Archives

All posts by Mark Sullivan

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

March in New York

Posted by Mark Sullivan on July 11, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

Checking out The Vessel at Hudson Yards

Yes, readers, we are trying to get you caught up to the current time, but it’s moving a bit slowly. Here is a quick summary of March 2019, so we can move on soon to more recent, and more eventful, months.

March was a waiting month — waiting for winter to go away, waiting for a certificate of occupancy so we can close on our condo, waiting for some big travel plans in April, waiting for spring weather to bring a raft of visitors to New York. But during all that waiting we had a few fun visitors, made our first trip outside of New York, and did plenty of exciting exploration of this great new city we call home.

But we’ll mostly just let the pictures tell the story…

In March the massive new development known as Hudson Yards opened for the first time. We booked early so that we could climb the centerpiece sculpture know as “The Vessel” on one of the very first days.

Underneath The Vessel is a weird mirror-type-thingy that makes you turn blue for a great photo with the towers of Hudson Yards

Here is a lovely view across the Hudson River toward Jersey City on a chilly but sunny day

Early March brought some our first ever houseguests — Jim’s sister Rebecca, along with her son Jackson and his girlfriend Sydney.

Rebecca and I soaking in culture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

What happens halfway through March? St. Patrick’s Day! So I whipped up a nice cozy batch of corned beef and cabbage. We’ve been enjoying the rediscovery of all the things we used to make before we took a 6-year sabbatical from cooking.

We had a wonderful opportunity to meet up with my niece Leigh and her friend Abby during their intense group weekend of culture here in New York. We caught up with them at the Whitney Museum for the incredible Andy Warhol exhibit there.

Leigh is a delight to be with!

One of the first nice spring days brought people out to the parks in droves. Here is a little park just caddy-corner from our apartment. Now we are just dying to see those leaves pop out!

My first genuinely unexpected run-in in New York: I stopped in a grocery store in Brooklyn to get an iced tea, and there is Mike Conlow, a comrade-in-arms from the DNC and the Obama campaigns!

My brother John made a surprise appearance in New York. Only after he arrived for work meetings did he learn that we were actually living here. So we squeezed out an evening at the last minute and had a blast.

In late March we made a first trip outside New York since moving here. We spent a nice weekend visiting my family in Michigan. Here we are, bundled up for a chilly walk on the streets of rural LaSalle, a place where NOBODY walks.

With my mom in the house where I grew up on a farm in LaSalle, Michigan

My parents receive irregular visits from a cat named Mabel. She (though technically a he) was kind enough to make an appearance during our visit. Mabel always gets food on demand on the back porch but will never let you get closer than a couple feet away.