!!! : ((( !!!

I was at work yesterday when I glanced up and came face to face with this precious precious angel.  Ugggghhhhhhh.

Her name was Lilly and her owner said that she was very sleepy and sad because she just wanted to not be shopping anymore.  I asked if I could take a picture and her owner was like, "oh yes please, she loves the camera, she should look right in to it"

She knows how amazingly adorable she is!!!

: ((((

Even now looking at the pictures I'm going, "awwwww" alone in my apt.

an afternoon with my favorite cheese monger

While waiting for Lilly to meet me I was staring at this corner and trying to figure out why it looked so strange.  I finally realized that this was where the Virgin store used to be.  What a sign of the times that it's a bank now eh?

It was really nice getting to reconnect with Lilly.  Who knew that you could find a flower filled enclave in Union Square to sit and have a juice?

After a thorough discussion of my life and its lack of direction we made our way to Anthropologie where Lilly was looking to burn through a gift card.  I think she should have gone with this torture chair:

Perfect for handcuffing a person to, and it's open bottom is perfect for when your victim loses control of their bowels from the torture.  I can't imagine what else this chair would be for since it was the least comfortable thing I have ever sat on.  And i've sat on some uncomfortable things.

The biggest thing is just that I got to reconnect with an old friend, which I think is really important for me right now.  I'm feeling very "I remember me" these days.  Or more like "I need to remember me".  Too many dumb people trying to make me do things that I don't want to do.

Mmm, I think it's time to have a jam out to J-Hud.  Thank's Meghan for giving me the run of your place so I can lip synch in my underwear to my hearts content.

i love her

I would never be brave enough to read that book out in public like that.  And on the bus?  Never.

It makes me think of the time Lilly and I sat next to each other on the subway without realizing it.  All I knew was that I could tell the girl sitting next to me was eyeballing my ipod as I looked for a song and I knew she was judging my music tastes.  Sure enough she had to sneak a peak at me to see what kind of a person would have TLC's Creep on a playlist with the spice girls.  Had it not been for her nosiness we might have gone the whole trip without realizing the other was there.

But my point was that I was even self conscious about my music when I knew somebody was looking at it, I can't imagine just sitting on a park bench reading my hardcover copy of "Knockin' Boots".

Or am I being an idiot?  Was this on Oprah's bookclub list and is actually a catchy name for a feelgood story about a teacher who turns a young kids life around?  I'm way too tired to google is so you'll have to do it for me and let me know.  Thanks.

In the meantime, enjoy her as I did when I saw her on the corner yesterday afternoon.  As you can tell it's cold here.  Boo.

a post for lilly

I sat at work all day and played this and thought about how I had nothing at all to write about today.

But I had completely forgotten about this morning when I got to the 96th St. 6 station.  There was a river flowing between the tracks that immediately made me think of my friend, who was a writer for the NY Times.

As soon as I saw the flowing water I broke out in the biggest grin.  I was excitedly scanning the river for signs of life but quickly became ill from the amount of gross garbage I saw instead.  I feel like I haven't been eating particularly well lately and the culmination of all my bad food choices along with floating garbage was too much for me.

But before I was overcome with the urge to vomit I was having really fond thoughts of you Lilly!

And to think that I almost forgot all about this.  I was actually downloading my pictures because I wanted to post these nice ghosties I saw on my walk home:

At first they just made me smile because they're funny and nice but then as I was walking past I realized the true genius that is the big one's crazy mouth:

It was like a section of the wall that had missing bricks and they turned it in to his crazy smile.  I love it.  It also raises many questions in my mind.  Like it seems like the addition of the ghost features was an afterthought, perhaps by a different artist altogether.  It doesn't look like the same paint as the swirly pattern, as if somebody saw the white shapes and thought that the really looked like ghosts and needed to be painted thusly.  In which case the mouth is really a brilliant touch.

The only alternative that I can see would be that the original artist had planned the ghosts from the beginning in which case it seems like all of that patter around it was based entirely on the sight gag of the crazy snaggle tooth mouth.

Either way, I love it.

And I got this post in before midnight!

::wipes sweat off brow::

Godbuns

For whatever reason, when I go through Grand Central, I always go one specific route if I'm headed to work, and one specific route when I'm coming home from work. 

