walker st / mott st / division st / 2nd ave

11.85 miles

patience is a weird one.

today i paid greater attention to the moments when i did not walk— when the walk light is a red hand and when there are enough cars that i do not cross the street. i realized that these occasions make my trek stop-and-go, tempt me to check my phone, to refresh my email for no reason. or sometimes i give up patience and try to outrun the next car coming down the street instead.

i took the subway down to chinatown, a welcome change from my recent walks. chinatown is familiar to me in the same way as a whole foods store, or a michaels or target. in san francisco, in boston, in new york: chinatown feels the same. it feels comfortable.

today was a good day for food. i finally found some vibrant persimmons (the best fruit), ate a curry puff at fay da bakery, and tried savory tofu pudding and chinese rice cake for the first time at fong on.

belly contented, i began my journey up the island.

walking upwards on either east or west side, one passes through lower manhattan, then one of the villages, then a sort of no man’s land, then the upper east/west side, then harlem. the back and forth from neighborhood to neighborhood is stark. dozens of brunch spots (i hate brunch), new yorkers soaking up the last dregs of fall; then housing project after housing project; then brunch again. 2nd avenue is lined with housing projects— we are at the east edge of the city.

the sun sets at 4pm these days. the light is gold and buildings glow; the city is basked in warmth for a few deep breaths.

i listened to the hadestown soundtrack as the sun disappeared, and the words felt more poignant than usual: to the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. memes have been made, but i do wonder how 2020 will be remembered in our history books.

i ended my walk with soft christmas piano— it felt appropriate to listen to in the chilling air.

of course, the sights: a dusty limousine; a woman in a fur coat and flip-flops; an older sister calling to her little brother to stop dawdling; women haggling for (faux) designer belts sold out of a car window; magenta spandex; black spandex; fake louis vuitton wallets; clumps of grandparents sara d. roosevelt park huddled around… chinese herbs and roots?; a soccer game; a speedy scooter; mismatching shoes; a man riding a bicycle with a skateboard on his back; an elegant lady in a powerful pantsuit; a long line outside of citymd; lottery tickets; starbucks christmas cups; a yellow mesh shawl; a stripey stray cat; a black stray cat; a man trying to hand me a scientology brochure; someone sitting in an abandoned school bus who gave me a slight fright; a dead pigeon.

the streets felt familiar today. 2nd avenue is quite similar to 3rd, i suppose, and i crossed over intersections in the 90s and 120s that i remembered from past walks. by the end of this, i will have walked each street once, but every intersection at least twice. increasingly i feel a sense of deja vu or think that i have already walked a street when i have not.