Updating Blog Posts from the Last Few Years

What's new? Nothing and everything.

Everything big has stayed the same -- same job, same apartment, same husband -- but there are a few changes here and there. Release your bated breath. Here are some updates to a few of the events I've written about over the last few years.

February 2009: Yep, Paul and I are still reading presidential biographies, although at a significantly slower pace. We're finally in the 20th century, at William Howard Taft. In addition, Paul continues to update his blog chronicling the project, Presidents by the Book. My favorite president so far? John Quincy Adams.

May 2010: When the bar below our apartment suddenly closed, we unexpectedly get some restful nights of sleep all summer long. I was nervous when a new seafood restaurant moved into the space in 2011, but it's been a good neighbor. It's become a popular neighborhood joint, and the bar neither stays open too late nor attracts the same kind of loudmouth clientele that the old bar did. I wasn't sure how I'd like walking by the diners enjoying the outdoor seating every nice day, but it's not bad at all. In fact, I like it. It makes our block pleasantly lively. I haven't tried the place yet, but Paul's had a drink or two there with a friend. Not bad at all.

January 2011: I was sooooo excited when I found the one and only restaurant in New York City that served Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It was cheap and delicious, and I was craving it only a few months later. And thus I was sooooo disappointed to find out that that Go Japanese Restaurant closed its doors. Other restaurants in town serve the inferior (my opinion only) Osaka-style okonomiyaki, which is more like a pizza or omelet to Hiroshima's layered version. The search continues. Paul says he's going to try making it at home.

April 2011: When we visited St. Patrick's Old Cathedral one snowy Saturday last year, I had to keep my gloves on throughout the entire mass because it was so cold. When we repeated our visit one hot and humid afternoon last summer, we found out that it doesn't have air conditioning either. If there was an award for buildings that are the least comfortable at all times of year and in all forms of weather, it would be a top contender. I think I've blocked from my mind that I lived without air conditioning until I went to college.

October 2011: Occupy Wall Street protesters were officially evicted from Zuccotti Park, a short walk away from where I work, in mid-November, about two months after they took over. When I visited the camp last fall, the weather was still fairly mild. But when Paul and I walked by a month later, the park was a canopy of tents. Not long after the protesters were given the boot, Christmas lights decorated the park's trees as they seem to every winter, and everything went back to normal. Almost. You'll still occasionally hear of protesters trying to re-occupy the park, but nothing seems to last.

Present: We still own our house in Galloway, and we once again have some people there who will actually pay rent. That's a big improvement over the last tenant, who shorted us several months of rent. This is the third family there since we moved to New York more than four years ago.

Occupy Wall Street, Just Down the Street

Zuccotti Park used to be just the place where I'd occasionally get a chocolate chip muffin at the weekly farmer's market.

Now, according, to one New York Times columnist earlier this month, it's "the city's newest tourist attraction."

And it's all just a little more than a block from where I work.

The Occupy Wall Street gang is just down the street, but I've had surprisingly little contact with it. Occasionally I'll see a few of my coworkers huddled around a window, stretching their necks to see a group of straggling protesters down the street. Once or twice, as I've walked from the subway to the office, I've seen men putting up metal gates along Broadway, a sure sign of a march that sure enough took place when I left work that night.

The protesters had been at the park nearly a month -- in fact, it's one month today -- but mostly I'd just seen them on the "Daily Show." (I amuse myself by figuring out what angle the cameramen are shooting based on the stores and restaurants I clearly see in the background.) It was time to pay a visit for myself, so during one lunch break last week, I did.

It took exactly five minutes to get there, and I think most of that time I spent waiting for the elevator in my building. It was a gray, rainy day, so I wasn't sure how many people would be out. I needn't have worried. Hundreds of people crowded Zuccotti Park, some holding signs, some meditating, but everyone mostly just talking. There was a constant buzz, interrupted only by a steady rhythm of chanting as a mini-march passed by.

Occupy Wall Street seems sort of like a small neighborhood. According to a friend and coworker, they have a library, wifi, a kitchen area and even a small medical center. What they don't have much of is food, although they do accept deliveries and donations.

I'm still not exactly sure what Occupy Wall Street stands for, but maybe that's OK. We're so used to hearing talking points and politicians staying exactly on-message. It's refreshing to see people stand up because they know something has to change, even if they can't all precisely articulate what that something actually is.

I left with a greater respect for Occupy Wall Street. And also, based on the number of cops surrounding the peaceful gathering, with the suspicion that a lot of people are getting some easy overtime.