Brooklyn Flea, DMV, West Village and Chelsea, a packed couple of days...

Sunday, I went with friends for falafel after the service at the Unitarian church. It was good cheap stuff served up in a little hole in the wall by a rather nice Arabic gentleman. I got a combo with hummus, tabbouleh and a stuffed grape leaf all crammed in with the falafel in a pita. Awesome stuff. My new friends from the UU are really cool. Just in the past few weeks we've been heading out immediately after church and having lunch/brunch and just chatting. The group was smaller this week than last but great times nonetheless. Afterward, when the crowd of us dwindled to just three of us, we cooked up a plan to go over to the Brooklyn Flea Market...well, it was sort of my idea because I knew that I was in need of that one last piece of equipment for home brewing...the all important fermentation lock. Mine went missing somehow in the move.

At any rate, my new friends were game for a stroll despite the already oppressive heat so we headed up Cadman Plaza towards the bridge. The Brooklyn Flea Market is underneath the Brooklyn Bridge...like directly underneath it, so we had very little trouble finding it. We were almost there when we asked directions from someone at the nearby farmer's market. The pictures are here:

Brooklyn Flea Market

I'm already thinking about going back when the weather gets better because it was far too hot to do much besides stroll around and check things out before we had to get out of the sun. The Brooklyn Brew Shop, that has a tent there, promotes all grain brewing and sells bags of pre-mixed grains to get you started...and they make it sound so much easier than any book I've read says it is. I think I'd like to check out what they sell and give it a shot.

We stopped at a grocery and grabbed some cool beverages after and went on our way, then I came straight home and did errands around the house and got so tied up in that, I forgot that my cousin and I were going to see a movie. I was so far into cleaning my room and all the cat hair that I ended up going ahead and trying out my desk against a different wall and reorganizing everything. Now, I've got designs on actually getting rid of some old documents and throwing away some extra weight.

I just feel like if I can do that, it'll start to feel like my life is more in order and I'll be more productive in everything else I attempt. Another extension of this notion is that if I can get my NY driver license and fully move my accounts up here, I will be even closer to organizational nirvana. (I know that this is a ridiculous way to look at things, and am fully aware that I will soon find something else with my life that is not in order and may spend the rest of my life chasing perfection as such, but bear with me for a second here. I'm trying to tell a story). So Monday morning, I went to the DMV with just about every official document that proves I exist tucked in a folder in my shoulder bag and a determination that no line could staunch...even if said line started at the front door of the building and snaked down a hallway to the elevator to the 8th floor. I freaked for a second but then I realized the place opened only fifteen minutes before I got there so they were probably still trying to slowly funnel people up the elevators. The line upstairs couldn't be that bad. It wasn't except for the fact that the guy behind me felt the need to sing whatever was on his iPod and crowd my space every time the line moved forward.

Now, I won't even bother going into the utter frustration that exchanging an out-of-state driver's license has been. Suffice it to say that it's a bureaucratic mess. See here the list of acceptable documents for proof of ID and birth date.

Once I was out of there, it was only about 10:00am so I walked down to Madison Square Park, freshened up in a Starbuck's and then figured I would head down to the West Village, sit in a coffee shop for a bit and then, walk around taking pictures like a tourist. I managed to sit in Christopher Park on 7th Avenue for a bit and rest, and then, finally, I was able to get some pictures of the Chelsea Market, the building where my main job is. I've been avoiding it so long because, knowing how annoying the actual tourists can be, I didn't want to contribute to the mayhem by stopping in the middle of the walkway taking photos or otherwise gawking. It can be crazy. Sometimes I wish us NY 1 employees had a private back entrance to the place so we wouldn't have to weave between strollers and zoom lenses to get to our elevator.

Anyway, enjoy these pics!

West Village and Chelsea Market best