Like a moth

I was in New York, NY this weekend! I presented at a conference through my job as a research assistant. We presented to a whole four people at 7:45am on Monday morning. However, before that, there was a weekend of exploration in the city. It was an amazing experience.
Below is the view from my hotel room.






I could walk outside my hotel and turn left and see Times Square four blocks away. I walked down there many times, including at 2am my first night there. It is as overwhelming as it seems. But quite spectacular. I probably passed through there at least 10 times and saw something new every pass.



On Sunday I needed to work on comps so I holed up in my room and ate street vendor food. This is a combination of gyro meat, chicken, veggies and rice with tzatziki sauce for five bucks. It was amazing.





I also managed to walk through Central Park on Sunday and take a few pics. This is about 8 hours before the snow started. NYC only got a bout 2.5 inches while we were there.
But Sunday morning the temps were in upper 30s and the sun was peeking out. It was a beautiful day for a stroll.







I made my pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields and paid my respects...


I realized I had meant to bring flowers but when I got there, there w ere plenty already laid out. I watched one man in his 60s lay some of these flowers and then sit on the benches around for a good 15 min. I admit, after I took my pictures, I sat and quietly reflected, and cried. I could hear other sniffles around me, so I wasn't the only one. How can we, as humans who crave connection, feel so connected to a person we never met? Why do I shed tears for someone I didn't really know?


So these scrappy little guys were the only SQs I saw and they stayed in the park. They are my black SQs cousins I imagine. This guy was eating pieces of ice from the ground.


Another visit I made was to the Met Museum! Here are a few highlights.... aside from the cab ride there. My friend Paula and I were at the Empire State Building (pics below) and took a cab to the Met. Our driver was insane! He careened through the streets down Madison avenue. We pulled around trucks and nearly ran red lights....It was awesome!
Once at the Met...

I like Rodin. This piece in particular is engaging. The Burghers of Calais 1884-86

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986)

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, 1931

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1952 (52.203)

TO my ultimate delight there was an entire room of Georgia O Keefe!!

And they had the most interesting Pollock I've ever seen. It has lines and shapes and colors!




Same day still...we went to the half price ticket line.... and got great seats to see .....




It was amazing. We laughed and cried. The voices were fantastic. A highly recommended experience!!!



More Times Square

This is from the Empire State Building. It's the closest I got to seeing the Statue of Liberty with the exception of when the plane flew the length of Manhattan Island and I saw her from the air.
Going up in the ESB was a brilliant experience. It cost $18 and we endured Disney-like lines (it took about 40 min to get up there from the line forming around the block on the street) but it was so worth the wait and cash. We had a cold but crystal day with blue skies and a fierce wind. You could see for miles. one word..breathtaking!

A view looking north. The black building I believe is Trump Tower and you can see the Chrysler building nearby.

Self portrait looking south towards Lower Manhattan and the Business district


Paula and I taking a self portrait on the inside using a giant wall of mirrors.


Looking North. IF you look to the upper left corner you can see a piece of Central Park


The M&M sign in TS

A pigeon chilling at the top of the ESB. I couldn't help it. He was posing!


Another look south towards the Statue of Liberty, New Jersey, and Lower Manhattan


The Flat Iron Building


One more...while my hair was behaving! There were moments when this was like a wind tunnel and I looked like I had tentacles!

Overall...it was an amazing experience! If it weren't for my job, I wouldn't have gone. I loved the city and the food...we hit pizza...Junior's for breakfast.....Thai....Indian....and the Carnegie Deli. I feel like I tried it all!
Thanks to Kate for Rent! Couldn't have done it without you.
I'll pick out and post some more pics later this week. I need to get back to writing comps now...

Mardi Gras and catching up

IT was Mardi Gras time this weekend!!!
Bart had a fabulous party. So fabulous, I forgot to take pictures during it. I only have these few shots of the early party of our happy attire.




Bart liked this shot with the guitar. Something about a girl in a corset holding an electric. Of course, I would have had to put down my Hurricane to actually pick up this guitar. If you have sensitive sensibilities, don't look too closely at my prized MG beads! They are from New Orleans!! Thanks and a shout out to Walter in Dallas for those beautiful beads. Ahhh my ultimate sadness is that I can only wear them once a year...and that's if I can find a party that will allow it.
Otherwise, they hang from a nail in my bedroom. :-)



A final shot of the party. We made some killer hot wings and I did a fair imitation of Jambalya for my first try. The party was indeed a success with people passed out on chairs and couches by 6am when we finally retired.
Nothing got broken, but Brett's shoes were stolen! Of course the theif left their own, more expensive shoes behind but we laughed for a long time on Sunday about how stupid drunk you have to be to leave your Nikes and wear someone else's shoes home!

