrilled/etc. to blog (because you know I LOVE to blog). I wrote my first post today, but it has to go through all the administrative channels before being published. But I will for sure let you know when it is on the web for you to read!

The last part of my day was spent getting some balls rolling on my other large project, the Music and Memory drive I've talked about. I got a hold of the recreation/outreach director from a nursing home near the Kingsbridge Library and hopefully next week, we can start creating a solid timeline. I'm super excited and happy things are falling into place.

I dashed home so Whitney and I could take a train to Brooklyn for an event I really wanted to go to. It was the publication release of the literary magazine A Public Space. The event took place at an independent bookstore called Book Court and Whitney and I had actually checked it out last week when we ate dinner at Joya. There was a fair turnout and the event began with Brigid, the editor in chief, introducing the readers and thanking us for attending. We heard from two fiction writers and one poet. All were fantastic. Post-reading, Whitney and I both expressed how much we are missing The Coe Review right now. Just the atmosphere of writers and putting together a literary magazine really excites me. And, I want to mention the readers because they were AWESOME. First was a short story by Tom Drury. Then we switched to poetry by Mark Bibbins. And we ended the night with part of a short story by Jessica Francis Kane.

Oh, can you tell I hang out with Whitney a lot? All the photos seem to be of the two of us! Haha!

Now it's time for some response writing and sleep because it's an extra special day tomorrow.
Aka my birthday! :)