North America

June in New York

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 4, 2019
Posted in: New York (Home). Leave a Comment

Happy WorldPride!

Like I said, lots of rainbows everywhere in New York this month

People like to visit New York. We didn’t travel at all in June, but we saw lots of friends and family. And somehow stayed very busy. We did plenty of cultural things. We started seriously shopping for furniture for our new condo. And we continued to wait and wait for the condo board to approve our building plans.

June was an especially fun and colorful month to be in New York because the city hosted WorldPride, a month-long LGBTQ pride celebration. New York was the 6th city to host WorldPride since it began in Rome in 2000. The city was decked out in rainbows everywhere for the month. And it all culminated in the June 28 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, considered the birthplace of the gay rights movement.

[Note: Speaking of building plans, we expect the last step of our endless approval processes to happen by mid-September. That is why we are now hurrying to get the blog caught up to the present day. By the time we start our construction process in a couple of weeks we really want to be blogging in real time again!]

Jim’s sister Rebecca made her second appearance in New York this year, this time with her daughter Lily. Here we are on the roof of our future condo.

Becky and Lily could not resist posing by this great big AOC in graffiti just around the corner from our apartment

The Staten Island Ferry is a very economical way (free) to take a boat ride and get a nice glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Or to just settle into a corner and read.

There’s Becky on our roof again!

Laura Migliorino is an old friend of Jim’s from Minneapolis. She was in town following an exhibit opening of her photography in the Hudson Valley. We hadn’t seen her in 25 years, but she was spunky as ever! We also enjoyed getting to know her New York friend, Ryan.

Speaking of graffiti — also just around the corner from our apartment

Our friend Thomas is a board member of the Trevor Project, a great non-profit that helps prevent suicide among gay people. Thomas and Anthony came up from DC for a big New York fundraiser, and here we are walking the red carpet.

We’ve spent a lot of time furniture shopping lately. It’s a grueling process because we hate most of what we see. I did somewhat dig this silvery couch.

This is at Poliform, one of the few furniture stores in New York that we really like. A variant of this very couch might well end up in our media room (which Jim says I’m not allowed to call the “TV room”).

We also had a visit from the Germains this month — Laura, Dan, and Elizabeth. Here Dan enjoys the view from the “window” at the old school Italian place we like in the Theatre District, after seeing the Broadway version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

And Laura tried on some fun glasses. Couldn’t convince here to buy them.

Here is Elizabeth, working to find the perfect little succulent for her dorm room at William and Mary, where she’ll be a freshman this fall

Here we are with our friend Sven (pink tie) and his brother Ralph (left) and Ralph’s son (right). Visiting from Munich, Ralph is an architect and was keen to see our new condo. So two Gierlinger families all came up and it turned into a fun, spontaneous party.

This is our neighbor Gregory. His search for a condo was featured in the New York Times and, fortunately, landed him in our building. You can read about it here.

My brother Pat and his wife Jenny came back to NYC so Jenny could run in the Pride Run

Jim, too, signed up for the Pride Run. The crowds were hellish, but the event did make the Guiness Book of Records for the largest ever pride charity run — with over 10,000 runners.

Here we are at the Stonewall Inn on the 50th anniversary of the uprising

Jenny and Pat pose with Blondie

Pat & Jenny’s visit overlapped with our friend Susan Shaer’s. We got caught up in all the excitement of the huge Pride march.

Susan and I get ready for the Broadway revival of Oklahoma!

A Busy May in New York, Boston, Miami Beach

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 2, 2019
Posted in: New York (Home). 1 comment

May ended with a visit from my brother Pat, his wife Jenny, and our 18-year old nieces, Molly and Lydia. Here the girls enjoy mocktails in a heavenly outdoor setting at Public by Jean-Georges. They reported to their grandparents that it was the best restaurant they’d ever been to. What lovely guests they were!

In contrast with the first part of this year, May was a busy travel month. And when we weren’t traveling we usually seemed to have visitors, as happens in New York.

After our return from Italy we had one quick week at home before heading to Boston (Cambridge, really) for our 30th class reunion from graduate school at the Harvard Kennedy School. We had a great time seeing around 40 of our classmates — a pretty good showing 30 years out. And I will personally take some responsibility for that good showing because I got involved and really worked the Facebook messages, email prods, and text messages to help drive the crowd.

I also worked with two of my classmates, Jenny Spalding and Dara Menashi, to organize a couple events: a Friday open house at Dara’s house in Brookline and a Saturday evening reception at a restaurant in Cambridge. Because these events were organized by us (instead of the school) they were by far the most fun events of the weekend!

Because the reunion fell just a few days before my birthday, Jim suggested it made no sense to go straight home. So instead we caught a flight to Miami Beach to spend the birthday week in one of our favorite happy places. We’ll let the pictures tell the rest.

In early May we had a visit from my former business partner Nathaniel as he was passing through the city going from DC to Vermont. At the last minute he discovered that his sister Eve just happened to be passing through at the same time. Since we all hiked the Inca Trail together some years ago, it was a really fun reunion.

