obligatory holiday post

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have to say, Manhattan on Halloween is a freak show -- and an annoying one, at that. Too many people, too much glitter and too much bad attitude from police officers! Seriously, if I see another fat girl in a bumblebee outfit or another gay man in drag (how unoriginal, boys) I am going to vomit.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but getting through a mess of people just to catch a ride on the subway is not fun. Why the congestion? The annual East Village Halloween Parade, of course, a legendary staple of NYC holiday life.

Best costume seen tonight: The girl running around who was a lamp, complete with lampshade on her head.
Earliest time I saw someone wearing a costume: Around 11am this afternoon.
Most unoriginal/uninspired costume: Anything involving fishnet stockings, a push up bra, wings and a woman. GET OVER YOURSELVES, GIRLS!
Least Involved get-up of the evening: The girl on the subway who was wearing devil horns strapped to her head while dressed in regular jeans and a sweater.
Cutest costume: The baby I saw this afternoon who was a little bee!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

photos: autumn love

These photos were taken at a park near my non-NYC house over my birthday weekend. Love that fall foliage!

photo: manhattan from the 18th floor

view from the 18th floor balcony of a hotel in the lower east side
manhattan, ny
october 23, 2007
photo taken on my cell phone camera ... as usual.

birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

And to my fellow October 17 babies: Arthur Miller, Pope John Paul I, Rita Hayworth, Eminem, Robert Atkins (the Atkins diet guy!), Evel Knievel, Michael Hossack (Doobie Brothers), Margot Kidder (Superman!), Rob Marshall, Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill among others -- MTV legend and yes, I like his cartoons), Norm MacDonald, Ziggy Marley, Chris Kirkpatrick ('NSYNC) and Wyclef Jean.


October 17 was a great day to be born, and here I am, 25 years later, celebrating that eventful moment! (Thanks mom!)

I just want to share some interesting things that happened on my birthday, courtesy of wikipedia.org:

* 593 BC: "King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.

* 1604 AD: "1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way."

* 1888: "Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie)."

* 1937: "Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip."

*1967: "The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway."

*1979: "Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

eating in lower manhattan

Like every good New Yorker, I love to go out to eat. There are so many options in the city that, for the foodophile, picking a place to eat dinner can be quite a daunting task. Being the impoverished and cheap student that I am this problem is somewhat lessened, since half of the places to eat in NYC I can't afford. I'm all about the cheap eats.

For those of you on a tight budget and in the East Village, I suggest Dumpling Man on St. Mark's Place. You can order a variety of yummy Chinese dumplings made fresh to order. The dipping sauces are tasty, too. A good snack option are the pumpkin dumplings -- seriously, it's like fried pumpkin pie. Too good!

Although I haven't eaten there, I did try the hookah at Horus Cafe (also in the East Village). My friend swears by the place. While I can't attest to the food, I can state that the cafe has a great vibe, decorating and a nice staff. Just don't order water there -- I did, thinking it was going to be tap water, and it wound up being a $2 bottle of Poland Spring!

There's another cheap joint that isn't half bad. No hookah bar though. I don't know the name of the place, but it is also located on St. Mark's Place and has the infamous 'eat me' hot dog sign out front. Anyway, it's cheap, has good hot dogs and you can get the most disgustingly greasy cheese covered tater tots there. I promise you will feel like throwing up afterwards, but in a good way.

Oh, and my new favorite food spot in the Washington Square area is the vegan friendly Temple in the Village, located on West 3rd Street near the NYU Law School. It's a buffet of all vegetarian friendly fare, and the owners make a point of listing if the foods are raw, high fiber, cooked in oil and any other conceivable thing. It's a tad pricey at roughly $7 a pound, but it is one of the better deals in the neighborhood, especially for the quality of the food. They also have tea specials for $1 when you get food there -- corn, barley and ginger tea, here I come! I actually prefer the place to Red Bamboo. (Although Red Bamboo has a much better atmosphere, more choices to pick from, and has a killin' appetizer section.)

Anyway, enough about food! More posts to come. The travel blog is due for an update, as well ...

photo: bench & snow

snow & bench in prospect park last winter
photo taken (as usual) on my cell phone camera.

observations

Random things:

Today was:
dismal
dank
wet

New York City smelled like a damp dog from all the rain today.

The old lady who lives in the bottom floor apartment next door (and spends all her time staring out the window at people walking by) is apparently quite charitable and has become known as the local Goodwill-that-isn't-a-Goodwill. She disperses donated items to her friends and family who need it.

There's some guy living in the stairwell next door. He's been there over a month now. His possessions are:
an ashtray
two books
cigarettes
a lighter
shoes

I always see his things lying around, along with copies of the latest newspapers.

