I’m a little late to this week’s challenge because I spent last weekend in New York City, a/k/a the Big Apple, Gotham, the city that never sleeps. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
When I finally put my micron felt tip pens and pencils to paper, I found that I still am obsessed with have the tangle Aquafleur on my mind. I’m attributing this to the fact that I didn’t feel comfortable with it until the Diva included it in a challenge a few weeks ago, and now I’m making up for lost Aquafleur time.
This week, guest Zentangle Diva, Jessica Davies, challenged us to use a heart(s) as our string.
For my first composition, I used a black micron, and gold and silver pencils. Only two Aquafleur hearts emerged.
I also used Sand Swirl, Printemps, Cadent, Tripoli, N’Zeppel, and Fassett, and surrounded it all with Diva Dance auras. (All mac n’ cheese tangles for me!)
Then, I started playing around with tiny flowers because apparently I have too much time on my hands. They look something like this:
I decided that little flower hearts might look nice—with Aquafleur (of course) and color. Then, I decided that enough is enough, so here’s my final challenge response:
Back to New York City……..
I’m from Philadelphia. With a population of over 1.5 million people, it’s the 5th largest city in the United States.
I’ve visited many of the great large cities of the world, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, London and Mexico City (to name a few), but for some reason, it is New York City, a mere 100 miles from my home, that I find most intimidating.
On the streets of Manhattan (New York’s most famous borough), I can’t stop looking up at the canyons of tall buildings. I feel like a country bumpkin, certain that sophisticated New Yorkers must be staring at the straw in my hair. Therefore, I hesitated when Mr. Excitement invited me to accompany him to a mini-reunion with his 3 college roommates in New York City.
I’m glad I decided to go. We stayed with one of the guys and his wife who live in Cobble Hill, a low rise Brooklyn neighborhood of 2 and 3 story brownstone townhouses. They even have a back yard—with flowers, an outside grill and &$%*ing mosquitoes. Enjoying dinner out there, we could have been a million miles from the frenetic jarring sights and sounds of Manhattan.
Also on the agenda was a New York Yankees baseball game. I can’t say I was looking forward to that. The last baseball game I attended was in Philadelphia’s then decrepit Veterans Stadium where we sat high up in the 700 level cheap seats. Veterans Stadium was demolished in 2004, so I can safely say it had been awhile since I watched the “boys of summer” in person.
This was a different experience. The current version of Yankee Stadium, built in 2009, is one of the smaller scale, more “intimate” parks. To make the contrast with my last in person baseball game even more stark, our friend secured the use his law firm’s private box, close enough that the players actually looked like people, and his daughter was positive she was going to suffer a traumatic brain injury from a foul ball. Best of all, in addition to “free” hamburger sliders, hot dogs, and salad, there was an unlimited supply of peanuts and Cracker Jacks!
Once I had consumed my fill and then some of peanuts and Cracker Jacks, I actually enjoyed the game. After trailing the first place Milwaukee Brewers for the entire game, the Yankees came back and won the game with a walk off home run in the 9th inning. As a Philadelphian, I have a congenital dislike for the Yankees, but if one had to go to a Yankees game, this was certainly the way to do it!
The next morning, after a great sleep devoid of traffic noise in the city that never sleeps, we walked through Brooklyn Heights to the waterfront where we were treated to a view of lower Manhattan that is making me think I need to give the Big Apple another chance.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
As you know, Suzanne, I grew up only 14 miles from the city. When I was a child I could see it out of my second story bedroom until the trees grew tall. My mom used to take me to the city now and then. We had to take buses to get to NY and then we switched to subways. As I got older, most of our school’s field trips were to the city. We went to the zoo, museums, Radio City, the Empire State Building, and to the opera. As a young adult, we even hung out in The Village. Being young was such an advantage. No fear. I’d never go now. Never! But, your tiles are so pretty, and you are braver than I 🙂
I’m not really brave. It’s just that my wanderlust must be stronger than my fears—most of the time.
I live about 15 miles from NYC, but have been avoiding it for the last few weeks as a result of what the New York governor has promised as a “summer of hell” for commuters. That all relates to the rotting transportation infrastructure of the New York Metro area. Emergency train work has crippled train service and has thus boosted the already heinous traffic. Did hit the outskirts last week to see the Chihuli exhibit at the New York Botannical Gardens and also returned to one of my favorite NY attractions, the Whitney Museum. Being a Mets fan, though, I stay away from Yankee Stadium.
I love botanical gardens, and I’m intrigued by Chihuly’s glass sculptures. I could even imagine braving NYC to see that—maybe another time. It’s true that taking a train to New York is a bad adventure these days. They’ve had to increase the time on the Amtrak schedules going into Penn Station because the trains have to decrease speed so much because of the poor condition of the tracks. Whenever I visit countries with excellent train service (Spain, France, Japan), I feel sad (and a little embarrassed) about the condition of our infrastructure.
Suzanne, your aquafleured and #tangledhearts are so lovely! The aquafleur really gives them depth, and I like how you layered all the hearts. Thanks for participating in this week’s challenge, even while exploring NYC. 🙂
Thanks for guest Diva-ing! I’ll be catching that baton in a few weeks.
I lived in Manhattan for a few years in the early 1970s and loved it even then. Visiting Manhattan in the late 1980s, with two young children, was fabulously exhausting (and instantly quelled any worries I had about feeling out of place as the country bumpkin I had become). Since our son moved to NYC in 2002, we have visited the New York City frequently and always have had a great time. Now, staying with him in a quiet, green, diverse enclave in Brooklyn when we visit, we very much enjoy awakening to birdsong each morning and taking in the delights of his neighborhood and, when we feel like it, Manhattan (1 stop away by subway). Walking along the Brooklyn waterfront, including its wonderful new Brooklyn Bridge Park, is a very special treat (even in January, when I last did it)! So to me, staying in a relatively serene, leafy part of Brooklyn maximizes our ability to enjoy New York City, including the most frenetic parts of Manhattan.
Thanks for sharing your NYC experiences. Like you, I discovered this nice part of Brooklyn on this visit. I think it can make a visit to NYC more tolerable to know that one could scurry on the subway or take an Uber to a more reasonable part of the city and then just dip into Manhattan for shorter intervals.
Wow! Those Aquafleur hearts are fab! I’ve become a little obsessed with Aquafleur since the Diva challenged us with it recently. I lived in NYC then Brooklyn during the 90’s, 3 years of NYU grad school and 7 as a free-lance theatrical costume designer and teacher. I was in my 30’s and loved it! It’s been 16 years since I’ve been there and don’t miss it at all
I guess “to everything, there is a season”—and that goes for cities too. 🙂
Did not get to view this challenge earlier. I like your stacked colorful hearts.
I visit New York City every chance I get.