So it's been a few days since my last post, time to play catch up. There's not really any good stories to share, I guess mostly I just feel like I need to "journal."
The biggest event this week is my new found love for walking. Maybe I should say exercising. Actually, it's nothing new, I'm just on a kick. I go through stages. No working out for a while, then working out lots for a while, back and forth. Usually something changing in my life triggers an adjustment in the physical activity department. I guess in this case it was a combo of things. The break up probably was the biggest factor. Among other things, it gave me a lot of free time. Also I have three new roommates, which means there's four of us in our tiny apartment, which means I need to get myself out at times. Not to mention the first swim suit wearing of the season. THAT'll do it.
So Monday I grabbed my ipod and went for a little walky-walk/joggity-jog around Central Park. I did the whole six miles, which may not sound like much but it's a record for me! (Minus a couple hikes that were way too long.) It was great, I really enjoyed myself. The
humidity is a KILLER though. Ugh.
Tuesday I left a little later than Monday night. The sun had already gone down so I didn't want to go around the whole park and have to end up on the east side of
Harlem at the end of my walk. For any non-newyorkers reading this, that's not as scary as it sounds, but still, not something I thought I shouldn't plan to do.
So anyway, Tuesday I just walked down 8th Ave to
Columbus Circle and back. That made it 5 miles. I did the same thing last night and when I got to the point of turning around to come back it started raining. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE the rain, even if I'm inside. Hate it. HOWEVER, since I wasn't wearing anything nice, and I had no where to be and no one to see, and it was warm outside, I decided against pulling the $20 out of my shoe (yes, I always take one with me after the unfortunate incident last week) and thought I'd just walk in the rain. It was great!! I was a little worried about my ipod and cell phone, but kept them in my pockets and stopped under a canopy to check on them every once in a while. Usually I don't take my phone but I was expecting a call from Shantay I really couldn't miss.
It was really fun to watch everyone scurry around. I got a lot of sympathetic looks from people with umbrellas, but I'd just smile back at them. As I walked along the posh apartment buildings with doormen along 8th in the 60s and 70s I watched as cabs would pull up and the doormen would run to greet the tenants with umbrellas. All I could think was,
Must be nice. How would it be to live in luxary? One doorman saw me sopping wet and said, "Aw! Poor girl!" I looked at him and just said,
"No, it's wonderful! I love it!" Then I got a big chuckle out of him. I think people probably did feel pretty sorry for me though, even people in cars were much more polite. Usually they'll run you over if they get the chance. It was really a great experience. At one point, I was even singing aloud with my ipod, something I always have the urge to do, but never have the guts. I was
singing in the rain!
Oh yeah, I wanted to write about my run Monday. You know, a lot of people probably don't think of New York City as one of the more beautiful places on the earth because other than Central Park, there's not a whole lot of nature (and the little that is there, you usually don't know about unless you're a newyorker.) I think one thing I love about this place is how it doesn't have the obvious beauty. You see it in unexpected places.
When I was going down 8th Ave I was listening to my
Best of 2003 mix. Just as I was approaching Columbus Circle a song came on I swear I've never heard in my life. (For anyone who's reading this, who might not know what Columbus Circle is, it's a big intersection at the southwest corner of Central Park. There's a big fountain in the middle, I think the one from the opening credits of Married With Children, and statues, and it's really touristy. It's also a stop where a whole bunch of subways meet up underground. There's tons of horse drawn carriages and rickshaw drivers waiting to give people rides. There's lots of shopping and restaurants. Trump Tower is also there, as well as two extremely tall towers, that I love. They're identical, I think, and make me think of the
Twin Towers.)
So anyway, as I was about 5 or 10 blocks north of Columbus Circle a song came on my playlist, like I said, I didn't recognize it at all. This didn't totally surprise me at first because when I transfer my playlists from my itunes to my ipod, sometimes the songs get swapped into wrong playlists, for some reason. I pulled out my ipod to see if there was a name or album listed for the song. Like so much of my music, there was nothing. Just
Track 21. I wish I could describe the song. There were no lyrics, just instraments, and it was absolutely beautiful, like something from a soundtrack in a movie. Before this point I'd been walking (I sort of was walking ten blocks or so, then running two or three....don't judge, I hate running!) Anyway, so this gave me so much energy and such a boost. I had to run. Suddenly I could see beauty all around me. I passed by every type of person you can think of;
old, young, high class, low class, bums, tourists, Newyorkers, people with dogs, people who got in my way, people sitting on the bench smoking, business men, little kids, other runners, people with shopping bags, people on their cell phones, people punching into their blackberries, crippled people, smelly people, couples-both gay and straight, orthodox jews, etc etc etc. I felt such love for everyone. I felt love for everything I could see. I felt so much joy.
