KristyWes

So Much Things To Say

1) It was snowing outside a few minutes ago. In April! Hooray for the unexpected.

2) My gym, being part of a local Jewish cultural and community center, is currently closed for Passover. So I've had to seek out exercise elsewhere, by taking a few laps around my old haunt - the Jackie O. Reservoir in Central Park. So pretty! And added bonus: I find I get good thinkin' done more easily while walking around the reservoir than when I'm treading nowhere on the elliptical machine at the gym.

3) I have never actually met my next-door-neighbor; I know him only by the music he plays, which I hear clearly through the walls. His taste in music seems pretty limited: Primarily he plays Norah Jones (her first cd only). Some Saturday mornings he switches things up with a little Seal. Those are seriously the only 2 things I've ever heard him play, until Monday evening, when he blasted the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof (apparently in honor of Passover?). I had to smile. I enjoy a little "Tradition" myself.

4) Last weekend, while I was recovering from my jet lag, my roommate and I ordered food from a nearby diner and re-watched "You've Got Mail." That movie always makes me glad to live in New York. With the movie's theme of Underdog Small Business versus Big, Bad Chain Store still fresh in my mind, I want to take a moment to salute 2 of my favorite neighborhood spots: Glaser's Bakery & Logos Bookstore.

Glaser's is the sweetest place - both for their yummy baked goods as well as their ambience. The staff is friendly, in no hurry, and greet their regular customers by name. The store has great fixtures - old-fashioned cabinets and cases holding such treasures as gingerbread, eclairs, danish, and the New York requisite: the black-and-white cookie.

I love Logos in part for its fixtures as well: their books are displayed beautifully on built-in carved wood shelves (very reminiscent of YGM's "Shop Around the Corner"). As you browse their impressive religion, poetry, and travel sections, the hardwood flooring creaks softly beneath your feet. (I love creaking floorboards!) The man who runs the store is well-trained and helpful, the lighting is soft and cheery, and I hope this place sticks around for awhile, despite the presence of two (2) Barnes & Nobles looming just down the street.