The Cat, He Needs Sustenance

O'Malley the Alley Cat showed a bizarre fondness today for tortilla chips (although he seems to hate salsa). I can't figure out why a cat would like these chips which are made from stone ground corn, water, corn oil, and salt, but he seems unconcerned with my speculations.  Instead he is happy to leap up on my coffee table and steal a random chip, running off with his tail wagging furiously.  A new prey proudly bested.

Listing Towards New Year

Having trouble sleeping leads to a strange life.  Last night I went to bed at 6 pm and find myself awake at midnight,  In a morning person’s world it is always a bit disconcerting to start your day at midnight. 

In days of old I would be plotting out my New Year’s Eve strategy, lining up the best parties.  In the new more sedate administration I intend to make cheese fondue at home and rent some movies, a very 70s celebration. If only Farrah Fawcett would stop by!

If you want to watch the celebration in Times Square from afar you can check out this website which features streaming webcam footage throughout the day and lots of information about Times Square in New York City.

Today’s obscure word:

gambrinous - being full of beer

The Final Frontier

As I was slaving away on the Elliptical machine tonight after weight lifting, I noticed that they were having a class in the next room at my gym.  Just the name brings terror to your average red blooded make: yoga!  Ten woman of various ages and shapes were contorting and groaning their way through painful looking position after position.

So I pose this question: should I take a yoga class?  As I see it the decision tree variables should look like this:

For

1. Hanging out with limber women.

Against

1. I am the most inflexible person on the planet.
2. Exposure to yoga might change my personality.
3. The Pain.
4. The Pain, oh God, the pain!

So what do you think?

Out And About In Manhattan

I did some interesting things while in New York City, here are some highlights:

• For the first time in 35 years I visited the United Nations building.  What appeared grand to me in 1973 seems old and tired now.  It is an ordeal to get into the building that ultimately leaves you thinking this was not worth going at all.  They do have some interesting things in their bookstore and a pretty nice stamp store, but generally I would not be inclined to return.
• I ate at some good places including:
  Szechuan Gourmet on West 39th street where I had a spicy beef dish while my companions enjoyed eggplant and peppery chicken dishes.  All in all my food was good but not necessarily better than I could get in Chicago’s Chinatown.
  
  
  Soba Nippon on West 52nd Street featured hand made buckwheat Soba noodles which were delicate and quite good.  A worthwhile spot if you should find yourself in that area.
  
  
  
  I also want to mention my morning Tea place, Tafuny, on Lexington and 51st street, which served high grade and delicate teas that fortified me and helped me face the horrid coming of the light.
• I went to most of the major department stores including Bloomingdales, Sax Fifth Avenue, and Macy’s on 34th Street.  They were all pretty crowded (although less so than last year) but there did not seem to be much buying.  I somehow came home with more junk than I started with so at least I did my share to prop up the Depression economy.
• I saw a good but very depressing film, The Reader, about the relationship between a former now middle aged female concentration camp guard and a 15 year old male high school student and its inevitable descent into tragedy.  Grim but very good, worth seeing if you need a I must kill myself after experience.  I saw the film at a 60 year old theater on 58th street, The Paris theater, which was nice and nostalgic.  You can read about this theater here.
• I also visited the Asia Society and Museum at Park Avenue and 70th Street.  Near Hunter College and some other cultural centers it had a good Calligraphy exhibit and a disappointing Communist Chinese Propaganda exhibit.  Also noteworthy for a very good bookstore.  A nice area to walk around I recommend it in nice weather.

Staying At The Pod

The Pod Hotel on 51st street (between 2nd and 3rd streets) in Midtown Manhattan was interesting.  As one might guess the rooms were small and the beds rock hard but for such a cheap price they were generally acceptable.  Here are a couple of pictures of the room:


My room came with a bathroom, no legroom, a pretty nice little television and free wireless if you bring a computer.  It really in the end reminded me of the hostels I stayed in Europe when I was in school, functional but bring your backache medicine.  Mostly it seemed to be filled with young European and Japanese tourists.  One positive is that it is surrounded by small eating spots.  You could spend a month just eating in all of the places within a block or so of the hotel.  You are also pretty close to Rockefeller center for important Christmas tree viewing, Bloomingdale’s and Sax Fifth Avenue for conspicuous consumption, The United Nations for diplomacy and foreign women meeting and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral if you want to meet God or Satan.  In the summer they have a rooftop bar apparently, which no doubt would be nice on warm evenings.

