Ricky Schroeder's New Life

Well, like I suspected, I had a very good time off the ol' Internet. It really felt like a vacation. I hung out with people. I made things. I gave things like this drawing of Ricky Schroeder NEW LIFE. And then suddenly, yesterday, the summer hit New York like a TON OF BRICKS. It went from mild, pretty days to HAZY, CRAZY HUMIDITY and HEAT.

It's 8:30am and I am sitting out on the fire escape in a tank top and a skirt and am near sweating. Let the season begin!

Summers in New York City are an experience that is hard to describe unless you've been here during them--for more than a couple of weeks. It's beyond anything I've ever known. I lived in Boston for 7 years, and while it was hot and humid, it still is NOTHING like it gets here. Maybe it's because it's more of an URBAN JUNGLE, with sprawling asphalt that acts like a heat conductor. Or maybe it's the fact that it's wall to wall people among all that dirt, heat, and moisture. It's an INTENSE experience. It's its own animal all together--and I am still learning to work WITH IT, to find how it actually DOES work. Even so, as I sat with Graham and Felicia yesterday at noon in a Starbuck's gulping in the A/C like it was the last vestiges of sanity, while the world outside BOILED and COOKED and I thought, THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

I think I will be spending more time on my fire escape in the mornings. I think I will be seeing more movies, like Iron Man, just for the relief of a dark, cool room. Maybe this will be a new project--ways to love New York in the summer. Oh help me, I need to know how.