Recently I received an e mail from my college pal, Ted. He & his lovely lady, Flora are moving into a bigger & better apartment in Brooklyn. Sweet. I bought them a postcard wishing them well in their new space and as I scrawled their address I decided to google map it & get a better idea of which part of Brooklyn they are in. So I did. A map came up as well as a "street view" link.
I clicked on this weird link and like magic, a photo of their block, all the buildings, everything, comes up. I can even pan the photo as if I am turning my head. If I wanted to, I could call Ted up right now and ask him if he's been to that kabob shop downstairs yet, because if he hasn't he should - their lamb kabobs are amazing and that crazy sign is really hard to read.
Ha. That would really freak him out.
Now, don't get too excited. Google Maps Street View is only up and running for a few select cities: NY, LA, San Francisco, Miami & Minneapolis. Yes Minneapolis. We have truly made it! I street viewed our house and surmised that the Minneapolis photos were taken sometime in July as our lovely hanging plant was hanging on our porch and still lovely (I bought it in early July and killed it sometime in August). Also, the 35W bridge is still standing (a freaky thing to see) so they were obviously taken before August 1.
This is the intersection close to our house that is home to many good restaurants. If you pan to the right you'll see Jasmine 26, our fav.
Happy Google Map Street Viewing!
xoxx
Showing posts with label observations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label observations. Show all posts
20 February 2008
15 December 2007
parking and shopping and cussing
ah, christmas shopping. so much of it to do & so many places to go. There is one place I steer clear of if at all possible: the mall.
Parking (more in a minute), it's crowded, everyone's crabby (including me) & it's hot because you wear your stupid winter coat which is likely to be bulky and cause you to take up twice as much space as you would in say, a cute sundress.
So parking.
I have a vivid memory of going to Rosedale Mall with my dad in my later elementary school years, maybe even junior high. After circling the parking lot forever to find a parking spot. We finally resorted to stalking a woman we spotted coming out of JC Penney's. We slowly drove behind her as she walked to her car and waited ever so patiently as she gingerly placed her shopping bags in her trunk, got settled in her car, started her engine & let her car warm up for a couple of minutes ("Oh, come on, lady," my dad would say through gritted teeth, "It ain't that cold out, just give us your spot!") and as she carefully pulled out of the spot, her tail end toward us, another car came from nowhere and zipped into the coveted parking spot right under our noses. Many expletives came out of my dad's mouth as he sped away and threatened Rosedale Mall that we would just leave and not shop at all. While I doubt Rosedale heard him and would have cared if it had, we relented, stalked another shopper leaving the mall and got our parking space, fair and square. Yeah.
I hadn't thought about this occurance in ages until this afternoon. I found myself at Rosedale Mall, much to my chagrin, attempting to park near JC Penney and I was circling and circling and circling. At one point, a car ahead of me was stopped for what seemed to be a very long time and just as I was beginning to feel annoyed, I noticed another car coming from the opposite direction (& the wrong way at that) attempting to awkwardly pull into a vacant parking space. The car ahead of me was shaking his fists and honking his horn. The car going the wrong way seemed to be ignoring these gestures but finally gave up on the parking spot and drove away. However, not before stopping next to the car ahead of me to exchange a lot of nice words in really kind tones about how smart each other was in regards to parking. Obviously I'm being sarcastic, there was nothing nice about the 30 second exchange at all, except that it completely distracted me from my annoyance. I will admit that I rolled down my window so that I could hear better.
But seriously, it's a parking spot and it's the holidays so why not just be a little bit nicer while exercising better patience. I don't know, I suppose because we're all stressed out about an assortment of things & it's much easier to freak out at a complete stranger over a parking spot than it is to deal with the source of the stress & anxiety directly. I'm a little guilty of this myself using a different outlet, but guilty none the less.
Witnessing the said encounter helped me put things in perspective and I'm proud to say that I went into the mall at 4:31 and was out by 4:46 having visited the two shops I intended and coming out with exactly what was on my list. All the while I was perfectly chipper and wearing my bulky winter coat and feeling too warm. But I made it through and you know what's even better? I don't think I'll have to go back! (Knock on wood)
xoxx
Parking (more in a minute), it's crowded, everyone's crabby (including me) & it's hot because you wear your stupid winter coat which is likely to be bulky and cause you to take up twice as much space as you would in say, a cute sundress.
So parking.
