Boo!

My niece Katy sent me an email today that said "Hi Laura, Halloween is in 3 days, I'm so excited!"

Since I now live on Sesame Street, Halloween is a VERY BIG DEAL here in Brooklyn Heights. As I walked home from the subway tonight, everything had a very cozy October feel in the air: wet leaves on the ground, everything a little misty, skeletons and cobwebs and pumpkins decorating the brownstones on Joralamen and Grace Court.

Last weekend Halloween officially kicked off with a dog costume parade on the Promenade and the Packer Pumpkin Patch - an all day festival of music, rides, crafts, face painting, a haunted house, dodge ball, sugary snacks. Packer has been around for a good 100 plus years so has a bit of that mythical Hogwarts quality too (though the pictures on the wall don't talk back to you my friend Antony pointed out). Overall, lots of good kid energy all around.

I haven't gotten into a true yoga schedule yet but spending time around kids can have the same effect on your mind - keeps you in the present! They also remind you to just jump in, have fun, dream big and play.

I'm planning my costume for an adult party Saturday, and it involves wearing a sundress. I am not sure what this means that the core of my former SoCal wardrobe has been reduced to a Halloween costume....

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Charlotte Cam

I've zoomed in to share the pretty view from my window and the roof deck - the boats in the harbor, the skyline of Manhattan, the way the pink looks in the sky during a late autumn sunset - but haven't mentioned the stalled construction project going on just below.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is an elaborate plan to turn the East River waterfront right below me into an amazing 85 acre park stretching from Manhattan Bridge to Atlantic Avenue. When completed, the park will have playgrounds, fishing piers, a sailing marina, tennis courts, biking paths, basketball courts, a paddling zone for kayaks and multi-purpose playing fields for soccer, lacrosse and other field sports.

Since I moved in, I've had a direct view of things and have barely seen one worker during the past month here. I've made a few comments to Stacy that one person spraying down concrete doesn't seem to bode well for the park to be completed in July of 2010.

Though...doubtful and cynical comments aren't typically my nature, and while clever in others, in me they really don't suit. Friends in both New York and San Francisco used to call me "Charlotte" - referring to the eternal optimist from "Sex and the City" who, besides having a milder and more traditional way about her, had an unshakable romantic view of the world. Life has its bumps, disappointments happen but Charlotte always had hope, and believed in possibilities.

The other morning I was on a 'beach walk' on the Brooklyn Promenade and looked at the lifeless site below, but started to look around the bend. Besides seeing the cluster of trees that were apparently purchased last March (that honestly seemed a very long way away from being planted in dirt and grass as we are headed into winter months)... I looked at the construction site and saw for the first time the vision of what things could be, and believed it could happen.

A few weeks ago, Seth Godin wrote in a post about "Enormity": ...Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won't get a bigger donation, you'll just get averted eyes. If you've got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you've got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won't pan out, we're going to move on in search of something smaller..."

Quite a lot of things can often look enormous, and just seem too impossible to try to change and start construction on. Repairing relationships, turning around a troubled company (or nation), digging out from crippling debt, believing in a family of your own after several miscarriages, restarting your life after a several year hiatus, staring down a disease that has shown up again, unwanted. Arguably, empty piers on the other side of the river from Manhattan that requires significant funding for transformation, is also an enormous leap of faith during a season of too many new projects and open hands, and too little money to go around.

Of course on a larger scale, there's the construction that's essential to combat destruction if our society is to evolve: bringing fresh water to the one in six people on the planet who don't have it; bringing food to 1.5 million New Yorkers who have to chose every month between buying food or paying rent; standing for forgotten animals who can't speak for themselves; stopping the rate of destruction in Amazon Rainforest - an environment that houses over three quarters of all living things on earth - where an area of forest the size of one U.S. state is being burnt to the ground every single year. From the very personal to the global, its easy to see how we can shut down, how many problems can be as bleak as empty construction sites.

However, this week, progress (slow but still something) began below. Stacy came over yesterday and expected a remark from me about the park when I surprised her by saying "I've been hearing activity down there all week!" and showed her the big pile of dirt that was new. Stacy first looked at me, and then went to the window to check out the progress thru my new eyes. Looking at the picture above, I now see that the big pile of dirt has been there all along, though I do think it has started to look a little bigger...

