Downtown Girl

Last Saturday, I needed to work hard on an essay I'm writing for a collection with other writers. Naturally, I procrastinated. I spent the early afternoon walking around the Soho/Canal Street area and took many a random photo.




This restaurant was GORGEOUS. It looked like it had a good brunch too.




Nothing like a lamp store in Soho.




In New York, sure we have billboards, but most often we just paint the poster on the side of a building.


I was in love with this trellis of pretty flowers leading down to a Chinese acupuncturist...


... until I realized the flowers are faux.


I also saw a lot of odd signs in that area:


What does that mean, hollow sidewalk? Huh. There was also this classic:


Since then I've been taking lots of pics. I don't know if I'm just easily amused or what, but some things just really strike me as beautiful, like this neon sign reflected in a car window.


Or the way sunlight hits certain things, like flowerbeds on the street.


... or a building just before sunset.


Or an inexplicable row of lonely handtrucks left out in the afternoon sun.


Or New York's lovely downtown cobblestone streets at 5pm.


... you get the point.


Maybe I should have been a lighting designer.

love,
*jenna*

Deep Blue Sea

This is late, but it's never too late to be reminded of vacation, no?

I finally got the photos back from my snorkeling adventure with Tom in Hawaii. Whenever I get these disposable cameras and get my photos back, I'm reminded of film's superior unique look over the glossy perfection of digital cameras. These pics are no exception.

Yes, they're a little muddy, but I'm no marine photographer here, okay?

















Hey Tommy!






So cool. It makes me feel calm just looking at it.




Sigh. Oh ocean. I can't wait for our next rendezvous.


love,
*jenna*

Please join Office Me in welcoming Home Me to the 21st Century.

Hello all! I am broadcasting live from my brand-spanking-new Macbook. In my own home! I've spent the last four years trying to make my evermore tenuous relationship with my PC work but alas, my Mac skillz have superceded all other computing skillz and there are only so many hourglass-for-an-actual-hour frustrations a girl can take. Finally, its logic board now seems to be on its way out. And as we all know, once your logic board goes, it's all downhill from there (unless you're willing to shell out many hundreds of dollars to keep a dyin' thing wheezing).

With my "Hills" recaps fast approaching and wanting to, oh, you know, not stay at the office until 2am writing, I decided to make a big investment in my writing (and computing?) future and sprang for a refurbished Mac. It arrived today, so shiny and clean and loverly. Not to mention fast and whip-smart, unlike (ahem) SOME superheavy 512MB-of-RAM computers I know. (eye roll)

And so! Streaming video, screengrabs, iPhoto and blogging-from-home, here I come!


I can't wait to decorate my desktop background.

love,
*jenna*

This Ain't A Slice Of Kraft Singles.

I don't care how silly I am.

To blog an ode to cheese, I don't care how silly it is.

I, the erstwhile absolute all-cheese refuser, am openly professing to you, my loyal and lovely reader, my totally unexpected, wholehearted adoration for a substance that is not just "a cheese."

Oh no.

It is so much more.

It is delicate,
powerful,
potent,
smoky,
layered,
sweet happiness that goes amazingly well with some bread and salami. Or Bresaola. Or prosciutto.


It's called Monte Enebro. And I had it at Artisenal.

love,
*jenna*



(or apple. or pear, and maybe a nib of fig with it. and some Tannat wine. finished with one perfect peperoncino.)

Late Nite Blogging

May I start this entry by letting you know it's 2:14 a.m. and I'm watching a rerun of "Soul Train?" I didn't even know they play reruns of this show. It's like watching a snapshot of another generation, and that generation is fond of gettin' down (in amazing outfits, too). This is what I get for letting myself sleep till 1pm today.

In other news tonight... I took a walk through Central Park the other evening after work and was rewarded with this lovely scene.


And on Wednesday, walking to 22nd Street to have a slice at Maffei's with Stephanie, I glimpsed this building's reflection and was absolutely captivated by the beauty of distortion.


The next evening, after a girls' night out with some friends from PS, I had the kind of luck that seemed like divine intervention: Mitch, Princess and I had decided to walk over the Williamsburg Bridge back to Manhattan together. As we started out (near to the water, and a good fifteen minute walk to the train), I felt exactly two drops on my head and declared, "It's about to rain." Just then, a taxi pulled up beside us. We hopped in and not a full minute later it was pouring.

There's something uniquely beautiful about watching the rain come down on New York from inside a taxi.






This morning I treated myself to the greatest breakfast a gal could ask for: orange buttermilk french toast with maple-baked bananas and creme fraiche, with a perfect cup of coffee, from Nice Matin. It's about half the reason I moved to the apartment I live in now.


And yes, it is THAT GOOD. Me, I'm just grateful to have delicious food like that in my belly and sunlight like this in my bedroom.


Goodnight world. Keep on groovin'.

love,
*jenna*