I took a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska last week to enjoy the nature wildlife, and to see the Northern Lights. Well, we didn’t see the Northern Lights–too cloudy and no “solar flares”. Oh well. We did see this moose and some beautiful fall foliage. Chena Hot Springs was a really special experience. It was already cold, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, in September, so we scuttled in our bathing suits to get into the natural hot springs and warm up. There were mountains nearby and always beautiful fall foliage for miles and miles. We would drive and go for two or three minutes without seeing another car pass. There was one neighboring town worth visiting…one…and then it was a 6 hour drive to the Anchorage. What? Night-time activities included: the movies, diners, and star-gazing. Also, I felt as though I was seeing things that very few other people on the planet had seen.
Category: Blog
Visit with Dad
My Dad came to visit New York this week, so I’ve been doing a lot of touristy activities. Today we went to the High Line, which was gorgeous. Yesterday we did Central Park–the uptown side. That includes the pond and the Conservatory Garden. Lots of staying up late, walking around, and talking.
Florida Keys Trip 2013
I was so done with the cold, so I went down to the Florida Keys this week for a little R&R. Sadly it was a little too chilly for suntanning this week, with some rain, but luckily that’s not really what the keys are known for. I decided to try my hand at fishing and got a seat on a nice charter boat company–they put me on the Conch Too. I have never seen water as truly turquoise as the water just nine miles off the coast of Key West–the southernmost point in the United States. It was turquoise from the Crayola crayon box turquoise. We saw a sea turtle (YES!) and a shark (NO!)–which the captain wanted to try and catch! I was happy with catching my first fish, and exploring Ernest Hemingway’s home–how about that pool?! I spent the rest of my time in Key Largo–where Humphrey Bogart’s and Katherine Hepburn’s film The African Queen was filmed. I even went on a glass bottom boat tour to check out the coral reefs, so cool! I had key lime pie–of course–and a bunch of other amazing seafood. If only the trip were longer! Check out the pics!
Blizzard Nemo
New York City has been preparing for Nemo, a blizzard that hit us with just under a foot of snow in the city on Friday. Work (and school) was cancelled today, so I decided to go sledding at 108th St. in Riverside Park. Since it’s virtually impossible to find a sled in NYC once snow has actually started falling, I grabbed the lid of one my Sterilite containers and headed out the door to do my best. I followed a Dad and his son into the park at 103rd Street. It was packed! I later found on Parks and Recreation was providing sleds and free hot chocolate, though I didn’t see that at the time. When the folks I had followed decided to skip the flatter hill at 103 for a steeper access point at 108 I followed. There must have been 75 kids there too! I got two good runs in and thanked my lucky stars I live on the Upper West Side. So much fun to be had just a few minutes from my humble abode.
Hurricane Sandy
For the past 3 days New York has been abuzz about Hurricane Sandy. There were bouncers at our local grocery store in Morningside Heights, controlling incoming customers as the whole neighborhood prepared for days without food or power. Other businesses closed early and the MTA subways shut down at 7 pm on Sunday, October 28, with buses also ceasing at 9 pm.
On Monday, October 29, the majority of employed folks were instructed not to go to work. Churches were not open, nor were coffee shops, universities, or schools. Police stations, hospitals, and some grocery stores remained open. I did not have to go to work on Monday, October 29, or Tuesday October 30. Buses resumed Tuesday on a Sunday schedule and tomorrow, October 31, full bus service is expected to resume. Subway service is still suspended indefinitely.
I am very grateful that our building, and our neighborhood in general retained power and water, of which could not be said of pretty much all of lower Manhattan, along with parts of the other boroughs. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power and water after an explosion Monday night in one of the Con Edison substations. Cellular telephone service was also affected.
But it was business as usual in upper Manhattan. A few fallen trees and awnings, but no serious damage, gratefully! My heart goes out to those who are in unfavorable conditions or who have lost material things or loved ones. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. I believe the whole city is hoping to clean what damage occurred up, get our infrastructure back online, and to get back to being great and confident. God bless!
East River Plaza Excursion
Over the weekend I decided to check out the new(ish) Target that opened at East River Plaza on 116th St. at the FDR Drive. I hopped on the M60 and walked from 125th and 2nd Avenue the rest of the way.
East River Plaza is just around the corner from Patsy’s; a delicious slice experience now celebrating it’s 75th anniversary. I ate a slice and headed into the store to do my shopping worst.
There was so much stuff! Not only Target; but Petsmart, CostCo, Old Navy, Best Buy, anything you could want. The walkways between the parking lot attached to the structure and the store entrances looked so futuristic.
Inside Target I scored a couple of cute Mossimo tops, a dress I’m not sure about yet, and a sweet backpack for a certain 5th-grader I know. The line to get out was brutal; but well worth the fun. I spent so much time in Target that I didn’t get a chance to check out Old Navy. Next time.
Looking for a bus to the West Side I stumbled across the Annual Gigli di Sant’Antonia Feast, a beautiful carnival on Pleasant Avenue between 114th and 116th St. Carnivals are hard to come by in Manhattan; and this one was lovely. They had a huge statue of Saint Anthony as part of the food, fun, and attractions. Love it!
I could not find the right bus to get across town; note to self: look up the M116 route. So I lugged all my purchases back to the UWS on foot. I did pass by some extremely attractive apartment buildings on 110 & 5th Avenue though. One’s called The Heritage: the other houses will house the Musuem for African Art, among other things.
I also saw this block of houses on 110th St. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues; they were so out of place. Just teeny, tiny, 3-story houses in between all these tall apartment buildings. Crazy! I can’t wait to go back and do some more exploring; I may even get a CostCo Membership!
