pigeons

photo of pigeons i took in kathmandu, nepal '06

i found this in some (old) notes of mine and thought ...

pigeons get no love.

so, to all the birds, here's a post for you.

and no, this is not meant to be taken seriously!

Ode to the Pigeons

You are so cute
although you always poop.

well, there ya have it.

my pigeon poetry.

(i think finals are really starting to make me go mildly insane. apologies for the weird post.)

(but i still think pigeons are cute.)

random things ... heard on the subway/subway & sidewalk sightings

Seen In The Past Few Weeks At The Bryant Park Subway Station:

* A little boy, who was merrily peeing against a wall inside of the station while his parents held his pants down around his ankles.

* An old Chinese woman, performing Christmas carols on traditional Chinese instruments ... which were still tuned in a non-Western scale. 'Silent Night' never sounded so unsettling.

* The old man who's always performing classical violin on the downtown platform. I never give him any money (I never have any), but I always wonder if he actually ever gets any students from his homemade sign that states 'I TEACH VIOLIN LESSONS!'

* A wheelchair bound beggar who became increasingly belligerent when no one gave him any spare change. I almost stuck around to see if he was going to start running people over.

* That guy always shilling his group's rap CD ("We do NOT degrade women!) and promotional materials for 1 dollar on the F train. "Best deal in the ci-tay. 8 songs for 1 dollar." Seriously. He's there almost everyday, and I've literally seen about 3 people purchase a CD from him.

* A pigeon flying around the uptown platform. Hello? You're a bird. Go back outside.

Seen In The Past Few Weeks On Various Sidewalks Around My Neighborhood:

* An old refrigerator

* A king sized mattress

* Baby pacifier (That struck me as sad, for some reason.)

* Books -- thanks to whoever provided me with a copy of the MLA Guide to Research Papers. Woohoo.

* Shoes

* A lamp and lampshade

Heard On The Subway:

* Conversation between a little girl and her father:
Little Girl: (looking at the drag queens standing near her) "Daddy, why are those boys dressed up like girls?"
Father: "Well, honey, sometimes men like to dress up like women ... "

* Street preacher to everyone in the same subway car:
"Men must stop lusting after women's butts. Jesus does not want men to look at women's butts. MEN MUST STOP WANTING WOMEN'S BUTTS." (etc etc ... I almost asked him if 'behind' or 'rear' would have been a better word choice than butts for a holy man, but whatever.)

sugar overdose

Have you ever had that 'I Ate Too Much Sugar And Now Want To Die' feeling?
Because I have. Right now, in fact.
It ain't pretty.

(Symptoms of sugar excess for anyone not in the know: being tired, cranky & overfed.)

During a walk today I came across 'Two Little Red Hens Bakery' on eighth avenue in Brooklyn. (http://www.twolittleredhens.com/) I was with a friend who owed me $5, so we oh-so brilliantly decided that the best way to even up the financial situation was to buy me cupcakes and/or sweets.

The interior of the shop was very nice -- think Park Slope Yuppie meets downhome country -- and full of the typical whitebread couples who seem to frequent such places. The bakery itself was small, but packed full of shelves lined with tarts, pies, cakes and cupcakes. Heeeeeeeaven! (Cue in Belinda's Carlisle 'Heaven on Earth' if you're reading this to music.) Everything looked incredible, in that picture perfect Martha Stewart Living kind of way. All the cakes and cupcakes were deocrated with a heavy coating of icing and artful/edible flowers. They looked like every cake I had ever wanted at my birthday parties as a little kid.

Naturally, being such a nice place, everything cost an exorbitant amount. Cupcakes were more expensive than the ones over at Magnolia's, and cakes were as high as $40. My friend and I just stood there for awhile in stunned silence, switching back and forth between coveting the food and loathing the cost of it. Perky salesgirls kept popping up from behind the shelves asking us if we needed help. I felt like we were surrounded by a magical breed of overly helpful cupcake baking elves or something.

I ended up spotting a cake that was on sale for $5. At 4" around, it was the only item of that size that was under $12. My friend got it for me, and we took it to my apartment, reverently sliced it in half, and chowed down...

... which explains why I feel so sick right now. Death by sugar. (Or else maybe there was some dark, twisted reason it was on sale for $5 ... poisoned, maybe?)

Not that anyone much cares, but here is a hideously lit picture of the cake:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was a pretty delicious cake. Homemade frosting, good texture, the whole bit. Yummy. It did, however, eradicate any desire I have had to consume sugar. Right now I feel like avoiding the stuff for the next week.