The Yankees

Ok. More November: I took the red-eye back from LA and thanks to my mom and aunt, slept though most of it. Yay?! to staying up all night drinking completely made-up cocktails with your giggly mom and aunt. That said, after sleeping for a few hours in my own bed, I was welcomed back to NY with bagels, a subway ride and romp around Riverside Park. On that one, here's to friends who make you get out of bed?! And here's Riverside Park.

Riverside Church from Grant's Tomb. Grant's Tomb. Civil War dudes had enviable facial hair as shown here. Nick and I being Yankee fans.

And with that, I'm a New Yorker again.

Thanksgiving in LA and environs

Here I will attempt to start filling in the gaping hole that is November.

Among other things, I spent Thanksgiving week in and around Los Angeles. The ultimate goal being to spend the holiday with family and to celebrate my Gramma's birthday, but I also snuck in a little sightseeing with old friends. In addition to my high school BF, I was able to spend some time with a good friend from Philly who now lives in Hollywood.

Following lunch at The Grove, we wandered Hollywood Boulevard a bit, which was both fun and weird. I hadn't really been down there since high school and while it's cleaned-up nicely, I kind of missed the teenage runaways. The only freaks left seemed to be the celebrity look-alikes.

We'd thought about hitting Melrose Avenue for old-time sake, but opted for pool side cocktails at the Roosevelt Hotel. Site of the first Academy Awards in 1929, the hotel also hosted celebrities like Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. The later's first magazine photo shoot took place at this very pool and more eerily, she's said to haunt the place. Oh, how I would have liked to have seen such a glamourous ghost.

Ghastly... A couple of days later, we headed out to Santa Monica, because no trip to California is compete without seeing the Pacific. Following a surprisingly scream-worthy go at the Sea Dragon and Zoltar advising Aneek to live everyday as if it were her last, I made a new green friend - a 13 year-old parrot who proceeded to fall asleep on my shoulder. I'll post more LA photos to Flickr, but you get the idea.

I ultimately had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents, mom, aunt, uncle and cousins. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to spend time in a place that holds so many warm-and-fuzzies for me, with people I see way too infrequently. And with that, happy holidays, all. Here's to good food, family and friends.

"It's Halloween...

... it's Halloween, time for tricks and time for treeeats, it's Halloween!"

Endless Mountains, endless

This time last week, we were winding through back roads past Scranton; slowly making our way to Nick's Dad's cabin in the Endless Mountains. Frustrated by intermittent rain and the cold, we couldn't help but think that our weekend was just not going the way we'd planned. As if the weather weren't disappointing enough, we were a week early for the annual haunted hay ride put on by the local high school - my personal favorite fall event in that neck of the woods.

When we finally arrived at the cabin it was by the extreme darkness of night, not a star was visible and by contrast, we were surprised by the colorful landscape that would greet us come morning.

Needless to say, we spent a couple of days trudging through wet woods, observing flora and fauna and most notably, huddled by the fire, failing to ever completely dry our wet socks. That said, I spent a good amount of time working on my first knit sweater. It's for a toddler. And I couldn't help but think, very much in line with Mother Nature's color scheme for the weekend.

All said, I would have liked to have spent another day in the woods: cold and wet, struggling to keep the fire lit. It looks like this weekend in New York will be damp, too. Maybe I'll finish that sweater and take a walk to see the foliage, all with the knowledge that I have a hearty stock of dry socks at home.

For Ella's mail art collection

But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more
- Hans Christian Andersen

I finally made it out to The Putting Lot — 9 locally-designed mini-golf holes — this (especially swampy) afternoon.

Are you wet yet?, hole 3, by Openhop in the forefront.

Pachinko Putt-Putt by Meat Pallet, hole 7.

The Art Market by Skewville, hole 6.

The Living Lot by Interface Studio, hole 9.

Check it out should you happen to be in Bushwick.

The Putting Lot, 12 Wyckoff Ave., Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY

(Mon)tréal

Last weekend about this time, I was embarking on a walking tour of Old Montreal, armed with a printed-out, step-by-step guide — when left to my own devices I will do some, like, totally uncool things. That said, it was far more discreet than a guidebook and kept me focused in ways that just wandering and goggling wouldn't have.

Here's a link to some of the photos I took on said walking tour and around Montreal in general last weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beebimbop/sets/72157621833069529/