katestine | Entries tagged with nyc

Thursday was my best day of rock climbing this year. ( Black Fly, Nice 5.9 Climb, RMC, Jane ) By then we were quite beat, so he gave me a ride to the station and I read all the way home. It was a great day.

Friday morning, I woke up and decided I need to climb a mountain, bc summer is ending and I have nothing booked and no plans. I was debating between a 12-day alpine rock leading class in the Bugaboos, a 6-day alpine ice class, or a quickie up Rainier. Chose the last, largely bc with no training, it was the most do-able, but also bc my guide from the Himalayas would be there. Spent the rest of the day booking that. Fri night, I went to Ct and had dinner at the best bar in town.

Saturday morning, bc Jon and I were there, my mum had us clean the pool furniture to bring to my brother's new house. Cleaning with a son of Hestia is So. Hard. but he made lots of inappropriate funnies, so I forgave him. My brother's new place is huge and gorgeous. It turned out to be quite a party, even though really, the best parts of the day were playing in the pool with his daughter and watching my mother ride around in her granddaughter's Power Wheels car.

We came back to the city in just enough time to dress for the Living Social Glow-in-the-Dark 5K, the worst race I've ever "run". The course was barely marked and they didn't sort people by time, so with thousands running, it was more an obstacle course, especially in the dark. There were some cool light decorations on the course, but I'd never do this again unless I had an opportunity to get high first. Once we finished in Citi Field, there weren't enough bars/food stands open. Jon and I danced for a bit, which was fun, then we got something to eat and watched the monitors, before heading home.

I woke pretty early on Sunday, washed my hair one last time, and finished packing. I'd planned to pack only my expedition duffle, but with extra boots, clothes for a play party, etc. I ended up with a rolling carry-on as well. oops. Eventually Jon got me out the door and I rode the subway all the way to JFK. I was earlyish for my flight, which is a shame bc Delta's new T4 really isn't ready for prime time. Still, I had a nice lunch at Marcus Samuelsson's Uptown Brasserie, Swedish meatballs and a cocktail. My flight sat on the runway for 2 hours, which would have been more annoying if I wasn't sitting next to the former head sommelier at the Bellagio, who had stories.

TWH cheerfully picked me up at the airport and even though she's just finished moving and was leaving the country a few days later, was the absolute perfect hostess. She had things for me to eat at her house (even though we eat opposite things), she made me tea, she sent me home with almost as many books as I returned. It made me wish I'd visited her in Seattle sooner. She took me to Glow for cream cheese and raspberry stuffed French toast and then drove me to the car rental agency.

To be continued...

I wasted a lot of time in the preceding two weeks trying to get out of town for MLK weekend: it's been 5 years since I =didn't= go to NH for ice climbing and Mt. Washington that weekend. In the end, I probably got enough social-time, if not enough adventures.

Friday morning, I finished up my networking profile for its debut at Restaurant Week lunch with OperaBoss. The lunch was good: Esca remains one of my fave picks for RW because the price is lower than their usual and they include signature dishes in the RW menu. ( what I ate ) OperaBoss wanted to see Silver Linings Playbook and I'd blocked off the afternoon for being drunk, so we went. (I was not drunk.) The movie was tough at times and I desperately wanted to check my watch, but in the end, I agree with every good thing I've heard about the movie: it really is a love story for our times.

I'd changed into my pjs and was set for a quiet night in when I got a text from a sorority sister asking if I was up for happy hour in my neighborhood. She and I accidentally got back in touch 5-6 years ago and I'd randomly invited her to my party: we talked about her post b-school adventures and it should be interesting to see where life takes each of us.

Saturday was supposed to be a glorious full day of tidying so the cleaning lady could clean; while I did spend some time distracted by an Amazon sale, I have no fargin' clue where the rest of the day went. oops. By Sunday morning, I managed to open a pile of mail and get enough of the surfaces cleared for things to be thoroughly cleaned post-party. There was more than one task that I told the nice lady, "Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it" where she ignored me, asked how I wanted it done, and did it. I don't pay her enough.

My parents were in town for some G&S, so I had brunch with Bbro and his gf. We mostly talked about CrossFit (he tried it for the first time that morning) and Disney (he's going the same weekend as DOWF and can't understand why I won't cancel a trip to DC to go with him).

By the time I got dressed and tried to go for a run that night, Jon arrived, and wanted to go running too, which is good bc it was full dark by the time I got home and we were accosted by a EDP. *sighs*

Monday we had dim sum with Buzz Lightyear in Chinatown. Jon headed home. I'd planned to go home to prep for Tuesday's interview, but couldn't turn down a chance to see the Intrepid with a former Navy guy. Definitely more interesting than if I'd gone with OperaBoss. In the end, Tuesday's interview was a walkover, but that's whole 'nuther story.

Hurricane Sandy has really messed up my sense of what day of the week it is, which was already endangered by being unemployed. Monday was always scheduled as a recovery day from the marathon. Tuesday was a particularly pleasant weekend day, as I played Monopoly, ate chicken, and watched Chopped with my Manhattan siblings. Weds was spent in the car with a superb rope top and Midori. Thurs was sort of a work day, as I think Julian got something done, whereas when I asked him at the end of the day how many shinies he thought I'd earned, he said 30-45mins. *le sighs* Friday was a very alas typical pre-marathon day: I took care of a few miniscule annoying things, read some emails, worked out, didn't do the big important things. ugh. So yeah, while I'm sad I won't get to snuggle my bunny, exercise with my partner, or play a restrained game of Monopoly with Lucky, it's probably not crazy to have another week day.

The good thing about Sandy is that, if you're living in the lucky parts of Manhattan - where even the unlucky parts are better than third world places like the outer boros and the suburbs - the whole world is on pause at the same time as me. I tend to focus on the next tough thing in my schedule and ignore everything after: well, after the marathon, I have nothing planned for the rest of my life. Some day I will have a job again and some day my boyfriend will be free to make plans with me, but those feel about as real as Middle Earth.

After talking to Julian and cogitating, I realized the guiding principle for my post-marathon workouts is to work on things I'm not good at. Don't worry, I'll put my ponderings on actual workouts in a fitness filter-locked post. But the reason you're getting this post this morning is that I'm just so annoyed with how little I got done this week, despite having not only power and water, but people cooking all my meals and rubbing my feet. Some of it was not focusing on important things - my career coach and I haven't managed to meet in the past two weeks, but I still haven't finished my first set of assignments. Some of it is that I've been killing time (willpower?) in low utility pleasures like stupid iPhone games instead of high utility pleasures like tv or books. Admittedly some of it is that I've had headaches most of most days and a bug bite whose itchiness now covers half of one arm.

