Yes, you read that right.
There is a bus driver on the 5th Avenue line in the mornings (last spotted driving a M4 Limited #6407-031) who SINGS the names of the stops... along with other glorious, original ditties. At 8:30 a.m. On weekdays. When I'm too sleepy and crabby for singing. YET despite being mildly annoying, it always brings a smile to my and the other passengers' faces.
By chance, I've gotten on the Singing Bus Driver's bus 3 times this week, and 2 last week. Enough to hear him sing-song:
"6-5, 6-6! 6-5, 6-6! 65th Street! 66th Street! It's a beautiful day, look at this beautiful woman here, such a beautiful day!" (in his best opera voice)
"5-8, Central Park South! 5-8, Central Park South! Look at the park and its trees and its leaves and F.A.O. Schwartz, F.A.O. Schwartz!" (this was a bit like a samba or salsa tune)
And my favorite...
"49, 50th! 49, 50th! Rockefeller Center, center of the world, SAKS 5th Avenue, only for the bold, St. Patrick's Cathedral, save your soul!" (sung to a tune that reminded me of Enya's Only Time from the late 90s)
I don't know the Singing Bus Driver's name, but I am determined to find out... AND take a little video of this phenomenon. If you come from the Upper East Side in the morning and can be on 5th Ave. between 8:20 and 8:40 a.m., you may just be lucky enough to experience this for yourself.
Showing posts with label Why I Love New York Wednesdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Why I Love New York Wednesdays. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Why I Love New York Wednesdays: Laundry service.
It's been a really busy 10 days since I've been back home after the holidays! I barely have time to put 2 thoughts together! Hopefully things will slow down soon so I can share some more interesting tidbits with you about the latest goings-on in the young professional world of NYC.
For the 2nd installment of Why I Love New York Wednesdays, I want to share something that I realized very quickly after I moved here: It's actually cheaper for me to have the Korean laundry joint across the street do my laundry than for me to do it myself. For the first 2 months, I was doing my laundry in my building's basement (I guess I am lucky enough to have a laundry room in my building) and was spending an outrageous amount of money on a single week's laundry in the coin-operated machines.
See:
2 loads in the wash machine: $6
2 loads in the dryer @ 45 minutes each: $8
Laundry detergent ($8 divided by 25 loads): $.34/load
Fabric softener ($9 divided by 100 loads): $.09/load (x2 for each week = $.18)
Special dark wash laundry detergent for dark jeans, etc. ($15 divided by 25 loads): $.60
---------------------------------------
=$15.12/week
Not to mention, the 3 hours I spent sitting in the weird, dimly-lit, soapy-smelling laundry room. Now, I noticed that other people in my building would leave their clothes unattended and run back up to their apartments while their things were in the machines, then come down after 45 minutes or whatever to just change them to the dryer. So, as my building seems pretty safe and everyone was doing it, I tried this for a few weeks.
Until an entire load of dark clothes, including my favorite Red Engine jeans from college and a beautiful jewel green Kenneth Cole ruched t-shirt, was stolen.
That was the last straw for me. And that's when I discovered the Korean laundry across the street, Reliable Laundry & Cleaners. And man, have they been reliable! It's one of those laundries that charges you by the pound for your laundry, so depending on the week and the number of towels in my laundry bag, I usually spend $8-$12 total. I drop it off at 8 a.m. on my way to work, and pick it up at 6 p.m. THE SAME DAY on my way home.
It's magical!
There's a place like this on practically every block. If you haven't found yours yet, keep looking. Or come check out my Koreans on 73rd street. Every week, they separate my clothes into lights, darks, and colors, wash my lights without bleach (I hate the smell of it!), use extra fabric softener on the towels per my request, and neatly fold everything and put it back in my laundry bag for me to take home and leave on my floor for 3 days before I decide to actually put things away.
So, yes, I love New York because there is guaranteed to be a laundry service (or two) on practically every block in a primarily residential nerighborhood that will do your laundry for you for cheaper than if you did it yourself. And the nice Korean man knows my name now, and I have absolutely no problem with him folding my delicates.
For the 2nd installment of Why I Love New York Wednesdays, I want to share something that I realized very quickly after I moved here: It's actually cheaper for me to have the Korean laundry joint across the street do my laundry than for me to do it myself. For the first 2 months, I was doing my laundry in my building's basement (I guess I am lucky enough to have a laundry room in my building) and was spending an outrageous amount of money on a single week's laundry in the coin-operated machines.
