Else what's a heaven for?

It's hard talking about our move 6 weeks later, because it worked out so well that I can barely remember why I was concerned about it. I'm even having trouble remembering why I hated the old apartment, even though it had a poor layout for a family, not enough rooms, not enough storage, and highway noise. The current place is still too small, with less storage (one less closet and smaller kitchen) and an extra flight of stairs, but it's 3 bedrooms further from the highway with a better layout. I think the biggest difference is that we never intended to stay in the old place long, especially after we discovered I was pregnant - I cried when we renewed our lease, but I couldn't contemplate moving with a 5 month old who didn't sleep through the night - whereas I could see staying in our current place for at least 3 years, maybe 5-6, which means we can buy Ikea furniture to organize it.

Jon's ex found this place for us, really. Which was actually one thing that made me more nervous about it than I might have been otherwise: she's clever in ways that my friends and family are not, which scares me because I know her incentives are different than mine, so I couldn't figure out her angle. It's two doors down from her place, with the exact same layout etc. as the apartment where she and Jon moved to Brooklyn when they left Manhattan. Moving here - and deciding to stay for several years - also forced me to accept that Brooklyn was not a temporary stop. I still don't have a single friend in Brooklyn, but I like the yoga studios and being able to see lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty when I run. (Ask me again in real winter when the sidewalks aren't shoveled.) I didn't like that Jon intended to buy the exact same Ikea furniture that he had in his old place with his ex, but we've compromised and gotten furniture that better suits our needs.

The move itself was also the most congenial least unpleasant I've ever had. Veteran Movers may or may not have given us a break on the move when they saw the baby, the military history books, and the climbing gear. Or it might be because they didn't need a truck, because we only moved half a block. 5 movers took 9 hours to pack AND hand carry all our things down one flight and up two. Funniest moment of the move was when one of the guys asked if my dad was a Marine, because he was sleeping on a bed frame with no mattress. Unfortunately, they were not very good at packing/moving: they didn't tape things shut, the boxes weren't packed tight (so they can't handle being piled on each other long without collapsing), and I haven't had the courage to unpack the silk rug my brother handcarried from India. Unpacking has been a bitch because many things were not labelled well. Still probably worth it.

The baby doesn't like being in his own room and my stepson still retreats to his mother's apartment for peace. There's still boxes in every room and I wonder if we'll ever able to entertain here. Still glad we moved.

There was the exact wrong weather for snowmaking, even if I'd been feeling perfect, so we punted our original idea for skiing this weekend. With nothing else planning, I suggested we check out the reform synagogue that Jon's ex and son attend. I really liked it, alas. ( nobody was skyclad ) This is not a shul for people who spent 9 years in a (nominally) Orthodox day school, but I recognize it is more likely to make the atheist and the agnostic in my family more comfortable, so.

We had to take the subway there, but it also happened to be near the new Hill Country, so lunch was all the bbq. Then we headed to the Museum of Math in Manhattan. Like that time the six of us went to the Morris Museum, I think the adults got more out of the puzzles than the child.

Sunday morning, I met Julian and his child at the Houdini "museum", where she acquired several new magic tricks/dvds before we headed... to MoMath. She's been there before, and is generally more patient/thoughtful, so we spent more time at the exhibits. I read through ALL the explanations of some of the exhibits, so e.g. my Harvard lawyer boyfriend made me explain the string calculator using no numbers or letters that aren't part of words. (His specifications.) Some of the explanations seem more like magic than math to me (I'm looking at you, tracks of Galileo, with your brachistochrone curve.) It's interesting to me that there are areas of my life where I don't care how it works: I'm pretty sure the sword trick at the museum wasn't actual magic, but I'm not sure I even want someone to explain how it works. Similarly, I'm willing to believe brachistochrone curves work, even if it's counterintuitive. I didn't realize until I got there how funny it was that I brought my new tessellated bag (and I still don't understand why there are so many tessellation exhibit at Mo' Math, except that they are visually striking.

I suggested we try Max Brenner for lunch. They claimed to have a 2hr wait and we wanted to go to The Strand anyhow, so we did. I haven't been there in over a decade and it kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies to look at books without reviews. Yes, there's serendipity to walking around a bookshop and it was much easier for a staff member to find a child-appropriate book of poetry than if we'd been looking, but I see no reason to go to a paper bookstore again.