I think some of it is figuring out what's important. Like, despite being part of a large organization with corporate accountability, my career coach is turning out to be kinda flakey (like the rest) and anyway, talking about getting a job doesn't actually get me a job. I think some of it is better conservation of willpower/energy. For example, I look at how much logistics and planning went into not going to Brooklyn last night and I want to throw up at the inefficiency. I think some of it is not taking on high cost, low return open loops, like if I'm going to take on a prickly queer partner, zie better be the most kickass person I've met to date. Or not going after higher-hanging fruit bc one of my fave people commented that if I worked at it for 6 months, I could hit a level of achievement (and incidentally improve a gender imbalance that irks me). I believe the difference between people who have great success in their lives and those who get by is focus, which is picking the right targets and not wasting energy. I want to start being awesome at things that really matter.

Anyhow, it's not question month, but it is a time of transition, almost like the beginning of the year for me. I welcome your thoughts and advice.

I always sign up for whatever promo AmEx has for Restaurant Week, bc hey! maybe I'll earn a statement credit. Then it was the final week of RW(S)2012 and I still hadn't been anywhere.

One of my former cow orkers invited me to lunch in her work nabe downtown. I was hoping we'd go to Wall & Water, but she chose Les Halles Downtown. I'd been to the midtown location in June with my siblings and liked it very much. Alas, the RW menu was more French than steak. I thought it was funny ordering a chicken dish in an Anthony Bourdain restaurant. The chicken fricasee was fine, but I got bored eating. I ate half my almond cake before I decided that I didn't need any more empty calories. Ho-hum. Then I went to the Andaz for entirely too many gimlets, which is an entirely different story. I blame Julian for skipping coffee with me.

The next day, I went to Quality Meats w/my former manager. He'd been there before and was fine with it, thank goodness. I let the waiter talk me into diver scallops, which were delicious. I had the steak, which was just a steak, albeit served with a cherry sauce. My manager's shrimp sandwich looked yummy. My orange creamsicle dessert was delish and all in all, I'd go back bc I love all the food there and they don't skimp on RW, so anything they put on the RW menu is fine by me. I'd even go so far as to say it's nice not to have to choose.

Thursday I had a last minute lunch with Godkitty, who I later realized only accepted bc she wanted to see my hands. The only restaurants in our nabe that still had reservations were Ed's Chowder House and Boulud Sud. I wasn't very excited about the latter, bc I'd confused it with Epicerie Boulud *shakes a fist at Daniel B.* Turns out Boulud Sud is an extremely elegant restaurant, with service nearly as good as Le Bernardin (aka my fave restaurant in NYC). The menu was better than the one posted online. We both started with the eggplant veloute, which turned out to be a magnificent soup with layers of flavor. What is it with French restaurants that are secretly Moroccan? I don't remember what I had for entree, but the dessert was easily in my top 10 evuh: apricot strawberry entrement, with a layer of pistachio cake (tasted like pumpkin cake), apricot mousse, raspberry gelee, and a little piece of strawberry as decoration. It was the perfect combination of flavors. If I were in town for my next birthday, I'd be asking my brothers to take me there.

It may not have been lunch, but I'm glad Jon and I finally got to have one RW(S)2012 meal, bc it's how we started dating. EN Japanese Brasserie is another restaurant that doesn't skimp on their RW menu. Moreover, their set menus are the best thing about the place, bc they are curated and served with Japanese precision. I'm glad they start with the fresh, housemade tofu: even if you think you hate the stuff, you have to try theirs. They list what times each day they make it. Next were two chef-chosen appetizers: like my long-ago and sadly missed meal at Jack, they were things I wouldn't have chosen for myself and they were delish. Jon and I shared the lobster tempura and kobe steak, both of which were delish. I felt guilty for still being hungry and disturbing the order of things, but we had a trout carpaccio in a ponzu sauce. Their black cherry ice cream is what all cherries want to be when they grow up.

Not a RW meal, but I was looking for neighborhood restaurants in which to have lunch with an Internet friend. We ended up at Gina La Fornarina, which I always assumed was the pasta arm of Salumeria Rosi. Read: useless to a carnivore. Then I saw the speck & taleggio sandwich and I'm in love. Adult ham & cheese FTW!!

Current Mood: hungry

For the 17 years I've known him, the Musical Theatre Muffin has come to NYC for a week of seeing musicals. He's crammed 8 musicals in 5 days, although at some point I decided to see one every visit, bc he pays top dollar to see things that will get panned by critics. This year was a doozy. I was shocked at his appearance when I got to Becco: he was literally twitching. He's been suicidal and on antidepressents the entire time I've known him, but this time his bff took him to the hospital bc it was so bad. I'm still annoyed with him though for not telling me that tickets to Once are $157 each when he knows I'm unemployed. That the show is not very good is not his fault. The biggest problem is that in a musical about an amazing songwriter who can make people fall in love with him and give him money, his songs need to be better than the scene change music. oops. How did this thing win the Tony?

In contrast, I paid less than that for both tickets to see Liz Callaway's "Even Stephens" show at Town Hall. I've heard her CDs and I'd forgotten she sang the female leads in Anastasia and a few Disney cartoons, but I've never seen her perform. She had some cute anecdotes about being a working actress. The biggest surprise to me was seeing Jason Danieley in the songs she had him sing: he emotes far more than I remember after seeing him in Candide. Jon's favorite part was the parody song "Another Hundred Lyrics", which she executed magnificently. I didn't love her choice of songs for the Sondheim portion of the evening - I wonder if she's done this sort of thing so often that she's bored of his well-known (read good) songs - although I loved her Flaherty (& Ahrens) selections. While I regularly listen to Norm Lewis' "Go the Distance" while working out, hearing him sing Ragtime (he was the workshop lead) made it clear why they picked Stokes to bring it to Broadway. All in all, a wonderful night that validates why I stay on the Town Hall spam list.

