The rain has found me over on the east coast. I knew I couldn’t escape it forever, but you can bet I was going to try. Regardless, The last three weeks of sunshine and perfect weather account for more of a summer than I had in about three months in Portland. So out with the umbrellas and hooded coats!
I laughed when my Mom asked me if I was going to bring my rain boots to New York and told her I wouldn’t be needing them. Boy, was I regretting that decision today! Even with an umbrella and hooded coat I was absolutely soaked by the time I made it to work. I might as well not have done my hair or make-up this morning because I ended up rocking the drowned rat look most of the day. That is the one thing about the rain on the west coast, I didn’t enjoy it anymore than here, but I never spent much time actually in it. The only time I really had to roam into the wetlands of Portland was going to or from my car. So even though it rained about 10 months of the year I still probably spent less time in it in a month in Portland than the time I did here today.
On my way home I needed to stop by a couple of stores on the Upper East Side. I used my favorite website HopStop to get directions there and back to my apartment and felt pretty confident. It was simple, Take the N or R up to 57th street, walk 5 blocks and I would be there. That is if the world went according to plan. You can bet that rarely happens in my world of missed directions though. I ended up getting off at the right stop, but on the wrong side of the city. By the time I stepped out of the subway station and realized my mistake I decided I’d rather take a little stroll than to head back into the station. Plus, Central Park was just a hop and skip to the East Side so I decided to walk through.
Today was the first time I’d been there since moving and even while the drizzle drained off of the trees and sidewalks it was still beautiful and full of people. You could spend days in Central Park and still probably not see the whole thing. I knew this walking into the park, but decided I had a general idea of where I was and knew that I just needed to follow the paths to the other side of the park. The thing is, there isn’t really a path that simply goes through the park in a straight line. All of the walkways are pretty curvy going through trees, boulders, and over bridges. I didn’t mind taking the risk though. I’ve found when I have a couple of extra minutes I actually don’t mind much if I get myself a little away from my original plan. It’s not that I’m lost, just that I’m taking a detour to my final destination. Sometimes your favorite memories or places are found by accident and I try not to take advantage of the chance.
I ended up finding my path to the other side, to my destination, back on the subway and back to my apartment just fine. Not home before getting caught up in another downpour of course though! Tomorrow I will pay a little bit more attention to how other New Yorkers manage the rain and less about worrying if my hair gets wet!