7 NYC Quick Takes

Linking up with Jen Fulweiler at Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes. Her new memoir, Something Other Than God, just arrived in the mail and I am super pumped to read it!

It's been a while since I've told any commuter stories, so here are some random NYC-ish things that have happened lately. If you're curious what life in New York is really like, Nathan Pyle's Basic NYC Tips and Etiquette pretty much nails the good, the bad, and the strategic positioning of it.

by Nathan Pyle

1. I gave a man directions on my subway ride to work, then he got mad at me for not knowing where the station's elevator was. 
   
2.  Lest you think all New Yorkers are rude, the next day I bonded with the man who got stuck in a traffic median with me waiting for the crosswalk sign to change. He joked that he would witness for me if I got hit by a bus; I helped him locate the nearest ATM. Meanwhile another man across from us decide to try and outrun the crossing traffic. "Hey, you wanna hit me mofo?!"
   
3. The subway is always a weird combination of high and low social brackets. One night at Chambers Street, a smelly/probably mentally ill guy got on and proceeded to stumble around the car belching and yelling at random intervals while clutching a Powerade bottle.  At one point he stood right over me. I alternately kept repeating to myself "This person is the Face of Christ, this person is the Face of Christ" and "Please don't vomit on my head."
   Then he got off at 14th Street and was replaced by a chick carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. She also skittered around the car, but because she couldn't keep her balance in her Louboutin heels.
   
4. A few Saturdays ago I hit up some places on Museum Mile and rode the NYC bus for the first time. Taking the M1 ten blocks from the Whitney to the Met took just about as long as walking. As an added bonus, I got to fight Upper East Side older ladies in structured jackets for personal space. They do not mess around.
   
   
5. Speaking of uptown women, yesterday I got a call from someone looking for weekday (?) brunch recommendations near my museum. For a group of 20 "ladies." The way their leader said "I don't really know Brooklyn," we might as well have been discussing Afghanistan. She practically gasped when I mentioned the new (and expensive) Hill Country Barbeque up the street. "That doesn't really sound like brunch."
   
6. Don't worry ma'am, the women of King's County still keep it classy, even if we do sometimes eat peasant cuts of meat on our lunch breaks. In Duane Reade last week I overheard someone telling her friends how she's overdue for her weekly manicure. "I was gardening at my mom's and now my nail are all farkakte!"
   
7. For us working stiffs, the endless cheap ethnic cuisine options are one of the best things to love about NYC. My office's best kept lunch secret is the local Hare Krishna temple vegetarian lunch buffet. It's like any food made with love by church ladies, only with more Indian spices. No one tries to hand you a flower like in Airplane, they're just all "Do you want cheesecake with that?" It's amazing.
   Sadly, the building is up for sale and some developer will probably make it into a hotel. Oh well, complaining about long gone favorites is practically the national pastime in this city.