Running past the people queued for Shakespeare in the Park tickets, knowing I was going to the cast party that night, was pretty cool. A lot cooler than, say, the new production of Into the Woods. When I saw Amy Adams is in it, I assumed it would be a sell-out hit. However, she plays the Baker's Wife - isn't Cinderella the bigger role? - and the role doesn't highlight her charm. She sounded tired in her first song. Donna Murphy is perfectly fine as the Witch - I don't know if it's part of the original show that the Witch is having them solve the curse now bc her ugliness is in imminent danger of becoming worse/permanent. I liked that Chip Zien (aka the original Baker) played the Mysterious Man. Really though, while it's a nice, high-budget production, I felt like the director didn't add anything, other than the innovation of having a boy as the Narrator. IMNSHO, not worth waiting all morning in the Park.

Jon and I spend a lot of time discussing the Broadway sound, how you can tell a song is from a musical. Super Sidekick: The Musical at FringeNYC is not a high-budget production, but it's got that sound in spades. It's a more friendly-to-children-than-adults tale combining the usual tropes with a certain cynicism about superheroes. The actors are enthusiastic and energetic and while the pace was a little slow, I didn't fall asleep like during Into the Woods.

I just signed up for the Coney Island Aquathlon and my boyfriend is currently swimming, so now's the time to post to LJ, right?

Anyone want to work out together next Monday, July 2? There's a program where all NY's city fitness facilities are free the first Monday of every month, under the BeFitNYC Free First Mondays. I have a NYSC membership, but the city has Olympic size pools, which are particularly good for training for open water swims. I'm inclined to go to John Jay, bc it's just an easy bus ride from my apt and has an 145' pool, although there's an argument for running to/from Lasker - it's about a mile from my apt and is Olympic-sized. That's just 22 laps to the mile! Then all I'd need is to rent a bike for 2 hours and I could bang out some Fitocracy quests (since I'm currently at a third of the number of pushups as my duel opponent).

I could also be talked into going to a different facility though, for the pleasure of good company. And if any of y'alls have a membership to the city's facilities, well, I might be getting one, since $150/year and I only have 2 other gym memberships.

I walked through Lincoln Center at matinee time earlier, to get from my therapist's office to the library, and was delighted to see all the old people in their nice clothes get off their buses and cross to the theater. It reminded me how awesome my city is, that people flock to it from all over.

I also ran some back-of-the-envelope numbers recently that confirmed that I should stop stressing about unimportant things and enjoy life. I can totally afford a road trip, if that's what I want.

Things I'd like (to do) this summer, in the order in which they occurred to me:

use my kayaking GroupOns
rapids somewhere in the Northeast, like the Esopus or the Delaware Water Gap
why didn't anyone tell me that Shakespeare in the Park is doing Into the Woods??
Once on this Island at Paper Mill, with someone who likes musicals
good lobster roll of goodly size, none of this hot dog bun nonsense. Girl gets hungry yo.
~~Southern bbq. Fried pickles are optional.~~
rum-based cocktail
a tasty drink or meal where a witty man tells me fascinating factoids about what we're consuming that would charm my pants off if that was ever in question
spend a day at the Met, preferably on a Friday so I can have drinks on the roof after
~~get dressed up for tea at the Four Seasons~~
bike somewhere
ride on a boat with someone I'm kissing
hike or climb somewhere that's not in the tri-state area. I'm thinking of going up to Rumney or North Conway right before the Boston Flea (which is in Portsmouth), bc after is a Liz Callaway performance with Jason Danieley et al. in NYC of Stephens Sondheim and Schwartz.
~~Gay & Lesbian Center Garden Party~~
see my girlfriend
see a fetish performance, preferably with suspension or aerial elements
take a flying trapeze class, or at least a static trapeze class
take a dance class at Broadway Dance Center
~~get eaten alive by mosquitoes~~ outdoor cultural performance, preferably with good eats (for me, not the mosquitoes)
watch a movie while cuddling
see my great aunt
wear a halter top
is it worth going out of state to see Dralion?
trivia night with a ringer and our respective partners, at a bar we like enough to drink at

You? What did I miss? What are you excited about this summer?

Edit: How did I forget Six Flags?!??!

Current Mood: grateful

This is mostly a note to myself that there are no really interesting exhibits at the Museum of Sex; the Museum of the City of NY (although I should go on one of their architectural walks someday, considering I went to one in HK); the NY Historical Society; MoMA; or the AMNH. I want to see the Weegee exhibit at ICP and there's a bunch of interesting exhibits at the Met, including ones on Byzantium & Islam, Schiaparelli & Prada, English silver, Bellini & Titian, and nude photography. What museums did I forget?

Also, what would I get a song written about, if a musicals&soundtracks composer would write me a song? I may be unemployed, but I'm planning to contribute to this Kickstarter, largely bc it's one way to ensure I get tickets to see

madbard's musical at the NY Fringe Festival. He's one of the funniest men on LJ and he writes musicals! As he puts it, it's a chance "to be a bona fide patron of the arts, like the Medicis? But without the syphilis and inbreeding?" And who doesn't want to be a Medici?

Also, after reading 3 Cecilia Tan (nsfw)-written or -edited books in the past month, this is a reminder to myself that if she ever does a charity thing again where she offers to write a short story, I need to ask for one about mermaids, or robots, or werefoxes, or tentacle monsters. Ahem.

Edit: It just dawned on me that I have 3/4 of a superhero costume that I should NOT wear to Super Sidekick: The Musical. Oh dear.

Friday was almost a 5 Thing day: I Oly-lifted for the first time in over a year; I went to work; and I had two separate primping appointments, one of which included a 2.3mi walk. Eep. My numbers for squats/bench/deadlift aren't bad, but I was still too sore to reach things on the ground on Monday. oops. Kristen gave me the same haircut as usual: it looks pretty when she styles it, and I got a lot of compliments from my cow orkers at Saturday's dinner (ok, most of them said, "You got it styled, didn't you?" bc they aren't used to seeing me with soft waves), but we'll see how it fares under my tender ministrations. I'd noted there was a kinky reading downtown and OperaBoss had a concert a mile from my apt, but instead I watched 2 episodes of Glee, wondering why I'd ever stopped watching.

Despite this, in what is starting to look like a trend, I got up in time to go skatng but didn't have enough cope when the time came. I gave myself permission to have a low-key day, but I still had things to do, like open mail and get a pedicure. Being positive, yes, I took a paper bag full of old papers and made enough space to cook an omelette with the pan Julian bought me. I relaxed and watched another episode of Glee. But I was late getting to the nail salons and had two huffy, nose-cutting incidents that left me frantically fumbling with nail polish in my bathroom when the party started *sighs*

Every year, a particular former cow orker throws an elaborate birthday party. This year, he didn't do assigned seats, so Evil English, K, and I had a table for ourselves and our dates. The mingling was fine, but I'm spoiled when it comes to wine pairings, and I didn't need to go to this party for date night. The best part of the night was the excuse to dress up: discussing with Julian how much cleavage is too much and discovering that Pongo gets a little light-headed when I wear high heels. YAAY!

