Black and White

I have been a little grumpy lately now that all the leaves are gone (and the sky is gray, and the sky is graaay, i've been for a - ahem, sorry) and there is no more beautiful color around. All the camouflage around our yard has molted and now we can see the house behind us where they park their cars in the backyard. Lovely. Anyway, I was taking the train into the city this afternoon (whooo party! goin' to see my therapist! Yeah!) and was busily reading my Domino when I paused to look out the window. Much of the train ride has an unimpeded view of the Hudson that is pretty spectacular. Of course now I am jaded and it's wintery and cloudy and no leaves so I wasn't expecting much. But as it all came into focus I was floored. The water, for once, looked completely still. It was like looking at sheet of glass. The hills were reflected perfectly in the water, down to the spiky upsidedown tree tops. Everything was completely leached of color because of the dying light and the gray sky and the dark trees and the still water. It looked like a black and white still life. The water in the shallows was so still that it reflected everything on the banks perfectly and made me feel like I was looking at an Escher. I couldn't take my eyes off it until the siren call of expensive home goods became too hard to resist (and we passed the nuclear power plant, kinda kills the charm). But still, I was feeling good again about moving to such a beautiful place.

When I got into the city and I saw the lights on 125th street I had a moment of wistfulness. I forgot about the christmas lights (in my afterschool special the Robbie Benson character would have whispered that in my ear instead of some fool thing about the flowers). Luckily I had to navigate around midtown and all the dumb-ass out-of-towners (oh, wait, crap) that were in for the stupid f-ing Rockefeller center tree lighting and it brought me back to earth. Christmastime in the city can be a real pain. But the lights are very sparkly. And the shops have so many goods. So many fondlesome goods. What I am trying to say is that living in the suburbs, living in the city, both have their sublime moments. Moments that make you happy that you live where you live and you are where you are. And then they have their nuclear power plants and congestion too. Right now the pros are outweighing the cons. Today, I was very happy in both worlds.