We all have roles in this life, and given the equipment inside, once it finally dawns on us that purpose and happiness are truly intertwined. Some of us have that entrepreneurial vision, who first imagine the idea and see the glimmer of possibility. Some are given big brains, tenacity and courage to make that vision happen. Some have over-sized benevolent hearts, and help fund far-out projects like this or start-up companies making new products that ultimately add to the quality of life of many others. Some of us are the peace-makers, the negotiators, the ambassadors of bridging conflict and opposing agendas inside nations, cities, companies and sometimes inside immediate families. Even others are the teachers, the builders, the nurturers, the healers, the scientists and helpers; as well as the creators, the entertainers and joy-makers. And some of us need to be the Charlottes, who hope. Whose job it is to believe in the potential in the pile of dirt and tell others it will happen, even when it looks too soon to tell.

Lots of work - all roles needed.

Good Vibrations

I am not vibrating to New York yet.

I first said this (out loud) over brunch last weekend to my friend Lisa. Lisa nodded and said "You just don't have your New York legs yet." Perhaps. And I realize how "California" I sound saying this too! While I know I am still feeling a bit unsettled, I also feel that I am where I am supposed to be right now, so there's a certain peace in that. (Hopefully I will keep this peaceful attitude when its January here and I'm feeling the wind coming off the river and I think about yoga on the beach with the dolphins in Laguna!).

I think it is the "Power New York" I used to know that I think I am not really clicking with yet - the energy, the pace, going to the latest and greatest places, the super scheduled pm life, keeping up with it all. I do enjoy being close to it - knowing I can dip in the pool when I want to for fun - but mainly enjoying the smaller, quieter charms of getting to know the village and surrounding areas of Brooklyn Heights, and especially seeing the faces of many people I care about on a regular basis.

My brother in law has quoted the "Wear Sunscreen" song before to me -- "Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard; Live in Northern California once but leave before it makes you soft."

Not sure what happens yet when you return back to New York...




Maximizing a Sunday

My sister's friend Christine has a couple rules - "Go to a separate place for a drink before you go to dinner" is one, and "Maximize a Sunday" is the other. While both are great rules, I especially love the Sunday one: Don't mourn the weekend being over when you can enjoy the most out of the day you are in.

My friend Kathy came to town this past weekend from Chicago and a few college friends got together over the weekend to catch up and explore. Saturday we had a very NYC day -- meeting for brunch on the Upper East Side, then going to the the Robert Frank and Vermeer exhibits at the Met (pic 1), followed by dinner at Standard Grill at the new Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. After dinner we walked the High Line (picture 2) an urban park transformed from forgotten elevated railroad lines.

Sunday was chilly and rainy, a day you would be tempted to stay in and watch TV (if you had a TV). Instead, Kathy and Jen came to Brooklyn with a plan of helping me explore the surrounding neighborhoods where I live now. Since Kathy is pregnant and I've brought a more suburban lifestyle sensibility back to New York, we drove, though without a map or much knowledge of where we were going. (California friends will likely appreciate that my navigation skills aren't any better in an urban environment...)

Three neighborhoods later (Cobble Hill, Fort Greene (pic 3), Dumbo (pic 4), and back to Brooklyn Heights), we met Antony for dinner at dinner at Noodle Pudding, a delicious and very popular restaurant on Henry Street I discovered last weekend with my friend Daniel who was visiting from San Francisco.

While there's certainly something to be said for knowing where you are going - as well as having a TV and a wardrobe appropriate for the climate you live in - there's also the pleasure of discovery. New York Part 2 continues to remind me life always bring new places to explore, people to meet, friends to know better, and something wonderful may just be waiting around the corner, when you're ready to look for it. Even on a Sunday.

Slumber party

I've been in my new apartment exactly two weeks today, and have been in New York shortly more than one month. The weather has already started to turn chilly, and I bought a new winter coat yesterday. It has been interesting to think about expanding a wardrobe from 1 1/2 seasons to 4. (In SoCal, 'winter' for the most part means Uggs and a sweater). Of course if your budget doesn't reign you in from too much power shopping, famed New York style closets will. Carrie Bradshaw stored her sweaters in her oven; my sundresses, shorts and 10 pairs of flip flops are in storage cube/end tables. (Yes, Suzi, glad I moved them...)

