Sunny Side of the Street

So my father paid us an extended weekend visit and we did many fun New York-y type things such as:

* see a show at Radio City Music Hall (Loreena McKennitt, quite nice)

* visit the new Hall of Human Origins at the Museum of Natural Histroy

* eat at our favorite Ukranian restaurant

* ride the subway, a lot

* ride the subway, a lot more

* guess as to why the Empire State building was lit green (Earth Day, Dad was right)

* buy stuff off sketchy street vendors

* visit the ships at South Street Seaport

* take picture of bad-ass old buildings

* walk across Central Park

* witness a tv show being filmed in our park

We had a great time because with him my father brought the California weather.

We rejoiced and frolicked in the sun; all was well.

Back to rain, back to work!

Comments

I've disabled my comments because I'm sick of having to delete the snatchy remarks some people have been leaving.

To my loyal friends and family readers, you can email me comments if you like. I will continue to update you on my life here because I miss you people and wish you were here with me.

To my readers who find themselves so bored with my "excuse for a blog" that they have to leave me messages telling me how lame it is, I pose this question: if it's so bad, why have you come back to leave the same comment every time I delete it? Haven't you some other blog to spat upon? Cheers, pal. You win the "Cooler Than Me" award.

Visitation

My father's here for a visit, and here's what that means: the evening was spent playing the following instruments with much enthusiasm and little skill: cello, guitar, piano, violin (after much tuning)and singing various crazy songs that he seems to remember from god-knows-where. We discovered that Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" seems to have inspired Mason William's "Saturday Night at the World" and spent a good amount of time getting creative with musical forensics - it was sort of like CSI, only with late 60's music instead of dead bodies.

I actually have a couple of days off of work to entertain my guest (shocker!) and tomorrow we are going to wander the Pretty City known as Manhattan. He's already seen Greenpoint and the only comment he had was that the Cheap Aluminum SIding Salesman really cleaned up when he came here. That's my hood... you want vinyl siding?! We got vinyl siding!! On every precious street.

In other exciting news, it's supposed to be 77 degrees on Monday. I can't fucking believe it. I mean seriously, I've been waiting a long time for Spring to show up so I'm trucking out naughty swear words just to make sure you know how excited I really am.

La la la

I couldn't think of a better title. Sorry.

Let's see... New York news: Yesterday while waiting for the L train into Manhattan there was a girl singing and playing her guitar on the subway platform. She had the kind of voice that I would kill to have; the kind of voice that I would give up all my other talents for. Textured, original, not too pretty, but soulful and versitile. No one was giving her any change even though she sounded amazing, so I gave her $5.00 for her efforts.

And the other day as I was coming out of the F train to go to work, I spied a mom trying to a) hang onto her stroller with her toddler while b) she flailed about behind herself unsuccessfuly to grab the two long straps that had come loose on her baby-in-the-front carrier. She was juggling to kids and couldn't manage. With out saying a word, I came up next to her on one side while a workman passing by came up on the other. We each grabbed a strap, circled around her and pulled them into her waiting hands and she was able to re-tie her carrier. And then we all laughed at our little impromptu ballet and went on our way. It's moments like that when I am glad that I live in a close-quarters city where people really do look out for one another.

Jacky and I took a long walk home this evening, stopping at both of the dog parks on the way home. It rained all day so she had a great time chasing her dog friends through the mud and dirt. (Of course she just had a bath yesterday. Couldn't stay clean for too long.) They have been giving tickets/summonses to people who have their dogs off leash in the park by our house so we have had to be careful about playing only in the actual dog park instead of letting her play ball or stick in the open grass. This is not exciting news. I have no idea why I am telling you guys this.

Alrighty... off to do some sort of "Bring Spring and/or Summer" dance and try to will away the cold.

Winter Redux

This morning there were snow flurries. Last week it was 65. The constant about New York weather seems to be its ability to screw with me on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. I want June. I need June. Please send June.

In other new and exciting news, I got some new glasses. Two pair actually, and both have the correct presciptions in them. For the first time. Ever. See, the thing is that I have actually needed glasses for about 4 or 5 years now, but when I went to Sears so many years back they succeeded in a)giving me pink-eye so badly that I ended up the ER and b)giving me the wrong prescription and being mean to me when I went back to get it fixed. So I kept the glasses (with the incorrect lenses), and wore them on the rare occasion that I felt I could stand the headache that came with them. But now the world is beautiful again, thanks to health insurance and a really great eye doctor. I was literally stunned at how well I can see now. It's quite fabulous. But I had no idea that so much dog fur had settled in the nooks and crannies of my house.

In Greenpoint Neighborhood News, we seem to have some sort of a local Guerilla Theatre group. A Middle-aged Polish Man Guerilla Theatre Group. Of which all them members/performers seem to be drunk by about 9am. But they really enjoy hanging out in large numbers by the dog park and lately they have taken it upon themselves to sing, dance, and (the kicker) play the harmonica. (I use "play" lightly. Really they make the kind of harmonica sounds that I used to make as a 7-year-old who thought she was playing the harmonica.) Occasionally one of the members/performers will wander over the the dog park fence and then Jack takes it upon herself to berate the aforementioned with extremely loud large-dog barks and taunts. It really is a sideshow of glee for all involved.

I'm still playing the cello (well, still studying the cello) and still not very good at it. My main problem is a complete and utter lack talent, follwed closely by my inability to just relax and breathe. Lame, especially since I spent so many years in school learning how to breathe (yeah... acting school really prepares you for the real world.) I do have a good time plugging away at trying to learn the thing (the cello that is, and I have named her Misty. Because she's a cheap girl with a shiny finish, kind of like a stripper. Or a My Little Pony.)

This concludes our update.


Editors note: My husband gets credit for the "Guerilla Theatre" joke.