I woke in time for skating Sunday morning, so I went. I'm so glad I did. ( in which my skating frustrations are validated, if not solved ) I did a bee-yew-tee-full two foot and one foot spin for him. Woohoo! And then it was time to go home and snuggle my bunny.

Sunday was a haze of vigorous sex, delicious homecooked breakfast better than any brunch I've had, and falling asleep in bed. At 4, my lover rolled over and declared he had to get some proper exercise. Some (myself included) would argue he got an awful lot of anaerobic cardio that day already, but he wanted to lift. We dressed and packed our bags for climbing -- only to get there and discover the gym was reset for a bouldering comp. Considering I could barely lift my legs, I wanted a rope for when I got tired. We tried to go to a sports bar, but they weren't even making food for pickup, so we found a fusion restaurant on our way home with a tv. I love that, for all his protests, Pongo is a high energy person who =wants= to do things that are, strictly speaking, exercise. I also think it's awesome having someone who makes a living explaining novel concepts to government employees explain his favorite (spectator) sports to me. Too bad I have no framework to tie his clear explanations to. Then we went home and I ranted about everything upsetting me before falling asleep on him for the eleventy-seventh time all weekend. Poor guy.

Lately I've been passing a lot of ads for museum exhibits that I totally want to see. I already went to the Lego exhibit at the Morris Museum, but here are the others:

Beyond Planet Earth at the AMNH closes in Aug; I missed my chance to go to a curator's talk and young patrons only showing with cocktails, but I'll bet the exhibit is good too. I suppose I could go on Jan 26 and play "space video games". Are they different than PvZ?
I'm definitely planning on going to AMNH SciCafe on Feb 1, despite bad prior experiences, bc zomg epidemiology! The following month sounds cool as well. I need to think about whether I'm going to their black tie dinner the next night though.
Fuck, Wylie Dufresne is speaking at the museum? The only question is, with which of my gents am I going to this?
Grr, it looks like I missed the Museum of Sex's Comic Stripped exhibit.
I should make it to the Brooklyn Museum before Hide/Seek closes at the Brooklyn Museum in mid-Feb. Portraiture + gender? Cool! I also want to see the exhibit about art of the American Twenties before it closes on Jan 29.
Speaking of portraits, I just saw that the Met has a Stieglitz exhibit through the end of Feb and Renaissance portraits through mid-March.
I almost bought that GroupOn for membership in the NY Historical Society. Yes, they're all limo liberals, but at least the current exhibit is only a little bit about slavery.

Did I miss anything awesome? Then again, I basically blew of the de Kooning exhibit at MoMA to shop at Saks, so yeah.

Edit: Oh wow. Eric Kandel is speaking at the NYPL on March 28 and E. O. Wilson is speaking on April 10? When did NY start being so cool?!?

I don't know how, or I'd replicate it, but somehow my brain suddenly clicked on again Friday morning. Sitting on the subway to work, I figured out the exact right present for Pongo's "birthday". Too bad it required me to go to the new REI in Soho, bc I was half an hour late for my date with Julian after I'd finished angsting about socks. We had nummy tapas at Graffit, site of our first one-on-one date and I still can't get over the difference 5! months makes. I never would've dreamed the lengths to which I'd go to hang out with Julian.

Afterward, we went to the Triad for the Rhinestone Follies. ( Maybe things were different in olden days )

Sat morning we had a delightful drive out to the 'burbs, where the ever efficient Jane had bagels and cream cheese waiting, along with two small children (and a dad). She also kept us close to schedule and got us out the door to go skating. I bet she won't do that again, bc while we were on the ice, she was counting down the minutes 'til we were done. Jane and Junior didn't remember as much as they thought - I would've been happy to teach Junior how to skate forwards, let alone backwards - but Lucky picked it up very quickly. I'm also displeased that my waltz jump, toe loop, and spins weren't as clean as I'd liked. ah well.

Next we went to the Morris Museum to check out the Lego sculptor's exhibit. They were ok. The adults really loved the room of brain teasers while the kids were excited about the trains. They did NOT have a room full of reptiles and apparently haven't in over a decade. oops.

Dinner was NJ style sloppy joes from Town Hall Deli and a homemade chocolate layer cake with raspberry filling. Basically, over the course of one weekend, Julian baked for each of my other lovers: the man is insane! The "birthday" gift went over exactly how I wanted, and the children seemed to like their little gifts as well. The adults sat at the table while the children ran around like maniacs and I realized for the first time that I am really truly an adult.

I was a zombie Sunday morning after downloading the new PvZ update the night before, but still went ice skating. ( it needs work )

I did 2 loads of laundry before the cleaning lady arrived, but my sister came with her and wanted breakfast. I'm glad I did, bc I learned a lot more about what's going on in her life - she's legitimately even more stressed about her career than I am and that's saying something. Unfortunately between that and a soft appointment for climbing, I was *le sighs* half an hour? late to meet Pongo at Brooklyn Boulders. We had a great night though: there were lots of routes I liked and climbed well and I totally got a 5.9 or two. There were excellent climbs on the negative walls. Also, Pongo totally understood when I said, "Please let me down. I can't climb anymore bc I'm hungry." We walked to his place and I nom nomed all his leftovers before I passed out on his bed. Don't you wish you could date someone as fun as me?

Current Mood: exhausted

My first skating lesson was eye opening. Freshly sharpened skates are always challenging and even though my mum told me I haven't figure skated since middle school, my brain was thoroughly convinced I could do all the things I used to do. Between thinking about skating and actually getting on the ice again, I found myself dreaming about the moves, remembering the preparation for a scratch spin, and even practicing the waltz jump. Then I got on the ice and fell trying to do backwards crossovers. *sighs*

The classes are awesome. The people are so friendly! I'd never believe I was in NYC if it weren't for the skyline. ( Read more... ) I feel like I have things to practice.

