After a round of shooting at the range and seeing Karen, I got thoroughly depressed and decided to take a walk down Little Italy to take my mind off things. Nothing can lift my spirits faster than a chocolate covered cannoli and a slice of Mulberry Street pizza can after all.

I wanted to stash my car somewhere between Little Italy and the Seaport, so I picked a cheap garage just outside of Chinatown and rolled it right in. It was valet parking, so I had to get out and let some weird Hindu looking guy park it for me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy a few things or not to take back with me, so I wanted to know if I could get to my car to leave a few things if needed.

“So listen, I might come back here to drop off a few things, but I won’t be leaving just yet. Would I be able to do that?”

“I park car!”

“Yes, well, I just need to know if I’d be able to get to my ride to drop off some stuff I might buy later on.”

“I park car!”

… … …

“Ok, well, thanks for your time.” I made sure my glove compartment was locked up tight. “See you later!”

I have an odd craving to play Tic Tac Toe for some reason.

I walked a block or two and suddenly found myself in a familiar place:

Somewhere in the distance I can hear the DING DING of Law and Order.

How is it that I always wind up here one way or another? Ah well, at least this time I don’t need a lawyer for once.

Yooooooooo hoooooooooo, I hope you're getting my best side this time, darlings! *kissy kissy*

I continued uptown a few blocks until I reached Little Italy. (One thing I’ve always hated about it was just how much Chinatown overshadowed everything. Chinatown is virtually a city unto itself, while Little Italy was basically just a small, weenie street in comparison.) I stopped by the Ferrara Bakery, saw a mini wedding cake I wanted to sample too, until I saw the price tag: $15.

Um yeah, no thanks. I waved to the wise guys sitting in the back and walked back out again. I found another bakery further and got a few chocolate covered cannolis, then made my way back down again for a slice of pizza, and finally started feeling better about things. Finally walked back down to the seaport and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon.

For some reason I always feel at home downtown. Midtown always seems claustrophobic to me, but downtown I feel like I can spread my wings a little and relax more. Maybe it’s the sight of the Brooklyn Bridge and the river that does it. Even City Hall Park has its quiet charm too:

I like lamps.

Sigh, I guess I’m just kind of hoping one day I’ll find a girl who will appreciate these little things as well.

The sun had set and the day was losing its light as I walked back to the garage to pick up my ride and head home. The city had already begun to twinkle its lights, casting its reflection on the water and lighting the way for me, while subtle shades of green and red danced here and there.

The holiday season had finally arrived.

Tags: cannolis, cars, chinatown, city, holiday season, justice, little italy, park, parking, pizza, seaport, street
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So yesterday I took a trip to Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown for the day. Why you ask? Because I just like to do stupid, random crap for no particular reason at all. Plus I hear the babes like that sort of thing, so consider this my way of practicing.

My first stop was at a local park that offered a magnificent view of the Tappan Zee Bridge. They had an awesome boardwalk literally next to the Hudson River, making for a lovely and quiet morning walk. That is, it would have been a lovely walk had I not run into this:

Yep, that pretty much sums up my life.

I could have hopped the fence, but this was me we’re talking about. Anybody else, they’d do it, have a smoke and a beer on the boardwalk and be none the wiser. I do it, and 15 minutes later I’ll be calling Mommy in a state of panic because I’m only allowed to make one phone call.

Still, I managed to get some purdy shots off where I could:

The awesomest thing was finding a… cherry tree? I think that’s what it was, but it was a tree unlike any tree I had seen before:

Mmm, now to find a tree that grows the Reddit Whip.

Next stop: The cemetery! I hadn’t realized it, but Washington Irving was buried here after all. I got to see the Irving family plot, and his original grave too:

Dude, seriously, could you stop throwing change at me? I'm not a wishing well.

We chatted for a while, and Irvie provided some helpful tips to improve my writing. Try as I might though, I couldn’t get him to understand the concept of blogging. Ah well. I paid my respects and moved on, eventually discovering Andrew Carnegie’s grave:

Ironically, Carnegie's grave here is just a stone's throw away from Samuel Gomper's, the founder of the American Federation of Labor.

Not sure he liked the idea of a unionized worker prancing around on his grave though, so conversation was minimal at best.

I have to admit this was an interesting and pretty cemetery. Lots of picturesque views to be found here, but then of course, my hated arch-nemesis that is poison ivy just HAD to go and announce its presence much to my chagrin:

*Shudder* Good grief, they were EVERYWHERE, vines jetting out wherever I walked, like willowy arms stretching forth from the very bowels of hell itself, reaching out to pull me into its itchy darkness from whence there is no return.

I tried to put those thoughts behind me though, and drove around again until I came across Rockefeller’s grave, a mausoleum bigger than even the biggest house I’ve ever lived in:

Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This was actually William Rockefeller, the younger brother of John D. Rockefeller. He was supposed to be the nice one from what I heard. Still, this mausoleum was arguably the biggest one in the entire cemetery, roughly in the middle and on top of the highest hill, so that Willie can continue to lord over all, even in death. And… the mausoleum was locked too. Dweeb.

I moved on and eventually discovered even William Chrysler was interred here:

Would this be a bad time to tell you I drive a Hyundai?

I was nice enough to spare him the gory details of what’s been happening with his company lately, but I couldn’t resist telling him I drive a foreign SUV.

All in all a fascinating cemetery, with some humor here and there to boot:

Now there's an appropriate name.

Whoa... bad omen, dude.

I then moved on to another nearby park, offering even more magnificent views of the Hudson and some rare trees as well. While I was walking I happened to notice this one atop a hill, which stuck out like a sore thumb because it was the only white birch tree around:

Ok, yeah, so I'm white. You got a problem with that?

