“Manhattan can act as a giant suction cup, sucking you into its folds. The city breeds no wimps and makes no apologies.”
There are two reasons that I only left my bed once today: 1) When New York City gives you a rainy Sunday afternoon, the only logical thing to do is drink coffee and read poetry. And 2) I really really really love bookstores.
In case you weren't already aware, bookstores are actually the greatest places to ever exist. They are the ultimate escape from anything and everything, and they are undoubtedly my happy place. Regardless of what's going on in my life or what's stressing me out, I can walk into a bookstore and go anywhere in the world. The shelves are lined with thousands of places and people and adventures. All I have to do is pick one up and I'm there. I'm wherever I choose to be. Bookstores feel like home to me. And today, I really needed that.
New York is gray today. I'm running on three hours of sleep and my mood is synonymous with the weather. My favorite pair of shoes may or may not be ruined from the torrential downpour that I walked through earlier today and I looked at my credit card bill for the first time since coming here and it made me want to shed a tear (...or like thirty. New York, y u do dis? You break my heart when you break my bank). Today wasn't outstandingly awful, but it's safe to say this is the roughest day I've had so far. So this afternoon, I grabbed some shoes and headed out to a bookstore a couple blocks away that I've passed numerous times since moving here. The Strand Book Store sits at 12th and Broadway, and it is pure magic. It's now my New York safe haven. My place I go to when I need to relax or when I need a little room to breathe.
I stayed for at least an hour, just walking around and exploring. You can't exactly spend a rainy New York afternoon reading poetry when you don't actually have any poems, so I ended up grabbing a couple books -- one of which is a collection of poems called Dirty Pretty Things by Michael Faudet. It's been just what I needed, curled up in my bed all day long overlooking 10th street. Poems make me happy. And today taught me that it's important to seek out things that bring you happiness, especially when the skies are sad.