6

It's such a beautiful day today - clear blue skies, cool air, nice breezes. At home, this would be the day just at the beginning of fall that I would go out with Chloe, lay on the Horseshoe, and admire the way the sunlight and the trees dapple the grass. There are parks here, and they are beautiful, but there's nothing quite like walking to the middle of your university and just feeling deeply a part of something. College is fun like that.

There were two hipster/punk girls in the 59th Street station the other day - we're talking pin-up girl tattoos, the crazy '50s-inspired dress, even stocking tattoos. The whole nine yards. And I really wanted to grab one of them and ask them in all seriousness, "you know where you are, right? Like, you're aware that this is Sunset Park?"

Speaking of Sunset Park, Stanley asked me last night where I lived. I told him I was under the impression it went by the name of Sunset Park, although the divisions within divisions of neighborhoods have me more and more confused, and that it was really just a part of Bay Ridge as far as I was concerned (and as it was advertised on Craigslist). He goes, "Sunset Park. I took a wrong turn once on my bike and couldn't stop and ended up there. It was like, I went from pretty Park Slope, then started seeing a lot more unsafe areas and unused parking lots, and then suddenly it just looked like everything had been bombed out." And I was like, yep, that's Park Slope.

Funny story - I was on the phone tonight, wrapping up a pretty serious conversation. I pull up to a red light and sit for a minute, thinking through the call and whatnot, glance over, and see a cop. I look back down the road, but after a second he beeps his siren at me. I glance back over, and he's got his hand up in the international "phone" symbol. I rolled down my window just as I'm realizing what he's getting at, shaking his head no at me. "What, it's not illegal to talk on the phone in South Carolina?" he says, laughing a little. I'm like, "Sir, they just made ˆtextingˆ illegal." He goes, "alright, don't call me sir, and use the speakerphone." I was like, mmkay!

I feel like a retrospective is in order. Or something like that. It's a little early yet - I still have a week and a half left in the city, or something like that - but I feel like it's about time for me to evaluate my general experience. Do I regret things? Do I wish I'd done more? Do I wish I'd exposed myself to more experiences? So on and so forth. Maybe that'll be the next blog, or whenever I next feel inspired to that kind of eloquence. Not tonight.