If you are going to stay here you should be warned however that things start moving early there.  My normal bedtime is about sunrise along with all the other vampires, just the horrific time that the maids start to knock on doors wanting to clean rooms.

Next: Out and About in Manhattan

More NYC Christmas Photos

Montage – Manhattan Christmas 2008

    

Merry Christmas

I stopped into an internet cafe here in the big city to wish all a joyous Christmas!  I return to the smaller city this weekend when this blog will resume its merriment.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful …

It is a bit disconcerting to have your phone ring at 4 in the morning.  Who is calling you ask?  Well Jet Blue of course, cancelling my early flight.  I have been put on a later flight but I am not optimistic.  My porch thermometer says –5.  The wind chill factor seems to be –35!  A blizzard warning creeps closer and closer. Oh well, at least all the omens are good.

Don’t Forget Me

So there I am, packing my bags, pondering the verities of the universe, when I was reminded to bring something with me that is really important:

Random Friday Thoughts

Here in Chicago we were blanketed with snow last night, so I am digging myself out today and pondering the following:

• 
  
  O’Malley the Alley cat has been upset about his lack of exposure on this blog, so here he is sitting in his cat tree with a mechanized dinosaur that he likes to attack.
• I am reading a somewhat dated but fine mystery novel by local Chicago author Sara Paretsky entitled, “Indemnity Only.”  Paretsky is a good author although her later novels are relentlessly grim.
• I am headed to New York City on the 21st for the Christmas holiday to visit my brother and see the sights and visit the place where I mostly grew up.  Because my brother lives in a typical Manhattan apartment (tiny, expensive) I am staying at an interesting hotel: The Pod Hotel in midtown.  You can check it out here.
• I am in the Christmas spirit today and I am listening to the late jazz pianist Oscar Peterson’s Christmas Album.

The Aroma

Last summer I had some trouble with moths eating my wool sweaters so I did as my Grandparents instructed and bought some moth balls.  This seemed to work well and my sweaters are admirably free of holes this year, but sadly this has led to another problem.  All of my sweaters now have “old lady” smell.

Now this would not be a problem if I was in fact an old lady but it really does not comport with my man about town lifestyle.  So the important query is: is there any way to combat the evil camphor smell or will I be doomed to only be able to hang out at mixers at the assisted living facilities?

The Best Present That I Ever Received

Vern, a pal, once posed a question on his blog which I thought poignant: what is the best Christmas present you ever received?  In thinking about my answer, it reminded me of my father, who though long gone, still has a big influence over me.

In 1972, I was eight years old and very acquisitive.  My father was rapidly becoming affluent and presents which had been unthinkable and out of reach, were now possible.  There were many toys that I wanted and I apparently composed endless lists and obsessed about what I might be getting during that Christmas season.  On Christmas Eve my father took me with him on a last minute shopping expedition.  I was excited.  Might we be getting me some good toys?

Instead he took me into New York City to a homeless shelter in the neighborhood where he grew up.  He had apparently been going there every year bringing food and helping to serve dinner on Christmas Eve.  Everyone knew him there.  He had gifts for the staff and food and money for the people in the shelter.  I had no idea what was going on, but I knew that this was not what I had in mind.

I was assigned to help wash dishes.  We stayed for a few hours but those hours have stayed with me simmering in my subconscious.  I was shocked to see children my age who had nothing, most of them not even functioning parents.  Many of the people there were mentally ill and made no sense to me.  I remember wanting desperately to leave.  Each time I went to complain to my father he would say,

"You are right, it is awful here.  That's why they need your help."

