Chasing a Cardinal around Brooklyn

            A couple of months ago I had made my way to the Brooklyn Museum and told myself I shall return soon to visit its neighbor, the Brooklyn Botantical Garden. At the time I first went the sun was just about to set, leaving little time to go in and see everything. This past Saturday, the forecast called for near 60 degree weather, in January, which would have been the perfect weather to go back to the Garden with.

            I took the usual subway lines I took last time I visited to the area, only except this time I transfered at an earlier stop which cost me about ten minutes. I had gotten off at the Fulton St. station and was led through a maze of halls, corridors, stairs, escalators, and even a reference directing passengers to the 9/11 Memorial, which popped out of nowhere. There were signs and arrows pointing in every which direction to different train lines. Eventually, I went down a final stairway and there I found the train just about pulling into the station. When I came out from underground the weather was quite pleasant as joggers and children on their bikes were enjoying the surrounding areas of Prospect Park. The entrance to the Botantical Gardens is just yards away from the subway station and I walked up to the ticket booth to pay the $10 entrance fee. There is a children's park right next to this entrance area, and really if someone wanted, they could climb over the short fence from the park and get in for free. The first main attraction when entering the place is a great lawn with its clean and well-maintained grass.

           The only downfall of visiting in the winter was that many of the outside plants weren't in bloom, so most of the time it was a case of looking at twigs and sticks. Another issue with the winter was that most of the fountains and water displays were either frozen, or the water had been previously removed to prevent icing. With that in mind, there were still plenty of colorful trees and bushes to provide nice visuals, and with the warm weather some of the remaining water displays offered some interesting surprises. Outside the main greenhouse there was a few man-made pools with plants and goldfish. I was quite shocked the fish were outside in the middle of winter, I'm guessing they live out there all year and simply hypernate when the water freezes. There were still signs of the water being frozen from the chilly week before, but on this day it was almost all liquid and the fish were swimming around fine. I entered the greenhouse, which is probably the main attraction, and didn't need to be concerned about the winter since these rooms are all climate controlled, so they're the same no matter what season it is.

            The greenhouse has two floors, the main level, and then a downstairs where the more interesting rooms were set up. The best room of the main level was a Japanese focused display of different types of bonsai plants. The downstairs was seperated into three main rooms, the Tropical Rainforest, Warm Temperature, and the Desert. The rainforest had nice mini-waterfalls, mango trees, cacao(cocoa) leafs, and a banana tree as well. My favorite of the downstairs rooms was clearly the desert room with its funky cactus trees and something called "living stones", rocks that are actually alive like a plant. As I exited the greenhouse, I made my way down the path which led me to a children's section, with the golden arches of a neighboring McDonald's learing in the background. I breezed by that area rather quickly and as I continued to walk I heard an unfamilar bird call. Looking to my left I saw two red birds on a small hill, I knew immediately they must have been cardinals, which don't appear as often as they used to. As I got closer, one of them flew away immediately, but the other staye longer and picked through the dirst. When I had gotten too close, it flew into a bush to hide from me, but its red feather against the green leaves allowed me to find it easily. Again, I drew closer, and this time it flew up to a nearby tree to escape me. As I looked up at the cardinal perched on a tree branch, I noticed other cardinals flying around the area as well, it seems a flock of them must have made their home at the Botanical Garden.

            After all that excitement I was just about ready to leave for the day, and had thought I saw everything there was to see at the place. Turns out I was wrong, and this one little path took me to an entire Japanese-themed area which consisted of a pond, statues, caves, and yes, even more goldfish. The goldfish featured in this area were far greater in size and had more reviting colors to gaze upon. One side of the pond featured an outdoor deck with benches that people were sitting on either to converse, or like one gentlemen, to use their laptop in the peaceful surrounds. I was certainly glad I didn't call it a day sooner, otherwise I would've missed out of this section, which was to me the best part of the entire Botantical Garden. The sun began to set, it was getting darker and darker by the minutes, and I was rather confidant I didn't miss anything, so now it was time to leave. Instead of immediately going back home, I thought it would be a nice idea to visit the infamous Junior's Resturant off the Atlantic Avenue station on my way back. It had been a long afternoon of walking around and I didn't get lunch before, so I planned on having an early dinner and a slice of their world famous cheesecake for dessert.

            The only problem is that there were alot of changes done to the area around Junior's from since I was there a few years ago. The inside of the Atlantic Ave. station had gone through some rennovations, there was the Atlantic Mall(which was there the last time I went as well), but the biggest change is the basketball arena being built for the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets, who are currently the New Jersey Nets. With the landscape looking different with the new arena under construction and the fact it had been a couple of years since I was last in that area, finding Junior's was turing out to be a difficult task. I knew it was within blocks of me, but where and which block? Was it on Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush, Fulton, there's so many famous streets in that area it was tough deciding which one to start with. I don't have internet on my phone, and I wasn't desperate enough to ask someone, so I simply walked around for about twenty minutes until I saw streets and stores that looked familar to me. Soon enough, one block led to another, and I found my way to Junior's on DeKalb Ave.