Max Brenner was a zoo: it reminds me of eating at Serendipity 3 with all the noise and the hubbub. Julian and I shared an appetizer of fried corn croquettes and a Cubano sandwich made with waffles. Junior merely picked at her food and honestly, I think the best part was the samples of hazelnut and chocolate pecans they were handing out at the door.

I woke up at 7:30am on Monday and was all set to shower and head to my sister's place, but Jon was snuggly and then I woke up at 10:20. oops. When I finally got to her place, she was a little vexed that I hadn't made an appt at any of the dress shops. ( wedding dress shopping )

We had hibachi with my niece and her daddy and then I got to babysit while my brother drove to the city to pick up his wife. It was a really nice family visit, a chance to connect with my sister and to hear about what's going on with the others. It continued the next day, when my mother and I went to the gym and had lunch. We were talking about preparedness, which led me to finally ask her why her parents were caught so unprepared by the fall of Saigon, which led to some interesting anecdotes about her relationship with her parents and her grandfather's girlfriend. Which is probably more important than details about the wedding anyhow.

Sometimes I go back through old LJ entries and wonder why such-and-such event isn't mentioned. Turns out the problem is, I'm too busy experiencing/processing, I don't get around to writing about things until they are stale. The fortnight before Christmas was an incredibly productive? time for me, in which I figured out what I want, from a personal, short-term professional, and long-term professional perspective. I wish I could adequately thank all the clever and wonderful people who let me talk things through, who pointed out things I missed, who helped me clarify what's bothering me and what my best options are.

Last Tues, I took Pongo and Lucky to see Peter and the Starcatchers for Pongo's birthday. After Thanksgiving, it became important to me that celebrations include Lucky, so that he never feels like his father is choosing me over him. I knew many references in Starcatchers would go over his head, but I didn't realize quite how wordy it was: both Pongo and I strained to catch everything going past. Still, it's a cute panto-style telling of a Peter Pan origin tale. I'm not surprised it didn't catch on and is closing next month, but I'm glad we saw it.

Weds night, Jon and I had a quiet night in after the evening's phone interview. We started watching The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, which had been on my Netflix queue forever. Eventually I realized it was on my queue from that time in hs when I read a Vivien Leigh biography and we agreed it was too creepy, so we watched Roman Holiday instead. I think the cinematography was better in the former, but discussing Gregory Peck led us to re-watch that flash animation book report of To Kill a Mockingbird so.

Thurs night, Jon and I went to see Lincoln. I enjoyed it so much, I might see it again in the theater with Julian, bc it's so much of what we three like: wordy, clever, strategy, politics. It brought to life many of the points in Jay Winik's April 1865, although I felt like it was more about the Emancipation Proclamation or more about Thaddeus Stevens than Lincoln. I think they could've easily cut the last few scenes of the movies without losing any of the story, much as The King's Speech ended without telling us how World War 2 ended.

Fri was my all-too traditional pre-Christmas panic of presents and wrapping: I was 2 hours late getting to Ct, so I missed my chance to have Melting Pot with my mum. Oops. Instead Jon and I had a leisurely trip up to Vermont on Saturday morning, stopping by the Ben & Jerry's factory for ( all the ice cream )

We spent Sunday and half of Monday skiing at Mt. Snow. Somehow, there were few people on the mountain, even though it was a holiday week and snowing constantly, so I skied 16 runs the first day and 7 the second. I was a little frustrated last year in Canada that we only skied green circles, but Jon is getting better at skiing and enjoyed a mogul-y blue so much, we repeated it as our final run.

I'm used to coming to Vermont with my family, but Jon is not, so he planned all sorts of nice touches. ( what we ate )

Even though we used to road trip to Vermont when I was a kid, we'd never stopped at the Cabot Annex or Lake Champlain Chocolates. Somehow I sold Jon on both. ( mmm... dairy )

Christmas itself was better than expected, if lengthier. We were told to get to my aunt's by 7, but they hadn't started eating when we got there at 8. Bc we hadn't spent 2 hours snacking, we had more appetite for the Fairway-catered meal and Jon got to meet the last of my close relatives. Eventually we napped before getting called to the present opening. ( AAR )

Jon and I slept in on Tuesday, after getting back to my parents' house late and being locked out of our room. AISOT, we had lobster salad for snack on our way to my grandparents' for steak, on our way to the theater to see the first showing of Les Mis. ( grown-up theater muffin ) The best part though was holding Jon's hand, knowing I'd gotten everything my twenty years ago self could've asked for.

