halloween

Halloween in New York is kinda crazy. Not like driving through Chicago, dodging illegal fireworks set off by cops or drifting in and out of clouds of smoke in Humbuldt Park. No, in New York, it is a wildly celebrated holiday - costumes everywhere, huge parades, businesses giving out candy, drunk and bald kids going to raves (yes.....raves! people still GO to raves). We started out the evening very innocently. Dave and I threw together costumes - farmer and engineer- and took the train to Park Slope. I teach in Park Slope and every year there is a parade on 7th Ave. I was like, oh cute...I'll see my students and they'll be all happy that I'm dressed up as an engineer. Dave and I climb out of the subway into a mass of bedazzles and face paint, strollers decorated as little blobby newborns slump over in costume, and giant, awkward inanimate objects, like sandwiches, walking down the street. This isn't a simple, oh-how-cute-parade. This is a major, everyone in Brooklyn, insane, drum circle extravaganza.

Well, ok....where do I go? Down the block? Near the school where big kids are having shaving cream fights? Back home? So I see one of my students retreating with his dad because the parade is starting and it's too loud. Daaaaaaad...he says when they stop to talk to me. Dave and I stand and watch....I don't know why I thought I would be able to recognize any of my first graders. I finally see another student and she is so excited, it makes it all worth it. Her dad captures my first ridiculously happy expression. After spending an hour standing there regretting my totally lame costume, we decide to get dinner.

Let's fast forward to hours and hours and hours later. After dinner and drinks, Lauren's Halloween party and more drinks.... We are standing on a street corner for, what seemed to me to be all night, but I'm sure was only a little while. If I closed one eye and squinted with the other, I could figure out where the cabs were. Here we go. Instantly asleep in the cab, wake up - where are we? The TV in the cab was playing the news over and over again. Mute it. Not home. Wow....I feel really, really gross. Keep eyes closed. It's ok. Breathe. Not a big deal. Wait......waaaiiiittt....Stop the cab! Stop the cab! Open the door.

I'll let you imagine the rest. It was lovely.

day to night

In New York it is not unusual to go out right after work....to a restaurant, the ymca, a bar. It's just not worth it to trek home, then turn around and go back out again. Expensive and time consuming. Due to this web of public transportation, people bring stuff with them wherever they go. Umbrellas - just in case, jacket - just in case, map - just in case.....oh wait, don't forget the waiting list for a locker at the y that's three years long! Bring your gym bag to work, then to the y, then back home. My classroom doesn't have a computer...better bring the laptop to get stuff done at school! And lunch....and bring back the tupperware later. Travel mug? Stop and get groceries? Library books?

It's fun to carry this stuff around all night. Especially Fridays when you're in it for the long haul. And let's not forget about the whole day-to-night wear. I always thought this was so weird when I read about it in magazines - 'For a nighttime look, throw on a string of pearls and a cropped jacket!' Why not 'Just go home and change?' Well....not here.

I am a teacher. I wear sensible shoes. Sometimes I wear overalls. People in New York City do not wear overalls. People certainly don't wear sensible shoes. We're meeting your friends for drinks in the city at 7:00? I'm still at work and it's 6:00? Wearing a cardigan and khakis and a ponytail and sensible shoes? And carrying a laptop, gym bag, leftover lunch, travel mug, purse, raincoat, gourds for my class, and covered in cat hair? Jesus.

lice are gross

There is a woman in Brooklyn who sits in her kitchen and picks nits out of the hair of children. Children with lice that go to my school. If I get lice, I am totally going to the nit picker.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DC1E39F937A35751C1A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

garden jewel

you really can't get the full experience without watching this...

misc

kids sliding down a cement stairwell in harlem
brooklyn bridge & waterfall
this is just funny. say it out loud.

free decomposed plant matter

hot dirt

New York City collects fallen leaves and scoops them into piles to form compost and then gives it away free to residents. Dave and I decided to take a drive to the Bronx to fill up containers with hot dirt and lug it back to Brooklyn. We were surrounded by steaming piles of compost and had only ten minutes to fill up our tubs. It was the richest compost I've ever seen.

I always thought getting compost in Chicago was kind-of a pain. You know, get the bags at Home Depot, lift them onto your cart, lift them into your car, dump them into the backyard. Inevitably one tears and you have dirt chunks everywhere. Well, imagine that you have a backyard, but you can't get to it from the first floor....there is no back entrance, no alley. You bring giant tubs of compost up to the second floor, through the apartment and back down the stairs into the backyard. Dave's got eighty five pounds on me and I was having flashbacks to our move from Chicago. Lift here, easy, easy....wait....raise it up higher, oh no! the bag is ripping! shit - piggie got out, dirt is all over the entranceway, can't see the stairs, hold on....ok, got it. I'm not that good at helping

must see!!! virtual apartment tour!! cozy! a handyman's dream!! pets welcome!