8 Years Later....

Musings about NYC because we are stuck at home in Philadelphia during Coronapocalypse

It's been 8 years since I last wrote something here. I came across this blog accidentally, I had forgotten I had written it, I clicked on something while looking for something else so I don't know if I could even find this again. I no longer blog...it was a very Mormon Utah thing and I am no longer Mormon nor do I live in Utah so I don't blog--or journal, I don't have time, but after reading these to the kids it was such a great reminder of some things we have forgotten.

I'm grateful to have moved on and grown since writing these--I no longer care about low hanging pants, I see noisy teenagers all the time without feeling the need to lump them into racist categories, I'm definitely a feminist, I'm still a mom and my kids are a bit older, I have faith in the goodness of people and not a lot of faith in our current government and I'm no longer religious. That said I'm a bit sad I didn't continue with these, there are so many things that I have forgotten.

We have since moved from NYC, something I didn't think I would ever do, NYC will always be home to me, but I couldn't pass up the job opportunity and the chance to work in a museum after spending three years working for NBC News. We miss NYC terribly, there really is no where else like it in the world.

At the moment I see images of an empty Times Square which makes me want to cry. I've never seen NYC empty, without people, without cabs, without the soul.  I miss the hectic nature, I miss being able to say I live in the center of the universe--I can't watch SVU and say I live there--but I finally get all the "inside references".

Reading past posts the one that really got to me was about the gay man who lost his partner the day he proposed.  Everyday I lived in NYC I crossed paths with millions of humans and for a millisecond or a few minutes I actually because part of their lives and they became part of mine. If coronavirus has me thinking about anything it is that connection with other humans that I miss the most.  I currently live a minute walk from work--so different than the 3 hours I spent with humanity every day to and from the various places that I spent my life...the Brooklyn Academy of Music Archives, NYUniversity KARMS, Pratt, Rockefeller Center... I no longer brush with humanity on the same level, but I interacted with the wonderful people I work with at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I found a comic store Brave New Worlds to go to every couple of weeks, a new theater to patronize, the library....little by little expanding my access to the rush of humanity in Philly...and now all of that has been reduced to my little apartment, my family, video chats with friends, online events and it's difficult.

No one reads this but me...sure it's public but that's ok the kids wanted me to add a few things they remember to add to the list of stories, so I'm doing that. Just some other things I thought of after reading the other posts--Josh and Max graduated from the oldest high school in Staten Island Curtis HS, Harrison graduated from Art & Design HS in Manhattan and Mira went to Freshman and Sophmore year there.  They both traveled three hours to school in the morning and 3 hours home every school day, Mira and Caleb went to a private elementary and middle school, because the school where Max had all the girls crushing on him was labeled as perpetually dangerous, so I pulled him out after about 2 months. Josh went to a military college The Citadel and is in the army, Max graduated from SUNY Oswego.

Tea and Sympathy is still my favorite restaurant, I got over loving seeing the statue of liberty everyday, because the tourists were just too much for me.  I hung out on the non touristy side (brooklyn) or on the bottom of the boat. Best place on the boat is in the back at night traveling from Manhattan to Staten Island...hands down. I never got tired of being in the city, I loved to hang out there after work, take in a show or a movie, see friends, get some drinks, go to a concert.  The commute was starting to get a little thin by the time we moved but that was the only thing. I don't know if I'll ever be able to afford to live in NYC ever again, but if I can I will.  For now though I'm learning to love Philly. We've (everyone but Josh) only been here 10 months, give us another year or so to find our footing.

1. Mira and Caleb in elementary school and they are in the back of the bus (S74) going home from P.S. 57.  They can hear yelling outside the bus.  They look out and two men are fighting outside at the bus stop. One man throws the other man through the glass enclosure for the stop. Then he gets pulled up by the other guy and shoved against the bus and in the course of this they eventually rolled under the bus. In typical NYC nonplussed fashion the bus driver over the intercom says, "Would you please get out from underneath the bus?!"  Meanwhile Mira and Caleb are just worried they are going to come on the bus, but nope, they just got out from under and stood there while the bus went on it's way.

2. Mira and Caleb again in their favorite spot in the back of bus.  Mira is all decked out in plastic rings and bracelets from a school party.  There is a group of teenage boys in front of them.
Boy 1: You should go talk to her...
Boy 2: No way man she's like 13!!
Mira looks up and the boys scream and run away to the front of the bus.

3. Mira and I are going to the ballet and we are on the bus to the ferry.  At a stop we watch a man and woman get on the bus.  The man pays, walks to the back of the bus and immediately gets off. The woman does not notice this as she is rummaging in her purse for her metrocard. She pays and then walks back looking for who we now know is her husband. She freaks out at the bus driver about how her husband who has mental health problems has just been left outside and she needs to get off.  He refuses and won't let her leave until the next stop...which seems crazy to me even to this day. Most bus drivers were tough as nails and pretty compassionate. But there's always a couple....like the one who kept yelling at a deaf woman because she wouldn't put her phone away...I don't know why this irritated him so much.

4.  Harrison experiences on the subway were classic.  a.) The guy who pulled the breaks on the train while yelling "This train is going no where!"   b.)Falling asleep on the 1 train and winding up in the bronx.  c.) Evil laughing in the ear of the man in front of him exiting the subway which freaked the dude out so much he punched Harrison in the stomach  d.) Guy begging for money because he was single and ready to mingle, but only with the ladies. e.) Harrison had his wallet stolen...how do we know this because he found it in the hood of his jacket with a note that said "Get a job dude you have no money." e.) not a subway thing but the women running after Harrison yelling "Ethan Hawke, he does look like Ethan Hawke!" at his graduation ceremony--we did actually meet Ethan Hawke twice and he did admit Harrison looks a lot like him!! Yes!!  NOTE: The other cool celebrity encounter was with Alan Rickman (near Poet's House)--I didn't say anything to him he looked like every New Yorker does in the morning...like it's too cold to talk to anyone until I get my coffee.

