NYC Summer Handbag Contents*

1. wallet
2. keys
3. iPhone
4. umbrella (because it rains all the time!)
5. small plastic bag to hold wet umbrella
6. magazine or book (because there is a lot of waiting around)
7. water bottle (absolutely critical in this heat)
8. insect repellent
9. Benadryl cream to treat swollen mosquito bites
10. Tylenol (in case of headache from heat exhaustion)

Optional items:

• sunglasses (because the sun is usually blocked by clouds or skyscrapers anyway)
• a snack (because you can always find something to eat anyway)
• camera (only if going somewhere worth taking photos that the iPhone can't do, such as night scenes)

 *Note: Only Numbers 7-10 are different from Winter Handbag Contents.

Before it gets too hot...or before it gets too cold

Two phrases I find myself saying in NYC, that I never said before.

Kind of obvious for everyone else, but not for this native SoCal girl. Sure it gets hot in the valleys. Sure it can get kind of cold some days in the winter. But it's rarely "too hot" or "too cold" to do something like it is here.

For example:

"Let's go jogging before it gets too hot/too cold."
"Let's rent bikes and bike Central Park before it gets too hot/too cold."
"Let's go to the beach before it gets too hot/too cold."

Too hot was this past weekend, when it was in the 90s and humid.
Too cold was probably around late November or so. For me personally, any time it's below 55.
There was one day in early December when I was out and about and forced to buy an expensive sweater from Brooklyn Industries because I was too cold and too far from home to go back to get a sweater. I think it was below 40 that day.

There's only a small window of time when the weather is perfect, and not even consistently so. Maybe about a month to a month and a half in the spring, and likewise for the fall. Except, interspersed in those days are crazy thunderstorms and days when the weather can't decide what season it wants to be.

It makes you appreciate those days that are sunny and 72, like today, that are most days in L.A. Yet I never noticed them in L.A. because it was such the norm.

I think I'll head to the park and lounge. Before it gets too hot.

The Kao Goes Island Hopping

The Kao has done little roaming in the past year. Unless you count going to the Galapagos Islands. And Taiwan. Okay that's a lot of roaming. A few pics to illustrate:

Swallow-tailed gull on Plaza Sur (South Plaza Island)

Galapagos Tortoise - Santa Cruz Island

Leon Dormido

Those are from the Galapagos Islands, which I went to in August. Hands down, the most amazing place I've visited in the world, and I have been (with all modesty here) all over the world. I appreciate it more and more the farther removed I am from it. When I was there, it was pretty cool, but the enormity of the experience didn't hit me until I left, first, landing in the familiarity that is Los Angeles smog and traffic, and then, diving into the concrete dirt world of New York City. I follow the Facebook page of the cruise ship I was on, just so I can reminisce with the new photos they post. Sure, they're all the same few scenes over and over again, but still amazing nonetheless. It reminds us of where we are in the larger world. Interesting how, the juxtaposition of living in on an overdeveloped island with visiting mostly untouched by humans islands can make me think this way.

Speaking if islands (I see a recurring theme in my life), I also visited Taiwan in March. I hadn't been there in 9 years. And it was my 7th trip there over the course of my life.

MRT station

how people traditionally buy produce

Bellavita department store

Oddly enough, although I'm glad Taiwan has achieved economic success over the years, I found myself somewhat nostalgic of the Taipei I remember in the 1980s - the one with swarms of people crowding the streets, crazy cab drivers, and the perpetual reek of sewage hanging in the air. Oh wait, kinda like NYC now! (Alright alright... it doesn't stink of sewage all over NYC...just in some parts). Taipei now is...eerily clean. The streets were...eerily empty, in some parts. Have they all taken to the underground metro? Or am I getting too big for my britches?

Aside from these two international trips, the Kao has been sequestered in NYC. I largely spend my time dividing it between Morningside Heights (aka, Asian Harlem) and Park Slope, Brooklyn, skipping all the stuff in between.

Honestly, it was too cold to do much else. If it wasn't cold, it was raining, or snowing, or there was a blizzard, or a hurricane, or something. Now that the weather is finally getting nicer, it's time to break out of the routine. After all, breaking a routine was the reason why I moved to NYC in the first place...

More later. I promise!