Stacy Horn

I’m still trying to get a decent action shot of the pigeons.

My shots are never sharp enough, though.

And there’s never enough contrast between the background and the pigeons. Pigeons do not know how to compose their flights, apparently.

Here are my most recent efforts.

So, yeah.

What else is going on?

Rehearsal with the orchestra tonight!! Woohoo!!

Three Views. I have to run to my Census post, but I’ll be back to post about the crazy reactions to the Census. Meanwhile, a beautiful tree grows on Broadway. The last shot I took at night, after choir rehearsal.

I’ve been trying everything, and something is working. Glutamine. I bought L-Glutamine 500 mg capsules from Thorne Research. I can’t be sure of what dosage Buddy is getting. I fill up two pill pockets and give that to him each day. I’m guessing he’s getting around 100mg a day.

Almost two months ago I started giving him Ark Naturals Gentle Disgest for the probiotics, and Ark Naturals Royal Coat Express for the omega 3 fish oil. But two weeks ago I started the glutamine and his stools have really started firming up in the past few days. The other things could be helping, his coat is gorgeous, but I really am seeing a difference after he’s been on the Glutamine.

My new goal is to get a great action shot of the pigeons. This is not it, alas.

So it’s concert week for the Grace Church Choral Society! Very exciting. But something different is going to happen this week. Due to the restoration work being done at Grace Church the dress rehearsal and the performance will take place at St. Thomas Church.

St. Thomas is at 53rd and Fifth. A whole different part of town. It will be so weird to sing at a different place after decades of singing at one location only. To sing out in totally unfamiliar territory. But I can’t wait.

This part of town has a high nostalgia quotient for me. When I moved back to NY after college, the first job I got was a temp job selling jewelry at Tiffany’s, which is at 57th and Fifth.

Every day I took the E train to 53rd and Fifth and walked up to Tiffany’s. There was a lot I didn’t like about working at Tiffany’s, but there was a lot I loved. When the temp job ended they offered me a full-time position, but I didn’t take it. It didn’t seem like a real career to me, selling jewelry. I was 22 and I just felt that there were a lot more exciting things out there that I could be doing with my life.

But part of me has always missed it. I loved the feel of the place, and the constant interaction with people who were usually there to do something nice, to buy something beautiful for someone they loved. I loved trying to help boyfriends and husbands buy something special for their wives and girlfriends. I had also scoured the place for the most beautiful things that cost the least amount of money so I was always especially helpful to the guys who had to be more frugal.

However, I was really scouring the place for something for myself, and what I chose were the Elsa Peretti mesh earrings. I still have them and I should totally wear them in honor of the 32 years (good-freaking-lord) that have gone by. I should wear them in honor of choices. Oh God have I made a lot of bad choices in my life. Actually, there’s really no way of knowing if that is true. What if I had taken the Tiffany job, for instance. Who knows where I’d be now if I had? There’s just no way of knowing if it would have been better or worse.

I still think these earrings were one of the best buys in the place!

I volunteered to go first. It’s my “confront it and get it over with fast” mentality. Rip that bandaid off quickly! So I stepped up to the microphone. Sunny’s was crowded with friendly faces. Whenever I looked up to make eye contact whoever I saw either smiled or looked interested.

I read just a few paragraphs from the very beginning of the book, but I kept losing my place. I saw a trick the last reader used, which I will try next time. He just simply moved an index card down as he read so when he looked up at people and back he could find his place again. I kept having to re-find my place. My face would flush and my heart would race. “Where was I???” I always found it in a matter of seconds, but still.

Then I just talked. I talked about how the lab got started and what they tried to do. I told my favorite stories, like the one about the missing boy Bruce Kremen, and finding the letter from the Exorcist priest. I forgot a lot of things I meant to say but it’s probably just as well. Less is more, as they say.

But the feel of the room was good. I didn’t feel like I was walking in molasses, the energy was there and lively. People came up to me at the break and told me their ghost stories and other experiences. The host Gabriel Cohen did a good job of hosting, he made people feel welcome and he made me feel at ease. And he brought pastries!!

I took this on the ferry home. This is the southern tip of Manhattan. I was happy. Something scary was not only now firmly in the past and over, I did okay.