           Since I was by myself I took a seat the counter and had an unfortunate waitress who I couldn't tell was on her first day of the job or just hated her job. She was an Indian woman in her late forties, she was smiling and friendly on one hand, but on another hand she was completely out of touch. I wanted to order a soup, a meal, and then the cheesecake after. As I told her I wanted a matzah ball soup, she walked off without taking the rest of the order or asking if I wanted something to drink, which I found quite odd. I was thinking of getting the steakburger with onions, which I anticipated would be a lean piece of beef with cooked onions on top. When she came back with my soup, I ordered the steakburger with a vanilla egg cream. When the steakburger dish came back to me only minutes later, it looked like a superthick hamburger, and instead of cooked onions, there were two gigantic fried onion rings on the side, in addition to the big french fries that came along. It didn't exactly look like what was described in the menu, so I wasn't sure if she got the order wrong or what the situation was. That being said, I was hungry and it was a burger after all, so I just went at it. Usually I'm able to finish a burger with no qualms, but even though my stomach was empty, this burger was so thick I was only able to accomplish 60% of it, maybe 65%.

            The matzah ball soup and sides of onion rings and fries didn't help either, but that was sure one big burger. If I really wanted to I could have persued more of the burger, but I also wanted a slice of cheesecake, so I made sure not to fill my stomach completely at that point. The plan was for a slice of cheesecake and a cup of coffee, but when I told her I was done with the dinner, she took it with done with everything and came out with the check without asking me if I wanted anything else, which is pretty standard for waitressing. Without confusing things further with multiple checks and orders, I decided I would pay this check and then take a slice from their take-out counter in the front. I bought a slice of plain cheesecake, without coffee, and ate it outside the resturant which has benches for people to enjoy their desserts on. I didn't finish the entire slice, but it was well worth getting lost for twenty minutes looking for the place. As I made my way back to the Atltantic Ave. station, I was a little dissapointed I didn't have a cup of coffee to go along with the cheesecake, so I entered a trendy-looking establishment to get myself a cup. The way they make it is they place coffee beans in a special cup, then pour hot water in it, the hot water mixing with the beans pours down as coffee into the cup. By the time I finished the coffee, I had arrived at the station and must have entered through the wrong entrance because I ended up looking at a Long Island Railroad(LIRR) car initially and felt very confused. Luckily, at the end of the tracks of the LIRR was a connecting entrance for the subway and I was on my way back home.

            I think from now on, it should be one train for one station, and that's it....

Who Needs the Movie Theater when there's the Laundromat

            Earlier in the week I came to the realization I was getting low on clean socks, and I was perplexed where all my t-shirts went, so I knew was time for a trip to the laundromat. I loaded up one laundry bag with towels, socks, boxers, shirts, pants, and t-shirts, plus had my bottle of liquid tide.

            A laundromat opened up a few blocks from me during the spring of 2011 and ever since I've been using the machines at this establishment. I only needed two of the machines to wash, which cost $2.50 each, and afterwards two dryers in which I put about another $2 each in for a half hour of drying time. The wash time usually takes about twenty-eight minutes, and in that time I usually wait in my car with the comfort of a soft seat and radio. During the dry time the clothes need closer monitoring whether they're done early, or if more time should be required, or perhaps some can be taken out early and folded while the rest need more drying time. With all these uncertainties with the drying phase, I usually don't wait in the car and instead wait in the laundromat.

          As I was inside watching the clothes dry, I was keeping an eye on the TV inside which was airing an episode of 'General Hospital'. Then all of a sudden a lady entered the laundromat and went up to everyone inside, asking if they were interested in a DVD. This is pressuming they are bootlegged DVDs of movies currently showing in theaters across the country, and possibly porn they hide underneath the pile of non x-rated films. One laundromat patron did have interest and from what I saw, it looked like a purchase was made. Although I'm a movie fan, I have yet to see a good quality bootleg I would be willing to waste $10 on. Since movie theater prices are about $10 also, why not just see the real thing? After this first DVD lady exited, about ten minutes later a second one enters the store with the same offer. It had me thinking, are these two ladies in competition with eachother, or do they work for the same group and are careful about going over all sales opportunities with a fine-tooth comb? The second DVD lady didn't spark any interest at all and she was quick to exit. My clothes were finally dried enough, so then came the final task of folding them in neat piles to place back in the laundry bag. As I was folding, a gentleman entered the place holding a boutique shopping bag. He first said hello and complimented me on the gray sweater that I was wearing, so naturally I was waiting to sell what he had to sell. It turns out it was boxes of cologne and perfumes.

            He placed one of the boxes in my hand to hold while he box out his sample bottle to spray some for me. I knew his hopes were of me purchasing the one I was momentarily holding in my hand while he was demostrating, but the only catch with that is I had absolutely no interest in buying it and I had absolutely no money in my pockets. The deal was one box of men's and women's that originally retailed for $50, but he's selling them both for $20, and since he needs to get rid of them, on this today he was willing to let me have them for just $10. Taking a step back for a moment, it wasn't exactly a terrible deal, and from the spray sample they smelt okay. Again, even if I wanted them, I had no cash on me at the time. I told of the financial situation I was in and he claimed I could just grab money from the ATM in the store, but the tough part was there was no ATM inside the laundromat, so he was out of ammunition. He conceded his defeat and tried his pitch on other patrons, but none gave him nearly as much time and hope as I did.