I have no idea what toys I received for Christmas that year, but I do know that I received a great gift.  I have not always honored this gift as well as I might, but I would like to say, more than thirty years late, thanks Dad.

Mulled Wine Recipe

Alpana Singh, a local sommelier and host of the Public Television Restaurant review show “Check Please,” has posted a good recipe for mulled wine on her interesting blog.  You can check it out here.

The Things We Do For Cats

Each morning when I wake up I dutifully prepare my various medicines and then do the same for camera shy Julian the Cat.

 

Strangely we both take blood pressure and stomach acid reflux medicines.  Unfortunately yesterday morning I found I somehow had lost her liquid stomach medication.  How could I lose this you ask?  I am not sure.  Perhaps she hid it.  Am I a moron?  Well, yes, of course I am!

Sadly this meant a trip to a far corner of the city during a blizzard to get her more of her surreally expensive liquid suspension formula.  Unfortunately this drug store is not located near a subway stop.  Also sadly Mayor Daley has announced that we can no longer afford to plow the streets, so I took the subway to a spot about two miles from the store and hopelessly waited in the wind and snow for about a half and hour for a bus, and then resignedly, began to trudge through the drifting snow piles.  This is a nice part of the city near a huge park and normally I would have enjoyed walking through the park but it had been snowing all day and it was about 15 degrees outside.

After about an hour I finally made it to the store.  Only to notice the bus finally pulling up behind me.  The clerk noted that I looked like a snow man as I paid for Julian’s medicine.  I shrugged and made my way back to the subway, slipping and sliding and thanking God for global warming.

When I finally got home hours later I greeted the cats and went to give Julian her medicine.  How did she thank me.  By jumping off the couch and running and hiding under the bed!

Tomorrow promises an ice storm so I will have to put her medicines under lock and key tonight to prevent more cat mischief!

Something to Say

Recently I was at the market buying some healthy fruit and vegetables for my lunch.  I was moving slowly that day and it seemed like it took forever to navigate the narrow rows of the small market that I normally shop in.

Eventually I found my way to the check out line and found myself behind a middle aged man and his son. One of the items the man was buying was a Birthday cake for the boy.  When it came time to pay he tried to use his food stamp card.  The cashier tells him that he can’t use his card to pay for the cake.  She then gets on the loud speaker and calls her manager to the front.  The manager arrives and tries to explain to the man why he can’t use the card to pay for the cake. 

At this point I ask the manager how much the cake costs.  He looks at me and says, “Sir, this is not your affair.  We will be with you in a moment.” 

In my pre stroke days I tended to be vicious in a verbal way when this kind of thing happened, but I took a deep breath and asked them to put the cake on my bill.  He started to argue with me as to why he could not do this.  Meanwhile the man is mortified and saying it is ok that they don’t need the cake.  By now I was becoming enraged but rather than yelling at the guy I simply took the cake and my other items, handed them to the check out girl, handed her a pile of money, and said to the manager something I remember hearing my father say thirty years ago, “I am sorry I can not talk to the likes of you.  Take a good look at my face because you won’t be seeing the front of it again.”

Introspection

After facing some major health challenges I know what it is like to worry when you have a new or unexplained pain.  My attempts to make myself healthier have included rigorous changes in my fitness regimen and eating scheme.  That being said I pale in comparison to Alexandra Carmichael who details her incredibly intensive monitoring of her self including recording 40 separate things about herself each day that she then interprets later trying to get insight into how she works and how she might improve herself.  Interesting to read, you can check out her post here.

I guess with technology this kind of thing will become easier in the future.  Perhaps we will be able to record everything about us through a brain implant or biologically active computer that is a part of our body someday.  I guess it will be hard to lie to ourselves about that cheeseburger we ate in the future.

Amusing Website

Sugar Daddies, where "the classy, attractive and affluent meet."  You just can not make these things up.

Thought For The Day

“Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”

Unknown

Due to trolling on my other blog I am going to start posting here for a while.  Hopefully it will be a good place.