Showing posts with label cameraphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cameraphone. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tea
I was on a fairly empty 1 train the other day and looked up and saw this ad.
so confused... wait, am I in Kyoto? no, wait, I'm in New York... wait...
I had at least one of these a day when I was in Japan and it was so comforting to see the ad!!
The fine/fuzzy print says: "If you can read it, chances are you already drink it."
I felt like a Japanese tourist walking up to the ad and snapping a photo of it- pretty good for being on a moving train!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thank you Spring!!!
I love you tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, green leaves, super warm shiny sun,everyone everywhere shiny happy people laughing throw your love around take it into town Happy happy put it in the ground where the flowers grow put it in your heart where tomorrow shines it's Friday i'm in love
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Blue and Red
Waiting for the bus at Essex and Delancey, Tschumi's Blue stood up against the blue sky while red brick buildings with their red signage and red curtains bathed in the late afternoon sun.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Is spring coming or what?!?!?!
Yesterday, I felt like hugging the trunks of the flowering plum blossoms and the purple pink magnolias for greeting our gray streets with color and life! All you could see were the spots of color from yellow daffodils poking out of the ground, the tiny light green buds sprouting from branches, bright blue skies and crisp dark shadows. Streets were bustling with women in flashy sunglasses carrying their iced coffees on the way back to work, groups of men walking and laughing on their way to lunch with their sleeves rolled up, delivery men smiling and everyone commenting to each other on the nice weather.
Yesterday, the sun was warm as it basked my face and pale arms, my little toes stretched and wiggled happily in my sandals, cooped up for so long during those long cold winter months... (I knew that pedicure last week was well deserved!!)
I love warm weather (and heat) so it's no surprise that I was suddenly energetic and not so angry anymore... sort of...
Yesterday, we had weather like we used to have in California, comfortable in the high 60s, low 70s... warm and dry enough to walk around without getting sweaty. I walked 30 blocks along the Hudson river after work, enjoying the gentle breeze and warm afternoon sun like all the other sun starved souls out there. People were checking each other out, eyes were twinkling, cheeks flushed, it was like everyone was finally waking up after a long cramped night in a cold lumpy bed.
And then, today...
foggy. cold. gray. chance of showers. on a Friday. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Today, everything is in shades of gray, people shrugged on their dour black jackets again, the subway was a dim blur of darkness- expressionless faces in black and gray coats, blankly staring at nothing. Scraggly branches scratched against the gray sky- buildings enshrouded in the fog... even the white blossoms which yesterday looked like bright and clean, today looked dirty and tired. OK, yeah, it's like San Francisco on a typical summer afternoon, but still...
It's almost the middle of April and we've only had 2 comfortably sunny days this year!! This seems to have been the longest winter I've ever experienced... There used to be like 1 or 2 days in February or March that would give us a hint of spring, just a taste so that we don't commit suicide, but this year, even Easter was still frigid, my purple fingers clutching at my sleeves, shoulders hunched up against the wind...
Yes, I am a weather person, and when it is cold and dreary, my mood drops a few degrees. When it is raining, it drops a few more. And when it is windy... watch out! ANGRY Laurie comes out. The wind flips the dirt off the gritty streets, and aims it, seemingly, right into my eye. I heard that eyelashes have one main purpose- to protect your eyeballs from getting things into them. Well, I would like to get an exchange or complain about my lazy lashes, because for the last 18 years of wearing contact lenses, my eyelashes seem to have failed in their primary duty. I pretty much have worn glasses since birth, so I guess I went for vanity when I got my contact lenses rather than keep the glasses for my protection and well being.
My friends have endured my pain as the world stops- the panic!! Find a place to pull over! oh god, i hope there isn't someone walking on my heels because I'm stopping.RIGHT.HERE.RIGHT.NOW. Find an alcove, a side street, a phone booth, whatever, get out of the wind!!!! I feel the blinding sting of a razorblade (or is it a spiked wrecking ball?) making contact with my eye, and then the immediate welling of tears and grimacing as I silently grapple with the stabbing pain of this particle sharply prying itself between my contact lens and my eyeball. I frantically paw at my eye, trying to remove my contact lens, but the slippery salty tears make it impossible, and I plead over and over in my head that this piece of sand from hell kindly leave the vicinity of my fragile round eyeball all the while hoping that my makeup has not smeared my face unrecognizable with dripping mascara and eyeliner. Eventually, I get the contact lens out and hopefully the tears streaming down my cheeks have also flushed out the dirt particle... I'm still one of the few dinosaurs who wears hard contact lenses but the ordeal of cleaning them is made simpler if I am fortunately near a sink, water fountain, bottle of water where I can quickly rinse my finger and the lens so I can gingerly put it back in my eye. A quick inspection of the makeup front usually shows that the unaffected eye is still somewhat made up while the wounded eye is puffy, bloodshot, and completely devoid of eye makeup. It's not a good look.
