Halloween is the New Thanksgiving

Success!  Picture-wise anyway.  As you can see, I have finally figured out a way to get a picture slide show to the right, so even when I'm too lazy to embed pictures with the text, the last 100 that I've uploaded onto photobucket.com will stream.  Also, if you'd like to look at bigger versions of the pictures, you can click to go the photobucket page I've set up (and you don't need an account yourself to see the pictures I've added to mine).  To keep the main page of the blog a little less cumbersome, the rest of my post is "after the jump" as they say (so click to continue).

I've been finding lots to do around the city in the last weeks!  Weekends have been pretty standard "touristy," but I finally got to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), El Museo del Barrio, and the Museum of the City of New York.  I attended these three world-class museums for a grand total of $4.  I had not been to El Museo del Barrio before, so it was interesting to have a look at the art and culture of the neighborhood I've been living in for a couple of months now from the clean, organized perspective of a museum.  Some of it seemed a little off (like the inclusion of "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes, which I studied during a class on the Harlem Renaissance and seems decidedly West Harlem to me), but it was all interesting.  I especially liked some of the reflections on Manhattan beyond El Barrio by its residents.

I also did some more active touristy things.  Last week, Brittany and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (and straight back; we didn't even bother to get off) before walking through the financial area of downtown.  Brooklyn Bridge did offer some nice views of both Brooklyn and Manhattan but it was absolutely PACKED, probably owing at least in part to the fact that we weren't the only people aware of how few warm Saturdays remain before the onset of cold, cold, cold.  The part of the bridge separated from cars and the like has a divider to keep bikers and walkers separate, but I still felt it must take nerves of steel to ride a bike across that thing, especially on a day that is bound to draw more casual strollers less familiar with the customs crossing between the boroughs.  I'm shocked I didn't see a single kid lose an arm.  After that, we walked downtown, passing Ground Zero and the church that is now a memorial to it (formerly the worship site of George Washington), some other significant churches, Bowling Green (the oldest public park in the city and site of that weird bull statue), and Wall Street. We've also been in Midtown (where a lot of shops are) after dark a bit, and the Christmas decorations are definitely coming up in droves.  One Tuesday night, it seemed like every store on Sixth Avenue was changing it's window display for the holidays before kids have had a change to make a dent in their Halloween candy!  I listen to Christmas music sporadically throughout the year, but the spirit has definitely spread beyond my little bubble of evergreen holiday cheer.

This Sunday, Brittany and I walked in the Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium.  The weather was gorgeous, a nice treat after a rainy Saturday, so we got some good pictures on the field and from the stands.  Living in a city with major league sports is definitely new for me, and it's hard not to get a little caught up in the local spirit.  When our heat lined up for final instructions and the starting gun, I couldn't imagine that an actual Yankees game would inspire much more of a blue-and-white theme in the crowd.  But I still can't stand that Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song, no matter how many passing cars blare it from their stereos.