falling... for brooklyn

Man, I'm a slacker... I'll be lucky if anyone even reads this thing anymore! But anyway I'll write with no explicit promise to write more frequently than every 2 months...

Last Tuesday I literally fell on 7th Ave in Park Slope. It sucked. I've fallen three times on the street since I moved to NYC (and I was completely sober every time - for all you doubters out there) and once at work (see old post below from August). I've been falling like a little girl running too fast. The second time was the worst, ripped my favorite pair of jeans and had a big nasty cut on my knee. Now I have a scar... seriously like a little kid! Last Tuesday wasn't too bad, bloodied my hands and did something weird, but not permanent to my knee - no blood or cuts involved though. I also didn't tear up my second favorite pair of jeans. Thank goodness!

It made me think that I need to slow down! I'm thinking about applying it to all areas of my life, except for work, where moving as fast as you can is actually beneficial and necessary. But I still find myself walking quickly, passing people by on the street. Rushing around, but not always in a frantic "i'm late" kind of way. I decided I'm just a fast walker; I have long legs and they like to move quickly to take me where I want to go.

Also in the vein of moving slow, I read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and was disturbed by the picture he painted of the food society in which we live. I'd suggest reading it; it will open your eyes to what industrial food it doing to our bodies and our environment. I wish I could say since reading the book I've been able to live outside of the industrial food establishment, but that is not true. I just think about it more and have tried to make some conscious choices to do my part to say, "Hey, I care about how my food gets to me and I want to make sure that in 30 years, my little baby relatives have the opportunity to eat real food... energy that comes from the sun to nourish their little bodies with as few middlemen involved as possible." One of the choices I've made is to support the organic and sustainable farmers at the farmer's market. I would encourage people to find local farmers and find out more about their farming practices and buy produce and meat from them.

I could go on and on about this, but I will leave you with one last compelling realization I had on Sunday while watching a segment on 60 Minutes about MRSA, a new strain of staph virus that can only be controlled/eliminated by one drug. ONE DRUG!!! So many pharmaceuticals (especially antibiotics) are put into the food we eat that drug companies make more money selling their antibiotics to food related sources (companies raising livestock, for example) than to sick people. I truly believe that now people are getting sicker because of it. If there wasn't such an abundance of antibiotics out in the world now (especially in our food sources), the viruses may not mutate as frequently and with such destructive consequences as they are now.

And for another little branch off the living sustainably and responsibly rant I'm on... A few weeks back I was walking down 7th Ave in Park Slope and stopped dead in my tracks to see my brother's friend, Matt Eskuche's glass art in a shop - see my links: EssVetro, for more info on Matt. The shop is called Greenjeans and I had a chance to visit the exhibition and talk to the owners, Amy & Jae. They are interested in supporting artisans who understand and demonstrate a passion for their craft, whether it is glassblowing, pottery, woodwork, doll making, etc. I think that this is something that can easily be applied to the food world too - cheesemakers, winemakers, artisan bakers, chocolate makers, farmers. So see, it indeed does come back around for me to food.

And in a total birdwalk of thinking...
I need to make an effort to carry around my camera more often. A few weeks back I saw an all black squirrel on the way from my apartment to the subway. I was totally amazed. An all black squirrel!!! I've never seen a black squirrel. I didn't know they existed. I've seen this squirrel a few times. Anyway, I need to post a picture so people don't think I'm completely nutty. I also find that if I ride the F train late at night and I'm in a certain car there is a man that appears to be dead asleep but then wakes up every now and then to pee in the corners near the doors. He does this while moving himself down the length of the train until he decides to move to the next car. While I'm disgusted, I'm also fascinated that he will do this while there is a relatively populated train. It gets me wondering if he is a drunk, is completely kooky or maybe just incontinent? I'd like to take a picture of him because it is just a very strange experience to be on the train and realize a man is peeing in the corner.