It's Halloween, y'all...

It's the first Halloween in a long, long time that absolutely nothing Halloween-y has appeared on the radar. My friends and I all seem to be in the same boat: no parties, no costumes...no real acknowledgement of the holiday at all, really.

Is it because Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year? Is it because we're all getting older, and we just don't care as much as we used to? Perhaps.

I went about my business as usual today, and as day wore on into evening, I saw increasing signs of city Halloween life (it's hard to ignore Halloween completely in New York, after all). Kids and grown-ups in costumes (though, with the grown-ups, it's sometimes difficult to tell whether the clothing is a costume or just the everyday attire of an eccentric personality), candy being given away to Trick-or-Treaters at neighborhood stores, more interesting outfits than usual on the folks waiting on subway platforms...
(I did have a favorite costume - someone had stuck a fake oversized hot dog bun on his dog, adding a strip of fake ketchup on top for good measure).

I didn't really care about celebrating the holiday myself this year, but there was something comforting about seeing those yearly signs of Halloween life. More than most holidays, Halloween just blends so seamlessly into the fabric of my beloved New York City. Something would just be wrong if Halloween disappeared completely - so thank you to everyone who made an effort this year. Maybe next year I'll be back in the game...

I just got health insurance, and now I need PHONE insurance, too?

I've always been very aware of how many people seem glued to their cell phones as they're walking down the street, but today that awareness took on an extra clear sharpness. You see, for the first time ever, today I lost my cell phone.

I work at a small store in Manhattan, and I had my Motorola RAZR sitting next to the register as I rang up our customers. At one point, with a sinking feeling, I noticed that my phone was no longer next to the register. I am pretty sure my RAZR left the premises with a customer, who inadvertently grabbed it thinking it was her own, OR with a NON-customer, which would be just...evil.

Ever lose a cell phone before? There are so many annoying things about the whole experience, not the least of which are the following two:
1) the ridiculous expense of buying a new phone while not in my "free upgrade" time window (this one's especially fun, having just moved AND having just replaced my recently-crashed laptop. Yay!)
2) the process of attempting to retrieve all the phone numbers I lost (does anyone keep a hard copy rolodex these days, besides my mother? Perhaps now's a good time to start...)

I don't consider myself the most "connected" lady in the world, but I do enjoy my share of text messaging, and it's painful right now to have that activity missing from my life. Thank goodness for my new neighbors' open wireless networks...at least I still have email until I scrape together the funds for a new phone.

I hope the new owner of my RAZR is enjoying the phone photos of my cat.

New Home

Once again, it's moving time for Catherine...

I have lived in seven different apartments (including this newest one) since moving to Brooklyn just over eight years ago. I am not counting the various places (read: friends' couches) where I have crashed for various lengths of time in between homes...I am just counting those places where the post office has deemed it official enough to deliver mail to me.

This newest apartment is in a neighborhood of Brooklyn that is completely unfamiliar to me, a whole new zip code and cable service provider. I've hardly had a chance to explore the 'hood (moving takes its sweet time), but I am already finding things to appreciate: 24 hour fruit/vegetable groceries on nearly every block, West Indian/roti eateries seemingly every 50 feet, a laundromat across the street, a public library behind my building...
There is more of a longstanding "Brooklyn" feeling here than in the other considerably more gentrified neighborhoods where I have lived, and I like that...but there are also just enough chain establishments to create a feeling of comforting familiarity. Every major bank, a Blockbuster videostore, and a Duane Reade drugstore are all within easy walking distance. And, while it is totally gross if consumed on a regular basis, I can't argue with having a Popeye's down the street that is open until 2:30am (3:00am on weekends).

Up until now, I've hardly had more than an hour or two at a time (usually at night) to check out my new surroundings. I am interested to discover how my perceptions of my new locale and my place within it will change and develop in the coming months (and, I hope, years...moving is exhausting, and I'd prefer to cut down the frequency of its occurence in my life).

Breakin' this hiatus

My blog is getting off to a shaky start, as I haven't posted to it now in weeks, and there are only three posts before this one to begin with.
Such lapses in productivity cause me to consider my lifelong companion: Procrastination.

Most people I have met are familiar with procrastination, and some succumb to it more than others. In my experience, people procrastinate for one of two reasons: 1) They don't really want to do the thing that they are putting off, or 2) They REALLY REALLY want to do the thing that they are putting off, and they are just not giving themselves the time and permission to get to it already. Or, maybe people are just lazy.

I find that procrastination is most deadly when beefed up by Excuse-Making.
It's easy to say that life can get in the way, people get busy, blah, blah, blah... I can verifiably say that I have had plenty going on in my life in the last few weeks, plenty to keep me busy outside of this blog. But, I also like to follow things through as long as I still have interest in them, and I am most certainly still interested in this blog.

So, in an attempt to keep my posts more free-flowing, I am going to be less prohibitive with my choice of posting topics. Maybe I'll even supplement the social criticism with some straight-up creative writing. Life is hard enough without placing further restrictions on oneself, I say...and I just want to write more.