Tag Archives: A to Z Challenge

Z: Zabar’s & ZZZZs

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ZABAR’S: This 86-year-old specialty grocery store, located at 80th St. and Broadway, is practically an institution on the Upper West Side. It’s like the Trader Joe’s before Trader Joe’s. It opened in 1934 by Louis and Lillian Zabar, and continues to be a family-run business. This landmark grocery store, known for their bagels, coffee (selling over 400,000-lbs/year), and delicatessen, has been featured in a gazillion movies and television shows.

But even Zabar’s can’t escape a little controversy. Back in 2011, a reporter from New Orleans discovered the store’s lobster salad contained zero lobster. The $16.95/lb sans lobster salad (that had been sold for 15 years) became national news. To be fair, lobster was never listed as an ingredient (it was mostly crawfish). After Lobstergate, Zabar’s renamed the product “Zabster Zalad.”

Anyway, Zabar’s is one of my favorite stores and always worth the trek from Brooklyn. Fortunately, they offer shipping, so I can still get my Zabar’s coffee and bagel fix without setting foot on the subway.

ZZZZs: I’m definitely catching more ZZZZs these dayzzz . . . (there are roughly 569 z-words, but after blogging 26 days this month, I’m a little zonked.) I think a lot of us can agree that this pandemic has forced the world to slow down a little bit, which isn’t a terrible thing. Slowing down forces us to take stock, and re-evaluate all kinds of things in our lives. Sometimes, what we need is to take advantage of more opportunities to sleep.

Without our conscious selves interfering, our body can heal during snooze hours, allowing cells to produce protein. This foundation of protein in our cells, creates healthy cells that work to repair damage from things like stress and UV rays. Because the brain spends this time on maintenance, good, quality sleep is said to be one of the best ways to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease. Aside from making you more alert, sleep improves memory, may reduce your risk of depression, and keeps your heart healthy. Need more convincing? Check out these links:

10 Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep
7 Surprising Reasons to Get More Sleep
Benefits of Sleep (via the smart folks at Harvard)

Thanks, everyone who visited me during this A to Z Challenge! I appreciate all of you and hope to stay connected. Perhaps I’ll even blog a little more often . . . or not. We’ll see. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy! And get some ZZZZs!

Y: Yearlong Exploration of Impermanence & Yoga Pants

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

YEARLONG EXPLORATION OF IMPERMANENCE: Shortly before the pandemic struck, a friend and I got the chance to catch an exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art, on the Buddhist concept of impermanence. The exhibit was scheduled to run this entire year, hence, a year long exhibition. First, the Rubin is a beautiful museum “that stimulates learning, promotes understanding, and inspires personal connections to the ideas, cultures, and art of Himalayan regions.” Impermanence is the idea that everything changes. Learning to detach from the people and the things we love is an important lesson, according to Eastern philosophy. Relying on outside happiness that is only temporary, leads to heartache and suffering–which is why inner peace and inner happiness is a cornerstone of Buddhism. We gotta make our own happiness. It doesn’t mean we can’t love those around us, but we have to be able to continue forth with happiness if that person is no longer around, whether they’ve passed away or simply stepped out of our lives.

One of the things I enjoyed at the exhibit was The Letter Writing Project by artist Lee Mingwei. When his grandmother passed away, he still had so many things he want to say to her, but couldn’t. For the next year, he wrote many letters to her sharing his thoughts and feelings. In this interactive installation, he invites us into a wooden booth to write the letter we had always meant to, but never did. The booth contained everything one would need: paper, envelopes, and pencils. You could seal and address the letter (the museum would send it for you), or leave it open on the wall of the booth for others to read. At a later date, the letters left will be ceremoniously burned. My friend, who had lost her mother only a week earlier, found the process very cathartic. I wrote a note of love and gratitude to my dad. I hope to get the chance to revisit this exhibit later in the year.

YOGA PANTS: I have three pairs of yoga pants I’ve been rotating since the stay-at-home orders began. Below is a conversation between me and my jeans after a long hiatus:

Opens drawer.

