three thirteen

we started off around 7:30 going to the world trade center (or lack thereof...no joke) and wall street. we saw the fed which made me super excited...but i was bummed we wouldn't see good ole ben because it was a saturday. we got our pictures with the bull in front of the nyse and then headed to battery park, where we got (very far away, very cloudy) pictures of the statue of liberty.

from there, we headed toward soho to hit up american apparel and rice to riches. after that, we went our separate ways...me to morningside heights to go to the cathedral and the others to yankee stadium for a tour. i had a fair amount of time on the subway by myself and i just got to think a lot about how i'd like to know these peoples' stories. one beautiful young african-american woman reading "their eyes were watching god." the old (or maybe just aged?) man muttering to himself under his breath. the latino girl all dressed up with nowhere to go. where did they come from? where are they going? i wish i knew. (madeleine herself summed it up best here.)

when i got to the cathedral grounds, i hadn't eaten yet, but was far too excited, so i went right in. i went to the visitors' desk and asked for barbara, and, expecting an older woman, was surprised to see a girl not much older than myself say "i'm barbara. are you jordan?" so we went immediately to the library. it. was. amazing. words just won't work to describe how it felt to be in the room where she sat for so long. it was much smaller than i expected, but had much better books, including first editions of many of madeleine's books. one whole shelf was dedicated to her things. "that was her desk," said barbara, motioning to the far corner at the smallest desk in the room, "look at the view from there." i sheepishly apologized for my nerdiness before snapping a few photos. and then, i walked around to her desk and touched it. with my hand. my hand to where madeleine l'engle's hand inevitably sat. i touched her space. i touched genius today. barbara apologized for the terrible weather and showed me the peacocks' cages before we went back to the cathedral.

then i went back in for the cathedral highlights tour and the vertical tour. both very interesting. i'm really glad i went. then i headed back to the subway station. on the way, i stopped for a few pictures across the street when a gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out and one of the metal arms broke. so before getting on the train, i went to a duane reed (the pharmacy up here...i swear there's one on every block) to grab a new umbrella. then i came back to the hotel to crash.

we went to dinner in the upper east side at this great french steakhouse. best steak and pomme frite in the city apparently. i definitely enjoyed it. we went to dessert at serendipity, where the characters in the movie "serendipity" went on their first pseudo-date. apparently...i vaguely remember that part. anyway, a frozen hot chocolate later and i'm too tired to go to sleep.

here are a few memorable points in the day/things i learned:
-i got asked for directions. THREE times. my khaki trench, black umbrella, and unflinching stare must be giving off the right signal. people actually think i'm from this town!
-all you have to do is ask. you can usually get what you want. my dreams came true today just because i asked for something that someone wasn't offering offhand.
-i could probably live in new york city. as long as i could live in the morningside heights area and not chelsea or soho or any of the more congested areas.
-i really like the rain. it's true.
-this girl at the table next to us at dinner didn't know it, but she told us her whole love life situation...there's rob and bill and john and jason and zach (he's the bipolar one) and tim, but he cheated on her, and..... geeeeeez girl. stop.
-the cathedral of st john the divine is a house of prayer for all people. which means that, while they are part of the episcopal church, they welcome people of all faiths to worship with them. i really like this.
-i'm so good at navigating in big cities. it's my jam. almost as much as public transit is my jam. which is almost as much as "empire state of mind" is my jam.