23 Oct 06

Time:

?

Money:

$20, new shirt, Old Navy.
$14, lettuce, Tupperware (actually I think it's Rubbermaid), and cranberries, Gristede's.

More interesting things:

Watched as the driver of an SUV too large for this street angled his way speck by torturous speck into a space between two other cars. What counts for "enough" room here is very, very different from what constitutes the same idea almost anywhere else, and where most people try desperately to avoid even little taps into surrounding cars, here you're just glad if you only have to do it twice.

Encouraged silently a commuter who dashed for the express... and made it just in time. Like, her coat was almost stuck in the door. I love to watch people just barely make it; all of a sudden the effort to get wherever you're going (work, for most people, I suspect) is much more exciting.

Smiled inwardly as a couple split for different trains in the middle of the rush but took time for a kiss - not a dry and boring peck, not something from an unnamed movie studio in California, just a nice kiss - in the middle of the platform.

Discovered that Straight out of the Crate (as in the cut-price Crate and Barrel store) has taken up residence in an old boxing spot, Gramercy Gym. How I missed the bronze plate after all these trips to my own gym, I'm not at all sure, but I'm glad I saw it today.

Saw one of those full-length down coats my mom's always talking about, and it DID look warm. It also made me want to pat the collar - the fur looked very realistic, and I worked hard to refrain from finding out if it felt as fluffy as it looked. And finally, on a less supportive note, it looked as though the person wearing it had on a mummy sleeping bag with a hole cut out of the bottom. This would, needless to say, do wonders for fending off the concrete-canyon wind, but I'm not sure I can carry off the Kelty look.

Gave in and sat down on the train coming back from the gym, even though I was kind of enjoying standing; when I finally did, the guy across from me smiled and agreed that it was more comfortable that way, and then I got a "have a nice day, now!" as I got off: New Yorkers ARE Polite Campaign exhibit number who knows how many.

Found myself very confused as I walked past an older man in the subway station who had his fingers plugged firmly into his ears. I had my own ears stuffed with iPod headphones, so at first I had no idea what was causing the problem, but I didn't see any trains - clearly it wasn't the high-pitched brake squeal that will make anyone cringe. I looked around a little more carefully and spotted the source of the man's displeasure across the tracks on the downtown platform: a cellist. Oy.

Sped through midtown on my quest to get a new shirt. I was successful - and in exactly the correct amount of time - and even had three seconds to consider the absolute insanity of 34th Street around Broadway. I'm glad I don't have to go down there much, and it's not the most... cooperative area when you really need to get something done fast, but it is definitely packed and crawling and awake and alive, and it makes me laugh.

Realized that what with the buildings in this town, you really don't get much of a look at clouds unless they happen to be above you, which is of course a very direct contrast to Florida, where almost all the clouds worth looking at are just above the horizon. Today, though, I spotted a few good Cloudwalker-ish, southern-style, golden-pink clouds, dithering around over the East River, I guess. I liked seeing them even when they were everyday occurrences for me, but having them as visitors makes them seem that much nicer.