Sooooo if you know me, then you know my brother is kinda a big deal to me. He is my longest friend and we always have the greatest time together! It is sad to say it is hard to remember when we lived under the same roof, being as he was in college in Indiana, then worked in the city, and now lives in Illinois. (Never realized how mid-west he’s become lol).
But anyways, life goes on and it gets harder and harder as you move on with your life to see the ones you love. FINALLY we were reunited and we had such a great couple of days!
What convinced him to trade cities for a week was our favorite band, CHVRCHES. He got us tickets to see them play at Radio City Music Hall--eep! He arrived the night before the concert so we had a whooole day together to run loose in the city of dreams.
Whenever our family went on vacation when we were younger, we always played mini golf. Don’t ask me why but we did and it low key makes a great hidden talent. So in true Kwok fashion, Corey and I went mini golfing on Chelsea Piers! It was so cute and I mean of course I was going to make him hang out downtown (LOVE that area). It’s right on the water and it’s a sweet daytime activity!
After I beat him at mini golf, we took a leisurely walk farther down to Rockefeller Park. I want to have a picnic down there so bad, it is the cutest spot of green the city has. Very open and there’s children’s playgrounds and activities around the park (ping pong!!), not to mention great views. It’s just one of those things that makes you smile. When we walked through we saw some people throwing a Frisbee around the grass, which the city had painted the PRIDE flag on for PRIDE month. It was so scenic! If you’re ever around this area definitely stop by this hidden treasure :).
I had seen ads on the subway for the Brookfield Place Mall and I wanted to see it for myself…’cause...palm trees lol. The photos in the ads were like “yes, there are palm trees in NYC” and I love palm trees so I was sold. Turns out it’s one of those malls where like everything is white marble and you question whether or not you can afford to breathe in the air there, but nonetheless we went...spent all of five minutes inside and then walked our under dressed selves to the Oculus at the World Trade Center. While there we stumbled upon this cool kiosk celebrating 30 years of Seinfeld!
I have so many memories of cozy nights when our family would be lounging out on our comfy couches watching old reruns of Seinfeld and loving all the inside jokes that we would take away from the episodes. It was a cool little stop and we were able to get a momento for answering a trivia question right. We walked away with a dictionary of Seinfeld terms--so cute!
Now onto lunchtime. I had heard about this underground marketplace called the Turnstyle and wanted to check it out with Corey. It seemed like a cool place and for whatever reason we both like food halls…? Where there are a bunch of vendors and you can walk around, see what’s good, but still eat all together. So we took the one train to Columbus Circle and went! It’s not right off the subway because well, that would be gross, but you take the passageways from the subway to get there and it’s really nifty (yea, nifty). What was really cute was, I was wearing my CHVRCHES shirt in prep for the concert and Corey and I walk up to this one pasta place and the cashier geeked out. She was so jealous we were going to see them play, so needless to say Corey ended up eating there. I got Chinese ‘cause I’m me :) and after we ate we headed back to my mom’s place to chill before going to the concert (gotta save up that energy to go HAM later ya know).
We walked back in torrential downpour rain which was SO INCREDIBLY FUN. I almost wiped out a handful of times because some of the sidewalks did not agree with my shoes. I was too cheap to buy an umbrella and made both of us brave the rain--not entirely sure if Corey felt the same, as he probably had to deal with wet socks (THE WORST) but it made for a fond memory so I say it was worth it :).
And now, the main event...CHVRCHES. INCREDIBLE. SO AMAZING. They are one of my favorite bacds because their music just gets you MOVING you know. Their sound is infectious and you can’t help but get lost in it and dance around. Corey saw them in Chicago initially at a standing room only place and I WISH I could have been there because that would have been all the more wild. Radio City, don’t get me wrong beautiful venue, iconic venue, but...chairs. Although we were standing the whole time, I can only imagine standing room only would be so much more fun to let loose. (I am aware I have the adjectives of a third grader but whattayagonnado).
They were insane live. Don’t get me wrong I love artists/musicians like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and JLo (see post) that are entertainers and put on heavily orchestrated tours with themes and stage design, dancers, the works, but there’s something about bands like CHVRCHES or Paramore (swoon) that are just so raw and authentic when they go on tour. There are no huge stages or costume changes just music to lose yourself to. I appreciate that and love seeing bands like those live.
Corey stayed for a couple more days after the concert and we kind of just hung out. One day I had to work so he went around to all his old NYC haunts (ie. comic book stores) and at night we met up again and saw the movie "Stuber" in Chelsea, around where I work. The theatre was brandy new so that was a unsuspected win (SUCH nice chairs) and we caught some of Manhattanhenge down 14th St. (not the same as in Midtown, I know...I'll catch it next year). Another day we went to our Aunt’s house to see her, our cousins, and our abuela :). Corey also got to meet the newest addition to our family and it was just a really homey day filled with love! He left the next morning :( but we had an incredible couple of days--it felt like old times!
As I get older and have more life to look back on (freaks me out that I can look back on over ten years! like WHAT?!), I can’t help but miss the days when my whole family was under the same roof and my friends and I had nothing to do but house hop. Being a kid is great isn’t it? Nevertheless, cherish and enjoy every day we have with those we have, right?! Until next time!
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