I felt so damn happy all of a sudden . . .

I love Central Park.
It was a gorgeous morning when we set out today, and we were walking up from Times Square when all of a sudden this glorious patch of green rose up from the grey. We bought scarves from a vendor across the street and then I ran into a stand full of used books and really started to fall for the place. Hard. We kept walking up, parallel to 5th, and literally went straight into the most charming zoo I've ever been in. Phoebe Caufield liked it too. She and Holden watched the sea lions. There was one up on top of the rock in his enclosure, sunning himself, and if you added a mane and some paws then he wouldn't have looked out of place on an African plain somewhere. I saw the lagoon, too--the pond where, in the winter, the fish stay and the ducks leave for whatever haven they have.
I didn't see any graffiti at the Museum of Natural History. There was so much there, and everything was in stasis. The fourth floor was entirely filled with bones: dinosaurs, mammals, mammoth sea turtles, prehistoric fish, everything. They were coming at me from all sides and I had no idea where to look first. I wonder how different their bones are from ours. There was a cross-section of a huge redwood tree almost 2000 years old. I think that should be my next trip; I need to see those trees breathe.

The carousel didn't look like I expected, but there were benches arranged around it and pigeons flying all over the place. It made me smile.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not I like New York. Times Square went from exhilarating to oppressive, but away from the garishness the tall buildings are beautiful. I could live in Manhattan, but I would need to be near the park. Hell, I might live in the park. Lauren Covalucci: future pigeon lady of America.

L