Thursday, July 17, 2008

July 17th, 2008

I went to the barber shop to have my hair cut off. When I got there, I sat on a chair for about 3 hours and waited while the young barber cut all of his friends' hair. He did a lot of shaping around the hair line which just took ages but was trendy so... I would have complained in England - pointed out I was next - but I wanted a shave as well and I was nervous enough about having a cut-throat razor on my Adam's apple without giving cause for the barber to use it for its name's purpose. Besides, this was a proper New York barbershop where all the kids who you'd think should be at work hang out all day and play with their several cell phones and themselves. People where coming and going, F-ing and blinding, dropping their Harley out in the street (that's literal even though it sounds slang). There was the loudest and longest and, admittedly, only argument about baseball I've ever heard. It was quite the quintessential New York experience.

On a later day I went to play basketball with Drew. When the others arrived, as I have trouble throwing the ball high enough on a full-size hoop, I was relieved that I made the teams uneven and sat down to watch with Jenn and Christine. From the adjacent court came an African American lad who looked like a six foot 10 year old, with a beard. He had clearly only seen me playing out of the corner of his eye - or perhaps he caught the one shot I'd made before feeling like I could finally give up. He needed me so they could play 3 on 3. I figured I could just track a player and not get involved too much.

It was the most exhausting thing I've ever done. I felt like I was on a Lord of the Rings set, dwarfed by these wizards - it's the smallest I've ever felt. And they were magic! I kept out of trouble as best I could - but received some friendly advice from one teammate - along the lines of "Squeeze, mother$#%¥@#!" I'm not sure what he meant but I clenched my buttocks in case it was something to do with that. I don't suppose he understood me either, though. That probably explains why he didn't hear me say I'd never played befor because I'm a little English boy.

It was good staying in Brooklyn. Yeah we did all the New York sights but that just felt like tourism. It was the 'normal' things like getting a hair cut and going to the park that felt like New York.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Thursday, July 3, 2008

He was bigger than I thought

When I lost Jenn's engagement ring in the Hawaii surf I didn't expect it to show up in the natural history gem exhibit

One of the oddities not included in the Smithsonian exhibit.

3rd July

On our way to NYC we made a couple of stops: first in Charlottesville, VA. Then in Washington DC.

Charlottesville was the home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, the Statute for Religious Freedom and the 3rd president, and just a swell guy. We visited Monticello, the house that Tom built, and it's incredible - he obviously had very good taste. And the gardens were stunning. Pityabouttheslaves. What? I said, it's a pity about the slaves - but he probably treated them relatively well, so... He did some amazing things, and abolition was a bit after his time, the problem was HE KNEW that slavery was wrong - he arranged for his illegitimate slave children to be freed as a part of his will, even though he didn't acknowledge them in his lifetime and he authored those stuff he authored. I got the distinct impression that he overlooked his misdemeanor because he couldn't bare the lifestyle change that freeing his slaves would have - he had too many hobbies and interests and beloved belongings. Above all - Monticello. He could have
freed all the slaves in his will but over his lifetime he'd built up a large debt and the only way that could be paid after his death was by selling the slaves - not the house of course, sure that would have covered the debt but the house had to stay in the family. I wanted so much to admire him - he was as close to atheist as they got back then and he had it all figured out. Pityabouttheslaves.

DC was next. We didn't do much in the end. It was really hot. Walked up the national mall past all the monuments and to the Lincoln Memorial. Pretty impressive. Saw the Whitehouse- from a distance of course. And we spent a while in the Natural History Museum. Would rather have seen the Smithsonian American History Museum full of all kinds of oddities but it was being refurbished which was a bummer.

It's a long walk up that mall though. In that heat. We got tired and hungry and i'ts just so busy there, and the worst bit was everything was fenced off so you have to snake around all over the place - I guess because they are preparing for 4th July. You know when you have to queue at the airport and it has back and forth? - it was like that all the way up the mall. Tiring.

However I did get to see some American oddities - tours on Segways, a woman drinking a can of Dr Pepper with a straw and a couple standing in front of an exhibit of primate skeletons compared with human ones, who said: how can anyone think they are similar? Jenn had just said the exact opposite.

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