5. Friendly train conductors who give tourist information and joy everyday--"Welcome to the choo choo train..."

6. Snarky train conductors who are just over people holding the doors

7. The two crimes we were ever a witness to in the whole nine years in NYC a.) While Max was waiting for the bus on the way to school a man tried to rob another man waiting and shot a gun off in the ground. Instead of coming home Max just continued on to school and just spent the day freaked out. b.) Upon exiting a bus on the way home from a dance performance, a girl asked to call her mom using my phone and while I was holding my phone telling her to give me the number and I'd call...she grabbed it out of my hands, so I chased her down the street (thank god she ran DOWN the street and not UP the massive hill) and into a pizzeria where she locked herself in the bathroom. She finally gave me the phone back after I and the rest of the staff threatened to call the police unless she came out and gave it to me...oh yeah it was Mother's Day.

8. The time Max left his phone on the bus and called me from the home phone to let me know.  I happened to be in a cab at the time and passing the bus depot so I hopped out.  The bus dispatch called the bus driver of the bus and he stopped and looked for it. They couldn't find it on the bus. At the same time Garry was tracking it on his phone, because the phone hadn't been turned off. So he told me where it was, the bus depot helped me figure out what bus route it was and where it was going and directed me to the closest stop that would put me in front of the bus.  I actually hopped on the bus and sat down in the back where the phone should be and started looking for it.  While I was looking for it the location signal went off so we thought maybe the guy in front of me had it. So I started talking somewhat loud about how I really had faith in the kindness of strangers and that I really hoped that who ever had the phone would return it because as a single parent I really needed it to make sure my kids were safe....at that point the man in front of me turned around and said "Hey, I just found this phone here....is it yours?" It was Max's and I told the man how grateful I was that he found it and that it was there and what a relief it was that he found it.

9. The time I was on the ferry and a guy from the Dominican Republic (he told me this) proceeded to follow me from the ferry and onto the train I was taking to the Grolier Club while yelling at me the WHOLE way variations of the following phrases..."Will you go out with me if I give you $20?--while waving a $20 bill in my face. How about a car...I have a car just sitting around I'll give it to you...I'll love you like a tiger....Do you want money...I have money...I'll take care of you real good..." This was the first time I've had a man follow me, this would be first of two times where this happened me. So I usually felt really safe in NYC...this was not one of those times.  No one on the train or the ferry did anything to help...New Yorkers are really good at ignoring stuff...but I was intensely uncomfortable and had no idea if this man was going to follow me from the train...I had no idea what to do. For context the ferry trip is 30 min and the train trip for me was 25min before he finally left. For almost an hour I had to deal with this guy and had no idea how my evening was going to end. The only reply he got from me the whole time was No I don't want that. No. He finally got tired of these answers and left before my stop. I was never so relieved in my life. The second time this happened to me the dude tried following me home from a blind date. I basically stopped near a police officer in the ferry terminal and told him I didn't need him to keep me safe I was fine and he finally left me alone. The last time this happened to me I told the guy to "F*%k off!" right at the beginning and he did.  I don't know if you can tell the pattern here, but the first one happened to me the first year I was in NYC, the second one about 5 years later and last one happened last year. NYC has been the best thing that happened to me, I am so much stronger and confident than I was...oh and men are weird.

10. Oh and then there's Charlie--my landlord--so many stories about Charlie a) the time 5+ firemen showed up at my door to tell me the downstairs people had a small issue and they just wanted to let me know the person next door was stealing my electricity and showed me the wire--yeah that was Charlie using the electricity from the house I was renting in to power the house he was renovating next door....I didn't tell firemen that, just thanked them for the info. b.)he refused to put a new roof on the back section of the apartment. So a raccoon or something dug through the roof. He decided the best way to fix that was to screw a huge metal plate into my ceiling with some information about his presidential run written in permanent ink and then use 20 screws to attach it. You know cuz the critters won't like walking on them so it will deter them from coming in...NEWS FLASH: it did not! When we moved we figured out they dug through the closet in the bathroom and really did die behind the shower. UGH  c.) he thought the metal plates on the sidewalks were secret radio waves for listening in on conversations d.) that he was going to chain down the house when the magnetic poles shifted so the house didn't float away  e) he was crazy but he was also one of sweetest people I know, he always tried to find jobs for homeless men and women, he did care for the people he rented to.

11. The man who was carrying his daughter in his arms off the train and the train doors closed on her dress. The conductor kept yelling at him to move away from the door so she could leave the station (he was at the very end so she couldn't see or hear him) and she was getting angrier and angrier until I went up to her an told her what was going on. She finally opened the door. That poor father probably almost had a heart attack thinking she was going to just take off.

12. I was always asked directions by tourists usually in places I was going for the first time too, or just didn't travel on routinely. I always felt really bad when that happened and worried that I'd give poor directions. Right before I stopped working at NBC I got on the train at Whitehall and there was a group of tourists from Italy, they asked me if I knew how to get to the place where the giant Christmas tree was.  It was the first time I've been asked to give directions on where something was that I went to every day.  I told them to stay with me, that it was were I worked and I could get them there using the tunnels under the buildings. We had a pretty good conversation about what they did in Italy and what I do even though I didn't speak Italian and they didn't speak English.  There was a little Spanish thrown in which helped.  They trusted me and I was able to get them there safely while avoiding some of the midtown people crush up above. I also wish I could remember where they were from it sounded amazing...somewhere in the middle coastline on the sea....I think it might be Pescara because I remember thinking of fish when they talked about it.

