What I will miss about Hoboken 2

The PATH Train

Moving to Hoboken and taking the PATH train to work in the city daily has allowed me to live a car-free existence which I truly value.

While the PATH train has significantly fewer destination options it is in my opinion a nicer, more efficient system. The stations and cars are cleaner, one-way fare is $.75 cheaper than the subway, they have permanent ride cards that can be re-filled automatically online.

I have also mastered the fine art of dozing on the train and waking up at my stop, I can balance coffee, a book, and my bag without holding on; and I know exactly where the doors will open on the platform and the ideal car to be in at certain days/times.

Also, key in my mind, there is only one pan-handler that I have ever seen on the PATH. To me there is nothing more frustrating on the Subway than the constant berage of pan-handlers, troubadors, and evangelists. I have nothing against these people on the platforms, if I'm not interested I can just walk away but to be stuck in a subway car with them is agonizing. There are even some that are so bold as to get in our face and ask for money or a smile --I don't have either one for you and my book/iPod/magazine is infinitely more interesting.

What I am going to miss about Hoboken #1

The Hoboken Public Library

I returned my last books to the Hoboken Public Library tonight. Hoboken has a really nice library, the building is old and has this really established feel to it, it's three stories and the opening room with the reception desk has an atrium quality to it; there are pillars in really odd places so you sometimes have to wedge yourself between it and the shelves to get at the book you are looking for.

As part of the Bergen County Library system I have never wanted a book or movie that the library couldn't get for me and I have never waited more than three days for anything I requested. I doubt I will be able to say the same for the New York Pubic Library system.

Flying Trapeze #4

I flew again on Monday after moving most of my things to my new apartment.

The class went well, it was a good group of intermediates and new flyers. I'm still working on the split, I can't seem to stop bending my top leg. I also learned a new trick: The "Set Gazelle" --it feels a little funny after doing the split because I'm trying to arch in different ways but it looks pretty.

I also had a personal victory and cleanly caught a "Set Straddle Whip," my first clean catch with a non knee-hang trick. Unfortunately the video shows my first attempt when I didn't get the catch --it was too dark to film the second successful attempt.

Flying Trapeze: #3

Yesterday I took my third flying trapeze lesson. The class went well, the split I was working on last class is coming along much better and I even learned a new trick, the set straddle whip. However, catching didn't go so well as I would have liked. It's a completely different perspective catching with your hands on the bar and then letting go and being caught/falling. On my first attempt I got too excited let go as soon as I saw the catcher not on his command. My second catch was better; I waited for his commands but my arms weren't in the right position so he only caught me one-handed (he caught my other arm and I dropped safely back to the net. (see video). I'm glad I get to go back on Monday, that I don't have wait a couple of weeks to try again.

Also, in this class there were two 12-13 year old girls who reminded me so much of myself at that age, the super-skinny long legs, braces, and wearing mismatched socks and soffee shorts as a fashion statement. However, these girls caught on to everything really quickly, I was so jealous with the ease how they performed several tricks and made catches on their first try. I should have started trapeze at their age!

This week I read The Magicians by Lev Grossman which has been hailed by all critics as the “Harry Potter for adults” and while there are some basic magic type similarities the comparison should end there. The Magicians is not an adventure story like Harry Potter is, the quest is not the focus of the story; while there are scary beasts and monsters the real horror of the book is the demon within, and there is no clean ending to it, monster slayed all is right with the world ending. –I’m not knocking Harry Potter books I loved the series; I’m just faulting the comparisons.

I was impressed with the writing and the movement/pace of the book. Grossman has a keen eye for when to pay attention to the minutiae and when to gloss over vast periods of time. His writing style is brutally honest, quick witted (I think my favorite line of the book is when an older, mentor-figure student talks to Quentin after he has just been pummeled by a one-time friend; the mentor says, “Well anyone could have seen that coming, he was either going to hit you or start a blog.”) Grossman has built very real, fully-formed, and constantly changing characters into the book that you equally root for and curse at for the choices they make.

Like most magic books there is a moral/message to the story: Quentin time and time again is granted what he thinks his heart’s desire is but he is never happy. As a morose but intelligent boy whose bored by the prospect of college he gets accepted to magic school and learns to be a powerful magician not just someone good at slight-of-hand; he kinds love and friendship that flourish because of their individual differences not just their similar aptitudes; and he enters the world he could only read about during his childhood and fights in a quest to save that land from tyranny and destruction. All dreams realized but he is lost after difficulties and hardships mar his path and ends up at a fluff corporate job. The ending affords Quentin one more opportunity to pick himself up from soul-eating hum-drum; to make a quest and to hopefully make both moral and magical contribution; I hope he finally gets it.