Though I don't have a TV yet, and books are still stacked on the floor, I've been lucky to have many friends already come by to visit -- Jen, Paul, Brett, Daniel visiting from San Francisco, Antony, Adam, Stacy and Jason and the kids. It all starts to make a new environment begin to feel like home.

Last week, after letting me share the trundle bed in her princess room several times earlier this year, my goddaughter Carly came over for her first sleep over. We made dinner, colored new pictures for my refrigerator, made brownies, listened to Jack Johnson and read a book on an aerobed on the floor. In the morning, while I made breakfast, Carly looked at boats in the harbor from a perch in the kitchen. "Look there's the Tan!" she said, referring to the Tancook ferry up in Nova Scotia. It made me smile and think about how wonderful it is to always look at life through the eyes of a child.

Rainy Friday

You know it's a bad sign when Uma the office dog is better dressed than you are!

This pic is for my friend Ellen whose dog Diva wins both Miss Congeniality and Best Dressed award, and my niece Ellie who has always wanted to dress up the family cat Beans.

Happy Friday everyone.

Na Forget Mi Roots

For the first few nights I left in my new home -- aerobed style, before furniture arrived -- I got very little sleep. I woke up suddenly at 5 a.m. with the loud noises of trucks barreling. I tossed and turned (as best as you can in an aerobed), and eventually gave in and went to get coffee, wild eyed and cranky. The lovely unobstructed view comes with a special bonus -- The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, known here as the BQE.

While I did know that noises would be muffled once furniture arrived and rugs got placed, I was pretty concerned. I asked people about soundproofing curtains, wave machines, playing background music all night, what to do. My friend Paul ventured "I actually think you are just not used to noise". He was right, I was used to a sleepy beach town, and waking to birds chirping in the tree in my yard -- how was I going to live here and get used to that noise? Friends came by and said "I don't hear anything at all." I barely did either. It's interesting what you get desensitized to, and rather quickly.

The often work hard, play hard sounds of New York, primarily Manhattan, often come straight out of central casting -- horns honking, ambulance sirens, garbage trucks making that beep-beep-beep 'back up' noise (those who know, know). For three days last week at work, we had the sidewalk being repaired outside of our office and worked to the noise of jack hammers for nearly 8 hours straight. Every time I get off the subway in Brooklyn Heights, I just exhale, so grateful to be in this small, beautiful village, where there's a lot of walking and not too much mad driving on one way cobblestone streets; the energy and pace much more relaxed.

During the ‘unpacking’ process, have been listening quite a bit to two playlists friends made me before I left -- especiallyJen's “Reggae Love” and Jeremy’s appropriately entitled “Enjoying the Ride”, which was also his advice when I was leaving. “Na Forget Mi Roots” – Don’t Forget Your Roots - is one of my favorite songs on his list.

The other morning I was going to work and heard some noises over the sounds of the street - the tribal rythms of a berimbau, used in Capoeira dance-sparring. It was something I first heard and saw at a Sambazon party at Natural Products Expo West when I first moved to San Clemente, and was mesmerized by the centuries old Afro-Brazilian fluid 'dance of war'. Looking up I saw a capoeira troupe, in the concrete jungle instead, performing in front of the stately columns of a city court building. I watched for a while and thought of the way the light slants and shimmers on the equator in Macapa, Amapa.

Morning Traffic

View from my kitchen window this morning.

So I moved in...

So I moved in! After 19 days of sleeping on the guest bed in Ellen and Kevin’s house in Mission Viejo, Carly’s princess trundle in Brooklyn Heights, the Bradley Inn bed for Beth and Corey’s wedding and then my aerobed in an empty apartment for a week, my things were delivered last Friday and I spent most of the weekend unpacking and getting settled. It felt great. There’s still a few remaining boxes and stuff piled up on my floor (where my future table will go), but it is coming together.

