is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Tiny Markets.
It's amazing how many tiny markets New York City can support. It's also amazing how crappy most of them are. Anyway, there are approximately ten of them on the five-block walk between my house and the Franklin stop on the 2/3 subway. Tonight as I was deciding which tiny market I would step into to buy some Pepsi for tomorrow morning, I noticed something new about one of them. It has a big yellow sign all across its front above the doors, and the sign is surrounded by little lightbulbs in white and blue that flash on and off. I guess I had never looked at that particular store at nighttime before. The lightbulbs are roughly the size of old-school christmas tree lightbulbs. So the sign looks like the entrance to a funhouse or some other ride at a county fair or traveling carnival. I also noticed for the first time, due to the whimsically blinking lights, that the side of the sign reads "coffee tea and chocolate." All that makes the place seem like a place you might really like to visit. Like you might, stepping into the store, enter another dimension full of cotton candy and cute plush animals. Plus I couldn't help imagining that the old guy who sits in the market all day sometimes climbs a ladder and lovingly changes the flashing bulbs. He can't predict which ones will burn out first, and he doesn't always have the right color in stock, so the pattern of flashing lights is utterly random. Still, he loves those lights, I imagine, and he loves that sign... so go my nighttime-ambling thoughts on the matter. And then: where does he buy the bulbs? I mean, they aren't exactly standard issue anymore. And so on.
But inside the store it's just another crappy tiny market where you can buy beer, milk, cereal, and soda, and then pay a guy sitting in a security box made of plexiglass. Still, I kinda wished I hadn't already bought my Pepsi, since I do want to support the carnival tiny crappy market more than any of the other ones.
I can't remember the name of the magical carnival market, but it is right down the street from my favorite restaurant, The Jerk Center. I've never actually been to The Jerk Center, so it's not that it's my favorite because of its great food. I have no idea about the food. But man, what a name. I told Yoktan on the phone the other day that I had the perfect restaurant to take him to, in my neighborhood. He agreed it was a good joke.
10:35 p.m. - August 23, 2007
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