13. Working at NBC I had hoped that I would see some famous people...I did not...at least not as much as I thought I would.  I literally ran into Leslie Jones, walked past John Mulaney, shared an elevator with Jimmy Fallon, and had Seth Meyers open a door for me and Caleb on a bring your kid to work day.  That was it...no run ins with U2 or the Avengers, Tina Fey or Kate McKinnon...which is a bummer, but that's ok.  Oh and one more.  I was sitting in a cubicle across from a huge windowed office that was used as a costume closet and changing area for the Maya and Marty show. The producer had an assistant Ara and I called her Jingle Boots...because she wore the same jingly boots everyday... One time I was there one of the cast (it was a bunch of really old people...some reunion skit)....asked me if I knew what the "Cloud" was...it was the first time I've felt like a reference librarian in a long time...and then Martin Short walked past and asked if he could borrow a kleenex...to which I responded...well, I don't really want it back so you can keep it...to which he chuckled.

14. My interview with NBC was an interesting one. Steve T. who has been a Today Show producer for decades came down to guest services to bring me up to the offices where the interviews were going to take place. On the way he got a notification...a school shooting had happened in Oregon or Washington (I don't remember) and he had to go cover that immediately.  I totally understood so he walked me up to the interview room, which was weirdly on an empty floor (10 west) and left me in the room to wait for my next interview 35 minutes later.  Steve is another of the nicest people I've met. He took my aunt and uncle and myself on a personal tour of the Today Show when they came to visit and he was always supportive of our projects and myself.

15. The other most interesting group of people I have ever met have been the archivist team at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Louie, Sharon, Anita, Mary, and Jan. We used to all eat lunch together and the stories...omg the stories from everyone. They have all lived here for most of their lives and had the best stories.  I won't write them here as they aren't mine to tell.  But BAM was one of my most favorite places to work. Other people I miss from NYC. Maggie who lived down the street from me. She's a librarian, I met her at a library club meeting, and she is the absolute nicest person I know, she is like a sister to me.  The first time we met she found out where I lived so we went home together. We didn't meet again for another year when I wandered into a church in the neighborhood and she was there. We've been close ever since and she became Harrison's god mother (this was before I gave up religion altogether.) Sami the cab driver I had consistently while in Staten Island. He'd give me falafal his wife made. The coffee cart dude outside of Art and Design who made sure Mira had food in the morning, Cristina my mentor and colleague from Pratt, running into Eric who is the comics librarian at SVA and fellow Pratt graduate who lives in Staten Island, I would randomly run into him at the ferry, on 14th street, at BAM, and other places around Manhattan all the time.  I do NOT miss the opera lady who would sing at the ferry late at night, midtown, the pigeons in the ferry terminal and the tiny boats...those were the worst!!, the guys with coolers asking for money and smiles, mariachi bands are exactly as John Mulaney describes it, in fact the way he describes NYC is spot on.

Rainy Day Discoveries (Edited Reprint)

Torrential downpour in the city today!  I mistakenly didn't wear my rain boots and by the time I got to The Frick my jeans were wet to the knees.  Thank goodness I have waterproof sneakers, so my feet weren't wet.  On my brisk walk to and from my internship I saw a couple of things I thought worth noting.
1.  The box for this:

was on the edge of the sidewalk waiting for garbage pick up.  I have to wonder whose brilliant idea this toy was? Yes...let's make a movable sink for our children to play with!  Does this not scream "My main purpose in life is to create flooding and messes where ever I am placed!"?  In a city where backyards are scare I'm pretty sure this is sitting in the corner of some young couple's kitchen.   Cute visions of their young child happily (yet somehow neatly) playing with all the "whizbangs" that are usually kiddie pool bling whirling around in their heads.  I suppose their child(ren) hasn't yet discovered the bathroom sink and the joys of washing any and all toys whether they come with batteries or not.
When my kids were younger and I was in the market for a new refrigerator I purposefully did not buy the one with the water dispenser.  My friend had one at her house and our 4 year old kids would look for any opportunity to sneak away in order to push the buttons and make the water spray onto the ground.  I'm pretty sure the creator of this toy is either a single 24 year old male or a disgruntled grandparent.  I'll be watching to see if the actual toy winds up on the sidewalk in a couple of weeks.
2.  Who says New Yorkers aren't nice??  I saw a woman today run to catch up with a random grocery delivery man who was walking with bags and no umbrella so she could share her umbrella with him as he walked down the block.  It is one of the nicest things I have seen.
3. Walking in a crowded city is difficult enough without throwing all sizes of open and dripping umbrellas into the mix.  I often feel like I'm playing a game of chicken with the other commuters on the sidewalks as we weave and dodge each other, not to mention lakes on the edge of the sidewalks and dripping overhangs.  It will never cease to amaze me that someone's eye doesn't get poked out in the process.  However, that said most people try to be considerate with their soaking umbrellas and I have yet to have someone snap one closed in my direction so I get hit with the bucket full of water that somehow seems to get collected on the top.
4. Cutting my own hair is NOT one of my talents!  Which I should have known since cutting other people's hair is also not one of my talents, but sometimes enough is enough.  I need to learn to breathe deeply for a few seconds until the feeling goes away next time.  It looks like I'll have to collect money from the couch cushions and find a hair dresser.  (Note:  No I did not attempt to do this while walking in the rain carrying an umbrella, although I might use that as an excuse...  It actually wouldn't surprise me if I saw someone trying to do this.  I've watched women put eyeliner and mascara on while riding the subway.  I always feel like if I keep staring I'm going to witness the debacle that occurs when someone actually pokes their eye out.  I'm not sure whether I want to cheer them on or plead with them to put the mascara wand away.)

Voila!

Caleb (5 years old): I'd like it better if your room was cooler.
Me: Well the air conditioner is in your room now.
Caleb: I'll tell you what you should do.  Move the air conditioner into your room and voila! your room will be cool again.


