After that long, its hard to match up how you remember a person with the person you know see. The previous version is there, but then there are thousands of firmware updates your brain has to download all at once. And that’s a lot of ground to cover in one night.
Around midnight, the staff kicked us out. We boarded the private boat back to Manhattan. And from there we went for more drinks. Oh yeah, it was fucking cold last night. Not nippy, cold.
Its Sunday now, and I’m sitting in the outdoor pavilion at the World Financial Center soaking in the last rays of sun.
As I’m walking here from my friends place in Tribeca, I pass a path meandering off the concrete and into a tunnel of walnut trees. And I kept walking. And then I stopped, slapped myself on the wrist, and went back to it. Four hours later I’m still stunned by what I saw which was namely, a side of NYC I did not know existed. Beautifully manicured, intimate little patches of grass, gardens, fountains. I went into St. Pauls Cathedral and back out the other side to the ancient graveyard overlooking the WTC footprints.
I walked through the Irish Famine Memorial. I walked all the way to the top as well. Usually I would just walk halfway up, convince myself I’d gotten a pretty good feel what it was all about, and then turn around.
But I just kept walking, up some stairs, across Broadway, down to Liberty Street. I walked towards a gathering of people. The Wall Street protesters. I just hung there for an hour or so and watched. Looked like about 90% of the people there were just there for the bongos and the face painting and the bologna sandwiches.
Since the line to see the memorial looked to be a couple of hours long, I dipped into a nearby hotel and found one with a restaurant on the 6th floor. It was closed but the bartender who was setting up let me come in and hang out. I had a perfect view. It was a moving experience for me, having not been to that location since the day it occurred.And I will say this, New York is really doing a fantastic job of revitalizing that entire downtown area. It’s a great place to spend the entire day lying about and watching the boats sway in the harbor and exploring.
When I lived here, I never explored. What kept me from that?