I was dubious about the hen trip to Miami. Like the trip to Russia/Kazahkstan, I assumed it wouldn't happen and then they bugged me to buy a plane ticket. It turned out to be wonderful. On Thursday, I wore a long-sleeve shirt to run and suffered. On Friday morning, I got off the plane, shed two layers so that I was wearing just a t-shirt, and whined I was too hot. I had a margarita the size of my head, burned my fingers trying to smoke a cigar on the balcony, and fascinated the vegetarian with my enthusiastic cracking and slurping of stone crab, king crab, and Maine lobster claws. And that was the first day.

Saturday, I and 3 of the girls went for a beach run in the blistering heat while Evil English did her hip stretches on the roof. Then we had lunch on the beach before heading to the spa. My massage was mediocre, but it was nice to lift and dally at the pool.

It was ever so much fun getting dressed with the other gals, letting them pick between my 2 shoes and 4 outfits. No one batted an eyelash at my anal bead-heeled stripper shoes, but they preferred my Elie Tahari gladiator sandals. Everyone (including the menfolk to whom I sent a picture) found that generic black dress my mum bought me at Marshalls sexy. Weird.

Before we went out that night, I'd been thinking that South Beach is the best vaca destination evuh. Then we paid $17 (sans tip) for cocktails at the Delano and they tried to get $50 from each of the hot chicas in our party to get into Mansion, a not particularly trendy club. Fortunately one of the girls knew some amazing social engineering and got us in for $15. I'm even more surprised by the cover considering the place was a sausage factory. They continued the game of Truth or Dare we'd been playing, and I was dared to bring over a pair of guys to our cluster. Turns out they were Swiss and very dull and I don't understand why a straightforward request from a sexy woman doesn't get a response. I have no game. Evil English was chatting with a Kiwi whose buddy came over to chat me up and I spent part of the night making out with him. Which horrified at least one of my friends, who tried to grab my hand and stop me. oops.

We talked it over the next morning in bed and when I quoted back a line from one of the girls earlier in the evening - "kissing doesn't count" - two of them said they'd kill their boyfriends for kissing another girl. Vanilla people are so inconsistent. We weren't quite as hungover as expected, so we went to the deli around the corner instead of Niki Beach. I will say, it's awfully nice to plan a quiet day when you know you'll have a hangover. We went for a bike ride along the ocean, I bought a new (Superman!) bikini, and I ran on the beach to finish a Fitocracy quest. At the airport I finally got my media noche, small consolation for having to wear pants again.

I need to be kinder to myself about my new schedule sapping my energy, but it was frustrating to watch Friday turn from a 4-thing day into a 2-thing day. I don't understand why a liquor store would open at 8am and close at 7, but I didn't get out the door in time for the former and the latter... well. Hit the gym for a very satisfying leg weights session: testosterone is so yummy. I'm doing 1L leg press negatives with 150lbs and over Thanksgiving, I impressed my college cousin with a pistol, well, until I fell over trying to do the other leg. ah well. Pongo came home not long after, looking dashing and bearing good news, and we fell asleep in each other's arms.

Under the circumstances, it's a miracle I made it to skating in the morning, but I'm so glad I did. Rusty was teaching again, but this time class was terrible. I couldn't seem to do anything right and Rusty never separated the less capable students, even though that's what ended up happening. I was pretty discouraged, but Sloan said something in the course of things about how sometimes you can get your axel and your double salchow, but not your double loop. Which meant she's a real figure skater. See, what I didn't realize before I signed up for these group lessons is that they only cover "movements in the field": if you want to jump or spin, you have to take private lessons. Which is irritating, but whatever. I was able to finagle Sloan for a private immediately after the lesson and we went back out on the ice. ( I learned a new jump! ) I love how encouraging Sloan is and I now have a lot to work on. I also like that I didn't feel pressured to sign up for lots of lessons, bc I'm not sure how I can fit them in, never mind the cost.

When I got home, Pongo was still abed and when I crawled in with him, kept taking my freezing appendages and sticking them on his warm body. How incredibly selfless, especially since he had to hear me continue to complain about the cold. I don't think I really warmed up until I put on my sweats a few hours later. I got so engrossed in downloading and sorting pics from my Galapagos trip, I barely remembered to eat and then it was time for Saturday night's party. The liquor store closed at 5!!! so I ended up bringing a bottle from my cellar and accidentally turned up too early for the party. It's interesting that our hosts have been throwing these parties so long, the crowd has separated into cliques.

