How do you escape when you
can't go anywhere? And when, worse yet, it seems that everyone else is packing
their bags for yet another weekend in the Hamptons? Hot and bitter are great
qualities in a cup of coffee, but less attractive in a New Yorker. Here are
a few tips for keeping the mean reds away when you're stuck behind the bars
of your brownstone while everyone else is fleeing the city (albeit at 2.5 mph
in outbound traffic):
- Indulge
in a few uncharitable thoughts. A lifetime of this sort of thing will
give you wrinkles, but a few choice cracks about McMansions can be positively
refreshing.
Ride a
ferry. You'll feel like you've been somewhere even if you just take a
round trip to Weehawken and back.
Chase the
Mr. Softee truck. And bring back the days when your capacity for happiness
was greater than your capacity for disappointment.
Explore
the city. Make a list of a dozen places you've never been in the city*,
and go to one place each Saturday. *Extra points for outer boroughs. Did you
know that Staten Island hosts one of the world's best collections of Tibetan
art?
Movies.
Think your commute is bad? Go see March of the Penguins and then
come talk to me.
Get over
yourself. Volunteering helps with this--I've found I can stop thinking
about my own "luxury problems" for whole minutes at a time this
way.
Have a
party. Believe it or not, you're not the only one stuck in the city this
weekend. Whether it's inviting a couple of people over to watch Escape
From New York, or throwing a full-on hula party in your studio, misery
loves company.
Which reminds me...we're
having a party this evening and I haven't even started the potted shrimp....
(SGH)
Photo credit: Pitt
Chronicle
"And what are you doing this weekend?"
For me, that question is the worst part of staying in NYC, especially after the other party has just shared their exciting out-of-town plans. During this past week I DID escape, going to visit a friend who has a rental on Fire Island for a couple of days. Yesterday at the end of my trip as I was going to catch the ferry back to LI, what did my friend ask but THE QUESTION.
Yes, I'm staying in Brooklyn this weekend. No, I have no plans outside of a bike ride and dinner on the grill. Guess that makes me the loser.
Being in NYC on the weekends makes me the winner.
My city ALL MINE!
Getting around is easier, and there's a ton of great summer music. Last night, The Sound of Music played in Prospect Park. We happened to be walking the dogs, and heard "Doe A Deer" through the trees. THEN, the thundering screaming din when the song was over.
FUNNY!
We wished it was the goat herd song instead, but too bad we didn't want to stick around.
p.s. Lila Downs at Central Park Summerstage this Sunday should be a pretty great show.
NYC is so much nicer with a reduced population . . .
i think a bike ride and dinner on the grill makes you a winner. can't imagine a nicer way to spend a lazy summer day.
d*s
(ps: we'd kill for a place with a backyard we could grill in...ahh..grilling)
I'm not going to share all the wonderful things I've found to do in the city on the weekend, because I don't want my favorite places to be swamped any more than they already are.
Bad, bad citizen.
Just came back from one of those "hidden" treasures that happens to be right in my neighborhood.
If you get off at Dyckman street on the "A" train (Inwood) and head West to the River you come to a restaurant/bar/pier with the most amazing views of the Hudson and the GWB. It's a very nice place to have a drink or eat a burger. And such an unexpected little corner of NYC. I was in the neighborhood for several months without realizing it was there:
http://www.washington-heights.us/history/archives/dyckman_street_boat_basin_113.html
Guido,
I saw Lila Downs at the Paramount in Seattle a while ago, and she was GREAT! Have fun.
OK, it's not exactly fun, because I still can just barely stand going to the gym, but since the only thing I hate more is for it to be crowded there, there was absolutely NO ONE on ANY of the elliptical machines, so I had my pick. And on my way out of there, they handed me a free water bottle.
Mind you, it had a logo of a boxing movie on it, which kind of made me almost laugh out loud, because if there is anything I would never do, other than go swimming, it would be to box, or to attend a boxing match, or to watch a movie about it. It's funny enough that going to a "gym" is even a tiny thing I might have in common with that.
Make dinner for somebody. Even if you're not outdoors, as long as you have A/C, you can invite a few people over, especially older people. They love a nice dinner out with good company. I did that tonight and I had a great time.
It seems like every time we have a party, after all the guests have gone we discover one dish that never made it out of the fridge. This time it was an enormous batch of Erica's delicious guacamole. But it didn't go to waste: tonight we had an indoor picnic with our upstairs neighbors. They provided the ginger-basil chicken thighs and we brought the guacamole and leftover mango salsa (the potted shrimp got all scarfed up). It's great to relax as a guest after the welcome work of hosting, and since our picnic was inside, we didn't have to worry about ants and weather!
I'm a big fan of day trips on public transportation, like ...
Wave Hill in the Bronx
The Cloisters
Long Beach, LI
Spring Lake, NJ
Hudson, NY
The Bronx Zoo in the fall (never summer)
I just got back from a long day at Ocean Grove too.
This is probably a cliche but the reason I came to nyc in the first place was to live in the big city. I always wondered why ppl left in the summer to the countryside or to some beach 3 hours away when (a) the countryside is what I tried to escape (though I do enjoy going back home to the English countryside now for brief periods) and (b) the typical British vacation was to another country like Greece, Spain, France, etc. so the notion of going to a local beach just seemed like not much of a vacation.
Having said that, I do realize that the Hamptons are more upscale than Coney Island, for example, but still, I can't help shaking that image of the local beach as a substitute for a "real" vacation. Bear in mind that vacations in the European countries I mentioned from the UK are cheap (in the low 100's for a couple of weeks including air fare and hotel accommodation) so my mental comparison still stands in my mind :p
Having said all that, it does seem that a lot of the feelings of being left out are due to living in a place like nyc where you have to be seen to be doing the right things, going to the right places, wearing the right clothes etc. and the Sunday Style section of the Nytimes reported on this just this past weekend here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/fashion/sundaystyles/31VACATION.html?
Now as some of us said in the past here
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/main/archives/002287.html
This is no way to find happiness because there will always be someone richer than you, better looking, thinner, more famous, cooler etc. so this is no way to live life.
Instead, take some of the advice posted here and explore areas of nyc that you have never gone to before, enjoy dinner at places that are normally packed, invite friends around for a party or go with them to an outdoor restaurant or bar and really make an effort to enjoy nyc in the summer.
I've been stuck in the city for the last couple of years, so no Hamptons/Europe for me. I like my little house and I really don't feel like I need an escape from NYC, even when the weather is horrible. Give me another ten years and I might change my mind...
I took the Staten Island ferry for the first time this month. It's a lovely, relaxing ride and you get a great view of the harbor and we had a nice breeze going. It was much nicer than my communte to work. I was going to my friend's house for a barbecue so I didn't get to explore, but I'm sure there are little places to eat and little shops to visit right near the ferry...