Life in Early 21st Century, New York

If you don't get your bag of laundry to the laundromat by noon on Sunday, you will not have clean clothes in time for Monday morning. Unless you actually sit in the laundromat and do the laundry yourself. I have never once taken that second option.

Commercials on TV about washer/dryer sales and products are increasingly meaningless to me. I wish I had a washer/dryer and it produces the very same emotion as wishing to win the lottery. And I'm not even kidding.

You can live in 250 square feet and not lose your mind. In fact, there is a kind of serenity to it.

It's nicer to walk a couple of blocks in the subway than street-side, sometimes. Like when it's raining.

I don't understand why people still use umbrellas when it's barely raining. If your hair can't survive a scarf-wrap, then you need a new style. Also: people who use golf umbrellas in New York should really be asked to leave. Especially when they insist on keeping the damn thing open walking down the subway stairs.

If you don't order your FreshDirect groceries by Saturday morning, you will not have fresh fruit on Sunday unless you venture out to the local bodega/market and overpay for citrus.

People think nothing of paying $1 per pound of laundry but will NOT pay more than $5 for a bunch of bodega roses. But they WILL pay $10 for a pack of smokes.

Bodega flowers are the hardiest flowers ever. They last 2 weeks. And they are CHEAP.

You know you've arrived when the cashier at your local bodega treats you like a regular.

* * *

Streets are quieter than ever before. That doesn't mean people aren't still yakking on their cell phones - it just means that everyone else is wearing ear buds or noise-canceling headphones so they don't hear anything any more. When I leave my apartment every morning, I do two things: I lock my door and throw my keys in my purse, and than I put on my iPod. Except one day I didn't put in my ear buds. It took me nearly twice as long to walk to the 42nd street stop because I kept looking around wondering who was making all that noise?

* * *

Every city has an associated industry. Washington is a government town. LA is entertainment. New York, for all of its diversity in industry, is mostly a business town. Fashion is here but it's really more about marketing fashion than creation fashion. Same thing with media. Wall Street is the company for this company town.

Chicago has always been a writing town for me. It's been about journalism and reporting and writing - storytelling. It's a communication town. The only other image that comes to mind is that of fire fighters, policemen, street cleaners, garbage men, snow removers, etc. It's a town's town. It's meta.

* * *

Nashville is a music town.
St. Louis is a beer town.
Atlanta is a Coke town. (ha ha)
San Fransisco is an artistic town.
Boston is a lunch town.
Orlando is a Mickey Mouse town.
Houston is an oil town. It could have been a space town, but...

* * *

I'm confused by Reebok's Reetone commercial. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMc2hBxzLvg)
The faceless women in this commercial are doing things like busing tables (waitress), making copies (secretary) and vacuuming the rug or taking the dog for a walk.
You've come a long way, baby.

* * *

Alternatively, I don't care what John Mayer said or didn't say about women - I still love his music.

* * *

"Eating in" for me means heating up leftovers or thawing Carnegie Deli matzoh ball soup. I haven't actually made a meal for myself in years.

* * *

I haven't driven a car in about two years, either. Recently, I had to move someone's car and was surprised at how foreign the driver's seat was to me.

Which reminds me... I really need to get a driver's license.

Buh bye 2009

Good things about 2009:

• Renovations
• Dad got married! (and moved to London!)
  
• Twitter

New York state of mind

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the following:
* The best co-workers and clients I've ever had
* My talented and beautiful sisters, my charming brother, and my happily re-married Dad and his wife Alice
* Living in New York
* Phoebe Cats
* The genius of Neal Stephenson
* Twitter
* The perspective that only turning 40 years old brings
* Chopt

I'm also very happy that I quit smoking, rocked a couple of quotes this year, and nailed a couple of big things at work. And I really like this picture, from Chasing Light, taken at the impromptu snowball fight in Times Square on Dec. 19, 2009:

happiness

I think it really all started with last year's election of President Obama. I mean, seriously... I have never in my life felt so good about the American voting public in my entire life. I spent the night amazed and crying and happy.
I (thoguht I) knew it wouldn't last.
...
'Cept here we are, a year-plus later and it's lasted. Only here's the thing... it's spread. Like the cliche-hacked wildfire.
And now I'm working on a project at work that's all about doing the right thing and being good and how cool is it to work at place that cares about that stuff.
---
So now I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner and all of this "I'm thankful for" twittering stuff has me all weepy but I'll get over it enough to consume 5,000 calories.
Happy Thanksgiving!
(I may, or may not, write a list of what I'm thankful for later, but in the meantime, I'm thankful for fuzzy blue sweaters and Yaz's "Only You.")

