Tuesday, September 2, 2008

All Alone in the Big City

Cara has been called to work this week, which means I have to plan my own New York adventures and motivate myself to get out of the apartment and actually go on them.  So far, I'm acing the planning.  But seeing as though I've been up for a couple of hours now and am still in my pajamas and glasses, I can't say the doing part is going very well. 

Yesterday, upon my return from Carrie's wedding in Vermont, Cara and I decided to take a trip to Coney Island, the birthplace of the hot dog (possibly invented by Jewish people!).  It was quite the experience.  I have never seen a beach that crowded before.   I have also never seen a beach that dirty before.  I guess I'm spoiled, coming from Oregon and all (I consider Seaside dirty), but there was trash everywhere.  Still, I had a good time.  There was great people watching, and again, coming from Oregon, where the white people roam, it was really different seeing such a diverse crowd, different in a good way.  Unfortunately, we were too full from brunch for hot dogs, but I did get in some ocean frolicking (don't worry, there was a pre-frolic phone check.  I've learned my lesson).  I'm not sure I need to go back to the CI anytime soon, but I would recommend it:  not necessarily for the beach, but for the experience.

Besides visiting Coney Island, I experienced another first this weekend:  going to a wedding where I don't know anyone.  Technically, I knew some people.  Like the bride.  And her family.  And her aunt and uncle we stayed with in Michigan while driving cross country.  And I did meet some of her friends at the bachelorette party.  But I had no real friends there, which made me nervous at first, but in the end was fine.  I generally enjoy meeting new people, and nothing makes schmoozing easier than some brewskies and an 80s cover band.  Plus, seeing as though my plans for the wedding changed last minute and everyone felt bad for me, I got upgraded to rehearsal dinner attendee (on a tour boat on Lake Champlain) and ended up staying at the bride's mom's house (the farm where the wedding was held).  I do have one teensy complaint about the wedding though.  Malia and I were specifically told guests were not to bring dates.  I'm a little confused about this, however, because basically everyone there brought a date.  Obviously, some of the dates were actually fiances, but I sort of did some asking around, and it seems like no one else got the no date memo.  Which is fine.  You would likely need a fiance in order to find someone to accompany you to middle of nowhere VT for a wedding where they will know no one, but my issue with the whole idea is how do you determine when a relationship is "significant" enough for it to slide through a loophole to a "no guests!" wedding?I understand the whole money issue, but it just seems to me that when you do have a wedding where the majority of attendees will be couples, both invited to the wedding either outright or as an acceptable guest, it doesn't really make sense to tell the minority of invitees that they can't bring a date.  Anyway, thats just my opinion.  It was a really beautiful wedding (there was even a bagpipper in a kilt), and even though it ended up being a bit of a hassle getting there, I am really happy I was able to go.  Plus, there was steak. 

I need to get going.  The longer I sit in here, the hotter it gets out there.