Haunted by Pigeons

For some reason, I am being haunted by pigeons.  While sleeping in the morning, I heard my cat freaking out about something by the window while hearing the sound of something tapping on the window.  Living in NYC, I was horrified as I didn't wan to see what was tapping outside of my window even if it was the daytime.  I opened the screen to see this!

Crazed Tapping Bird!

Horrifying!  Just look at the beady eyes on that thing!  I tried to shoo him away by hitting the glass, but he only pecked more.  I finally went back to bed, threw the covers over my head and went back to sleep.  No big deal, it had never happened before and I doubt it will ever happen again, the odds are with me as there is no reason for him to return as it is a crappy place to nest and there is no food!

Later on in the week, I was going home on the subway but there were problems with the line, go figure as the MTA stinks!  Because of a problem on my train's line, I was forced to take another train to the end of the line and then take my train back up to my stop.  It sucked, but I soon was amused by the spotting of this guy.

Didn't Pay Full Fare

He had gotten on the train at Stillwell and decided to take train to the next stop.  Well, I am glad someone is getting a good deal from the MTA!  I had to wonder though if he would take the train back to find his family and friends.  Do pigeons mate for life?  Do they have friends? I doubt it, as they are pretty greedy creatures so I figure they probably don't get to attached to places or other pigeons.  I just hope if he does have responsibilities he made it back in time.  Probably not though as the trains are rarely on time.  Just for the hell of it, here is another shot as it made me laugh for a good 2 minutes making me look like a crazy person.  Odd, because you don't normally see too many crazy people on the NYC subway system...

Looking for a Seat Before the Upcoming Busy Stop

Good times!  But my pigeon encounters didn't stop there, which frightens me!  Yes, they are everywhere in NYC, but they aren't normally this bold or obvious.  You just learn to dodge them, especially the ones that dive bomb your head.  They just become a normal fixture of NYC much like piles of puke on Saturday night and the dog poo you are forced to avoid thanks to the careless owners who don't pick up the special delivery from their pooches.  But this week, the pigeon encounters kept coming fast and furious

It started on Saturday.  After a stop at Starbucks for a big ass coffee due to my extra early class on Saturday morning, I headed towards the college.  It was early yet to head to class and I made the decision to take a walk around the neighborhood rather than go downstairs to the basement of hell at my college to try to force myself to stay awake as the process of the Linear Regression was explain ad nauseum.  Look, there is no way to make stats fun, period.  See, this is what I do when I am early to functions.  Take a walk around the neighborhood rather than be cooped up inside hating life.  Even in my day to day life, I get antsy, thus my life is one big wanderlust.  I get bored easily and would rather get lost in the sights of the city and sounds of my iPod.

While turning a corner, I noticed a huge moving mass on the ground.  As first, I wasn't sure what it was until I got closer.  But soon it became clear.  There was at least 75 pigeons swarming to get something on the ground.  I had no idea what it was, I don't know if I wanted to know what was there.  Could it be The Ark of the Covenant, the Passage to Atlantis, or did I possibly just find Waldo?  The truth is I never found out as I didn't want to get anywhere near that mass for fear they would freak out and come at me crapping all over me before class.  In the end, I only got these pictures before running away to the safety of the next avenue over.  If I am brave enough, I may venture to the street next week to see f they are still there.  Why?  Because it is disgusting yet fascinating.  See for yourself:

Disturbing Yet Fascinating! 

 Hopefully this trend o'pigeons will end this week and I will be able to go back to my normal relationship them. 

Goodbye Fall, Hello Cold, Cruel Winter

A Walk Through Central Park

First off, thanks to the people who emailed me about the blog it is really appreciated.  And they weren't even my family or friends but people who stumbled on the site.  This blog is a great way to let my family and friends know what I am up to, but I am happy if others enjoy it.  I haven't been on as much lately due to my impending finals, auditions and job search.  Life has been busy, but good!  Onto what's new...

Fall is still in full swing until December 21^st, but it sure feels like winter is here full force.  Then again, I am a cold weather lightweight.  If it dips below 50, I will complain, a lot.  It has been in the 30’s and 40’s and even with many layers of clothing, I am still freezing.  Good times for me until the end of April.  That’s what I get for being a Californian, a weather wimp.

Still, I never get tired of the sites of NYC, especially as the seasons change.  I am a fan of photography and take way too many photos trying to capture everyday life.  Ah, another artistic endeavor I cannot make a living off of!  Yay!!!