The party, combined with my comps deadline fast approaching are why I'm delayed in putting up snow pictures from our biggest snow of the year coming in at a whopping 3.75"!!! I can't believe we haven't gotten a bigger one. As of Valentine's Day, we had about 6" on the ground with a few drifts up to 7 or so. Here are some pics of the scene last week. You can see the street is covered with snow which lasted through the weekend.


Last Wed morning was so beautiful with the fresh snow and the sun shining so brightly. Too bad the temps were around 6 or 7 degrees.


I liked the shadows on this one. You can see the footprints of the SQs and birds heading for the feeder.


Here's one of the snow on Tuesday.


This is a picture also from Valentine's day of MSU campus. This is the Red Cedar River and you can see the library and Beaumont Tower in the background. The campus is really gorgeous. I hope to post more from here as spring begins to arrive!!!

I'm in New York this weekend so should have some fabulous tourist pictures come next week sometime. My comps papers are due in three weeks and I'm furiously writing, revising, and when I'm too stressed, procrastinating. Luckily spring break starts in a week and a half and I will have time and more time to myself to get things done.

We made it to 21 today!

BwaaHaaha...take the bridge of eternal coldness into the realm of Winter Warlock!


At least today it's only cold and not freeze your ass off cold! When it hit 18 yesterday I decided to go on a workout walk just to stretch my legs. I've been sitting and writing for days now and they were in need of some activity. I don't walk as fast but i think I get a different kind of workout dodging ice patches. Because the first layer of this stuff was an inch and a half of ice, many sidewalks are not shoveled to the concrete. It takes dedication to go chop that stuff down. We haven't seen temps above freezing in a couple of weeks now so everything is simply permafrost.

So you can imagine my joy when I read this in yesterday's forecast discussion:

BOTTOM LINE... BELOW TO MUCH BELOW NORMAL TEMPS EXPECTED ACROSS OUR
AREA THROUGH THE EXTENDED RANGE FCST PERIOD! THE COLDEST PERIOD WILL
COME FROM LATE TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY.

Whoo! Such fun in store. I haven't taken many pictures lately because it hasn't changed much all week. It's been cold with cold patches and often it just gets cold. The old cats (15.5 in people years) are really suffering this winter. We keep the little house as warm as possible and I've blocked off all but three rooms to the heat. We stay comfortable but the low interior humidity (even with a humidifier) and the constant slight draft that drifts through this house has made their arthritis no fun. poor things. We all can't wait for spring.

Make it stop! Please for the love of tuna make it stop!!!!!


Got this great shot of a cardinal in the tree. He flew out of another shot but decided to pose shyly behind a branch.
I'm looking forward to the backyard bird count next weekend!!!
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Hopefully I'll get out a bit more this weekend and grab some new shots.
Stay warm!

Too D@%# Cold!!!

This was the scene Saturday afternoon here. The snow was so intense I couldn't see across the street. The winds were blowing something fierce. We hit -3 around midnight and my cable/internet went out around the same time. It hasn't been the same since.





A comparison shot between early on Saturday

And Sat late afternoon.
Amazingly, we only got about an inch or two out of all of this. It's impossible to really say since I don't have a good snow measuring device. The wind blew so much that a lot of the new snow was gone Sunday.
Sunday night we were at -4 by 11:30pm. It got really cold that night. We are still hovering in the single digits with negative digit wind chills. This has been a consistent state since Saturday.



This is a great shot because you can see the snow flakes in the air.

It's cold and not going to get warm any time soon.

BRRRRR!

It's the coldest weekend of the season. At this moment we are at 13 with a predicted low of -3 and snow.
Tomorrow's high will not break 10 and our negative number lows last through Monday night.
If it weren't for the Super Bowl tomorrow, I wouldn't leave the house at all.


Friday afternoon, we (of course) got more snow but the flakes were big and pretty.


I like how the SQs hang off the suet feeder to chew pieces off.



I went for a walk on the local Rivertrail Wednesday afternoon. Yes, it was cold (around 16) but I really needed a little fresh air and wanted to see how the woods looked with the snow. Definitely a good choice.

These fallen trees always provide nice meditation.

I'm posting a few more open mic pics from this past week. It will be a couple of weeks before I go back....must work on papers......


Kathy and I doing Stop Dragging My Heart Around. Joe in the background


Nick and Bart

Karen



A little guitar girl action........