These streets will make you feel brand new
Happy Thursdays, my dears! I was working on my NaNoWriMo at like 11:59, and then the clocks changed over and it said Thursday and WHEW BUDDY I thought yesterday was Tuesday! I was in for a rude awakening as this dear newsletter hadn't been written yet!
If I'm being honest, writing this is both exhausting and fun. Forces me to think (ick), but allows me to get my thoughts out there (also ick!). But it's still nice to have an outlet that y'all have to endure. And shout out to my friend who while I was slouched on a bench attempting to rip my ice skates off my foot who inspired today's newsletter cause I was about to leave you all hanging.
I spent sometime with some lovely people yesterday who were super excited to go ice skating. And it when it turned out they were going to fucking ROCKERFELLER CENTER, I almost screamed. If you're a New Yorker (or at least, me), you avoid Rockerfeller Center like the plague, especially around Christmas time. Lord help you if you have to work around there because not only are the crowds intense but the area is more compact than Times Square so it feels like more tourist per square foot. I once made the mistake of trying to return some shoes the day they were unveiling the tree and wow. WOW. Scarred me for life!
So as we approached the place to acquire tickets, I saw the massive amounts of tourists staring down at the ice skaters and all I could really think of was "Hmm!" and "I haven't skated in YEARS I will have an audience for my failure!!"
And guess what?
I did, lmao I fell at least once.
But! I had a super great time and after maybe the first ten minutes, completely forgot about the tourists watching me (except for near the end when I rammed into a wall and someone shouted "You got this girl!" and I remembered they existed and wanted to DIE). And my friends, who could actually skate, had a lovely time.
Alls that to say is sometimes being a tourist in your own city can be a lot of fun, even if it feels incredibly cheesy af. There was something kinda magical about being under the tree (which was hidden cause they were decorating it), with some big ass statue staring down at us, the lights twinkling, and 30 Rock looming above. Even if a lot of tourists were/are annoying as hell, on the ice, a lot of people helped out those of us who clung to the wall. My personal favorite were when I was stuck behind someone clinging to the wall and their friend was trying to give them advice, but then noticed me, and also gave me advice.
It's also just fascinating looking at New York through the eyes of someone who doesn't live here. A subway I called dirty and useless they exclaimed was "efficient and helpful" (it also hadn't broken down on them. Yet). The streets were still filled with people at 9pm which was fascinating to them, as their city clears out around 8pm. After living here for so many years, along with visiting the city with my parents when I was younger, New York City started to become just a place I tolerate with all of its weird intricacies. But at times like that, I remember why it can be lovely.
And then on my way home, a rat almost ran over my foot, lmao.
Ick, feelings. Let's move on before I need to drop kick something.
If I'm being honest, writing this is both exhausting and fun. Forces me to think (ick), but allows me to get my thoughts out there (also ick!). But it's still nice to have an outlet that y'all have to endure. And shout out to my friend who while I was slouched on a bench attempting to rip my ice skates off my foot who inspired today's newsletter cause I was about to leave you all hanging.
I spent sometime with some lovely people yesterday who were super excited to go ice skating. And it when it turned out they were going to fucking ROCKERFELLER CENTER, I almost screamed. If you're a New Yorker (or at least, me), you avoid Rockerfeller Center like the plague, especially around Christmas time. Lord help you if you have to work around there because not only are the crowds intense but the area is more compact than Times Square so it feels like more tourist per square foot. I once made the mistake of trying to return some shoes the day they were unveiling the tree and wow. WOW. Scarred me for life!
So as we approached the place to acquire tickets, I saw the massive amounts of tourists staring down at the ice skaters and all I could really think of was "Hmm!" and "I haven't skated in YEARS I will have an audience for my failure!!"
And guess what?
I did, lmao I fell at least once.
But! I had a super great time and after maybe the first ten minutes, completely forgot about the tourists watching me (except for near the end when I rammed into a wall and someone shouted "You got this girl!" and I remembered they existed and wanted to DIE). And my friends, who could actually skate, had a lovely time.
Alls that to say is sometimes being a tourist in your own city can be a lot of fun, even if it feels incredibly cheesy af. There was something kinda magical about being under the tree (which was hidden cause they were decorating it), with some big ass statue staring down at us, the lights twinkling, and 30 Rock looming above. Even if a lot of tourists were/are annoying as hell, on the ice, a lot of people helped out those of us who clung to the wall. My personal favorite were when I was stuck behind someone clinging to the wall and their friend was trying to give them advice, but then noticed me, and also gave me advice.
It's also just fascinating looking at New York through the eyes of someone who doesn't live here. A subway I called dirty and useless they exclaimed was "efficient and helpful" (it also hadn't broken down on them. Yet). The streets were still filled with people at 9pm which was fascinating to them, as their city clears out around 8pm. After living here for so many years, along with visiting the city with my parents when I was younger, New York City started to become just a place I tolerate with all of its weird intricacies. But at times like that, I remember why it can be lovely.
And then on my way home, a rat almost ran over my foot, lmao.
Ick, feelings. Let's move on before I need to drop kick something.
- There's a chocolate artist that tumblr affectionally hisses "It's the chocolate guy again" when he shows up. His work is like the zenith of all those dumb "the television is actually CAKE" memes but he does it with chocolate and also it looks amazing? I'm linking his instagram but this eagle is just one of his incredible creations. I can't even be mad because holy shit dude! So - spoilers, this was the recommendation I pushed from last week, and I'm ...so proud of myself? Because now I can also tell you this man will have a Netflix show, and not even have to hope you read both newsletters! Look at me, foretelling people will have more news to SHARE.
- So John Oliver mentioned in an interview with Seth Meyers his love for an author Patrick Radden Keefe and I always take book recommendations from anywhere, so I added the book to my library holds and forgot about it. And last week, I finally took a listen and HOLY SHIT. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is one of those non-fiction books that is written like a novel in the most incredible and horrifying way. As the subtitle suggests, it talks about the conflict in Northern Ireland through the eyes of a few key people: the family of a woman who had been "disappeared," one of the people who had planted bombs in London while in her teens, and others. Mr. Oliver was completely right when he said this book sticks with you because it really has. From the depth of the reporting to the horrific things that happened... This book was truly a stand out piece of work. And halfway through listening, I happened to be in a Starbucks which was playing the song Zombie by the Cranberries (which I had stumbled across months ago after listening to the cover of the same song by Bad Wolves), which... talks about similar things the book does. I've already added the author's other books to my to-read list and am excited to jump in.
- I'm assuming 90% of the world has watched Squid Game, so no need to go into here, but I stumbled across a Wired video with a Korean language professor who talked about some of the translations that the Netflix subtitles had and why they were not what the characters were saying, mainly because translating that exact terminology would also require knowledge cultural background and if you didn't have that, you would need like a short paragraph explaining certain things, like why Ali was not actually calling Sang-Woo by his name like the subtitle would suggest. A friend of mine was cool enough to go through a minutiae from the show the day after I finished it, but this is an interesting video if you were curious!
And that's it! If you need me, I'm going to laying on my couch crying because ice skating used muscles I didn't even think I had, much less would hurt.
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