I love summer. I love everything about it.
What I don’t love is walking through the streets of NYC…and getting dripped on from above.
I know it’s (hopefully) the condensation from the air conditioning unit that’s in the windows around town but there’s just something so gross about it.
The past few days I was feeling fine except for this pesky cough that had me hocking up a lung. So I went to the nurse’s office (yes, we have one at work) to make sure everything was okay.
She did the requisite temperature check and the tongue depressor check, and then out came the stethoscope. I always think I breathe too fast for this to work, and I have my doubts.
But this time, she asked me to breathe in and out, in and out, in and out. Yes, this actually went on about ten times until she asked me if I was feeling short of breath?
You’re asking me to basically pant like a dog over and over and over. Um…YES! Of course I am short of breath!
Staying on the subject of senses…I find it funny that the word ‘noise’ is perceived negatively and the word ‘sound’ is not.
I’m on a roll with posts that are list happy.
Bad noise:
1. Any kind of scraping of your teeth at the dentist
2. Fingernails on a blackboard
3. A busy signal on a phone – rare these days, but still
4. Screaming
5. Hocking – yes, the phlegm filled kind
6. Obnoxious people on cell phones
7. Incessant barking
8. Early morning construction
9. People who blast music as they drive their cars on quiet streets
10. Car alarms that won’t stop
Alternatively, these are some of the sounds I love:
1. Good, hearty laughing
2. Music – played at a normal decibel!
3. Popping packing bubbles
4. Snap crackle pop (sorry, I had to)
5. Cruise horns, I hear them from my apartment balcony regularly
6. Waves lapping onto the beach
7. Acoustic guitar playing
8. I would imagine that the first time you hear your baby cry after delivery is a good one
9. Food sizzling or bubbling as it cooks on the stove
10. “Flight attendants, please prepare the cabin for landing.”
Tell me, what noises make you nuts and what sounds make you happy?
I recently read an article touting that there are a significant number of people who would rather lose their sense of smell than give up social networks.
Geez! There are a lot of bad smells, but what about the good ones?
Smells I love:
1. Fresh cut grass
2. Paint
3. Salt water; the smell of the beach at the end of the day
4. Almond milk hand soap that my grandma always has in her bathroom
5. Bliss lemon and sage lotion
6. Bacon
7. Freshly baked bread, including Auntie Anne’s pretzels (I don’t need to eat them, just taking a big whiff is good enough)
8. Wine
9. Anything on the grill — burgers, hot dogs, corn
10. The smell in the air after a summer rainy day
11. When you peel an orange or a grapefruit
12. Most cheeses – like 99.99% of them
13. Gasoline
14. Flowers in bloom
15. Pledge
16. Suntan lotion, and aloe for that matter
17. Fresh popped movie popcorn
18. Lavender
19. Wood burning fireplace
20. Leather
21. Cookies baking in the oven
22. Sauce cooking on a stove
23. Good smelling shampoo and conditioner
24. Fresh mint
25. Freshly washed sheets
What are smells you love?
Ah…earlier this week, I started off my day with a leaky Greek yogurt all over my desk and dress. A perfect start to any day.
Even after going overboard with cleaning up, the smell of sour milk – a smell I simply loathe – permeated the air for the better part of the day. So, I decided to compile a list of smells I cannot stand:
1. Sour milk
2. Urine
3. Poop
4. Body odor
5. Cigarette smoke
6. Steamed asparagus (at least the way my mom makes it – sorry mom)
7. Rotten eggs
8. Cat litter
9. Bleach
10. Anything vanilla scented (thanks to my sister loving it as a teenager and permeating everything in and around her bedroom, the smell is so gross to me now)
11. Any subway station in the summertime
12. The smell of bottled air when you first get on a plane
13. Stale beer, especially when you are hung over
14. Burnt popcorn
15. Sulfur
16. Burnt rubber
17. Exhaust from a car or bus
18. Bad fish
19. Sewers and the stale liquid surrounding them
20. Vomit
What are smells you loathe?
We had a tornado warning in NYC last night. The sky looked like a gorgeous shade of a pink and purple mix.
Um. I live on the top floor of an apartment building. How does one in the NYC area batten down the hatches?
You don’t want to go crazy because this is not tornado alley…but after seeing what happened recently in Missouri and Alabama, you don’t want to mess around.
But…this is not like the Wizard of Oz. We don’t have basements and tornado shelters much less tornado drills. All I’ve got is a bathroom with no windows and a bottle of wine.