Umm, anyway... so I hope the warm weather comes back, and that wasn't Mother Nature just playing its cruel February-warm-day trick on us. I NEED SUNSHINE NOW!!!
Yesterday, the sun was warm as it basked my face and pale arms, my little toes stretched and wiggled happily in my sandals, cooped up for so long during those long cold winter months... (I knew that pedicure last week was well deserved!!)
I love warm weather (and heat) so it's no surprise that I was suddenly energetic and not so angry anymore... sort of...
Yesterday, we had weather like we used to have in California, comfortable in the high 60s, low 70s... warm and dry enough to walk around without getting sweaty. I walked 30 blocks along the Hudson river after work, enjoying the gentle breeze and warm afternoon sun like all the other sun starved souls out there. People were checking each other out, eyes were twinkling, cheeks flushed, it was like everyone was finally waking up after a long cramped night in a cold lumpy bed.
And then, today...
foggy. cold. gray. chance of showers. on a Friday. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Today, everything is in shades of gray, people shrugged on their dour black jackets again, the subway was a dim blur of darkness- expressionless faces in black and gray coats, blankly staring at nothing. Scraggly branches scratched against the gray sky- buildings enshrouded in the fog... even the white blossoms which yesterday looked like bright and clean, today looked dirty and tired. OK, yeah, it's like San Francisco on a typical summer afternoon, but still...
It's almost the middle of April and we've only had 2 comfortably sunny days this year!! This seems to have been the longest winter I've ever experienced... There used to be like 1 or 2 days in February or March that would give us a hint of spring, just a taste so that we don't commit suicide, but this year, even Easter was still frigid, my purple fingers clutching at my sleeves, shoulders hunched up against the wind...
Yes, I am a weather person, and when it is cold and dreary, my mood drops a few degrees. When it is raining, it drops a few more. And when it is windy... watch out! ANGRY Laurie comes out. The wind flips the dirt off the gritty streets, and aims it, seemingly, right into my eye. I heard that eyelashes have one main purpose- to protect your eyeballs from getting things into them. Well, I would like to get an exchange or complain about my lazy lashes, because for the last 18 years of wearing contact lenses, my eyelashes seem to have failed in their primary duty. I pretty much have worn glasses since birth, so I guess I went for vanity when I got my contact lenses rather than keep the glasses for my protection and well being.
My friends have endured my pain as the world stops- the panic!! Find a place to pull over! oh god, i hope there isn't someone walking on my heels because I'm stopping.RIGHT.HERE.RIGHT.NOW. Find an alcove, a side street, a phone booth, whatever, get out of the wind!!!! I feel the blinding sting of a razorblade (or is it a spiked wrecking ball?) making contact with my eye, and then the immediate welling of tears and grimacing as I silently grapple with the stabbing pain of this particle sharply prying itself between my contact lens and my eyeball. I frantically paw at my eye, trying to remove my contact lens, but the slippery salty tears make it impossible, and I plead over and over in my head that this piece of sand from hell kindly leave the vicinity of my fragile round eyeball all the while hoping that my makeup has not smeared my face unrecognizable with dripping mascara and eyeliner. Eventually, I get the contact lens out and hopefully the tears streaming down my cheeks have also flushed out the dirt particle... I'm still one of the few dinosaurs who wears hard contact lenses but the ordeal of cleaning them is made simpler if I am fortunately near a sink, water fountain, bottle of water where I can quickly rinse my finger and the lens so I can gingerly put it back in my eye. A quick inspection of the makeup front usually shows that the unaffected eye is still somewhat made up while the wounded eye is puffy, bloodshot, and completely devoid of eye makeup. It's not a good look.
Umm, anyway... so I hope the warm weather comes back, and that wasn't Mother Nature just playing its cruel February-warm-day trick on us. I NEED SUNSHINE NOW!!!
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Kids These Days
Walking by this playground the other day in West Chelsea, I noticed that the tops of the structures were capped in the likes of our city's own Empire State Building and Chrysler Building.
It really made me stop and appreciate how sometimes the simplest things, with just a little bit of thought, really work. There are probably thousands of these ugly steel primary colored play structures churned out (from China?!) and placed in playgrounds throughout the nation, but the fact that someone thought to personalize it to OUR city is great... Taking New York's icons and simplifying them into a recognizable, approachable, and NON-CHEESY way is not easy.
