Make Time: NYC - My Second Home

I get on the train in Princeton on Wednesday morning and it's packed with commuters. Guess I could have thought about going even earlier to avoid the rush, but oh well - too late now. Surrounded by commuters I have flashbacks of my time commuting to work in SF, or more potently my commutes from Princeton into NYC so many times. An hour or so later and I'm rushing through Penn Station and then onto a few different subways on my way up to my Aunt Jane's apartment. My aunt has lived in the same spot on the upper east side of NYC for over 36 years. It's safe to say that her apartment and that neighborhood are as close to home as anywhere else in my life. I get up into the apartment and bring Aunt Jane some peach-colored roses. Since I've been coming to visit her on my own, there has not been a time when I arrive without flowers. My aunt was married to an amazing, sweet, funny, and great man named Patrick Twyon for many years, but he died of a heart attack about 15 years ago. I still can't believe it has been that long. Regardless, I always love to brighten my aunt's day, and little things like flowers definitely help. After a quick conversation I head back down to midtown to meet my friend Maya for lunch near Times Square. Funny to be back in the most touristic spot of NYC, but I love it anyway. Maya and I have some great deli sandwiches and talk about her move from NYC to SF, where she is having a blast. After lunch I head to Bryant Park, which is one of my special places in the city. I sit and people watch. Take a nap. Make phone calls about my car (still not figured out) and then my friend Sophie comes to meet me and head back up to my Aunt's apartment for some pre-dnner drinks. We wait for my buddy Guillherme (Gui) to come in from Sao Paulo, but his plane is late and he's taking a long time to come on the subway from JFK. I've got a dinner planed with one of my favorite people of all time, Karen, and some others who I'm close with in NYC. Dinner is at 8:30pm downtown, and I wait as long as I can for Gui but then decide to take off. My aunt will let Gui know where to go when he gets into her place. I'm late for dinner but it's great to see Karen, my friend Kyle - who I worked with at a past job, and Ali - who I've been mentoring in her next career move. We eat at a pizza place called Lombardi's and have great and funny conversations. As we are walking out of dinner Gui walks up to the restaurant. Ha!! Classic Brazilian move - they are late for almost everything. Sophie, Gui, and I grab a few drinks in SOHO and NOHO before calling it a night relatively early. Nothing to prove on this first night back in NYC (and after Gui traveled for over 15 hours to get here).

Thursday Gui and I take the subway downtown and check out the 911 memorial, which I had not seen before this. Very moving. It brings back memories of hearing about the attack for the first time. I was in SF and had made it all the way into work before hearing about what happened. I never checked the news or listened to radio at that time, so I took the bus into work and was walking into the office when a coworker came over and told me to go home - the twin towers were hit by airplanes. Surreality set in. I walked home and saw it all on the news, and then walked through Golden Gate Park and sat on the beach for the afternoon. It was even more surreal to be sitting peacefully on a sunny beach on the west coast when absolute chaos ensued in NYC on the other coast. I felt so disconnected at that moment, but I also felt extremely lucky. Walking around the exact location where the towers fell, and where the monument is now located, brought on very intense emotions - sadness and pride being at the forefront. It's good to show Gui this location because it really is a huge aspect of modern day NYC. He's impressed and also touched. We walk to a small diner and grab lunch before wandering up through SOHO and then into the East Village, where we find an absolutely adorable lunch spot (yes, we already ate lunch:) - Antique Garage. One of my oldest friends of all time, Jamie, is in town from Colorado with her mom, and they meet us for some drinks. Jamie and I grew up in the same town in Chicago and so it's fantastic seeing her here in NYC. Such a good dose of my past. We hang out and have a few amazing drinks in this very cool spot in SOHO - very classic NYC. After that we wander around and end up at my favorite store in SOHO - The Evolution Store. Amazing skeletons and fossils from all different life forms from all different ages of the earth's existence. As I'm in the store I get a call from my friend Paul's wife, Caroline. Paul was my boss at one of my past jobs (in SF), and we became very close and to this day I consider him one of my closest friends and mentors. He's in town to help his company, TubeMogul, go public on the Nasdaq. Amazing. Paul's wife Caroline is also great, and she is in town from SF with their two kids, Hoffman and Phoebe. Both adorable, smart, and funny. I invite them to the Evolution Store because I know the kids will love it. They come and we hang out and laugh and just catch up. Hoffman gets a shark tooth from 10 million years ago. Phoebe laughs and won't let go of my hand. Caroline then takes the kids uptown to meet some other friends, and Jamie, her mom, Gui, and I have a drink at a very cool old bar in SOHO (forgot the name). After that Gui and I head up to my Aunt's place to have some drinks and then head to dinner at Vermicilli. Paul, Caroline and their kids, Gui, my Aunt, and my buddy Adam, who I worked with at my most recent company, have an amazing dinner. Tons of laughs and discussion about travel, life, NYC. We linger for a while at the end of dinner and I see my aunt walk over to the concierge and pay the entire bill. I've seen her do this before because everyone in my family does this move, but this was very special and unexpected. The best part is that she comes back to the table and says she is tired and has to leave - not telling anyone she paid. Classic Aunt Jane move. So classy. So kind. I can't say enough how much I love my aunt. After dinner we laugh and drink some more, and then Paul and his family head out. The rest of us head to a wine bar, where we are joined by Jamie and her mom. So great! We hit a few bars on the upper east side before losing Adam and Jamie's mom and then heading down to the Fat Cat jazz club. It's funny, I always end up at this place when I'm in NYC. Informal. Cool. Musical. They have a ton of ping pong tables, pool tables, shuffle board, and there's always live jazz going on too. We have a few drinks and then everyone heads home. A perfect day and night in NYC!!

