Life in New York
Today was a really nice day. It was beautiful outside (at least at the beginning of the day) and Leslie and I went to the street fair on Amsterdam. Picked up lunch and wandered along the street looking at all the pretty and neat things that I could not afford. I saw some great furniture, which would no doubt look great in my apartment but I could not come up with an excuse to spend a chunk of money on a bookcase...or chair...or...you get the idea. I did get something free out of it the fair. A book on the Kabbala red string. It was promotional if you gave them your email. I figured why not. At least I'd read it and then be able to properly argue against it.
We were finishing up with the street fair when it began raining. Leslie and I already had plans to see a movie, so it was perfect timing. Ari had recommended the movie Thank You for Smoking. So I took his recommendation and went. It was interesting. Could have totally done without the sex scene, but I guess they were looking for the "R" rating. I'm still deciding whether I liked it. I think it was well done. It's about a top lobbyist for the tobacco industry and his life as a lobbyist.
As someone who has actually considered the career of a lobbyist, it was interesting. Like I said, I'm still deciding whether I liked it. It definately made some excellent points, but I think that it's not worth spending big bucks, just wait for the video.
Later on tonight I was on the train on the way home and was sitting next to a couple kids listening to songs on their cellphone. Whoever had the "brilliant" idea to put songs on a cellphone so people could listen to them out loud should be hung. This is why headphones were invented, so we wouldn't have to listen to other people's music, or what they consider music.
At a certain point, the girl (about 10 years old) had the ring on something loud, annoying and sharp. I could deal with loud and annoying. Sharp really hurt my head. So I asked nicely for her to turn it down. Thankfully she did. But then the fellow standing across from where I was sitting decided to turn on his musical cellphone out loud so he could listen to it.
This is the fellow who I noticed had on two watches. One on either wrist. I thought to myself originally, did he realize he has two watches on? And I realized, duh of course he did. One had a silver bezel and the other a gold bezel. Maybe he couldn't decide when he got dressed this morning which one matched his outfit and went with both. Or maybe they had two different times on them. One for NY and the other for Tokyo. Not my concern.
At the point when he turned on his cellphone to listen to his music, I figured on changing cars. At the next stop I jumped out and moved onto the next car of the train. It was interesting since six deaf people got on also and were signing to each other. At first I thought about how nice it must be for them not to have to listen to other people's music, but then I thought how they missed out on other things to listen to... good music, nature and stuff like that. So I'm grateful to what I take for granted. They were Hispanic, so I wondered if they were signing in American Sign Language or in Spanish... and did Spanish have it's own sign language. So many random things to think about.
Finally I got home and the day has ended. New York is such a mix of things. Street fairs, loud music, deaf people on the subway. Hmmm.