Else what's a heaven for?

Last summer, Lexan became obsessed with boats, to the point where on our Cape Cod vacation, he would try to get on to boats and would get really mad when I wouldn't open gates so he could go on them. I bought him a book called Boats Go, which caused him to lead his preschool class in singing "O Sole Mio". Eventually, in one of my greatest parenting moves ever, I realized we live 10 mins from a ferry stop, so I took him to South Street Seaport on a boat. He spent the whole 13 mins ride concentrating with all his 26 lb being on the boatness of it all -- and 2 days later, he dragged me back to the dock and we went on another boat ride. I had no idea what was on Governor's Island, but that's where the boat was going and I was pretty sure we could make it back.

I didn't plan for every vacation this summer to have a nautical component - and frankly he's a little over it by now - but somehow it happened. Over Memorial Day, Jon had a family bar mitzvah in Las Vegas, which turned out to be epic but I'm still glad I went on vacation with my mother and son instead. My mother suggested we take Carnival's newest ship to Bermuda, but it seemed like a lot of effort and expense to entertain a 3yo (especially since I'd already booked a cruise for the whole family later that summer). I suggested we drive to Mystic, Ct instead, which I didn't really remember from a trip we took when I was Lexan's age. It turned out to be exactly right. ( Read more... )

Jon and Lucky had a conference (not kidding) over July Fourth weekend, so having spent Memorial Day with my mother, Lexan and I went to Maryland to visit my lady love. Well, Lexan spent 1.5 weeks at Grandma's house, going to swim camp in the morning and being spoiled in the afternoon. I took a delightful static trapeze class July 3rd, before heading to Ct. My brother stopped by on the actual Fourth and we went for a run. The next day, my mother took us to the train and we were off on another adventure. ( Read more... ) We went back to the aquarium briefly, so we got to see the awesome jellyfish exhibit, and then visited 2 of the ships in the harbor, the submarine Taney and the USS Constellation, before hopping on the train home.

Last week was tough: I had 5 productive days in a row, taking my shiny streak to 7, but I whined whined whined the whole way through. My Friday plans fell through when we couldn't get confirmation that there'd be a hardpoint at that night's party. Instead, I had an unusually frank conversation with my mum about my love life and then had dinner with Jane to discuss her ex-husband. My Saturday plans fell through too, which was sort of okay bc I got some things done - I finished sorting my 1100 Himalayan expedition photos - but it was more like an unproductive weekday than a weekend.

Sat night was the second of what is turning out to be 3 goodbye parties for MLev. ( best parting gift evuh )

My sister and I had both signed up for a brunch with Eric Danko talking about the situation in Israel. I had low expectations, particularly after seeing the crufty school where they were holding the breakfast - they didn't even serve lox! - but Danko had many interesting insights. I hadn't thought about how Qaddafi's fall would spread better tech through the region. He claimed that Hamas is now targeting Israeli children to break their will to fight (since it's not like the international media are going to post pictures of dead Israeli children). He also drew connections between internal Palestinian politics, Hamas' attacks on Israel, and why Abbas pursued recognition at the UN, which led to an interesting question about ICC and ICJ funding. He had some convoluted explanation about why Iran is dragging its heels on getting the bomb. All in all, I walked away even more convinced Israel can never win, it can only hope to survive one more day at a time.

Bbro was having brunch 2 blocks away with his gf and when the four of us got together, we discovered all four of us were poorly. oops.

Then it was off to the NY Public Library for their annual holiday open house. I've never been before, bc it's mostly for children, but this year my boyfriend and I went with his daughter. Honestly, it was more crowded than I expected. We waited on a slow line to make origami penguins and we had punch and cookies. What made it worthwhile was seeing Junior playing in the reference room, looking at books and getting excited about all the knowledge in the world. If we could spark a love of reading in her, it would be worth everything I've ever donated to that library.

Then we headed to Little Italy for dessert at Ferrara's and dinner at Il Fornaio with Jane. It's hard to believe we've never hung out in Little Italy together, although Julian claims it's bc we eat a lot of Italian food in NJ and he's nervous about bringing me to restaurants with so many carbs.

Monday morning, I had to get up ridiculously early for a breakfast sponsored by the alumni organization of one of my former employers. My ex-boss' competitor was speaking and after 9 months away, I had a very different perspective on things. It's going to be a great talking point when I see my former colleagues. It was also interesting to see how they still firmly push their exceptionalism to alumni.

