This Is Why I Love NYC

Because at any given moment, a band of Oompa Loompas can (and do) appear. And then burst into a dance routine...

... in step with the Oompa Loompa Song (which someone played on a boombox).

Then, just as suddenly, the Oompa Loompas marched away ...

... and us non-Oompa Loompas went about our business. Just another day in the big city.

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I Heart New York

My Apologies To The Other 49 States

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I REALLY ❤ New York

New York state judges are volunteering by the dozens to officiate at the first same-sex marriages on Sunday, July 24th. From the New York Times:

From Buffalo to the Bronx and pretty much everywhere else in New York, judges are signing up for rare Sunday duty. If same-sex couples want to marry that Sunday, only judges would have the authority to dispense with the 24-hour waiting period required by law. And those judges could then officiate on the spot. Another of the volunteer judges, Sherry Klein Heitler of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said she was expecting something of a party at the city clerk’s office. “I think there will be a lot of people,” Justice Heitler said. “I think there will be a lot of emotion. I think there will be a lot of happy tears.”

J'adore my state.


Via JMG

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Égalité!

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Native New Yorker - Odyssey

You should know the score by now...

50 Reasons To Love Living In NYC

Yesterday Joe.My.God did a post about a recent Village Voice list of "50 Reasons To Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live In New York City." Joe listed some of his favorites from the list, and here are mine [with some additional comments from moi]:

40. That horrified look on our parents' friends' faces when we tell them we live in "Hell's Kitchen." [As a former resident of Hell's Kitchen, I totally vouch for this]

38. Drinking is like breathing. Or slightly more acceptable. [Now you know why I moved here]

36. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, there is someone who will bring it to you for a price, which may or may not be negotiable. Or legal. [No comment]

25. Except in select 'hoods like Park Slope and perhaps the Upper West Side, children are viewed as mysterious beings, rarely sighted and only occasionally understood, like pixies or magical small butlers. Until they scream, in which case, they are banished from the palace. [Yeah, this town is for grown-ups]

24. When you fly back into the city after a vacation or business trip, no matter how long you've lived here, you get that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. [I still breath a sigh of relief when I see the skyline from my Amtrak train after visiting PA]

22. How easy it is to find doughnuts, pizza, Chinese food, or any other snack your drunken self desires at 4 a.m. Or to continue to drink. [See #38 above]

7. Subway "prewalking," in which you walk to the exact right spot on the platform to board the train car that will save you the most time upon exit, exists and has a name. Gotta respect. [I do this every day - as do other New Yorkers - which results in sharing the subway with the same people during daily commutes]

5. We are, as a group, anti-fanny-pack as much as we are pro-gay-marriage. Hetero marriage, on the other hand, we can pretty much take or leave.

2. There is absolutely no reason to ever drink and drive. Added bonus: Spontaneous, fascinating conversations with cab drivers. [Also - flirting with your driver when he is handsome, and him flirting back in order to get a bigger tip. Which he always does.]

Here's one I'd like to add: You can talk to yourself on the street and no one gives you a second look. When I first moved here (exactly 17 years ago), I kept wondering why all these "normal-looking" people were talking to themselves. I quickly found out that they WERE normal. Unfortunately, I sometimes forget while visiting the family in Central Pennsylvania, and find people staring while I'm verbally reciting my shopping list at the Wal-Mart.

I ♥ NY

Daddy Of The Day - "20-Pack"

I don't watch I Love New York or I Love Money on VH1 (Tool Academy, on the other hand - I don't miss) - but apparently this gentleman has appeared on both shows. 20-Pack also, I found out, has worked as an Exotic Dancer here in the New York area.

I am not sure why Kailyn and/or The Boy Toy didn't tell me about 20-Pack, especially since they are EXPERTS on trashy "reality" television...

Daddy Of The Day - David Otunga

David Otunga and Jennifer Hudson have been dating for less than a year - but that didn't stop them from getting engaged over the weekend. Otunga is a Harvard Law graduate, and yet appeared on one of the trashiest TV shows EVER - I Love New York - where he was nicknamed "Punk".