Ahhhhh Magnolia!

True that we first lived in Lower Queen Anne before Magnolia, and that we are "foreign born" (both as the term is used in Seattle and otherwise), but I just had to chuckle as I read this post Magnolia and The Stepford Wives Effect.

Today is Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving and Harvest Festival!

Chuseok, Korean Harvest Festival and Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays of the year, falls on the 15th day of the eight lunar month and this year that is September 25th. It's a time for homecoming, sharing of food and drink, singing and dancing, giving thanks, and remembering the ancestors. In our house things are hardly traditional but at least this year Omoni is visiting from LA and we have clear skies so we can admire a gorgeous, bright full moon, a Harvest Moon, in its full splendor.

Three days in New York for my soul

Two weeks ago I was again roaming the streets of New York. I had wanted to go for a while, after all it has now been almost a year since we moved to Seattle. I had been plotting a return visit ever since we were forced to cancel our trip to the East Coast last May on such a short notice. But the airline ticket prices and personal schedules would just not align. Yet since seeing old friends in Montreal in July my desire to visit just kept getting stronger. By late August it had really began to fester and since Hoon did not share in it, I finally decided to go alone in early September.

It was a lovely visit and just what I needed. I didn't visit with many friends, although those were not necessarily my original intentions. In those three days I must have walked the entire length of Manhattan at least a few times. Curiously enough it always ended up being in a few increments of thirty blocks amid all the hustle-and-bustle of New York. I stayed in Midtown and walked all over the City. It didn't even occur to me to take the subway other than PATH and NJ Transit when I entered and left the City.

I have always loved New York and although like any city, it has faults and shortcomings, there is something about it I can not find anywhere else... all the energy, a multitude of people converging from every corner of the world, a myriad of languages, cultures... a snapshot of humanity. Although I had only lived in Manhattan for three months during my internship, from the first time I walked its streets I felt at ease, at home in a way. I am happy we moved to Seattle but I will always be happy to visit and roam around New York and all its nooks and crannies... Midtown, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Times Square, Theatre & Garment Districts, Flatiron and Murry Hill... over the bridges and though underpasses, by Strawberry Fields to a small patch of grass against massive exposed black bedrock in Central Park, a spot dear to my heart, by the Angel of the Waters , Hans Christian Andersen and Alice in Wonderland, around the Reservoir, over the Great Lawn, Cedar Hill and Sheep Meadow... to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the American Museum of Natural History... by Kalustyan's and a string of my once favorite Indian Restaurants on Lex, over to Madison Square Park... through St. Patrick's Cathedral, by the Rockefeller Center, though Midtown and over to Bryant Park... just to name a few.

While I was visiting Hoon sent me an audio link to the following story on NPR's Weekend America. I guess I need a jar of New York's noise/air/energy on top of my fridge and part of me will always be there! :-)

Cornell named 'Hottest Ivy' by Newsweek

Hottest Ivy
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Unlike the other Ivies, Cornell is a land-grant college emphasizing problem solving as well as scholarly debate. The university boasts a world-class engineering college and top-flight liberal arts, science and fine arts. The hotel school is considered the world's best. Cornellians, proud of the variety on campus, point to the president, David Skorton, a cardiologist, jazz musician and computer scientist who is the first in his family to have a college education. (Newsweek)