Time Travel

I first read it in The Time Traveler’s Wife in 2004 and have likely read it about 15 times since. A gift from my sister, I was immediately drawn to it after reading the first page where Clare walks into the Newberry Library and her boot heels rap the wooden floor.

[Tangent] Experts say our sense of smell is one of the strongest memory triggers, well I would like to argue that sounds have the same influence. I grew up in a ranch-style home that was completely carpeted expect for the kitchen. However, I have this memory of my mother fixing breakfast in the kitchen, she’s wearing a classic 80’s style yellow dress with bright pink flowers and massive shoulder-pads, with tan heels (or pumps as she would have called them). As she crossed from the fridge to the stove, her heels rapped the tile floor and I began to associate that sounds with being a grown-up and going to work. To this day I am always conscious of the sound my shoes make on hard surfaces, especially at work; that smart tap on floors reminds me that by my own 3-4 year-old definition that I am a grown-up now even though my 25 year old mind would beg to differ. [End Tangent]

That Clare was also conscious of her heels on the floor I felt some instant kinship with her.

I don’t envy her life in the book, while there may be something to knowing from an early age that your life “works out” to a certain degree; that someone loves you, you have a home, work, and a child would be comforting in times of uncertainty but the day-to-day realities of life as a time-traveler’s wife and the hardships therein would be agonizing. To some extant she also loses her sense of free-will, that because she knows her tastes, preferences, and actions of the future she is obligated to that path for her future, which would feel like entrapment.

Instead, for me the book is more like a security blanket, when I feel lonely or at odds with romantic life I keep coming back to this book, this story of love, how they find each other, know each other, and how their love endures through loss. And while I could come up with some trite aphorism about how it reminds me that true love bears all things, it would be meaningless because I have never felt love like that. Instead reading and re-reading it allows me to escape my own feelings, I can fill myself with Henry and Clare’s story, their lives, their love; and come out on the other side in a better frame of mind.

Well they have now made my beloved book into a movie. I’ve watched a couple of advanced release clips and the trailer, and while my hands are constantly clenched in “that’s not how that happens,” “that’s not what this person looks like,” “they didn’t say that” frustration it has not abated my curiosity to see the screen adaption. So I went with my friend Lauren on Saturday for a girl’s dinner & a movie night.

Unfortunately I can't say much about the movie expect that they got the spirit of their love right; and while I completely understand that with the different media certain choices had to be made and aspects of the book needed to be cut out of the movie for the purpose of timing but the story lost some of its depth. If one had only watched the movie the story would be boy meets girl, boy time travels, boy and girl get married, have a baby and boy dies, boy time travels some more.

While Eric Bana had couple of really good scenes mostly his Henry just comes off as flat, he stays in one emotion throughout the entire movie although I think the screen writing really played a role in that. Rachel McAdams embodied Clare the way I see her when I read the book, she was the highlight of the film and don't even get me started on Gomez and Charisse...

I wanted to love this as a movie as much as I love the book but it just wasn't there. It seems like most movie reviewers agree with me; some more harshly than others. I love that some scholars also took the time to comment on how Niffenegger and movie makers got the physics of time travel correct. Here's the article if you are interested: http://www.slate.com/id/2225223/

Stoop Sale!

While I apparently missed the most interesting day working on Friday; our stoop sale this past weekend was a definite lesson in human nature and buying culture. We also finally met our neighbors after living here for 3 years and were busted by the cops.

Shoppers came in basically two categories; we had items on tables and in bins on the ground. Some dove right in happy to be shoulder high in a bin digging for the possibly perfect item at the bottom. These were mostly women 35-55, they would hold clothes up to them, try on hats and bags, test and turn over every item. Then there was the complete opposite type of shopper, they typically stood 10-15 feet back (which puts them between standing between parked cars on the street) they would then beeline for one item, turn it over in their hands once and either put it back or pay immediately; these were mostly men, all ages.

Our neighbors are really nice people with cute babies, dogs, etc. who were happy to discuss Hoboken's political corruption, various conspiracy theories, and the positive attributes of Portland, Brooklyn, and Hoboken.

We were busted by the cops for originally putting the sale up in front of a quasi-abandoned building next door; which we did in order to not block the sidewalk. While this hasn't been substantiated we think the owners(?) of the building called the police. There has always been something shady about that unused, prime-real estate location --my best guess is a mafia connection. So we moved the sale in front of our own building and had no other trouble.

All in all, it was a successful sale, we sold most of what we wanted to and were able to donate the rest.

