i was up by 7:00 after i heard some rustling upstairs. i took some notes in my journal while listening to some music and browsed the collection of cookbooks in the kitchen. john didn't come downstairs until around 9:00 because he thought i was still asleep.

deanna dropped us off at le petite cafe for brunch while she herself went to go pick up william at her parents' place. afterwards john and i returned to the house, where i gave him some movies i had on a thumb drive so he could test out his new dell netbook. deanna called to let us know she'd be late in getting back. i decided to head home to boston and john said he'd see me to the bus stop.

john handed me a pair of disposable hand warmers before we left the house (his mother gives them away during christmas, they have a whole bunch). we got off at east broadway in manhattan and walked to chinatown. since neither of us had anything else to do, we decided to explore the southern tip of the island a bit more, walking down towards the direction of wall street.

i love the art deco skyscrapers! the AIG building is most impressive and worth a second look the next time i return to new york.

i can't recall ever coming to wall street before (or if i have, i must've forgotten). i didn't realize george washington took the oath of office right here, where the former united states capitol used to be (federal hall, although not the original building) before it moved to washington d.c. up the street is trinity church, free to go in and take photos (when not in religious service). gothic churches like these are cool, but for my money, nothing compares to the awesomeness inside a turkish domed mosque.

we went to the (free) smithsonian national museum of american indian inside the u.s. custom house on bowling green. there was an interesting exhibit about the influence of horses in native-american culture. most impressive were indian rifles, one of them owned by geronimo himself. i was also really impressed with their computer-based touch screen interactives - my field of expertise! i couldn't tell if they were using director or flash though, but some of the effects were pretty cool (cool enough to "emulate").

after we left the museum, john got a call from deanna asking him to come home. i ended up taking a 5 train north. i could've switched to a 6 at city hall which would take me directly to canal street, but i got out instead, figuring i could walk to a noodle place for some early dinner before returning home to boston.

i ended up going the wrong way and walked too far west, defeating the purpose of getting off at city hall, and ended up going farther than i had to (the whole time my feet were killing me and i basically limped around the city slowly). the noodle shop i was thinking of was on division street, lan zhou hand-pulled noodles. i'd actually eaten here once before, back in june when i came to the mermaid parade. i got there at a weird time, 4:45. having dinner would mean i couldn't catch the 5:00 fung wah bus and would have to wait another hour for the 6:00. but i love noodles so much, i just couldn't pass up the opportunity. i ended up getting a bowl of spicy shredded pork noodles with pickled greens ($4.95 cheap!). the broth of flavorful and spicy, much water than the diluted broth found on the doyer street noodle shop. after i finished, i used their bathroom before leaving.

with about an hour to kill, i wandered the streets of chinatown. even though i wasn't hungry anymore, i was still tired and just wanted to sit down somewhere and wait it out. so i went to the fung wah ticket counter to buy my ticket. that's when i saw they actually had a 5:30 bus, which i managed to catch right as it was arriving. the bus returning to boston was much less crowded, with no more than a dozen riders. i had two seats to myself so i got to stretch out and relax. the two hand warmers john gave me earlier were still hot, and i put them on my stomach like a hot water bottle. once out of the new york city area, i fell asleep.

the driver must've been new because somewhere in connecticut we got lost and he had to exit off the highway to get back on course. we arrived at south station at 9:30. it was good to be home, as i slowly shuffled my way to the subway station and back to cambridge.