Celebrity Sightings in NYC

First, it's worth mentioning that the local NPR news station is doing a call-in show right now about NYC celebrity sightings, so this is a hot topic.

Since we've been in NYC, we have seen numerous celebrities, most of whom require a sentence or two of explanation before you'll recognize who I'm talking about. Ready?

1. During the Great Apartment Hunting Weekend, we spotted Bill Hader from SNL. You know, the wacky one. No, the other wacky one.

2. On the train one day, I sat across from the chubby, balding guy who plays one of the writers on "30 Rock." No, not Phil. No, not the guy with the funny hats, and not the black guy. You know that OTHER guy who eats donuts and probably lives with his mom? THAT guy. (JD Lutz)

3. In the grocery store last week, we saw Dennis Leary. Keep in mind, we were at the fancy grocery store, Citarella on Broadway and 75th. It's not like Leary shops at the Pioneer, for Pete's sake. He was in the sauce section. And by that, I mean fancy pasta sauces, not rot-gut rye.

4. Running errands the other day, I happened to be looking at what people were eating (you know, people sit outdoors for lunch, and you can look right at their plates), and I saw that freckle-faced actress with the short reddish hair who is on one of the Law and Order shows. In real life, she's British, which I already knew, but it was clear that's who she was when she spoke to her lunch date. (Julianne Nicholson)

5. We firmly believe we may have been stalked by Jesse Tyler Ferguson on Saturday. He's the redheaded actor who plays Mitchell on "Modern Family." The gay one. No, the other gay one. We passed him while walking the High Line, and then we passed him AGAIN roaming around the West Village. In my effortlessly cool way, I alerted him to the poop on the sidewalk just ahead, and warned him and his friends not to step in it. I care.

So far, these have been our only sightings of the celebrities in their natural habitat. Like US MAGAZINE states each week, "Celebrities: They're Just Like Us!" In fact, they ARE. Only they have bigger apartments and better clothes.

This week, we'll see Helen Hunt in "Our Town," but we won't consider that an actual sighting, since we're paying for it. Now, if I run into her in the ladies room of Bar Centrale after the show....we'll be sure to mention it.

Recycling

For those of you who think recycling means taking your wine and beer bottles to the curb, I'd like to invite you to spend a few days living in a NYC apartment. This city is SERIOUS about recycling...you have no idea.

There are three categories for trash/recycling up here: (clean) paper and cardboard; beverage cartons, bottles, metal and foil; and "everything else." And to keep these three categories separate, there are three different containers outside for us to put things in. Easy? Think again.

Let's say we pick up shirts from the cleaners (which is conveniently located at the end of our block.) Just like Mommie Dearest, Dean hates wire hangers, so those get tossed out. But wait! The hangers have those cardboard tubes on them! Take them apart! Tear off the paper and put that in a separate bin, too. Finished with a roll of toilet paper? Don't be so quick to toss that cardboard rube in the bathroom waste basket- if the sanitation department decides to check our recycling and finds YOUR cardboard tube in with the regular trash, look out. That means up to a $100 fine PER INCIDENT for the building.

We ordered a bed that arrived the other day. Inside, there was styrofoam (trash), cardboard (fold it up and tie it together), extra screws (metal), and binding strips (plastic.) Dean put the bed together, and I dealt with the recycling and proper disposal/placement of the stuff. He got the easier job.

So, when you come visit, please don't think we've lost our minds when we take your yogurt container out of recycling and toss it in the trash (those are NOT recyclable in NYC- tricked you, didn't I?) Please don't roll your eyes when we scrape the cheese out of the pizza box and put it in the bin labeled "cardboard." We just don't want our landlady mad at us... she yells in Italian, and it can get scary.