Present Joys

Wednesday was supposed to be our big day to go exploring, but after a long night, everybody slept in late. We missed out on some prime morning hours, but we got going a little after 10am with a walk on the High Line. The plants made me miss Columbus a little. We walked all the way to the south end of the High Line, then over to the West Village, where we briefly visited Parsons (Mamo’s alma mater), peeked into a consignment clothing store, and enjoyed the neighborhood. From there, we all walked to the famous Katz’s Delicatessen, where Karl, Graham, Tay, and I got humungous, delightful sandwiches (mine was chopped liver and pastrami). The rest of the group had lunch at Schiller’s Liquor Bar—I wish I’d had time to do both! There is really so much to do in the city. More food and drink than is humanly possible to consume.

After just a bit more walking, it was about time to hop back on the subway and head back to the hotel so we could pack the van. Though we’d originally planned to leave the city around 6:30pm, Mamo moved our departure up to 3pm because he wanted to make sure we could complete the whole nine-hour trip without having to stop and spend the night. Little did he know what he was in for…

We got back to the hotel and Mamo pulled the car around and we loaded it up and we were out of the city by 5pm. After many hours of driving, we stopped for dinner at an Eat’n Park in DuBois, Pennsylvania, but got back on I-80 heading east—the wrong direction—and drove for an hour before anybody realized the problem. (Like I said, we were all very tired.) By the time we realized what had happened and turned around, it was almost midnight—and we still had an hour of backtracking to do. Much to everyone’s chagrin, Mamo decided we would just crash at a hotel instead of trying to finish the trip that night. We powered through and finally stopped at a Super 8 in Youngstown, Ohio around 3am—a mere two and a half hours from home. We got a bit of sleep, reconvened at 8am, and made the rest of the trip to Columbus. As you might imagine, everybody was pretty dopey.

What a time! In hindsight, it would have been nice to plan everything a little more carefully. But I suppose the fluidity of such a trip was what made it so fun. I’m so grateful to CCAD for making it a reality, and to Mr. Mohr for being such a fun tour guide and friend. Graduation is this saturday! The emotions—I can feel them coming. Soon they will overpower me completely. I’m glad I’ll have happy memories of this #9youngones trip to hold onto.

It’s been an exciting, action-packed week, and I haven’t done a very good job of keeping you appraised. So here’s an update: This week, I went to New York City with some classmates and our teacher to attend the One Club’s Young Ones awards ceremony. Three of my friends, Theresa, Graham, and Karl, won a pencil—the other six of us that went along (me, Jen, Tay, Anna, Julia, and Haley), received finalist status for merit. Considering the fact that most of us didn’t actually win, it was tremendously generous of CCAD to take us on the trip! Our senior ad teacher, Matthew Mohr, served as chaperone and cicerone.

We left monday morning. Due to some minor delays, we didn’t actually make it on the road until around 11:30am. Even so, the nine-hour car ride was lovely. Shortly after departing, we had an existential crisis after realizing that now, since were were finished with school, we should probably call Mr. Mohr something more casual. We all agreed referring to him as “Matthew” would be too weird, so we devised the clever nickname “Mamo”, which was used heavily all week. We finally made it into the city just before 9pm—just in time to make our dinner reservation. We checked into our hotel, the Chelsea Savoy, and then went straight to dinner at Freemans, a charming little place recommended by Mamo. The restaurant was full of exotic mounted game heads and stuffed birds in plexiglass cases. I ate a vegetarian pot pie, which was delicious and worth the lots of money I paid for it. It is New York City, after all.

We walked around SoHo for a bit before taking the subway back to the Flatiron district, where we ended up at a bar called Maysville. Even though they were already closing up (it was a monday night, after all), they let us stay for a while and have a drink. I had a very nice Sazerac.

At this point, it was already after midnight, and a bunch of people left to go sleep. I continued on with Theresa, Karl, Graham, Anna, and Mamo; we trooped a few doors down to the Flatiron Room, where Mamo and Graham bought expensive glasses of Scotch. After a bit of time there, we headed out to find a place somebody had just told us about, called Milk & Honey. We barely found it—the entrance was completely unmarked and set off from the street by a heavy black curtain—but once we went inside it was like we’d found a spectacular secret oasis. Things were quiet and peaceful and truly otherworldly; we were seated in a cozy private booth and instructed to give the waitress “an idea” of what we wanted so the bartender could make something special for each of us. I got the mythical Campari and egg white drink I’d been really wanting all day, and it was spectacular. The lady who waited on us was very nice, and she gave us olives and almonds on the house—as well as a round of Campari Mai Tais while we were finishing up. Everything was perfect.

The car trip took all of our daylight hours, but we made up for it with a full night of exploring and culinary experiences and pleasant conversation. Exactly the sort of thing you should do as soon as you get to New York City! I didn’t get to bed until 3am, and it was lovely.

To be continued! More 9 YOUNG ONES adventures in my next post…