i <3 bklyn

boy does new york come alive in the summer.

i walked out a few mornings ago and noticed some porta-potties sitting on the other side of eastern parkway. confused, i turned around and noticed signs along the block saying eastern parkway would be closed on monday.

hooray, an event!!!

i quickly ran inside and googled that sh!t. according to the west indian-american day carnival association, there is a huge labor day parade that goes right along my street. and i mean huge. after reading the website, it says about 4 million people participated in the parade in 2001. that's a lot of people.

too bad i'm the only person in the u s of a that has to work on labor day. what's with that?

as of today, the barricades are up along the sidewalks. the nypd is at the franklin avenue stop right now, setting up a barricaded path outside of the exit to ease congestion in that area. i imagine leaving for work at 9 am won't be too big of an issue seeing how the parade starts at 11, but i'm starting to worry that that 30 foot walk to the station is going to be a battle.

but that's not all the wonderful world of new york has in store!

i got a bike this weekend! now i can travel around brooklyn with ease, no longer having to do such silly things as ride all the way to union square to connect to the l if i want to go to williamsburg!

i've already put it to good use. after picking it up in long island, i caught the lirr back to nostrand ave. a word of caution: if you are planning on taking your bike on the lirr, you need a permit. it's $5 and you can get it here. i wasn't aware of the permit, so when the conductor asked for it, i said "what?" apparently arthur knew what he was talking about, though, and said we literally just bought the bike. crisis averted.

after that, we headed to clinton hill to pick up arthur's bike and rode to bed-stuy to check out an apartment. after waiting for a half hour for the broker (who said he was on his way when we got there) and watching neighborhood kids take down tree limbs with a pocketknife and throw things at their neighbor's windows, we decided we'd had it and didn't want to live there.

later on, we rode to park slope, grabbed some food at union hall, then saw pineapple express. pineapple express was good for the most part, but i wasn't digging the spy/action parts, especially towards the end.

and finally, today i went to brighton beach. only after saying i would all summer...

it was amazing. it's really sad that that was my only beach time, but well worth it. and it's that much more satisfying after riding there on your bike!

this is an awesome reference for people who like to bike around brooklyn. (listen to me trying to come off as a biker now).

but what we did was cut through the park, and took the bike path on ocean parkway all the way down to the beach. we laid in the sun for a few hours, then got some food at tatiana's. it was ok food, but the scenery more than makes up for it.

oh, and i sustained my first injury! after heading back, and riding through prospect park (making a detour for the wiadca drumming group), i stupidly wanted to turn, and arthur stopped, and i didn't stop in time, and fell over onto my knee.

only scratched it a bit, but it makes me feel tuff.

can't. sleep.

4 am on a monday morning. i woke up at 2 and haven't been able to fall back asleep.

accompanied by a glass of vino, i'm hoping writing this will tire me out.

on the update front, kimchi is doing very well. i picked him up the monday following the operation. he was back to normal in no time, trying to swallow inedible objects.

i got a hold of his x-ray, so you no longer have to look at my ghetto photoshop version:



as i so accurately depicted earlier, the needle is at the front of the stomach, straight up and down. on the bright side, the surgery wasn't nearly as expensive as first estimated. a mere $2500. it is sad that compared to the inital $4500, $2500 seems cheap.

life in brooklyn is good. i'm enjoying the neighborhood more and more. every time i take a walk around i notice something new - cafes, churches, little shops. prospect park is great for day trips and runs. today was spent lazing around (ha! use of scrabble word!), eating breakfast at bristen's with deb, phil, and arthur, and then playing scrabble and scattergories in the park.

the roommates and i caught a late viewing of vicky cristina barcelona on friday night. it was good. in fact, very good. as a result i was left wishing i could spend a month in barcelona, drinking wine and painting with crazed fervor. but again, i am quite content with nyc.

and let's not forget my oh-so-productive saturday consisting of sucking up all of the dead cockroaches from our cupboards with melissa. at least the nyc cockroaches aren't as large as the media depicts.

and so, i am beginning to wind down... in enough time to wake up in a few hours. i've got a lot of planning on my plate for tomorrow and tuesday. my grandfather's service will be on wednesday, and celeste's shower is on saturday. in order to avoid two trips, i am going to work from home on thursday and friday.

- and end late-night update -

r.i.p.

r.i.p. grandpa - you will be missed.

i don't mean for the second picture (or this blog) to be depressing - these pictures were only taken back in may, the second one being in front of his grandfather's grave. i've always found my grandfather and his family history to be very fascinating - he was in WWII and went to Normandy. my great-great grandpa oscar was a civil war vet who, at the age of 15, had to lie about his age to join the army.

while he only passed yesterday, and it was a shock to say the least, i figure this is the least i can do to pay tribute to a great man.