February 2011
17 posts
“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter—the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last—the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company…”
—
E.B White “Here is New York” from Essays of E.B White, which I am presently devouring. (via minusmanhattan)
Someday I dream of becoming a member of the third city…
From Me To You: S'Wonderful →
fromme-toyou.tumblr.com
Ah, so beautiful. Inspiration for my New York trip - who wouldn’t want to be Audrey in the Big Apple?
The Daily Style Icon: Audrey Hepburn
On today’s agenda: Lunch with Kate Spade, Marc by Marc Jacobs show, Sophie Theallet show, cocktails at Donna Karan and dinner with Veronica Beard!
It’s New York Fashion Week, you can’t just wear any old thing! I’m taking inspiration for my daily…
budget? i hate that word.
Reality has settled in this week that in less than six months, I will be getting on a plane and spending four weeks overseas, and I WILL have to pay for it.
I’ve always been an impulsive shopper - no really, like millisecond impulses - but since I started working full-time and have actual money, it’s gotten past the point of ridiculous. So I spent last night writing out a list of luxuries I don’t need, ways to cut my spending etc. and feeling more grownup by the second.
Here’s what I have so far:
- limit soy hot chocolates from the cafe across the road to one per week, instead of every day - that’s $16 right there.
- also no more croissants from said cafe
- only buying lunch a maximum of twice a week and bring my lunchbox the rest of the time
- changing all my direct debits (phone, health insurance etc.) to come out on the same day as my pay - can’t spend it if it’s not there.
- any extras (movies, eating out, after-work drinks, magazines etc.) have to be paid for from my spare change jar - if I can’t pay for it in small coins, it’s not happening.
- finally, I’ve enrolled in an online course through Open Universities, and I have a massive stack next to my bed of all the books I’ve bought but haven’t read - I can’t go out if I don’t have the time.
Basically, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my life is going to be exceedingly boring between now and July.
Any other ideas?
i love exchanging christmas gifts in february. spread out the holiday cheer, i say!
“
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou
” —you know those moments when, just for a second, life is completely perfect?
I had one of those last night.
Early evening. A long walk around my neighbourhood, trying to concentrate on working the jelly off my tummy and trying to breathe. Loud, obnoxious hip hop blaring in my ears. I was working it out, sister.
Then, as I rounded a corner, I stopped. The sun was filtering through the trees in imperfect patterns, turning the footpath into a kind of moving mosaic. I turned off Busta Rhymes and just stood there in the middle of the footpath for a good ten minutes. Just breathing in and out. And smiling.
For that moment, I was (to borrow a line from Keira Knightly’s Elizabeth Bennett) incandescently happy.
