TheExpatJournals.com

Well, between friends, food, tv and work…I’m not missing anything anymore. Swamped all of a sudden and just loving HBO on demand. I taped all the Bill Maher shows. Want to tape a few movies I love while here. I’ve had Thai, one of the few remaining truly great bagels, just picked up some whitefish salad from Jefferson Market, my favorite Indian…friends, friends, friends…It’s already great again!

Yesterday, in Union Square, there was this guy from Oklahoma City who quit his job and headed to various states carrying these huge banners that were anti-Bush. He lays them on the ground, provides markers and people sign them with comments. People have signed them from so many countries. I was taking photos of the comments and ended up talking at length with him. Long story short, gave him a place to sleep/shower and a meal. He gave me one of the banners. He’s maxed out in terms of what he can carry. I also gave him an extra weekend bag, some more markers and a couple of rolls of paper as well as some long sleeve fleece sweaters since at one pont his stuff was stolen. I’m thrilled with what feels so incredibly cool to have. I also found a lot of posters I had collected in Scotland at the time the poll tax was imposed on that country, a full year before it was imposed on the English. Kind of used as a guinea pig by the British government.

It ended up being the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. When I was there, 20,000 people marched in protest in the streets of Edinburgh. I’m just enthralled with the small poster collection of those in particular and others from an historical perspective. Easy to travel, too. Inspired by all this, I did something today I’ve always been tempted to do and never did before: I stole a poster off the subway. I do also have stuff from around 9-11 including the subway map before and the temporary put out quickly afterwards. And, of course, all the photos I took that morning.

One of the things that NYC has definitely given me that I doubt I could have acquired to the same degree anywhere else is a serious appreciation of nature…having been deprived of it all these years. Having said that, because I’ve been so caught up in the incredibly beautiful visuals of Panama, I find myself walking around NYC seeing things I’ve walked by God knows how many times before in a completely different way…I’m seeing beauty I spent years ignoring. It’s nice.

See ya’ in October!