Rain drops keep fallin on my head

“Don't ever change, don't ever worry
Because I'm coming back home tomorrow
To 14th Street where I won't hurry
Where I'll learn how to save not just borrow
And they'll be rainbows
And we will finally know”

- Rufus Wainwright, “14^th Street”

That is a verse from 14^th Street, a song by Rufus Wainwright. I have always loved that song, and now I know that it’s about 14^th Street in New York City(thanks, Wikepedia). That’s the street I live on! No matter where I am here, I feel a part of something bigger. So many songs, so many movies, so many great people, so many historic moments have graced the very streets I walk on every day. Every little thing feels monumental, and no matter what I’m doing, just the fact that I’m in NYC is enough to make me feel great.

Talking about things that make me feel great, we went to a great concert on Central park this past Saturday. It was a free concert, so we waited in a huge line under the smokin hot sun, and in the midst of some interestingly dressed people. A pair of orange leggings, some red shorts, and bright blue shoes seem to stick out in my memory. After an hour of standing in the line that moved about 4 feet, we finally made our way into the park, and it started to rain. At first it was all good fun. Things were starting to get damp, but it was a great break from the sun. But then, it started to pour and the umbrellas came out and it was really hard to catch a glimpse of the first opening band, whose name I can’t remember anymore. They were all right. We were soaked before the next act began. After probably more than an hour of downpour, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Everything wet just seems a lot prettier in the sun, and I love the smell of soil after a rain, so I was feeling great at this point. And my hair was staring to die, what more could I ask for? The second opening act was Kid Sister… Oh my god, she is the most annoying singer I have ever heard, and I’m counting my brother and Sophie in that. Thankfully she only did about 3 songs. 3 terrible, terrible songs. One of them was about getting a manicures and pedicures, so you get the picture. To everyone’s great annoyance, it started to pour again during the main act, Vampire Weekend. They’re a sweet indie rock 4 guy band. All the guys are Columbia graduates, and they’re quite cute, so I was thoroughly entertained. Definitely worth getting soaked twice for. Plus, all the people who stuck around through the rain were much more appreciative of the music. Overall, I give the experience a 10 out of 10. The rain, as annoying as it was, added a lot to the music and the waiting. It turned the concert into something special that we will all probably remember for a long time. And although I wouldn’t want to go through that again, I wouldn’t do it any different if I had to redo it.

That night after we dried up at home, we went to China Town to get dinner. And, it was raining all over again. Damn the rain. I was really tired to being wet by this point, but dinner was great. We ended the night with Little Miss Sunshine. One of my suitemates hadn’t seen it and that was not acceptable so we watched it.

Let me back track here a little bit, something quite interesting happened on Friday night. After work, four of us decided to go the Met for a couple of hours. Tickets were free for NYU medical center students/faculty! We spend a couple of hours there, definitely not enough, but we’ll go back. But anyway, as interesting as that was, the best (or worst) was yet to come. We got back all tired and had dinner and then decided to see what the other folks were up to. Turned out, many of them were waiting to get into a bar/restaurant, so we found them. We had asked for a table for 12, which we got after about 45 minutes of waiting on the street. Upon getting into the tiny, over-crowded, and over-rated place, we figured out that there were over 14 of us. So we all tried to sqeeze into the 12 kid sized chairs they had for us. But oh no, the waiters would have none of that. They actually refused to serve us because our group was larger then we’d told them. Basically, they either wanted some of us to leave, or for all of us to wait all over again to be served. Seriously, that has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever encountered. How does that make any business sense? We’d be the ones who’d be uncomfortable, and they’d be the ones making more money if they had let us stay. How does it make any sense to ask people who want to pay you to leave? I don’t know, but it was annoying so Jeannette and I decided to leave and watch Pan’s Labyrinth instead. It was a great choice, especially after I heard reports about the night from one of the two sober people present there.

New York probably has one of the heaviest alcohol consumption rates (besides New Orleans) in the country, but the bars around here are actually very strict about carding. It seems that going to a bar is all people (by people, I mostly mean students) do for fun in the evenings. That is, if you disregard all the touristy stuff and all expensive stuff. Still, access to bars isn’t nearly as easy as for underage folks as it is in Athens. That said, NYU itself is actually very open with alcohol. The Sackler Institute has a happy hour every Friday, and the Skirball Institute (the part of Sackler I work in) has a happy hour every Thursday. Both these events have free alcohol and no one cares who’s drinking it, as long as they’re students. Completely opposite from the way things seem to work at UGA.

After all the excitement on Friday and Saturday, Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I did laundry and bought grocery. Nothing much happened till around 4 p.m. when I got a call from… Chris Flippo! Also know as Chuck, but only by me. He was in the city for the Peabody awards and he came over for a few hours. Best few hours ever! We walked around NYU’s downtown campus, which I’m not that familiar with because I work at the Medical Center in midtown. It is so much fun to see friends in a completely different geographical setting! Ah! Melanie, KJ and Andrew are all supposed to come see me at some point. I can’t wait!

On Monday, after a hard days work, Bryan, Jeanette and I decided to go watch Dr. No at Bryant park. They do outdoor movies on Mondays during the summer. And guess what, it rained again! But this time it wasn’t too bad and we had all remembered to bring our umbrellas having learned our lessons from the concert. So it ended up being great fun.

And speaking of rain, we got rained on again today on the way to and from dinner. I’m tired of being wet and cold every time we go out. I wish the rain gods would stop already.