I have a vivid memory of going to Rosedale Mall with my dad in my later elementary school years, maybe even junior high. After circling the parking lot forever to find a parking spot. We finally resorted to stalking a woman we spotted coming out of JC Penney's. We slowly drove behind her as she walked to her car and waited ever so patiently as she gingerly placed her shopping bags in her trunk, got settled in her car, started her engine & let her car warm up for a couple of minutes ("Oh, come on, lady," my dad would say through gritted teeth, "It ain't that cold out, just give us your spot!") and as she carefully pulled out of the spot, her tail end toward us, another car came from nowhere and zipped into the coveted parking spot right under our noses. Many expletives came out of my dad's mouth as he sped away and threatened Rosedale Mall that we would just leave and not shop at all. While I doubt Rosedale heard him and would have cared if it had, we relented, stalked another shopper leaving the mall and got our parking space, fair and square. Yeah.
I hadn't thought about this occurance in ages until this afternoon. I found myself at Rosedale Mall, much to my chagrin, attempting to park near JC Penney and I was circling and circling and circling. At one point, a car ahead of me was stopped for what seemed to be a very long time and just as I was beginning to feel annoyed, I noticed another car coming from the opposite direction (& the wrong way at that) attempting to awkwardly pull into a vacant parking space. The car ahead of me was shaking his fists and honking his horn. The car going the wrong way seemed to be ignoring these gestures but finally gave up on the parking spot and drove away. However, not before stopping next to the car ahead of me to exchange a lot of nice words in really kind tones about how smart each other was in regards to parking. Obviously I'm being sarcastic, there was nothing nice about the 30 second exchange at all, except that it completely distracted me from my annoyance. I will admit that I rolled down my window so that I could hear better.
But seriously, it's a parking spot and it's the holidays so why not just be a little bit nicer while exercising better patience. I don't know, I suppose because we're all stressed out about an assortment of things & it's much easier to freak out at a complete stranger over a parking spot than it is to deal with the source of the stress & anxiety directly. I'm a little guilty of this myself using a different outlet, but guilty none the less.
Witnessing the said encounter helped me put things in perspective and I'm proud to say that I went into the mall at 4:31 and was out by 4:46 having visited the two shops I intended and coming out with exactly what was on my list. All the while I was perfectly chipper and wearing my bulky winter coat and feeling too warm. But I made it through and you know what's even better? I don't think I'll have to go back! (Knock on wood)
xoxx
05 December 2007
living phone free.
so, on saturday night I lost my phone. for good.
It fell off my lap into the snowy road when I got out of The Blaze to scrape ice from the windshield. Someone found it and sent over a hundred text messages and made crank phone calls. good times.
I've obviously had the phone turned off and since I have made calls from our seldom used land line. My new phone arrives tomorrow but I have to admit that I have enjoyed life without a cell phone.
Remember the days when cell phones were few and far between? I have a specific memory of seeing a woman walking down Park Avenue near the PLU campus with a cell phone in hand mid conversation. I remember thinking to myself how crazy that was, having a cell phone and just walking down the street talking to someone. But now I do the same exact thing all the time.
My dad & i have a little joke that everytime I shop at Target we talk, this seems to be true enough as I talk to a lot of people when I'm at Target and seem to forget half of what I'm there for because of it. I have caught up with long lost friends while walking around Lake of The Isles and I have paid utility bills while riding the bus. This of course was all made possible my cellular telephone.
There was a time where the anticipation of getting home was built up due to the possibility of messages waiting on the good old answering machine. In college, I lived in a house with 5 other people. We all shared one phone line and I think our answering machine listed all of our names. We all heard each other's messages and shared the phone bill with each of us having special codes for our long distance services. Yes, long distance. We had to wait around if we were expecting a phone call. And it was really annoying if you were say talking to your boyfriend when your roommate's parents called via call waiting. Now, most of us use our cell phones for long distance calls as there are no long distance fees, no waiting around for phone calls and seldom do I have to get off the phone because a call for someone else is beeping in. And as for long distance, ha! What is that? I don't even think we have long distance on our land line as there is no such thing as long distance in the world of cell phones.
Cell phones may be more convenient but cheaper they are not. My bill averages about $100 per month and I seldom go over my minutes and almost never have roaming charges. I do have a few special options such as insurance (recently coming in handy), unlimited texts, etc, etc, and these hike my bill up. But I guess it's okay since I pay for it every month & don't really think about the cost.
This weekend it was kind of fun to await a phone call knowing if I left home before it came I would miss it. owell, I thought, I have to go. And I did. It was also fun to return home not to check the answering machine because we don't have one, but the Caller ID to see if anyone called.
