A Quiet Zone.

Yesterday the sun was shining and there was a really wonderful breeze that was just cool enough to require a sweater. I had left my window open during the night and awoke to freezing toes and a red nose, but I would trade warm weather for this ANY day! I put on my newest Betsey acquisition (a gray plaid gauze tunic from last fall with puff sleeves and a square neckline), black tights, my new Frye boots and threw on my black leather handbag. The plan for the day was to head over to the upper west side. I had never been to the Columbus avenue area and I wanted to check out our competition stores. I took the L train to 8th avenue and then waited for the C train. Of course it was a weekend and the trains were all running on the wrong lines. I waited and waited, the C never came. Some ladies confusingly asked me what was going on so I told them the same shpeal others had told me when I first arrived to the city. "The trains run funky on weekends, I'll show you the way!" We got onto the A train and I gave them directions to the Magnolia cupcake bakery via their tourist subway map. I decided to get off on Columbus circle and walk the 15 blocks up to where I needed to go. The weather was just so nice and I couldn't bear to be underground!
I walked up to around 72nd and Columbus Ave. The upper west side is absolutely beautiful. The brownstones and architecture are so old but very well taken care of. On that side of town I found TONS of high-end stores meshed with small cozy clothing boutiques. There was a restaurant every 20 feet and people were EVERYWHERE. I wish our store was in such a prime foot-traffic location! We would be KILLING our goals. Sigh. Alas, I enjoyed the area, even if it did make me a little depressed that I didn't get to spend time in such a cool neighborhood each day. From that street I realized that I was only a block away from central park and decided to trek over that way. Although I have only been there a few times now, I am always blown away by how gorgeous Central Park is. It literally pops out of nowhere, even though it is absolutely ginormous. It's a green, luscious oasis flourishing amongst a huge cascade of cement, traffic and pollution. I carefully followed down the paths for walkers and sightseers, paying careful attention not to step food into the joggers and bikers paths. There were so many people there, probably because the weather was so beautiful. Benches line the paths and were packed with everyone from business men to little kids licking ice cream cones. I've never seen anything like it!



At some point I came across this huge field that I had never seen before. There were hundreds upon hundreds of people sprawled out on the grass, basking in the sun. For as many people as there were, it was dead silent, unbelievable! The tall city buildings loomed in the background but the noise of the city had somehow been shut out of this large square of Central Park grass.




I sat down on a nearby bench that lined the jogging path. There was an older couple sitting nearby. The man, probably in his 80's, was reading a hard-cover book that seemed to have been read so many times that I couldn't make out what the title was. His wife sat in her wheelchair opposite from him. There were oxygen tubes in her nose and her head was tilted slightly to the side as she blankly watched the families sprawled out in the grass parallel to us. At some point, a gust of wind swirled through the red and green leafed trees and blew her white, fine hair into her eyes. She didn't move. Her husband immediately looked up to her, removed his hand from her knee and pushed the strand of hair away from her eyes and behind her ear. He then patted her knee with his hand, adjusted his glasses and went back to reading his book. It was such a touching moment. After briefly feeling a rush of home-sickness, I decided to walk back up to 7th avenue and catch the train home.