Yup my 5 year old just used the word voila...and used it correctly.  What a smarty pants!

ATM - $ = Bald Bree

Costco only takes debit cards, checks or cash.  I for the life of me can't remember my pin number for my Utah debit card and I left my checkbook at home.  I realize this while I'm standing in the longest line ever...(stupid Hurricane Irene).  I don't want to get out of line to get the money at the ATM so I hope I can somehow remember my PIN while he's checking out my groceries or that Max will be able to find where I put the PIN number.  Alas neither happens.

Meanwhile, I have the light bulb idea of just getting cash from my NY bank account (I remember the PIN for this card)...I have to go to the ATM cuz there is no money in checking only savings. (pause while I attempt to explain my bank account situation and then give up cuz it's too complicated)....anyway to make a long story short the ATM machine at Costco debited my savings account $200 and spit out $20.

Now picture me with no hair because I just pulled it all out.  And I've worked so hard to get it to the length it is..which makes this all the sadder.

Costco can't do anything for me, the ATM people can't do anything for me and the bank isn't sure they can do anything for me because the receipt says I got $200.  If I had any hair left that would be gone by now, instead I almost cry in front of the manager at the bank.  Anyone know a good hairdresser who can work miracles and is cheap??

Detroit Ruins Map

View Detroit in a larger map

This is a map I made for an ALA online class on Geospacial techniques and mapping.  It goes along with a reference resource bibliographic essay I did for my Reference class at Pratt.  I wish I could show you the Google Earth version of this map that shows housing vacancy data for 2001-2010 as an overlay.  It allows you to see how the empty the city has become over the past 10 years, but I can't figure out how to link it.  It was really fun learning how to make the map and quite easy.  I was able to link movies and pictures to each of my points of interest.  Enjoy!

Echoes Among the Stars

Banned to hang among the stars
upside down unrivaled beauty
sacrificed to the sea
all because of vanity
Cassiopeia and Andromeda
stories speak of adoration
no stars are named for me.

Beloved of no one
Yet souls bear my name
What echoes will travel
from future to past like lights
forever twinkling in dual mirrors
memories leave my mouth
into the atmosphere.

They return as distorted
remnants imperfect copies
but carrying all of what
is truly me to return to earth
spotlights of destiny
I am no goddess
but in them I am engraved.

I become i

Without substance without form
like a bubble floating

Afraid to land and disappear
to leave no trace
I pop only a faint damp ring.

See me hear these words
like whispers faint
They are empty and vanish

They burst and implode
Collapse as a dying star.

The ghost of my former self
The copy in the mirror
A spark too far gone to flame

Not important
I lose my mINd

Not wanted
I lose my HEart
Not worthy
I lose my souL
Shut out
I lose my seLf

I
become
i
cease to
exist


NOTE: This has been an incomplete poem for a long time, I just thought I'd finish it this evening.  I don't want anyone thinking I'm falling into the depths of despair (or the pit of despair depending on your familiarity with Princess Bride).  This is from another life... it relates to a person that in reality doesn't exist anymore, which in a way is fitting.  I'm glad that the me I am now is not the me that exists in this poem.  I also just happen to like some of the imagery it invokes.

Dichotomous Detroit

My mother grew up in Detroit, Michigan and I spent vacations there visiting my grandparents when I was little.  We'd drive up through Canada and take the tunnel that let out right into downtown.  My mother would promptly hit the locks on her door and wouldn't relax until we got to my grandparents house on Duchess Ave, east of Detroit.  My grandfather worked for Ford and later on for some electric company (I think...I wonder if it was the American Electric Iron Company on Woodward?  I'm not sure or if it was just some local place.  Someday I'll need to ask).

My memories are of emerging out of that tunnel into this huge city, bigger than I had ever seen.  Gawking at crowds of people on the streets, lights, White Castle...what's that mom??  The huge huge streets, some with medians down the middle and gorgeous houses.  My grandparents house was a modest brick house, the neighbors next door had an above ground pool with a slide, I'd never seen such a thing.  My brother and I would longingly stare over the fence and say things in a stage whisper like..."Boy, it sure is HOOOOT out here today!!"  or "Whew!  I feel like I'm melting, how will we ever cool down?"  until the neighbors eventually asked if we wanted to swim, just to shut us up.  We weren't allowed to actually ask them if we could come over...because that would be rude.  Kids!  If our loud whining didn't work my grandfather would get out these 3 metal wash tubs and fill them up with the hose, we'd go sit in them and then my grandmother would come out of the house with ice cream in these fantastic colored plastic dishes on stems, the ice cream would be covered in Magic Shell.  Now I'm sure that there is something very unhealthy about eating something that is liquidy chocolate something or other that hardens when it gets cold...but even today if I see it on the shelves I'll buy it and eat it with Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and I'm transported back to summers in Detroit.  I remember eating them on the screened in porch out front and in the backyard while watching my grandfather in his beautiful garden of lilies or watch him mow with one of those non powered mowers.

I remember almost giving the other next door neighbor a heart attack as I climbed across the top of the swing set.  I remember thinking how weird it was that there were all these alley's behind the houses where the garbage was collected.  I remember listening to a Red Wings hockey game on the radio while watching it with the sound off on the TV, because my grandfather preferred the announcers on the radio...I happen to agree.  He'd also bring us small powdered donuts at least once during our visit.  I also remember vaguely a trip to his work, I remember watching him fiddle with electronic stuff and him explaining that he had gotten shocked so much that he doesn't feel much in his fingertips anymore.

