A new york full circle

So I’m back at Gay Street (sniggers, snigers).

I’m now on the hunt for the perfect Magnolia Bakery cupcake and I’m somewhat lost in the village.

Since the roads here are not in grinds, I wound up going in circles and landed up at Gray’s hotdog. For old time’s sake, I had two hot dogs standing by the windows, looking at harried New Yorkers (on a saturday) hurry by to attend to their one thousand and one things… new york new york new york.

While chomping down the hot dogs (hey running around makes me hungry) ,  I  realised that I had hunted down Gray’s after doing my intensive tourist’s research 8 years ago. Since I was a student at that time, something iconic, interesting and most importantly cheap was crucial. Hot dogs were so… new york to me as a tourist. Eating those hot dogs while surveying the scene seemed so quintessentially new york.

But eating the hot dogs, they were a little too salty, a little too processed. It seemed very 60s new york rather than the gourmet fixated new york now. With the ibankers moving in, star chefs taking over restaurants, NYC is less about the gritty and more about the glamour.

And so, Magnolia.

Everybody knows Magnolia, everybody wants to be Carrie (okie fine, all girls and gay men), everybody wants to feel like they are on top of things. Magnolia was the it snack a few years ago and I’m eating it late, but I’m from Boston, so I got an excuse.

So I shoved my way in, elbowed 3 Japanese tourists, stared down a New Yorker trying to muscle in on my cupcakes and finally got my stash. $15 for 5 cupcakes, yes, it’s that insane.

But now walking down Bleecker, the small indie shops are gone and are all replaced by Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs and Marc Jacobs (hands up who’s not sick of his endless nekkidness). I walked into one of them and women were fighting over skimpy tshirts with clever slogans… hmmm.. that’s so … LA isn’t it?

The masses have gone rich and wealth has to be shown. Of course only showing your wealth/smarts/coolness/bullshit in a clever wink wink itshirt/itbag/itdog/itsomething.

Everybody wants their cupcake and eat it too.

So how was your weekend?

It’s the irony of the modern day urbanite.

You just had a really stressful week of deadlines, meetings and pesky colleagues. It’s 5pm on Friday and you’re getting ready to pack up and leave. You turn off the laptop, pick up your office bag and suddenly you’re confounded by another type of stress…

“What shall I do this weekend?”

You didn’t plan anything and now it’s Friday night.

The horrors – there’s nothing going on tomorrow or the day after that.

OMG. Panic.

It was with dread that I realized I didn’t plan anything this weekend. There wasn’t the usual get togethers with friends nor was there the dim sum brunches I would sometimes do. Heck, there wasn’t even a wino vegout session I throw together when I’m feeling bored.

There’s just … nothing.

Thankfully,  one good thing about staying around Boston is the landscape. I now live in north Medford, surrounded by two really big nature reserves. I have walked around and jogged in them when the weather was warmer and now I have found another way to enjoy the scenery.

Drive through it!

Since today was a wet cold rainy day, I decided to head out to get some books to tide me through the night. Nothing like curling up in bed reading, while sipping hot tea. On my way to the store, I drove through Middlesex Fells and Lynn Fellsway, two really pretty stretches of road that New Englanders call parkways.

Apparently, New England (along with New York) has plenty of parkways, smaller roads that meander through parks and green spots. These roads are also exclusive to passenger cars and thus less stressful than highways or city roads.

With the fall season, leaves turn fiery shades of yellow, orange and red and coat the side of the roads with such beautiful scenery.

Okay okay, that’s not Lynn Fellsway. But it’s as close a photo I can find on the net….

New England is pretty in the fall. No doubt about it.

That is perhaps one of the pleasures living overseas. Something so ordinary to Americans can bring me so much pleasure.