I tell a good story quite sincerely, but I am eager to receive my new phone tomorrow. I shopped at Target this weekend without my Pebl in hand and there were moments that I reached for it to call someone (probably my dad). I acquired everything I needed as I had little distraction. I guess I'm ready for that distraction once again.
xoxx
It fell off my lap into the snowy road when I got out of The Blaze to scrape ice from the windshield. Someone found it and sent over a hundred text messages and made crank phone calls. good times.
I've obviously had the phone turned off and since I have made calls from our seldom used land line. My new phone arrives tomorrow but I have to admit that I have enjoyed life without a cell phone.
Remember the days when cell phones were few and far between? I have a specific memory of seeing a woman walking down Park Avenue near the PLU campus with a cell phone in hand mid conversation. I remember thinking to myself how crazy that was, having a cell phone and just walking down the street talking to someone. But now I do the same exact thing all the time.
My dad & i have a little joke that everytime I shop at Target we talk, this seems to be true enough as I talk to a lot of people when I'm at Target and seem to forget half of what I'm there for because of it. I have caught up with long lost friends while walking around Lake of The Isles and I have paid utility bills while riding the bus. This of course was all made possible my cellular telephone.
There was a time where the anticipation of getting home was built up due to the possibility of messages waiting on the good old answering machine. In college, I lived in a house with 5 other people. We all shared one phone line and I think our answering machine listed all of our names. We all heard each other's messages and shared the phone bill with each of us having special codes for our long distance services. Yes, long distance. We had to wait around if we were expecting a phone call. And it was really annoying if you were say talking to your boyfriend when your roommate's parents called via call waiting. Now, most of us use our cell phones for long distance calls as there are no long distance fees, no waiting around for phone calls and seldom do I have to get off the phone because a call for someone else is beeping in. And as for long distance, ha! What is that? I don't even think we have long distance on our land line as there is no such thing as long distance in the world of cell phones.
Cell phones may be more convenient but cheaper they are not. My bill averages about $100 per month and I seldom go over my minutes and almost never have roaming charges. I do have a few special options such as insurance (recently coming in handy), unlimited texts, etc, etc, and these hike my bill up. But I guess it's okay since I pay for it every month & don't really think about the cost.
This weekend it was kind of fun to await a phone call knowing if I left home before it came I would miss it. owell, I thought, I have to go. And I did. It was also fun to return home not to check the answering machine because we don't have one, but the Caller ID to see if anyone called.
I tell a good story quite sincerely, but I am eager to receive my new phone tomorrow. I shopped at Target this weekend without my Pebl in hand and there were moments that I reached for it to call someone (probably my dad). I acquired everything I needed as I had little distraction. I guess I'm ready for that distraction once again.
xoxx
08 November 2007
judging books by their covers.
A few days ago, I was in a book store looking for a book. Nothing specific, just a nice work of fiction to read as I fall asleep at night. As I made my way through the fiction section at my local bookseller I became conscious of my book choosing behavior.
First I go to the shelves of favorite authors, Joyce Carol Oates is one, Edgewidge Danticat is another. I stay open to anything appealing I may stumble across along the way. Next I peruse the tables and the endcaps. I end up wandering around with an armfull of books and sit down to look through them all in order to whittle it down to the one.
In the end a few factors ultimately help me make a decision: I like to support women authors, so I look at that, I also think carefully about the story at hand and the price matters too. But what I really, truly tend to depend on is cover art. seriously. I know it goes against the classic saying, but I just can't help it. There are some pretty amazing & appealing covers out there.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a shining example. This also happens to be the book I purchased and am currently reading. The cover art is quite lovely and completely caught my eye. The book itself is a fantastic work of fiction and came highly recommended by a number of friends. But in the end, as I stood at there, trying to pick one of three books to purchase the cover is what sealed the deal.
xoxx
First I go to the shelves of favorite authors, Joyce Carol Oates is one, Edgewidge Danticat is another. I stay open to anything appealing I may stumble across along the way. Next I peruse the tables and the endcaps. I end up wandering around with an armfull of books and sit down to look through them all in order to whittle it down to the one.
In the end a few factors ultimately help me make a decision: I like to support women authors, so I look at that, I also think carefully about the story at hand and the price matters too. But what I really, truly tend to depend on is cover art. seriously. I know it goes against the classic saying, but I just can't help it. There are some pretty amazing & appealing covers out there.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a shining example. This also happens to be the book I purchased and am currently reading. The cover art is quite lovely and completely caught my eye. The book itself is a fantastic work of fiction and came highly recommended by a number of friends. But in the end, as I stood at there, trying to pick one of three books to purchase the cover is what sealed the deal.
xoxx
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