Then I went to my eye doctor. Turns out when I tried to take out my contact lenses while drunk, I'd ripped one, which had given me a "huge conjunctival abrasion". It continued to hurt, a lot, for the rest of the day, but on the other hand, my eye doctor offered me contacts to put in immediately, so apparently it wasn't a big deal.

Spider, her boy, and I had tea that afternoon at the Pierre, my current favorite hotel tea in NYC. Monday was a much better weekend day than Saturday had been. When I got home, Julian was waiting for me in my lobby. Even though I hadn't finished my tasks for the day - I'd only picked up one contact that day and I hadn't applied for any jobs - he still gave me the sexual rewards I wanted. (I think he might have wanted them too.) Then we dressed for a variety night in Brooklyn. ( Picky Kate is picky but pleased ) it got late and it was time for Julian and I to head home for bresola and ziti leftovers.

This is going to sound crazy to anyone who's ever read this journal, but I think I've lost my sense of adventure. I often find myself thinking of pulling over the trapeze bar from a standstill, but yesterday morning, I thought about other trapeze moves, like the one where you swing around the rope -- and realized I don't want to do them. Then I thought about silks and realized I don't want to do drops. I like the strengthy parts of aerial, but I don't desire to do those moves more than I like the safety of standing on the ground. A few weeks ago I skipped a chance to ride rollercoasters and water slides bc I was scared of them and when I thought of them yesterday, I still am. StMac says it's bc I have more to lose these days. I've heard that exposure - alarm at heights - is cumulative over a lifetime; I feel like I burned out my ability to take risk. Also, I can have almost as much fun biking with Jon as anything else; why take risks? I used to need the risk to keep me focused on the task at hand, to distract me from my loneliness, but I'm not lonely any more.

I'm still leading rock climbing though bc my structural visualization need compels me. Just thinking about Darling Jon falling on my anchor last time we climbed freaks me the fuck out every time.

The last two times I've tried to go climbing with someone, they've bailed. Durr. Instead, Friday night I went to see X-Men: First Class. It was just as good as thewronghands said, which is pretty impressive. I love how they threw in so much fan service for even people who've only seen the movies. While the spoilers on her post didn't bother me, I wish I hadn't known ( spoiler ), bc I kept looking for it later in the movie. I liked how groovy the movie was, although my fave old guy claims it wasn't authentically period: there were so many little bits I liked, e.g. the party where the kids talk about their powers, or Raven meeting Charles for the first time, or Emma Frost just being slinky. I was amused to watch Mr. Tumnus macking on girls and it was very distracting trying to figure out who "Big Love" was.

I will get around to explaining the vegan thing... soon, but I will say that tapas are a near total fail, whereas Le Pain Quotidien is my new fave chain in NYC.

As one of the top 10 best meals of my life, Meatfest set a ridiculously high bar for future J&J events. This time, our cunning chef smoked everything in the house, from pork belly to ice cubes. There was bacon explosion and bacon ice cream and bacon apple pie, as usual. The short rib hamburgers were tasty, as were the lamb chops. I particularly liked the beet foam, the homemade bbq sauces (both the mustard and Kansas City styles), and the smoked romaine lettuce. Julian wasn't nearly as impressed with Lucky Charms ice cream as I was, but I thought its creaminess perfect. The salted caramel was in a different form factor than our host intended, but I was charmed that he thought of me in his menu planning.

Sun morning, I walked the Achilles Hope & Possibility race with doggie. He often has a posse for charity events, so I was surprised he was by himself. It was a total social win: I got to bend his ear for nearly two hours; he was distracted from his longest distance walked(?) since he developed MS; and it was healthier than dinner. And he likes my latest fiendish plot. Woohoo!

Sun afternoon was supposed to be productive, but I had a lack-of-food meltdown and then took a nap. bleh. I threw a fit when my mother told me we were having dinner at Petrossian; she suggested I could have a salad and the borscht. Turns out they make their borscht with chicken stock. Grr-awr. I had an egg cheat left, thank goodness, so I had the vegetarian risotto, which had a surprisingly complex flavor in addition to being creamy.

Zarkana is my favorite Cirque du Soleil show yet. ( better than Ovo )

I had a marvelous weekend, starting with dinner at Lupa. ( cut for those who hate food discussions )

Sat morning I went to that "Spartacus Challenge" class at NYSC that I'd been fretting about. It was ok. ( I wouldn't pay for it. )

Went to the farmer's market and bought too much food. There's a grass-fed beef vendor now, hurrah! Also went to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a hanger and somehow walked out with $52 worth of stuff I totally need, d'oh.

