Lessons From NYC - Brooklyn Bridge Is Busy

Looking Up To Avoid Getting Tourists In The Brooklyn Bridge Photo

Photo by me with my cell phone

Teri and I walked across from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the Manhattan Bridge and then returned by walking across the Brooklyn bridge. While the later is much more iconic, it was very very busy - packed with tourists. The walk towards the island has a nicer view, but it would be enjoyed more in the peace and quiet of the Manhattan Bridge.

Cat Yoga

Amusing and cute! (Also, features 2D-Kitten, which Two used to do all the time but I haven't really seen in a while. The movie calls it 'Warrior I' and the cat also does it in front of the mirror.)

2D-Kitten: when a cat arches into a Halloween version of itself, with a puffy tail and hops backwards: the cat appears to flatten, all four legs and paws seem to lie on the same plane aka. the cat is two-dimensional

No Night Bus

I stare at the computer screen. Sober. With the knowledge that for the last 4 years writing has only come after drinking. But I want to tell the story of The Night Bus.

Or should I say - The No Night Bus

----

1:25am and the streetcar arrives as I check my phone for its schedule

A paper sign on a station pole details the final route before the switch to night blue. Municipal taxes for computer paper and a depressing 1:34am when my cell reads 1:39

I say that there is a 24 hour night bus and the others say that it picks up on the street a couple of blocks away so I walk towards home enjoying the cool night air and soon find the strip of metal with 24hr on top and a strip of blue on the bottom

Pull down the sleeves of my thin shirt

Look for a ledge to lean but find a wall

Sharp pains in my stomach that I can't figure out

Stand while moving digital images with my fingers to make other digital images in the hopes of getting another digital image. (I play a game on my cell.)

Watch cars and lights and cabs

Listen to conversations from open windows

Walk to the edge to look into the distance

An exit from the cell phone game shows 2:09am and that the battery is dying.

It has become a case of wills. Too much time. Pride and the need to triumph. Watching others give in to taxis or turn swiftly and start walking away - fun to see at first but now upsets me - I will not give up. There is no snow. The weather is perfect for waiting. (I try to pull my sleeves down further and stuff my hands into my pockets. Goosebumps formed ages ago.) This is a city of transit and I grew up in a town with none.

-Slowly lower body down the wall
-Sit in a clear patch of concrete
-Bend legs in front

Find my book in my purse and read.
Time stops for a while.

When the 312 pulls up it is full. The door is not opening, though there is movement inside leading to the hope of space. The number of people gathered at my corner has grown considerably and even if the doors open I am now standing behind them all.

Two more turn on their heel and walk away.

I watch the bus leave and wait to cross the street
The walk is nicer then the waiting.
Clothes on mannequins. Chairs on top of tables.

For a brief moment as I pass, I see a man lean over to peer into a mirror inside a darkened barber shop.
-- I move to the curb
-- Raise my hand
-- And hail a cab

Spending my last $10 at 2:59am

Do I O U 2?

I really really need a laptop. My parent's want their netbook back, and I find it challenging to use. I got it in my head that I would buy a very cheap laptop - for $200. I scrounged together $200 and started looking; well, it turns out that laptops are sightly more than that. So instead I am going to start paying back the people I owe money too, which includes, but I don't think is limited to:
- Teri (for hotels/hostels during our trip)
- Steph (for a train ticket to her wedding)
- Dad (for the bridesmaids' dresses he put on his Sears card)
Let's just not talk about the credit cards...

Two Cute

Two In The Window Of The WOTS Office

By Cailin C.

Burnt Belly

Last week I read at my doctor's office that skin cancer is the both the most prevalent and most preventable cancer. (I would argue that the cancers related to smoking are more preventable though.) Anyway, only a few days after that I get my first sun burn IN YEARS! It is pretty mild, just slightly uncomfortable. However, I am such an intense advocate for sunscreen use that I'm very disappointed in myself. At the cottage, I was, of course, wearing sunscreen but I wasn't diligent enough with reapplying after swimming. Also, I am now using this sport-spray kind that I feel needs more applications than the normal cream stuff. Well, now I know - learnt the hard way.

Healing Is Hot

I fell yesterday - randomly. I was walking outside, in new shoes that I can't even call heels, and I think my ankle just collapsed. Which isn't really that strange, it was the weak one that I sprained years ago and I affectionately call 'my hoof'. Because I was holding things, I landed on my elbow, forearm, and right knee. It didn't hut and thankfully didn't wreak my jeans. However, when I got home I found out I scrapped it up pretty good and it was bleeding (but it didn't go through my pants so I don't really get how that happens.) Anyway, y knee got a little swollen over night and is sore now when I bend it. Hopefully it will turn into a really impressive bruise! The strangest thing though is that the whole knee area, around the scabby part, is very very warm. I know that is how you tell a injury, but it is really strange to feel the difference in temperature between my two knee caps. I can't remember really experiencing that before.

Instead I Will Sleep

I am/was running out of my various pills - I am between doctors at the moment and while I do have a new one set up we have yet to really meet and timing is off in terms of prescriptions. I have been 'rationing' my main anti-depressants for the last few days. Normally I would take 3 or 4 a night, but to make them last I was picking some nights to have only 2 (including last night when I finished the last 2 I had.) Luckily, I got a small prescription done and will be seeing at least a nurse practitioner, who can prescribe medicine, this week.

Anyway, I wonder if I it is lowering of my meds or a combination of other things but today has been a strange day. It has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, nothing too extreme - I am not bi-polar despite a terrifying comment made by a doctor last year. Today wasn't really a bad day and there were lots of nice things and good emotions too. But I really feel like ranting and pushing out all of the negativity! I am not going to though, I think it makes more sense at the moment to just sleep.