summer nights

it was a full glorious 63 degrees today in new york!!! a warmness which extended into this blessed night... it seems like my bones have been frigid for the last 5 months straight, and so i took full advantage of the balmy evening, taking an extended walk home through the late-night still city streets after a DELISH deeeeep soul food supper at sylvia's in east harlem. [this place is so good even obama paid them a visit :)]

i find harlem to be oh so beautiful. the victorian architecture is scuffed up and lived in, and nothing beats st. nicholas' park with the dramatic gothic architecure of the city college. walking home past these brownstone row houses, with people laughing and playing out on their stoops, past the endless number of baptist churches and their neon crosses, past groups of old men still playing chess - the rigorous tap-tap of their timers punctuating the otherwise low hum of their concentration - past the chicken and waffle and fish and chips stands glowing in the dark... it was so perfectly warm and home-y and inviting, i was so thrilled to feel summer rolling into the little cluster of islands we call new york city! winter = overrated.

wherever you read this post, i hope had a calm night of simple pleasures as well :)


p.s. just to assure mom and dad: i was accompanied on this walk through harlem by a male-friend, who had also accompanied me to the finger-lickin' good soul food delights - and in any case, i promise harlem is not what it used to be. God bless guiliani! :)