Summer ritual

It's now the season for my toes to emerge into the public in a shocking red carpaint color. The Korean lady working my feet expertly scrapes off the dead skin from my heel with an object that looks like a cheese grater.

This nail salon is buzzing with acitivity, it seems as if all the women in the city are ready to slip on their sandals. I think getting a pedicure in New York City is one of the last bargains you can find - my pedicure was $18 but I found prices as low as $10. If you go to Iowa to get a pedicure the cost would be more than $25. I suppose that's from the fierce competition in the city, it seems like there's a nail salon at every other city block. I still give the women a big tip, I feel bad they have to work on my feet.

moving graffiti

I wish I had as much enthusiam for my job as this truck driver has for his.

green grass oasis

Bryant Park

The lawn looks so fresh I want to take my shoes off and run through it with my smelly feet. There are small bistro type chairs and tables around the park and people are sitting here gazing at the grass lost in thought and I almost forget myself that I'm in the city. People in the offices above are probably looking down at the park too. It's almost as if the green grass is taking center stage.

Spring finally

Riverside Park

Spring is finally here, which means it's the beginning of Summer in the city. This morning I went jogging in the park, it was quiet and tranquil and mostly people with babies and dogs are walking about. In the afternoon I was midtown and motorcycles are already drag racing through traffic jams, Latino music blasting out of cars, the smell of burned hotdogs and pretzels is coming out of food vendor carts, and all sorts of people sitting outside letting it all hang out.

year of the Rat

This is the year of the Rat. I'm wondering if the rats in New York City are going to bring us luck or if it will be a good year for rat breeding. After I read my Chinese horoscope I learned that it will be an awful year for those of us born in the year of the horse - in every aspect.

And what a way to start the new year being reminded of that. You see these inflatable rats around the city the union workers display outside construction projects to protest non-union contracts. This one is near Union Square. I've seen them in two sizes, this is the smaller one.

almost springtime in New York City

It's almost springtime in New York City. ..

Today there was an awful lot of bird chirping on the streets and pigeon poop on my terrace. This photo was taken in Central Park, it's the first robin I've seen this year.

crossroads of the world

You would never know Times Square is above ground but walking through this subterranean maze it really feels like the crossroads of the world. You hear people are speaking Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish...There's a mime in the station with his face painted white. Or a Chinese man playing a screeching stringed instrument only he seems to enjoy. It's been a while since I've seen the short Michael Jackson impersonator. This is the crossroad of my world twice a day when I change trains going to and from work. On some days it feels like I've gone further than that.

casting my vote

All the hype leading up to this moment...

Last year my voting location was in a senior citizen's facility, this year it was in a church. I wouldn't have known that was the place except there was a 8 1/2 x 11 xerox sign posted outside. I walk inside down the hallway to a large room with tables, each for a voting precinct. Seated at each table there are two elderly volunteers, one with a folder of names A-L the other with a folder of names M-Z. I walk up to the 89th precinct table and wait behind one person while the woman at the table is slowly flipping through the pages searching for her name. She's interrupted by a volunteer with a question. They talk about it for a while, then she goes back to flipping through her folder looking for the name. The volunteer finally finds the name and the voter signs the book, then she gives her a card after slowly writing the voter's name and a number on it. I don't think I could have moved ahead six feet any slower.

After I get my card and give it to another volunteer, I walk up to the old fashioned voting machine and close the curtain behind me. It feels like I'm in a dressing room, when the curtain falls off the volunteer rushes to hang it up to give me my privacy. I took a photo to remember my participation in this historic moment.

Chinese New Year

I should have known I had a legitimate excuse for taking the day off. When I was growing up in Iowa, few people even knew when Chinese New Year was. Our family might have gotten together with the few other Chinese people in town for a potluck dinner. Chances are we probably just sat around and watched tv after dinner. In New York, Chinese New Year is like a Jewish holiday when the Chinese people and other Asians who adhere to the lunar calendar don't show up at the office. To me all Chinese holidays are the same...they all involve eating lots of food.

On a clear day you can see forever

Upper West Side horizon line looking down West End Ave. from 85th St.

Brooklyn Bridge

It feels like anything but a bridge.

The pedestrian walkway made of wooden planks floating over the vehicles and the water, appears like a boardwalk at the beach but without the hotdogs and cotton candy.

The tall narrow space leading up to the gothic piers between the suspension cables feels like an outdoor cathedral.

With the plaques on the bridge, reading them you remember it as a place of historical significance.

It looks like kind of a spooky threshold into this mythical city of Manhattan. It's old and needs repair but will always remind me in its distinctively charming way, where I am and where I'm going to.

evening view

It almost seems as if the city glows when it is standing still. But it never is still. The camera doesn't see the noise, cars whizzing by on the street below, giggling teenagers posing in front of the view, all the people shoving you out of the way, aromas spilling out of the restaurants and seeping from the subway, and the cold air that's even colder at night.

City dogs

Being a dog in New York City is more complicated. The dog I had as a kid growing up in Iowa chased squirrels, barked at strangers and pooped in the neighbor's yard. Dogs here need to find an apartment that accepts them, dog walkers if their owners can't walk them, parks and dog runs they can play in and someone to pick up their poop. But they also have fashionable dog clothing and accessories, gourmet dog food, dog spas and dog therapists. Then imagine getting all that without having to pay for it! I think dogs love New York too.

Times Square

Crowds, tacky souvenir shops and billboards. That about sums ups Times Square for me.

I've never been there on New Year's Eve. I think the only difference on that day would be not being able to get out of it.