Salve vita!

The past two days have been so pleasant.

I love the summer because I appreciate the city in which I live.

I love the summer because of the people with which I spend time.

I love the summer because of the adventures it lets me have.

Yesterday, I spent the whole day with Joey, with the city as our background for adventure. I believe that all of New York sets such a great stage for exploring and quest-ing. Our first stop was the Museum of Sex, which Tracy had orchestrated so well.

I'm glad I've come to a mature point in my life where the Museum of Sex does not embarrass me. I highly suggest it. It was definitely a fun time. My favorite portion were the clips of "explicit" videos from the early 1900's. Following that would definitely be the pre girl-power age SexEd videos from the '50s which teach girls how to be proper women.

Last night, I finally, finally, FINALLY! got to go to my first silent rave! For the moments that it lasted it was beautiful. I most definitely had a great time. This time, I was oh so glad to escape into my noise-cancelling head phones. I had spend the night before creating my perfect playlist and it was definitely worth it. So nice just to be happy, emmersed in some great sounds, having the world play to my soundtrack.

Today, I got to play big sister (which comes with scarcity during my Pittsburgh months) and I took Sofya out to see Brothers Bloom in the Angelika Film Center on W. Houston and Mercer St.

We started out at this AMAZING dinner out on 14th and 5th avenue. It was called "Good Stuff" and gladly lived out to its expectations. Jojo and Ruben (sp?) had just come from the Israel Day Parade, which sounded both amazing, crazy, hectic, and wonderful. .. and crazy. The Jews knows what's up. For real.

The movie itself was so great! I think every moment was lovely and beautiful. It tried to take you back to a time of adventure stories and wild quests. I like that. As aforementioned, I enjoy a grand adventure.

So, like I said, the summer is a wonderous time.

During the summer months, when I'm not adventuring by exploration, I adventure by resrouce.

Time Out NY is my older friend. The one that knows the city like the back of her hand. She tells me about the best places to eat cheap and how to score some extra cash on the weekend.

Going is that chick that always sends those semi-annoying but mostly useful party invites every weekend

Rooftop Films is that hipster, that's down to earth and asks me to come over and watch some indie flicks.

Flavorpill is the trendsetter thats in tune with the hustle and bustle.

FreeNYC is my broke friend. Such a cool guy, but just plain broke.

(These are just some main buddies but I can introduce more if anyone is interested)

I guess, I think that the city is a beautiful backdrop, but I feel that what makes all of my memories so warm is who I'm making my memories with and why. The summer facilitates this oh so well, making it oh so ordinarily extraordinary.

Ars longa, Vita brevis

On my way home today, coming from a wonderful day after spending time with JoJo, and catching up with Liz and Ibrahim, my Zune was slowly dying. 

So, instead of disappearing into the world of noise canceling head phones, I started to think about my commute. 

I feel that "The Commute" is such an integral part of my life when I'm in New York and rarely do I stop and think about it. By far, New York City has one of the best transportation systems, and I only learned to appreciate this after I left for school, and when I visited California. 

On $4 dollars, I have gotten from Staten Island, to Midtown Manhattan, to Manhattan Beach Brooklyn. I feel that that is a definite accomplishment.

Sure, it takes time, but The Commute does take time. Today it took me 1 1/2 hours to get into Park Slope, but it didn't feel long. In fact, I was so pleased with how fast I got to Brooklyn, I did not even stop to think that it took 3 whole hours out of my day. But that's the just part of life to me, it's part of The Commute. Time seems to meld into a perception. 

So, sitting on my train today, sans Zune, I couldn't help but think about the two most permant memories I have about the train. 

This one time, I was on my way somewhere, probably taking the 1 or the R W trains. The train was half empty, kind of quiet. I noticed one man, furiously sketching. Then after a little while, he gets up and starts putting pieces of paper by some of the passengers in the car. 

He had drawn portraits of some of the people he saw around him. I feel that that was the first time I ever saw real art. Not some stagnant still life hanging at the Met, or a blotch of Black chilling at MoMA. To this day, I wish I caught his eye and had a random stranger draw a portrait of me. 

The second, was one late night coming home on the RW. From my old house the quickest way to get to Park Slope was to go to Manhattan and then take the RW down . The South Ferry Station is the last stop before you go to Brooklyn. And Brooklyn would usually mean, Park Slope and seeing Joey. One night, coming home I just had the saddest, most intense urge just to stay on that train, forget all of my responsibilities, forget that my parents would kill me, and just go. I guess my Id was winning the fight against my Superego that night. 

And the thing is, there is nothing special about the South Ferry stop, even though it is the last one in Manhattan, because for me it is special, but not for everyone riding the train. I think that's also beautiful about The Commute. Everyone is on their way somewhere and everyone has a story to tell. 

I'm interested in ways that people are connected to one another. I'm interested in how they relate and interact. Only today, I concsiously realized that The Commute is really one of the best examples of people connecting. 

So, I truly believe that The Commute is ordinarily extraordinary. 

(And as a side note, in reality Staten Island is bigger than Manhattan. The maps just squish it tiny small because we only have one train, one one side of the island)

A blog.

I hope this is the start of something great. Don't you?