Borough-Tudes: Queens is the King

New York City is arguably one of the most amazing cities in the world. I will not say it is the best because there are plenty of contenders vying for the top spot and it would be impossible to choose. I know this city well as I have lived in the tri-state area the majority of my life and as a professional I have always worked in Manhattan.

Manhattan is a fun island...but it has nothing on the boroughs.

Each borough in the NYC area has a specific attitude or borough-tudes. Brooklyn is offbeat and alternative, Bronx is proud and boisterous and Staten Island...well they have the fist pumpers and a ferry. Manhattan is lacking an identity or perhaps it is bland in comparison to these well-defined borough-tudes. (Side note: very much aware of the stereotypes I am calling out....but are they that far from the truth?)

 

Favorite building in Queens: 5ptz

 Queens is the best of the boroughs. Yes, I am completely biased but I have an argument. Queens is the leader because it encompasses all of the other borough-tudes.  It is alternative, offbeat, boisterous, proud and I am pretty sure fist pumpers are somewhere in Flushing. A main reason Queens has all of these characteristics, and many characters for that matter, is due to the fact that Queens is a haven for immigrants.

When Ellis Island closed they made way for Queens to welcome all our international friends and peers. In Sunnyside, my home base, we live next to a family from Korea and across the hall is a family from Ireland. On our floor alone we must have eight different countries represented.

When I was looking to move out of Manhattan, my realtor stated that Queens is the United Nations of the boroughs. Everyone is represented and each culture stands out rather than blends in. Queens Diplomacy 101: Furniture being tossed out will end up in another person's living room.


Taking someone's thrown out Ikea furniture.
Bright side: it was already assembled


My apartment building offers multiple aromas and when the holiday seasons circles around you bet we are representing all cultures and religious practices. I feel bad for my Polish super, Alec, who has to remember all of the holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and several others that I have never seen before.

The restaurants in Queens are not the norm. We have Pete's Diner (legit best BLT) but that is as close you will get to "American food" as the other restaurants range from Turkish to Indian to Peruvian to Spanish to Greek to Lithuanian to Japanese and of course rows of pubs serving true Irish stew and black pudding (not snack-packs my friends).

I formerly lived on the Upper West Side where the only populations I ever found were a hefty gathering of Orthodox Jews and Colombia students. It is a beautiful area, full of bagel and schmears, but it lacked variety. I find that most of Manhattan operates this way. For a city that is dubbed the "melting pot of the world" it seems like plain chicken broth vs. the other boroughs.

No knock to my Manhattaners. Your part of the city offers a lot to do and see but I am happy with Kim Lee my Korean neighbor and the O'Leary family that lives across the hall. Alec the super even sent me a Christmas card this year with "Happy Christmas" in both English and Polish.

Queens simply embodies all borough-tudes and let's face it, a town called Sunnyside cannot be beat. It trumps the Pleasantvilles of the world for happiest name of a neighborhood.

P.S. My dad hates that I live in Queens because 30+ years ago many areas in Queens were a bit rough and tough. My dearest dad, you are nearing your elder 50's and as you have gone soft and sweet so has Queens :)


Adrian and our neighborhood banner



Sleeping with the Enemy...my iPhone

First let me say this--I love Apple products. I think they are god's gift to the ADD riddled Generation X,Y and even Z folks. Now we can focus on a piece of technology that allows us to not-focus...brilliant! I also own so many of their products I am pretty sure the Apple icon should be plastered on my apartment door. Apple is not the enemy.

However, the reason this entry is entitled, "Sleeping with the Enemy," is due to the fact that I sleep with my iPhone. I, like many others, use my iPhone as my alarm clock. Why spend money on another piece of technology when I have an alarm setting on my iPhone? Frugal...yes. Healthy...no.

On my iPhone I have fused my personal and professional life. I originally thought this would make my day easier; one phone for my entire world. Very wrong. And what makes matters worse is that my phone is literally next to my head when I sleep. Actually my iPhone cuddles me more than my husband at night.

Again this has nothing to do with Apple or the iPhone but more so mobile phones acting as an alarm clocks.



Public Enemy #1

 I have noticed that since I employed my phone as more than a communication device, I have been sleeping really poorly. The bags under my eyes are starting to droop so low they are creating pockets to store things. Bloomingdale's "Big Brown Bags" are actually referring to my under eye appearance.

You see, I believe since my mobile phone is never turned off (how could it be I would never wake up) I am never turned off. I hear it buzz, light up and basically move all throughout the night. I may not check my phone until the morning but I am oddly aware of its nighttime activities.

When morning breaks and my alarm annoyingly goes off after several plus snoozes, the first thing I do is check my email. Anyone in the corporate world will say that checking your emails immediately after waking up is a sure fire way of ruining your morning. Now I have 1,001 things to do and technically I am not awake...at least my head is still on the pillow.

Not only am I loosing sleep from my 'all dancing, all singing' phone(a term my mother-in-law penned when seeing my iPhone) but my morning is less than peaceful because I know what awaits me in my cubicle. And trust me, it is rarely rainbows, butterflies or cupcakes.

Basically, my mobile phone is the enemy. It holds me a prisoner at night and it slaps me in the morning with mounds of information and ! emails (I hate when my emails have the ! symbol...it basically says this email is more important than your life so read it now or suffer a cruel demise!!!).

I have created my worst-enemy and can easily fix it, but I cannot get myself to pop to Target and pickup a nifty alarm clock. It just seems silly when the function exists on my mobile phone. Or I am suffering from Stockholm Syndrome in which I have fell in love with my captor, my iPhone, and do not want to rid it from my bedside??! Probably not.