It was about this point I reached Columbus Circle and it was twilight and the buildings were just starting to light up. I just looked up into the sky and felt like I could burst with happiness and gratitude. I got a little choked up inside. This probably sounds crazy, but I can't explain it. I was just so grateful to be alive. I felt so thankful for being so blessed in so many ways. It was this wonderful, asthetic moment.
Speaking of Columbus Circle, I kind of got my 5 minutes of fame there last Sunday. Actually, it was more like one second of fame, haha.
Brandon and I were sitting in the middle of the intersection where the fountains are just chatting. There were so many people around. We saw these four girls walking up. They looked like they were about 15 or 16. They had shopping bags from really expensive stores, and mics tucked into the back of their shorts, and a camera crew was following them around. We wondered what reality show they were filming. The only guess we came up with was the MTV show My Sweet 16. So anyway, they had the girls sit down on a bench. Of all the benches in the circle guess which one they chose? Yep, the one we were sitting on. They were actually sitting RIGHT next to me. I tried not to pay attention to them and act nonchalant, hoping to maybe get in the frame. After they were done filming the clip I thought about asking one of them what show it was for, and then for some STRANGE reason, I got intimidated. What the heck??
Okay but here's the really exciting story. About 15 minutes later we noticed an attractive lady with a camera man, and a little entourage of crew. There was another lady with her holding this dog.
We could not believe how ugly it was!! After a while they started filming the two women, and had random people discussing something. We weren't sure what they were saying because we couldn't hear them, but we wondered what was going on. Then I made eye contact with a guy on the crew. I smiled, and kept eye contact. He finally said, "Do you guys want to comment on the World's Ugliest Dog?" We started cracking up because all along we'd been thinking people thought it was cute because of all the positive attention it was getting. Of course without thinking I said, "Yeah!" I looked at Brandon and said, "Come on!" He didn't want to, but I made him.
The crew got excited because apparently everyone they were asking kept saying they thought he was cute and we said we would admit to him being ugly. I have to admit, he's a little more lovable in person. This picture makes him look kinda mean. So when the camera started rolling I seriously didn't know what to say. Brandon's really witty and funny so he was on a roll and I basically just laughed the whole time. I asked what it was for after and I guess Elwood (the dog) had won the Ugliest Dog contest in California the day before. This was a piece they were filming for the CNN morning news the next day.
I actually touched his tongue. It was all dry, haha.
So there you have it, I'm an official celeb. Of course I told my family all about it and they were very excited, but I was surprised to find out other people had seen it and noticed me. My cousin in Dallas, an old friend from high school in California, and my exboyfriend in Utah all contacted me saying they could have sworn I was on tv. I really felt famous, haha.
In other news, it has been HOT in New York. I seriously am not enjoying this humidity. It is nasty. Ugh. That's about all I can even say about it.
Tomorrow I'm going to Boston again. This time Brad and Nadia will be there and I couldn't be more excited!! I'm taking the Greyhound up after work and will be there until Sunday afternoon. I can't believe this is my first time that I'll see them since I've moved out here! Well, Brad actually was in the city once or twice on business and we got together, but that was only for a couple hours. Brad keeps asking me what I want to do, like I need to be entertained. I will have so much fun even doing nothing! I have such a blast with them all the time.
I guess that's all the news for now. I should sign off, I've been blogging for quite some time now.
Oh yeah, lastly, I finally figured out how to change the size and color of my font. I'm a little slow.
I keep thinking of things. Tonight my old roommate was down by Manhattan Mall and I guess there was some function going on at a hotel nearby. She had quite the celeb spottings! She saw Oprah's BFF Gail, Donald Trump, Julianne Moore, and Robin Williams. So jealous!
They also moved me up to the trading floor. Now I sit smack dab in the middle of the action. It's an adjustment. There's good and bad things. I had such a nice big desk with tons of space, a mini fridge, tons of cabinets, a coat closet, and lots of freedom at my old desk. Now I have no space, minimal freedom, and a difficult phone. There's good things too though.
Obviously I was furious with 
