So Long, Summer!

Wasn't it just recently I was enjoying a cherry Italian ice, $2, from a pizza place on a hot August day?


New York Pizza Suprema is just steps away from Madison Square Garden.

Not the only circus in town I avoided this summer.

Now, I'm pondering stopping for a soy hot chocolate at Macaron Cafe on increasingly chilly mornings, dreaming about the aromas of freshly-baked pumpkin bread, and counting down the seconds until new releases from The Swell Season and R.E.M.

To say a proper farewell to summer, a good friend of mine and I decided to have one last feast at Salsa y Salsa. Soon, I'll be dreaming about the lentil casserole and blackberry tea at Tea & Sympathy. Their scones and clotted cream aren't vegan, but these are.

A virgin strawberry margarita, $5.95. I've grown to prefer margaritas without the alcohol.

Sweet fried plantains, which I asked for with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar, $2.75.

Tosta de la Casa: lettuce with sliced red radish, refried black beans on tostada tortilla with a vinagrette dressing, $7.50. As we say to our family dog when he finishes a treat, "yummy, yummy, yummy!"

Our last meal here was the night of the Tori Amos show at Radio City Music Hall. Flashback to Tori Night!

Even if it's one of my favorites, I always go for the cheapest seats available to save some money. Not a bad view! Unfortunately, I had two people in front of me who thought it would be just splendid to take pictures for the first five songs, then have a nice chat, as if this was their living room.

In the technological age, so many people do not know how to live in the moment. How many times have I been in a museum (like the Target-sponsored free Fridays at the MOMA) to see people walk up to artwork, take a picture and just walk away without absorbing what's before their eyes?

From the night's show, Give, one of my favorites off of her new album. I interpret this song to be about how some people in this world are givers and some are just takers. I aspire to be in the former category.

"There are some, some who give blood
I give love, I give

Soon before the sun, before the sun, begins to rise
I know that I, I must give, so that I, I can live

There are some, some whose give, twists itself to take
they mistake, who, what made up the line, some say it was pain, or was it shame."


And as she says in Concertina, "Particle by particle she slowly changes." So true of how most change occurs.