JEANS: [squinting] Hey, what the hell?

ME: Sorry, that’s the sun.

JEANS: Yeah, I know. You could have knocked first. I need a minute.

[waits]

ME: Look, we need to go to the grocery store.

JEANS: What? Are your yoga pants too delicate for the streets of Brooklyn?

ME: [scoffs] No. Yoga pants are everywhere. This is Park Slope, remember?

JEANS: Oh, yeah. All right then, let’s do this.

[putting on jeans]

JEANS: I’m not here to squash one’s attempt at self-expression; I’m all for it, and you have to do what’s comfortable for you, but the zipper goes in front.

ME: Oh. The tag goes in back?

JEANS: Yep.

[takes jeans off and turns them around]

JEANS: I know there’s that whole front-butt trend—

ME: Mom jeans.

JEANS: Right. But—no pun intended—I’m not that pair.

ME: Yeah, I got that.

[zips and buttons jeans]

JEANS: Whoa, yoga pants might be meant for stretch, but I’m not, lady.

ME: Hey! Things have been turned upside down lately–give me break.

JEANS: What? Would it kill you to drop a few pounds during this pandemic?

[Unamused glare]

JEANS: Too soon?

ME: Too soon.

JEANS: All I’m saying, is maybe you need to lay off the Great British Bake Show.

ME: Hey, how do you know what I watch?

JEANS: Your underwear, one drawer up. They’re chatty.

ME: Excuse me?

JEANS: Just saying, they’re feeling the stretch, too.

ME: [gasp] You know, I forgot what a jerk you can be.

JEANS: Oh please, those yoga pants have gotten to you with all their hippy-dippy, you’re-perfect-the-way-you-are crap.

ME: Hey! Those yoga pants have been good to me.

JEANS: A little too good; blowing sunshine up your rear. Ask your underwear—they know.

ME: You know, I don’t even know why I thought this could work.

JEANS: Me neither.

[takes off jeans; muffled grunts from said pair of jeans; roughly folds up jeans and shoves them into a bottom drawer, far away from the underwear. Puts on yoga pants.]

YOGA PANTS: Was that pair of jeans not being nice to you?

ME: [pouts] Yeah. Mean Jeans.

YOGA PANTS: Well, you don’t need that negativity in your life.

ME: You’re right!

YOGA PANTS: You leave the stretch to me; I’m meant for times like these.

ME: Thanks, yoga pants.

YPGA PANTS: You bet. You’re perfect just the way you are.

[Settles on the couch with laptop to order groceries online]

X: Xanthophyll & Xenophobia

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

XANTHOPHYLL: This is the yellow pigment (lutein), that related to carotene, and found in plants, particularly in autumn leaves. These pics are from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens last November. While it was a clear morning, a chill in the air kept most people away, so we felt lucky to get these shots before it warmed up a bit that day.

XENOPHOBIA: Fear of foreigners has been around since the beginning of time, and I suspect, it will never go away. It’s during crises like these we see spikes in xenophobia. This Atlantic article points out that during the yellow fever pandemic, Eastern immigrants were targeted; East Asians bore the brunt of SARS; and Africans were blamed for Ebola. Everyone wants a scapegoat, right? For one (not mentioning any names) it’s the cornerstone to their re-election campaign. Check out Unicef’s 5 Ways to Fight Racism and Xenophobia and the UN’s article on what helps to reduce racism and xenophobia.

W: Walking & Waiting & Wondering

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

WALKING: I don’t miss having to drive. For us, one of the best things about city life, is walking everywhere. The vast majority of our vacations over the last 10-15 years, involve being able to walk everywhere: Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto . . . my son and I logged about 15-18 miles one day in San Francisco (our feet paid for it, but I remember the sights, the company, and the food more than the blisters). We’re not walking as much these days, but we do try to get out once a week or so for a long stroll, mostly to Green-wood Cemetery to enjoy the quiet and the gorgeous foliage. The following are four very short snippets of some journeys (two pre-pandemic and two from just recently).

