"Wanna know painful? Sitting front row at The Perfect Crime...so don't give me no sass."

Warning! Warning. The below is a mere glimpse of all the pictures to come. I will be very impressed if you stay with me, here!
So...why, you ask? Why do I have so many pictures? What have I been up to lately? Well, I'm glad you asked! I've just been doing...

...the usual. Getting two hours of sleep and then taking a 5:37 train into the city, attempting to see Shakespeare in the Park but then getting there and seeing that the 22nd person in line has been waiting there since 9:00 last night, asking eating blueberries on rocks, talking to random strangers, going to tkts, Katherine calling me a creeper more times than I can count for taking pictures of people I found interesting (aka everyone), accidentally going to Harlem due to Katherine's navigation, going to find the Met and failing, seeing the most beautiful couple in the world, deciding to take a visit to the Museum of Natural History instead and then leaving a couple of minutes after because we were to cheap to pay admission, going to see a truly terrible play that came highly recommended, going to dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner where the waiters/waitresses sing because they haven't made it on Broadway...yet, going to the Upper East Side, going to Little Italy, eating gelato, talking to really adorable Italian guys, going back to Grand Central, getting on a train, going home, and sleeping until 2:30 the next afternoon and only waking up because my mom came in asking if i knew what time it was. Like I said, the usual.

We saw the Twelfth Night poster out the window on the train and saw it as a good omen.

We decided to walk the distance from Grand Central to Central Park. Of course we ended up on the East Side and had to walk a mile and a half through the park to get to the actual line, but what did it matter? It was just the day for a lovely (albeit pretty long) walk.

One of the first of the many dog walking sightings! Sarah, the biggest fan of dogs I have ever met, was a little disappointed that none of the owners asked her if she wanted to pet their dogs when we walked by.

And alas, we arrived! Unfortunately, so had half the city...

I saw this guy and found him interesting with his awesome sunglasses and book, so I started taking some undercover pictures. This was before he realized...

...this was when he realized and started covering his face with his book...

...when we realized that HE realized.

Everyone slept over with mattresses and sleeping bags. We didn't have a prayer of getting tickets.

Admitting defeat, we ate a breakfast of fruit and chocolate covered fruit on the rocks.

Our shaggy friend came to say hi.

The subway became our new best friend...

HARRY POTTAH!!!!! Which by the way, I totally saw at midnight and thought was pretty great. Definitely the best of the ones with Michael Gambon. AHH. I was a big fan.

These girls were so sweet! And I loved them and their friend's outfits.

We went to Times Square to see what we could get cheap ticket wise at tkts.

In black and white:

I didn't get them. :(

"Love at first bite." They just didn't know it.

The most beautiful couple ever!

It reminded me of a poem:

Boulevard Du Montparnasse

Mary Jo Salter

Once, in a doorway in Paris, I saw

the most beautiful couple in the world.

They were each the single most beautiful thing in the world.

She would have been sixteen, perhaps; he twenty.

Their skin was the same shade of black: like a shiny Steinway.

And they stood there like the four-legged instrument

of a passion so grand one could barely imagine them

ever working, or eating, or reading a magazine.

Even they could hardly believe it.

Her hands gripped his belt loops, as they found each other's eyes,

because beauty like this must be held onto,

could easily run away on the power

of his long, lean thighs; or the tiny feet of her laughter.

I thought: now I will write a poem,

set in a doorway on the Boulevard du Montparnasse,

in which the brutishness of time

rates only a mention; I will say simply

that if either one should ever love another,

a greater beauty shall not be the cause.

After trying to find the Met and then realizing it was on the other side of Central Park, we decided to get back on the subway and head back to Times Sqaure. But then we saw the sign and thought...well, why not? At least, it's free.

Yeah...free? Not so much. And we didn't have enough time to get our money's worth. However, Sarah did spot this foursome who we thought could have easily been a British band, so she told me to take a picture, just in case they hit their fame some day.

We went to tkts before or picnic lunch and got tickets to a show three people had HIGHLY recommended. It was cheap, so we thought why not?...by the time we left, it was more like WHY. WHY. WHY??? At first we were super excited because we had front row seats, then we realized there was a reason that the theater was only about 1/3 filled.

The highlight of the show was probably before when Sarah and I raced up the stairs to beat Chris and Katherine on the elevator.

After we went to this diner,

where the waiters and waitresses sing between waiting the tables.

Yeah, we took the subway a lot. I love the subway. So many interesting people to see.

We went to the Upper East Side to do some shopping...but we didn't want to test Chris's patience too much, so we only got to one store.

We had to wait outside the subway because we went to the wrong subway station and used our passes too quickly in succession.

I was distressed, clearly.

My new dream apartment!

Studious Katherine in Little Italy.

We snagged a picture before the hot Italian guy come over. I hastily put my camera away, but he smiled and said we could do whatever we wanted...swoon.

Raspberry and pistachio! Delicious.
Outfit details:

Forever 21 skirt, Urban Behavior top, Forever 21 necklace, Laila Rowe bracelet, ring made in Girl Scouts way back when

And finally, back to Grand Central! It felt like being home.

Thanks for staying with me through all of this!

xxxx, more soon, especially about Harry Potter...

Sylvia

"Chasing fireflies makes summer really feel like summer!"

My friend Lineth left the above on her twitter, and I thought it was a true sentiment...although I do believe then that my summer experience has not been fully realized yet. Hopefully by the end of it, I will finally chase those fireflies!

So, I am now making it my goal to take pictures of as many people as possible with bricks. I'll let you know how it goes! I took these three of Lily after she slept over on the fourth of July.

