Monday, August 28, 2006

A little sunshine on Saturday

I traveled to Brooklyn on Saturday (and those of you in NYC know that the weekend subway schedule is always an adventure especially from the Upper East Side to Park Slope) to visit a friend who is feeling a little down.

As I left my apartment I decided to pick up some flowers - I chose sunflowers because they are her favorite. The clerk wrapped the stems and I was off. As I walked down the street to the station people looked and smiled as I passed them.

In the station a man was playing an accordian and it was kid central on the platform so he as playing children's toons. The children were dancing and having fun - one little girl walked up to me and said, "Pretty flowers, they make me smile."

The 6 train was crowded but everyone around me kept looking at the sunflowers and smiling. It was as if the flowers were a little ray of sunshine. I transferred to the R train and happily it was pretty empty. I took a seat in an empty part of the train. An elderly gentleman with a suitcase moved to sit near me. He kept looking at the flowers and final engaged me in conversation. He complimented me on the flowers said they were beautiful and then he thanked me. I told him that he was welcome but I wasn't sure for what. He chuckled and explained that he had a terrible morning. The flowers not only made him smile but they also brightened his day and inspired him - once he got home he was going go back out and buy some flowers for himself.

It reminded me that happiness can be found in the simplest things.

After the gentleman left a woman sat across from me - hipster - funky red and blonde hair eclectically dressed - she had a sketch pad and as we rode in silence I noticed that she sketched the flowers. At this point the R train got more and more crowded and I started to watch people. Everyone who noticed the flowers smiled.

In this busy busy city and how annoying the subway can be at times - hot, crowded, smelly - I enjoyed my ride to Brooklyn Saturday morning. The flowers brightened so many lives. And when I arrived to greet my friend I thought she was going to cry - they are her favorite flowers. It had been a long time since someone had given her sunflowers and even though she had had a terrible week I'm happy to say that they too brightened her day.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

what to do what to do

What do you do when a project at work is totally so overwhelming that it keeps you up at night? My brain isn't turning off enough to allow me to go sleep? Hmmm, this has been my life for the past few weeks now and I have some coping mechanisms that I'd like to share with you:

vodka
good wine
chocolate
sleep (whenever you can get it even you're late for work)
extend the deadline of the project
and more vodka

The most important things to remember are that you can look exhasted (it's NYC most people look tired), you can work tired (just drink coffee), drink to sedate (it's sad but it works) and more vodka or chocolate depending on the time of day is always the best answer.

Ahhhh, stress!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Streaming Music

I love to stream music while at work. My excuse - ipod does not allow me to transfer the music from it. I can only add music to my ipod from a computer not the other way around. So, I can't transfer my favorite music from my home computer to my work computer without burning a cd and bringing it in.

So, I've recently discovered this great site called www.pandora.com. Pandora is site that the Music Genome Project started. I like it because I can create different stations based on my mood. Songs stay in the station by you voting on whether or not you like it. Songs are also suggested by Pandora based on the type of music and other similarities. So, I can have one station with the music my brother would listen to (read previous post - My Recent Music Addiction) and many others based on other preferences.

The other cool thing is that I can go home at the end of the day, go online and pick my station from Pandora to listen to.

Check it out!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Recent Discoveries Living in NYC

During the past few days I've discovered a few things:

I can participate in a focus group, watch a few movie trailers, provide my opinion, spend an hour of my time and get paid $50. Yahoo!

I can go out to eat and the bill will sometimes provide me with the tip calculation; i.e. 18% = $ or 20% = $. I'm not sure how to take this - if I should be offended - if I should be thankful for the assistance. It makes me question if the general public knows how to do math? And, what happened to tipping 15%?

A woman can wear a fanny pack, carry a purse and a larger purse and look absolutely ridiculous. Note to self that no matter how old I get I will never ever participate in this fashion statement.

The icey guy/girl will happily always be located on the corner of 122nd and Adam Clayton Powell in the afternoon if the sun is shining. Yum!

I love NYC.