Brooklyn Bridge
Walking under the Washington Square arch (another wonderful W)
Under the pear tree
Under the cherry tree

WAITING & WONDERING: Need I say more?

V: The Vessel & Viral Valedictory

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE VESSEL: Comprised of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, the Vessel is one of the latest additions to Manhattan’s highfalutin $25 billion (yes, you read that right) Hudson Yards neighborhood. The spiral staircase consists of 2,500 steps, 80 landings, and is an interactive art piece by Thomas Heatherwick. You must get a ticket to ride climb the steps and are issued on a first come, first served basis, so the lines can get pretty long, but apparently, the views are spectacular. We haven’t actually attempted the trek up yet and frankly, we’d be fine we don’t.

View from below

The “comically-oversized pine cone,” as it’s been called by critics, isn’t without controversy. I’m not sure what the latest is, but originally, your free ticket came with the fine print caveat that simply visiting the $150 million stairclimber granted the Vessel the rights to use all of your Vessel content in perpetuity and for commercial uses. After receiving some harsh feedback, they amended their policy to state people still retain “ownership” of their social media posts, and the Vessel only wants to “amplify and re-share” the photos. Regardless, lawyers still found some troubling clauses in the Vessel’s Terms & Conditions such as “voluntarily giving up substantial legal rights,” and some questionable legality of searching a person’s body and belongings. Anywho . . . the Vessel folks are looking to rename the structure and are asking for the public to offer their two cents. Any ideas?

VIRAL VALEDICTORY: Originally, I vowed to vehemently veer from viral virulence, but a voluminous, verbose verse of Vs fought vainly to be voiced, hence, a Viral Valedictory.

Bon voyage, virus! Vamoose! Our vigilant vacations and vacated ventures will be a valiant victory over your villainous violation. With vigor and vitality, virologists wielding vials of vaccines will vanquish your violent invasion validating our vital and voracious vision for your eviction. (Take with you, the valueless, vindictive village vermin ventriloquized by the vulturous GOP near Virginia, and whose vicious and vexing vitriol is a verifiable vat of verbal vomit.)

To everyone else: Vindication, via your versatileness, videoconferencing, vegging out, and vigilant volunteering for the vulnerable victims and vendors is vicinal. Levitate the vibrations with vivacious voodoo vibes and vocal invocation and vaporize this vulgar virus into oblivion. Be vainglorious, as our viable viceroyship is inevitable.    

Voila!

U: Upper West Side & Upanishads

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UPPER WEST SIDE: I love the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I’m sure it has a lot to do with it being where I stayed when I visited NYC for the first time back in 2013. Actually, it probably goes back even further to You’ve Got Mail, one of my favorite movies, and one that celebrates the UWS. There’s just something about this neighborhood; the history, the architecture, the vibe. However, we chose Brooklyn for two reasons: our dear friend and her now-toddler daughter live here; and Brooklyn bucks go a lot further when it comes to living arrangements. Flanked by Central Park and the Hudson River, the UWS spans south to 59th Street and north, to 110th Street. The Upper East Side might have Museum Mile, but the UWS boasts plenty of cultural go-tos (Lincoln Center, American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, and several theaters, like the Beacon). It’s got Zabar’s for Pete’s sake! The brownstone- and tree-lined neighborhoods also have that quintessential NYC feel, too.

You’ll also find the 72nd Street station control house, that opened in 1904 as one of the original 28 stations of the NC subway system. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the control house was deemed adequate because of narrow stairways and no underground crossover or crossunder to access all trains from one entrance. A new control house built near it in 2002, provides the much-needed space and second exit/entrance.

The station underwent another renovation in 2018 that included a sky and cloud mosaic by Yoko Ono, who lives in the iconic Dakota building atop the subway stop. I took a picture of the mosaic one day–not even knowing who created it–but for the life of me, I can’t find it. Thank goodness for the interwebs.