Adam was in town from Santa Monica and came down for dinner and to see my place the night before move in day “I just wanted to make sure you actually moved somewhere,” he commented wryly. He was referring to the Santa Monica/Venice/Pacific Palisades search which of course Suzi and Laurie can appreciate as well.

Stacy was here for move in day, and is pictured above laughing at my wardrobe that’s a good 70% comprised of sundresses. “Where are your pants??” she asked.

Antony and Jen also came by over the weekend– Antony bearing light bulbs, pastries and a welcome Brooklyn Bridge art book. Jen came down on Saturday and she and I unpacked my kitchen and fragile items for two days over the weekend and enjoyed the lovely bottle of wine she brought once I could find the box where my wine opener was!

When I first moved from New York 5 ½ years ago to San Francisco, I began living in corporate housing for 3 months that turned into 8 months in the blink of an eye. Buying food and buying plants and making coffee at home helped get me used to the fact that I was ‘living’ there not just visiting on a trip.

The San Francisco corporate apartment on Chestnut Street on the far edges of Russian Hill had the most amazing view, which I had no idea about until I arrived after a long cross country flight and first opened the door. The living room had an unobstructed view of the water and I would spend hours in the morning or a lazy Sunday watching shipping barges, sailboats and cruise ships pass to and from the Golden Gate, past Alcatraz Island to the larger bay.

The view I have now is equally stunning, and something Jen had forgotten about until she came over on Saturday “Look at the water!” I face the west and see the Seaport and lower Manhattan, the East River and New York Harbor and to the far left the Statue of Liberty. Like in my San Francisco apartment, it is one of those things that happen in life when you get more than you hoped for. While it’s ultimately water, trees and mountains not tall buildings on a city skyline that makes my heart soar, seeing water and boat traffic every morning and every evening is what I am most grateful for as I am starting to create a new home here.

Sunday night I was doing laundry and met neighbors in the elevator who were traveling to my floor to take the stairs to the roof deck. “Are you coming up to watch the fireworks they said?” Turns out there was a centennial celebration for the Manhattan Bridge. From my perch on the radiator in my living room I looked with wonder at fireworks exploding in the air right across the river, and was amazed.

Lob-stah Weekend

Sometimes a change in latitude is all you really need.

Once upon a time, just like in “Sex in the City”, there was a group of young single women who all lived in New York. And like many New York stories, these women were first connected through the usual reasons (work, former home towns, friends of friends) but grew closer through playful evenings spent enjoying queso fundito and potent margaritas at a Mexican restaurant on Second Avenue called Zarellas, followed by after hours merrymaking a few doors down at Jameson’s pub.

My friend Dave used to say that when I’d come to work the morning after “Zarella’s nights”, regaling him with funny and sometimes crazy stories from the evening before, he would get a mental image of the old “She’s Got Legs” ZZ Top video on MTV– hazy smoke everywhere, lovely ladies in high heeled boots kicking down a door and taking over a joint. I won’t lie, some nights it was a bit like that.

Beyond the cheese and tequila and occasional impromptu jukebox karaoke performances, it was the many more hours of laughter, tears, discussions and counsel (and not taking counsel), unconditional support during the unexpected bumps in the road, and celebrations of joy and love that ultimately gave deep roots to our friendship.

Our friend Beth, now living in Atlanta, found her match with Corey who officially became part of our clan last weekend. We all traveled from California, Austin, Atlanta and New York to witness their marriage and watch a new chapter of Beth’s life unfold. In our 3 seater van we toured the countryside with our driver ‘T-bone’, danced to “Thriller”, ate a lot of lob-stah, and plotted our next time to all get together. When we entered the lobby bar at the Bradley Inn, we heard ourselves being referred to as “The New York Mafia” -- our ZZ Top girls presence clearly still intact.

A few months ago when I was in Florida over Easter I watched Mama Mia with my nieces (who know every song), and enjoyed the scene where Meryl Streep and the girlfriends she’s known for 20 plus years are dancing and playing around, “having the time of their lives.” I remembered thinking that that’s how it works with the best of friends. Months and years may pass, addresses may change, new additions may join the fold, but things only get better with time. And you just pick right up where you left off.