I thought about bringing my laptop so I could sort more photos in the morning, but there was barely enough time to eat Jane & Julian's scrumptious brunch before the women headed off to our makeovers at Short Hills Saks. ( Read more... )

I got home and immediately got to work organizing photos for a calendar I'm making for my mum for Christmas Chanukah. While we were in the Galapagos, she commented that she liked my pictures than the postcards we could buy, bc she likes really large animal heads. I didn't have time to crop the photos as much as I'd've liked, but I'm very pleased with the result. A few things: Julian's remark about "you just need 12 photos" was a perfect example of how he cuts through whatever I'm making myself crazy about with a short statement that non-judgementally helps me getitdone. He's awesome.

Y'know what else is awesome? Lightroom. Thank y'all so much for suggesting it. I wish Lochai had suggested it all those years ago, when he was showing me tone curves, instead of saying, "This is for photo management. You don't need this, just buy Elements." ARGH NO. Reading the Scott Kelby book, I learned how Lightroom is just like iTunes when it comes to organization, so it took me <10 hours to sort almost a thousand pictures down to the 184 most interesting/best. On the one hand, I'm disappointed by how many photos came out so soft - my Lumix takes very fuzzy pictures and let's not even discuss the underwater shots - but Lightroom let me sort out the pictures that were interesting bc of the subject or were technically well done, directly send them to Shutterfly, and proceed from there. This project alone made it worth the $$ and maybe someday I'll learn how to develop photos well enough to make the time worthwhile. I stayed up past midnight but still caught the coupon; better, the calendar should arrive early Christmas week. I'm so amused by the little visual jokes I embedded - May is all baby birds; July is Sally Lightfoot crabs (for Cancer); my Harvard brother's birth month is covered in great and magnificent frigate birds (in scarlet) - that I printed one for myself. I was awfully yawny at work today, but it was worth it.

[Poll #1430111]

I'm almost done cheering for HRG, but maybe vol 4 will improve.

I read quite a few of the Star Wars expanded universe novels when I was younger and less discriminating. Even though I've never watched Doctor Who, a comment on James Nicoll's lj made me want to read one of the novels and the last recommendation I got from his lj worked out well, as I'll write about in a few weeks. The Laurell K. Hamilton Star Trek novel is gawdawful, one of the worst books I've ever read.

I hate when the back of the book blurb alone tells you how far out on the "Fiction Rule of Thumb" curve you are. *cries and decides that even reading tvtropes would be better* Oh look, there's an entry all about this phenomenon.

I assumed the NY Historical Society would be crowded on free Friday nights, bc the line at MoMA on free Fridays is around the block. Instead, there was no line - a nice man waved me in and told me the Grant & Lee exhibit was around the corner to my left - and there was only a moderate number of visitors at the exhibit, even though this was closing weekend. I'm only ever coming back to that museum on Fri nights! ( the exhibit itself )

I stayed up late Fri night to tidy the house for the cleaning lady and pack, then overslept and missed my train the next morning. *head-slap-forehead* So I missed parkour but picked up my glasses, had my boots shined, and picked up my leather jacket. I also ended up taking the Vamoose bus, which was cleaner than some airplanes I've been on, quieter, and more comfortable. I'm a fan and if they went into DC proper, I'd take them from now on.

I wonder how I never realized how cool my cousins are. She's had a gazillion hobbies, he's a medium distance runner. We had a great dinner at Zaytinya - the mezze were tasty, but the dessert was incredible. The chocolate visne came with three kinds of caramel - kalamata olive, orange, and one I can't remember. A bit of the olive caramel with a nibble of the milk chocolate cream made the olive flavor stand out in a way that was shocking and interesting. And the conversation was entertaining, like finding out all our mutual relatives are psycho morning people. Apparently her dad calls her on the weekends at 7am too! The only bad thing about my visit is I'm racking up a lot of giri with them and they are such phenomenal hosts I can never repay them: they woke up at 7am on a sunday to make me breakfast before gymnastics!

