Because we both got paid yesterday, Eric and I went out to lunch this afternoon - something we rarely do. We tried a new burger place near Union Square, Stand, which I heard about at Self. My veggie burger with blue cheese and his turkey burger were delicious - not to mention the crispy fries and my hops infusion draught beer. Man, I miss burger and brew nights at 6th St Grill.



To help us digest, we walked around Union Square - and right into a giant pillow fight. I'm guessing it was somehow affiliated with NYU because most of the participants looked to be college-aged. Every so often a pillow exploded and sent feathers flying throughout the park, and onlookers were covered in a fluffy white layer of down.



Eric hurried toward the subway entrance so he didn't arrive at work looking like he'd just slaughtered a goose. Blocks away, people were laughing and carrying mostly-empty pillowcases. I just wished I'd gotten the memo and brought my own pillow.

I spent today babysitting Leo, Dana Points's 5-year-old boy. I picked him up from school and we immediately went across the street to spend the afternoon in Central Park. As the carousel was closed, we went to the nearby playground - but mostly skipped it in favor of the outcropping of granite that overshadows the monkey bars. We looked for pieces of flat wood to make tiny boats and sleds out of, avoided the "lava" (melted ice) that ran down parts of the "volcano" (the rocks) and explored the crevasses and pools of the stone.

Other people had our idea to hang out in the sun, too. Two boys floated wood in a murky puddle in the middle of the rocks - "This is SS Cargo, we're in enemy territory!" - and somehow their little wet hands didn't fall off from frostbite. One guy sat on the rocks and wrote in his notebook - poetry? a journal entry? a to-do list? Plenty of tourists took pictures with towering maples and skyscrapers in the background, and I heard a half-dozen languages in the hour or two we were there.

When we walked to his friend's birthday party, and again when we walked to his house, we raced - and of course he always beat me.

Running around with Leo reminded me how liberating it is to play with a child. His imagination and curiosity were refreshing. I wish we could have playdates more often.

I just got back from a walk in Central Park and am trying to defrost my toes. The cold all too easily crept up through the rubber soles of my galoshes and through two pairs of socks, leaving popsicles instead of feet. But it was worth it.



The park was absolutely gorgeous. The cold weather froze a layer of ice over all Wednesday's snow so my footsteps didn't even leave a mark on the white expanse covering everything but the most busy paths. I came around 4, when the sun was just above the buildings on the Upper West Side, so beautiful long shadows cut diagonally across the snow. I went to my favorite area up there where a creek runs through a mostly deserted area of the woods and even tumbles down a few Park Conservancy-made waterfalls.



I even brought out my latest stuffie for a little stroll. I finished him this afternoon while listening to Stephen King's "Cell" on CD that I got from the library. The book has been pretty entertaining so far, and I don't know how it couldn't be with its premise: Everyone using a cell phone at a given time became violent zombie-like people with a penchant for music.

My Stephen King audiobooks experiences haven't always been so good. A few years ago, Mom, Dad and I drove up to Wenatchee, Washington to kayak the Wenatchee River, which only runs once a year when they let water out of a nearby dam. As it was a 9-hour drive, we stopped at the Eugene Public Library on our way out of town. Mom and Dad sent me up to the second floor to get us something to listen to and the librarians warned me they were closing the building in 5 minutes. So I grabbed a book by the only author I recognized - I think it was called "Sarah Laughs."

We endured the long-winded story, read by the King of Horror, for hours. The plot was convoluted and the storytelling full of useless details and of course, true to Stephen King's MO, repitive descriptors and cliches. When we finally got to the last tape (Dad's old van, the Shempmobile, had a tape deck) we were relieved and ready to get the ending over with. When it stopped, though, we didn't feel any resolution in the story - and then discovered we were HALFWAY done with the tapes. There was a whole other stack of them we hadn't seen. Dad almost threw the whole package out the window into the Washington wilderness. We listened to Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan CDs the rest of the drive.

Why is it that I always forget my gloves and hat on the worst possible day? Like that day two weeks ago when I had to walk the excrutiating 3 avenue blocks from the gym to the subway while the 25 mph wind found its way through all my layers to my bare skin and whipped tears out of my eyes. Or today when I was running late and had to take the B train to Bryant Park and walk to the office through yesterday’s leftover snow sludge, when it was 17 degrees outside. At least I wore galoshes with thick socks. I learned my lesson yesterday when the de-icing salt left lovely stains on my leather boots. Obviously, I am not a pro at this whole winter thing.

BUT yesterday was beautiful. After I walked the eight blocks to the hedge fund office near Rockefeller Center through sideways-driving frozen rain that tried to cut out my corneas, I got to see the Nor’easter unfold from the 19th floor. I could see the top of the beautiful church on the corner of 51st and 5th and all the skyscrapers were covered in white. I watched the snow swirl upwards and sideways but almost never down. When I left for the day, I saw the result of that: signs, mailboxes and fire hydrants had an inch-thick layer of snow on their sides, not on top. Ah, wind, how I love hate feel ambivalently about you!

Who: An elderly lady, mid-70s or so, wearing a full-length fur coat and orthopedic shoes.
Where: Riding the downtown N train.
When: About 6:30. I was riding from work to the gym.
Her reading material: "Hooking Up and Holding Out: A smart girl's guide to driving men crazy and/or finding true love"

Priceless.

I participated in an online swap for the first time, through freepeople.com. Today I came home from the library to find a package on my doorstep! It was a box from a swapper in California, Elena, filled with tons of lovely Valentine's Day gifts - almost a whole week early! Among other things, she sent this awesome necklace. I think she made it.



I'm not as on top of things as Elena, but today I sent my gift to Lisa in Texas. I hope she likes it!



I've been sewing quite a bit lately. Today I started a lion like the one I gave to Keegan. Man, I need to stop giving them away so I can set up my web site and actually sell them.

Today was gorgeous outside, although the wind would take away my breath mid-sentence. At least it's not as cold as it had been all week. I was afraid I'd get my eyes poked out from a falling icicle stalagtite in the Canal St. subway station. Seriously.

Summer, where are you?