Erin Miller

Just for people who might need a laugh…
The other day it was clear and warmish (still hat weather, but better than the depths of winter) as I left to take spot on her morning walk. I put on my work clothes and a spring jacket and we walked down to the park. The pups were running out of food though, and I wasn’t going to be home in time to get to the store that night. So I tied Spot up to a post and ran in to get a 20 lb bag of dog food. As I walked out of the store it started sprinkling. But by the time I had gotten to spot and was fumbling at untying her leash, it started to pour. I hurriedly freed spot and we begin running towards my building. Me in my semi-professional clothes with a 20 lb bag of dog food over my shoulder and a standard poodle pulling me along excitedly as a sheet of rain opened up on us.

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This post is not meant to scare my mother or my grandmothers, but I just couldn’t resist mentioning it—
There were 496 homicides in NYC last year, which is the lowest number on record since accurate records started being kept in 1963, and a 17 percent decrease from last year. The mayor and police department are excited about the improvement, especially in West Harlem districts like mine. But, in the 100 square blocks around my house, there were 5 murders, 19 rapes, 326 robberies, and 116 burglaries last year. I am sure that it is just me, and just some trick of population density, but those numbers still seem just a touch high.

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I am about to go watch my roommate perform as a pit trombonist during a dance performance at Julliard (Did I mention he scored me a pair of twenty dollar tickets for free?) I like New York City for lots of things like this, but I do wish that the city was located closer to the equator. Why did eight million people decide to settle here? Why not Florida? Today I had my first experience with “Wintry Mix.” I find that new places I live often come with their own unique types of weather. My region in Honduras was occasionally predicted to be “Smoky” and to my immense amusement, on those days, the weather could really only be accurately described as “smoky.” Farmers burnt their fields during certain periods in order to clear them for the next planting season, which caused the weather to become smoky, and Dan to remark that the whole country smelled like a campfire. The only words I have found so far to describe “Wintry Mix” are ice-rain, and it is much less amusing to me than “Smoky.” Spot says that I still need to take her for a walk; though I have no idea how to even go about preparing for that kind of adventure.
Here is the picture from the forecast:

Precip: 100%
Snow this morning will give way to a mixture of snow and sleet this afternoon. Some rain may mix in late.

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Just the other night my loving boyfriend was making fun of me for the amount of money I spend on my “expensive New York City lifestyle.” The comment was prompted by me saying how I was going to pay someone else to wash my laundry today. And that is what is actually happening, and yes, it is a luxury. But how excited would you be if you knew that on the way home from walking your dog you were just going to stop by the laundromat and pick up your load of laundry that was just washed for less than 10 dollars? Did I mention that all of the clothes come back perfectly folded? From time to time I try to argue against New York City being particularly expensive. I do this partially due to my ulterior motive to have my cheap living style boyfriend move out here as soon as possible. And truly, I can get a great tuna sandwich at the Bodega downstairs (the one under my building, not the one across the street that was shut down for running a multi-million dollar a year drug ring) for somewhere between a buck fifty and two-fifty, depending on how much I am smiling and if its a sunny day. (Sandwiches seem to be cheaper when its sunny.) And for a buck-fifty, its almost cheaper than buying all the ingredients yourself. So I was thinking all of these thoughts — looking forward to picking up my washed and perfectly folded clothes, and thinking about maybe grabbing a cheap sandwich — while I went grocery shopping this afternoon. I picked up a few things for my roommates too, and while I was checking out, I realized, shocked, that there was no way I was going to carry all of this back to my apartment in one trip. So the guy who was bagging offered to deliver it. I reluctantly accepted, and had all of my groceries (including a gallon of milk and more than a gallon of juice, oh and did I mention an 18 lb. bag of dog food?) all carried all the way to the door of my apartment for a 3 dollar tip. It was a beautiful experience. And Dan, while you may think it was a frivolous expense, I think it is better to think that if that gentleman hadn’t carried my 18lb bag of dog food to my apartment today, I would have been asking you to do it on Friday:) Here’s to the New York City lifestyle.

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