January Fun Times

It's actually April now at the time I'm typing this entry, so I'm going way back to January to just briefly tell you about the other fun things I did during winter break after coming home from Tucson. There's not really an excuse for my going so long without updating my bloggity, except that I fail at time management.

----------------------------------------------

Sunday, January 17:

I was finally able to get out of bed and go to church like a good Unitarian-Universalist (haha). Afterwards, I also finally decided to check out the Metro Anime Club at their monthly meeting in the underground level of Maui Tacos. Basically it's a group of adults of various ages who get together and watch anime for several hours every month. Yeah, pretty freaking awesome if you ask me. So, I got to see a couple episodes of Skip Beat, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and some other stuff I can't remember. We were also paid a visit by local cosplay singer Reni, who I saw last year at the NY Anime Festival. She's pretty cute. I really went to the meeting hoping to make a friend, which luckily I did: a lovely girl named Amelia close to my age. Most of the other people seemed older than me, so at first I felt sort of awkward and I didn't think I'd be able to make friends, but then Amelia walked in and she struck me as the sort of person I'd like to talk to. We agreed it would be cool to hang out sometime. So I was glad I decided to take a chance and go to the meeting.

Tuesday, January 19:

I went to the LGBT Community Center (just "The Center" for short) to check out their open house/orientation thing, but ended up being a little disappointed. Some of the organizations and groups that meet there were handing out pamphlets and talking to visitors, but that was kind of it. I was hoping it would be something more structured and orientation-like. I did talk to a few of the reps and got some information on groups, though. Too bad most of them meet in the evenings in the middle of the week, when I have class. That's not too helpful. Oh well. This Tuesday wasn't too disappointing anyways, because on my trip to the Center, I discovered a fantastic donut place called The Donut Pub. Plus, Adam Lambert was on Oprah earlier that day. Word.

Friday, January 22:

I met up with Shirley and Shovana at Kinokuniya Books and we went all over town checking out anime-related stores, including Book-Off, Image Anime, Forbidden Planet, and Toy Tokyo. We also had a good dinner at a Japanese place near St. Marks, looked at manga at Barnes and Noble, and later ate some delicious donuts at the Donut Pub. Good times were had all around. I didn't get to buy anything except a gorgeous yaoi manga called Wild Rock. Bishies running around in loin cloths? Yes, please. Ahem, moving on.

Saturday, January 23:

I went to "Anime Day" at Kinokuniya Books, and was joined by Amelia and Shirley. They had guest speakers and presenters, a raffle for not-so-exciting prizes, Reni the cosplay singer (she seems to pop up everywhere), and more! Actually, the whole thing ended up not being very exciting. And Amelia had to leave early. Kind of disappointing. Oh well.

Monday, January 25:

I finally got to spend some time with Ashley, who I met last semester in my Asian History course. We were going to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, only to discover that it's closed on Mondays. It was a rainy day, so our options were limited. We wandered around until we decided to eat at UNO Chicago Bar and Grill, which caught my eye because the one back home in Oro Valley had closed and I hadn't gotten to enjoy that restaurant much. We enjoyed some Chicago-style pizza and deep conversation. We then headed out and I proposed we go see the movie Me and Orson Welles, which was playing at a small Lincoln Center cinema, and we did that after popping in Best Buy for a moment. The movie was great, and it starred Zac Efron. Oh, yes...

And I think that's pretty much it for the fun times of January!

New York Living: Day 10

The sun came out today for a very welcome visit! The weather was totally gorgeous--the perfect temperature, partly cloudy, a light breeze. Aaahhh, yes.

I started off the day going to church. I found a Unitarian Universalist church pretty close by on Central Park West and 76th: Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York (4thu.org). And what a change from the little portable building I'm used to back in Tucson. Check it out:

Of course, there are beautiful churches like this all over New York. The people here were very welcoming and friendly. It felt like a perfect spiritual home and the service was conducted very similarly to the ones back at UUCNWT (uucnwt.org). It will do just nicely for me! I was thinking about checking out the famous All Souls UU Church (allsoulsnyc.org) on the East Side of town also, but since Fourth U is so close, I think it'll be the one I attend most Sundays. Here's what you see when you walk in the front entrance:

A closer shot of the altar (or whatever you call it):

The building had a huge organ like most of these old churches, as you can see from the gold pipes, but the music director just used this ornate antique grand piano, which I thought was so pretty I had to take a photo:

The intricately carved pulpit (which they didn't use, by the way) on the upper left and the chalice on the right:

The service today was mainly just to recognize some of the people who have served the congregation faithfully, so there wasn't a traditional sermon, but I can already tell that the minister will be a joy to listen to. She has a warm spiritual presence. Here's another view of the church and the street:

Since Central Park was right across from the building, I was compelled to take a few shots of the lush greenery:

After church was over, I walked down 76th, a quiet street lined with beautiful trees and 5-story townhouse mansions with detailed facades. I noticed one with boarded-up windows and a sign that said "Mansion For Sale." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, maybe one day..."

I also decided to take a look at a nearby flea market on Columbus Avenue. I found a vendor with all sorts of fascinating old Asian trinkets, charms, Buddhist statues, and even some antique pornographic woodblock paintings (obviously pre-photography era). I got a kick out of that, not gonna lie.

I decided to walk all the way home since I found there was street fair going on along Broadway in the 70's and 80's. It was basically your typical New York street fair with all sorts of vendors and food stands, and it was so much fun (of course, it would have been even more fun if I had some friends to enjoy it with). My personal favorite vendors were the several with cute bonsai trees and lucky bamboo arrangements. Another one that caught my eye was a High School Musical ("On Tour") merchandise booth!

I ended up resisting temptation today and I didn't buy anything. I came home pretty exhausted and had a snack lunch, but then Mom and Dad came home and the three of us took a little walk to Riverside Park, which is basically just a block or two-ish behind our apartment building. Here's Mom and Dad walking through our neighborhood:

To get to Riverside Park from our place, you cross a little strip of greenery between two streets called "Joan of Arc Island" that has a statue of its namesake:

I was mad that after this point my camera battery died, so I don't have any photos of Riverside Park here, but the beauty is that I can go back any day and take some to show you later! I had never been to this park before and it was hella gorgeous, with flower gardens, tall trees, and all that great New York park stuff. There were lots of people out walking their dogs and playing with their kids. We also took a look around the neighborhood and gawked at some of the more ornate apartment buildings on Riverside Drive. But I reminded myself of how blessed we are just to be living here in the Upper West Side of freaking New York City, and I got over my envy (mostly).

Whew. I was exhausted by this time because I haven't done that much walking until today! So I took a nap back at home until Mom got me up for dinner. Since it was such a beautiful day, we took our spagetthi and dishes up to the terrace on the roof (which is open for all residents in our building to use) to eat and enjoy the spectacular view. We can see the Hudson River and New Jersey from up there!