Astoria, Full of Grace

I just came back from Bogota, Colombia and I was stopped at Newark Airport by two policemen as I left the baggage claim area. I actually only had carry-on bags.

One policeman (without looking at me): Got all your bags?

Me: Yes.

Him: Can I see your passport?

Me: Yes, you may. (That came out by accident -- I didn't mean to correct his grammar.)

So we do the whole fol-de-rol of where were you, why did you go, what work do you do here, blah blah. I had gone through this already 5 times but it was weird to me this time because he couldn't check my answers against anything in a database. We were just out in the middle of the floor.

I figured it is because I am Pakistani Muslim. My sister told me that more likely it is because young single women, traveling alone, with just carry-on baggage are usually the drug mules from Colombia, which is the prime country for cocaine. Oy vey!

Oddly enough, that made me feel better about the whole thing.

And no, I am not a mule. No soy un burro por las drogas.

Beautiful Bogota

I am in Bogota, Colombia, for a high school friend's wedding (she is of Colombian descent). My sister, brother-in-law and baby niece are all here as well.

I love being in South America, though recognize that Colombia indeed has its sorrows. In the government plaza, there was a display of bricks, each bearing the name and neighborhood of a person kidnapped by guerrillas in the last few years.

The strike has ended!!!!

It will take a minimum of 12 hours for everything to be operational again, but we should have our subways and buses again by tomorrow morning. The Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 has been fined $1 million for each day of the strike and face possible jail time.

This does not mean the negotiations are over -- just that they will end striking while the Metropolitan Transit Authority and TWU hammer out a new contract.

Everyone keeps saying it is not fair for the TWU to "shut down the city." But the city never shut down -- we just moved a little slower. It was pretty amazing to see so many people just get up and march across the Queensborough Bridge yesterday. One man was walking his daughter to school that way. You do what you gotta do.

Day 2 of strike

My neighbor (who is also my coworker) and I have been lucky thus far. Last night, we walked from W 168th Street to the edge of the Triboro Bridge at E 125th Street and 2nd AVE (ok -- THAT WAS NOT THE LUCKY PART.)

We then had to figure out how to get over the bridge to Astoria. The bridge is looong and walking it would have been terrible.

A private bus picked us up and rive us over for $3. When cabs are gouging you for $25 and up!!! What a great guy!

THEN, this morning, my neighbor, her roommate, another woman and I got a cab from Astoria into Manhattan all the way to 168th Street for a mere $10 each!!!

As we drove over the Queensborough Bridge, we could see streams of people walking across it. There were also bike riders and rollerbladers everywhere.

The Triboro had been backed up today because apparently, someone had tried to jump off it. Eek.

Transit strike takes place

Well, at 2 am (not 12:01 am, as the news media had indicated before), NY's transit strike took place. There are no subways or buses.

I walked from E 70th and Lexington to E 92nd Street, where I had a training appointment. I saw rows of nicely dressed professionals waiting for a ride from anyone who could take them and wanted to meet the 4-person minimum for driving on the streets of Manhattan.

At the gym, one coworker needed to re-park her car a block away to avoid being towed but needed 3 people to do that. She got a desk receptionist, another personal trainer and one of the maintenance crew to go with her on this little one-block road trip.

After the gym, I walked to E 125th Street in Harlem and got the free shuttle to my job at W 168th Street. It took 1.5 hours for this part, but that's because I waited 25 minutes for the shuttle. Typically it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour via subway.

I saw the picket line outside the bus depot at E 97th and Lexington.

It is a nice day and not too cold, so it was all doable. What is amazing is how the strike cuts across all class and race lines for all that NYC bullshit. Who cares how many dollars are in your wallet because honey, you gotta walk! Put away the impractical suede Pretty Woman hooker boots because you have 80 blocks to go!!!

In a really odd way, we are all unified through this. I walked the span of the rich Upper East Side, through Spanish Harlem and up to Harlem itself. And we all one thing in common -- we lacked an easy way to get to where we wanted to be.

I do think it's funny that, everyone who told me they wished they had more opportunity to work out, just got their wish.

No strike thus far

There is a partial strike, in that some buses are not running, but everything else is still OK. There is still talk of the complete strike taking place at 12:01 am on Tuesday, Dec 20th. So stay tuned.

San Da time

I attended a free San Da cardio kickbox class near Times Square today. It was fun. It is a bare-bones gym with a grappling mat and an area with 6 hanging bags for punching and kicking.

Our instructor, Enrique. led the class of 6 women though a warm-up of running around the gym, step-ups, calf raises, and jumping jacks, before proceeding to teach us 6 new combinations of different jabs, hooks, sidekicks, roundhouse kicks and back kicks.

This is good for practical use. I think I will take my newfound knowledge to the Upper East Side and knock the blow-outs right off of some bitches' heads.


http://www.nysanda.com/

On the eve of the transit strike

So, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which is NYC's extensive subway and bus system, is expected to go on strike for the first time since 1980 for better wages and benefits. From what I hear and what I have seen, they have bad working conditions i.e. horrible bathrooms, low pay, they are also open to violence at any given time (think about it --- millions of people are around them every day and not all of them are anywhere near sane.)

I say "good for them"! Everyone has the right to stand up for themselves, and it is more powerful when it is done in large numbers. I hear they are risking losing 2 days' of pay for every 1 day they strike. Now that's courage.

I am also blatantly NOT going to work while they strike because I don't have the money for daily cabs from Astoria to W. 168th Street in Manhattan, and it's way too cold to find these crappy contingency buses that make all of 3 stops in midtown.

SO, at 12:01 am tomorrow morning, I may very well be on a de facto strike as well.

SNOW!!!!

New York is gorgeous under a blanket of snow this morning (and it keeps falling!!!) Yes, the dogs are wearing their sweaters, though my favorite was a devil-may-care nude Dalmatian.

Strawberry fields forever

Today is the 25th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon. Fans gathered at the Strawberry Fields memorial garden in Central Park for a vigil today.

It is also the 25th anniversary of the famous photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken by Annie Leibowitz. In this photo, lennon is nude and curled around a fully clothed Ono. It was taken a few hours before he was shot.

http://www.art-forum.org/z_Leibowitz/Ip/AL_Lennon.htm

The United Nations chose Lennon's song "Imagine" to broadcast in over 170 countries on Oct 3, 1990 when the Berlin Wall came down.

Another clown sighting!

This time it was a girl clown, dressed as a nurse, at New York Presbyterian Hosptal in Washington Heights. She looked cute with ponytails and a red nose.

"Look, Mommy," said one kid in the waiting room. "Clown."

The clown waved back at her.

Kids cheered up. Mission accomplished.

Speed it up!!

You know how, when the traffic light turns yellow, all the cars speed up to make it before it turns red so that they don't have to stop?

Tonight, at Broadway and W. 57th Street, I saw a horse and carriage do the exact same thing. It looked like the Belmont Stakes with only one contender, instead of just a bum.

It was amazing to watch. Even the traffic cop on the corner was staring.

Coolin' it with the cupcakes

By the way, I only visit Buttercup Bake Shop and Crumbs (a cupcake shop Jay-Z likes) on the rare occasion since I learned each of their cupcakes has 421 calories each (and Crumbs twice as many as their cakes are twice as big.)

I stopped going to Magnolia Bakery because all they serve for cupcakes is standard yellow cake with buttercream frosting, and who wants to eat a cake with half a stick of butter on top with only a sprinkling of sugar on it to help disguise the taste? Not I!!