Monday, October 22, 2007

Where in the world???

Must...find.....permanent parking spot........

Street parking restrictions around here are pretty severe. Never say that the streets of NY are dirty...they're obsessive about keeping the damn things clean. The parking restrictions are obstensibly to facilitate this street cleaning obsession, but I suspect a more nefarious reason - cash collection from the lazy and hapless. But, as I occasionally do see the street sweapers, I suppose the $415 in parking violations we've paid since we've been here may be coloring my view.

Half the streets have restrictions Monday and Thursday, b/t 8-11am, and the other half have the same time restrictions on Tuesday and Friday. So, a typical week means that by Sunday evening, you've got to be parked on a Tuesday/Friday street; then Monday night, we move the car to a Monday/Thursday street. Then Wednesday night we move it again to a Tuesday/Friday street. Then Thursday night we move it again to a Monday/Thursday Street. Then Sunday, the fun starts all over again. It's really kind of nuts. There are some who actually just move their cars over to the other side of the street for 3 hours (essentially, the entire street is double parked for 3 hours), but obviously these people don't work far from home, so they can do that sort of thing.

We've got the opportunity to get a parking spot for $160/mo (which is actually a really great deal), but we're still toying with the idea of just subscribing to the Zip car service. No gas, no insurance, no parking hassle. The only problem is that they don't (at this time) allow pets. (don't get me started on this particular bit of discrimination...if kids are allowed in the cars, I don't see why pets can't be. At least my dog isn't going to smear an ice cream cone all over the upholstry - how is that any better than vacuuming up a few pet hairs???) And it can get expensive if you need the car for, say, an entire weekend. Besides, I can't imagine being entirely car-less. I know a lot of people do it, but save for a couple years at college, I've always had either my own or a family member's car a my disposal. So, anyway, for the time being, we're playing the car-owners-parking-shell-game. At least Suki isn't getting lonely.

Anyway, enough about the car. We've found a nice, legal spot on President's street for SJ to be in, until Wednesday night, anyway.

The girls adjusted almost immediately to city life. They didn't really have a choice, but they seem to be totally unaffected by the lack of yard and having to pee in the streets. We've burned through more poo bags in the last 7 weeks than I care to think about. If any of you is thinking of Christmas gifts, don't get us any...just send poo bags. The girls love their 4 walks a day, as every one of them affords them the opportunity for extracurricular snacking. It took them a couple weeks to really come to appreciate this bounty, but the streets of NY have plenty of delicacies for dogs, not to mention the smells. And now, every walk is more about finding and eating everything edible or even questionably edible before the humans can get it out of their mouths, than about going to the bathroom and enjoying the aroma of eau-de-other-dog's-behinds. If I let them, it could take them a half an hour just to go around a block, so thorough are their mouths and noses. Echo has taken to terrorizing the local enclave of ferral cats, or at least thinks she is. She gets the doggy mohawk, and if she's really excited, she gets totally puffed out. What I don't understand is that she shows almost no reaction to Sarah...in fact they've settled into a nice little routine of I'll-ignore-you, you-ignore-me.

Speaking of Sarah, she's also fine. Although the apartment doesn't afford her as much space as the house did (she's still mad about not having a basement to retire to), this place has significant improvements to the amount of sunlight she gets exposure to. And, the windowsills are nice and deep, so she likes that too. Everything else with her is the same routine, so she seems to be okay with the relo. Now, if she could just find a way to get rid of the dogs...

This weekend was nice. We took advantage of yet another unseasonably warm weekend to go into Manhattan. On Saturday, Chris took me to Tea & Sympathy, a proper British Tea house in the west village that serves a proper afternoon tea. There were exactly 23 seats crammed into this tiny restaurant, but we new it would be good b/c there were several ex-pats waiting their turn to get in when we got there. So, 23 seats, and 9 million people in New York...what are the odds of running in to one of the 100 or so celebrities that supposedly live here? If I were a betting person, I'd say slim to none, but lo and behold, we had our first official celebrity citing, right there in the little tea house. She was sitting right behind and kitty-corner to Chris, and so close he could have reached out and touched her (glad he didn't). I only noticed because she turned around to have a look at something on a chalkboard behind me, while I was busy admiring her friends' short hair, and wondering whether I should get mine cut again. I saw her face only briefly, and then sat there for a few minutes, my subconsious mind working it out while Chris and I were engaged in a stimulating discussion about how many finger sandwiches one could make out of a medium sized cucumber. Suddenly, it popped, and I realized that the person I'd subconsiously recognized was, in fact, Madonna...just kidding, it was Julia Styles. I'm not sure anyone else in the place noticed. The place was so small as to require patrons to participate in that strange ritual of completely ignoring the other patrons so as to give the illusion that you're not sitting practically on top of one another. Does that make sense? Anyway, she was there, and that will probably be my one brush with fame. Which is fine by me, except, of course, if I ever run in to Sting, at which point I'd probably embarass the hell out of myself by singing Roxanne, or Englishman in New York, and gushing about how much I love his music.