The only extramarital relationship my husband should be worried about is the every-night affair I have with my iPhone. We might not always sync up, but my iPhone keeps me up all night long. #sleepy.



mi amor



What is a 'Lemon Chin'?

So it turns out I survived our pending Rapture. I turned 24 and so far no fiery hailstorms or Jesus sightings. But now that the end of the world seems to be taking a breather I guess I should forge on this literary mission.

What is a Lemon Chin? My family and friends were surprised by the name of my blog. They had no idea what a Lemon Chin was or looked like. My husband penned the nickname after seeing the photo on my work ID. A Lemon Chin is when someone, male or female, has plump cheeks but a pointy chin--similar to a lemon.

I will say this is one of the nicknames I prefer as my husband has many for me most of which focus on my messy, klutzy and emotional tendencies. Some of these names include, though not limited to: Mucky Pup, Silly Cow (referring to the fact that I cry during America's Got Talent or Teen Mom), Fanny Anne, Shrek (yes ogre) and of course Lemon Chin.



Mine were bushier



Being dubbed Lemon Chin when there are far worse nicknames in the world seems like a nice trade off. I remember when I was in middle school, my eyebrows had a growth spurt and rapidly increased their bushiness. Being called 'Unibrow' or having people put their finger to eyebrow to simulate a thick brow (note the singular of brow) was a bit depressing. It also was an odd spin to the Hitler mustache...so I guess think of that mustache pasted to a young girl's forehead.

Turns out it is not exotic or sexy to have a Frida Kahlo look at the age of 13. My mother was against tweezing my bushman brows in my early teens but they started to blend in my hairline at the sides. Yes, thick eyebrows are attractive but caterpillar eyebrows are not.

I used to think the nicknames that my parents gave me were embarrassing enough. My dad called me Shoshe and my mother called me Beckarini. They were reasonably fair about not calling me these nicknames in public and reserving them for birthday cards only.

When I was in Ireland and at an apartment party or 'flat rave' a guy labeled me as "fertile hips". This was more a pickup-line-gone-wrong rather than nickname but then all of my Irish friends started to call me 'Fertile Myrtle'. This was not a favorite nickname as everyone who heard it would look at my womb expecting me to be expecting.

So I guess Lemon Chin is not so bad after all. Nicknames can be cruel, sweet and everything between. But I figure if the nickname is awarded to me by the man I married then it is a term of endearment rather than a term of annoyance.



Lemon Chin Puppies?



P.S. I love that when I search for Lemon Chin only photos of these odd looking puppies come up. These puppies remsemble old men...kind of like my Papa Jerry who lives in Florida with all of the other elderly Jews. 

May 21, 2011--End of the World?

I was on the subway the other day and noticed an ad. Even though I am in the advertising world, I never pay attention to advertisements on the subway. The messages are usually about how the MTA is working hard to improve on their service, even though the 7 train is completely unreliable, and how the MTA has decreased their phone numbers from 117 to three....not sure what the other 114 were used for but curious to find out.



Love that there is a 'doomsday code'

 Anyway, this ad was different because it stated "The world will end on May 21, 2011." Apparently, this date refers to Judgement Day (something I know nothing about) and thus we are all screwed.

First off, I find this a bit harsh. If we are all going to perish can we at least know how. God told Noah about the floods in time so he could build an arc. I would like the same type of advantage.

Secondly, my birthday is on May 22nd and I think it is a bit unfair to die 24 hrs before I turn 24. That might sound slightly selfish but this is my POV.

So if we are going to die tomorrow and technically today is my last day on this earth, I thought it might be a good idea to start a blog. Why? Because then there is a message in a virtual bottle and hopefully the next earth inhabitants will discover it.

To start my obituary I will explain a little bit about me:

I live in Sunnyside, Queens which is conveniently located near Manhattan but far enough to avoid trashy clubs and fist-pumpers. Sunnyside reminds me of a Jewish grandmother...it smells but it has an odor so distinct it is considered homey.

I live in an apartment with my husband Adrian. Married at 24 is not what I expected but I am a converted believer in the whole "soulmate" concept....to be discussed in future blogs (if I survive). My husband is from the UK and we had to fight for him to stay here...also to be explained in future blogs. He is my best friend and keeps me laughing.

My parents are divorced. Nothing new here--very standard divorce. The only interesting thing about my family is that we have grown so rapidly it takes a forest to describe my family tree. To sum it up, I have four parents, one full brother, two half brothers (Dad's side), one stepbrother and one stepsister (both Mom's additions). It is the nuclear family of the future. Interestingly enough, everyone gets along and we even had Thanksgiving dinner as one family. A far cry from the custody battles we endured as young ones but apparently we are all happy.

I graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Journalism and the hope to become the next J.K. Rowling. I love fiction and I am also a HUGE Harry Potter fan. My husband makes fun of me but at least I am not scribbling a lightening scar on my head...though I cried when Dobby died.

I also had hopes of writing for a magazine or newspaper when I left my safe haven at IU but that dream was instantly crushed due to the economy, transition of the print industry AND the fact that writers are paid peanuts. College loans people..Sallie Mae knocking!

So I work in Corporate Communications and for the most part it is A-OK. I still hold on to hope that I will write a novel and become a columnist but for now this will do. It is a stressful job and requires a commitment of not only time but your youth.

I live to travel. Traveling to me is like walking around in a stranger's story. I had a different narrator for every city I visited and I hope to be a nomad at some point in my life. Favorite cities...Prague, Barcelona and London.

I hate grammar...so do not expect perfect writing. That is the one thing I did not learn from my journalism courses. I write how I right.

OK that sums me up for now so at least if I do perish with the world tomorrow there is some record of who I am.

However, if by some miracle I survive and the subway ad was just ppurchased by religious fanatics...I will be back.