Green diet
Hungry at 1:00 a.m. and decided to make a sandwich: white .bread, guacamole, arugula, american cheese, and mustard. Surprisingly satisfying sandwich, actually. For dessert: a slice of the key lime pie I made last weekend. Delish.
I wish that food could be healthy simply because it’s green. Imagining how a green diet might go: arugula, guacamole, key lime pie, green curry, pesto, saag paneer, split pea soup (no bacon for mine, please!), seaweed salad, cucumbers with salt and lemon juice, green tea smoothies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, pickles, pistachio ice cream, kiwis, green figs, green grapes, spinach tortellini, edamame, pears, broccoli, yum! If only you could lose weight on it!
New York City is a town of many faces. You never know what it has in store for you on any given day. Sometimes, on rare occasions, I fall in love with New York. On those quintessential evenings when I am walking home from work, it feels like every person on the street adds character and beauty, like a scene that someone has written just for you. It’s as if there is genuine sense of community between all the different people who live here. On Monday, I was almost sad when I reached my door, because I wanted to stay outside and soak up as much of the neighborhood as I possibly could.
Other evenings it seems as though we have all been mashed up against each other as an inhumane form of punishment, and you can’t think of a single thing you might have in common with the people walking the streets next to you. On Wednesday, after a man harassed me for taking a picture of the local barber shop, I just wanted to get home.
Most days I have some combination of both feelings. Today for example, when I overloaded my grocery bag, and sent a package of strawberry tumbling out across the street, I wanted to hug the nice people who helped me pick them back up. I also wanted to ignore my overly chatty neighbor as he tried to start a conversation with me–AGAIN–on the way up the stairs. But instead I smiled as much as I could, gave as much a response as 1 cup of coffee warrants at 11 am on Sunday, and kept hiking up the stairs to my apartment. No matter what New York offers you on any particular day, most of us would rather deal with it than live anywhere else.
- Poppable snacks: by this I mean things you can “pop” in your mouth without the added effort of cutting them into bite or chewing them too much. This included but is not limited to licorice bites, apple chips, crystalized ginger, blueberries, kettle corn, and sushi
- A major motion picture: I’m talking Spielberg-grade mega million dollar box office hit: Scarface, E.T., The Godfather, Titanic, movies that make you feel the “magic”. They have to have big stars, cool sets, special effects, a good soundtrack, and a plot that doesn’t make you want to eat your own eyeballs.
- a long, hot, bath
- a long walk
- a short run
- spending money: This activity has a hugely relaxing effect on me. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money, but acquiring more stuff, whether it’s magazines, clothes, or barrettes that match my hair color, definitely relieves the stress.
- The New York Aquarium at Coney Island: I like to take my ipod and watch the jellyfish for a while, but all the exhibits are cool.
- Frozen treats: frozen yogurt, blended coffee drinks, slushies, they all work: as long as they’re frozen, they “chill” me out.
- Cigarettes: I don’t engage in this activity any more, but damned if it doesn’t help.
- Prayer & Meditation: Say hi to the big eye in the sky or hit “pause” for a few minutes.
- Sportswear: Sweat pants, stretchy stuff, fleece, flannel, bring it on! I love it!
We use Pandora to listen to music in my office, and there is a LOT of Dave Matthews action. Today “Crash Into Me” came on, and I was thinking about when it was used in the movie “Excess Baggage”, starring Alicia Silverstone and Benicio del Toro (coincidentally, rewritten by one of my favorite writers, Aaron Sorkin). Ah, to be transported back to the nineties, swoon! To the world of camouflage fashion, heavy eyeliner, untidy hair, and alternative music.
In the movie, Alicia Silverstone plays a privileged but unfulfilled young woman who seeks her father’s attention by staging her own kidnapping. This role seemed to come naturally to Silverstone, who played the ennui-ridden leading lady seeking love for the better part of the decade, in movies such as Clueless, The Crush, and Blast from the Past. Jaded by the entitlement and luxury but starved for genuine companionship, Emily becomes attached to Vincent, the simple but sweet car thief who boosts her BMW minutes before she’s to be “rescued” from the trunk. Vincent is taken by her beauty and her provocative personality, and Emily is startled but mesmerized by Vincent’s seemingly antiquated dreams of love and enterprise in modern Los Angeles. The unlikely pair contend with Emily’s shady “Uncle Ray”, played by Christopher Walken, and Vincent’s bosses in the car theft organization. Along the way, each finds his/her deep-seated yearning for a human connection fulfilled in the other.
I love nineties movies. It seems that everyone in the nineties was trying to figure out what traditional values still made sense and what values had become obsolete in an age of technological advance. Consequently, many movies in the nineties were quite self-reflective, and, more often than not, quite self-indulgent. Movies now are mostly plot, but in the nineties the dialogue took up the most space, along with epic soundtracks–i.e. full songs played.
Of a similar vein of nineties films is Reality Bites, Boyz, Before Sunrise, all movies about love, long conversations, what values matter–which ones are dealbreakers in love–and which ones can differ without breaking up a relationship. These movies are not necessarily “about” a whole lot-although I would say Excess Baggage is one of the more plot-driven films in the aforementioned category, and centers around a staged kidnapping. They are more of snapshot of life, the components–job, love, and culture–that it consists of in the postmodern age.
Nowadays movies are more about a specific incident, concept, industry,etc.. A car theft operation, the pharmaceutical industry, and less about the people and the values behind them. Or perhaps I just don’t like the values and the people that movies are about these days. I do, however, very much like Excess Baggage.