was wonderful. Absolutely amazing. If I could have more days like this one -- even just a few -- I would be very, very happy. This post is rather self-indulgent, methinks -- just a chronicling of today, because it's the sort of day I'd like to remember. (I'm told that many people just write about their days on their blogs, so perhaps this is something closer to normal.)
I woke up at a reasonable hour -- 11:00 -- later than I normally do, but not so late that it seems that half the day has passed me by. And without an alarm -- this is a small but significant part of a perfect day, in that it leaves no dreams unfinished, which, even if one doesn't remember the dreams upon waking, is important. Waking in the middle of a dream often gives me a slightly unsettled feeling, as though I have unfinished business with somebody in my head.
I went to Columbia to visit a dear friend from high school whom I haven't seen in much too long. I arrived a few minutes early, so I got to watch him hold office hours. Despite his sometimes cantankerous nature and rather cynical view of humanity, he's actually a very good TA. He'll be an excellent professor someday, and that makes me happy.
He bought me bubble tea; I am extremely jealous of Columbia's bubble tea. It's decent -- not amazing, but pretty good. Why does Columbia have bubble tea in its cafeteria, when Stanford, which is in California, and is probably 25% Asian, does not? It's vexing, it is.
We talked for a few hours, and migrated around the campus. It's bigger on the inside (like magical wardrobes), with a surprising amount of grass and some really fat sparrows. I finally,
finally got a decent photo of my friend, who hates photographs (he claims, just to be difficult, that photography will steal his soul). Also, for those of you who know him, he still looks a something like a llama, though he's less like one in character, now. He's mellowed out in college, to some degree.
After Columbia, I had a few hours to kill before I met a friend for dinner, so I went downtown, to a lovely indie bookstore called
McNally Jackson. It has a quirky little café attached, which makes these dainty Earl Grey biscuits, and this really rich, not-too-sweet hot chocolate -- probably the best hot chocolate I've had all summer (the barista was very pleased when I told him this). I found a book called
Urban Code, which has a very minimalistic, elegant cover (see image), and which I ended up buying, even though I've acquired quite a few books this summer, and haven't the time to read them all. I also spotted the new
Neal Stephenson book
Reamde, which also has a really nice book jacket (the texture is wonderful) that's visually quite similar to Urban Code; I valiantly resisted the temptation to buy it, because it was thirty-something dollars and a rather enormous, unwieldy hardcover. I might end up getting it on Kindle, if I end up reviewing it for
The Daily.
On the way to dinner, I spotted a giant colorful chandelier-like sculpture suspended over a small side-street. (It's just a block or two from McNally Jackson, but the exact location escapes me.) The road itself was cordoned off, so I could just stand in the middle of the street for a few minutes, admiring the artwork. The street itself was nothing too special -- some old buildings, a lonely-looking warehouse, a few small stores -- which made the sculpture all the more wonderful a find.
And then, at the corner of Cooper Square and Astor Place, I happened upon all these lampposts decorated in neon zip-ties! (The ones across the street were even more colorful.) Apparently, as my friend told me later, the zip-tie art had been around for quite a while, but I hadn't been to that area in quite a long time.
We went to a Japanese restaurant, where we ordered exactly the right amount of food, with room to spare for dessert (when eating out with Chinese families, the dads always tend to over-order). This was also aided by the fact that I'd forgotten about lunch -- I didn't realize this until I was recounting my day to my friend and she pointed out, "So your caloric intake thus far today consisted of bubble tea, hot chocolate, and a very small cookie?"
Anyhow, we talked, like old times, and then we got dessert at a really good patisserie called
Veniero's, where I had surprisingly reasonably-priced gelato and a smidgen of her delicious strawberry shortcake. And then we took the subway back into Queens together, and it was still early enough that when I came above-ground, I walked home in the twilight, alone under a deep blue sky.