I remember eating at some Dutch? something or other restaurant...it was a buffet and I remember the color red and the fact it was always pretty dark and my grandfather would complain about it.  I remember my grandmother would save scraps off her plate in a napkin that she would put in her purse for the dog.  My grandfather drove everywhere, because my grandmother didn't know how to drive.  He'd take us to the mall that had the big metal hippos and rhino's you could crawl all over.  He'd take us to Belle Isle which had the coolest boat museum with a stethoscope...no telescope...no  oh gosh what are those things called in submarines???  And the creepiest aquarium I've ever been in, but I wanted to go back every time we visited because if I could just make it past the really scary creepy huge tank with the big Garr fish with the sharp teeth that seemed to slink out of the dark murky recesses, I could see my favorite fish the Lion fish in the small tank in the back, next to the equally cool sea horses and then I could go back past the amazing electric eel.  I was in heaven if we were there during a display of the eel's currenty power.  Every single memory I have of Detroit is happy and joyous, which is why it pains me so to see the amount of ruin that is in that city and loss of so many beautiful buildings and places.  Even the aquarium after over 100 years of continuous operation was also closed.

I have a class on being a reference librarian and reference resources for my graduate degree.  One of the projects is a bibliographic essay (an explanation of what that is should be saved for another time).  I chose to research the ruins of Detroit and examine the history behind some of these ruins.  My research has taken me to look at fascinating old maps of the area, books about ruins and social economics, journal articles on increasing green space and social issues and many many websites, pictures and films.  The more I research the more I realize that Detroit is a city of dichotomy, that it has two sides sometimes right next door to each other.  That is it a city that is decaying but on the brink of such great things.  That a neighborhood of decaying houses can be just down the street from a restored mansion. It is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.  I am reminded of the photo essay I did on this very subject of dichotomy during my undergraduate degree, but in a very different city, San Francisco.  I have spent days and hours lost in the library and on the web happily immersed in this amazing city.

Hopefully these short movies are viewable. (I took the movies out and just have a link to the page they are on now...it was driving me nuts that I couldn't mute the initial movie.)  They are amazing!  Be aware there is a bunch of badly bleeped cursing and in the middle one a few off color references, but the places and hope that is exhibited in these stories is amazing!  I hope to go back to Detroit someday and continue where I left off and create more good memories in this beautiful hopeful decaying rebuilding city.  Watch Detroit Lives on:  https://www.palladiumboots.eu/

Enjoy!  PS If you want more links to pics and such they are everywhere, but I'm sure I can post some if you want.

wha--th--ell?

I sometimes wonder why people do the things that they do...or dogs for that matter.  Little tiny dachshund puppy walking behind it's owner, suddenly decides to flop on the sidewalk and roll around.  The owner drags him for a couple feet before she realizes that he's just flopped on the ground.  Why?  I mean I've seen dogs do that in grass...but the concrete sidewalk?  Did he have an itch?  Did it smell good??  Who knows the mind of a dog?

Or in terms of a person...why did the lady coming out of Tea & Sympathy have 10 pens stuck to the outside pockets of her purse?  Two in each color...was she afraid she was going to run out of ink?  Does she lose a lot of pens? Does she like to write with all of them at once? Does she label things a lot and are they color-coded?

Or the interesting high school girl on the train who had a collection of zip ties all over her clothes.  Attached to her bracelet, securing the stuffed monkey to the front pocket of her jeans, on the necklace with the hot pink binkie attached, around her belt loops, through the artfully hacked holes in her jeans.  They were all white.  Why? What's with the monkey?  Does the monkey come off? Does she attach it to other things? What's with the binkie?  Ok nevermind I don't want to know...I've seen/read Love in the Time of Cholera....not a picture I want in my head!

Do I have a quirk? Do people look and me and wonder...probably not...unless it's just to wonder what's a small town girl doing in a place like this?

Addition: This had to go in this blog spot, because this is definitely a wth moment!

I know I know you can barely see him...but he's there in white boots and white guitar and white cowboy hat....oh and lets not forget the white speedo, which the guitar is covering up.  So I had to travel all the way from Utah to find a naked cowboy...that seems a bit over the top, I would have thought it would be much easier to find one of those in the wild wild west, but apparently NYC is the place to go if you are in the market.  Especially if white is your thing.  So why?  why?  and why?  I dunno!  He had something written on the back of his...ahems...but I didn't stick around to read it, I'm sure he was protesting something incredibly intelligent and thought provoking like save the panda's....kinda like "no....no....really I read it for the articles.... /shifty eyes" sort of thing.

Can you read the leaves as well?

I found a tiny and delightful restaurant, Tea & Sympathy, it's between 12th and 13th on Greenwich Ave. It is right next to it's brother restaurant A Salt and Battery.  /snort  Out front sits an english cab and in between the two restaurants is the tea shop, manned by a very handsome cashier.  Tea and Sympathy is where you'd take your 7 year old daughter for a treat or your best girlfriend for a chat or your classmates to discuss rare books.  I think A Salt and Battery is there so the boys don't feel overwhelmed by tea and frills, plus it's not really a man sized restaurant, I don't think they'd fit too well.

The restaurant seats 23 at 9 tiny tables and it was packed!  There is no room to wait inside so you have to sit outside while you hope it doesn't rain or snow.  I can hardly believe that the english accented waitresses could even fit between the tables to wait on everyone.  I made it just in time before they stopped their breakfast menu.  I debated between bangers and mash and the scones with clotted cream (butter...people, nothing gross...sheesh!) and jam.  Finally settled on the scones, which were delicious.  Along with a pot of Chai tea, my favorite.

I am horrible at pouring tea, first off I had no idea all these little things would come streaming out of it into my cup...OHHHH that's what this strainer thingy is for!  Ok I'll suck it up this time and I remembered to use the strainer there after.  I certainly wouldn't make it as Kate Middleton...I dripped and spilled and just couldn't quite get that pot to just pour without making a mess.  Oh well, that's what I get for being raised American...I CAN pour coffee quite well.  Each time I finished a cup of that delicious tea, I looked at the bottom of my cup and saw these leaves floating around and thought...where's one of those tea leaf readers when you need 'em?  What does my future hold? Am I going to survive this school and single motherhood thing I've got going on?  It sure would be nice to know at least a little something...don't ya think?