##

I'm still really annoyed that being away from climbing for 5 weeks, I couldn't climb anything over 5.7 at the gym. Grr. I'm going climbing this Saturday and I wanted to be bodacious the first time I went climbing with the kids and I think GMac will be horrified. *sighs*

##

I stopped by the mail room to pick up a package after this morning's lesson: my climbing shoes are back from the resoler. (Debating whether to wear the super cute, slightly aggressive purple ones or the super comfy green ones this weekend.) The polling station was set up, so I asked one of the workers, "There's an election today?" "Yes. For judges." "Oh, I don't have an opinion on that." I saw a few of her colleagues laughing as I walked to the elevator.

Thurs night, I went to see Cowboys & Aliens. It's pretty sad that I *heart* blockbusters and I target few of them -- and yet, I rarely actually make it to the theater to see them. Sad for Hollywood I guess. I liked it a lot: Daniel Craig is growing on me, Indy got more action than in the last Jones movie, and Olivia Wilde spent half the movie wet or nekkid. Woohoo! Someone will probably mock me for liking the script, but I like how all the guns on the wall went off by the end of the movie.

Fri night was the worst goodbye drinks I've ever been to. Neither of the bosses of the guest of honor that I knew showed up, the former bc he was still shell-shocked from being fired, the latter for unknown reasons, which was particularly odd bc one of his lieutenants organized the whole shebang. And not well, either, as BeerParc only serves beer, in a gimmicky way, and the riser-like bar doesn't allow large parties to mingle. Oh yeah, and even the GOH knew few of the people. Why he bothered to call it goodbye drinks is a mystery and I felt doubly bad that I'd dragged my antisocial boss. I left early and grabbed a smooch with friends downtown before hopping on the Worldwide bus to Alewife.

The folks running WW are much more relaxed - they had no trouble with my day of change to a later (albeit less full) bus - but the driver was inexperienced. I woke up once bc he'd stopped the bus bc the brakes were giving him trouble and once bc a section of 84 was closed and he didn't know how to take the backroads. And it was too cold. Grr. However, probably worth the inconvenience so as to get to Cambridge rather than Boston at 1:30am.

Sat was a perfect Kate-and-Dr. Froshling day. We had breakfast at Sofra Bakery, where I just picked 4 dishes for the two of us. The migas were horribly disappointing - it tasted like croutons w/eggs - but we liked the potato & chickpea dish, the spinach falafel, and that other thing we ordered.

visage got to laugh at me tasting the Turkish coffee bitters, which had far less caffeine than you'd think. (I'm a little scared of how much steady caffeine it now takes to keep me functional.) Best of all, I got to talk about books and music with the nerdiest couple I know, including stuff like mocking David Weber's new YA novel.

Afterward, we went climbing at MetroRock. I found their routes to be a little odd - I wonder if it's a function of being used to a different kind of rock than what they have locally. They also seem a little softer than what I'm used to: I grunted and hung the rope, but got to the top of their 9s and 10s. Their desk staff are so genial and their programs are so nice though, I would definitely go there if I were a local and as it is, I'm considering taking a Fri bus so Dr. Froshling and I can go to Rumney. We didn't have quite enough time to stop off at REI, so we went to Boston Burger and shared something involving horseradish before getting dressed for dinner.

Journeyman was everything I'd been promised, which is impressive considering we've been talking about going there since before the summer. Delicious, innovative, local tasting menu with charming pairings and very personalized service. I wish I could tell you something intelligent about what we ate beyond that, but yeah. I was very impressed with their charcuterie and their foie gras, which they served with blackberry? bleh. That's the problem with market-sourced menus. Anyhow, I'd highly recommend it for a nice meal out.

Sun morning I went to a highly informative, albeit extremely depressing breakfast with a former co-worker, who gave me the inside scoop on CaseusUrsine's perfidy and all the reasons why my life will suck even more come November, if I'm still employed. Why oh why didn't I have a mimosa or 3?? At least taking the bus from Boston was very comfortable, particularly on the MegaBus. I made it back just in time to have birthday dinner for Bbro, which left me oddly grouchy. I went home and was oddly, mildly productive, getting rid of 10 shoe boxes and putting some things away, which ought to have made me feel better. oh well.

Maybe it's just that I went to Secret Science Club on Weds, which always reminds me of Pleasure Salon, if the latter were about science and had a speaker, ( science rocks for realz ), but the journey to Adirondack Rock & River reminded me of going to Camp. I totally got out of work late bc while I had nothing to do at 5pm, I had a PT appt at 6 and then some work magically found its way to my desk while I was out grr. Caught the last bus (for a while) to New Paltz, where my long-suffering climbing mentor picked me up. It started raining, for which I would've had a fit if I were him, but he is more patient than I. He was shocked that I wanted to eat 8 BK sliders, even between the two of us, but that was dinner. We got to Rock & River by about 1, where the party was going full blast. In what would become a trend for the weekend, we were the last to arrive, to much rejoicing.

I felt less bad about my extremely late arrival bc we spent Fri morning hanging around the breakfast room at R&R while GMac took a conference call. Then we climbed ( classics. )

We stopped for Maker's Mark at the Ausable Inn. The bartender was funny and said it would be okay for me to drink mine on the rocks bc I'm a lady. Teehee. GMac teased me on the way out that the Marcy airfield was the perfect place to learn to drive, but then on our way back to the lodge, he turned in to the field. He said that being relaxed would help my first lesson in how to drive stick. I drove around the field several times and feel like I have a little feel for it and a vague idea of how it's supposed to work, but he's hella better at explaining top rope anchors than driving. I only stalled once, but really, I think I'll stick to airfields and empty parking lots for now.

RobO had organized catering for dinner and hanging out with 15 other climbers was fun. I had Stag's Leap with dinner and then I had Madeira on the porch. I've fallen in love with the Climber's Lodge at Rock & River. There's a geometric patterned staircase to the loft, but the centerpiece is a vast fireplace with a magnificent stone chimney. What a clever idea to build a chimney from stone - and leave enough space in the mortar for small fingers and cams! They even have top ropes permanently attached to anchors at the top, in case you didn't think they were serious. I climbed 3 routes in the back: I still don't have the cojones to try climbing the front while there's a fire in it. (And, the front doesn't really have handholds built in, though that didn't stop RobO or PYF from trying. They should know better at their age!)

Despite a late bedtime and a not late enough start, Sat was an awesome day of climbing. ( Apparently climbing is more fun with other people. ) All in all, it was the best climbing I've had since the accident and it reminded me that I'm pretty good at this stuff and why I like it.

