Sunday in the LES....

Today I awoke in a slightly delirious state. I saw the sun rising before I went to bed which has a special way of throwing off your equilibrium for the whole day. While I could have stayed in bed all day David persuaded me to get out and go have brunch in the Lower East Side.

Over the past year this has become one of my favorite places to hang out and I don't do nearly enough of it. Within New York there are so many different areas, each with something different to offer but to me the Lower East Side is so unique. I love walking around and seeing all of the abandoned buildings and the whole area in this transitional state. There are the people walking around who have lived there all of their life and have witnessed the changes as they progress. In a place like Chinatown you see people walking around who have every business and their whole life within a ten block radius, essentially they could never leave that area and have more than enough to survive. That's probably true of any NY neighborhood but we are all spoiled and want to see the world.

As I travel around the city and the world I sometimes don't stop and think about how fortunate I am to have all of these opportunities to visit different cultures. Even in New York there is such a melting pot of cultures, one that most people in the country never get to see. The LES really exemplifies this idea to me. That has always been its place from the time New York began with the tenements being a low income housing option for immigrants and I am sure that is what initiated it as such an eclectic area. You realize though how difficult it is to maintain that eclecticism in the burgeoning world of corporate America. I don't want this to sound like some weird rant about chain stores and commercial products because I use them just as much as the next person, but it really does feel special to find independent restaurants and stores thriving.

Today as we sat in the restaurant on the corner looking out at all of the businesses with Chinese lettering on their storefronts something about it just felt so neighborhood-y. The world cup was being viewed by cheering locals who had gathered with their friends and families on a overcast Sunday afternoon. I didn't feel like I was in New York. When everyone is constantly running to the next place, or on the subway rushing to your job, I kind of forget that stopping and taking it all in is okay.

That's exactly what we did though after lunch as we headed aimlessly through the Village. We ended up in Tompkins Square park and sat on park benches trying to think of goals for the next year. That's a fairly loaded question but I know for sure that it includes more days like this (without the delirious fatigue of course!).