Apartment Canyons and Chore Avoidence

Lately (well, always) I have lots of things going through my brain and I usually don't focus on them for more than a few minutes each. But today I was inspired by looking at the same thing for a while and comparing it to something else. I was sitting at the desk and a pigeon landed on the windowsill. It was a really scraggly pigeon, and I thought he was kind of cute. He just kept looking in the window like he wanted to come in and have some coffee and probably some crumbs and maybe wash that oil slick off his feathers. I named him McMoop. I thought about how much people hate pigeons and how I really don't understand it. People go out of their way to attract "prettier" birds to their windowsills, but take great measures to keep pigeons away.

Then as I was watching McMoop I noticed the buildings behind him. I can see between 2 buildings to another building, all separated by that weird area that's always gated and closed off so no one can walk there. It's probably because people would dump all their trash or do drugs down there or something, but I started thinking about canyons. The buildings kind of make a canyon, and I thought about how if I could walk through these I might end up in some beautiful land, or maybe the building canyon is a beautiful land where pigeons feel like eagles and the canyon walls are full of homes where people feel safe from murderous tribes (gangs). Kind of like this one:

<- Apartment Canyon

I know if I walked between the buildings I would just end up out on the street pretty quickly, but I've kept my mind from actually picturing it. For now I'm just letting my imagination run with it so I have something nice to think about while I'm sitting at the computer. Also, there's this thing coming off my fire escape that I'm guessing was used to hoist things up here years ago. Or maybe it's to save adventurers from being swept away by flash floods. McMoop might know.

Another thing that I've been thinking a lot about is my mystery plant. I brought it home from the park when it was just a little green point sticking out of a seed and a root dangling from the bottom. Now he has one leaf and another one on the way. I've been researching it and trying to figure out what my mystery plant is going to be. I'm hoping for something pretty, but who knows. The closest I could find was a plant called the "Hog Peanut".

So all of this is really just my brain trying to distract itself from something I've been avoiding for a few weeks...

Oh I forgot to tell you about my other plants. I started growing some basil and thyme from seed and they came up a few days ago. Here they are. I'll probably have to move them to larger pots soon. For now they live in ceramic Santa boots.

So the thing I have been avoiding is unpacking all the stuff I have in the guest room. It's mostly stuff I don't really need but can't get rid of, or Mikes stuff which I'm not allowed to get rid of, and lots of clothes I used to wear to work but aren't any good for anything else since they have ink all over them. But I have to start today because we're actually going to get the bed for that room this weekend so my pal Robyn will have a place to sleep while shes visiting. I don't think this will be fun but here goes. Maybe I'll eat something first. And check the mail.

The Bronx and The C

I've been putting off writing anything since we moved in hope of coming up with something worth writing about, but alas, I lost enthusiasm for a while. But now there is a reason. I'm putting off doing laundry. So here is whats new. We moved on March 1st which was not as bad as I thought but a little more expensive since apparently we had more boxes than we thought and we forgot to consider the stairs up to the front door as a "flight". But everything and everyone got here un-maimed. I did have to take my plants on the train which was kind of weird but there have been weirder things on the New York subway I'm sure.

Our new place is much bigger, cleaner, and quieter than the last one. I unpacked almost everything in one day but left the rest in the guest room. Next week I have to get all that stuff put away because my best friend is coming to visit and we're getting our 2nd bed next weekend. And a couch, finally!

Writing about moving is boring so I'll change the subject. Lately I am once again obsessed with metal-detecting and relic hunting. I have off and on been obsessed with this and unfortunately should have made more of an effort to get into it when I lived in AZ. There is not much in the way of open land and ghost towns out here in which to easily find things and I kept putting off getting a metal detector. Now I really want to start doing this but I don't know where I would do it other than Van Cortlandt park, and you need a permit to hunt there. It's free, but there are lots of rules. I just want to go out and find crap! Check out this website that I've been reading for a while and maybe you'll see why I am interested in these things. Or not. I'm a history nerd you see. And I think maybe I'll spend part of my tax return on a cheap metal detector. Here is something I found without the help of modern technology. Its a "C".




Who knows what its from or how old it is, but it is old and it is a C. And that's good enough for me.

A semi-brief overview of the last year

So here I am again, this time hopefully not getting rid of everything I write because I end up thinking it's stupid. Maybe my good friend Robyn can encourage me since she's a master blogger. I figure I have some reasonably interesting things to write about since Mike and I are moving again. We moved to Brooklyn from Tucson, AZ about a year ago. Mike is from New York and I'm from Los Angeles and we both wound up in Tucson. We met in our shared backyard. I was literally the girl nextdoor. We had known eachother for about 2 months when the company he was working for closed its Tucson office. He wanted to move back to NY, so I came with him. We left Tucson in April of '09 and I drove a moving truck with a car pulled behind it for 2500 miles. With 4 cats and 2 ferrets. I did it to be with a great man. I'm glad I did.

We moved to Brooklyn in a lovely area called Crown Heights. (Not so lovely but I love it.) It's a quick walk to the alternate universe called Park Slope. To those not familiar with Park Slope, it is the land of women pushing strollers, women reading Oprah book club books, women spending too much of their money on expensive organic baby stuff, lesbian bars for the women who like women, and men who don't make as much money as their women. We go there for dinner sometimes because Crown Heights is a little short on good food. And it's just a little scary.

In December '09 Mike got a new job at a hospital in the Bronx. It takes him an hour and a half to get to work, and an hour and a half to get home, on top of his long work day. Time to move again.

On March first we will be moving from over-priced hipster filled Brooklyn to the less expensive non-hipster-filled Bronx. I'm really going to miss this place, but I'm sure I'm going to love it up there too. I've already learned my way around the new 'hood with my favorite time wasting activity, google street view.

So thats my semi-brief overview of the last year. I enjoyed Brooklyn. Now I get to enjoy the only boro that has a "the". Much cooler than just plain old Manhattan, Staten Island or Brooklyn. They don't have a "the". Other fun Norwood Bronx facts can be found on my absolute favorite website Forgotten NY. Here is the Norwood link.

And now that I've got all that crap out of the way, I can begin...

A Bronx Blog.