Unfortunately, the aforementioned quote is paraphrased. Her words are much more influential than the fragments of sentences I can remember from the book I read (in this cute little gardened square across the street from my building) for class last week. But alas, like the smart college student I (hopefully) am ... instead of buying the book for myself, I borrowed a copy from a friend in class and read it all hours before our discussion on it.
Regardless... I hope my point still comes across.
So this has got me thinking, in a city that is SO detached, so void of certain personal interactions (a smile on the street, playing with your puppy, a love affair with your highest pair of heels), that it is so funny how much endearment you take to your beverages of choice in New York City.
Let's begin.
My coffee back in Missouri comes from Starbucks. Always Starbucks. Student charge at Memorial or rather if I'm stuck in the J-School buildings (which is usually the case) then the 9th Street Starbucks. Tall, white mocha, nonfat, no whip. And on some days, let's make it a double. Okay and when I REALLY don't want to "pay" for it when I'm near downtown... I'll very seldom pop into the JCafe, which I must admit can make a fairly dece Mocha Latte. Still no whip.
In NYC, the options for coffee (pronounced caw-fee) are endless. There's a Starbucks on almost every corner or cute little cafe nooks littered everywhere between the forever-reaching strips of shopping (to be mentioned in a-whole-nother blog post). The point is: cawfee in this city is like the breakfast, lunch (and ... ehh... maybe not so much dinner -- that's a different drink to be mentioned shortly) of champions.
So, my cawfee in NYC. Well, that depends on the day of the week. I'm still a Starbucks girl through and through. And lucky for me, NYC has not failed me on proximity of the nearest sanctuary. I have an SBUX (as it refers to many times on my bank statements) no more than 500 feet from my building ... which if you haven't seen yet... looks like this:
Oh yes... the construction is quite lovely. And since I have yet to go into detail about my new neighborhood (the Financial District) here's a quick aside of nearby attractions for your enjoyment:
Good Burger.
New York Stock Exchange.
Staten Island Ferry.
Battery Park.
Really cool architecture.
Wall Street.
The Iron Horse - a slightly questionable bar.
South Street Seaport.
Hope you enjoyed the montage... that's only VERY few snapshots of what's nearby. Now back to our local programming:
Okay, so my cawfee depends on the day of the week. Saturday - Tuesday = my SBUX cawfee. No doubt about it. I try not to go every day... but as my friends have learned here -- I'm kind of like the "Don't talk to me until I've had my cawfee" McDonald's guy.
Now Wednesday - Friday: my office cawfee. There's like 8 different kinds, and every type of cream/ milk possible to add in the fridge nearby. And the best part about my office cawfee: it's free. Another (Central) perk about it: morning cawfee chatter.
See, the cawfee machine at the office is like hmm... how do I put this... Switzerland. It's neutral territory. It's in the dead center-most part of the office, and when you're in front of the cawfee machine, time stands still for a few minutes. You choose your cawfee packet, load up the machine, fill up with your desired creamery and sugar, and chat with co-workers. You don't worry about the day full of work ahead, or what story you need to start on next. You simply gossip about SATC2 reviews or what you did last weekend.
So that's just the morning and afternoon favorite slurps of the city. And trust me, if you really want to put New York in shambles, I think all you'd have to do would be to remove cawfee from the city, and soon everyone would go mad.
Another thing that better not go missing: booze. Now, I don't want to sound like an alcky, so hear me out. All I'm saying is that New Yorkers LOVE their Happy Hour. And Happy Hour is generally from 4 - 8. Anytime after that... we'll you better buck up. Happy Hour is so prevalent in this city, that many employers have taken to the term "Summer Friday." See... "Summer Fridays" are a common practice where the workplace closes down by 3 - 3:30 on a Friday. Workers gather together to do God knows what, but mainly, enjoy a Happy Hour with their friends and colleagues.
I thought I understood the reasoning of people talking about "my get home from work beer" but let's be honest... nope I didn't. It wasn't until the look I saw on my roommate Morgan's face, as she came home from work to find me sitting on my bed in my tight pencil skirt, computer on my lap, Bud Light bottle balanced on my bed post, that I realized ... whoa. NOW I understand. Now I need "my get home from work beer."
So whether it be in a good ol' cup of joe, a mid-evening cocktail or SATC-esque night on the town ... I now know how New Yorkers make it through the day. Even if we have no personal connection to the thousands of sneakers we gaze at while rushing to the Subway, there is still some sort of connection here we all feel to at least one thing -- we can all agree -- we love that little ounce of sanity served up in every cup of our cawfees and our cawktails.
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