walking

It was raining almost all day, and the electric company cut off the electricity for partner's building for most of the day.

So I went for a walk to see parts of Manhattan that I've never seen before.

I walked east to Madison Square and then to Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Square. THere was a massive Episcopal church on the square, St. George, and the apartment buildings between the square and Gramercy Park were quite ornate and old. While I was walking, I heard a familiar voice behind me -- it was the actor Richard Kind. He was helping a little girl step across rain puddles.

After I left this area, I wandered down to 14th Street and First Avenue, and decided to head north. On one side were large housing developments, and on the other side were the numerous little stores of green grocers, lottery peddlers, and other small businesses.

I walked past Bellvue Hospital, a massive complex, and then the NYU Medical Center, and finally turned west and headed toward the Empire State Building on 34th Street, something else I've never seen up close. This part of lower midtown is old, full of buildings where people put up a sign and run some kind of business. And then it was up past Bryant Park -- they're putting up the big tent for Fashion Week -- and then I walked past the Diamond district and wandered into the backend of Rockefeller Center, on the small street next to the Today Show studio. The Studio is being re-built, and the program has moved across the street in front of the GE building. A page from NBC gave me a ticket to a new show they were about to tape, but after wandering through the concourse, I decided not to go. I then walked up past Carnegie Hall to the south end of Central Park and walked over to Columbus Circle. Ted Allen from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was walking on the sidewalk. Two celebrity sightings on one rainy day.

I walked along the edge of Lincoln Center and went to Tower Records and the Barnes & Noble across the street. Finally, I walked back down Amsterdam Ave (turns into 10th Ave). and walked back south to partner's apartment on 20th Street.