Thursday’s Things New Yorkers Say: Woodpeckers and Wizards

So sorry for the lack of blogging this week. School is fully underway, my internship is more intense, and work has just switched around all the merchandise in the store. Never the less, New Yorkers keeps talking… and here’s what they’re saying:

Just coming out of the subway station on 23^rd near 8^th Av:

I have my headphones on, but a very excited, normal looking 40-something-year-old man is peering up and then looking at me… and then back up. “Do you see him?!” he says with a New York accent, loud enough I can hear him over my music. I push pause, and ask “What – see what?” He continues with, “Do you see him! You see that woodpekka! He’s got bright red hair…look, look you see him?! Yeah, yeah… in that tree that’s drippin’ wit ice.” I kind of laugh, “Oh yeah I do see him… haha thanks for that…” As I’m walking away, I hear from behind “Aw man – lookata him!”

I’m not sure if this man had never seen a woodpecker before, or if he told me because I have red hair like the “little fella” but I’m glad I was apart of one of the most moving moments in this guy’s life.

Walking towards 9^th Avenue on the way to MS Living, I hear the following scene playing very loudly in a car:

“Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage. 

"Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron, wiping sweat off his face. "I couldn't hear anything. . . ." 

But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor. 

"Look!"

No! The CD stopped! Then the car turned off, and an older man who dressed well and could have passed as a mafia member got out of the car – by himself. No little daughter or grandson – and I swear he smiled at me.

But the worst part? I knew that monologue was from “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets” upon hearing the phrase “deserted passage.” HP nerds unite.

There were also a few phrases from a bar in Astoria my roommate and I went to for the Super Bowl along the lines of, “Oh my gosh, I’m an actor too,” and “Ben Roethlisberger is a very bad man!” to “You’re driving me home, right? And you know how to deal with an automatic transmission, right?” to which point I said, “Ummm… I think I’ll have another drink,” and after which I promptly walked home to watch Glee.

You got to love it.

So Anna and I went a little crazy at Sweet Afton during the Super Bowl Specials. We ate the chili...

devoured the wings...

and finally, we enjoyed fries, fried pickles, with several Abitas or black and tans. It was disgusting amazing - but most importantly, the Packers won.