Jim with Dara in the Kennedy School courtyard at the reunion

Out for a walk along the Charles river with Keith

Jim with Keith and Deborah at an opening night reception at Dara’s house in Brookline

Over the last 30 years I’ve only seen Joan at class reunions. Every time I swear we are going to do better because she is so much fun!

Catching up with Jon and Dara. At the Kennedy School, Jon and I shared the distinction of being the only two graduates of the University of Michigan in our class.

At our Saturday evening reception I had a blast catching up with Deborah and Shari

Outside the busy reunion activities, we did squeeze in time for a wonderful dinner at our old neighbors’ place. So here we are with Ann and Bart and Wil (the tall one who gets taller every time we see him).

As if the reunion weekend did not have enough fun packed into it, we just happened to run into my graduate school landlord, Steve Nil. It was wonderful to catch up with Steve!

Following all the reunion activities it was nice to land in Miami Beach for a bit of relaxation

For my birthday celebration we spent a fun evening with a friend and roommate from U of M, Allan Kleer, who lives in Miami Beach

And even better, we met Allan’s partner Mauricio for the first time. He is an artist, a former model, and a super interesting guy.

I love the colors of everything in Miami Beach — the sky, the sea, the greenery, and especially the iconic lifeguard stations

And yes, we did have a few days here and there in New York in all its glory this month

Art on the High Line in New York

More culture — at the beautiful Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the Brant Foundation, which happens to be six blocks from our apartment

Jim’s brother Albert suggested that we meet Kasey Altman, whose father is a coworker of his in San Diego. For some reason we assumed Kasey was a guy, but he turned out to be the most delightful young woman, who shares our passion for travel and adventure.

I love to discover idyllic little reading spots around the city

A very busy May ended on a high note with the visit from Pat, Jenny, Molly, and Lydia

Early April in New York

Posted by Jim St. George on August 14, 2019
Posted in: North America, USA. Leave a Comment

Sven, Ajay, Fiona, and Mary Beth celebrating our new condo with us

A chunk of the early part of April was spent waiting and waiting for word on going to closing on the Cooper Square condo we were trying to buy. The unit we were buying had previously been part of a larger unit before being split off on its own. Because the occupancy permit stayed with the rest of the unit – which was in fact occupied by the owner – we had to wait for a new occupancy permit before closing. Wait and wait and wait. Of course, all that waiting saved us plenty of money; she was paying property taxes and condo fees while we were using the time to develop the floor plans that we would submit when we finally owned the unit.

And then, when the occupancy permit finally came through – Hooray!! – the owner wanted to delay the sale even longer. The purchase agreement had said we would close within a week or 10 days of issuing the occupancy permit, but her lawyer thought it would take longer than that and she wasn’t going to be in the city until the end of the month and on and on. And then there were questions about building permits she had taken out that were still open. The purchase agreement said that they would be responsible for ensuring they were closed, but her lawyer basically said “Yeah, we’re not going to do that.”

The tiny New York Marble Cemetery, quite near our temporary apartment, is the oldest non-sectarian cemetery in the city.

Frustrating, ugly, nasty … what a process. The night before we were scheduled to close it looked as though the whole thing was going to fall apart, at least for a few weeks and maybe even months. Finally, that night, frustrated and angry, we accepted her lawyer’s position on the work permits, agreed to take responsibility ourselves (since our work was going to be a total gut job renovation anyway) and we went to closing. Frustrated and angry instead of joyous, but we closed. And then held a little champagne lunch party with 10 friends to celebrate.

With that behind us, the next steps would be just as challenging. Our architect had to put the final touches on the plans to submit to the condo board’s architect who has to approve them to ensure we are not doing anything that would affect the building’s structure or that would be too disturbing to current residents. After that we go to the city for permission. In other words, it could still be a while.

The south view from our condo in what will be the living room

Meanwhile, while not spinning our wheels waiting or working with our architect on the plans, we tried to enjoy spring in New York. There’s a lot to like about the city in April, including an early visit to the Botanical Garden out in the Bronx (we’re getting around, even leaving Manhattan!) where they had a stunning orchid exhibit.

And then, the day after closing, it was off to London where we were to spend a few days before meeting my brother and his wife for a two-week tour of Italy. To be honest we weren’t too keen on leaving so soon after getting the keys to the apartment, but, well, it is Italy, so how bad can that be?

Here Mark is with the keys. Finally! Now it’s off it Italy.

Toasting our new condo with fancy champagne glasses, a gift from our realtor (who did very well on the sale…)

Mary Beth and Mark celebrating our closing, standing in what will be the dining room. That drop ceiling towards the back will be removed during demolition giving a much better view of downtown when it’s done.

A beautiful spring day in the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx with Mary Beth

Orchids the likes of which we’ve never seen

Feels like spring!

Mark had to go to a hospital for a fairly routine medical exam … and was greeted by this large portrait of David Koch, one of the most vile libertarian/Republican funders. On the good side though the hospital was really nice and everything checked out fine for Mark.