It's Halloween weekend my dear blog reading friends. About 5 years ago, I bought a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz costume, but I havent worn it since. So I thought this year was the time to wear it again and make it a bit different. This year, I have decided to go as Dorothy Darkside. Have you ever played the album Darkside of the Moon with the movie the Wizard of Oz? Well, it really does work. So I thought I'd wear my Dorothy costume and make her a hippie. The costume came together after a quick trip down St. Mark's Place - where else do you go for hippie attire in NYC? It was fantastic. I have peace sign earrings, a tie-die headband, some tie-die socks and John Lennon glasses. All of that with my blue and white dorothy costume and red shoes of course. I'll have to get a picture and post it here later.

What are you going to be for Halloween? And you're never too old to dress up, by the way.

Yesterday I saw something strange...another addition to my growing collection of strange things in this city. I was at Duane Reade, my local drugstore...and while browsing, I saw a woman looking at the hair products. There was a cardboard display thiny filled with Garnier Fructice (sp??). The obviously wanted to see the hair products of the shelf behind the Garnier displacy. But instead of carfully sliding the display over a few inches, she put both of her hands on the display and with full force, knocked the entire display on the ground. Shampoo bottles went flying. And then she continued as if nothing happened and searched for the right color of hair die. No one did ANYTHING! Except me, who stood there are stared for a minute or so and then walked away.

Here's another something strange. On Thursday night, I was coming back from a conference up near Columbia University, and I got off the 1-train at 14th street and 7th Ave. I began walking up 7th avenue and I smelled this sweet smell...as if there were marshmallows baking or a pie or a cake. But I didnt think much of it. However, I had an instant craving for Tasti-D-Lite (it's a lactose free, kosher, all natural soft serve ice cream of sorts). And by the way it was about 40 degrees out, so it was strange I was craving it. And what flavor did I get? Marshmallow. Then, I'm walking home with my to-go cup in the paper bag and I can still smell the sweet smell. I thought it was the tasti-D in my bag, but how could that smell...it's frozen and in a bag. I got home, had some dinner and then had my Tasti-D. After I was finished, I could still smell the sweetness....how crazy, I thought. I even tried to wipe my mouth again, thinking it was on me or something. I had put on new perfume that day and I thought it must be the new fragrence....I went over to smell it, but that wasnt it. Fast forward to Saturday morning...I call my mom and she says "Did you hear about the maple syrup smell in NYC." And at first I said, no, and then said "WAIT, YES, I know what you are talking about." She read about it in the NYTimes and there was something very strange going on this week. Seems that our local info line, 311, got so many calls about the sweet smell. It started on Thursday night in the village (where I got off the subway) and worked its way uptown and into the other boroughs. They still dont know what it was!!!! Good thing i'm not going crazy. My mom says that some people thought it was a terrorist thing...and that would be scary.