Anyway, we finished up our tea, and then went up to 81st street and became members of the Museum of Natural History. By this time it was almost closing, so we went to central park and wandered around for awhile, occasionally consulting Chris' phone for directions. We ended up on the other side of the park, at 90th, and walked down to 53rd, hopped on a train and got back in time to prevent destruction by dogs left alone too long. (er hem, Harley). The next day was similarly beautiful, and we went back to the Museum to see one of the temporary exhibits called Mythic Creatures. I really enjoyed it because it reminds one of youth, and yet, most of these creatures are also so ingrained in our culture and psyche that to be reminded that they are, in fact, not real, is a bit of a slap. My favorites, of course (for anyone who knows me, this will not be a surprise), the Unicorn, and Pegasus. I actually also learned a great deal about the origins of some of these creatures, and the meaning behind them. Very interesting. If the exhibit comes to a museum near you, I encourage you to go.

Anyway, that was the haps, here. Feel free to drop me a line any time.

8 comments:

Michelle said...

OH! Tea and Sympathy on Greenwich? Boy, you stepped into way more celebrity than you know. That place is owned by Nicky Perry, very close friend of Glenn Tilbrook. Funny, I hate English food, but I managed to find something I like there.

I am concerned that the dogs are eating stuff off the streets - are they also doing a lot of puking?

Michelle said...

PS - Nicky also owns a fish and chips place on Greenwich that is supposed to be out of this world. (I've never been, but GT really likes it.) I forget the name of it - it has the world "Salt" in the name though, and their motto is "In Cod We Trust."

Carrie said...

Well, Sting will be in town the weekend we are visiting, so perhaps we'll have another celebrity encounter - but only if you promise not to sing to him! Let's see...where would an Englishman BE in New York???

Amy said...

Hey Michelle - are you insane, woman??? How could you not like tea and scones??? Small world, isn't it? So, did we stumble into the celebrity hang-out? I thought they were all in Tribeca, and scattered around at various hotels. As for the fish & chips place, we'll have to check that out too. (love the fish & chips) Probably something like the Salty Dog, or the Salty Duck, or some other animal. Perhaps, the Salty Fish?

With regard to the girls, their intestinal tracts seem quite fine. We were worried too, but there is only so much vigilence one can muster during their walks, and inevitably, they snarf something down. Tonight did not prove particularly fruitful for either of them, but they tried. They're very quick, and I swear they double team us to increase their odds. Most of the time, it is some sort of cake/bread/ muffin/bagel crumb or larger increment of said substance. Once it was half a baked potato. A couple times they've found bones, and once, I believe, it was some sort of dead animal. If you think that's gross, imagine being the one having to go spelunking in their mouths to fish it out...

Amy said...

Hey, Care - you shouldn't have told me he'll be here. Now I'll be looking for him around every corner...Sting - if you're reading this, I'm not really as stalker-ish as I sound...Roxanne...you don't have to put on the red light...

Michelle said...

Oh, I like the tea, but scones are just too heavy for me. I'm more of a cookie woman - and I did eat my share of cookies (biscuits, whatever) over there.

So what do you want to do while you're in town?

alexis said...

just a quick word to say hello and glad to hear you are enjoying NYC! Though having not see you guys in a while, I must admit I didn't realize the dogs had become your 'girls'. I guess with pets it's inevitable :)

Amy said...

Alexis - how are you!!!??? I need your blog address again. I had it at one point, but haven't been on in so long, can't remember or find it now. Anyway, yes, the girls are the dogs. Oddly, we don't normally include Sarah (the cat) in with them - the girls are just the dogs. I guess it's possible that we could have had a couple kids since the last time we saw you, but if that were the case, I probably would have shot myself from the stress of having 2 kids, 2dogs and a cat, moving from CL to NYC in 1000 sq ft, and wouldn't be blogging, unless they have blogs in hell.

Anyway, please post as often as you want, give me your blog address, and if you're ever in NYC, please please PLEASE know that you're welcome to stay with us!