I actually watched the storm clouds start moving in as I belayed him on the cliff, with the start of sunset on the horizon. Just gorgeous. Back at the lodge, we had sausage lasagna and garlic bread and birthday cake. GMac organized Adirondacks trivia with our three club officers as the contestants. I suggested the final question, asking them to tie knots behind their back while blindfolded. (I also contributed 2 blindfolds and one of the prizes.) Instant hilarity, especially as one of the cute girls in the club was passed out, but woke up only to see that bit, which confused the heck out of her. We finished off the Madeira and went to bed.

Most everyone left the next morning, but for $10pp, we decided to wait out the storm at the lodge. Good thing too, as our friends spent 12 hours in traffic, dodging flooded roads in the rain. Instead we went to town for lunch and dinner supplies. We stopped at the Mountaineer, but there were no bargains to be had at their garage sale. We were shopping in the main store when the owner said, "We're closing in 5 mins bc of the rain." We were probably the last customers ever at the garage sale annex. When we got back to the lodge, the power was already out and the bathtub had drained itself. *sighs* GMac and RobO had a blast climbing the chimney, mostly to open and close the skylights based on smokiness and how much water was getting in. GMac made me climb again as well, pointing out that I had a free, private climbing wall I wasn't using. I enjoyed hanging out with them, but zomg I need some alone time now. I took a nap and then RobO grilled the steak and lamb.

After dinner, he suggested we tell ghost stories, but no one knew any good ones, so instead, he suggested we tell about our biggest epic. I can't believe that in a crowd including someone with decades of mountaineering experience, our club chair, and a dedicated mountaineer like RobO, I had the worst epic, by far. ( You know what mine is. ) wtf. I'm doing something wrong. Also, GMac made me drink single malt. He's so mean.

We all quietly left at 6:15 the next morning. The drive back wasn't bad: as soon as we got into town, they had power and we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast. There were a few detours because 87 was closed from Harriman south, but we made it back to NYC a bit afternoon. The price of driving me to my apt was lunch so I took GMac to Salumeria Rosi, which I don't think he liked all that much, even though I ordered all sorts of nummy things and didn't steal all his wine. Then there was work and dealing with Mr. Grumpypants. Totally worth it.

If it's not LJ & the Russians, it's my computer not being able to handle 2 browsers AND McAfee dagnabbit. If I weren't leaving town Thurs night, I'd've bought a new computer already.

Fri was my manager's last day at work for 18 days¹, so things were frantic, even without my leaving an hour early. I left a half hour later than I wanted, which was a half hour later than Evil English recommended - but luckily I found an empty cab that just came back to duty and traffic was only moderate. I couldn't believe how uncrowded the airport was and how fast I got through security: where were all the weekend travelers? It's like a chunk of NYC/the Northeast just went away - I assume they're not all on extended vacations bc the market is so bad. I guess we'll see in the fall.

GMac is a very silly man and ( spews beta ) He'd been scouting our route for the past two days and since it's supposed to be the best alpine climb in the Northeast, he assumed if we couldn't get an alpine start, he decided we should take it easy the next morning and plan to be after the crowd had died down. Which is of course why we got to Whitney Gilman and found no one signed in. ( not a good start ) Ever since Grand Teton - not to mention the Red Rocks epic - I've been nervous about alpine climbs and I was afraid that this would happen. GMac has two decades of mountaineering experience, mostly in the Cascades, and has never hiked with me; he's also the best climbing buddy I have right now, so I particularly didn't want to disappoint him.

The real problem with Whitney Gilman is that it's what climbers call committing: ( described ) Apparently when we were off route in the boulder field, GMac had considered going to our second choice, an easier, less committing climb to our right, but decided he wanted me to bag the classic, he said with a kiss to my forehead. ARGH. Bc when we got to the base of Whitney Gilman, he decided he didn't like the looks of the weather - we'd hiked in under a hot sun, but when we got there, there were grey clouds and a single raindrop fell on his head. He said less (but still a little) about being worried that it took us 1.5 hours to get to the base; frankly, I think he was also worried about making the 5.7 crux at the very end of the climb, as he hasn't been out climbing as much as he wants. Anyhow, we ate our PB&J on a rock and then started walking down.

Alpine descents are the worst part of climbing, imho, even on the best of days and I'm still having trouble with my knee + ankle, so he had to wait for me often. Finally he offered to take the rope. In the club, the rule is, the leaders takes the rack, the seconds take the rope. However, weighting him and lightening me might make the walk out more copacetic, so I reluctantly ceded the rope. The pace got better and I was about to ask him how his ankle was doing - he'd twisted it a month ago in his AMGA single pitch instructor course, but seemed fully recovered - when with a yell, he was on his back on the ground. When I asked if he was all right, he said no, but he's always sarcastic... When I got to him, I was horrified to see his leg sandwiched between a rock and a stump, but apparently the offending boulder was the one he'd been standing on, which tumbled down the hill. He immediately popped four Motrin, I took the rope (and all his draws, so maybe a quarter of the rack), and he stumbled down the hill.

It's weird to me how the dynamic change, how my body responded. ( I'm better in emergencies ) I posted a picture on FB of his ankle when we got to the parking lot again, bc I've been twisting my ankle for 27 years and I've never seen such big lump in my life. On the other hand, he says that's the most epic thing that's ever happened to him on a climb.²

We went for a swim in the lake next to the parking lot. I thought it was freezing, but then, I think 79F is cold. We drove back to the room for showers and an Ace bandage. He iced his foot and we chatted with our Harley driving neighbors at the Econolodge. Dinner was mediocre steaks slathered in blue cheese at Gordie's and then we hopped in the jacuzzi before bed.

When I woke up, I asked GMac, "What time were we getting up again?" "Half an hour ago, but it's been raining since 4:30." He'd suggested we could go cragging - he could at least belay me, he kept saying.³⁴ Climbing in the rain sucks though. I think it says something about what a sweetheart he is that he was so worried that I'd had a bad time that he was willing to sit around belaying me and giving me beta, whereas I felt terrible that my weakness meant he'd been injured and was now unable to climb for who knows how long.⁵ Instead we went shopping, wherein GMac discovered I lose all track of time when contemplating gear. ( what I bought )

It was GMac's right ankle that was injured, so I drove 2/3rds of the way home. We hit moderate traffic, which seemed to upset him a lot, even though we hit the road just before noon. I did okay, with only one exclamation from him and a few grumbles when I'd ask him if I could switch lanes. He found it amusing to read to me from Cosmo as I drove; eventually I asked him a random question about his career, which led him to tell me about working for NASA in the early eighties, radio hijinks with the Russians in Sudan, and testifying in a patent litigation case. Maybe it's that this was my fourth weekend in a row to climb or maybe it's just bc he's had an interesting life, but I'd call this a pretty decent weekend.