Friday we get up and order a pizza from my favorite place in NYC - a place called Italian Village on the upper east side (one block from my aunt's apartment). Gui and I then take the pizza, along with some drinks, and head into the great lawn in Central Park. Sophie has Friday off, so she brings a blanket and meets us for an amazing pizza picnic in my favorite place in NYC. People playing frisbee all around. Softball games. Kids playing. Kids painting (random). Tourists. Locals. Dogs. It's a great sunny day and we just enjoy sitting and soaking it all up. I sing one of my favorite No Goodbye songs for Sophie and Gui - was the highlight of the picnic for me. Feels amazing to sing for people, especially in such a nice setting (and for such good people). After lunch we head back to my aunt's apartment and have some drinks before heading to Brooklyn's Prospect Park for a free outdoor concert by Bebel Gilberto, who happens to be Brazilian (irony!). We meet some friends of Sophies and then head to a restaurant called Talde for some munchies with more of her friends. Very good people. Afterwards we get a few drinks at the Weather Up bar and then call it a night. So fun to hang out in Brooklyn - love it there. Not sure where I would live if I moved to NYC, but Brooklyn would be very high on my list (especially close to Prospect Park). Such a great place…

Saturday morning we get up and head back to Central Park (Gui and I). Ironically I have other friends in town from SF, so they meet me and we have drinks, laughs, and just enjoy the park for the afternoon. What a great way to spend the day - sitting and catching up in such a beautiful setting. I rush home after park-time to get dressed in more formal attire. I'm joining Sophie for her friend's wedding reception back in Brooklyn, so I hustle over there and then have an amazing night of dancing, pizza, laughing, and way too much glitter (they had a glitter station - so fun). Gui meets me there and then we all head to a shuffleboard bar nearby. Never been to a bar where you can play shuffleboard!! Such a great old-man game. We play for while, then hit a few more bars before calling it a night around 4am. By the time Gui and I got back to my aunt's it was about 5am (yes, we got lost), so we decided to get some late night (or early morning) food at the diner across from her apartment - a place called Gracie Mews. This diner has been here for about 30 years, and it never gets old. We eat and then are in bed by about 6am. This would be fine, but not if we are up at 9:30am in order to get a train out to Princeton to see my mom for lunch. Yes, we actually made it. Shocker. Met a fantastic mother-and-daugher duo on our train ride out to Princeton. The mother was probably in her late 70's and was a teacher at a Jewish University in NYC, and the daughter lived in Israel with her husband and three kids. We spoke about Brazil, Israel, travel, love, languages, and passions. The daughter actually told me to let her know when I'm in Israel in the winter because she and her family could show me around. So cool. My mom is there at the train station to pick us up - always a special treat for me. We have a fantastic lunch back at Hoagie Haven before hitting the road and heading up to Montreal. Apparently my mom's car guy didn't find anything wrong with my transmission, so I'm good to go!! Unfortunately they found a bunch of other little issues, but nothing that should wreak much havoc on my travels. Phew!

We drove about 7 hours up to Montreal, where I dropped Gui off at his hostel before turning around and driving back down another 1.5 hours to my cousins country house near Burlington, Vermont. I got in around 1:30am. This is such a special place for me. My Aunt Jane has only one daughter, and this is my cousin Ashley - who's house I am at right now. She married an Ohioan named Dan and they settled in this amazing country home here outside of Burlington. Their kids are named Jack and Addie, and I'm Jacks' godfather. You might remember them from the pictures from Vegas. We had a blast there and I'm so excited to spend the week here with them and just be a part of their lives.

I will have more updates each day now because I'll be a bit more low-key, but I hope this gives a good scope of what I've been up to the last week. What a trip. I'm happy that my friend Gui now knows NYC, and I'm even more happy that my timing was so perfect that it allowed me to see Jamie and her mom, Paul and his family, and even my buddy Mike from SF (who I hung in the park with on Saturday). Timing is everything in this life. I've learned this both the hard way and the easy way. Regardless, it's nice to be able to appreciate perfect timing while it's occurring.

I hope everyone is off to a great week!!