Apartment Living and Making Do

I had to stretch my thinking last Saturday to come up with a ribbon for a gift before heading out to a party. This worked, I think.

Cake Art

 

I realize it's old fashioned to decorate cakes these days with just colored icing. Bakers use marzipan (a paste made of sugar and crushed almonds and rolled into thin sheets) to cut out intricate shapes and place them on the cake. But anyone can do that, right?

This cake, however, has been created by someone with the talent to paint. How realistic these look and how beautifully they are placed on each layer.

Protesting the Protesters

It's fair to assume there are enough people in New York City to protest anything that comes along. In the case of this puppy store in SOHO, the owners have these signs up to ward off anyone walking in wagging their fingers about them being a "puppy mill." Does that prove they aren't? What do you do with the puppies that don't sell?

City Energy

I know it's cliche to talk about the energy of the city (I also know it's cliche to say cliche), but I believe real city energy--the kind that makes you feel connected to the world--is not so much about the "busyness" of the city as it is about being physically close to other people.

I came to this conclusion after returning from a week in Tuscon where things were in motion but people didn't brush up against each other like they do in New York. Here you are constantly adjusting your personal space for others, i.e., making yourself smaller in the elevator, inching over on your subway seat, or adjusting your path on the sidewalk. There are people everywhere. They are close to you. You have to lower your eyes or concentrate on looking ahead to avoid staring at them.

I find the energy that comes from being physically close to so many people all day is, well, energizing. Oddly, it's one of those things you don't realize you may be missing until you experience it then go without for a while, a bit like going without salt.

Here is another video from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Soooo many people. . . and this was a block off the parade path.