It's autumn in New York!

Leaves! Leaves everywhere!!

I went to Brunch Club with the Sound Scientist and my new friend from L.A. who is a costume designer on Saturday at a place in Park Slope called NONO Kitchen. It was so yummy, but the beignets were a little substandard. JH always made really good beignets when he used to work at a little coffee shop place in the French Quarter. His were better than Cafe Du Monde even, but maybe that's because I loved him and anything he did for me made me happy. That was a really good time in my life, right after we moved to New Orleans, when I was waitressing at the most hellacious restaurant ever (name omitted to minimize my embarassment) and JH was a short order cook and we felt so lucky to be young and alive and in the coolest city in America.

Anyway, it was a rainy rainy day and Sound Scientist and I stumbled on a golden-leaved street. Gold leaves everywhere! Gold on the trees, gold on the street, gold on the sidewalk and the brownstone steps and even falling on my windshield. It was absolutely gorgeous and it made me feel so lucky to be young and alive and in the greatest city in America.

I'm in love with New York again. The blustering wind of fall has kissed me on the nose and made me remember that feeling I had last November when I first arrived here for real, for good, for life. I can feel the holidays hanging in the air. I never really liked the holiday season very much but there really is something special about this time of year in New York. There is something exciting about steam from the subway grates and steam from my breath and steam from the hot dog stands. There's something impressive about the way women still manage to dress for fashion in freezing weather and the red Starbucks cups and the die-hard street fair vendors.

Even though it was dark when I left the dance studio the other day at five-thirty, I was just so excited to skip down to St. Mark's with The Grecian and Mama Squirrel for falafels at Mamoun's and to shop for new stripey elbow length fingerless gloves. The air is electric again. Something good is about to happen.