In the Midwest, it is common for people to hold the door for you. It is especially rare when a man does not hold the door for a woman. Well New York is different. I can't count how many times the door has slammed in my face. Subway doors, elevator doors, doors to work, Starbucks, etc. Every once in awhile you encounter someone who does hold the door open for you and it is nice. So being the nice Midwestern girl that I am, I say, "Thank You." It is just what you do. There is a type of individual in NY that I have noticed that does not seem to exist in the Midwest. The older, nicely dressed gentleman. He will hold the door open for you but when you thank him, and I am not kidding, he looks at you like, "This is a complete waste of my time. You thanking me is actually taking more time than I planned and I totally regret holding the door for a few extra seconds." It is the oddest thing. What is even funnier is that the other day as I was leaving the gym, I heard this awful squawk. I looked behind me and there was this old lady. I am assuming she was mad because I didn't hold the door for her but I honestly didn't see her. She is a fast moving blue hair. But seriously!
That reminds me. Old people in NYC are a whole other thing. I can't decide if it is all of New York or just the Upper East Side. The other night I was at the grocery store and there was an older man in front of me with a couple of things. I started to grab the partition thing so I could start putting my groceries on the conveyor belt but he grabbed it out of my hands and put it back! I just stood there stunned, unsure of what to do. Which what I wanted to do was grab it again and beat him with it. What the hell? You don't grab things out of stranger's hands. So I was like, well I am just going to start putting my stuff on the belt and if he gets charged for some of my stuff that will teach his social security ass to grab things out of people's hands.
They finally took the scaffolding off of the front of my building which is nice. I almost don't recognize the front of my building! But unfortunately, the two holes from the construction workers are still here. There is one on the wall in my bedroom which is the front of the building. The front of the building is patched up so air isn't leaking out or in but there is still a huge hole and I am afraid they will charge me when I move out. There is also a hole near the ceiling in my bathroom. Any time someone shuts a door anywhere in the building, pieces of wall and debris fall. There is a constant mess that I have completely given up cleaning except for maybe once a month.
Still dealing with Maverick's anxiety that has significantly gotten worse from moving here. He has really good days and then he has days that he just shakes and there isn't anything I can do. It doesn't make any sense. There isn't a lot of noise on my street. I bought the Thundershirt. Hopefully that helps. The vet prescribed anti-depressants but they don't work once he is already in an anxious state and I don't want to keep him constantly medicated. Will let you know if the Thundershirt works. I am hopeful.
Dad and I leave for Italy in 18 days. I am taking him on his first overseas trip to Italy for his belated 60th birthday. It is where our family is from and I can't wait to show him Italy. He has no idea. We are going to Venice, Rome and Sicily. I haven't been to Sicily before so I am pretty excited about that.
For some reason, my mind really wants to be running but my body has been so tired lately that I just can't make myself do it. It sucks. Can't wait for the weather to get nice again and so I can run in Central Park.
I finally signed up for German class. I speak German conversationally and it has always been a goal of mine to become fluent. Here is the first step. It feels really good to make the first step. Classes don't start until April. I have a busy couple of months anyway.
-S
P.S. I love cake.
