Making My Way Downtown... & Memory Lane - NYC Day 4

Hello and welcome to my recap of New York City thus far! I am a bit over mid-way through my stay (rhyming :) and to be completely honest, I don’t know if I ever want to go back to California (sorry Mom and Dad!) Today Izzy and I made our way down to Soho - we’re really getting a hang of this whole “New Yorker lingo thing”! We woke up at 9 am give or take 45 minutes. Izzy made a gourmet breakfast of greek yogurt with freshly roasted Himalayan sea salt and seeds of a pumpkin granola (aka Pumpkin seed granola from Trader Joe’s) topped with freshly sliced bananas and freshly pressed peanuts (peanut butter for you commoners) and finished with chopped English walnuts (also from the mysterious land of Trader Joe’s!). I made a gourmet meal of lightly fired (also known as “toasted”) grain-free, wheat-free, flour-free, happiness-free bread topped with freshly sliced avocado plucked from the produce aisle of Trader Joe’s. This was topped with freshly ground cracked black pepper and coarsely ground Himalayan sea salt and finished off with a side of blueberries.

Thank you for following along with that satirical interruption… onto the rest of our day!

We left the apartment around 11 (11:20) to go meet our professor for coffee! She told us about this adorable place called Housing Works which is a bookstore and café. This place is actually super amazing and I would highly recommend anyone who goes to New York to stop by and check this place out. First off, Housing Works is an organization that works with people who are living with/affected by HIV/AIDS. Their mission statement says, “Housing Works is a healing community for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial business that sustain our efforts”

OK WOW!! For those of you that know me well, you know that I have switched my major mmmm 8… maybe 9 times?? I came into college bio pre-med and was confident that my life long dream (literally since I was 5) of becoming a surgeon would finally start on the course to fruition. HAHAHA NOPE! I realized early on, science, while incredibly fascinating and interesting, stresses me the hell out. Also, I sliced my finger open two days before entering my sophomore year of college and had some lasting affects of that. I think that was God straight up yelling at me saying, “Yah, no medicine for you, Shae” So I scrambled to figure out what on God’s green (semi-green :/) earth I wanted to/should do!! I took a mix of random classes and eventually found myself drawn towards sociology. Ok there’s a reason I’m telling you all this (side note: I realized I would be an awful lawyer because I would get kicked out of the court room for always going off on some type of tangent and the judge would be all, “Get to the point” and I’d be all, “Yes almost there” and then the sun would set and it just wouldn’t end well for anyone) Anyways… the reason I am telling you this is that through my (short) study of sociology and finally relinquishing my hold on medicine, I have figured out that one of my dreams would be to start a non-profit. I would want it to be a mix of a coffee shop/bakery as well as “rehabilitation” center where former and recovering drug addicts as well as those in homelessness can come heal and work in a safe space where they are treated like human beings that are valued, loved, and important - because when it all comes down to it, they are!!! Anyways, I could go into way more detail on that BUT after reading the mission statement of Housing Works, I got so excited and now I want to move to New York and work with the organization (again, sorry mom and dad!)

Anyways… the reason that we went to Housing Works was to meet our professor, Diane Exavier, for coffee! Diane is our Writing for Performance professor and is an actual queen! This woman is strong, intelligent, talented, eloquent, and just all around kick-ass. Izzy, Diane, and I had such a wonderful conversation about writing, vocation, the future, passions, dreams, influences, goals etc. It was such a wonderful dialogue and such an amazing opportunity to see her in her hometown! She flies out to SB one weekend a month to teach our class and spends time with us - reading, talking, writing, and reflecting! Such an incredible woman and presence in my life. WoWoWoWWWW!

Apparently a common thing to do in New York, or maybe it was just at Housing Works, is to come sit at tables with people you don’t know and do work. Let me tell you, that is not a thing in California and it is a shockingly nice thing for the private robots of New York (just kidding that’s a gross generalization) But anyways, this older woman sat at a table right next to us and then this man came over and said she couldn’t sit there… like what is this high school?! So she grabbed her plastic cup of wine and began walking around to find a new seat. Ok, seeing older people alone is #4 on the list of things that really just tug at my heart strings (right after a horse dying in a movie) so I went and told her she could sit with us! She was such a sweetheart and offered to buy us coffee and food! She told us her name was Barry and she was from Texas. Barry was here with her granddaughter who was going to graduate high school so they went on this little girls trip (precious!!) Anyways, we talked with them for a bit and learned lots about their lives and Barry’s love of the musical Kinky Boots. Obviously Izzy and I don’t just see this as a simple interaction, we see it as something more and Izzy came up with and idea for a bit that let me tell you will just be G-O-L-D-E-N!!! After Barry and her granddaughter left, I spent the majority of my time looking at books and creating a very long list of books that I now HAVE to read :|

Now my friends, I know we are roughly a page and a half in, but it is only 5 pm at this point and there is still SO much story to tell!! So buckle up and get ready for an adventure!!! Please keep your arms and legs inside of the vehicle at all times!

At 5:00, I left the coffee shop and headed down to lower Manhattan, particularly the World Trade Center to see my friend Hannah who I had not seen in THREE! WHOLE! YEARS!!!!! I studied abroad in France with her and we were attached at the hip. She got me through some of my hardest times and was always/is always there for me. She’s one of those friendships where don’t see each other for, well, 3 years, and then you see each other again and just pick up right where you left off. Hannah is brilliant and just so amazing. It was so incredible to catch up and laugh at the past and what has happened since then! We got gluten free pizza (which was an ultra yum) and then spent maybe an hour trying to find a dessert place!

Funny story… so at dinner, I drank an abnormally large amount of water. I’m talking about a pitcher. I am also a woman and if you’ve been to any sporting event or just public place in general, you see that the line for the women’s restroom extends all the way to the Great Wall of China (aka we have small bladders). Well, we went to one dessert place but I didn’t know somewhere that served just pure sugar could be so intimidating! So we skirted and because milkshakes are made from the streams of heaven we went to go search one of those. Unfortunately everyone and their stupid mother was in line for a milkshake… like dang get your own freaking restaurant!!! At this point, our bladders were going to burst so we went to find the nearest Starbucks… they’re on every other corner in New York city I swear for a second I thought I was in Seattle! Because life is just funny like that, of course the one Starbucks we go to doesn’t have a freaking restroom !!! Now we’re running around the city like mad women going into places but there is no restroom - is this what Mary felt like trying to find an inn?? PROBABLY!!! Then, we stumbled upon the one place we knew there would be a restroom, but the one place we didn’t want to enter (or be seen entering)… Trump Tower. The walls were like this weird tan orange (probably modeled after the color of his skin) and about 10 police officers/secret service agents stood at the front door to scan us in. We hurried our way to the bathroom and then hurried out of there to get some dessert to cleanse our soul!!! PHEW- A CLOSE ONE!!!

We finally found a dessert place, after about 20 different subway rides and a few million blocks - but it’s ok, we had 3 years to catch up on!! We downed some BOMB frozen yogurt and then went our separate ways, but wow old friends are some of the best ones!!

I took the subway home (all by myself! yay! adulting!) and then walked around for a little bit.

I’ve only got one more full day here (insert sobbing face here) so I want to spend as much time immersed in the city as I can!! It was a wonderful day - lot’s of memories and great conversation! Honestly I think those two things are sometimes the best medicine and can really lift you up!

Here is Izzy’s recap… as promised: “Um. (makes thinking face) My sister is great. Um. (Rubs face). You’re not going to be able eat anywhere in NYC even if it’s grade A and not see a cockroach. What else did we do today? Diane Exavier is the BOSS! And… New York City show me your titties”