Ping Pong at Bryant Park...

#NYC #ByrantPark #PingPong #Wonder So people play pingpong at the table in BryantPark, I confess some are better than others...but this guy yesterday was amazing, some kind of PRO...wicked spin and speed, the balls just kept whizzing by, anyone who walked by was spellbound, transfixed and watching...then people even started being the "Ballboys" going and retrieving balls for the game. ( You can see the one BallBoy fellow in the background). Personally I think adding ballboys to the game makes it so much better....( my dream is that I talk my neighbors into this game and that we set up a table on the roof...but that is my dream....) Look how he holds the paddle...and his intensity...

Mariachi on the Subway....

#NYC #RaineyThursday ....#MariachiOnTheSubway ....made the day so much better..I was rushing to an appointment..soaked ...a full Mariachi band arrived ( and they were good I may say)...I jokingly asked them to play Feliz Navidad...they laughed...but they played it...very nice guys....certainly cheered up a rainey day....

Empire State Building in all her Glory.....

******************************** And as the sun set Miss Empire State Building was looking so beautiful...Pink and Proud and so tall.....against the blue night sky.....

Donald The Doorman

The Good the Bad and the Ugly of NYC....so I have shared so many amazing photos of life here.....but seriously the BUGS here are ugly...VERY Ugly...this THING greeted me in the front hall when I got home from work....I have named him Donald the Doorman....for no reason.....but I hope he leaves soon....

Hendrix on the Subway....

#NYC #Brooklyn Friday night went to catch the train.....usually it has been this truly horrible Accordian player ( his repertoire includes three very offkey polka songs...) but last night it was this young girl playing Hendrix on the platform....and she was indeed very talented....this little girl was dancing away totally enthralled...It was the best part of the week watching these two Make Music....

Urban Oasis....

So a couple of blocks away....this lovely older Chinese man has spent all summer creating this garden oasis....it's so beautiful.....and now the Morning Glories are taking over and so so lush...I have to sneak back during the day and admire the Glories as they wake up.....I am so grateful to have this creation in this hood and so close by....it's so soothing....and such a blessing....and I tell him everytime I see him and he just nods at the nutty redhead who always says thank you....

NYC Sunsets are amazing....

Good Night folks...sipping iced tea on the roof tonight..watching the sunset...take care out there....

All Nurses Have Stories....

...................................... Okay...so for 3 weeks I have been working a Temp job that I very much hope will last........it is with HIV and AIDS ......I took care of my first AIDS patient in 1982 in Baltimore....I was a nursing student working weekends as a Nursing Assistant on an Oncology floor....and he was a young airlines steward whose young body was ravaged so quickly and he was so alone in isolation with sad blue eyes ...he kept saying over and over "Why ? Why? " That one question haunted me...even while working PEDS in New England a few years later I never forgot him...and then by late 80's I was in Seattle helping set up First AIDS Hospice in the Country in an old battered house..that was my favorite job in many ways.....and I was also working ER making sure to get people tested....and then even teaching HIV classes and Caregiver classes...and training other people to do testings.....getting kicked out of a highschool class teaching because I brought bananas and cucumbers and condoms to really teach them.....sigh.....and battling with the Seattle PD WHY a Needle Exchange would help protect people's health ...and why giving the Working Girls condoms mattered....and picking up our little table and moving it down the block from the Pike Street market and cursing those cops...and then setting up Hospice and nursing care and infusion therapy at home for patients and friends too... for many many more through the nineties ....and on and on....this one disease has really in so many ways transformed me as a Nurse....but also as a person...it has horrified me..haunted me...it has made me read and research at all hours.....it has made me get up at 5am to make sure people got their care.....NYC still all of these years later has the highest HIV and AIDS rates in the country...and on and on the story goes....All Nurses have stories...

Thinking Out Loud on The Roof....

*********************************** I go to the Roof when I need to think....when I need to get grounded...clear my head..and sometimes meditate..when it is quiet....Sometimes seagulls are up there as well...I see the Lights in the other apartments...it reminds me that I am not alone, there are so many others here struggling to get by and to stay strong...there are other families...there are elderly getting bathed for bed..there newly arrived immigrant families with small babies....there are young couples trying to make their way...I can see them in the windows...and hear the sounds and smell food cooking....at all hours there is the smell of Curry or Cardamon and hot coffee and often burnt bagels....We all need a Think Spot....but we also all need reminders that we are not alone in our struggles....and that Life Goes On...That Tomorrow will come, with it's own set of mysteries and gifts......Good Night Friends...take care and have a good week....

Urban Gardens.....

..................................... ‪#‎Sundrenched‬....‪#‎UrbanGardens‬ I love it when you turn a corner and there are flowers taller than expected reaching for the sky oblivious to cars, trucks, exhaust and all the city noise and havoc....I love how they smell after the rains....warm and earthy....and slightly sweet...

Wisdom of Trees....

..................... #‎nyc‬ ‪#‎Brooklyn‬ ‪#‎Trees‬ ‪#‎Benches‬ I don't miss my garden so much anymore...there are so many wonderful green heavenly moments here to embrace and soak in...and benches..there is nothing I treasure more than benches under the trees.....