( Footnotes )

Apparently I can be drunk but still feel ankle pain. Dammit. I was relaxing with a glass of Pedro Ximenez on Thurs night when I read something triggery on FB and switched to bourbon and emails from happier times. bleh. The only way out is through, etc.

I've mentioned the royal wedding party from Fri morning. Evil English served homemade scones and the like and I had a glass of prosecco and watched The Kiss (TM) and more importantly, saw the hat live.

Had a lovely lunch at Bar Americain, which I've concluded is my third or fourth favorite restaurant near work. I do like their sweet potato crusted chicken pot pie, although that seems to be the only unusual things I like on their menu. I don't think I had anything to drink...

After work, we had drinks for someone leaving the macro team: he's so popular, they made flyers with clip art and a photo from DWTS, even though he is just going to another group. *snorts* Anyhow, the Press Box at the Ink hotel has an incredible view: it's perched all the way on the west side, but at the edge of Hell's Kitchen, so there are no tall buildings to obscure the view of midtown. Gorgeous, although one of their drinks was enough to get me drunk. *le sighs*

I felt bad going to the Sephardi synagogue on CPW, as I've been promising the big guy all along that I'd check it out, but it IS the nearest synagogue. They're a bit more Orthodox or perhaps it's just the age of the building, but they really do have a balcony for the women. They have a gorgeous choir - at eye level with the women; is that normal? - but other than that, it wasn't really different from any other synagogue that I've attended. ( the service ) I had a thimble of wine for the kiddush before I headed to the farmer's market. I'd never cooked pollack before and if I remember, I never will again.

I'm honored Jane & Julian invited me to his vanilla birthday party at Lana Kai. I ended up being the only single person there and my idea of tiki wear is apparently more low cut than most, but I don't think our hostess minded. The food was good - couldn't stop eating the fried snapper. We headed to Brandy Library for the after-party. I'm always surprised at the least evidence of my doe-eyed wiles working on Manhattan doorkeepers. I had some sort of frou-frou bourbon-based drink, but after hearing

alanesq's exclamations over his Midleton very rare, I want to try that next time. The whole thing was almost 8 hours yet somehow I felt energized and happier afterward, even though I'm an introvert.

OperaBoss was kind enough to come all the way to the Upper West to visit me and so we went to Salumeria Rosi. I love that place, it's in my neighborhood, and yet I never go! 5 small plates was probably too many for two, but it was tasty, as was whatever I drank. The remainder of the evening wasn't all that productive, but no hangover!

It's been a little weird hearing the media talk about the Arab revolt while reading about T. E. Lawrence. I finished the first chapter of Hero before going to hear the author at the weirdest talk I've ever been to. It was sponsored by the NY Historical Society, but held at the Society for Ethical Culture bc the former's building is being renovated.

Michael Korda spoke for 15mins about Lawrence, basically rehashing the guy's life for anyone who hasn't read his book yet. After listening to him speak, I don't want to read the rest of his book, bc he's just a little too into Lawrence: he makes it sound like Lawrence was the main reason the British won WW1. The guy was interesting, in that swashbuckling, John Ringo-but-real way, but I want to read an account with perspective.

Then they brought out Henry Kissinger. WTF? ( the amusing bits )

I assume it's in the later parts of the book, but Korda claims that Feisal was willing to allow 5.5m Jews live in his new kingdom, which I find an intriguing idea. ( Everything's worse with Nazis ) I wonder how Nazi anti-semitic propaganda would've played if there'd been a larger Jewish population in Palestine: it's a little-discussed fact that the Nazis specifically targeted the Arab nations with this propaganda to weaken the British and I believe this is a root cause of many of our current problems in the Middle East.

Throughout the talk, Kissinger parried questions on his views of the current "Arab revolt" so deftly, I was reminded that the dude was a professional diplomat. Finally the moderator threw him a question he couldn't avoid. Kissinger commented that the Romans never mentioned a lick of trouble with the Arabs - until they rode into Byzantium, which Kissinger cites as evidence that the current "Arab Awakening" is just as missionary as all the other times they've awakened.

Now that the seal had been broken, he went on to talk about how Libya's current civil war, explaining it isn't a populist revolt, that it's a fight between Gaddafi and another faction. Which made me realize, oops we did it again. It seems to me the biggest problem with the US's foreign policy over the past 60 years is, drunk on our strength and our successes in the first half of the 20th century (and our do-gooder impulses), we keep getting involved in local matters where we have no fucking clue what's going on. Vietnam is a great example, as are our misadventures in South America. It seems to me that in Libya, we have a situation where not only should be not be there, but we're tackling it in the worst possible way. America Fuck Yeah.

##

Funny enough, Kissinger was mentioned in last night's talk. Parag Khanna was speaking about his new book, How to Run the World. He started by talking about how diplomacy is the way to make the world a better place, how NGOs are the solution. Apparently in his book he talks about targeted assassinations as a tool for improving the world; when the interviewer asked him who he'd knock off, he said the US should've killed Gaddafi at the beginning of the revolt and let some local group take the credit. I'm pretty sure Khanna is the most irresponsibly stupid person I've ever heard speak in public. Needless to say, I did not buy his book, although after discussing the Lawrence talk with my friend the historian, I wonder which book of Kissinger's I should start with.

Fri night was the best showtunes night we've had yet. Sing Sing on St. Marks has a broader selection than the place NY Mag recommended, although they have some eclectic choices: every song from Cinderella (presumably the R&H version) including the instrumental songs, but only one song from Into the Woods. Sna? More importantly, we had twice the usual crowd, which made it even more fun. It was extra nice getting to hear

roadnotes sing. My only complaint about Sing Sing is they don't serve hard liquor and singing distracts me from drinking, so I was close to sober after 4.5 hours. Weird, huh.

My doorman must've been so confused between my kissing Julian good night after they dropped me off at my apt - and my instructions to let TWH in a few hours later without calling me. She was so quiet coming in, I opened my eyes long enough to identify her and give her a hug before falling back in a deep sleep. I was too warm to sleep past 9, but I lack the words to describe how lucky - and loved - I felt when I looked around when I woke up.

