August scenes from a samsung

Welcome to August, readers! My month began with finally joining 2013 and getting a smartphone. I've been smartphone reluctant for a while now for the following reasons 1) I like being able to escape my email when I leave the house, 2) I enjoy feeling smugly superior to people on the subway constantly playing mindless games on their phones and missing out on all manner of opportunities for people watching, and 3) Somewhat negating all previous reasons: Sam has one, so I could use it whenever I needed to check my email in public or play a mindless game. I was worried if I got one I would become one of those people that's constantly behind their phone, updating their facebook status on something funny that was said at a dinner party while still at said dinner party, and generally seeing life through google glasses. Which would probably be a more poignant metaphor on the current state of affairs if those didn't already exist. 

Despite my reluctance, when Sam and I finally got on the same phone plan (as one of the last things on our "official married person" check list), the cost of getting a phone with actual functions was only slightly more. And truth be told, I'm worried the time I always talked of is arriving, where having a smartphone is now considered standard practice for the young office worker. I already miss my old phone's simple irrelevance, but the one thing I can truly say I'm excited about is having a decent camera on me at all times. While I don't want to be constantly seeing the world through the lens of my phone's camera, New York is kind of an interesting place. It's nice to be able to record little moments of interest and share them through the magic of unlimited texting or (depending on how interesting) on this blog. 

With that said, here's the first batch of pictures I've taken with my new phone. These are not particularly interesting, but keep in mind, it's only been a few days. Things should pick up soon. 

The first photo taken with my camera. While waiting for a friend at Penn Station. 

Long Beach! My first non-Thai beach experience of the summer. It was too cold to swim. 

One of the advantages of my having a camera is that now Sam will feature in my blog more. Here he is on a rainy day at the Met. 

Part of an exhibit at the Met with random snapshots of American life from one man's collection. This was my personal favorite. 

Other rainy day Met goers. 

A sunny day at the Astoria water front. 

I was told this was a food festival, but there was one guy giving out ice cream samples and no other sustenance to speak of. 

Not much to look at it, but this is absolutely my new favorite thing to do with zucchini (which we've had from the farm share in abundance as of late): 

Walking through McCarren Park after brunch with friends on Sunday we happened on a little boy giving away free kittens and stopped for a quick kitten cuddle. In retrospect, I thought perhaps I should have photographed the experience because really what's more idyllic than a cuddly orange kitten on a sunny day in the park? But I'm happy to report that there are no cute kitten pictures here because my natural instinct at the time was still to pet the kittens and not to reach for my phone. Will see how long this lasts. In the meantime, there are plenty of kitten pictures for your enjoyment in pretty much every other nook and cranny of the Internet. Enjoy!