PS tell your friends about Tea & Sympathy I'd highly recommend it!!

Addition 3/26:  I went there with my friend Erica today and it was just as good as the first time, with the added bonus of fantastic conversation!  Bangers and mash...yum yum!  Chocolate vanilla tea...to die for!  Next menu choice Welsh rarebit (which we found out has nothing to do with rabbits, but really seems as if it should) with a side of mac n cheese...I'm pretty sure that's what Erica will get that too.  I'm thinking a cute tea pot and a strainer and some sort of tea recipe book if there is such a thing is really something I need to get/do (plus there's that cute guy that works there...he's probably gay, drat!) ...as well as visit Shoegasm which is just down the street....just the name begs me...pleads with me to shop there!!

Why Being a Parent is Fun...or 5 things I have learned in honor of my 5 kids

1. Kids will eat anything (dirt, baby wipes, watch batteries, the tips of matches, pepto-bismol, anything out of a box, cat food, grass) but they will not eat anything that takes longer than 15 min to make, that has little green things in them (usually that's fresh basil or some other spice), or potatoes.  Also just a note of caution if you make an ice cream cake and even hide it in the freezer outside half of it will be eaten by the next day…I have yet to figure out how to prevent this.

2. Boys will not cry if they think they will get in trouble for it.  An example from my son Max who took a pocketknife and decided to cut the weeds in the backyard with it and promptly stabbed himself in the leg…he knew he wasn't supposed to be using it so he came in the house and cleaned himself off.  Bandaged himself and sat on the couch and read a book.  I found out cuz he was walking funny and I called him on it.  

         Boys will cry if they think it will get someone else in trouble. Same son who is crying hysterically cuz his older brother wrestled him to the ground and sat on him because he thought Max took something of his….go figure that one out…cuz I'm thinking being sat on didn't hurt half as bad as stabbing himself in the leg.

         Girls cry all the time. Because she is the baby of the family and is sure that the brothers will get in trouble for whatever it is that is distressing her.

3. Kids have extremely strange sleeping habits.  They won't go to sleep when they are supposed to…at night.  They do fall asleep on the 5 minute trip to the store and then are cranky when you have to wake them up.  And they can fall asleep anywhere and in any position.  (on the wood floor, folded in half, with half their body off the bed, curled up in a ball between the wall and the vacuum cleaner,  on the stairs, strapped into a car seat, on the toilet, etc…)

4. As early as age 3 boys come to two of the most profound realizations of their life.  Profound because I have heard men over 50 bragging about this ability as if it was acquired from extreme hard work and dedication instead of just being a blessing of anatomy.  Realization 1:  Boys can pee standing up.   Realization 2:  (this being the profound one)  I can now pee anywhere I want.  To which they promptly go experimenting with this by peeing in interesting places (the heating vents, on their sister) until they find the coolest place of all…OUTSIDE….  "Hey anyone here in this family know why I can't get any flowers to grow in this spot here right by the front door."    No one knows till I find all of them outside in the front yard peeing away into my flowers.  I have noticed that this continues to be the favorite place of all adult males.

5.     Boys hate to shop. Lets see how many clothes racks we can destroy in 5 minutes so Mom will end this dreaded excursion so we can go home and play Guitar Hero. This is not necessarily something I learned just an affirmation of long held belief, but Girls love to shop. My daughter Mira at age 2 hugging all the clothes we go by saying "I love you!  I love you!" and who has the girlfriend shopping speak down by age 3 "oh that is beautiful…you look pretty in that….no not that one it's not as nice….."

Musings on the Commute

I have to wonder if this is a bit strange, I'm not sure...  My subway line travels under...actually I'm not sure if it is under anymore...anyway, under Ground Zero.  I can see some of the work through the windows of the subway as I gain glimpses between the plywood sheeting they put up while they are building the memorial.  I feel as if I need to have a moment of silence every time I fly past.  I am essentially riding through a graveyard and it pierces my heart each time.  Maybe it will fade after the hundredth time I travel through.  I wasn't even here when it happened...I was 3000 miles away, but the thought of being there...the idea that if time were different, if my life had moved at a different pace it could have been me on that horrible day.  I am moved that I am traveling on what seems to be sacred ground and I get slightly emotional.  Is that strange?

Trains, Ferries and Subways--Part 4

I'm often surprised at the conversations I hear float around me...not to mention some of the behavior that goes on.

I listened to two people talk about their jobs as funeral directors and how they have "stitched" certain relatives..."oh I stitched my husband, my mother and my cousin...who died."  Really? they died?  Gosh I hope so considering you stitched them!  Mmmk

And then there were the business men who were talking about all the female sales reps in their work place. Not only were all of them incompetent, but for these men it was exactly how they expected it to be and had the male chauvenistic tone of "it is what it is...I mean really what can you do...they are female...who can expect them to do any better".  I have to wonder if they are as good at their jobs as they think they are...I doubt not.  Now I don't really consider myself a feminist but I bristle when I hear stuff like this.  Grrr

Couples really really making out on the ferry seems to be pretty normal.

Lots of singing while listening to ipods, some good, some really bad.

People who think they can beat the closing doors on the subway and get stuck between the two doors...that one actually kinda freaks me out...cuz what happens if the driver doesn't notice?  Shudder....

Funniest thing though was the kid wearing the low riders whose pants actually fell down.  Haha...snort!

So why is it that public transportation seems to encourage people to behave as if they are walking around in "the cone of silence" from Get Smart?  Is it the idea that the more people are surrounding you the more privacy you have because there is such a flood...a sensory overload of people?  I'm not sure...but it makes the 3 hours goes by pretty quickly.