I feel like asking him -- do you pay rent to live in a stairwell? Because it's totally illegal. And then I feel like telling him -- it's against the law for a reason.

My roommate's cat won't shut up. Meow, meow, meow.
She needs to install a mute button in him.

It's almost my birthday and I'm not sure if I'm happy or dismayed about it.

I've been eating way too much chocolate pudding lately.

The grocery store in my neighborhood stocks three kinds of chocolate puddings.

photo: kitten love

parker and bradley, the kitties next door.

photo by tatiana forero, otherwise known as my lovely neighbor.

photo: sunset

A sunset in September; taken from my roof.
The picture does the sunset no justice, as it was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

a candle in the window

Sometimes, when I'm in a contemplative mood, I sit by my window and look outside. I like doing this during the day, but it's at night when the world really comes alive. Shadows, dark figures walking by, cars parking on the street, lights twinkling below in someone's garden, all quiet, nocturnal things that speak to me louder than the bright, hot colors and sights of the day. I sit and look out the window, listening to the crickets, thinking things or sometimes thinking nothing much at all.

A few nights past the weather was perfect for October. Faintly ominous, with heavy fog, a light wind and the faintest last hint of summer's warm evenings. A scattering of droplets fell from the sky, coating everything in a dusky sheen, clinging to the sidewalk and coating my hair.

It was on this night I decided to get re-acquainted with my nightly ritual of Observing. It had been suspended for part of the summer, and the time was right to start it anew. I pulled the air conditioner out of my window and lifted up my window screen to let in as much air from the outside as possible.

While sitting on my windowsill and looking around, I noticed a comforting sight. It was so minimal and unassuming that I was probably the only person in the vicinity to see it. Yet it brought me so much happiness to look at that I sat and stared for a long time, simply soaking in the sight.

What was it? A little candle flame, flickering in the window of an apartment building two streets over. Most of the rooms I could see into from my perch were dark, but the one room with the candle looked bright, cheerful and glowing. It was such a happy sight. Someone had taken the time to place that candle in their front window, light it, and admire it. Now here I was too, enjoying the bright and flickering flames.

The next night I took a glance outside, and again saw my trusty little candle friend. And then, again, the next night, there it was, glowing away.

The candle has replaced my old comfort, which was a red curtain someone had hung over their window. I never could see inside the room where the curtain was, but when ever that person was home they always had their light on, which gave a bright red glow through the drapery. On Friday nights, when I was home alone and feeling lonely, I'd look through the window and would often see that room, brightly lit up, assuring me that someone else was staying in for the evening as well.

One day the curtain and light ceased to be there, and eventually it was taken down. I think the person must have moved, because now there is no curtain there and I can see that the room I'd been curious about all this time had been someone's kitchen.

Eventually, I am sure, the candle in the window will stop being burnt at night. It will diminish and eventually cease to burn. But until that evening comes, I'm planning on enjoying the comfort the candle brings me, the human connection it gives me. And, perhaps, by the time I stop having the comfort of my candle, something else will have come along to take its place.

trend setting

I'm a trend setter. That's right, I'm setting the bar for what's hip and cool in my neighborhood. Or, if that's an overstatement, I'm perhaps influencing a handful of people in the immediate vicinity of my apartment.

Do you remember the fire escape garden I so lovingly grew and posted about earlier in the summer? I posted about it several times on here, and included some photographs in my blog entries. I noted the lack of other fire escape gardens on surrounding buildings, and hoped the situation would change.

Well, it has. Finally! Both of my next door neighbors now have gardens on their fire escapes, as well. The neighbors on my right have actually turned their patch of the outdoors into a jungle, in an almost literal sense of the word. Huge potted palms, tomato plants and ivies are livening up their property. The neighbors to my left have added a collection of potted flowers to their fire escape, as have two families below me.

It's a green revolution! And I'm loving it. As for my own little garden ... well, it suffered a little neglect for a bit, but it's back in shape. My herbs finally kicked the bucket with the cooler autumn temperatures, but my other plants are still standing tall and proud.

The time is approaching when I'm going to have to bring everything indoors. My roommate's cat eats plants, so I'm going to have to figure out a plan to keep him from attacking my green babies.

At any rate, it's a semi-beautiful day (a touch too cloudy and chilly for it to be perfect), and I have plenty of reading to do for class. All I can say about that is Durkheim is the driest writer ever, ancient Egyptian religion is convoluted, and reading ethnographies on the non-universality of emotion is certainly thought provoking if too based in theory to entirely wrap my head around.

Going to update the travel blog shortly, so keep checking back here and there.