the search for peace and quiet (and more coffee)

Not to complain or anything, but Tuesdays just really suck.  So, of course, we decided that our Tuesday adventure (this would be Tuesday the 10th, we're just a tad behind on this whole blogging thing) would have to take place either before 9 am or after 9 pm.  Not the best time windows. Both of us were planning to attend the Herman Cain speech in Low that evening, and were not sure we'd recover from the amusement sufficiently to get ourselves off campus after. So the natural choice was: go to bed at 2 am, and wake up around 7 for an early morning bagel/coffee/nature excursion.  "Nature" meaning Central Park, of course.

To make such a horrendous waking time slightly less horrendous, we coaxed ourselves out of bed with the promise of Absolute bagels (the best) and Absolute coffee (not the best). Usually full of UWS professionals with small children (possibly the same small children who slide down the little ramp things near the steps on campus), it was remarkably empty and we breezed through the shortest line we've ever seen. With our standard orders of a sesame bagel with cream cheese (Thing 2) and a whole wheat everything with cream cheese (Thing 1, not quite adventurous enough to go for the tofutti) plus coffee, we began to walk toward the site of our next adventure.

No line out the door?!?!?!!?!!!!!

Always in search of a way to make New York feel, well, less like New York, Zoë ordered a book from Amazon a few weeks back detailing "places to find peace and quiet."  One of these, conveniently, is the Conservatory Garden on the east side of Central Park.  (Side note: Rebecca enjoys the chaos).  Located at roughly 105th and 5th, the garden opens at 8 every day and was especially gorgeous on a really nice spring day.  There was certainly quite a bit of peace and quiet, though we're not sure whether that was because its pretty flowers and sculpture fountains (which Zoë once wrote an Art Hum paper about. no joke!) induce that kind of behavior in its patrons or because we got there at the crack of dawn.

Regardless, our memories of this morning are a little less than perfect as a result of the time, so we'll (mostly) let the pictures speak for themselves:

The Harlem Meer? Who knew Harlem had Meers?

(Fun fact: Meer in German means sea)

(In English it is known as the prefix to "kat")

Bleary eyed and bobtailed?

We enjoy both writing and taking pictures slanted.

TULIPS! (the Tulip Fairy has struck New York)

Winter paleness? (overexposure?)

Grandma benches, approximately 3 inches off the ground (Don't worry, we sat in them anyway and were almost horizontal as we did so)

 Belongs in a romantic comedy. Is probably in five of them.

We were here. see?

Survival skills in Manhattan: For those of you unaware of this handy trick, if you ever get lost in Central Park (and we all know you've been lost in Central Park), the light posts are all labeled with plaques with super-secret code on them.  Trick to the code: the first two digits correspond to the nearest cross street.  09=109th street.  Got it? Now go get lost!

By the time we'd finished walking to the park, eating our bagels, taking lovely photos for all of you, and making it back up to campus, it was time for more coffee. We arrived at 114th and Amsterdam, just 2 blocks away from Rebecca's class at the law school, at 8:50--exactly the right time for a quick stop in Artopolis. Properly equipped for the rest of our mornings, we went about the rest of our respective days in the bubble.

Peacefully yours,

caffeine addicts 1 and 2 (these are interchangeable. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are not)

p.s. Question of the day: Do peace and caffeine really go together?