UPANISHADS: I started studying Hindu philosophy five years ago and essayed my experience for a magazine in early 2017. For those first couple of years, these philosophies and the practice of meditation provided me with a perspective that kept me in a calm and contented Zenned-out state. I guess I had enough Zen reserves to muster through the first few months of Trump’s “presidency,” but as time went on, those tanks got tapped out. I remember at the time, I had been reading the Upanishads, ancient Sanskrit texts of spiritual teachings and ideas of Hinduism, but the god-awfulness of the Orange Menace, became too much and my Zen ran for the hills. I’ve been struggling to catch up to it ever since.

I don’t subscribe to any organized religion (often an oxymoron, if ask me), but I can get behind some of these sacred teachings and words of wisdom regarding karma and inner spiritual contemplation. Written in poetic verse, I find the text in the Upanishads much more palatable than most translated spiritual teachings. I’ll be the first to admit, some of it feels preachy and not relatable, which is why I don’t throw all my philosophical and spiritual eggs in one basket, but it’s got several nuggets of insight and perspective that my brain seems to align with. I’ve been revisiting these lessons over the past couple of months–even before this pandemic began–in an effort to find just an inkling of that elusive Zen. I’ll leave you with a snippet of the Aitareya Upanishad that pertains to the unity of life:

The Self is in all.
He is all the gods, the five elements,
Earth, air, fire, water, and space;
all creatures,
Great or small, born of eggs, of wombs,
of heat,
Of shoots, horses, cows, elephants, men
and women;
All beings that walk, all beings that fly,
And all that neither walk nor fly.”

T: Times Square & Taking Stock

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TIMES SQUARE: It doesn’t take long to learn why New Yorkers avoid Times Square at all costs. It’s viewed as a necessary evil when seeing a show, or having out-of-town guests who have never experienced it. It’s a sea of slow-moving, awe-struck people taking photos. I can’t fault them, however, because that was me at one point, but not anymore. The luster is gone, although I will say, it’s fun to watch friends and family see it for the first time.

Right now must be the perfect time to visit Time Square. No crowd to get stuck behind; no one accosting you with flyers, CDs, or requests for anything; and no one to get mad at you because you accidentally got in their picture (it’s totally unavoidable given the amount of people). The other best time to see Times Square is when it’s raining. I caught a pic through my clear dome umbrella–which, by the way–is the best umbrella to have in NYC. You can see through it and it won’t get flipped inside out by the notorious wind.

Despite the annoying aspects of Times Square, it’s an iconic symbol of NYC and I can appreciate that. Like most monumental attractions, Times Square has accumulated a long list of fun facts. Here’s a few:

  • About 340,000 pedestrians pass through Times Square each day, amounting to 50 million visitors a year.
  • An estimated 2 million people packed into Time Square on August 14, 1945 to celebrate U.S. victory in WWII, making it the largest crowd in its history. It’s also when Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the photo of a sailor kissing a nurse.
  • Times Square lights can be seen from outer space.
  • The Times Square subway station has a mural painted by pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein.
  • One Times Square (the building on which the ball drops) is mostly empty. Originally constructed in 1904 as the New York Times headquarters, the building was purchased by Lehman Brothers in 1995 and turned into a giant billboard. Jamestown Properties, who now owns the building, rents out the three bottom floors. The top floor houses the the New Year’s Eve ball. The billboards generate over $23 million per year.

TAKING STOCK: I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s hard to spend these days without thinking about the big picture and what’s truly important. What are we bringing with us when we reach the other side of this pandemic? Will it be back to status quo? Jeez, I hope not.

Dad

When cancer took both my father and my father-in-law in 2007, their deaths prompted the almost involuntary act of taking stock; what do I bring with me through this journey of grief? I took stock of my life and immediately, I could identify the unimportant crap not worthy of attention or even acknowledgement. I quit sweating the small stuff, weeded out the piddly junk, and focused on staying present. While occasionally I need a reminder, those lessons I learned thirteen years ago, have stayed with me.

