Tuesday, November 18, 2008

More New York Moments....

Only in New York would you have the opportunity to study journalism under a writer for the New York Times, and only in New York would that teacher, when taking an assignment in South American, be replaced by an editor for Playboy magazine.

Only in New York would you be taking a morning stroll to find some middle aged man in sweats doing pull-ups on the bars of traffic lights.

Only in New York would you pay $30 at a Taqueria for four little tacos and a side of rice and beans and shared drink. This city can get you sometimes!

Only in New York can you wake up to the Empire State Building and moments later be walking in an ancient Egyptian tomb. And to think it only cost a donation of one dollar to tour the Met. :)

Monday, November 3, 2008

New York Moments

I thought it would be fun to give you all a little glimpse into daily life in NYC, a city I love so dearly, and surprisingly with all of it's quirks has become quite familiar....

So here is a glimpse:

I was getting ready for a pumpkin carving party I was having and went downtown to pick up some last minute things, one of them was a pumpkin for Mike to carve. I walked over to Whole Foods after work, which is the best grocery store, for some reason it is inspirational for cooking, but as they say Whole Foods = Whole paycheck! -well I got out of there without breaking the bank but not my back! :) So on this journey to get a carving pumpkin for Mike (the day before I looked and looked but no one had a normal size pumpkin) so this day at Whole Foods I finally saw carving pumpkins...and for only 5 bucks!! Thats right, what a deal...the only problem was that the smallest pumpkin was 15lbs....so anyhow I had to get it, I needed to get home and frost the cookies and set up for the party...so there I was with my purse hanging off my shoulder, a grocery bag in one hand and cradling this huge pumpkin with both! I went down to the subway caught the first train and then was transferring to my next train. As I was walking down the stairs to catch my train home, I heard it coming...and if you have spent time in NYC if you hear your train you run for it..I mean really who wants to stand on a stinky platform with all that weight for 15+ minutes especially when you are on a schedule...so I wobble down the stairs after my train, yelling, literally, "Hold that train," and of course this is NYC did people move over for me to get through, no, but I yelled my way down and this teenage boy yells back "Maam he's got it, he's holdin it for you!" I then see this little skinny teenage boy holding the train open with his body wedged in between the doors trying to stop them from closing-he was also trying to get on himself. The doors kept trying to close and were squishing him and finally he took his body out from between the doors and just his hand was there trying to hold the doors open (note the train doors are not like elevator doors that spring open when something is blocking them....the driver has control over the doors and will keep trying to shut the doors until everyone is either in or out) and that's when I made it to the platform, determined I wedged my foot in between the doors imploring the train driver "Please let us on!" and finally "Ding!" the doors sprung open! It was my day, I exclaimed, "kid thanks, you just saved me 20 minutes!"...and we were laughing. And then this lady sitting across from me started laughing at me and I smiling back at her said, "You know this pumpkin is heavy, that kid just saved me 20 min." Ahh New York there are some great moments. If you could have only seen me with this thing! :)