Moving Advice

If could offer anyone any moving advice it would be this: Hire Movers!

Earlier this summer when I decided to move less than 10 miles away from Hoboken to Brooklyn I thought I would be economical, environmentally-friendly, and convenient that since I had a month to month my belongings that I could enlist family to help me move my furniture and that I could carry my smaller, lighter belongs across two rivers. So for the past couple of weeks I've been bringing a large tote-bag and my suitcase full of clothes, books, winter apparel and odds and ends with me to work in the morning and to Brooklyn afterwards. I have become painful aware of the following:

1. My easy 5 minute walk to the train in the morning becomes exponentially harder and longer when you are loaded down like a pack mule and at 8 am no wants to help you

2. Getting on/off the PATH/Subway involves at minimum 6 staircases

3. Manhattan is not flat, Madison Avenue is a definite hill

4. Clothes cannot folded as small as you would like them, books are really heavy when you try to carry multiples, and carry several bags at once doubles your girth when trying to navigate doorways and crowded sidewalks.

So learn from my example kids --hire movers.

Flying Trapeze: #2

First and foremost Flying Trapeze is amazing! I went for my second class on Friday and while it was a completely different experience from my first time being there it was incredible.

The class was a different atmosphere, last time it was a small class, all female, and all relatively athletic. This time I was part of a full class with an entire range of ages, sexes, and athleticism. The instructors were great and they let the one other person who had been there before and I fly a couple of times while the new comers were being instructed on how to leave the platform. After warming up with the knee hang skill from last time our instructor taught us a new trick, a split on the bar; which once mastered can turn into a catch.

Well I didn't master it. Be it my lack of dance training or limited flexibility I didn't get there. My legs weren't in the right position at the right time and with my hands on the bar I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Maybe it was beginners luck the first time where all the skills we worked on came rather easily. I was definitely frustrated not to get there this time.

I ended class successfully completing two knee hang catches.

But seeing all the other students gave me much more respect for the instructors and the difficult jobs they have keeping first-timers safe and playing therapist to those scared or frustrated by their performance.

Take the example of "The Attention-seeker"; she shows up to class scantily clad, flipping her hair around. After only paying some attention to the before-class instructions she has trouble getting off the board, fails to perform the trick, and lands improperly on the net --but it's her first time so everyone gives her a break. She goes up a second time with the same result. This time no one reacts as she comes down from the net so she does the obvious and starts crying. Well now she was the instructors stopping class to make sure she's ok, she rips her safety belt off, and continues crying to someone on the phone. When she is consoled by the instructors whose getting a break she then fakes a shoulder injury to explain her poor performance. Well now that the instructors won't let her go up anymore (they're not going to mess around if you say you're injured), she leaves with yes even more tears.

Then there was the skinny pre-teen boy with very little body control. His first time up he swings out and then when he tries to put his knees on the bar he instead goes all the way through so his hands are still on the bar, but the bar is now behind his butt. Not only is this position uncomfortable but it is also dangerous. So with the help of the safety-harness they have him let go and lower him down to the net. It all happened in a split-second.

These instructors really do need to be ready for anything.

Flying again in two weeks!

What happens to a dream destroyed?

Slate.com Michael Idov: Make that a Double Shot

So in one foul-swoop this article destroyed all of my post-my real career plans. Now what will I do with my golden years?

The original plan was in about 2050 or so once my “real” career was done that I would start a second life and open my own bookstore/coffee shop, someplace cozy in the winter and in the spring/summer I would envision it having a window/wall that completely opens so it would have that indoor/outdoor feel. I am essentially combining my favorite Hoboken coffee shop Empire Tea & Coffee with a small bookshop like Partners in Crime in the village. In my mind it is someplace very neighborhood-ish where I as the proprietor would know all the regular’s names, where local or debut authors would do readings, there would be a book club, and I could banish phones and laptops –my bookshop is only for reading.

Reading this article popped my perfect dream bubble with pragmatic concerns about rent and employee wages. Besides by 2050 we’ll all probably be reading e-books anyway.

I have the keys to my new apartment!

Its been a month of holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed but everything worked out perfectly! I am now holding the keys to my new apartment in Brooklyn. All those who have moved apartments in NYC area know exactly what I am talking about and for those who haven't --well it's like a house made of cards getting everything to aline and work out; and there is always that threat of one even mild breeze and the whole structure collapses.

So now I begin the tedious process of moving. So thanks to the rain today I spent today trying to purge my belongings to try and move only what I will actually need/use/want. Now the packing begins. I'm glad I have the month to do it.