So now, I would like to bid a fond farewell to Fall, even though technically is is still Fall.  Too bad!  When it drops into the 30’s, it's officially Winter, even if it is in the middle of Summer.

So enjoy some of the sights around NYC amid the changing leaves:

Most of the pictures were taken in Central Park.  Central Park is the best place to see the leaves change in NYC because there are so many trees unlike the rest of Manhattan.  I miss trees, well, nature in general, though I see plenty of animals on the subway everyday...  The day I took these photos, I was wasting time in Central Park rather than doing what I should be doing, studying.  Nature trumps boring subjects I didn't want to take anyway!

Nature's Fireworks in Central Park

Three of the photos were taken in Washington Square Park when my friend Angie and crew came to visit in NYC for a few days.  They had never been to Washington Square Park and we happened to be in the area.  There were some great photo opportunities due to the lighting from the clouds breaking after a brief rainstorm.  These pictures were taken earlier than the Central Park photos so the trees were just starting to change.  There also was a great shot of a person peeing in a fountain, but I don't really care for those kind of nature shots...

Washington Square Park

Highway Madness and Final Thoughts on West Virginia

Dirty After a Long Day of Hiking

So I would like to talk about how amazing our last day of our adventure was, but the reality is that nothing really happened as we were heading back to NYC.  We got up early refreshed and ready to go.  Okay, not so refreshed as we had been burning the candle by both ends, but the hotel room was really clean compared to the one the night before.  The breakfast was okay, mostly carbs and more carbs, though they did have yummy bagels as was requested by Noah. 

Yes, on the request form that is on their website Noah was a smart ass and wrote, “Please make sure you have some yummy bagels.”  It was damn funny at 2:00AM when the hotel was booked, but we had forgotten about it until the guy who checked us out asked if we had found the bagels they had out on the spread “yummy.”  I lost it and went into a laughing fit while Noah replied, “Indeed, thank you very much!”

Entering West Virginia

So off we went to make it back to Philadelphia where we would catch our bus home.  The ride was crazy in the morning on the route we took, so we decided to go onto a highway that had a toll.  Because of the toll, most people bypassed it, but let me tell you, it was a dream!  Hardly anyone is on it and it is quite spacious.  It was worth the $7.00 we paid just to escape the headache of dealing with stupey drivers.

There is a refreshment area before you get too far onto the highway which was nice.  There we decided to grab a coffee as we were pretty tired.  Let me just say this place was not as amazing as we thought it would be even though it was in the toll area.  First off, some crazy woman wearing pajamas walked out of the building carrying food even though Noah had held the door for me as I was halfway through already.  I have to be calm around rude people like that as it is hard for me not to say something, but after she pushed through, I walked through the doors saying “thank you” to Noah.  She replies, “yep” as if she had done me a favor.  I had a few choice words to say which will not be repeated.  It takes a lot to make me lose my cool!

Point Pleasant

Noah laughed and reminded me that we would be getting a Starbucks which would make me happy as their coffee is strong enough to keep me going.  When we walked up to the counter, no one was there.  About two minutes later, the guy who was working there came back after he was done talking to the person at the Subway counter.  The guy stared at me in a way that made me a little uneasy, he never blinked!  As I began my order, a fly went past the guy’s face and he caught it in his hand squishing it, his eyes never leaving my face and his eyes still didn’t blink.  We grabbed our coffees and got out of the area as fast as possible, it was all just too weird.

As we walked out to our car, we were surprised to see three dudes leaning against it having a conversation.  Okay, this place was a freak show!  When they saw me entering the car two of the guys moved while the third one didn’t care.  I finally had to ask him to please get off of our car so Noah could get in.  This place was crazy!

Crazy Turtle!

In the end, it saved us a lot of time and we got to our destination an hour early.  It was worth it, I just wouldn’t stop at that scary area ever again for a pit stop as it was way to questionable.  Back in Philadelphia we decided to see if we could get onto an earlier bus as it was pretty empty and we didn’t want to stay there for an additional hour and a half as we didn’t feel it would give us a lot of time to do anything. 

I have to say that in the end, I really loved West Virginia.  Yeah, people will make comments about it saying that it isn’t one of the more interesting states or make fun of it for other reason.  Well, I am here to say that they are wrong.  West Virginia rocked!  If you are an outdoorsy person, get there quick, you will love it.  Even if you are not, there is still plenty to do and their weekly festivals are a blast.  Example, there was the Road Kill Festival that next weekend.  We were disappointed to be missing it, but were satisfied that we had finally gotten to the Mothman festival, so it didn't matter.

So thank you West Virginia for showing me a good time!