plodding.

i couldn't get out of bed yesterday morning. the king of can't-get-out-of-bed where you feel like if you do you'll end up losing yesterday's lunch or find yourself collapsed on the bathroom floor. 

so i didn't. get out of bed. not really.

in fact the only things i accomplished yesterday was the chipping away at the bags under my eyes (as seen in the antler picture {sigh}), stringing the bottom half of my tree, scaring the ups delivery man (that's another story) and brushing my teeth. i was a sorry sight. it was a sorry day. 

but today: i'm up. the laundry is in the dryer. and i've already managed to shower. 

progress. 

and as i go about my day, getting all the many things done despite my desire to hide under the covers, i will allow the christmas decorations to spur me on--to keep me plodding about the manhattan streets. 

perhaps i'll count how many christmas trees i come across today...

getting into the holiday spirit.

sometimes i forget that new york is place people come from around the world to photograph. 

i see it through eyes that have seen it for seven years. 

and so i cease to see. 

until i remind myself to look up and around. 

this year, since i'll be staying in the city, i'm making a concerted effort to celebrate the transformation of the island in this month of december and to allow myself to be swept up and away by the holiday spirit. 

ps: that picture of me was taken just before i headed off to an ugly christmas-sweater party. strangely enough, my parents were off to an ugly christmas-sweater party themselves--i on the upper west side, they somewhere in the houston metropolis. funny, huh?

the circus

on thursday night i headed to lincoln center to meet a friend and go to the circus.

yes, lincoln center. the great arts mecca of new york city (or one of them, at least).

and there nestled between the metropolitan opera house and alice tully hall and avery fisher and juilliard--right amidst all the towering white building made of granite or some such is the temporary white canvas of the big apple circus.

when kathy and i arrived and the show began we both quickly decided that perhaps we should have gotten a drink first. there was something a bit depressing about it all. the empty seats--the sense that the entire production was a bit worn around the edges. the feeling that the art form itself was struggling to find a foothold--to adapt to these modern times.

and yet given enough time and enough stragglers the tent began to fill with not only warm bodies, but the squeals of children. and if the squeals of children can't totally undo you, well then, i'm not sure what to tell you.

kathy and i ended up squealing a bit ourselves, or at least laughing deeply for a good two hours. there was nothing i loved so much as the dogs and horses and goats, i would go each night for that alone.

oh, to see a goat ride a horse--if you've not seen this at least once in your life: amend, amend at once!!

all that being said, i suppose there's something to learn from the circus. and so my goal for this week is to laugh deeply.

to laugh deeply, and love deeply, and live outwards in all directions at once. (that's not too overwhelming a goal for this thanksgiving week, is it?). nah, didn't think so.

happy monday (a very gray monday in new york) to you!

a nyc {for tryon} picnic.

oh how i love fort tryon park!

{home of the beloved new leaf cafe}

oh how words fail to extol its many virtues!

it is my favorite place in all of new york. the air is cool and fresh {reminiscent of my grandparent's home in briarcliff}.

and the flowers are in bloom now. the smell! oh, the smell! so if you're in the city get on the nearest A train and get off at 190th. take the elevator up and find yourself in the sweetest little subway station that catapults you into forest. yes, that's right. i said catapult. and forest.

so when deciding where to celebrate cinco de mayo, it was a no-brainer. we gathered blankets, chips and guacamole, hummus, bread and goat cheese.

insta-picnic!

happy fifth, indeed!