This weeks weather pissed me off to say the least. I woke up on Tuesday morning at 5 am to get to the school library early so I could study for my exam in complete silence. That morning it was snowing/raining. I’ve never stayed around Baruch or the flatiron area at night because my schedule never went that far but this time around I woke up so early that it was dark. This was a new experience for me so I was really trying to enjoy everything because it’s not something that’s gonna happen. Especially with the beautiful snow. I walked through Madison Park and got to the library. The library was complete dead and dark. This was also a new experience for me so I just kept walking around in awe because I was basically the only person there. It felt really nice and I really enjoyed waking up so early. I’m takes a small burden off your shoulder because you don’t need to rush anywhere, the city is quiet and empty to some degree, and you can really relax. I did a couple rounds around the library just to stretch my legs out before I sat down for a long study session. It was great and I might start my day this early everyday if I can get into a habit of it.

This week I went out for a walk with an eye for architecture. This apartment complex shown in this picture is a house down from mine. It’s interesting to see how much my neighborhood differs from others such as suburbs and rural areas. Those streets have houses on houses and they all look pretty similar. It’s crazy because the block I used to live on before had a factory, warehouse, motorcycle shop with a garage, houses, and apartments just in the span of a couple meters. Blocks now are so diversified and people who buy a plot of land just create whatever they want on it without any second thought of how it would look in the grand scheme of the entire block. This apartment in particular is very new compared to everything else around it. The gate is automated and it makes the other buildings around it look like crap. The windows are tinted. I can see the backyard from my backyard and the people who live there have a nice lit up patio with cool seating and stuff. I can see them having fun and enjoying themselves drinking beer with the rest of the people who live in that building. I aspire to get a nice big house somewhere in the Australia near the ocean and just chill out there for the rest of my life and surf. Would be great.

This week I decided to go on a walk on the day it was snowed. Initially I went to my gym, Blink Fitness. But that closes at 8 so me and a couple of my buddies decided to head over to Retro Fitness. It’s quite a walk from my gym, a good 10 or more blocks. During that walk all we did was crack jokes and it was a great time. Until our feet started to freeze up and then we just decided to run to the gym. At Retro Fitness you can practically walk in you just sign a guest sheet. A great gym and I’ll probably switch to it next year. On my way back I came across this very cool looking plant shop. The image felt very worth taking because on the outside you can see the frozen dead snow and on the inside are all the plants full of life. I thought it was a cool little contrast.

This week didn’t lack in beautiful weather and I found myself outside a lot. I walked down Broadway in Astoria. Since moving to this neighborhood I never really walked down Broadway. It’s changed a lot since I was a little kid. When I was little I didn’t notice all of the bars. A lot of wine and liquor stores were around also. All this suggested to me that people come here to drink and eat because the number of restaurants there was insane. There was just one after the other and all of them were unique in their own respective way. This one in particular really stood out because of it’s design and the cool murals they implemented into their storefront. I liked how they incorporated art into their restaurant and I feel like more restaurants should try that approach. Art and food are two things I think can come together to make a very memorable moment for people. Food in my view is a form of art. It is a form of expression of taste and the presentation of food carries on into how it makes you feel overall.

On Monday while I was arriving back home from school around 1 pm I noticed something strange in the middle of the street. I’d most likely describe it as an anomaly because something like this made no sense whatsoever. In the middle of the street was a single chicken feet. I almost stepped on it, then leaned in to get a better look, and started walking past it until I thought why don’t I take a picture to share with the rest of the world. For those of you that may be wondering I don’t live in a village or a landfill or something. My neighborhood is pretty decent and since the area is being gentrified day by day the place is getting cleaner and cleaner. For those of you may be wondering I’m referring to Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens. Anyways this little incident that took place really bothered me because there was no trace of the rest of the chicken anywhere nearby to be found. Why would there be a chicken foot on the street. That’s so random! It made no sense whatsoever, it was literally a dirty uncooked chicken foot. A single foot. Not even a pair of feet. I’m sorry if I grossed some of you out, I know the picture is really disgusting but the reality is that I came across this mystery on my walk. It made me think about how often insignificant things like this happen everyday. I also began to ponder if this exact scenario every happened to someone else. What must this chicken have gone through to lead to this moment? Where are the rest of his or her remnants? Are they spread across the whole city? What really happened here? This is almost like a mini crime scene. If this were a human hand instead of a chicken’s foot how much more shocking would this interaction have been? How much more importance would’ve been placed on a human hand? How would I have reacted to that? Would I call the cops to make a police report? Would I take a picture or be scared off and just continue on with my day like nothing happened? These are the stream of thoughts that went through my over processed brain. I hope everyone read through this whole paragraph because I think it’s pretty interesting for the first walk of the semester. Don’t you think so? Lets see how long you can stare at that picture before barfing. Comment how long you lasted.