Facial Structure??

Tell me if this isn't the best pick up line ever....even though by the end of the conversation you'll know it really wasn't.

Its been a loooong day!  I've traveled into Manhattan twice, which if you've read previous posts you'll realize it's a 3 hour commute for me.  All I have eaten all day is a piece of pizza and a peppermint patty.  I'm tired and I have the beginning of a really huge headache.  Thursday I take a cab home because it is close to 10pm when I finally get off the ferry.  Sometimes I have to wait a while for a cab, but tonight thank goodness there's one that can take me right away.  I hop in the front seat since there is a couple in the back.  I hop in and tell the driver (who oddly enough is a young and quite good looking young man wearing a fedora....odd because of the good looking part...usually it's old very strange men or just very strange looking men...anywhooo) I tell the driver where to take me.  He looks at me and asks, "By any chance, are you a librarian?" 

I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in the headlights, I'm thinking what the....how the....where did that come from?  Considering I am a librarian I think this is the best pick up line ever, even though I know it's not.  This is some talent he has and I'm sure he puts it to good use.  :P  I say "Well, actually I am."  He laughs and I can almost see him do a fist pump except he's driving and he says "I knew it!"  Conversation goes as follows:

--Do you work at the 42nd branch?

--No, I used to be a librarian I'm going to school to become a real librarian.

(pause) ....ummm but working at that branch would be awesome!  (it's the schwartzman building downtown...gorgeous research branch of NYPL with the lions out front...here's a pic)

--It would be like ghostbusters!

--Haha...mmm yeah...(yes I freely admit I suck at flirting, this being single is a complicated thing I haven't had to deal with for a while)

--So why did you think I was a librarian? (I probably shouldn't have asked this)

--You seem quiet, timid almost (I'm thinking but didn't say...and you got that from me giving you the cross streets of my address??)

--Oh I thought maybe it was the glasses, haha

--Well and the clothes you are wearing (I have a long grey winter coat on...all he can see are my jeans and pink converse sneakers)...oh and your facial structure, (...my facial structure...what does that mean???)...definitely a librarian. (my brain is going over time...should I tell him I'm not quite sure that's a compliment, what do I say to that I have no idea what he means...I'm not timid...am I? maybe I am...hmmm how do I show I'm not timid...I'm going into full on critique mode instead of flirting back or at least trying to assess if he is insulting me or not...my facial structure??? It's my nose isn't it?)

Conversation flowed pretty well after that, I told him my theory on Kindles after he asked what I thought about them, he asked if I had any weird experiences being a librarian...sadly I had to tell him I worked out in a small town and can't remember any weird experiences...although I'm sure it would be different here.  We chatted about the fact he has a huge box of Twinkies in the car...I asked if they were there to keep him awake...yup he works until 5am he likes being up late.  He even offered me one...but I declined.  Unfortunately this is when I showed up at my door and had to get out.  Which is what I did...I actually wouldn't mind continuing the conversation if only to find out what the facial structure comment meant...is that like saying she has a nice personality??  I'm just super curious.  I wish I had at least gotten his name, so I don't have to think of him as the-good-looking-cab-driver-in-a-fedora.  But I don't think well on my feet, I guess I am a timid librarian...hopefully a little better than Mary in her non George world in It's a Wonderful Life.  I look forward to more conversational practice though I obviously need it.  

Rex Libris :)

Ahhh I love being a librarian...if only it could be this cool. :)

My review of Rex Libris (Graphic Novel)

I have a Goodreads site and I wrote this when I was still the librarian of Rockwell Charter High School.  I bought the book because I knew it would appeal to the boys at the school and really wanted to encourage them to come to the library.  It worked!  Not to mention that one of my TA's told all the other TA's that it was required reading and convinced all of the kids that wanted to be TA's in the future that they had to read it too.  It flew off the shelves.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I only wish I could buy a copy of the library bound edition for my personal library.

As a librarian I endorse this book wholeheartedly, it is intelligent, funny, interesting and oh-how-i-wish-i-could-get -overdue-books-back-like-Rex-fantastic. Rex and his band of librarians protect the world from evil and will do anything to retrieve an overdue book and fine. What a great story! This hardcover version covers Comics 1-5 and the rest of the remaining 7 comics are included in the book Sea of Monsters if you want to see if Rex ever gets the Principia Mathematic from the now destroyed Vaglox. There are lots of add-ons in the book like messages from Barry Horst the "publisher" of the comic, he "pops" into the story-line occassionally, extra Rex comics from various artists, and an ad for toy librarians. I want those, especially the one of Hypatia "Kicking Evil Ass"!! This comic is so intelligently written I have to wonder if James Turner is a fan of Jasper Fforde. Of course I couldn't resist James Turner's description of librarians for his small expose at the back of the book on the Ordo Biblitheca. That is me to a T. (I wish) Rex, Simon-the-megalomaniac-cursed-to-be-a-sparrow-for-4,000-years (telekinetic semi-sidekick), Hypatia (fellow femme fatale librarian agent and possible love interest for Rex) and Circe (former evil goddess turned cookie baking librarian...she also cursed simon and sometimes turns irritating patrons into pigs, but she's mended her evil ways....hmmm we'll see about that) are all terrific characters. Not to mention the bad guys with overdue books and fines that must be tracked down. I cannot say enough how intelligently this comic is written, you might need to arm yourself with a dictionary to figure out what Rex and his fellow librarians or ever Barry are saying, but isn't that what we should have with us when we read all good literature. Enjoy! 

I bought this book not knowing anything about it, solely for the fact it was about a librarian "superhero" and for the fantastic cover art, for the High School at which I am the librarian. It is a terrific find. My 2 sons ages 12 and 14 LOVED it and are anxious for me to get the rest of the comics so that they can see what happens. My 12 year old's favorite part is the fact that Rex constantly has a book with him and uses the knowledge he gets from within his books to defeat the bad guys.


