Bikes and White Striped Tights

My friend found these in a chain drug store.

Another list:

1.  Worked, but before that rode my bike around.  This book is all about riding around for the fun of it. I bet you didn't know people did that in New York.

2.  Last night, one of my kids showed me this website featuring assorted commuters reading on the subway.  Aside from tights and bikes, there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing my fellow citizens reading in public.  I used to take the same photos for my other blog, so I'm happy that someone else feels the same way.

3.  Visited my favorite bike shop and had something on my bike fixed.  The bike shop owner is opening a new coffee shop next door this month--another place to grade papers!

4.  Today, my other kid shooed away from the playground.  I decided to practice being a free-range parent and sat in a nearby cafe where I ate a raw brownie sweetened with coconut oil.  And then a parent friend came in with her tights and let me take a picture of them.

5.  Speaking of subway reading, today on my commute I read Sam Lipsyte's The Ask, a satirical novel about a flailing parent who works and then gets fired from and then gets a second chance in the development office of a third-tier, over-priced university of New York City.   For over a year now, I've been reading novels about college.

6.  Today was one of the days I did not feel my tight place.

Tightsless

Coming from Carnegie Hall on the downtown F train subway platform, this woman was perfectly posed.  The air called for tights, but she boldly strode out bare legged.

I need to emulate her stance, which was almost Egyptian--left leg forward.  Something about it reminds me of the iconic photo of Patti Smith on a subway platform below.  Unfortunately, I did not take this one:

On the Subway/After the Subway

1. Chunky heeled shoes with short socks and leggings on the L train.

2. Adorable graffiti on 13th Street.

3. After day after day of frugality, a dessert splurge for the kid.

Underground Tights and Filthy Tracks

Years ago, I stopped looking down when looking for the arrival of a train.  The subway tracks below are always dirty and dotted with fetid pools of water.  Rats scurry and cavort.  During tights season, it's best just to keep one's eyes peeled for tights like these.  Monochromatic gray tights may be among my favorites.  Dove gray.  Dare I say--rat gray?  Yes!  Of course I do!  One one hand (leg?), these tights were part and parcel of another boreal day.   These were practical city tights made glamorous with blush pumps and a leopard skin print coat, reminiscent of Edie Sedgwick, although I'm sure she was almost always above ground in cabs.  

Why do I love tights so much?  For a relative pittance, they provide not only warmth but glamor.  They are ubiquitous, easy to find, easy to pack and stow away.  They are democratic like Levis.  They obscure faults but tell the truth.  They make the truth more beautiful.  They easily re-contextualize a shoe.  They make it easy to be stunning.  And they don't have to be dry-cleaned.  

Just writing off the top of my head here and fully aware of how silly this might sound!

The train came and the gray tights disappeared into an adjacent car.