And what’s Sleepy Hollow without its trees too? This was another one of the rare specimens I’ve found, again a tree unlike any tree I had seen before:

You were awesome in Lord of the Rings by the way.

It provided an umbrella covering and almost felt like you were walking around in a room instead of around a tree. Really beautiful, the kind of scenery that made me wished for a minute that there had been a special girl right there with me to share a romantic moment with, and some side order of playing suck face too. Ah well.

Eventually I turned back and went into town, getting pizza, a coke (and this came in the traditional hourglass bottle too!) before moving on for a “quick” half mile hike into the woods.

Sometimes I wish I were hiking on a yellow brick road instead.

That actually wasn’t too bad.. until it started going up a steep incline. After gasping for breath and sweating even from my eyeballs, the ground finally leveled off for a bit. Then I saw some movement in the bushes and just about had a heart attack. Coyotes! The Headless Horseman! OMG ImgonnadieImgonnadieImgonnadie!!!!

But no, it was a deer. Whoooooooooo…

It just kind of looked at me curiously, then started prancing around. I was too tired to prance along with it, so I just kept going. Then I saw more movement: a figure shaped much like a velociraptor from the movie Jurassic park. What the…

Then again… fast as lightning, circling around me. Ok dude, seriously, I’m not cool with this. Deer I can handle, but I, sir, am an urbanite, and my idea of the great outdoors involves nothing more than an outside table at Starbucks. I mean people do this for FUN? Really? Camping amongst poison ivy and deer ticks and coyotes and little baby raptors running around waiting to sink their teeth into me and eat my face off?

More movement, and then a strange gurgling sound. WHAT IS THAT!??!?

Then I finally recognized it: wild turkeys. Not baby raptors ready to gnaw my face off, just a few scared turkeys jutting around me.

Whooooooooooooooo… Breathe boy, breathe…

By this time it was starting to get dark, and even though I was dead tired from the half-mile hike, I suddenly found I had more than enough energy to run like a thief in the night back to the parking lot, convinced that after the deers and the turkeys, the coyotes would soon follow, and THAT was not something I wanted to see right now.

Day quickly became night as I arrived back at the parking lot, hugging my car like a long lost friend.

Well! That was fun! Let’s do that again, like say, never? Well maybe I will try it again, if I had certain… motivational incentive to do so…

Update: You can view the rest of the set from Sleepy Hollow at Flickr.

Tags: cemetery, death, deer, graves, hiking, park, poison ivy, sleepy hollow, tarrytown, tombstones, town, trail, trees, wild turkeys, willow
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Today was probably the most fun day I’ve had in a while. I took an extended walk downtown, and armed with my iPod and my steely wits, I was ready to make a second go of geocaching.

I couldn’t locate the first cache on my list, but the second one proved to me why this would be a worthwhile hobby to pursue. It brought me to a little known deck 30 feet high that had a garden and a breathtaking view of the waters. On such a gorgeous day as this, it was truly a major treat for me. Had it not been for geocaching, I never would have discovered this little known spot. It really does provide a great way for me to see the world from a whole new perspective.

Even though my iPod started going boinky on me, I did manage to pinpoint the area where the cache would be, leading me to an inconspicuous looking park bench:

Hmmmmmmmm...

After feeling and groping around the area like a lonely old man at a brothel, my efforts at long last were finally rewarded:

Yes my friends, I am no longer a geocache weenie virgin.

I look around to make sure no one was watching, then pulled out the cache and opened it up. It contained a logbook signed by all the other cachers who had also found the box. No trinkets or coins to be had though, but I was happy enough just to FIND the flipping thing.

I signed my name as well and carefully out it back in its place, then went out onto the deck to a enjoy a splendid view of the city.

And the best thing about all this, was that I didn’t really feel lonely. One of the biggest reasons why I rarely go out these days was because I just can’t stand to watch the world as they walked around in pairs. It always brought me pain and the constant reminder that I was always alone. But I didn’t feel that today. Instead I felt… happy. I was so busy hunting down geocaches and enjoying a view of the city that I had forgotten all about my loneliness, and for the first time in a long while, I could actually enjoy being single again.

Up next for a fun day of cache hunting: Sleepy Hollow! I might be able to pull that off this weekend before I head off to Pennsylvania for a bluegrass show, and yes I realize that also happens to be the same weekend as Halloween, but I’m not worried. I’m much more manlier than Ichabod ever was anyway.

Unless we’re talking the Johnny Depp version, then we’re like, totally even.

Tags: cache, city, geocache, geocaching, ipod touch, loneliness, lonely, park, single
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So I’m getting out of my car and about to walk inside when a public safety vehicle stops in front of me.

“Excuse me sir, is this your space?”

I looked at my car.  “Well it’s usually where I park.  Why?”

“This is a reserved parking space.  You’ll have to move.”

“Really?  It doesn’t say reserved.”

“The numbers on the ground mean they’re reserved.”

“Seriously?”  I looked at my space, which had the number 293 on it.  “I thought those numbers was just to tell us how many spaces there are.”

“Look,” he said, now irritated.  “Just move your car please.”

“Sure, no problem.”

I got back in and pulled out of the lot, then found a great space in front of a fire hydrant.  I am so awesome. 

Tags: car, park, parking, parking space, public safety
Categories: In The Coal Mine
 
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Wow. I took this snapshot from my cell at a park right next to the apartments I’ve been checking out. The town here is so different from the ghettos I usually see that it seems to have been dropped from the sky.

Tags: apartments, beautiful, cell phone, ghetto, ghettos, mobile, moving, park, sky, snapshot
Categories: Gone Mobile
 
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