Charlottesville Has No Soul Cycle, No High Line and No Shake Shack!

Well, this weekend marks the unofficial end to the Summer and well, as y’all can imagine, I’m not exactly thrilled to be back in Charlottesville.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Charlottesville, but in the two short weeks since being back at school, I’ve already read well over six-hundred pages worth of books and reading assignments!

So let’s be honest, going from a full-time internship to school is not easy.  When you go from having responsibilities, a busy life and Soul Cycle to textbooks, schedules from hell, stress, and whatever else you want to throw into the college equation, it’s not easy to immediately adjust.  To makes things worse, Mother and Count Dooku decided that they didn’t need to help me move into my apartment this year, so I don’t even have half of my stuff with me because my car can’t hold a whole lot.  Now, I was going to go home last weekend, but first there was that earthquake, and then that damn Hurricane Irene decided to ruin those plans.  So aside from five pairs of pants I had ordered over the 4th of July weekend, the only clothes I have with me are from my last week of work in New York and a few polo shirts I managed to grab out of my suitcase before driving up to Charlottesville.  I’m now going to be missing the first football game of the season tomorrow so I can drive home in twenty minutes and spend all of Saturday unpacking what I bring back.  I’ll just be glad to have all of my belongings back with me.

Speaking of Hurricane Irene, Andrew experienced his first hurricane while still in New York.  Unfortunately, all he got was some heavy rain and wind.  I know it’s not nice of me to wish a hurricane on someone, but I just wanted him to experience what I’ve gone through way too many times: the no power for eight days, cold showers, being forced to walk down your street because power lines and trees are covering the road, doing homework by candlelight/flashlight, and all those other fun things associated with hurricanes.  Of course, a lot of that would require Andrew to live in suburbia, but that’s just a minor complication.

As for Justin, I had the pleasure of seeing him my last night in New York.  We went to a terrific dinner at Il Posto Accanto, which is just the greatest Italian restaurant made even more entertaining by its neighborhood Italian restaurant atmosphere.  Personally, I’m obsessed, and have found myself longing for the Bistecca ai Ferri, which is grass-fed Black Angus Hanger Steak resting on a warm pumpkin farro with wine-soaked raisins.  After dinner, we headed uptown so Justin and Andrew could meet for the first time, which went surprisingly well, considering that Andrew was moments from going to sleep.  It was also when Andrew and I said farewell until December, ending yet another wild summer in the city.  It was such a treat to see Justin as well, since it would have been December as well before we’d get to see one another otherwise.

As anticipated, Grace was ready and waiting for my return to Charlottesville and things went more smoothly than last time in New York.  Now, I have to be honest, Thomas Jefferson might have been a brilliant intellectual and yes, the Declaration of Independence is a great document, Monticello is lovely and UVa is wonderful school, but that man was horrible at picking real estate!  It is deathly hot out here in the summer and I’m told it’s beyond freezing in the winter.  Oh, and these hills don’t do much to help.  Needless to say, I’m greatly anticipating Fall.

Now that Summer is drawing to a close, I thought it would be good to reflect on what will be my final Summer break before graduate school.  This is a terrifying realization, even though Summer hasn’t been a break for years.  The six weeks in New York this Summer were more of a preview of what life after college than the year before when I only worked three days a week.  Honestly, I enjoyed the work week and can’t wait to get to it myself.  I found an athletic activity aside from running that I truly enjoy and sincerely miss; plus, I finally made it to Brooklyn, so that made the whole six weeks right there!

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the BofA Intern brofest for helping to get me to kick my Starbucks addiction.  In the six weeks I was in New York, I only visited Starbucks twice: on my first day of work and one night with Andrew.  Well, that’s all for now, but I hope y’all have a good Labor Day weekend and until next time…

-JD

My Newest Obsession: Soul Cycle

Last night, as part of my new crusade to try new things that I’d ordinarily never attempt, I went to check out New York’s newest exercise obsession, Soul Cycle.  I first heard about it at work because our Editor-in-Chief is beyond obsessed and after four weeks of hearing about it, I decided I needed to see what was so great about it.  So, I signed up and went last night at 19h30 for my first Soul Cycle class.  Grace knew about Soul Cycle from some radio show she listens to that mentions it all the time, but even as I walked up to the studio on the corner 3rd Avenue and 83rd Street, I still didn’t really understand what I was about to partake in, let alone how long it lasted!

It turns out that Soul Cycle is part spinning, part yoga, part weight-lifting, part stretching, and part crunches/push-ups with very high energy music and an equally energetic coach.  It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.  I should say that for the record, the only exercise I do regularly is running five miles, three times a week and then doing some very basic sit-ups, crunches, etc…  I loathe gyms partly because seeing people bench-pressing my bodyweight while I’ve got the 15lb weights doesn’t help make working-out seem like any fun.  The other reason I avoid gyms the same way I avoid families with small children is because I’m not out to look like David Hasselhoff when he was on Baywatch; I run so that I can continue to eat all of the desserts that I can’t live without and not die before I hit Sixty!  It’s purely for survival and because of said running, I left Italy this May weighing exactly as much as I had when I arrived!  I wish my roommates could have said the same thing.

Soul Cycle was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before.  Before I knew what was happening, I was on a bike in dim-light room filled with a very odd mix of people; a few people my age, but mostly people in their 30s or 40s; there was one woman who looked late 60s-early 70s, but no one older than her.  Our instructor, a man by the name of String, got right into things after a very fast orientation for myself and the other newcomer.  I was in the back row, thinking the fan would be blowing on me directly though I quickly learned that it was above me and so I barely got any air on me during the one hour class.  After the brief rundown of the do’s and don’ts, we were off.

I began like all beginners, like a deer in the headlights, fearing that I should just leave before I make a complete fool of myself.  However, I figured that I should just stick it out and if I don’t like it, then I won’t come back.  By the end, I had sort of figured out all of the different positions we were told to get into throughout our session.  My legs didn’t stop moving the entire time, which was most painful when we simulated riding uphill!  There were times when I thought I would pass out, but String and the extremely upbeat music kept me going right up to the end.

After leaving the studio an hour later, I stood on the corner for a few minutes just trying to grasp what I had just done.  I now get why Richard, my Editor-in-Chief, is obsessed with Soul Cycle; it combines so many different exercises into one and is the perfect thing for someone who doesn’t have the time to do all of these exercises individually.  Despite being kind of expensive ($32 for an hour session), I will definitely be going back a few more times before leaving New York for Charlottesville, where they don’t have Soul Cycle (yet), next Friday!  Plus, starting in November, they reopen the South Beach location, so I’ll be driving down from Palm Beach regularly this winter to get my Soul Cycle fix.  To say the least, I’m hooked!  My only regret is that I didn’t try it earlier.  Now if y’all will excuse me because I need to get to bed now because I’m dead tired, so until next time…

-JD