***

Fourth of July itself was pretty uneventful...

Someone offered my dad this festive headband, and of course he accepted and wore it with his innate fashion sense,

there were cute dogs,

a pretty moon,

and the good ol' fireworks.

***

And some more information about the current going ons (if you just feel like you haven't heard enough already :))

Listening: Turn Me On by Norah Jones

Reading: Just finished Love and Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson and reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot (for just about the millionth time), and The American Pageant textbook (oh how I’m loving this AP work…)

Drinking: pomegranate cranberry juice with ice and a straw

Eating: turkey-cran roll up leftover from my lunch with Bex

Wearing: teal Mr. Frosty’s ice cream employee shirt (although I was never an employee) & a flowery skirt my mom salvaged from the high school costume room

Makeup: a smidge of rhubarb colored Burt’s Bees
Bedside table: two disposable cameras, music boxes from Germany, picture of my two friends and I from first grade (they were Robin Hood and Britney Spears, and I was Cinderella before the ball), a mixed CD that Annie made me, a frame that describes what my name means, a lava lamp, batteries, pens, a Volkswagen blue buggy lamp, grapefruit lotion

Watching: The OC season 2 disc 2 (my friends have been lending me the seasons, it’s my first time watching it through and if you’ve never seen, believe me, it gets addictive)

Thinking: Lawn mowing is not my favorite thing to do

Anticipating: Seeing Shakespeare in the Park and going to the Met on Saturday with Chris and possible others

Wanting: To be in Paris, a fruit powered clock

Obsessed with: plums, Morgan Freeman, teapots (perpetual obsession), bike riding, Feltbeats

Mood: Content….and it feels good.

Saturday In The Park (You'd Think It Was The Fourth Of July)

A very happy belated fourth of July to all! And a very happy and even more belated Canada Day to all as well. (:

Outfit Details Note: Okay, so we borrowed an obscene amount of clothes from my mom, and therefore I am not exactly sure where everything is from...I'll tell you what I do know though! I'll edit later with better details, but eek...here goes:

Top: On me: Becky's shoes, gifted (by none other than Sarah's mom!) scarf worn as dress, Bloch leotard, mom's gold belt, spare bit of fabric worn as headband

On Becky: my mom's skirt and belt, Bex's H&M shirt and shoes from Chinatown

Bottom: On me: mom's top, mom's dress worn as skirt, shoes found in shoe closet

On Becky: her sister's cardigan, Becky's gifted top and Tommy Hilfiger shorts

Okay, this was pretty pathetic...and all in all, quite useless. Well, I'll try to do better with these details next time!

The truck that appeared in our driveway turned out to be a wonderful photoshoot location! I'm thinking of hiring one next time I run out of photo ideas...hope everyone had a lovely weekend filled with fun, food, and fotos! (Okay, not how I usually spell it...but I needed to stay with the 'f' theme.)

xxx,

Sylvia

Walking Barefoot

So, basically the whole reason I named my blog ‘Walk A Mile In These Shoes’ was so I could feature different sneakers, heels, flats, or simply bare feet and tell a bit of a story through any given person’s footwear of choice.

***

On Monday, I went to Katie’s and we had a bit of a photo shoot. One of my favorite things in the world is to come up with character profiles. There's just so many stories to tell, so many people to meet, so many things to see, and I kind of want to learn them all. And if I can't do that, I can at least make some up! So, now, I’ve made up a story to go along with the photographs.

Hope you enjoy!

Ellen Louise Paige was born in 1946 in a small town in Massachusetts. Her father wanted to name her after his mother, Louise, but Ellen’s mother believed it was a name going out of fashion. And if there was anything that Mrs. Mary Paige was not, it was out of fashion.

And besides, she had never really been particularly fond of her mother-in-law. But, to appease her husband, she said the middle name was to be Louise. The baby’s first name was to be Ellen if it was a girl, Patrick Louis if it was a boy. Many years later, the Social Security Administration published information of the most popular baby names of each year. Ellen was in the top 100 in the year of her birth; Mary Paige was the number one in hers. And Mary was right; the name 'Louise' was slowly going into decline.

Mary Paige raised her daughter in the same fashion she had chosen her name. Everything was to be done according to what was thought of as trendy at the time. Ellen was the first in her class to sport the poodle skirt. She was also the first to stop sporting it in favor of the next trend.

Needless to say, Ellen felt by the time she turned 16 that it was her time to rebel.

She started wearing what she wanted and asked two boys down the street to help her in her quest for freedom.

Ellen even tried taking up cigars, but unfortunately she never exactly got the hang of it. Her two friends made fun of her when the first time she tried smoking she attempted to put the wrong end up to her lips.

Besides attempting rebellion and trying to take up smoking, Ellen loved playing in her front yard amidst all the blooming hydrangeas and fresh vegetation. Because the Paige family was a prominent one and had settled in Massachusetts many, many years ago, they had a house in the center of the town that overlooked the citizens’ daily lives. Ellen discovered there was a spot behind a bunch of bushes that made for the perfect place to hear gossip and watch scandals in the making.

She walks barefoot.
***

Photographs can tell any story you want, that's the beauty of it, isn't it?

The real deal: Katie’s amazing mom gave me a dress from her collection. We did an impromptu photo shoot in which we stumbled across Katie’s brother and his friend. I asked to pose with the cigar, but unfortunately I didn’t even notice that I was holding it the wrong way until we were looking at pictures later on the computer. Oh dear, I'm such an amateur. Ah, well.

All photographs by the ever so wonderful Katie P.!