I've heard of Joshua Dean's classes at NY Trapeze School, but never found time in my schedule soon enough to sign up before they sold out. Wow. He managed to run a silks class ranging from someone who'd never done it before to my level: the n00bs did really cool things and I learned a few things. However, his trapeze class really took the cake. I have NEVER had a better trap class in my life and y'all know how much fun I had with C0. ( Read more... ) I'm very very thankful Joshua's going to be out of town for the summer so I won't be tempted to punt climbing for his classes. I'm also very thankful to the plans that kept me in the city this weekend and allowed me to sign up.

Part of the trick to having a foodie rep is great resources, like the friend who recommended Rye. ( Here there be food )

Sun morning, when I woke up, Spider's boy fetched us scones and clotted cream and we had a picnic before heading to Otto for his birthday brunch. YAAY! Everyone ordered their own food, but with 10 people, well, by the time the last person ordered, he said, "Has anyone ordered this yet? No? Ok, I'll have it then." :) And we all ended up eating family style anyhow. The green beans with onions were gratifyingly not so very onion-y. I lurved the "talley", which Godkitty called a bitter fuzzy navel, although it was made with campari, not bitters. The pizza with truffles, guanciale, and egg was a bit disappointing: the guanciale didn't read whereas the egg was yolky :(

LBro has been trying to buy me sunglasses for a while, but our schedules haven't lined up until yesterday afternoon. His dude at Sunglass Hut managed - on the second try! - to find an oversize pair that look good on me, although of course my sister looked twice as good when she tried them on at dinner. LBro had a good week at work so we stopped in at Intermix and Olive & Bette's (both horribly disappointing and say what you will about the Upper West, but our salesgirls try to help) and he bought a vest at RL. His part of town is so peaceful and we had coffee and a long conversation at Jack's before heading back to his place, where we watched Deadliest Warrior: Ninja vs. Spartan while waiting for the 'rents to arrive. I'm afraid we're never going to eat out again, bc it was too easy to order in and loll about LBro's couch. I did put my foot down and demand we order from somewhere besides Otto though. The other nice thing about my family is that the boys have to be at work early, so we went home at a reasonable hour and I slept for 8 hours. YAAY!

[Poll #1559644]

Trying to decide if I should go tonight - on the one hand, Barbara's awesome and lots of people I rarely see; on the other, potential for awkwardness with at least one person. And, somebody couldn't decide whether to run or lift this morning and thus did neither. I'm also feeling kinda gooey today too :(

I'm on the fence about P-salon, as I'm planning to go hear a CBO dude talk about health care reform *bangs head on desk* If I didn't have that, I'd totally be going to hear world-class paleontologists! at the AMNH! about T. Rex!! with alcohol!

Finally got details on the NYC Aerial Dance Festival. Sounds like fun times: I'm hoping to go on the 16th.

Today's Groupon is for boxing at the place upstairs from the Crossfit gym. I'm sorta tempted: it's not much money, boxing sounds physically challenging in the way I hate, and then I can be cool like Blerg and WINGMAN. On the other hand, I'm so overscheduled and I kinda hate how hard it is to schedule Groupons and if I did have time, I'd be taking lap dance lessons. I suppose I could've put that in the poll, but yeah.

Even the flight out was memorable: I ran into Igor at the airport and had a drink and a meatball at T5 with him and his party. Folks on the plane were rowdy when we boarded and one was even removed by the police. Fortunately I had ear plugs. And then EofB found me in the hotel lobby - I can't believe he recognized me, although as I write this, it dawns on me that I had a really large duffel - maybe most Vegas visiting-gals can't sling 30lbs over a shoulder?

I fearedthought the boys would be all business, but we had the buffet for breakfast on Fri - mmm.. smoked salmon and asparagus omelette - before heading to the cliffs. ( Friday climbing ) Just beautiful.

