stephanieNY

I tend to declare things "the best ever" pretty easily while I'm in the moment, like "This is the best gin & tonic ever." or "This is gonna be the best summer ever."  A lot of times it has to refer to food that I'm really enjoying at the time.  Anyway, Adam and I have more than once declared really fun days that we've had, "the best day(s) ever."  Despite its singularity and definitiveness, we try to be flexible in using the phrase multiple times.  

So before I left New York, I cashed in on a Christmas present from Adam....a "best day ever".  This particular "best day ever" was all planned and mapped out.  It entailed watching "This Old House" over breakfast, an afternoon at the Natural History Museum, and dinner and drinks at an Italian place on the Upper West Side that had been recommended to us.  We revised the plan as the day went on, as we couldn't find the restaurant, so we hopped down to Little Italy for a really good dinner outside.  

The museum is amazing (maybe the best ever).

Dinner was soooo good.

It was inevitable. I'm getting ready to leave and I'm feeling nostalgic for the city already. I'm going to miss a lot here. I went for a walk this morning in Central Park. Through the North Woods section of the park is a straight-up nature walk, complete with dirt paths, creeks, waterfalls and overgrown old stone bridges.  I may as well have been in New Hampshire.  Sure it's all man-made and massive blocks of buildings sit 300 yards away, but it's so nature-y and you really can't hear the city at all!  I can't believe I can walk 4 blocks from my apartment on Broadway and go bird watching in the woods!  No place else.  Well, I'm sure there are plenty of other places, but for right now, I'm gonna feel all sentimental and amorous about this place.

...is the distance that Adam and I walked around NYC this past weekend.  I guess it's not all that much, but when you walk 15 miles leisurely, you're not really leaving a lot of time for much else.  We managed to squeeze in some bowling, some flea-marketing, and some eating and drinking....aaaaand we crossed a few things off our list of things to do.

Bowling Friday night turned into a wild goose chase for the bowling alley that was supposedly around Port Authority.  Turns out it's IN Port Authority. (Wild goose chase for bowling alley= 3 miles.) 

Walking the highline on Saturday led us down to the meat-packing district for lunch, from where we embarked on a trek back up half the island.  (Down the highline and back up past Midtown = 5 miles.) 

Goofy subway schedules on Sunday forced us to walk across the park to get the 4 train on the East Side up to the Bronx for lunch on Arthur Ave. (To and from the 4 trains = 7 miles.)

I was curious, so I mapped out our routes today on Google Earth.  I was putting off doing real work and got carried away.  Now I don't have much to show for studio, but at least I have this really helpful map of my weekend.

And some pictures:

Yesterday, in the middle of the crazy snow storm, our photography professor sent us all out to take more pictures for class. A few of my buddies and I went out to Coney Island to shoot it in the storm. By the time we got all the way out there and stopped at the original Nathan's Famous for lunch, the snow had stopped and some cloudy sun came out. I was looking forward to dreary, grey, snowfall pictures of the site, but the light was a nice consolation. The strip and the boardwalk are incredible. I wish that I could go back in time eighty years and hang out there. Like this girl...

It was amazing yesterday.  Mid-winter, after a snowstorm no less, it was so quiet and deserted.  Here are some of my shots, mixed with some touristy ones for you too.

NYU's Bobst Library today:

Philip Johnson

I'm so happy to be in here and not out there right now.

Gross wet snow is bogging down the city right now, along with my life it feels like.  Ugh.  I just ran into this image on Google street view in my neighborhood.  People on the streets are wearing light jackets, if any.  And there are tulips....ahhhhh, tulips. 

I go out and see places for my photography class, when I'd otherwise be stuck in Avery Hall working.  This is a good thing.

Queensboro Bridge on Tuesday.

Railroad tracks along the Hudson in the Bronx on Sunday.

It's officially blizzarding outside.  So fun.  Although it's as if New York's never gotten snow before.  Yesterday morning, they cancelled all public schools for today...like 18 hours before the first flake fell.  Strange. 

My final semester started today...the beginning of the end. Can't believe it. Well, I can, I think I'm just in the habit of saying I can't believe it, because that's what everyone says. But I can.

Anyway, the beginning of my end now involves the beginning of next year's new students. Along with a few other third-years, I'm helping to review applications for next fall admissions, and we had a meeting today, to be instructed on how to evaluate the applications. It struck me how perfectly full-circle this will probably feel, helping to admit (or deny) these newbies, as I'm peacing out to move onto my next thing. But how strange it'll feel to be in a position of judgment. Who am I?

I imagine it'll be really satisfying but kind of uncomfortable, empowering and maybe a little intimidating. I fear flipping open the file on someone applying for my position at school, who is more qualified than me now...and being forced to commend them while second-guessing myself. I'll try to stick to the satisfying and empowering parts. But mostly, I think it'll be really interesting and enlightening...to see where people are coming from, what they've studied, and how they put together a portfolio. And to bring it back to myself of course, I'll probably wonder where my application fell, in a similar group of applications three years ago. But I'm judging them though, not me, right?