Friday, January 1, 2016

My Childhood and NYC (Specifically PJ Clarke's)

For as long as I could remember, New York City was a part of my life. Even before my (not-biological) brother Jack came into the picture. In fact, I can proudly tell you that I lived there for 5 years before I came to live in Pelham (my family lived there from the time that I was 9 years old and my (biological) younger sister, Quinlan (Quin for short, born in December of 2001) was 7 in the mid-to-late summer of '08 to the summer of 2013, when I was 14 years old and Quin was I think around, what, 11 years old (My brother Jack, that I told you about, is adopted and has a late June birthday, and he's currently 4 right now, was around then so he might have been 2 years old by then)? That's an accurate guess, I guess. Let me tell you, It was an awesome place to go visit (and live in) as a kid growing up during the 2000's in New York. Well, minus the 9/11 part (Stupid Islamic Extremists!) for you older readers. Ok, maybe I didn't live in Times Square, but this was what it was like when me, Quin, and my Mom (Maura) and Dad (Chris) moved to the city in the summer of '08. Hell, I was even born in NYC- Mt. Sinai Hospital was where I was born in during the year of 1999, specifically on March 10th. My birthdate fell on a Wednesday that year, and next (well, it's close enough to say this) year, I will turn 17 years old on that date. My younger sister, Quin, was also born on a Wednesday in NYC- her birthdate is December 19th, 2001. That was the same year that 9/11 occurred, shortly two months before my sister's birth. Ouch.



When me and my sister were really young, like starting around when we lived in Mount Kisco (a suburban town in which we lived in when we were just a family of 5, from the summer of '04, when I was 5 years old and Quin was 2 years old, to the summer of '08, when I was 9 years old and my sister was 7 years old), we often (well, it got less and less amounts of time when we moved to NYC) visited my Mom whenever we got the chance to. You see, she works as a lawyer at this law firm called Debevoise and Plimpton. She did/does work at home at some times, though. She mostly does briefs, and doesn't really get that much cases. Back when we lived in Mount Kisco, my mom took the train, on days that she went to the city, to work. It was a pretty damn long commute for her (In fact, one of the reasons why we specifically , but me and my sister were OK with it, for the most part. Both of my parents worked back then, as my dad was a printer at this printing company called Brady Palmer (he ranked high in terms of job position(s)- he quit by the time I was a 14-year-old Freshman in high school, mostly because he found a lot (not all, but a lot) of the people to work with were, in my words (though he did not say this) to be "fucking assholes"). Me and my sister, on days that I (or she) did not have school, would go to visit my mom with our babysitter. Shortly before that, we would meet her for lunch at the original location of P.J. Clarke's. It's a really old place, established back in the late 1800's, and it was visited by many famous people in the past. Me and my sister would often order a plain burger or the mac and cheese with orchiette pasta (we ordered it without the peas and bacon that came with it). It was soooo good! They also (Still have it) had a jukebox (not kidding, a legit jukebox) that you could press the arrowed dials to flip around the catalogued CD collection they had (it ranged from all sorts of eras and genres) and hit numbered buttons to select the song you wanted from a specific album (you had to pay for it in actual US dollars to get the song played, if you wish to know). Me and my sister got a kick out of that thing, and we thought it was the coolest shit to ever fucking exist. Well...now we haven't been to PJ Clarke's in a while, so yeah. Now, in 2016, I vow to go back there. As well as get a social media account. Which I don't have. Shit, I better get my life together. Here's a picture of the location and its exterior, If you want to see it.




Now, expect me to talk a lot more about my childhood, teen years, and New York City in upcoming posts. I don't know how to write this conclusion, so let me just say...bye!

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