Seven Rays

One of the things I’ve wanted to do since I moved here was to visit the Statue of Liberty. Since we have had unseasonably warm temperatures this week, I decided to give it a go. (Yes, it was 60 degrees yesterday, and yes, it was around 20 degrees last weekend. Your guess is as good as mine as to what it will be like next week!)

I took the subway down to The Battery and jumped on the surprisingly crowded ferry. (Like Los Angeles, there doesn’t appear to be an off-season for tourism here.) Here is the view of lower Manhattan from the ferry:



After a 15-minute ferry ride, I was at Liberty Island. (Ellis Island, which is another 10-minute ferry ride away, is where the museum is located.) And here she is (drum roll please!):





And, since I know you read my blog just for the random fun facts:

* From the ground to the tip of the torch is 305 feet, 1 inch
* The length of her nose is 4 feet, 6 inches (and you thought your nose was big)
* Winds of 50 m.p.h. can cause the statue to sway 3 inches and the torch to sway 5 inches

Afterward, I grabbed a pretzel from a vendor, checked out the street performers and marveled at the inordinate number of people who were randomly standing on crates, dressed up as Lady Liberty. (Truth be told, I suspect they weren’t actually being paid to be there, if you know what I mean.) C'est magnifique!

Falling Ice

Reason #1 why I love NYC: Central Park. Central Park is 843 acres (6% of Manhattan’s total acreage), and it runs 2.5 miles north to south and .5 miles west to east. And it is blissfully peaceful. If you have ever lived or visited here, you know that Manhattan is busy, crowded, and loud. The Park is a little piece of heaven for me.

I took these today as I wandered through the south end:







And, yes, that is snow on the ground. This weekend the temperature plunged 30 degrees overnight as a storm passed through. (By the way, what’s up with sleet? My understanding is that it is frozen rain – isn’t that hail? Is there a difference? In my book, ice falling from the sky is ice falling from the sky.)

For all of you enjoying the 70-degree weather in California, you’ll love this: on Sunday, I decided to go to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (http://ndm.si.edu/) to see the Fashion in Colors exhibit. I got all bundled up and was no more than 10 steps outside of my building when the bitterly cold wind almost knocked me down. So what did I do? Brave the elements for a little culture? Hell no. I turned around and went right back inside. Culture just might have to wait until the springtime.

Eliminator

Happy New Year everyone!

Over 8 million people live in New York City. Approximately 1.5 million of them reside in the 33 square mile borough known as Manhattan. (Fun fact for those who never paid attention in geography class: New York City is made up of 5 boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.)

Tomorrow marks my two-month anniversary as one of those 1.5 million. Isn’t that amazing? My first two months were all about finding a place to live, adjusting to a new job, and basically figuring out how everything works here. And then came the holidays. But this week I have started to feel more settled, and I am developing somewhat of a routine.

Part of my routine is waiting for my groceries to be delivered, which is what I am doing as I write this. Grocery delivery is a wonderful new addition to my life. Since moving, I have stopped at the local market on occasion to pick up a few items, but lugging three bags of groceries home in the rain out-and-out sucks. I come from the land of mega grocery stores with everything you could ever want, and a car to load it all into. In Los Angeles, I never had anything delivered, except for the occasional pizza. But everything gets delivered here … groceries, dry cleaning, liquor, linens from Bed, Bath & Beyond …

(On a side note, I do miss Trader Joe’s – there isn’t one here. Anyone who cares to send me TJ’s chocolate covered cranberries or wild rice mix will get mad props.)

The best package EVER came in the mail the other day. In West Hollywood, Bo, Luke and I used to play pool at a local bar. I would always play with one particular pool cue, an 18 oz. cue called the "Eliminator”. I favored it mostly because it was light, but it is entirely possible the name had something to do with it too. ;-)

Well, without going into the (possibly incriminating) details, the Eliminator made the 2,800 mile journey across the country and arrived on my doorstep on Saturday. Besides living in a borough and having her groceries delivered, what more could a girl ask for?