Sequel to the Eight!

If you want an interesting read, I would highly recommend anything written by Katherine Neville. Her books have a lot of history blended into fictional thriller stories. Plus, she has basically led this amazing life. She has traveled all over the globe, set up computer systems for Algeria, been a top exec for Bank of America, a model, a photographer, world famous author, married to a renowned neuroscientist... the list goes on! Anyway, she is currently working on a sequel to my favorite book by her, The Eight. I'm not sure when it is coming out since right now it seems like it is still in a very rough stage. I can't wait!

I Heart NY

"New York is a granite beehive, where people jostle and whir like molecules in an overheated jar."-Nigel Goslin

I saw this quote about New York city, and I couldn't resist including it in this post. This past weekend, my husband and I went to New York to visit a friend. This quote is, I think, an accurate portrayal of the energy New York has. Everything in New York seems like it is on a grander scale. Bigger buildings, bigger stores, bigger attitude. Unlike the subway in Boston which can be coded by color, the New York subway system has numbers, letters, express, local, uptown, downtown, etc. I think we got on the wrong train almost half a dozen times. People were everywhere! When we went to Times Square, we actually had to get in line to cross the street, then get in line for the waiting list of a restaurant, then get in line to be seated. We really wanted to go to the restaurant Serendipity, which is featured in the movie by that name, but it was a 2.5 hr wait at 3pm in the afternoon! We did get into the Museum of Natural History, which is really an amazing place. They have one of the best dinosaur collections, and we only got through a very small part of it since it was so large. My favorite part was the butterfly exhibit, whcih was basically a tropical room filled with an amazing variety of butterflies. Some were electric blue and some had a wingspan as big as my two hands put together. The best part was that a little brown butterfly with orange spots landed first on my hair, which must have been too unstable, and then landed on my shoulder. Since you are not supposed to brush away any butterflies that land on you in case you cause them injury, I simply let him/her/it hitch a ride around the exhibit until the butterfly tired of my company (lacking in nectar and witty banter, I'm sure I was not a terribly exciting companion) and flew away. We also explored Central Park, had dessert in Greenwich Village, and walked around Ground Zero. I cannot even begin to describe how eerie and sad, yet strangely hopeful Ground Zero is. It's one of those things you have to experience for yourself. New York is always an amazing trip because no matter how many times you go, you always see/feel/hear/smell something completely new.

Crazy story!

Check out this crazy story on Dr. Pistachio's website! It's under the heading "Urban legend...or a true story?"

The Boston Crazies

It is inevitable that every major city has its crazies. Some of them are fun and amusing, like the guy in San Francisco who hides behind a bush and scares tourists, and some of them are just plain, well, crazy. Boston definitely has a lot of crazies, and since I ride public transportation (the crazies' Mecca) almost everyday, I get to see a lot of them. Because I see crazies all the time, I think I can safely say I know of the two craziest of crazies. One of them is an old woman who carries around an unlit cigarette wherever she goes. Originally when I met this woman, I thought she simply carried it around because she was going to smoke it as soon as she got off the train or maybe she was trying to quite and simply carrying the thing helped sooth her addiction. Just as I was thinking this, the woman put the cigarette to her lips and started taking discrete little bites of it. The woman was literally eating her cigarette! When I told my sister about this, she did not believe me until a couple of weeks later when she saw it too! The other craziest of crazies was seen by my sister while she was standing at a bus stop. It was a guy who went around picking up trash while talking to himself and making weird noises. Now you may be thinking that picking up trash and making weird noises is not too crazy, and it may actually help the environment. This guy, however, doesn't only pick up the trash, but he has to put it in his mouth and chew it before throwing it away. When he picks up bottles, he has to put it in his mouth before he throws it away. Gross!!!! Most crazies in Boston just talk out loud to themselves or to God or maybe some imaginary person. I was thinking the other day that maybe this behavior is not so crazy. Living in a large city surrounded by people, you may think that you are never alone, but really everyone builds a bubble of self-containment around them so that no one waves, smiles, looks you in the eye, or says hello to each other. Maybe all the crazies want is someone to listen to their complaints and thoughts, even if that person is themselves, God, or imaginary.