Chase the Wanderlust: Chase the Wanderlust: Autumn in New York

A good friend told me once that when you need to introduce a new hen into a coop, you can't do it in broad daylight when the rest of the hens are watching. This is because the Old Hens have already established their pecking order. The introduction of the New Hen might disturb the flock as a result. So what you do is wait until nighttime when the Old Hens are sleeping, then sneak in the New Hen. When morning comes, the Old Hens don't notice. They simply think the New Hen had been there the whole time. The funny part is, the New Hen doesn't notice either. She also thinks she was there all along.

Similarly, I arrive in New York on a bus from D.C. late in the evening, camouflaged against other New Yorkers by my need to get somewhere and get there fast. The coop, so to speak, was my friend Nick's apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We quickly drop off my stuff, go out for a bit, then come back where I crashed on the couch. When I wake up the next morning, I yawn away the remainder of my travel weariness and immediately feel at peace with my surroundings. It was as if I had been away visiting D.C. and finally came back to New York instead of the other way around.

Some places I'll visit and know I'll be back. New York is always one of them. Each time I have visited has been a unique experience. With the million people who live in Manhattan comes just as many perspectives from which to see the city. I feel fortunate to have a friend who has been lived there long enough to consider himself a local (and is nice enough to show me around), a break from the tourists' typical regimen.

Why don't you move there? I've entertained this thought, and it's less a matter of whether or not, more a matter of when and under which circumstances. Do I want to work there? Or do I want to be a student there? Still open questions to be discussed and thought over. Until then, I will inhabit the idea.

Food

Donut Plant - Creme brulee, pumpkin, Yankees (?), and tres leches donuts. Chai tea brewed in a pot by the cash register, scooped into your cup for you via ladle. Don't ask how. Just try.

Butter Lane - $3 cupcakes with amazing buttery frosting. Hot apple cider to accompany.

King's Feast - (Brooklyn, Polish district) Thanks for taking us here, Nick! Try the pyzy or anything else that has a name containing voiced consonants. This will not be hard. Accompany with one of their standard tall glasses of Zywiec beer.

The Sixth Ward - (Lower East Side) BOTTOMLESS MIMOSAS. Irish brunch. Eggs benedict, home fries, salad, and sausages. DID I MENTION BOTTOMLESS MIMOSAS?

Brooklyn

First time in Brooklyn. Cheaper housing and quieter streets around Greenpointe. Rumor has it that hipsters live in the vicinity, though.

Halloween

It's what you think it would be. Halloween in New York is like a 1990s, post-Wall Berlin street party. People drinking, laughing, taking pictures, dressed up in the most bizarre costumes - everything from naked to nun, angels to ghouls, Fidel to Marx. You name it, someone was dressed up as it.