Dead Ends and Deathly Hallows

The past few days have for me been characterized more by things that didn’t happen than those that did. We got up early and went to the Today show, but realized too late that we were on the wrong street. We were sitting behind the stage and equipment, so we missed the band and the show entirely. I set out to run along the river, but there is construction for 3 miles both ways. I attempted to go to mass at St. Patrick’s yesterday, but got caught up in the Puerto Rican day parade instead (that is one experience I do not care to relive).

From each of these seemingly failed endeavors, however, I made new discoveries and adventures. At the Today Show, I learned about Matt Lauer’s favorite local bar…I will definitely be hitting that up! Instead of running by the river, I went to Central Park instead, and last night I discovered a beautiful church on the Upper East Side—St. Ignatius of course!!! I felt right at home, and not just because it was St. Ignatius. The congregation was friendly and the priest talked about his recent visit to—you’ll never guess—Alabama!!!

I have done lots of traditional New York things—went to an underground comedy club, ate cheesecake on the steps of the beautiful old post office building across from Madison Square Garden, looked down from the top of the Empire State Building—but at the end of the day, nothing that would be interesting enough to subject ya’ll to on this thing. Today when I got up and made my list of things to do, I thought to myself, “I’m going to make this day worth writing about.”

Mission accomplished. I had a pretty nice day at work, just running errands about town. On my way home, I passed the Manhattan Center a block away from my dorm. They were rolling out the red carpet with advertisements for the Webbys, an awards show for YouTube and online phenomena. I looked it up online to see who would be making an appearance and was surprised to note some significant actors and actresses. I didn’t think too much about it, and I took my computer to the Starbucks across the street to work on some standards E-mails. When the barista called my name indicating that my drink was ready, the guy next to me said with a British accent “sometimes I make up weird names at Starbucks too” I turned around with my usual answer (haha, it’s a family name…) but stuttered when I realized it was DANIEL RADCLIFFE!!!! Somehow I got the words out and we chatted for a few seconds but I honestly don’t remember a single word because all I could think about was that I was talking to HARRY POTTER!!!!

Still giddy, I ran home to eat dinner with two of my friends from the apartment. We decided we better go check out this Webby thing to see who else we could see. As it turned out, the security people wouldn’t allow us to get very close—one of them told Nisreen that “this is very much NOT a public event” even though the red carpet and the photo op was on 34th Street—one of the main drags in the city. We lingered about the edges and were able to see Brooke Shields, Adrian Grenier and my personal favorite: Antoine Dodson (hide yo kids, hide yo wife) and his sister!!! They even sang the song. After all the stars had gone inside, the security guards teased us and told us they would let us inside even though they had no intention of doing so. Instead we walked around Hell’s Kitchen, which is the eclectic area near our building on the West Side. There are millions of different cuisines and bars, including Ethiopian, which I thought was…interesting. (What kind of food do they actually have in Ethiopia?)

Walking back, we rehashed the day’s events and agreed that the best part was that we had met each other and had someone to share these things with. Even a city with 3 million people can seem empty if you don’t have people with whom you can share your experiences, including the the dead ends. Today has definitely been the best day yet, and I am looking forward to many like it in the future…I think from now on I’ll live each day with the intentions of doing something worth writing about!