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Monday, February 4, 2008

On the Superbowl and Fancy Living

Fairway
Photo by myself, of Fairway at 74th and Broadway on the Upper West Side.

The upper floor of this bustling supermarket has a huge assortment of organic foods and a cafe. The lower floor is open 24/7.

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Hello, from chilly Aspen!! It snowed a foot this morning and many flights were canceled. Somehow, I managed to squeak through.

Who watched the Superbowl last night??! People on the plane and in the hotel have been talking non-stop about it.

Mark and I are usually ignorant in terms of sports. Football, especially, is not even a blip on our radar. Even though expensive commercials debut during this event, Mark, who works in television, avoids watching because he's usually bored by the game.

For whatever reason, though, we found ourselves tuned in. Perhaps we watched because the game was televised on HD and it looked so utterly amazing. Perhaps we watched because we knew what underdogs the Giants were. We'd been to dinner with friends the night before, and they told us how unlikely it was for the Giants to win. Mark and I are suckers for underdogs.

Both of us were sitting on the couch as usual, surfing the internet. As time ticked down, we started to pay attention to the game. As the Giants inched down the field, we started yelling louder and louder. When the Giants did the unthinkable, we went a little nuts and jumped up and down in disbelief. I have to wonder what the quiet Germans on the ground floor thought of their crazy upstairs neighbors.

Tonight, I'm having a lovely time in the hotel room. The gas fireplace is on, and there's the hum of four-wheel drive vehicles outside. Meanwhile, the luxurious bathtub is calling my name.

I'm not used to living it up like this, and it's at these times that I learn the most for my job. When you're designing spaces for wealthy people and then crawling back to your typical New York apartment, what you draw can be a little abstract.

At my last apartment, the one with the evil landlord, I had a sink in a retrofitted closet. Opposite, there was a tiny stove shoved in another retrofitted closet. An outdated fridge stood awkwardly in a corner. That was my kitchen. No free standing island and bar sink. No wine cooler. No butler's pantry. Nope.

A sink and a stove. Basta cosi.


For more posts on how the other half lives, click here and here

8 comments:

Mike said...

The Super Bowl was amazing. Im just a soccer fan really so I never watch the regular season football games.

Eli Manning was the best. They played really hard and never gave up. It has to be the best football games I ever seen.

Tomorrow is the parade at 11am in New York. I can't wait to see it.

Kitty said...

that's cool about the parade.

I wouldn't want to go, but I bet it'll be fun, especially for the players!

nice seeing you Mike!

Ha Ha Sound said...

I'm not much a football fan myself. I didn't even watch the game. Went out drinking with some friends myself.

But a guy in my office won $400 in some pool. We basically harassed him until he bought coffee for all of us. =+)

Kitty said...

Drinking, and drinking for free is better than a game anytime!

you missed a good one, Haha!

fishwithoutbicycle said...

It was a great game, I really wish I'd been watching it in a bar with fans, the atmosphere would have been amazing.

Enjoy Aspen, that tub sounds divine :-)

Ruvym said...

I really want to go to the parade, but alas, I work in midtown. What's up with these downtown parades? I guess Bloomberg picks a location that is easiest for him. Lame.

I also want to get this shirt I saw. I don't think I'd ever get one of the plain ones that just proclaim the Giants as Super Bowl champions. The one I spotted said 19-0 and then had this red stamp mark across that saying "denied." Below, in smaller letters, it said "NY Giants - Superbowl XLII Champions." So it's more about the loss of the perfect season than about the win. Really, that's what the game came down to, although I disagree that the Pats brought it upon themselves. They lost because the Giants played better, end of story.

Although today I feel a little bad for them too. I mean, a 19-0 season would have been a bigger historical event than an upset of that season. This game will go down as just another big upset, one of 4-5 in Super Bowl history, maybe a Top 10 upset as far as professional sports in general is concerned. But it will never be regarded in the same way, or as highly, as if the Pats went 19-0.

Kitty said...

hey fish

funny, Mark and I could only picture the Boston bars, with poor fellas in jerseys sitting very very silently.

*sniff*

Ruvym, it's odd the parade would be downtown, when the streets are much more straightforward uptown.

I agree with you on your winning streak theory. People will be talking about that game years from now.

Mom Knows Everything said...

I didn't watch the Super Bowl, not much of a sports fan other than hockey. Must be a Canadian thing. hehehe!