             In addition to clean socks and towels, I learned a valuable lesson to not carry cash if you don't want to lose it...

Not Losing the Camera this Time

            A couple of months ago I intended to bring my camera with me to a New York Giants football game in hopes of capturing glimpses of the game as well the tailgating festivities beforehand, but it didn't make it that far as the camera fell out of my pocket hours earlier on someone's front lawn. On Christmas, one of the presents I received was a ticket to another Giants game scheduled for New Year's Day against the Dallas Cowboys. What made this game important was the winner would move onto the playoffs, the loser's year would be finished. With the type of drama and the certainty of fans being rowdy, I was sure to have my camera with me and wasn't going to lose it this time.

             Instead of the traditional tailgating at the game, we decided to meet at my uncle's house in New Rochelle to eat BBQ food there, and then go over to the game after watching an afternoon of other football games on TV. The game was scheduled for 8:20pm and the weather called for low 40's with a chance of rain. We left my uncle's around 5:45pm and were in the parking lot of Metlife Stadium by 6:30pm, making excellent time traveling into New Jersey. Even though we were quite early, the parking lot was already packed with fans having their tailgating parties and waiting on lines for the portable bathrooms. Two of the people who were with us didn't have tickets, so part of the reason we wanted to be there so early was to find a scalper to buy two extra tickets. As those people went out to seek tickets, the rest of us remained in the car as the rain started falling from the sky. The outlook of the game went from joyful to gloomy as the rain grew heavier and heavier. With football, the game wouldn't have been cancelled as it would have been with baseball, but nobody wants to stand in the rain to watch a game. It turns out that two tickets were available, the only sanfu is they were bogus, and even though they weren't scanning from the ticket person's machine, they were allowed into the stadium regardless.

            The walk from the parking lot to the stadium and to the seats at Metlife Stadium is a long and tiresome process. The stadium and the parking lot is separated by a roadway, so people must cross over using an indoor overpass that was built for people to get on the other side. When thousands of people are crossing over at once, some of which are close to drunk, it gets a little cramped. The stadium doesn't allow ticketholders to enter from any section, people can only enter from the area designated on the ticket. I had the pepsi section which was on the other side of the entire stadium I had to walk around, while its still raining. From there, I had to get on line for the tall escalator ride up to the 300s section, which is as high as it gets. All along Giants fans and Cowboys fans were trading barbs with eachother while in close proximity of the halls and tunnels of the stadium. The Dallas Cowboys have a large fanbase across the country being "America's Team", and many were certainly going to be in attendance for an important game like this. My seats were actually the second from the last row which gave me chilly winds to have to deal with as well. Fans were given free white hand towels to wave in support of the team, but they were needed more to keep the seats dry.

            In addition to the game itself, there was extra interest in the game by means of a $880 pool that was riding on the final score. About a dozen people were involved in it and the person who would guess the final score (or closest to it) of a Giants victory, would win the money. We all picked our scores in the parking lot while it was raining, so since there was a wet field, I anticipated a lower score of 19-14. When the game began fans were pumped up and waiving their towels in the rain. The Giants actually jumped out to a 21-0 lead as the rainfall faded away. Giants fans were sure to remind the Cowboy fans of what the score was, and there was plenty of foul language entering the atmosphere. By halftime Giants fans were in good spirits, forseeing a victory, and although I figured I had no shot at winning the money anymore, thinking the Giants winning the game was good enough to make up for it. Then game the third quarter, both teams seemed to have switched roles and the Cowboys were the more aggressive and crawled back to a 21-7 score, and then made it 21-14 by early fourth quarter. Cowboy fans were the ones who were doing the trash talking and making themselves be heard. Had the score remained 21-14, I would have had the closest guess with 19-14 and the $880 would have been mine!! Instead, the Giants added ten more points to put the game out of reach and the score ended with 31-14. The pool money was secondary to the Giants victory and the fact their season is still alive for the time being, so I didn't dwell on it much.

             As we made our way back to the parking lot, I could see fireworks being shot into the air to celebrate the victory that made the Giants the NFC East Champions that would host the Atlanta Falcons next week for the first round of the playoffs. We didn't leave at once because we had to wait for everyone else in our group to show up so we would know everyone had a ride. Most of us sat in different sections of the stadium and weren't in contact much as all during the game, plus exiting is quite hectic with everyone rushing to get to their cars and beat the traffic. While waiting, I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad from the beers before the game and the hot chocolate during the game to keep me warm. Since there were no portable bathrooms in close sight, I decided to walk over to a lonely section of the parking lot and go there. I noticed other people were doing similar, even using their car doors to shield themselves from an unknowing public, but the crackle of liquid on pavement against the silent air gave them away. Soon enough everyone got together, the pool winner was announced, and we were on our way back home smiling.

            2012 is supposed to be the year the world ends, but I can't think of a year I had a better First Day...