On The Go Blog

Starry Night

camera pic - amnh

camera pic - amnh

and so Sunday is underway

Lunch is Italian because it suddenly started to rain, and I was right in front of Dean's Family Style Restaurant.

My morning was quiet, and hopefully the afternoon will be the same.

I'm near the Natural History Museum so after lunch I may head over to photostroll around. Though spending an afternoon at the bookstore cafe dowm the street sounds good too.

Next to a daddy and daughter are spending Sunday together. She's an adorable 6 or 7 year old with an awesome vocabulary.

They're waiting for friends who are very late. Amazing how patient the little girl is, her faher is describing all the people who are coming to meet them for lunch. He's even including hair and eye color. She's got a head count for the "grown-ups," "kids," & "babies." A very well-organized family.

One look at the decor & menu tells me this is not an Italian owned place. The food going by looks pretty good. My guess is they're Greek or Albanian. A lot of Greeks & Albanians own Italian restaurants in New York.

When you grow up Italian home like I did two things are sure: every day is an episode out of Everyone Loves Raymond & you know when you're around other Italians.

Just finished my meal - not bad.

Caio for now.

feeling alright on Saturday night

An hour of cellular chat with bestgal pal - the perfect wind down from a busy week.

I'm going to lounge around most of day tomorrow before meeting a friend for dinner.

Hopefully a passing muse will sprinkle magical inspiration dust on me, and something will get posted to my creative blog. It's been a while. There's also that mindmapping software to work on - hey didn't I just say I was going to lounge around?

You all have a great weekend.

mindmapping

It's always interested me, and lately I've begun reading up on it again.

There's a few free web-based mind mapping tools available.

I joined one, as well as downloading some open source software called Free Mind from another site.

It's going to take me a minute to learn how to use all the tools.

Last night I did three on paper. It's so simple, just take a sheet of paper and write your project in the center. Draw the shape of your choice around it - I like ovals. Now all you have to do is write down the next thing that comes to mind, and draw a line joining it back to the first. Don't make it to wordy, and use different color pens.

It's brainstorming on paper, and you won't believe how quickly your initial idea turns into a plan.

Of course, two of my three had to do with blogging.

Here's my stop.

talk about your kindred spirits

Just finished a three and a half hour lunch with blog group buddy Candid Karina. She's in NYC on a short trip.

We met up at the Times Square Applebee's, where our waiter Ikeypoo took excellent care of us.

Ohmigosh we have so much in common. I swear to you I did not want to let her leave.

She was wearing a black blouse with white polka dots & white bracelet with black polka dots. I adore polka dots.

And we both wore polka dots to our 8th grade graduations.

Can't wait for her next New York visit.

It was pouring rain today, and we both had time constraints, otherwise we would have toured the town on the go style.

I'm heading out to Jersey now. I didn't take the first train that pulled into the station. It was packed so tight you couldn't see an inch of wall space through the windows, just bodies. Could you believe that nearly everyone on the platform pushed their way in?

Not this big girl. Less than three minutes after that sardine can pulled out a nearly empty train pulled in. I'm in one seat with my right foot propped on another, and my bag and umbrella on a third.

Here's my stop catch you later.

observations from an A train

The young woman next to me is lost in whtever is playing on her Ipod. She holds her Blackberry as if it's going to ring any second. It won't while we are underground. Her purse is wide-open next to her.

Two guys chat down the end of the car. You can tell they enjoy each other's company.

The red headed girl is tired and sad. She closes her eyes for a minute. Then she opens them slowly. Maybe she thought she could wish it all away.

There's 4 people in this car holding Blackberries now. Only one is using his. Speaking of fancy electronics - I checked out latops today. I'm still looking for a tiny one. Hopefully the big money to buy it will find me.

Almost home. Think I'll stop in Starbucks and break in my new notebook. Yes, I still haven't used it yet.

What will I write about? A dream or two for sure.

Take care

Anti-Smoking Campaigns

are full-force here in NYC.

I 'm on the uptown train and one of the posters is right next to me at eye level. It shows a woman with most of her fingers missing. I've seen her on a TV commercial that runs frequently. Smoking gave her artery disease which necessitated 20 amputations.

There have been other posters and commercials that are just as scary. Some parents are protesting that these posters are too frightening for children, It's a good bet that most of those parents are smokers.

When I was a kid commercials for cigarettes were still allowed on television.

People walked a mile for a Camel. Virginia Slims told young liberated women that having their own cigarette meant they had come a long long way.

In one truly horrifying episode of Ben Casey a pregnant woman was trapped in an elevator with a hospital worker. The electrical power had gone off, and the woman was becoming more and more frightened. The attendant offered her a smoke, which she accepted, and lit one up for himself.

I've been off cigs for a while now. When I pass groups of teens smoking it makes me sad.

I want to yell, "You'll be coughing up a lung in a few years."

They probably would laugh at me the way I laughed at the warnings years ago.

The ads are not scary enough.

betwixt & between

Just finished some baked chicken and veg - yum.

The restaurant is filled with people laughing and talking. It's all a jumble, but you can drift in and out of the various
conversations if you try.

Now that this blog and my photoblog done it's time for a new project. Our Yahoo Group is celebrating it's first anniversary on the 24th, and I want to set up a nice page on the site to commemorate it. One of the members has already created a graphic for the occasion.

Time to get myself home.

Much bloglove to all.