Globe Corner Blogs

I was lucky to have absolutely gorgeous weather this past weekend when I was visiting my brother in New York City. After a few dark, cold, and drizzly days in Boston, I prepared for much of the same down in New York. I pessimistically made a list of museums to visit and packed an umbrella for the trip. But I was pleasantly surprised to encounter clear skies the whole weekend – a bright, late-October sun and a warm, caressing breeze.

Instead of spending a day at the Met, we walked from neighborhood to neighborhood and borough to borough. We wandered through the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the area surrounding NYU (where my brother is currently an undergraduate), we went over the Manhattan Bridge, explored DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), and then doubled back over the Brooklyn Bridge. By that time it was already sunset, and the many-storied buildings of lower Manhattan and Midtown reflected back to us in hues of pink, orange, and blue. We watched night gradually transform a rosy fairytale island city into an elegant, glittering metropolis. Continue Reading »

For the last many, many weeks, the most traveling I’ve done is walking home from work. Night falls early in Boston, so on my walk the sky is always as black as a sky can be that hangs over a big city.

Nonetheless, the streetlights never fail to illumine some small wonder. A while ago, after it had rained all day, I walked home in a foul mood, staring at the ground. When I looked up to cross the street, I saw the trees glistening. Each branch on every tree was covered in evenly spaced drops of water. The street lights behind them shone through like giant white orbs held aloft by the dripping trees.

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Red Maple --photo by Llalan

The other day, cooped up in my room, computer on, windows closed and thermal, black-out-style curtains drawn, I realized I felt rightfully trapped. I rolled across the floor in my desk chair and folded back a small corner of my curtain. Blinded! The sun was out and singing loudly in a bright blue, cloudless sky.

It occurred to me that I might feel less claustrophobic, anxious, antsy, and frankly depressed if I got out of my dark cube of a room. After all, Mom had said as much when I talked to her on the phone earlier that day, and she’s always right.

So I swapped out the slippers for some sneakers and grabbed my point-and-shoot just in case anything caught my eye. And then I got lost.

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