As we were walking out, EofB convinced the vegetarian that we should stop off at In-N-Out on our way to REI, where the leaders wanted to buy extra-large cams for the next day's climb. I ordered my usual (cheeseburger animal style, hamburger no onions, fries well done, and Neapolitan shake), then EofB said, "You're the expert, I'll have what you're having, and if I don't like it, you won't hear the end of it," and then the Alaskan did, and then the vegetarian did! Fuckers. ( dinner and REI )

We had breakfast in the room on Sat, milk and cereal that wasn't quite enough for me. I found the hike out to the cliffs challenging - it's nothing like climbing in the Gunks, where it's 30mins on a dirt road. Tunnel Vision is 6 pitches including a chimney-tunnel requiring a headlamp, so we left our packs at the base. It was on the non-sun side of the mountain, so it was colder, and it was windier than the day before, so I was wearing my new soft shell top and bottom; at the last minute I decided to wear my rain shell as well to cut the wind. ( Thank G-d ) There was nothing else we could do, so the vegetarian and I went back to the hotel where we ate roast beef sandwiches from the cooler and showered.

We got a call at 7:30am that the helicopter had landed and they were rappelling out. EofB walked in 3 hours later. We were so very glad to see him - but the three who'd spent the night on the ledge were really grouchy at us. The vegetarian and I shot each other looks, but somehow he managed to defuse things so that they'd let us buy them breakfast. We all pounded back a metric fuckton of food.

The vegetarian and I headed to the Bellagio's pool, which is gorgeous, possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I love Las Vegas bc I find the social engineering to be brilliant and fascinating. We came back, negotiated with EofB where to eat, and ended up at Craftsteak. I'll have to write that up on HnR bc this is way too long - suffice it to say, the boys ate a ridiculous amount of food and I merely ate too much. The vegetarian and I went to see Mystere, which was superb. It wasn't the most impressive Cirque du Soleil I've seen, but it had all the familiar elements, it had aerialists!, and it didn't have many things I dislike, like contortionists, although I could've done without the creepy baby. I've never seen a male-male handbalancing act before - good stuff!

Next day the two leaders took our one rope and re-climbed Tunnel Vision to retrieve our other rope. With nothing else to do, the rest of us went to the Bellagio pool for another soak. EofB and I dressed and tried to go to The Pink Taco, but mostly just walked around, rode the rollercoaster, and talked about calorie counting, working out, dating in Manhattan and Bozeman, manly men, cooking, and fighting. His eyes lit up when I commented there are so many places I want to go that aren't safe for a small female. In the meantime, he invited me to join his dad (who was the one who first introduced us) on a hike in Glacier in August, saying that if I go he won't have to and besides, then his dad can fly me back to Bozeman and we can hang out. Teehee!

The two leaders had no trouble with the rope and we all went for dinner at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. I'll save that one for HnR as well, but it did give EofB and I a chance to eat (and argue about) foie gras. Mmm. The boys started coming up with devious plots for me to stay and climb with them for two days, up to and including throwing a glass at a police car. We didn't implement any of their plans though and I hopped on a plane home. Alas.

( things I couldn't fit in to the narrative )

I returned the skorts yesterday. I haven't had a chance to see if the Nike store has anything cuter, but I decided they were too pricey to not adore. And maybe Hanukkah Harry will take me to Lululemon... It's the season for miracles: maybe something'd fit!

**

Thank you so much to everyone who had suggestions for the staycation/last minute vaca/anti-burnout. I'd forgotten how many fabulous things there are to do in my faaaabulous city. To wit:

• ICE has a 3-day class on Stocks, Soups, & Sauces and a 2-day class on working with dough. While both are basic skills I lack, I realized I'm just not excited about either.
  
• TSNY has classes that start earlier in the afternoon than I could ever make on a work day. Better, NYCAA is having a 6-day aerial workshop over the exact days I'm available.
  
• However, I hadn't considered what a perfect time this is to use the Groupon pass to Chelsea Piers. $69 for a climbing lesson and a week of taking swimmy classes. woohoo!! If only I could use their track as well, it'd be perfect. Unfortunately, I'm worried about being too sore from rock climbing to do aerial :( It's a very good problem.
  
• I know there are a bazillion restaurants that have great lunch deals in Manhattan. Unfortunately the one I most wanted to go to, L'Impero, has closed :( At the very least, I might go to one of Jean Georges' places.
  
• I have LISTS of books I want to read that they NY Public Library has in the closed stacks i.e. don't circulate. I could probably spend my entire vaca there.
  
• I still haven't spent enough time on the prehistoric animals floor of the AMNH to guide it, but after my most recent visit, I feel like I'm starting to grok its organization.
  