I found that I was not the first to notice/appreciate... The NY Times wrote about another innovative playground although that scheme seemed a bit excessive with it being "based on child-development theories that children need to engage in social and fantasy play… envision[ing] groups of children collaborating... [on] loading containers with sand, hoisting them up with pulleys and then lowering them down to wagons waiting to be wheeled off to another part of the park.”
Are kids these days so much more sophisticated that they can't be bothered with sandboxes and monkey bars?! Speaking of... I wonder if any kid has ever climbed to the top and made a reference to the classic film featuring that famous simian. Or maybe that would just be waaaaaay uncool.
It really made me stop and appreciate how sometimes the simplest things, with just a little bit of thought, really work. There are probably thousands of these ugly steel primary colored play structures churned out (from China?!) and placed in playgrounds throughout the nation, but the fact that someone thought to personalize it to OUR city is great... Taking New York's icons and simplifying them into a recognizable, approachable, and NON-CHEESY way is not easy.
I found that I was not the first to notice/appreciate... The NY Times wrote about another innovative playground although that scheme seemed a bit excessive with it being "based on child-development theories that children need to engage in social and fantasy play… envision[ing] groups of children collaborating... [on] loading containers with sand, hoisting them up with pulleys and then lowering them down to wagons waiting to be wheeled off to another part of the park.”
Are kids these days so much more sophisticated that they can't be bothered with sandboxes and monkey bars?! Speaking of... I wonder if any kid has ever climbed to the top and made a reference to the classic film featuring that famous simian. Or maybe that would just be waaaaaay uncool.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Anti-Valentine's Day Dinner
No serenades, flowers, chocolates, or romantic candlelight dinners for us!
We noshed at the recently re-opened 2nd Avenue Deli (now on "Toity toid" and "Toid" Avenue) and still had to wait a half hour for a table... It was worth it- matzo ball soup w/ carrots and noodles, a huge pastrami sandwich on rye, coleslaw, pickles, and egg cream. Our whole meal was probably one person's mediocre prix fixe dinner at some fancy schmancy place. Definitely an institution.
We noshed at the recently re-opened 2nd Avenue Deli (now on "Toity toid" and "Toid" Avenue) and still had to wait a half hour for a table... It was worth it- matzo ball soup w/ carrots and noodles, a huge pastrami sandwich on rye, coleslaw, pickles, and egg cream. Our whole meal was probably one person's mediocre prix fixe dinner at some fancy schmancy place. Definitely an institution.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
RA(n)TS!!!
After a leisurely, delicious dinner at Delhi Palace (Jackson Heights, Queens), Anne Marie, Edward, and I were walking back to their apartment, sucking on some Malai Kulfi popsicles.
Even though it was like 10pm, we passed all kinds of bustling street vendors, shops selling things from saris to cigarettes... Man, you can get ANYTHING in New York...
Anyway, so we were walking past these beautiful old brick apartment buildings when I noticed a backlit window with some sort of active shadow puppetry going on. When I slowed down to see what all the activity was- it was actually a couple of rats, scurrying around in the basement of the building, right up against the window!! They were quite playful, but really, the whole thing was making me a little nauseous.
I was so flustered that I couldn't find my camera to take a video, but my handy cell phone caught them in action. (And technology these days!!! I even sent them from my phone to my email account, just like my great Japanese phone!)
Anyway- back to the dirty rat show... It was so WEIRD to be so close to the scampering vermin and not be scared sh*tless by them possibly running over my feet, or possibly even up my leg and into my skirt or something. I stood there in disgusted awe, watching the show with that thin piece of security glass separating us.
However, it was free and the lighting was great (2 of my most favorite aspects for any experience)...
Even though it was like 10pm, we passed all kinds of bustling street vendors, shops selling things from saris to cigarettes... Man, you can get ANYTHING in New York...
Anyway, so we were walking past these beautiful old brick apartment buildings when I noticed a backlit window with some sort of active shadow puppetry going on. When I slowed down to see what all the activity was- it was actually a couple of rats, scurrying around in the basement of the building, right up against the window!! They were quite playful, but really, the whole thing was making me a little nauseous.
I was so flustered that I couldn't find my camera to take a video, but my handy cell phone caught them in action. (And technology these days!!! I even sent them from my phone to my email account, just like my great Japanese phone!)
Anyway- back to the dirty rat show... It was so WEIRD to be so close to the scampering vermin and not be scared sh*tless by them possibly running over my feet, or possibly even up my leg and into my skirt or something. I stood there in disgusted awe, watching the show with that thin piece of security glass separating us.
However, it was free and the lighting was great (2 of my most favorite aspects for any experience)...
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