ingredients for a well-balanced day

josiah, free arts buddy for the day

in a city known for its extremes (extremely tall scyscrapers, busy streets, high cost of living, diverse people), it could be a challenge finding moderation. one could easily be sucked into the "extreme" lifestyle--50kph walking, everything fast-food eating, 24-hour partying, 50-hour workweek slaving, etc.

just a little bit of everything. the perfect remedy for a penchant for extreme living. something id the opportunity to practice 2 saturdays back.

morning and early afternoon was spent up in harlem doing some volunteer work for free arts for abused children, a new york non-profit that believes in the healing powers of art in helping out abused and at-risk children. got buddied up with josiah, a 3rd grader from jersey. we did various arts and crafts projects focusing on the "insects" theme for the day. had pizza for lunch. then watched some storytelling after. after which, bid goodbye to josiah, who appeared to have had a lot of fun from the day's activities.

after the free arts work, went downtown back to the nyu area. swam a few laps to compensate for the 3 huge slices of pizza i gobbled up. after the much-needed physical activity, enjoyed walking around the farmer's market in union square, sucking in the springtime feeling in the middle of winter, marveling at all the fresh healthy organic produce. bought a bag of apples to bring home for just a buck. such a great bargain.

headed back home to brooklyn early PM to freshen up and drop off the bag id been schlepping (that's new yawker for lugging) around the whole day. few minutes later, was back in manhattan, upper west side, near columbia area. meeting a friend and that friend's cantonese friend for dinner. had a nice healthy waldorf salad with fresh ingredients to (still) counter those 3 humongous slices of olive oil-drenched pizza for lunch. had money to spare (after that inexpensive bag of apples) and the appetite too for a great strawberry and chocolate fondue dessert.

after dinner, chilled out a bit at the friend's apartment, waiting for the after-dinner plans to happen. by around 11 was heading east for the after-dinner plans--birthday party of an old high school friend in some quaint bar/lounge there. mostly fordham folks and some filipinos in the party. great majority strangers. had a few drinks to counter the "fluff" of spending the morning doing some volunteer work with homeless children. listened to 80s music. watched some silly drunk kids dancing wild and crazy. enjoyed seeing people's reactions to my non-reaction to their great im-so-and-so-working-for-so-and-so-great-company-shit-stories. had fun blending in the mix of loud music, conversations, familiar and unfamiliar (some pretty) faces, and of course the booze (in moderation),

got home around 2 am. maybe later. filled up without feeling stuffed. a bit tired but without being spent. gained a lot from the bits and pieces of the day's seemingly disparate experiences. learned a lot from josiah, that free arts buddy for the day, and his enthusiasm to try just a little bit of every art project offered and his ability to float from one project to another without any notion of needing to be focused too much on doing any single thing.

most take pleasure in taking in large chunks out of life. but there's always a special satisfaction one gains in the smaller bite-sized servings.