29 Nov 06

Time:

?

Money:

$3, oatmeal and coffee, Cafe University.
$26, pet food AND the vintage-looking hat, gym store.
$16, turkey burger and some wings, Josie Wood's.

More interesting things:

Decided that the cool but definitely not unpleasant breeze that blew as I was leaving for the gym reminded me of begonia weather. Unfortunately Manorhaven Park is not exactly walking distance from here.

Read, as I heffed my way through an uphill treadmill walk, a bit on the news ticker about a guy who got poisoned by his aquarium fish. I'm sorry that he got bitten or whatever, of course, but I'll have to admit that I was paying at least as much attention to the weirdness of getting news from none other than East Rockaway as part of the local update as I was to anything fish-related.

Listened to a short and relatively mild string of obscenities from a trio of maintenance workers in the gym stairwell - something about some "fucking thing" - and got an "excuse me" and a careful apology along with it when they realized I must have heard what they had said. I told them they couldn't offend me, but since they were on their way down and I was on my way up, the flights of stairs that were already between us kept them from seeing how hard I was trying not to laugh.

Saw a kid in a stroller as I ate my breakfast who was either the boy I described in a much earlier post as deserving of the name Dandelion, or Dandelion's little brother.

Admired a many-stories-high red ribbon and bow, done in lights on the side of a building near Rockefeller Center, and the tree itself in bright colored lights and sparkly will-o'-the-wisp-looking things as well. It becomes more obvious every time I hit a new block that the lights in this city are nothing to joke about, just something to smile hard over.

Found a restaurant (I guess) near Rockefeller Center that I'm going to have to try. The whole front is done completely in thick wintry greenery, and, for some reason, a whole troop of lawn jockeys.

Walked, on my way to Grand Central, past a guy in suit and pipe, puffing away and following some stocks-related announcement showing on a news channel in the window of one office building or another. If he'd had a monocle or something, it might have been even better, but short of that it couldn't be beat.

Got on the train at said terminal ahead of a guy who had been waiting there before me, per his invitation. I told him I knew he'd been there first, but he just smiled, bowed a little, and gestured again for me to get on. (And what campaign is this for?)