i got friends in high places...

the 27th floor of a condo building on the lower west side of manhattan, actually, just a few blocks from the stock exchange and the WTC site. here's the view from his spacious studio:

i'm incredibly lucky the view is so gorgeous since i'm tied to the computer all day today to finish my paper for london. i'm tempted to take another nap on the rooftop skydeck, though... the view there is even more impressive - you can see all the way south to the harbor and the hudson river as well as all the way north over "the pit" and towards the empire state building. i counted 15 cranes at work on the new tower and memorial site. last night, some friends went out to stone street (a cobblestone street with tables where traffic would be right in the heart of the financial district) and then watched fireworks from the roof. maybe practicing for the 4th of july? no one was sure, but i was overjoyed to see the show since i'll be gone in july.

this morning i ran along the river up into "highline park" (a park built onto an abandoned elevated rail line) and then over to terri, a restaurant that serves gluten-free wraps and sandwiches. delicious! on my long walk back, i worked my way through chelsea, greenwich village, soho and tribeca before walking through two churches just next to the WTC site: st.paul's chapel which is right across the street and was where people hung pictures and mementos of loved ones lost after september 11 and is the only colonial building left in new york - george washington prayed his inauguration. the place was crammed full of tourists walking through the building to see exhibits from the weeks after the attacks. i don't know why exactly, but it bothered me to see tour guides and people taking pictures. it seemed tacky somehow - like not the way you should treat a sacred space. trinity church, just down the street, has a Revolutionary War era cemetery and is where Alexander Hamilton (my historical crush) is buried. tonight, paul and his boyfriend prad are going to dinner with me at a pizza place that is totally gluten-free and then tomorrow i leave for london after a lunch stop in brooklyn to see zena.

there is so much to see and do in new york, but i've been grateful to have to rely on less touristy moments to get my fix while i work to get the paper done.

blessings in disguise

i know there are lots of cliches about how people know they're getting older, but i've definitely been feeling one quite strongly lately and that is the joy of being home. i have always loved to travel and likely will always have at least a dash of wanderlust flowing through my veins, yet my tolerance for back-and-forth jostling-without-stopping has rapidly diminished in the past couple of years. commuting every week to chicago has no doubt contributed to this. though i was incredibly happy to have more time with windy city family and friends, sitting in rush hour traffic or inching past construction as the left side of my body burns into a "driver's side tan" is not really how i want to spend my days.

i'm never going to like that kind of commute. and i do definitely want to be home more than i am. but as my summer gears up (one international trip down, two to go), i want to remember about how seemingly frustrating and awful situations can sometimes be absolutely incredible blessings in disguises. and, even when they're not, isn't it better to have the hope that they will be?

take this story from my recent trip to toronto with friends to visit one of our buddies who just graduated and returned to her native land. we were out and about on our second night there - ate at a great restaurant, had a few delicious cocktails, and then got a ride home in a taxi where my wallet decided not to fall back into my purse but instead onto the cab's floor after supplying money for the fare. i had no idea this happened until i woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning to check email. a random man had sent me a message telling me he had found my wallet on the street and that he would leave it for me at his condo's front desk if it was mine. i couldn't believe it - his email had been sent not even a half hour after we had gotten home. i had no idea my wallet was even missing. convinced that it was a close call and nothing more, we enjoyed our day in the city and picked up the wallet after lunch. alas. though all of my bank cards and licenses and library cards and $5 coupons to tex tubb's were there, the $100 i had in a side pocket was gone. i got worried that whoever had taken it could easily have written down the numbers of my credit cards, so i called the banks and was relieved to find that no charges had been made to my account since the loss.

oh, but there had been many charges made in the week prior. many, many charges. for hotel rooms in san francisco. for $3000. that's three zeroes after that three. my bank has been amazing in filing a claim, reversing the charges, and starting an investigation so i'm not worried about getting the money back. i wasn't frustrated or even that angry about the theft (though i am a bit jealous - i've never been to san francisco and the hotels are way nicer than anything i would stay in). mostly, i am shocked and relieved and amazed and almost giddy about how serendipitous the whole event was. think about it: if i hadn't left my wallet in the cab and if some random drunk dude hadn't taken the cash in it before tossing it out and if some other more honest drunk dude hadn't picked it up to return to me and i hadn't called my bank, i wouldn't have figured out that i was being e-robbed 21st-century style until i was in london or kampala standing in front of an ATM wondering where all my money had gone and how the heck i was going to get anywhere. i found out exactly when i needed to so i could fix the problem without any trouble and have time to get all the cards replaced before my trip.

so thank you, drunk dude with my $100. what could have ruined my trip to toronto ended up saving my trips to london and uganda. there is a good life lesson there to remember as i'm sitting in traffic or, in the coming weeks, crammed into a stiff plane seat or grumpy about some inconvenience or discomfort or misfortune that comes my way. maybe that's another cliche about getting older - realizing that things aren't always what they seem. i'm not sure i've totally grown into that adage yet... even more than understanding that something bad might be good and vice versa, i still believe that things usually turn out great if you just wait long enough to see it through. i'd still rather see blessings than curses in disguise.