I feel at home in New York...and sometimes I wonder why.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to flee a big snowstorm in Boston, and go spend some time in NYC.

When I was there I stayed with my cousin, her baby Hudson, and my Aunt Diane, whose flight had been delayed for a couple of days by the snowstorm.

Since the last time I visited, my cousin has moved to Brooklyn, a borough where I've never spent much time. Yet, it feels very much like home, as does the rest of NYC.


In a lot of ways, this makes little to no sense. After all, I only lived in NYC long enough to get mail there while I was doing a brief program at NYC in the early 90's. For years afterward, I was lucky enough to visit my former roommate Cora, and get to briefly drop into her NYC life. Hanging out with Cora and her modern dancer/Martha Graham School of Dance friends, I got a window into the city that I would have never gotten as a plain ole tourist.

But as for part where NYC feels like home, I can't really explain it, expect to wonder if maybe it has something to do with television and movies.


While I was in the city in early February, I stumbled across the filming of a remake of the 80's movie Arthur, starring Russel Brand. The filming had closed down the front entrance of the Strand book store, (close to Union Square.)

I couldn't help but wonder if all of the location filming that's been done in NYC has sunk into my brain, making me feel at home just because of all the images that I've absorbed from the screen over the years.

I spent some time contemplating this, until I came home to Austin. While sitting on the floor feeding my dog, I looked up at a favorite childhood toy that I had recently rescued from my mother's garage. It was a plastic copy of a toy brownstone, made as a Sesame Street tie-in during the 70's. It's kind of eerie how much the plastic toy looks like a real brownstone!

 

So does my strange at-homeness in NYC have something to do with mass media? Maybe.

Someone used one of my pictures! Again!

Oh look, someone used one of my pictures in a blog post. It's the little things that matter.
But, let's be honest. Not many people other than me would be taking pictures of a 7-11 in Japan, then putting them on flickr.

My close encounter with winter:

It’s snowing again in Boston. Again.

I know, I know. It’s kind of what’s expected right now, what with it being the darkest part of the year.

“January in the Northeast…would you expect anything less,” my friend Tracy quipped on Facebook, when I was complaining about how cold it's been.

Yet knowing something logically and processing it conceptually are two different things. This much snow and coldness has been hard for my brain, because it just runs counter to my entire view of the world.

For example, this past weekend I saw people out ice fishing…and my sister-in-law offered to take me walking across a frozen pond, just for the novelty of the experience.  Um, I know ice fishing exists, but my brain is convinced that ponds are for swimming in, not for walking across. I am not Jesus.

Back when I was in graduate school, I remember having my thesis reader, Dr. Bob Jensen talking about how much he missed shoveling show. This past week, I shoveled snow for the very first time in my life.  I’m beginning to think that Bob has some strange ideas.

On Saturday morning, I saw my brother-in-law Andrew chipping away at the giant ice dams on his roof, and cleaning some of the two foot of snow off of their roof. I had heard a rumor that icicles could actually get big enough that they’d really do some damage if they fell on you, but I’d certainly never seen such a thing!

In the last few days, I’ve also learned about something called a “snow farm.” Misleadingly, this isn’t where they grow snow. Rather it’s the place where old, sad unwanted snow is taken to die after it is scraped off the highways. I don’t know why they don’t call it a “snow morgue.” 

Snowpocalypse '11

I've been lucky enough to be on the East Coast this past week for a close encounter with some VERY Winter weather.

I know I'm from Texas, but I assure you that things have been bad, even for people who are used to winter! My friend Chris even claims that last week was even the coldest it's been in Boston for the last 10 years.

How cold has it been? The front page of the Boston Globe from this past Monday should give you a clue.

•  My friends who were visiting Boston from ESTONIA were complaining about how cold it was this past Monday, when the high temp, was around 10 degrees Fahrenheit! Estonia is sort of between Russia and Finland, and it isn't exactly known for its warm, sunny climate.
• This past Monday, the locals were complaing about the bitterly cold temps. The best line was from a conversation that I overheard on the "T" while crossing the Charles River: "It's like the arctic. There are ice floes out there."
• There were plenty of Boston locals who could be spotted around town while wearing those crazy lumberjack hats (You know, the ones with the earflaps and the fur around the brim!)
• On Monday, I bundled up in so many layers that when I left my friend Chris' place, I could barely move my arms. He didn't want to say that I looked like the "Michelin Lady" But I did! 
• It was so cold that even with my glove-inside-a-glove strategy, walking around Boston this past Monday, my fingers were still cold.
• The UGG motorcycle boots that have been way too warm to wear in Austin have been just fine here. Especially with a pair of wool socks!
• I saw a woman in Malden using a PICKAXE to break up a good-sized chunk of snow and ice on her front walk.
• On Thursday, which was a "snow day" for many of the schools in Greater Boston, I saw kids using all sorts of homemade sleds, and improvising areas to slide on. My favorite was the kids who were using some sort of tray to slide down their snowy back steps. 

Still not convinced?

It's Cold in Boston.

Originally uploaded by annainaustin

Just wanted to share this picture of snowy Boston with you. There's more to come on my close encounter with Snowpocalypse '11!