Present Joys

It’s been an exciting, action-packed week, and I haven’t done a very good job of keeping you appraised. So here’s an update: This week, I went to New York City with some classmates and our teacher to attend the One Club’s Young Ones awards ceremony. Three of my friends, Theresa, Graham, and Karl, won a pencil—the other six of us that went along (me, Jen, Tay, Anna, Julia, and Haley), received finalist status for merit. Considering the fact that most of us didn’t actually win, it was tremendously generous of CCAD to take us on the trip! Our senior ad teacher, Matthew Mohr, served as chaperone and cicerone.

We left monday morning. Due to some minor delays, we didn’t actually make it on the road until around 11:30am. Even so, the nine-hour car ride was lovely. Shortly after departing, we had an existential crisis after realizing that now, since were were finished with school, we should probably call Mr. Mohr something more casual. We all agreed referring to him as “Matthew” would be too weird, so we devised the clever nickname “Mamo”, which was used heavily all week. We finally made it into the city just before 9pm—just in time to make our dinner reservation. We checked into our hotel, the Chelsea Savoy, and then went straight to dinner at Freemans, a charming little place recommended by Mamo. The restaurant was full of exotic mounted game heads and stuffed birds in plexiglass cases. I ate a vegetarian pot pie, which was delicious and worth the lots of money I paid for it. It is New York City, after all.

We walked around SoHo for a bit before taking the subway back to the Flatiron district, where we ended up at a bar called Maysville. Even though they were already closing up (it was a monday night, after all), they let us stay for a while and have a drink. I had a very nice Sazerac.

At this point, it was already after midnight, and a bunch of people left to go sleep. I continued on with Theresa, Karl, Graham, Anna, and Mamo; we trooped a few doors down to the Flatiron Room, where Mamo and Graham bought expensive glasses of Scotch. After a bit of time there, we headed out to find a place somebody had just told us about, called Milk & Honey. We barely found it—the entrance was completely unmarked and set off from the street by a heavy black curtain—but once we went inside it was like we’d found a spectacular secret oasis. Things were quiet and peaceful and truly otherworldly; we were seated in a cozy private booth and instructed to give the waitress “an idea” of what we wanted so the bartender could make something special for each of us. I got the mythical Campari and egg white drink I’d been really wanting all day, and it was spectacular. The lady who waited on us was very nice, and she gave us olives and almonds on the house—as well as a round of Campari Mai Tais while we were finishing up. Everything was perfect.

The car trip took all of our daylight hours, but we made up for it with a full night of exploring and culinary experiences and pleasant conversation. Exactly the sort of thing you should do as soon as you get to New York City! I didn’t get to bed until 3am, and it was lovely.

To be continued! More 9 YOUNG ONES adventures in my next post…

After the senior thesis show finished up yesterday—after we’d torn everything down and put everything back—a bunch of us headed to Plank’s Bier Garten in German Village to celebrate. The feeling of relief and exhaustion and elation and camaraderie was inexpressible. It was a good thing.