I love the Olds Peoples

I don't even know how I'm related to this person, but this message was from Henrietta to my great-aunt Ann. Both ladies are in their 90s. The wedding Henrietta is referring to is my Dad's - he got married this weekend. He's 72.

I just know you are going to have a good time at
the wedding. Does his family like the new Step=mother. My little neighbor just
came over to see me and she is practically blind but so kind and her sister who
lives with her is 90 but the one that come over is just getting over the Flu and
she brought me over a piece of Icecream cake and some chocolate
cookies. She was a Nurse but only worked for a Dr. all those years and to be
honest with you if anyone ever asked her anything about any cold or any simple
question she was never capable of answering it - she would admit she just dont
know. Most of my other nurse friends would give a person a suggestion what to
do. I met her at the front door and she said here I will take this to the
kitchen for you I said O.K. follow me so you dont fall and shut the door so it
wont get hot in the house. I have four new A/C's on this floor - we have to have
the window ones all these years because we have Steam Heat. But Rosemary she
said Oh no I am not staying. She sat down on a chair right in front the A/C and
I knew it was a very cold spot to sit at so I turned off the A/C about 30
minutes later I told her I just had to turn it on because I was getting very
short of breath -and about that time a big clap of thunder came to my rescue so
she decided to leave before she got wet. My Icecream was half melted and
went on the cookies . ha ha I sure dont sound very grateful -but I do appreciate
having them for my neighbors all these years since we lived here. She is
85 If Ann reads this she will say thats the Red Hair Temper
flaring in Omaha or the Irish sounding off. ha ha Oh well she is a kind
little person but I think age and being blind is hard on her. Well I blew
off steam long enough dear.-Thanks for writing Sweetie.

Ricci Case

So Sotomayor is being grilled on her "wise Latina" statement and my thoughts turn to Ricci. So here's my thing: If a white guy and a black guy and a latino guy are up for the same job, and say the white guy scores more on the test, but the black guy is close and maybe the latino is a distant third, but the guys he's supposed to lead respect him the most...
Here's what I would do.
I'd ask the white guy: "Have you ever used a racial slur?"
I'd ask the black guy: "Have you ever used a racial slur?"
I'd ask the latino guy: "Have you ever used a racial slur?"
And I'd base my decision on their answers.
And that's all I have to say about that.

random observations

Sarah Palin pronounces "Alaska" like it's a triumph, not a state. ah-lass-KAH! What if I started pronouncing our President's name like that? o-bah-MAH!

I don't really get people who talk through smiles. What's to be so damn happy about all the time? It reminds me of empty-headed PR drones, like (interestingly enough) Palin's spokesperson Meg Whatever. Wait - Meg actually reminds me of sar-RAH! On and on... and I've talked to enough reporters to know that when you go on auto-pilot (as a PR person), you SOUND like you're on auto-pilot. Sometimes, if you have a good relationship and reputation with the reporter, he/she has the human decency to forgive you - but you always get blasted in print. And you always lose a little cred with your reporter. But Palin and Team Palin don't care, or at least they don't look like they care. RUDE!

When I give Phoebe Cats a special treat, like canned salmon food, she gets all hunter-like, hovering over the dish and looking at me out of the corner of her eye. Then, when she's done, she walks around like she's taken down the big game. Like she's saying, "Yeah, that's right. I ate it. So what? What are you looking at?" And then she sleeps for 3 hours.

Men stand more than women on the subway. It's the last refuge of chivarly.

OMG Orrin Hatch is STILL in the Senate? Holy sweet baby Jesus. At least we now have Sessions from ALABAMA to add character and accent. (and shout out to Dick Durbin from ILL! Homies say hey!)

Ok - I'm liking Sotomayor. And I like to pronounce it "SOTO May-er," like it's Jewish. Ish.

Candy Crowley on CNN is losing major weight and is looking GOOD. Shout out!

I'm wondering how long I should keep my Twitter avatar shaded in green for Freedom in Iran... How long should mourning be for freedom of speech? Maybe I'll be the last to go non-green. That fits because I'm lazy and idealistic.

The Co-op Board asked me to join the Board. That's kind of cool, right?