Here is Bryce in Bryant Park. She is trying to re-read one of her favorite books, Here is New York, but feels distracted and restless.

Perhaps it’s the weather: beautiful, yes, but also confusing. Is it hot? Or cold? Put on the wrap? Take off the wrap? No right answer, only ones that seem right at first and then a few minutes later prove wrong. While one can readily amass information—geographical location, current temperature, time of year, time of day—none of it actually helps one figure out what to wear. She sees flip-flops and tank tops, quilted down vests, some combination of the above, no consensus as to what constitutes appropriate behavior on a late afternoon in early October in NYC. No one she sees seems to know how to be prepared, effective, comfortable, safe.

Perhaps it’s not the weather.

She gives up on E.B. White and heads over to Library Way. She wants to see if anyone will stop to read the quotations today. They do not. They don’t seem to notice her, either, yet they don’t step on her, so they probably do see her, they just don’t let on.

Today she prefers the short quotes, in which the substance/word ratio is relatively high.

Bryce and her clothing are made from much-lived-in, oft-laundered soft materials: my son’s long-sleeved t-shirt, my daughter’s cockatoo sock, a hoodie, a cardigan sleeve. Her boots are made from a small suede bag that apparently was used to protect some nice wristwatch. I have no recollection of the watch, but right up until yesterday I had carefully saved the bag.

By the way, I learned about Library Way (www.nypl.org/blog/2011/09/13/library-way) from my friend Shania. Thanks, Shania! If it weren’t for you, I’d definitely be one of those people who walk right over the quotations, totally oblivious.

Also by the way, tonight I went to hear Roz Chast speak at the Museum of the City of New York about her new book, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York, and she happened to mention Here is New York and described it as “one of the best books ever written about New York City.” Bryce is thrilled to have her literary choices approved by Roz Chast.

“This is the best place in the world, an experiment, a melting pot, a fight to the death, an opera, a musical comedy, a tragedy, none of the above, all of the above. We’re a target for seekers and dreamers and also nuts. We live here anyway.”

—from Going Into Town, by Roz Chast