a beautiful, rainy day

despite today's rain, i managed to thoroughly enjoy myself this morning. i wandered from columbia university down through the upper west side, weaving between broadway and amsterdam, and finally settling on broadway, which i've decided reminds me of paris and its grand boulevards. i eventually made a leisurely stop at a barnes & noble, picking out a stack of books to peruse and planting myself in a quiet aisle. i pride myself in the fact that i didn't purchase anything (a real challenge to me, especially in bookstores), and instead vowed to make something like a wish list. these are just a few of the books that peaked my interest:


eat me: the food and philosophy of kenny shopsin


the babbo cookbook



a day at el bulli

afterward, i went to hale & hearty for some lunch. although i was tempted by the loaded potato with bacon soup, i decided to try something different and thank god i did. the senegalese chicken soup, an african tomato-based concoction topped with chopped peanuts, knocked me off my feet. i almost thought to order seconds.

while enjoying my soup, i found myself laughing at ex-superstar sarah palin during this new york times article and literally weeping over this one.

Mr. Banks said Mr. Obama’s victory offered minority children a new sense of possibility.

“It raises a level of hope for young men of color who I think have been besieged by a culture of low expectations,” he said in an interview. “Part of our model at One Hundred Black Men is ‘Boys will be what they see,’ and it’s hard for kids to dream about things they’ve never seen.”

Mr. Meade, who until Wednesday had typically mentioned himself first as a role model for his students, agreed. “Now there’s Barack Obama, who’s the leader of the free world,” he said. “The prevailing thought for them has been sports figures and music personalities, but there’s a new face for them being projected across the world. The first family is someone that looks like your family.”

after all that fun, i had to rush over to work at the natural history museum. now i'm home, drinking weird yogi tea and avoiding going to bed and another long day.