A merry band of us went climbing at BKB that morning. They seemed to have more 5.6-5.7 this visit; I wonder if they'd set more kid-friendly stuff for their kids team. I like working through problems with friends and figuring out how things work, but it was also cool to work on a 5.9+ roof

novalis found. Made it to the top, but I'd like to climb it clean someday. There was a 5.9 on the overhanging wall that I couldn't quite get, bc there was a move where I had to reach up and grab something when I couldn't statically hold my weight in place. I need to practice those semi-dynamic moves; I may be just a social climber, but I'd still like to get better. Then we went for brunch at 4pm at Lobo and then tea at Tea Lounge, which was so very amusingly Brooklyn-y. We thought a lot about going to hear Rasputina at the Highline Ballroom, but I had a race the next morning.

"Climb to the Top" was the best organized race I've ever done, ( and here's why ) When I signed up for the race, based on my (running) road races, I'd assumed I'd be about at the median for my age & gender and in my application, told them I expected to come in at about 20mins. Reading the race materials the night before, I was worried when they said the average participant finishes in 30-40 mins. oops. They also claim that 66 flights of stairs is similar in effort to a 5K, which I generally run in about 27mins -- but in my (running) training log, I noted this race as roughly 0.75mi in equivalence. (66*10 /5280 *6, bc stairs are hard so maybe they are similar to a 10-min mile?)

I told TWH I was hoping to break 20mins: 10mins is a reasonably fast pace for me to do a lap of the 35 flights in my building (including the elevator down) and while I'd be excited on race day, I also wouldn't have the elevator as a break in the middle. She didn't quite say "with it or on it", but there was a dire, unspoken threat. I don't think that was why I did so well, but it turns out I did the 66 flights at Rock Ctr in 15 mins, coming in 25th out of the 207 female 30-somethings (and 236/1022 overall). This is an extraordinary finish for me. I wonder if it was bc most people don't train well for stairs events - I've actually been stair climbing regularly since last June? - or if it was bc stairs require more (bodyweight) strength or if it was a function of who is willing to commit to raising money for charity (as opposed to merely paying an entry fee). I'm vaguely tempted to take up stair climbing as my next sport though: at the very least, entering a race (and wanting to improve my time) is more likely to get me to do stairs than merely knowing I have some horrible mountain to climb.

After I got home, TWH and I had the best French toast evuh - it was so good, I was offering lap dances for bites of it - and then she got her heart rate up for the day. We went to Cafe Lalo, which had a dizzying number of things she could eat, and had a congenial conversation with thewrongbrother and his date before she headed home.

I ended things with Fulbright: the final deciding factor was Elana pointing out that even after I decided to stop dating, I've had chemistry. The first time I saw Fulbright, I thought, "That can't be the guy they're trying to introduce me to! He's too old." Never gonna get over that one. He apparently wasn't expecting it: when I asked him (on the phone), "Do you think we have potential as a romantic couple?" he asked, "Are you talking to me or someone else in the room?" I can't even imagine. It was incredibly awkward. oh well.

Thurs night, I went to a random women's networking event to which I was invited by a chick from the last MITEF event I went to, mostly bc it was a tasting (and discussion) of MarieBelle chocolate. ( Read more... )

I was grateful my father forced my mother to take me straight home from the train station this time and after hearing about last week's insomnia, I think my mum was glad too. She commented I had dark circles under my eyes and when I woke up (after 11 hours) the next day, she'd been telling her sister about it. *sighs* ( long chat ) Later in the weekend, she bought me a large bottle of melatonin, unasked - I gotta go read up to find out how that stuff works.

I was mostly home to see the orthodontist for a follow-up to his model building. Turns out my upper teeth are lovely, just about right - and the treatment for the lower teeth (which is what brought me to his office) might mess up the upper teeth. He's very conservative, he doesn't do Invisalign, and he thinks the enamel is too thin to strip enough off the lower teeth to give me a rounded arch. *sighs*

Spent the afternoon playing with my baby cousin. ( Read more... ) The best part of the day though was at dinner, when her mother started making the oysters and calamari talk to me: she's been sick for a while, so it was lovely to see her so animated. Got back too late to go out though and went straight to bed.

Sun I went to Race to the Ends of the Earth at the AMNH. I've been critical of most AMNH exhibits, but this one's terrific. It's a dramatic story and they use every trick to keep visitors of all ages engaged. I bet I learned more from this exhibit than if I read about the two guys. One thing that's been on my mind is that it's hard to give Scott credit when you know how badly it turned out: in a warm museum, it's easy to say, "well, duh, you didn't plan for enough food and in expedition planning, you need to maximize your window." If Amundsen had been unlucky, maybe we'd be mocking his single point of failure transportation. That said, there's a big difference between people who've been training for something their entire life vs. someone who fell into a job. I'm so glad Buzz Lightyear highly recommended it to me: I might not have gone otherwise.

Ironically, I went straight from the museum to Patagonia, to redeem a coupon I got at last week's AAC dinner. I mostly went bc I was curious what kind of bag they were giving out this year; they were out though, so they gave me one of these instead. I have too many plastic bag replacements as it is, but the blue is so pretty!! And I immediately took it to the farmer's market, where I bought mustard greens, lamb sausage, tomatoes, yogurt, black sea bass, and apple bread. I need to remember to never eat black sea bass again, bc it's got too many bones (even Esca couldn't get them all out). The mustard greens were way too pungent, in a bad way, and I could barely finish my salad.

Spent the rest of the night working on a photo book of my Cascades trip. Stayed up until 3 - and then was up until 11 on Monday to finish it, but I made it in time to redeem my GroupOn. I'm rather pleased with the result and can't wait to see the pictures in print.

Anyone interested in hitting Race to the Ends of the Earth on Sunday?

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Else what's a heaven for?

Alpine Stockholm Syndrome

A weekend at home

Sandy & Recovery

I appreciate the spectacular meals

A Summer's Worth of Musicals

No time like Monday to work on your beach body

Things I want to do this summer, an ongoing list

A helluva town

I should have stayed in bed all weekend

The museums know where to find me

New and Old Family Days (are both very busy)

Dancing comes before jumping

One Perfect Day in an Otherwise Flawed Weekend

Kate's Adirondacks Adventure

Maybe I'm the Jonah

The Weekend of Continuous Drinking and No Hangovers

Lawrence and the (second) Arab Revolt

The Bestest Fun in NYC

Potpourri

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