Sunrises with Amanda

Amanda was in about a month ago, and during that time we were talking late into the night in her little room in the Larchmont. A long time ago—maybe 1995—I'd been in Morocco and met two men who had stayed in New York on their way to Morocco.

"Where did you stay?" 

"We stayed in Greenwich Village, in a little unknown place called Larchmont. It's like a European hotel, a tiny room with a sink and the bathroom down the hall. Really cheap. We always stay there."

I remember going to take a look after I got home, and so when Amanda was looking for something affordable for a night following a conference, I mentioned it. Unlike the other 20 people I've mentioned it to, the bathroom-down-the-hall part didn't scare her off. She booked it. 

I'll do the bathroom-down-the-hall thing when I'm traveling and there are other factors that make it the best choice. Like money. If it's a lot cheaper in a place where hotel rooms are expensive, I'll opt for that. Bath-down-the-hall is a negative, no doubt. But it's not a deal-breaker, and in this case, wi-fi, price, and location trumped walking 20 feet down a hall in pajamas while asking "Did I bring the key to my room."

One thing Amanda and I had discussed as she worked late into the night on her laptop, after I'd headed to the PATH train for my ten-minute ride home, was sunrises. She was working on a piece, and while I don't find many reasons to get out of bed, I have seen enough sunrises around the world to talk reasonably on this topic. These occasions are seared into my brain, since I don't often force myself out of bed in the dark to get a lift to a chilly spot to sit for an hour. 

Here's Amanda's piece on sunrises. And look, a mention of Dik-Dik!