Ultimately, the preparation I did was to flatten our foldable chairs and foldable table on the balcony. I brought in the smallest of the flower planters. And the grill is always tied to the balcony (the cover has already flown away once).
We can only hope for the best even though the sky looks crazy.
First, Dominique Strauss-Kahn from France, then, Egypt’s Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar. These aren’t men, they are monsters.
These two sexual attacks top global headlines. My local news has had more violent assaults to cover this week than any week in recent history. It seems like there’s no shortage of assholes.
These monsters decide they must have someone, and she’s there for the taking? Why do they think that they are above the law? Who the hell do these jackasses think they are? What makes them think they are entitled to a woman, any woman they want, whenever they want? If they are so needy for sex, find someone you can pay for it. Why do they feel the need to assault someone to get it? These animals decided to use their body as a weapon and because of that, I believe they should be castrated.
I apologize. I digress.
For the cases where there is a named attacker, why there is even a question of bail or jail absolutely amazes me.
It makes me ill that the judge is letting Strauss-Kahn wait out his trial in a multi-million dollar mansion. S-K made his bed, and instead he gets to lie on one in a $14 million USD mansion instead of in jail, like his fellow criminals.
The judge presiding over S-K’s case had a chance to make an example that would echo around the city, and possibly the world, yet failed miserably.
I’ve heard from reputable sources in law enforcement that there is a food chain in jail and those who are sent in on a charge of sexual assault, are at the bottom, just above child molesters. Had S-K spent significant time there, he could have gotten (some of) his due.
I have to believe that the judge was afraid that S-K would be prey for criminals higher in the food chain. Even so, why should S-K be excused from jail? What entitles him to bail? His (former, and disgraced) title? His wealth? PUH-LEASE.
Now, yet another judge will have the opportunity to make an example out of another (alleged) sex offender. Will he collect bail, or send a criminal to jail? The question if Omar will be given the same opportunity as S-K waits to be answered.
Why is this fair to the crime survivors? Shouldn’t the survivor of S-K’s attack be able to get some relief knowing that the animal who attacked her is behind bars? The only bar he might be behind is a cocktail bar in that mansion. By chance, and no fault of her own, she was violently attacked and violated by a wealthy douchebag who thinks he is above the law, and on top of that, gets out of jail on bail. She doesn’t even get to bask in the satisfaction knowing that her attacker is getting his due while biding his time in jail.
I believe that all monsters should be treated the same, regardless of their (former) stature, their income and how much interest the media may or may not have. They all belong in Rikers. But for now, we’ll have to wait and see what the judge who will preside over Omar’s case decides where he will spend his time during his court dates.
We can only hope that judge number two makes the right decision and keeps criminals — alleged or not, wealthy or not, shamed (former) international superstars or not — where they belong, in jail, without bail.
We’ve passed the unofficial start to summer, and I would just like to say that I successfully wore a new pair of shoes, twice, and did not get any cuts, blisters or any other negative reaction! Minor discomfort but that went away after the second wear. I’m pointing this out because I typically have some kind of issue that requires an insert, moleskin or Band-Aids.
I bought these shoes online, and so far, so good!
WAHOO!
Today, between the burgers, beers and baseball, please be sure to take a moment to remember those who gave everything for all the freedoms that we regularly enjoy. After all, remembering our fallen soldiers is what this day is ultimately all about.
While most of my friends concentrated on getting jobs right after school, somehow I convinced my parents, and got them to agree, that moving to London, sight unseen, was the best route for me. Turns out, six months and a work visa WAS the best route for me. I should point out, short of family vacations to Toronto and Niagara Falls, spring break in Cancun and a couple of trips to the Caribbean, I never even had a passport. Back then, a birth certificate was good enough.
As it turned out, my first passport stamp EVER was permission to enter AND work in a country I had never been to, and aside from Mary Poppins, funny accents and a famous bridge, it was a place I knew little about. But I knew I’d love it. Eleven years later I have never been more right about anything in my life.
While living abroad, I learned that what I did is what most of the world calls a gap year. I can’t really call the time I spent abroad, a ‘career break’ since I hadn’t even started my career yet. To most, it looked like career postponement!
As I found out earlier this week at the NYC Meet Plan Go event, extended travel, however you do it, is in the back, and front, of a lot of travelers minds! Check out this article from the New York Times.
simply three cents 