I'm glad I went to the Beast Skills seminar, bc now I know what it is. I think the problem was that he had too many students at too disparate levels: he had everything from someone who didn't know how to headstand to people who were handstand walking and free-handstand pushup-ing. I'm sure it worked better when he taught beginner and advanced versions. Alas, the former was me and I was irredeemably the dunce of the class. Not sure if things weren't working for me bc I hadn't slept well in two nights, incompatible teaching style, female physiology bones, or just the wrong sorts of strength, but I just plain sucked. ( what we did, or why my head is bruised )

All in all, I accomplished my goals of trying the headstand and muscle-up with supervision. Originally, I'd been planning to bring back some of his exercises to incorporate in my own workouts. There's value to doing more step-ups pistols, and I bet it would be good, once I'm done with the 100 pushups program, to do the hspu progression, but I'm not sure what value headstands and wannabe levers will add to my fitness. It's also made me question whether I really want to go to CrossFit Running Cert in 3 weeks - I'm not convinced the coaching will be any better and it's inconvenient/expensive to get to, on top of being a full weekend commitment and $600. I'd looked into running private coaching in the city, but most of them do treadmill stuff and I know I run differently on the treadmill vs. outside, and most of my running is outside if I can.

Spent a lovely afternoon with thewronghands. Our waiter at Gordon Biersch felt bad that they didn't have kobe sliders and brought me the beer cheddar soup, which I was too virtuous to order but wanted to try. It was absolutely amazing. Their fishwrap wasn't as fish taco-y as I'd hoped, but I loved that they had a mini dessert, which was exactly how much berry trifle I wanted. I felt bad for thewronghands that she had to deal with my sleep-deprived and hungry and physically tired (and consequently stupider than usual) self, but I had a lot of fun ;) It was exactly the socialness I needed.

'course, I was on the train home when I remembered why I wanted to go running this weekend. Next year I guess.

Fri night, we went to see Coraline 3D. Plenty of clever people have more insightful things to say about it, so I'll simply note it was cool to see a movie on opening day (instead of waiting until all my friends had seen it). I thought it was more Neil Gaiman than Stardust - but I liked Stardust better.

Sat, Clark Kent and I went to see the Seduction and Gothic: Dark Glamor exhibits at the museum at FIT. The former turned out to be "stuff women wore to look hot at various points in history", which was more interesting from a historic standpoint than a fetishizing clothes standpoint. Also, until this very moment, I couldn't figure out why he suggested we go to FIT, except that he was the one with whom I'd discussed re-enactors, which led to a discussion of slash. Ahem. Anyhow, I don't have enough brain cells for poly. Right. The Gothic exhibit was a mix of haute couture and goth/fetish-related clothes items, like a costume from Bram Stoker's Dracula. I'm so vastly amused to see Lip Service in the same exhibit as Alexander McQueen. Worth seeing if you've got the time - it's free and closes this weekend. For those of you not in the area, Valerie Steele, the curator, seems to be coming out with a book.

edit: forgot to mention - my favorite outfits from either exhibit were by Katy England. Black and white with just a hint of pink. Mmm...

It's been a long time since I made out in a cab. And then we [elided]. Not in the cab.

Sat night, bodyguard and I went to see Music in the Air at City Center. They have a series called Encores where they perform old musicals that aren't performed any more. Sometimes there's a reason for that. Music in the Air was one of those. ( Read more... )

Oddly enough, we went to the exact same place (Asbestos Wall) yesterday that we did four years ago when I first tried ice climbing. Not sure if it was bc the ice was softer, I was stronger, or sleeping on it helped me grok it better, but I sucked much less this time. ( Read more... ) I wore the smallest boots they had in stock (men's size 5), but I still felt my heels sliding up out of them. The guide pointed out that I wore thicker socks on Rainier, so next time I go climbing, I'll have to dig out my expedition socks, although part of me is tempted to buy my own boots.

Rockstar is weird shit yo. For some reason the vending machine at work has it. I could barely keep my eyes open on Friday, literally, which is the only reason I kept drinking it, but good L-rd, just one sip scared me and I took tiny sips all afternoon, terrified of that stuff. And then my pee was all funky, which at first made me think, "NOBODY could be that dehydrated," until I remember the vit. B thing.

Speaking of weird shit, I signed up for Shabbat dinner this week with the Yenta organization, and one of the boxes was, "Is there anyone you want to sit next to and cuddle?" Sna? Aren't y'all a bunch of rabbis?

In other news, it just dawned on me that my life is weird and incestuous in ways I couldn't even begin to explain to a co worker.