Summertime Sadness

Summer is a wonderful time of year here, my favorite in fact. I am a Summer; I thrive in it. It may feel like it only lasts a few short weeks in NYC, but we really make the most of it with trips to the beach, street festivals and markets, and plenty more fun outdoor activities. My parents and brother visited (pics in my last post) at the tail end of summer, when the temperatures literally ranged from lows in the 50’s and highs in the 90’s while Mother Nature transitioned into fall. The weather gets cooler with every passing day and I feel an annual sense of anxiety come upon me as I realize winter is on its way, and, without the sun, my hair will be turning a brownish gray. I need to remember that just because the calendar is about to read October doesn’t mean there’s nothing to look forward to until next spring.

The city has been abuzz over NY Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, which ended last week. There’s also the annual Feast of San Gennaro festival which was crazy packed last year when Jen and I went.  We actually walked my family right through the setup for it a few weeks ago in Little Italy. There are fall street festivals and markets, the NY Film Festival, and the Village Halloween Parade to look forward to. The parade had us both surprised at the amount of shocking, avant-garde costumes the first time we visited.



Apples from upstate that we got at Union Market on 7th Ave, Park Slope

But this year I think I’ll try focusing on the everyday things to get me through my farewell to summer. Seasonal items are already back (and I’m not referring to the McRib) like what is possibly the best thing to ever be served seasonally: the pumpkin spice latte. As much as I should be supporting local coffee shops, I’ll probably be getting most of mine from our Dunkin Donuts down the street. There’s also the stunning aesthetic and crunch under your feet provided by the colorful fall leaves that cover the ground.  And, most notably, fresh NY state apples create some of my favorite treats of all like ciders, crisps, cobblers, and pies.  Jen best get to bakin’!

The coming holidays, edible opportunities, and aesthetically pleasing changes that take place over this stretch provide an immense amount of inspiration to write and share. Although working full time does get in the way somewhat, I hope to have many great stories to share with you from NYC this fall.

 

South Slope/Gowanus I Think?

The boundaries that outline the already huge neighborhood of Park Slope seem be in a state of expansion as people, and especially property owners, want some “slope” in the title of their place of residence. Our new neck of the woods here in Brooklyn, known at this time as something like South Slope/ Gowanus, is a mix of young professionals, Hispanics and hipsters. Much like Long Island City, we hear from Brooklyn natives that this area has gone through some really incredible gentrification in the past decade. So far we have felt very safe and at home here.  

With moving to a new part of NYC comes a strange sort of pressure that I must discover all that the new neighborhood has to offer, ASAP. I mean really, there seems to be so much to do and so little time, especially as a rookie 9-5er. The summer season only adds to this, as warm weather means there are even more events to consider. I’m attempting to soak up as much as I can about what goes on in our new nabe by noticing local papers and fliers in businesses, following Twitter feeds like Brooklyn News and reading local blogs like Park Slope Stoop. I even joined a couple of local groups on meetup.com.

While scrolling though different Brooklyn event websites on my phone during a lunch break this week, I realized that many great local resources were recommending the free NY Philharmonic concert in Prospect Park last night. So around eight, we strolled up 14^th St to the park and enjoyed a picnic dinner at the Long Meadow ball fields with a soundtrack of live classical music. The warm summer breeze, bright fireflies, and the thousands of our newest neighbors surrounding us made our decision to move to Brooklyn feel very right.

I'm running out of power on my laptop and my eyelids are getting pretty heavy, so you'll have to wait to hear about our new dog walker... talk to you soon!

LIC Flea And Food

Starting this weekend and running every weekend this summer, Long Island City is home to the newest flea and food market in NYC, LIC Flea and Food. The market is conveniently just one block away from our apartment in a large open lot next to an industrial building... surprising since we have always said that nothing ever happens on our end of Vernon Blvd. Well we stand corrected! The heavy foot traffic around our apartment and up Vernon Blvd was quite the contrast to the norm. Although we're leaving the nabe (officially recognized as short for naighborhood by Merriam-Websters dictionary) in 2 weeks, I hope this market helps bring some much needed shopping to LIC anyway.  

While there we enjoyed some good food and found many items for sale from local artists and vendors that we might'v bought if we weren't moving (and didn't already have too much stuff!), all while taking in the views of the Manhattan skyline and the summer breeze coming from the East River. Pup came along and enjoyed sampling a little of everything off the ground and giving passing dogs the stink eye.

We finally committed to and booked a moving company to help us on July 1st. We did a lot more packing this weekend, I think we're up to 19 large boxes, and our apartment is starting to feel like Manhattan Mini Storage. We also bought a new couch this weekend that will be delivered the first Saturday that we're in our new apartment, July 6th. Maybe I'll load some pics of it in my next post... :)

Oh ya, I just remembered today that a week or two ago Jen and I had a celeb sighting. While walking Pup down our very own Vernon Blvd we spotted actress Meredith Scott Lynn sitting near the window at one of our favorite restaurants, Blend. For me anyway, she's one of those actors that's in a lot of things, but I can't place her in any one particular thing. I looked her up on IMDB and, just to name a few, she's starred in the movies Legally Blonde and Night At The Roxbury and the TV shows Days of Our Lives, Weeds, NCIS, and Law and Order: LA.