Do the Puyallup

I know the fair is going on back home; you know, that little taste of Americana that comes around once a year to help us say goodbye to summer? I didn’t think I’d miss it as much as I am…I could really go for a fair scone right now. There is nothing quite so bad-for-you-it’s-good as a fair scone oozing raspberry jam and butter. When the sun goes down and the rides light up the night, it’s pure youthful magic. Walking through the barns, it’s wonderful to see that, even as farmland continues to disappear in the Puget Sound area, a new generation of ranchers and farmers are continuing the great agricultural traditions that were the impetus for the first fair back in October of 1900. Plus, they sell the wackiest stuff at the fair and it's fun to see what new, useless items will be up for sale by a British guy with a headset (there must be some market research showing that the Brit accent sells in the US, because it seems like every other booth has an Englishman hocking their wares).

What I wouldn’t do just to have some trademark fair smells in my neighborhood….

www.thefair.com

Morning found us calmly unaware

I have mixed feelings about the impending close of summer and onset of fall. On the one hand, there are few things better than bidding farewell to another sticky New York City summer. On the other, summer has so many associations that connote happiness--long days, beaches, outdoor dining, ice cream, free concerts. And yet the autumn is perhaps the best time of the year in the city, what with the leaves beginning to turn into their brilliant palate of colors, mild temperatures that make for amazing days outdoors, and that long-awaited discovery that soup has become palatable again.

Now for someone with whom to share these simple delights….

Where do you get that walk oh so lean?

The average New Yorker walks more than a mile, and often 2-4 miles, per day. All this pedestrian movement provides ample opportunity for observing and, yes, judging, the way that people in this city walk. There are fast walkers, weaving in and out of people on the sidewalk, visibly and sometimes vocally frustrated when stuck behind a gaggle of slow walkers who take up the entire 12-foot sidewalks. The aforementioned slow walkers more often than not travel in packs and spread out, making passing impossible or requiring a perilous jaunt into traffic to get around them; tourists are their own sub-category of slow walkers, stopping every ten feet to look up or consult a map. There are lopers, who have a large stride and move their arms in long, exaggerated arcs. Shufflers barely pick up their feet, and a rhythmic scratching of shoe on pavement follows them wherever they go. Heavyset people often lumber down the sidewalk, seeming to shift their entire weight from one leg to the other with each step. Women in high heels click their way up the block while flip-floppers smack their way down avenues. Young people take subway stairs two or three at a time, while the elderly cling to the rail and drag themselves up one step at a time.

It’s rather like the freeway without vehicles.

General Update

I realized that I don't use this blog as a way to keep in touch with people, though I probably should, since I am so horrible at keeping in touch through other avenues. To all those whom I have been remiss in contacting, my apologies; and a quick rundown of the last few months:

1. I did not take the job with UNICEF. It was in the IT department. It was a general services position (administrative assistant). I worked in a darkly lit cubicle. They took more than 5 months to make a hiring decision. They weren't going to be very flexible. In the end, it just wasn't right for me.

2. I took a job at a hotel in midtown Manhattan as a Reservations Agent. It is definitely an actor's side job and most of the people I work with are actors, including a very good friend who basically got me the job--that's been the best part. We have a great understanding boss. This is, interestingly enough, my first job at a for-profit company (past jobs have been for a small city, a university, and a non-profit--support Habitat for Humanity at http://www.tpc-habitat.org/).

3. I'm a member of a production company, The Collective (http://www.thecollective-ny.com/), that has been working toward a production of a new play written by one of our members. I'll have more info on that as the details get ironed out. Very exciting!

4. It's taken me more than a year to really begin to understand how this business works, and I've only just begun to learn. I had some expectations about building a life here (personally and professionally), and those have been exploded. So I'm trying to pick up the pieces and find a path that works for me. It's very slow going at this point.

5. On that personal side, I am single again after four years. If you want to know what Paige is up to in sunny L.A., you can follow her (until recently, at least) at http://www.creativesupernova.blogspot.com/.

6. Still living in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, which is a beautiful, if slightly less quiet as of late, neighborhood.

I really do hope to talk to you soon, all you whom I've missed. I'll be in Tacoma in late September for a wedding, so perhaps we can meet for a drink in one of those lovely new bars and restaurants that seem to be popping up everywhere back there.

Cheers!

Planetary Trifecta

If you live in a place where you can see stars at night (I can occasionally spot a few from my house in Brooklyn), check this out. You'll need a set of binoculars, but it's definitely worth it. It's rare to see three planets so bunched together (in terms of our viewing them, of course), and visible with just a set of binoculars. Cool!

A Complete Triumph

Triumph at Comic Con in San Diego. Hilarity ensues.

Herodotus

The New Yorker is an excellent magazine. Even in these times of falling subscriptions and up-to-the-minute blogs it never fails to provide unparalleled coverage and unique perspectives.

It's reviews are always interesting to read and thorough; sometimes to to the point of overkill, and sometimes to the point of obscuring the subject of the review. Thus it is with the current--excellent--article on Herodotus. The article reads like an essay on what Herodotus might be able to tell us today, though it is supposed to be a review of a new translation (The Landmark Herodotus) of Herodotus' Histories. The book itself is hardly mentioned, but no one should care, because the article is the most succinct description of Herodotus's' project and purpose I've ever read.

Just sayin'.