• The Met has "The Art of the Samurai" and "Velasquez Rediscovered". I *heart* Velasquez, but I'm not sure I'd go all the way across the Park to see his stuff. Um.
  
• FIT has "Night & Day", which sounds very generic, but interesting.
  
• I hope thewronghands will someday forgive me for seeing "Lost World of Old Europe", which sounds super-duper awesome.
  
• I checked the listings for the Frick, Guggenheim, MoMA, ICP, and NY Historical Society, but none of them had anything interesting and new :( Did I miss any major museums?

I sorta wish I was going to LA to climb at Joshua Tree and ambush friends at Disneyland on New Year's, but there's so much to do in Manhattan! Anyone want to join me for fabulous food, museuming, or the others?

With all of the above, I don't think I'll have time to tidy the apt, sort my photos, and backup my computer. Uh...

[Poll #1477958]

I'm dubious about the last question: yes he was wearing penguin boxers, but last time he made a comment about my bra being too padded and this time he noticed I was walking out his door without pantyhose, so obviously he notices these details.

I was supposed to write a whole post asking for input on a winter hobby, but yeah. In case you were curious, I was considering ice skating, pole, more sessions with the magic trainer, or working on corde lisse and developing an act for graydancer (nsfw)'s cabaret at Shi'con. ( more )

Apparently NYCAA has moved to Queens; while it's just one stop over, that's enough to make it virtually impossible for me to go after work until things resolve at work, and NY Trap School doesn't have classes late enough, so that's that :( NYCAA is having 2 day intensives Nov 14-15 and Dec 5-6; I can't go to the former bc of the rowing workshop, but I'll probably go to the latter. I'll be vastly amused to try trampoline with C0.

I'm even more bummed about the running thing bc of the signs around town this weekend. Even worse, my fantasy bf is leading a free run for Nike on Sat morning. WAAAAH! He's speaking tonight as well, but all that running talk will make me depressed.

I know even people with really bad plantar fasciitis are allowed to do yoga and biking and swimming, and it's not like I'm really in pain - there's a bit of inflammation and I'm afraid of making things much worse with too much activity - but I'm scared to bike or yoga :( Instead this morning I did five rounds of max rep pullups, 15 elevated pushups, and 20 v-ups. That'll have to do for now.

And now I have to tape my feet for the athletic endeavor of living in Manhattan.

Edit: and then I found out Bruce Wayne's wonder doc doesn't take Oxford. *grumbles* Back to the drawing board.

It was absolute heaven to get out of the terminal at MCO and be hit by a blast of heat. And then my parents picked me up in their rental car and gave me big kisses and hugs and drove me to Walt Disney World. Life doesn't get better than that.

Sat was Animal Kingdom and I had A Plan. ( the rides at AK )

I had five main objectives for this trip and the Festival of the Lion King and the afternoon parade at AK were two of them. FoTLK was even better than I remember and I freakin' listen to the soundtrack once a month. My mother loved the tumble monkeys and I have to agree. I love how the movements are about the choreography, not about showing the trick. They do so many things that integrate so many different styles, I can't imagine how anyone puts that together. Awesome.

I'm not sure if it's bc of where we were sitting, but I felt like the frame tale to the AK afternoon parade was cut off. Instead it became yet another chance to watch the characters go by. :-/

Then it was time for dinner. ( surprisingly good dinner at Sanaa )

I've been disappointed with Cirque du Soleil lately - Kooza was nice enough, but Alegria was just horrible - so I had relatively low expectations for La Nouba. I also deliberately didn't read anything about the show before we went to see it.

In a word, it was amazing. The whole show was the most surreal thing I'd ever seen, but in the good way: there were upside down bicycles and squares that magically revealed people. I never figured out what was going on, but it was cool whatever it was.

As for the tricks, well, when a gal doing a handstand on the head of a guy on a bicycle on a high wire isn't the most amazing thing you see, yeah. There was all the aerial I could hope for and I can't imagine anything more gorgeous than the combination of straps and silks they used. Surely angels don't fly with such grace. I always love (watching!) trampoline, but the finale, with people bouncing into a three story building, was out of control awesome. As we walked out, I said to my mother that not only was it the greatest show I've ever seen anywhere ever, but we have to go home immediately bc nothing could possibly top it. She didn't take me home though, which is good bc we had two more days with the Mouse.

Edit: I never buy the cd/dvd but I did as soon as we walked out and even just listening to it gives me chills of joy down my spine.