See:
2 loads in the wash machine: $6
2 loads in the dryer @ 45 minutes each: $8
Laundry detergent ($8 divided by 25 loads): $.34/load
Fabric softener ($9 divided by 100 loads): $.09/load (x2 for each week = $.18)
Special dark wash laundry detergent for dark jeans, etc. ($15 divided by 25 loads): $.60
---------------------------------------
=$15.12/week
Not to mention, the 3 hours I spent sitting in the weird, dimly-lit, soapy-smelling laundry room. Now, I noticed that other people in my building would leave their clothes unattended and run back up to their apartments while their things were in the machines, then come down after 45 minutes or whatever to just change them to the dryer. So, as my building seems pretty safe and everyone was doing it, I tried this for a few weeks.
Until an entire load of dark clothes, including my favorite Red Engine jeans from college and a beautiful jewel green Kenneth Cole ruched t-shirt, was stolen.
That was the last straw for me. And that's when I discovered the Korean laundry across the street, Reliable Laundry & Cleaners. And man, have they been reliable! It's one of those laundries that charges you by the pound for your laundry, so depending on the week and the number of towels in my laundry bag, I usually spend $8-$12 total. I drop it off at 8 a.m. on my way to work, and pick it up at 6 p.m. THE SAME DAY on my way home.
It's magical!
There's a place like this on practically every block. If you haven't found yours yet, keep looking. Or come check out my Koreans on 73rd street. Every week, they separate my clothes into lights, darks, and colors, wash my lights without bleach (I hate the smell of it!), use extra fabric softener on the towels per my request, and neatly fold everything and put it back in my laundry bag for me to take home and leave on my floor for 3 days before I decide to actually put things away.
So, yes, I love New York because there is guaranteed to be a laundry service (or two) on practically every block in a primarily residential nerighborhood that will do your laundry for you for cheaper than if you did it yourself. And the nice Korean man knows my name now, and I have absolutely no problem with him folding my delicates.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Why I Love New York Wednesdays: New Year's Eve
So, as part of this "goal" (not resolution!) to give my blog more structure, I present you with Why I Love New York Wednesdays (to accompany Martha Stewart Sundays). I'll come up with fun ideas for the other days soon... that I can commit to... hopefully!
I got this idea from a recent article in New York magazine, Reasons to Love New York 2010, which covered some events from this year, current popular trends in fashion, food and culture, thought patterns, as well as NYC perennials.
So, why do I love New York this week?
New Year's Eve, of course! There must be a reason why the entire world descends on NYC to celebrate the new year, right? Well, this year I found out for myself. I shared the streets with a few of my closest friends, some random Swiss guys, a handful of crazy people, and a WHOLE BUNCH of tourists, and I had a great time.
(Gillian and me @ Cellar Bar @ The Bryant Park Hotel)
In my trip to and from dinner at Per Lei on the Upper East Side, to the Bryant Park Hotel, to Grand Central, and back to the Upper East Side on Friday night/Saturday morning, I can't believe the sheer number and diversity of the crowds that I saw. As much as I normally hate crowds and tourists, I didn't mind on Friday night. Everyone was just having a good time. New Year's Eve here is such an institution--it's like everyone kind of knew what to expect, or at least had gleaned some of the right expectations from pop culture.
My expectations were completely met. I wouldn't say they were exceeded, but I think I was realistic about the night. I had a fantastic dinner with my friends at a classy neighborhood resto, fought the other UESiders for a taxi downtown, mulled about on the sidewalks with the aforementioned tourists, New Yorkers, and crazy people, and attended a swanky party complete with 5 hours of open bar at a beautiful hotel, and (happily, if not slightly drunkenly) found my way to the Subway at 3 a.m. with no hope of finding a cab home. It definitely ranks up there with some of the best nights out in my life, but I wasn't exactly blown away.
But I guess that's what I expected. So, I come out of my first New Year's Eve in NYC extremely satisfied, and completely in love with this city not necessarily because of my own experience, but because of the way that New Year's Eve here is such a phenomenon in itself--because of the experiences that other people have had here, and fantasize about having here, and will hopefully someday have here on New Year's Eves in the future.
Plus, where else can you drink for 5 hours+, stumble to the public transportation of your choice with your new Swiss friends, and know that 1.5 million people are doing the exact same thing in the greatest city in the world?
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