Saturday stroll to Red Hook in Brooklyn, NYC

I like walkin well enough. Some people go a lil too crazy about it. Serena likes it too. Today we decided to walk from her apartment in Crown Heights to the Red Hook general area just for our enjoyment. I forgot to bring my dslr so I used her *gasp* hipsta cvs digital camera (u know the one). I was a bit sheepish at first but then leaned into it. To accept that you are hipsta is fundamental to enjoying things in a city like New York. We all like to think we are immune to such things but in reality we are not.

Anyways, we had a nice walk. I got an iced coffee shortly into the walk. When I walked into the coffee place the barista was having an animated conversation with a lady (millenial probably, I'm a millenial too so I'm allowed to use the term) who was eating avocado toast. I didn't realize it at the time but I had just experienced the quintessential hipsta moment as seen through the lens of the rest of America. Coffee shop, avocado toast, Barista, millenial.

Serena and I fancy ourselves amateur architecture enthusiasts. She knows some architectural terms, I do not. I like to critique though. So I may do some of that I walk you throught the pictures of our walk. Serena is watching this right now. I am laying on the couch. The sun is setting. Jaren is coming over later for Bolognese (more on that later). Life is good.

_{Old Billiards Factory that got converted into a loft. Victim of the charcoalification trend that has infected so many peoples aesthetic sense}

_{This captures the mid-winter brooklyn saturday vibe pretty nicely.}

_{Beautiful row houses. I don't know what the style is called. They're a bit depressing-looking in a way. But just like republican used to be democrat, depressing used to be happy.}

_{View of downtown BK. Underrated area. I wouldn't mind living there. Serena likes it too.}

_{A pic from the middle of the road. Sometimes it is cathartic to hold up traffic for no reason. Well I guess for a reason: the picture.}

_{Nice mustang (might not actually be a mustang) but you know what Im talking about. Baby blue. Blue is cliche as a color but it suits this car nicely.}

_{Cute picture of Serena. As we say to each other, the minion (pronounced like mignon in "filet mignon"). She is rocking the Sex Emo lanyard}

_{Somehow all of the cars in the photo look "parked". I can assure you that that is not the case. They were moving.}

_{Serena enjoying the sights on 4th ave in park slope.}

_{I am certain they will build something beautiful on that plot.}

_{Another middle of the road photo featuring a Tesla. Not a particularly glamorous photo but a realistic depiction of walking around Brooklyn.}

_{A new skyline is emerging.}

The city is ever-changing. To be fixated on the past is to commit psychological suicide. Although I'm not sure that anyone has a clear vision of the future these days. It seems that with video games (I don't play them really) the future is represented by increasing graphical quality and realism. In a sense the future as defined by video games is reality. Video games look to reality. What does reality look to? Does anyone these days have a coherent vision of the future? Has everyone simply forgotten that there will be a future? We are at odds with ourselves in a sense. We are told that we should be present but are also given a million different things to distract ourselves from the present. The sea levels are rising yet we order increasingly more stuff off of the internet. And fill our apartments/houses with bullcrap.

I'm trying to say that we live as if the world has already ended. But somehow we don't live in the present either. So if there's no future and no present then what the hell is there? I don't fricking know either. I'm just asking questions. Back to the pics. Maybe the answers are there.

_{A red volvo and a wary-looking biker.}

_{No-mans land in Brooklyn. The urban desert. The sun burns especially hot here. Even in the winter.}

_{A random neoclassical building right next to the new Whole Foods in Gowanus. It's been vacant for a while now.}

_{Whole foods. My review of whole foods as a grocery store: ***.5}

_{Bridge over the river Gowanus.}

_{You can see the beginnings of a new neighborhood emerging. One which has the GOwanus Canal at its heart. These sorts of developments are popping up all around BK.}

_{I wish I had a reason to own a lot like this. I do not though. An impressive amount of gray in this one.}

_{the F/G train ine I believe goes over that bridge thing.}

_{This is the first Camry convertible I've ever seen. Perhaps it is the only one.}

_{Car outside of a shop called the art of tint. I have a hard time believing that tinting windows is an art. It is illegal.}

_{Park in red hook. I guess they don't know about grass here?}

_{Bulbous and metallic. Just a cool block in brooklyn, ny.}

_{More downtown BK. New Gothic style building is included. Serena loves it. I love it. New buildings can be cool!}

_{Serena in front of the BQE. This section of the BQE is at least half-a-mile tall which is fricking insane.}

_{Lowes parking lot. Serena almost got hit by a car here once so she is disturbed by it. I don't mind it so much.}

_{Me and Serena in the Lowes.}

_{Grow lights? For weed I guess? Seems a bit weird to be selling these and encouraging that kind of crap.}

_{The interior of a bus that was sitting in Gowanus. I got yelled at by the people in the garage right next to it about a year and a half ago while I was taking pictures. I was about to get on it but then the garage door started opening.}

_{What the fuck was Uhaul thinking with this advertisement?}

_{In the checkout line at Whole Foods}

_{Ingredients for the Bolognese that Serena is cooking up right now. Jaren is en route from Bushwick to Serena's apartment. I told him to grab red wine.}

So ends the photos of today's walk. I am sitting on the couch. Serena is cooking in a flow state. Classy jazz is playing on the Sonos. My vision of the future is living upstate with serena with a dog. I guess the best I can do is answer the question of what the future looks like by stating what I want for myself. Seems selfish that that's my answer. There's not really a way to not be selfish these days. Anyways, signing off.

- will