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September 28, 2009
Invisible Dogs
This past Sunday, Nicole and I went to Brooklyn, NY to participate in an Improv Everywhere event. The mission? Walk an invisible dog for two hours.
We took the subway from Grand Central and when we walked up to the sidewalk, we found ourselves at the end of a 2,500 person line, all of us getting Invisible Dog leashes. People got really into it, too, which made it especially fun. Nicole and I got Sparky and Freddy, both rescue dogs. We took them for a nice walk around Brooklyn along with a couple thousand other people also walking their new pooches and got quite a few confused looks from passers-by.
We had a lot of kids ask about our dogs, where we got them, if they could pat them, etc. We even had one little kid beg his mom to pleeeease get him that kind of dog because it was so cute!
Nicole and I went to a Starbucks that assured us they were pet friendly and then walked outside to sit on a bench with Sparky and Freddy tugging on their leashes all the while. An older man came to sit with us and said he was visiting his daughter in Brooklyn and wanted to know what on earth was going on. We told him we didn't understand and he said "Come on... you know, with the dogs." "The dogs? Well the rain cleared up so we thought we'd take them out for a quick walk." "No no. The invisible dogs." Nicole and I exchanged confused glances. "Uh... I'm not sure what you're talking about sir." "So how do you take care of that thing?" "Oh you know, you have to feed them, walk them, groom them...." "Well that's pretty good. I have a chocolate lab, what kind is yours?"
Eventually this is how all conversations went. Everyone on the street would ask what was going on and when they realized we weren't giving in, they'd just accept that we were insane and go with it.
Actually, the only person who didn't think we were insane was the possibly schizophrenic homeless man who was completely unphased.
Local restaurants and cafes even played along, allowing invisible dog-walkers to sit next to open doors so that their dogs could lie on the sidewalk. Some even provided them with bowls of water and dog treats. Quickly, signs started going up out on the street saying "Yes, we are invisible dog friendly!"
I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy. People were pulling over to ask what was going on, two guys hung out a window shouting down to us, a bus stopped just to ask what was happening.... Whenever they started asking too many questions and we ran out of answers, we'd lurch forward and start running down the sidewalk like our dogs were dragging us away. Sparky and Freddy were really so badly behaved... They chased pigeons, sniffed other dogs' butts, poked around in the trash... we should really hire a trainer.
I didn't bring my camera, but here are the two pictures I took on my iPhone.
Freddy and Sparky stopping for a drink:
Nicole took these on her camera - CLICK HERE
Also....
Check out this set from one of the Improv Everywhere photographers
Want to see Nicole and Me?
Us in Starbucks with the dogs 1
Was that enough links for you? No? Well here's a couple more:
Invisible Dogs in...
Gothamist
NBC New York
Pardon Me For Asking - As Linked by the New York Times
Anyway, it was tons of fun and I actually kind of miss little Sparky. We really had bonded during our brief time together.
If you want to read individual stories, check out the comments section on Improv Everywhere's website HERE. There are some funny ones, like some people who truly believed they were the ones going crazy because they couldn't see the dogs, and one woman who offered to pray for all of us. I especially liked an overheard cell phone conversation saying "Another invisible dog just sniffed my dog's butt."
Anyway, I'll link to the video once it gets posted on YouTube!
Posted by lauren at 10:53 PM | Comments (5)
September 26, 2009
Gin & Tonics & Tigers
Last night, Hayley, Nicole and I went out to South Norwalk (SoNo as the locals call it) to a wine bar called Rouge. We went there last Wednesday and met the owner who sat down to have a few drinks with us, so we thought it would be fun to check it out on a weekend. We had a couple glasses of really good wine (something I'm not used to out at a bar on a Friday night!) and felt like VIPs when we walked in and the host, who we have never met, knew all our names and told the bartender that we were to be served first. No pictures from Rouge, but check out their website linked above!
After Rouge, we headed to a bar called Dragonfly in Stamford. Dragonfly is hands-down the weirdest bar I have ever been to in my entire life. Nicole, Jackie and I actually went last weekend on a recommendation and were so freaked out by the gothic church feel that we had to come back drunk. Hayley got a pink lemonade martini that was very pink and I got a gin & tonic because I'm old.
Freaky (I think the bar was actually built in an old church):
Hayley and Nicole - I love candids!
Hayley and Me:
Nicole and Me:
Aww:
After we finished our drinks, we headed back to Greenwich to meet up with Cathy and Molly at Sundown Saloon.
Hayley and I had a couple more gin & tonics at Sundown, which somehow led to me taking pictures of these guys pretending to be tigers and showing me how ferocious they are.
Mack and Ryan:
Anyway, that was my night! I think we hit up a good portion of Fairfield County last night, the rest to be covered this evening! Expect more updates soon.
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 09:48 AM | Comments (3)
September 24, 2009
Check It Out
Some new sites I've been reading that you might enjoy:
Going out this weekend, should have fun pictures up soon!
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 04:38 PM | Comments (1)
September 21, 2009
Out in Greenwich
On Friday night, Ali came home from Canada (where she is going to vet school) to see everyone. We all went out on Greenwich Ave. to Sundown Saloon and The Ginger Man.
Kristina, Molly, Ali, Cathy, Nicole, and Me (from Ali's camera):
Ali, Nicole, and Me at Ginger Man (from Ali's camera):
Ali, Me, Nicole, Kristina, and Molly:
Ali and Greg:
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
Let's Try This Again...
Maybe I'm just being nit-picky about my photos, but I think the slideshow distorted the quality.
Here's a link to my set on Flickr:
People Photographing People Photographing People
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
People Photographing People Photographing People
This past Saturday, Nicole, Hayley and I went in to NYC to participate in People Photographing People Photographing People, which is part of Newmindspace.
Basically, we all met at the South Street Seaport in the city where we took pictures of people taking pictures. This couldn't possibly be more up my alley; I love taking pictures of people taking pictures. For those of you who have followed this blog for the past few years, you already know this about me.
My favorite part of the whole thing was that we would all pick a "target" and swoop in to paparazzi our unsuspecting tourists. Pictures in the slideshow below:
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 12:11 AM | Comments (2)
September 18, 2009
Gossip Girl Does Greenwich
In what was truly a terrible oversight, Gossip Girl came to Greenwich and neglected to invite me to be an extra:
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2009
Anyway...
Apparently I still have some readers out there! Sorry for being harsh in the last entry (which has now been modified), I certainly didn't mean anything bad towards Brent who is a good friend of mine. I was trying to make a one-line statement of "We aren't together anymore, please don't ask - I don't have answers" and never intended to hurt anyone's feelings.
Updates on my summer coming in the near future.
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 10:55 PM | Comments (11)
September 16, 2009
Tornado Chasing - Complete Set
Ok, as you may have noticed, I haven't really been blogging. This summer has brought a lot of changes and it has taken a while to get used to my new life to be able to start blogging about it. I'm finally back, though, and I plan to update you on the past few months, probably in a series of slideshows.
If you're still interested in my storm chasing pictures and all the tornadoes I saw, check this out (there are 32 pages of pictures... sorry, I went a little overboard):
Updates on my summer coming very soon!
-Lauren
Posted by lauren at 06:07 PM | Comments (2)