With that said, there’s still way more adjustments and flat-out changes I need to make going forward. This has made mine and The Husband’s priorities evolve and shift over the last month or so and, frankly, it’s kinda cool. It’s been so easy to fall into the consumerism trap and not think about whose pockets we’re filling, and who is getting short changed. What is this pandemic teaching us about our country’s priorities and how we either consciously or unconsciously feed into them? Will this finally force voters and lawmakers to prioritize our broken healthcare system? Our environment? Our criminal justice system? The ridiculous disparity of wealth in this country? The list goes on. Fortunately, writer Julio Vincent Gambuto articulated this so beautifully in his article, Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting. I urge you to take a few minutes to read it.

Another “T” I felt worthy to ponder today is “temporal range,” as it pertains to humans. Author John Green gave a tee-riffic commentary on the subject on his podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed. Check it out.

S: Street Art & Support

2020 A to Z Challenge, , , , , , ,

A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

STREET ART: Street art can consists of several types of art including installations and performance, but for this post, I’m focusing on murals and artwork (some commissioned; others not). I don’t have enough room here (or knowledge) to offer even the basic history of street art; you can find an insane amount of articles online about it. NYC is plastered with amazing street art, from amateurs to the well known, like this Banksy, entitled “Hammer Boy” on 79th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.

There are also several by Brazilian artist, Eduardo Kobra whose recognizable style involves bright colors and bold lines within a kaleidoscope style. His work is incredible.

Coming across street art makes me happy, whether it’s a tiny little heart, or a massive mural. I may not always understand the artist’s message, but I appreciate it’s there.

SUPPORT: This is something I feel we ought to be doing all the time, but if there’s any time to offer support, it’s now. You might feel your reserves are running low because you’re needing assistance, too, but there are various ways to lend a germ-free hand.

Emotional support can go a long way, so reach out to friends and family through text, email, and video chat. Allowing someone to air their sorrows and fears can be a gift; just letting it all out can make room for optimism and positivity to settle in.

Check on neighbors, especially ones living alone, by slipping a note under their door with your phone number. If they don’t have anyone to talk to, can you imagine their loneliness? Rack your brain for all those people in your life who live alone and by all mean, give ’em a holler. Set up Zoom game nights, happy hours, and other fun activities, like trivia night. It gives you all something to look forward to after the monotonous day-to-day.

If you are able to offer monetary support, I gave several options in my J-post, but here are some other things you can do:

  • Chip in to support your building staff (if you live in an apartment building). Someone in our building posted in our online resident portal (that no one ever reads) that she’d like to start a fund for our building staff. Only myself and a couple of others replied, so she printed off little slips of paper explaining what we’d like to do and divvied them up so we could distribute them under everyone’s doors–a great way to start a project and keep our distance.
  • Shop small business . So many folks who make a living as artists are really having a rough time. Get on Etsy and do some shopping (you can find some very cool masks right now). I just bought some earrings from a local artist I met last Christmas. She’s thrilled to have the support and I’m thrilled to have unique, one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Think about these folks and consider doing your birthday and holiday shopping now. This is also the perfect time to get used to the practice of shopping local and supporting the little guys, because even when this quarantine is over, we ought to make some serious changes about where our money goes. Authors are also artists, so buy books from a local bookseller, or even the author’s website. (Bonus: they may even sign it for you.) One author friend, is donating 35% of proceeds to Direct Relief, so boom! You support both the author and a good cause.
  • Order from local restaurants still offering take out. If you want to continue enjoying [insert your favorite restaurant meal] when this is all “over,” then hang up your pots and pans and let the pros cook. So many restaurants have already closed up for good here and it feels like it’s only the beginning.
  • Make a list of all the local places you love that are in danger of closing their doors for good and rally the troops. So many businesses, from hair dressers to bakeries, to health care providers, are changing up the way they do business so they can still service their customers; keep tabs on what they’re up to and continue your patronage. Look, even if despite all efforts these businesses have to close, at least you tried. That’s so much better than making Jeff Bezos even richer.

What are some ways you’re offering your support? The more we share these things, the more we can help!