Tingles on Fifth

I got new glasses today from Eyewear on Fifth. When I went in the first time, I was reminded of that NYT article about Park Slope where someone complains that Park Slope is filled with English teachers. That was because the man being helped ahead of me told the proprietor that his name was English. And when asked, he had to admit, that yes, he was an English teacher. My friend calls that nomen est omen, she's the only person I've ever heard use that phrase.

Today I went back and picked up my glasses and put them on. I was with my three year old who gave me a look of disgust and told me in no uncertain terms that she didn't like them. My oldest said the same thing, pretty much, in a much more tactful way. I like my new glasses, though.

Kids are pretty harsh critics of their moms' appearances. I was wearing overalls the other day and my son asked me why I was wearing those weird pants. And I told him I was wearing them because I looked adorable in them. He said no you don't, you look horrible. I insisted that I looked adorable, but he maintained that I was nothing short of a disaster. And I have to admit, I don't think I'll be wearing my overalls again any time soon. Unless it's time to be a disaster, and sometimes, it seems, it is time for that.

After we got my glasses today we went into a bargain store on 5th Ave to find a new backpack for my daughter. They didn't have those. They did have this:


















Never heard of that before. Then I got a little transfixed in the figurines aisle, as I usually do in the 99 cent stores. I was taking a picture of all these black jesuses when they started to play "Papa Don't Preach" over the loud speakers. I got the tingles. Then I realized that Madonna gives me the tingles more than any other artist, I think. She and Martin Luther King.

I wouldn't have used that word, tingles, even though it's the perfect word, if it hadn't been used by Tracy Collins at the excellent blogade hosted by Adrain Kinloch aka BIB Sunday. Adrain and Tracy were kind enough to address the group regarding photographers' rights and run-ins with censorship. At one point Tracy spoke of how certain photographs gave him "tingles," and I immediately wanted to see those pictures. All of them. Each one. And I wanted to get tingles, too. Well, I can thank Madonna and the black jesus for that. For now.