Cool things to see :)


http://www.jtillustration.com/rex/dewey_secrets.html

Iron Man

My aunt told me a story about Caleb.  It happened while she was watching him for me so I could go to my graduate school orientation. Caleb likes Iron Man...nay loves him!  He has two Iron Man costumes and a bunch of Iron Man toys.  My aunt took Caleb out to make a snowman in the back yard.  She had gotten him some Iron Man gloves but they were just the knit kind.  She told Caleb that maybe they might not be warm enough, that he might want some warmer gloves.  He told her No! he didn't need other gloves because these were made of iron and would be just fine.  After about 10 min out in the snow I guess the iron wasn't working so well because he humbly requested some warmer gloves so he could finish making his alien snowman.  Hehe!

Trains, Ferries, and Subways--Part 3

2/19/11--This is a short entry but by far the most emotional so far.

As I was sitting at the ferry station, I noticed a man coming towards me.  He was so obviously gay, I thought oh my goodness I can't wait to write about him.  His walk, his mannerisms...the clothes he was wearing...He was a tall, thin, african american man.  He had his long hair wrapped in a turban like twisty thing, and his beautiful skin and large eyes were amazingly accented by the pure silver eyeliner outlining his eyes, his lashes were lush and heavily mascara-ed.  He was impeccably dressed and minced as he walked.  He took these short steps, walking almost on his tip toes so that he almost glided...if he wasn't so bouncy.

He sat behind me and asked me,  "young miss, could you tell me what time the ferry arrives?"  "I believe they come every half hour, so 9:00"  "thank you...oh I'm sure I could have used these old trifocals to look at the ferry schedule over there, I can see anything from a million miles away with these things."  He made me smile, it made for a pleasant way to start the day.

He called someone on the phone, calling them honey and 'chile.  I thought he was sweet and he started telling his story,  "yes he came over for dinner, he presented me with flowers and a ring and said all that about being life partners..."  I stopped listening but I felt happy that he had found someone...unfortunantly I missed the explanation for what happened next..."I turned him around and he was all blue in the face, I had to lay him down on the ground and do chest compressions.  I was on the phone with 911 and I was able to get him breathing until the medics came, but he died on my floor.  They just left him there and I had to maneuver his body onto the bed.  I wasn't weirded out...I mean yes I was touching a dead body and that is strange, but it was still him..."

The ferry came and I had to get up and leave.  I wanted to tell him I was sorry and how horrible that was!  I wanted to ask him why they just left his partner there on the floor?  I wanted to ask if he had said yes or no to the proposal? But he was still talking on the phone and I didn't want to interrupt.  I was so sad for him.  I hope he is ok.  What a place I live in, that I get to peek into so many different lives...I move in and out of this persons frame of reference, and at each point of contact I learn about someone, or I get a smile that makes my day better or I smile and make their day better.  How lucky am I?

Tourist attraction

I am now a tourist attraction!  Let me explain...I saw a couple (obviously tourists from the huge camera around their neck) grab a man that rode the train and ferry with me and ask him if they could take his picture.  He wasn't famous and he wasn't strange or odd looking...quite simply he was a New Yorker and as such he and all the rest of us New Yorkers (it is so awesome to be able to be included in that group) we are now subjected to being in any number of touristy pictures just based on the fact that we live here.  It's a weird concept.  I don't feel like a tourist attraction, but I live in a city that boasts millions of visitors every year,  I'm one by default.  I wonder how many tourist pictures I'll wind up just from the action of walking in the background?  I have already been asked numerous times for directions while exiting out of the building my classes are in in Manhattan.  I have yet to be asked to take a picture for someone, but I have been captured in a tourist photo while walking behind the subjects on my way off a subway.  If they decide to keep the picture I'm now in some random person's album of their vacation as background.  Isn't being a New Yorker a wonderful thing!

Those baby blues...

Max the girl magnet and he doesn't even know it.  He created quite the stir in his new school and I have this on the authority of the Dean of his Academy.  Not only do all the girls just mingle around him hoping for his attention, they actually started dressing up and applying make-up on the second day to try to woo him.  The Dean took one of them aside and told her, "You are supposed to be making him feel welcome, not uncomfortable by flirting with him all the time!"  The girls response was, "But have you seen his eyes...he has those really big blue eyes!!"  Gosh that poor boy will never know what hit him!  You go girls!!

Low Riders

I am amazed that this style is still around!  Why does it continue to persist?  Do these boys really think it makes them look more attractive?  Their pants half way down their legs, their baggy underware showing...as they waddle around constantly pulling them up so they don't slip all the way down...cuz THAT would be embarrassing!!  I mean seriously if we already have a good view of your underware why does having your pants around your ankles seem less fashionable?  Why don't they just get rid of the pants all together...it's not like we aren't missing much and this way they can show off their gams.  Plus it gets rid of the problem of the pants actually falling down when they are being chased by someone.  I spend half the time hoping they are just gonna puddle around their ankles while traveling up the stairs so I can watch them struggle to get back up again...nonchalantly.  The other half the time just wanting to pants them as they walk by.  They must not have mirrors at home and they certainly don't have any idea idea how they look while they are walking.  It does not create that manly man swagger that should have...instead it looks like they have a full diaper and have to waddle cuz it's chafing the inside of their legs.

Oh well to each his own, I just hope that sometime in the near future they will think of something else to wear.  Even those skinny girl jeans that the emo boys wear are not as annoying as this fashion statement.  I'd like to meet who started it and ask him his motivation.  It has to be somewhat satisfying to see something you created take off in such as fashion as to secretly humiliate every boy that wears their pants around their thighs.