Sunday, July 22, 2007

Cross country road trip


Roadtrip 1: JFK
Originally uploaded by Mirka23
I'm on a cross country road trip with my sister, Carla, who's moving to California. We're about half way there, maybe a little more. I've been taking pictures here and there, though we don't really get out of the car all that much so a lot of the photos are blurry pictures of highway signs. Until I get home and can get them off my camera, I've been sending a few shots every day from my Treo. You can see them all on my flicker account, and follow allong with our travels!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

An epic day

What a strange day. It was bound to be a little unusual, if only because I am heading off on vacation tomorrow, and that always means there's a lot to do to get ready.

But this morning started out extra weird when I was woken up by incredibly loud thunder, really close to the apartment. It was one of those feelings where you wake up and you don't really know what just happened. Was it a dream? Did something explode? Oh, there's a rain storm. It was so dramatic that when I left for work, other people from the building were spontaneously talking to each other about it.

The rest of the day went pretty much as expected. I wrapped things up at work, and then met up with my mom who happened to be just finishing up work herself. We wandered around a little and then headed towards Bryant Park. We soon noticed that there was a suspiciously large number of people just kind of hanging around the park, and many of them were on their phones. Clearly we had wandered into something, but I couldn't tell what.

Turned out something had exploded, which immediately put me in mind of the storm this morning. But it was actually caused by an electrical problem under a building at 41st and Lex. Very weird.

So, my mom and I headed downtown, away from the madness. We kept our eye on the news and checked online, and even though every report said "explosion near Grand Central," no one was saying anything about whether or not trains were running. Finally I called 311 and the guy read me the same press release I had been hearing on the news and reading on the web. But then he connected me to Metro North, where a message informed me that trains were running on schedule, but people could only enter on the Northwest side of the terminal.

I walked my mom to the subway so she could go catch a train home, and then stopped at Whole Foods. On my way home, a guy at the corner of the Anthology Film Archives told me that they were showing a free preview screening of Charlie Bartlett. Totally random! I knew I shouldn't go because I still hadn't packed for my trip. But I had been wanting to see it, and it was free, so I went!

It was strange, there were not many people there, and the organizers videotaped us commenting about the movie as we left. I thought it was a pretty decent film, though it seemed to be trying a little too hard at times. I was already thinking that it was definitely going for a sort of Harold & Maude vibe (without the May-December romance) and then they started singing "If you want to sing out, sing out." I'm choosing to view it as an homage.

Several of the actors from Degrassi: Next Generation were playing minor characters. I thought that was pretty cool.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bzzzzzzz... Stamps

I had to buy some 41 cent stamps today. The coolest looking ones at the USPS truck near my office where these stamps called "Pollination." But I asked the guy for "the stamps with the... birds and the bees" and midway through asking for them I decided this was really funny and weird. The guy in the truck didn't seem all that amused. Maybe he had heard that one too many times already.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Kwik-E-Mart in Times Square


Kwik-E-Mart
Originally uploaded by Mirka23

The other night some friends and I went by the 7-Eleven on 42nd Street. It's been converted into a Kwik-E-Mart to promote the upcoming release of The Simpsons movie.

We had Squishees and everything. See some of my other Kwik-E-Mart photos on flickr.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Greatest moment in sports history?

Sportscasters tend to be prone to hyperbole, I guess.

I happened to watch the Hot Dog eating contest today (on TV, not in person), and I have to admit that I was curious to watch the eating contest, what with Joey Chestnut poised to break Takeru Kobayashi's 6 year winning streak, not to mention a few records.

And it did get pretty exciting towards the end, when they both broke the previous records with several minutes to go, and then they were neck and neck to the finish, and then there was that moment when Kobayashi apparently lost it - literally - right at the end there.

But still, I have trouble even calling competitive eating a sport, so I really think the ESPN announcers were kind of over the top in predicting that a win for Chestnut would be "the greatest moment in sports history." I'm curious to see what my dad thinks of this.