Casual.

Even though New York is one of the fashion capitals in the world, the city finds ways to keep things casual. Very few of our high-end restaurants require a dress code, you can get away with wearing pretty much anything to the theater, and people feel comfortable enough to do things in public like whip out a q-tip and clean their ears on their morning subway commute.

This weekend, on a rather long subway ride to Queens, I had an experience that exemplifies just how comfortable New Yorkers can be with themselves. As I was sitting on the train I noticed a terrible smell in the train car. I glanced to my right and quickly my attention was drawn to a woman changing her toddler son's diaper on the subway seat. I exchanged looks with my fellow subway riders that said, "Are you seeing this too?", "Is this really happening?", "Gross." The woman quickly finished the job, and applied hand sanitizer. But then there was the question of the dirty diaper. As we reached the next stop I was waiting for her to hop up and chuck the offending diaper into one of the waiting trashcans on the platform. New riders got on the train car (some of them commenting on the bad smelling car), and still the woman had not moved from her seat. Then, before the doors closed, casually, she tossed the diaper off the train and onto the platform as she had probably done many times before.

New Blog Launch!

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Albums of the Decade

As promised in my last post:

1. Radiohead- Kid A
2. Arcade Fire- Funeral
3. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois
4. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Outkast- Stankonia
6. Sigur Ros- Takk...
7. LCD Soundsystem- Sounds of Silver
8. Kanye West- College Dropout
9. Wolf Parade- Apologies to the Queen Mary
10. Spoon- Kill the Moonlight
11. Radiohead- In Rainbows

I couldn't quite keep it to top 10 and keeping it to 11 is still leaving many great albums off the list. For the most part these are the albums I can listen to over and over again and not get sick of. And let's face it, Radiohead set the stage for the 2000s with Kid A and has carved a path that many musicians will continue to follow in the next decade with In Rainbows. Rule to live by: Everything lives and ends with Radiohead.

My Humble Opinion

Keep in mind this list is not based on anything other than my opinion, and I really hold no expertise in movie lists. I'm also heavily influenced by Brian even though he probably won't agree with most of this list. That being said, as this first decade of the 2000s comes to an end here is my list of the top films of the past ten years:

1. City of God
2. Amelie
3. Children of Men
4. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
5. Lost in Translation
6. The Science of Sleep
7. The Royal Tanenbaums
8. Volver
9. Finding Nemo
10. The Devil Wears Prada

More exciting things to come: Top 10 albums of the decade and the launch of my new blog!

Finding a Purpose.

So, I've been thinking. I know I've been neglecting my blog lately and I think I know what the problem is. When I moved back to the US it lost it's purpose. I thought my life in NYC would provide me with many adventures to blog about. While I've had many adventures, it clearly hasn't inspired blogging. I think my blog needs a rebuild. If anyone still checks this thing for updates, I would appreciate any suggestions for new blog themes. Feel free to be creative and therefore inspire my creativity!

poodles,

Sarah

Final Product

Some of you may remember the sad-looking stray blue chair I had picked up off the street last year. It took a long time before I had time to finish it, and it ended up requiring some repairs I hadn't expected, but I wanted to share the final product. I'm happy with it.

March 20, 2010

I sat down on the subway Wednesday night too tired to read the book I had with me. Without other entertainment I noticed the girl sitting next to me sat with her journal open. On the unlined page she had written:

March 10, 2010

Missouri

Possible Locations
--------------------
parent's yard
50 acres
ferry
State Park

The girl just stared at the page not writing anything else and flipping though all the blank pages to follow this one. Maybe this girl is planning a year on the road as a vagabond and she thinks she'll be in Missouri on March 10th! Now that I type this out I realize how ridiculous this conclusion was, but at the time that was really my first thought. I started drifting off to all the daydreams I've had of leaving everything behind and living outside of mainstream society. In The Zahir, Paulo Coelho writes of the punks in Paris who choose to be homeless so they can live outside of society's rules. When I was doing my own traveling I would always notice the dread-locked teenagers with backpacks who had obviously been spending a good portion of the their last year(s) on the road, and I wondered what their lives were like. There's something appealing to me about leaving society's rules behind and living every bit of life in the moment. As the girl flipped through all the blank pages left, I wondered if she was considering where else to take her life on the road. Maybe she would make it all the way to Washington. Maybe, one day, I could leave everything behind.

But, as I sit on my memory phone mattress typing on my laptop I know how much I enjoy my comfy bed and my internet connection to the outside world.

Right before I got off the train the girl flipped to a back page with scribblings about sets and costume designs. So I guess she's writing a play, and neither one of us are taking our life on the road next year.