I Heart New York

... well, not really, but NYC is okay.

I took a little trip to New York over Spring Break (woo!) and actually had a pretty good time. I wasn't really anticipating it to be that fun since I was mostly going for a job interview, but I met up with several friends in the area, did a ton of walking, and rode the Staten Island ferry more times than I'm willing to admit.

I used public transportation for my trip, which included $3 trips to get from Midway airport to my airbnb on Staten Island (bus to subway to free Staten Island ferry to walking 1 mile). It took close to 2 hours to cover that distance, but I have a weird love of public transit, so it was kind of perfect.

I found the subway system fairly easy to use; I'm not really sure why everyone talks about it like it's impossible to navigate, but I guess it could be confusing if you've never had to use a train system before. Other pros: $2.75 per ride, and trains run all night! (What! Not that it matters when you're asleep before midnight on any given night..) The only problem I ran into was that my Metrocard got demagnetized in my wallet, so I had to mail in a claim for the money that was stuck on it. Where are you supposed to keep a Metrocard so that it isn't near credit cards or your cell phone??

One of my friends found that the American Folk Art Museum was having an exhibit on Masonic imagery and symbols, so we ambled through Central Park (first stopping through Belvedere Castle) and made our way to the museum at Lincoln Square. The museum is free with donation-based admission and housed a cozy 3-room personal collection of paintings, sculptures, and clothing items amassed over the years.

The above dimly-lit picture shows all the major symbols of the IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows), many of which are common to Masons. It's a huge mess of symbols, including heart-in-the-hand for integrity; skull-and-bones, coffin, and winged-hourglass as reminders of mortality; and a bundle of rods showing strength in numbers. Needless to say, we're pretty much experts now.

And here's the exterior of the lovely Staten Island airbnb house I stayed in. My room was approximately the size of a large walk-in closet: large enough to fit a single mattress, a small set of plastic drawers, and a little space for walking around the mattress. It was $37 a night, but I ended up having the whole house to myself! Not too shabby. I also nearly destroyed my phone during this trip by initiating dreaded Updates, but possibly more on that another time.

An Artsy Chattanooga Christmas

The trek to Chattanooga this Christmas was complete with cats, lots of family time, and lots of rain.  Evan and I took the 3 kitties with us for a little over a week and split our time visiting the various members of our family and friends who were in town for the holiday.

I made it a point to walk around my favorite parts of downtown, so I got a few artsy or interesting pictures, including this obligatory one looking north through the Walnut Street Bridge.

The legacy of my old favorite restaurant and coffee house, The Mudpie.. replaced by Hill (sh)City pizza, and now by something else under construction.

This sign was only slightly comforting, but mostly disturbing, located at one of the shops on the North Shore by Coolidge Park.

I mentioned rain, and I'm not kidding: there was a thunderstorm on Christmas Eve, which is HIGHLY unusual, and the Tennessee River showed off that craziness with its swollen flood stage (not in itself an unusual occurrence). The above picture is looking south across the river, and it doesn't look too bad, but observe the closeup from the south shore:

All those little nubs that are separated from the stone staircase are actually 8+ foot tall lamp pillar things, and the stairs go all the way down to a sidewalk at their base. None of that is supposed to be underwater, so the river was probably close to 10 feet above where it should have been! A final more-closeup by the stairs, with ~1 foot of the pillars above water:

... And Rembrandt's in a coffee cup, mmmm.