my neighborhood.

Ever since I posted about it a few weeks ago, I have been thinking a lot about what makes me so feel at home in the city lately. I think what especially makes my present neighborhood feel familiar is the fact that certain places I frequent a lot know me by name or by my order. Leo's bagels knows I sometimes stroll in wearing glasses during the weekend, my doorman tells me to have fun when I head to Brooklyn on Wednesday mornings to babysit... this a big big place and the Financial District can sometimes feel very anonymous as so many people commute in and head back out home to their respective suburb or borough by 6 pm. However, it can after all be quite easy to carve yourself out as a familiar face and create a neighborhood out of such a place with a smile, some witty banter... and consistent orders (apparently).

a cheap, fun day.

I recently completed my master's degree and am on the job hunt, so in the meantime I am pinching [some] pennies while loving all this new found free time to explore and enjoy my city! I wanted to share with you one of my favorite low cost New York City days...


First stop:
425 6th Avenue
(between 10th St. and 9th St.)
A favorite New York treasure of mine is the Jefferson Market Library, it is a part of the New York Public Library system. It is a beautiful old building with a winding staircase and stained glass windows. Formerly a courthouse, police station, and served as a look out for firefighters-- it has a strong history and place in the West Village. I am an avid reader and usually digest a book in a matter of days. I love the freedom of  trying  different types of books or genres, and exploring new authors without the financial commitment of a $25 hardcover. (although from time to time, I've been known to run late and owe a dollar or two...I chuck it up as a donation to their dwindling budget.)


Next...
113 Lexington Avenue (between 27th St. and 28th St.)
A walk over and up for lunch at Haandi on Lex (nothing like a mile walk cross town to burn your lunch off before you even have it.) It is a legitimate hole in the wall Indian restaurant recommended to me by a friend a few years back. For only $8 you get a meat and two veggies with naan and a delicious salad- plus free pitchers of water at the tables. I have always walked away belly-rubbing-stuffed. It was the first place I really ventured into Indian food... and I am a super picky eater. 


Third stop:
East 26th Street  (between 3rd Ave. and 2nd Ave.)
I love Niu Nails. 5 dollar manicures and 10 dollar pedicures. It is located on the south side of 26th street  and in order to access it you have to walk under a long green awning and through an ivy lined walk way. It feels like you are entering a secret garden.  For 5 dollars don't expect a lot of frills or above and beyond service, (the entry way is the prettiest part of it) just basic  color and some pushed back (or cut!) cuticles- although they do use Essie polish (wicked= fall. ballet slippers = summer, or whenever you're tan). Their manicures last a solid week, always, and the pedicures sometimes even three weeks. The massaging pedicure chairs also serve as the perfect place to start reading your library finds...


Lastly...
Between Madison and Broadway/23rd and 26th.
Madison Square Park is so much more than Shake Shack. When it isn't overcrowded by burger lovers, it is such a peaceful place to let your nails dry and enjoy your new books! Overall the day costs less than 30 dollars- and you were able to indulge and get pampered a little bit--on both the inside and outside.

home.

"The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding."

-John Updike

I live a double life. I am a born and bred Jersey girl, I date a Jersey boy, I spend my summers "down the shore"- where I sometimes even fist pump. However, as my sixth year of living in NYC approaches I find myself feeling more and more at home in its streets and am slowly shedding the layer of that other state.

A few days ago I was laying in my bed in my cozy (the NYC word for small) studio on the phone with a friend from Jersey and when they asked me where I was I said "home"- in the past I would've answered "my apartment" but now, it is simply home.

As I discussed in my first post, I love movies-- I love feeling connected to a characters thoughts and words. It makes me feel less alone when someone else adequately, more adequately than I usually can, describes a feeling or experience I relate to. In the movie Garden State Zach Braff's character, Andrew Largeman, says "You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore?" That was a point in my life I was dreading, actually. However- now that I am there it brings a sense of accomplishment and pride. I have created a life for myself, a home, a place where I belong and love and want to stay. I will always have that New Jersey connection, I will always say "159" when people ask what exit I live off of the Parkway (and they do...), but to move back would not be returning home but rather leaving home.