A cat around town

Back in college, my friends bought a puppet from a dollar store in Conway, Arkansas. This tiger, who we named K-Tiger as related to a dorm feud (the story behind which is a bit too long to go into here), subsequently appeared at most of our parties sophomore year. We dressed her up in construction paper t-shirts with uniquely anatomical designs on them and posed her in the usual array of college party pics. This may sound slightly strange, but it is really just the natural result of liberal arts students living in small town Arkansas (in a dry county, no less!).

After college, K-Tiger moved with one of my friends to Oklahoma where she (both tiger and friend) have been residing for the last few years. I'd all but forgotten the puppet (who is famous enough to have gotten her own facebook profile with close to 30 friends), until my friend started posting pictures of her seeing the sites of Tulsa. As all my friends from college are now living in far-flung places and don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, she suggested we mail K-Tiger around to visit new cities (and perhaps even foreign shores). A sort of Sisterhood for the Traveling Dollar Store Tiger Puppet, if you will.

I was the first to receive K-Tiger in the mail a month or so ago and was happy to see her again. She seemed to have aged since last I saw her. There is a touch of dirt under her chin; her fur has lost some of its luster, and she has a slight tear behind one paw. The hard-living seems to have gotten to her since her wild, college partying days. She seems to show all the wear and tear, while I, Dorian Gray like, maintain the youthful glow that still gets me carded at the wine shop on my block.

Since I devoted some time to this project, I thought I would share with my blog readers some of K-Tiger's adventures in the Big Apple.


K-Tiger and I enjoyed a nice visit to the Met (actually, we just popped into the Met gift shop and then popped out to take this picture, but who's counting?). I would have gotten a better picture that didn't feature that random guy so prominently, but I was getting slightly wary of the strange looks I was getting from tourists.


This was supposed to be a shot of K-Tiger climbing the Empire State Building a la King Kong, but due to some miscommunication with my photographer, the waning daylight, and the fact that I did my p90x arms and shoulders workout that morning and couldn't stretch my arm high enough--this is the best I could do.


K-Tiger chilling at the Plaza. We tried to go to nearby Central Park but she found it a sad excuse for experiencing actual nature.


Just a couple of cats, out on the town. Er, well, in my living room. Naturally, these two got along famously.

That about wraps up K-Tiger's big city adventures. I was actually quite thankful to have her warming my hand, as it's been pretty cold here these last couple of weeks. Sadly, K-Tiger will soon be leaving me to go to her next destination: Sheffield, England. I will be personally escorting her in a few weeks, not because I don't trust Fed-Ex, but because I deserve the vacation and I want to visit my friend. I hope none of you will think the less of me for spending my week cavorting with a puppet.

Holiday rambling, punctuated by a few photos

Despite owning few Apple products (almost none of which I've actually purchased for myself), I seem to have an obsession with the utility of the iphone as a camera. Which is my roundabout way of saying that none of the below pictures are from an actual camera, despite my owning a fine one. The other night I had yet another incident of remembering to bring my camera (as a matter of fact, actually going back to get it), and yet neglecting to remember the all important memory card. So as both I and my camera have issues with memory, I turn to the all important iphone camera for some shots of the city at Christmas. There are only a couple of pictures actually. I hope I haven't over-sold any of this.

I'm not sure you can really see what's going on here. The detail of a Bergdorf Goodman's window is difficult to capture even with the technological advances of Apple in the palm of your hand. I always enjoy the 5th Ave Christmas hoopla, which sadly goes hand in hand with the 5th Ave Christmas crowds (different from normal 5th Ave crowding in that each person's girth is widened by shopping bags which they use as weapons against anyone--be it small child or Salvation Army bell ringer--who dares keeps them from the entrance to the Nine West Outlet) . But this year the windows of Bergdorfs were particularly stunning. I find it hard to believe that anything actually in their store, for all that its worth, could be as intricate or as amazing as the displays. However, I'll never know because I try to avoid actually going into stores when I know I can't afford anything in them. It helps keep me content with my class.

Normally, I try to not post semi-unflattering pictures of me looking both cold and irresponsible for not wearing a hat. But obviously I had to post this one, as there is an iconic holiday emblem to my left. Or I guess to my right. But at the left of the photograph. As you can see by the large mass of people behind me, I'm not the only one who knows about it.


This one probably won't make much sense to all but a couple of my readers. It's actually more of a preview of things to come (as in, I will soon make a post with a series of pictures of me at landmarks around the city with a tiger puppet on my hand, for reasons to be explained later). Suffice is to say, FAO Shwartz is one more enjoyable part of the holiday season in New York. Fans of the movie Big can see some real live piano dancing every hour on the big piano. If you've ever visited me between the months of November and March, I've probably made you do this. At any rate, the above arc is for purchase with two of every stuffed animal possible for the very reasonable price of just over $2,ooo. Some slightly spoiled, Biblically-minded kid's Christmas just got better. Not included in the price is the tiger puppet in the foreground. That came from a dollar store in Conway, Arkansas.

Sorry this post is so scattered. By way of apology, I'll leave you with my favorite photo taken on an iphone this week. This little gem was captured by my roommate:

Dinah acts so put upon by my absences, but I think she does all right for herself when I'm not there.