Today Chinatown won my heart.

I was sitting in a lovely vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown near the door, looking out a large window in front of me out to the amazing New York evening. This small dog who had gotten off his leash ran excitedly by and the owner ran after it trying to step on the leash. They ran out of site and one second later I heard screams, a horrible noise, and more screaming. The street in front of the restaurant was insanely busy with rush hour traffic and the little dog ran out in the street and was run over. I sat there waiting for the owner to walk back by the window holding the dog but nothing. The lady who worked at the restaurant had gone out to see what happened and came back in a moment later and just said, "Dog is dead." Seriously upsetting. It was, of course, sad for the owner because he was also holding stuffed animals and toys so I'm sure the dog was a family dog. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to walk back to his family holding the dead dog in a box, with blood on his face, and tell them what had happened.

On a more positive note, New York is amazing right now. You can feel the seasons switching over and am actually getting a little excited about it getting colder. It should be an adventure (hopefully filled with sleds and snow ball fights). I'm enjoying working as a TA and am pretty excited about the current stuff I'm working on. Our apartment has only one person sleeping in our living room and coming home has been much more pleasant now that everything is spic and span.

Everyone should take a day and explore Chinatown. That place is full of so much amazing trinkets, fish (both dried and fleshy), odd smells and funny people, extreeeeemely excited old men selling bonsai trees, these very strange rice cakes which are vegan and delicious, and hundreds of people hoping to take you to a back ally and sell you designer items at a bargain price (not shady at all).

Tonight I'm fighting a cold by watching movies and cuddling under my squishy blankets. Tea might make an appearance and Oreos have been eaten.