"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play..."

If you guessed Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat as the source of that quote, maybe you are as big of a book nerd as I am...

That quote basically describes today though it ended up being very fun despite the horrible weather. It rained off and on but the majority of the day was spent in a public school cafeteria making arts and crafts with a few dozen kids from low-income households. We made "avatar" masks and the kids had to talk about what special abilities their avatars had. One kid made a Michael Jackson mask, complete with black long yarn for hair and a black hat. The resemblance was pretty good. Another kid made a "Freddy Krugar elephant". That one was my favorite. We also taught the kids about the way masks are used in cultures around the world. After seeing a photo of an Indian mask, one little girl at my table emulated what she saw and made her butterfly mask half black and half blue. So cool to see they get something out of it. They were all really good kids, too and the program was great.

Next on the agenda was a birthday party but I had a couple of hours to kill before I had to get to the Lower East Side so I ate lunch in Columbus Circle and slowly made it down there. I was still about an hour early but at that point the rain had slowed so I ducked under an awning and called my mom to catch up and then celebrated my co-worker's birthday with drinks at a great little bar. I was planning on going to a housewarming party in Brooklyn but when we exited around 8pm it was pouring. Despite my little $5 street umbrella I was soaked and sloshed to the subway in my wet boots (they have holes in them - not the best all weather footwear but they were hand-me-downs and they're cute). Once I realized my socks and coat were soaked, I nixed Brooklyn and took the subway home but wasn't in for long. This time I went a few blocks down to my favorite diner where I ended the night eating a burger with my roommate. Perfect ending to the day. Glass half full.