Going to work I know I need to be as close to the front of the 4,5,6 as possible so I can dash up the stairs and out the doors of grand central as quickly as possible before I get stuck behind some shuffling old person or child in a stroller. 

My route through Grand Central on my way home is pretty much completely a result of Lilly working at the market.  I would go out of my way to pass through the market each evening to see if I could catch her, and even though she's not there anymore I still find myself going down the hallways of Grand Central and entering the subway at the opposite end. 

So the other morning I had the most surreal thing happen.  When I got to the 6 train uptown there was a train just pulling up so I had to run and get on the nearest car which was at the back of the train.  I didn't think about it but this meant that I was getting out at Grand Central at the place where I normally get on the uptown train. 

It was like bizarro world!  It was like when you're playing Mario Kart and you don't realize that your're doing mirror and it's an ice world so everything kind of looks the same anyways so you blast off the line thinking that you're going to be hotsy totsy and before you know it you slam a penguin and go careening off the edge where your fate is then sealed inside an icy block. 

Anyways, I was fascinated when I saw this graffiti on the stairs.  I don't know what Godbuns are but I know I want them.  I will do however many squats I need to until I have Godbuns.  But besides that I was just struck by how I walked down these very stairs almost every day and never knew that there was graffiti on them.  Now I'm obsessed with it. 

It's taken about three specific morning trips for me to get this photo.  Usually I'm swept up in the Lion King-esque stampede of people but for some reason this morning I found myself with a cushion of space behind me so I quickly snapped my prized photo.

Now I can ponder Godbuns at my leisure.

i didn't even have to stand in front of a mirror to make it appear

I went on a special journey to the whole foods in downtown sarasota to get my favorite bloody mary mix that's made by McClure's. I first discovered McClures at Murray's Cheese Shop in Grand Central when I would go to visit lilly, but then found that they carried it at the whole foods on Houston as well. Meghan and I have purchased many a jar, you know, for our vitamins.

Anyways, I get to whole foods and can't find it anywhere. The only bloody mary mixer they had was disgusting and had corn syrup in it. That's the thing I don't understand about whole foods, I mean they do have a lot of things that you can't find anywhere else, like thai coconuts, but then they also have a lot of nasty stuff that is in no way good for you. So there I was in whole foods, desperate for my vitamins, with no way to satisfy my urges.

Then I remembered that we made our own bloody mary mix at Simple. I haven't done it in a year but I still remembered all the fixins, so I made my own. It was so good!!!

Tomatoes, celery, jalepeno, red onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and plenty of vitamin V. Delicious.

I sent Meghan a picture of the two glasses and she said it looked like the celery was throwing up its arms in celebration. I think we all were.

McCafe?

So I actually noticed this a few weeks ago but it seems like more and more are springing up. What is the deal with the McCafe? I guess they are trying to revamp their style to make it less kid oriented and more like a swanky hang out? I kind of want to go inside to see if they replaced the plastic chairs and tables with psuedo antique comfy chairs like starbucks. I can't imagine how they could though, because any kind of fabric would just get soaked in grease after a few days, I thought that was why they had to use plastic, so they could hose everything down with bleach at the end of the night.

And if you look close you can see that this particular one has a "walk up" window. I have to admit it is clever. I haven't eaten in McDonalds in a long time, though recently I have had strange cravings for it. I think I would be more inclined to sneak up to a walk through window under the cover of darkness then every actually set foot inside a McDonalds. I feel like if somebody I know ran in to me I could just be like, "oh, I didn't realize this was a McCafe walk up window, silly me" and play it off easier than if somebody caught me inside an actual McDonalds at which point I guess I would just resort to pretending to be so completely hammered that I had no idea where I was in general. Kind of like that video of Avril Lavigne. It was Avril right? Or was it Ashlee Simpson. Either way, I'm an angsty teen girl, and thanks to kitty attacking me the other night it looks like I cut myself as well, so that adds to the authenticity.

Lilly posted a story about how Starbucks is sneaking in to our neighborhoods under the guise of a quaint local coffee shop:

http://briefcasetelophase.blogspot.com/2010/03/coffee-loving-goths.html

I feel like this is similar, I mean at least McDonalds kept their logo on the store but still, it's kind of gross to consider McDonalds as a "cafe". What's next, outdoor seating? Table service? If I'm going to eat fast food I'm not going to make an event of it I'm going to do it in private so I can sob in to the bag while i eat my troubles away.