Adventures at the New York Public Library

In about 2 weeks, I am going to spend my Friday night at the New York Public Library, running around like a maniac trying to locate specific artifacts, a la From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Yet again I have spoiled a blog post by opening with the punchline. But seriously.

A month ago, my friend Britt sent me a link to this crazy game called Find the Future, hosted by the library in honor of their centennial. 500 people were being selected to run around the library in the middle of the night, using clues on their smartphones to locate 100 different objects and writing essays based on the prompts associated with those objects. By the time the game ends at 6 AM, the 500 people will collectively have written a book which will be available on library shelves. It sounded awesome, and I knew I couldn't move on with my life until my application was submitted.

When I got my acceptance email I pretty much died.

RUNNING AROUND THE NYPL OVERNIGHT! TELL ME THAT IS NOT THE BEST THING!!!

Okay, my inner (and outer) nerd are obviously excited. I'm pumped to play the game, to find out what kind of cool ish the library has within it (some examples are a draft copy of the Declaration of Independence and Charles Dickens' letter opener), to hopefully be inspired by the prompts to actually write something legit for the first time in too long, to meet other nerds, and...well I'm just excited for the whole thing, really.

Cool stuff like this doesn't typically happen to me so I am grateful and antsy and just SO ridiculously happy that I get to be a part of this, whatever it ends up being.

Hell yes.

World Trade Center

Today’s New York Times had a special section called, “The Death of Osama Bin Laden.”

I flipped through it, reading some of the articles, when I came across a picture of the Twin Towers on 9/11, smoke pouring out of them. It had been awhile since I had seen the image and now seems..weird, for lack of a better word.

I stared at the picture for awhile and after a moment, something struck me. I looked out my office window. I looked back at the picture. I looked back out the window. Then back down at the picture. I realized that I was IN the picture.

I wasn’t actually in the picture, of course. I was in college on 9/11. But my office building is very much present in this, and probably many other pictures from that day.

It was enough to give me a supreme case of the FREAKING OUTS.

It goes without saying, of course, that I work right near Ground Zero. One block away, in fact. I took a stroll over there yesterday to see the increased pedestrian traffic and to count what ended up being 27 news trucks. With President Obama coming here on Thursday, I imagine that number is going to double.

I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like if I had been here and not in Boston in 2001. There are so many questions running through my head about what that day would have been like for me.

But it’s better that I’ll never know.

An intro to Brooklyn

If you're like me, you know very little about Brooklyn. One of the things I'm most looking forward to in living here is the fact that I will one day be far more familiar with the BK than I am now. Since I've only been here for about a week, I thought I'd take this handy map of Brooklyn neighborhoods (thanks, Wikipedia) and give you my current impression of the borough now, at my most ignorant. Enjoy! Sorry I can't get the map to show up larger. Stupid Blogger.

1. DUMBO - Best. Neighborhood Name. Ever. This is an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass." I love it.

2. Williamsburg - HIPSTERS

3. Park Slope/Sunset Park - MEEEEEEE

4. Red Hook - IKEA

5. Gravesend - delicious pizza

6. Coney Island - freaks and hot dogs

7. Brighton Beach - Russia

8. Manhattan Beach - clearly NOT Manhattan. Nice try, though.

9. Barren Island - oh, hello most depressing name ever. Sounds lovely, can't imagine why I've never been.

10. Crown Heights - my cousin lives here. She is fabulous.

11. Cypress Hills - insane in the membrane, INSANE IN THE BRAIN

12. East Flatbush - why is East Flatbush about 500% larger than regular Flatbush?

13. BoCoCa - I know New Yorkers hate this term, but I think it's fun and catchy - Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens.

14. Brooklyn Heights - one of my bestest sorority sisters lives here. She rules.


Well, that ends today's lesson. Hope you all learned something. One day I might even have more to contribute to this.