A Jumbo Tron

Almost forgot to blog today. I am so tired. Sundays are my hardest days -- church sucks up time and energy. Afterward I took Jane to a women's basketball game at LSU. She had to be DRAGGED to go, although it ended up being fun for her (I let her get Dippin Dots!). Tickets are affordable. Concessions are not!

They got a new jumbo-tron, and it's the largest video screen in college basketball, according to the program at least. Good grief it's massive. Jane got on it 3 times because she's so cute! (There weren't THAT many people there, and they put people on more often if they're dancing/hamming it up, which she and I did while waving a pom pom and her giant foam tiger paw.)

Good Mama-Jane outing.

Static But Moving

Two days in a row - Friday and Saturday - I walked all the way to the gym before realizing I didn't have my wallet (and therefore the ID needed to get into the gym) with me. Both were a direct result of having had my wallet in an actual purse the nights before -- going to "God of Carnage" on Thursday and the movie "Greenberg" on Friday.

Both times I turned my happy butt around, got the wallet, waved to the doormen (who really couldn't care less) and walked back to the gym for a standard workout. Not exactly a far piece to get to the gym, but still a bit of extra walking.

Hopefully that compensates me from no Easter exercise*. The gym was closed (seems random and NYU is about as secular a place as it gets), but I didn't even do any NYC style walking although the weather was perfecto for it.

Instead Shawn and I trekked uptown for church (is it wrong that I prefer worship when things aren't SO crowded?), rode a bus down Lex to Astor Place (luckily we didn't try a 5th Ave bus, since it would have detoured around the Easter Bonnet Parade!), had brunch and then lounged on the dirt-they-call-a-lawn in Washington Square Park. Seriously it stinks! And the renovations probably won't be complete before we move, so we'll have put up with all this construction for naught.

Despite the dirt, we had a pretty good lounge. Overhearing random conversations of hipster doofuses is a nice pastime, and I managed to read the Sunday Times and write most of a letter to Gran. Double score.

Now to finish that letter, prepare some dinner (FreshDirect delivery today ... possibly the thing I'll miss most about NYC? Definitely in the top 5) and get pumped for Butler v. Duke. We'll see how it rolls.

*Although we didn't work out on Easter Sunday we also did not partake in any Easter candy or treats. I asked Shawn if he was sad that I didn't make him an Easter basket with his faves (Reese's pieces) or my fave (Cadbury Creme Eggs). He said no -- the right answer.

Weirdness Waits

Correspondent to the crazies?

I got a letter yesterday -- to this address although the apartment was incorrect. Mysterious return address in Queens.

Reading the letter ... it's from someone at church. I can't tell if the church gave her my address (my checks have the old apartment number on them, so it's impossible for me to get them to understand I've moved because they base everything on the money, honey) or if she gave the letter to the church office to address (different ink and the handwriting looks a little different on the address itself, although I'm not entirely sure).

Whatever the case, the letter talks about Stillwater, Oklahoma, and begs me to call her. (My name and former church were listed in the bulletin when I transferred my membership ... and yes, I didn't transfer membership to either my Maryland or Virginia churches ... and I should have joined the NYC church sooner, but hindsight, 20-20 and all that.)

The letter asked to call between 1 pm and 5 pm "for reasons she would explain." So I tried around 2 pm and got a busy signal. Hit redial a few times, still busy. Had a bunch of work stuff crop up, on and on, but just before 5 I remembered to try again and the call went through.

She practically cried and still wasn't clear about what she wants from me other than to talk. I'm going to meet her before church on Sunday. Just what I need.

I have a feeling she's living in rehab or something because she talked about where she lives as the ghetto, not a nice place, but basically seemed to imply that she has a curfew and ... I don't know. It all seems very sketchy BUT I think meeting in the church can't be too bad and maybe she's just a lonely person who needs to talk. I seem to know another person like that ... (hello, my name is Mari and I'm terrible at making friends.)

Speaking of my ability to demolish seemingly strong friendships, I dreamed about Sage last night. It was so real and bizarre. I think it was prompted because we saw a woman with the EXACT same face as Sage at the NYU women's basketball games at Stevens.

That in itself (the championship game) was a lot of fun, but I seriously think we were were the ONLY two NYU fans there. There were a few other people from NYU but I think they were all members of the athletics department and therefore couldn't cheer/boo/whatever. We harassed the opposing fans (who were sitting all around us) ...

I have a seriously loud clap, the gym was otherwise quite and I would do a rhythmic clap during NYU's key defensive moments. That made the Stevens fans so upset and annoyed that they started doing it to NYU when Stevens was on defense. It's very effective. I guess my Big 12 cheering skills came in handy there. (And the NYU women won the game/tournament ... although it came down to luck I thought, since their defense was utter poo.)

So I'm a fan, but not a fan girl in that I can't bring myself to actually speak to the players/tell them good job or that I enjoyed watching them compete this year. So I do it semi-anonymously on a blog that they'll never read.

Go Violets!

A Violet Affair

The NYU Women's Basketball team didn't do as well as we hoped in the season, although I'm sure they're feeling it too. Anyway, they didn't make it in the NCAA D3 tournament and so are playing in some type of local tournament? They're seeded 6th, but will play in the championship game tomorrow. We went to the semi-final tonight because it was local -- in Hoboken, just a Path train ride away.

Getting there was easy ... empty car on the train that showed up right as we swiped our Metro cards. Finding the gym was a little trickier, but we had plenty of time and the 20-ish minute walk wasn't bad -- especially with views of the skyline across the Hudson. I don't think I'll ever tire of looking at that!

The game itself was a winner. The gym was quiet ... and actually smaller than the gym in Indiahoma, OK, where we played our knees out on the ridiculous cement-based floor. It was a neutral site, in that the other team was from a different school too. And there weren't too many fans. We were close up to the action and could actually hear the players talking to each other on the court, which was odd. NYU's gym isn't huge, but we sit near the back so we definitely are removed from the players! (I sometimes wonder if they recognize us like we recognize them ... like seeing them in the gym where some of them work, or if they even care about having fans/a following.)

We cheered with the best of them and the team pulled out a victory. BUT one of the team members wasn't suited up. And I can't figure out what happened to her/how she was injured (odd since I read all the summaries). AND another player wasn't there at all -- someone who had been doing really well. I can't find any news about that either. All I can think of is she is either sick or got kicked off the team, although that seems like even the bad student journalists at the NYU publications would figure that out and write about it. One would think.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up and apparently Hoboken celebrates all month long. It's been a while since I've seen so many drunk people all together. It was disconcerting, felt unsafe and awful. I'm not sure I'd ever be happy doing that, even though it's what you're supposed to do as a young, hip person. I'll just cling to my youth while I can. In the midst of green-clad kids we waited for the train back, ended up on the wrong platform because of poor signage and had to cross over. Got on the train, were very crowded by the people, but finally made it home.

An unexpected date night, and not really a "New Yorker" thing to do. But it was fun.

Go Violets!

The Look...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have many ruminations for this post. We just watched another loss ... the NYU women's last home game of the season. Possibly (probably?) the last we'll ever see. Such is life.

We're planning to take a brief shopping trip just for something to do. I have tomorrow OFF work so am most looking forward to sleeping in. Hopefully I'll be able to put thoughts together for an actual content-rich post tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Bedlammo!

How 'bout those Cowboys? WOW. My workout today went so much faster and easier because I was watching the first half of that game. Amazing! I guess that somewhat soothes the NYU women's team loss to Chicago last night.

I've got a lot of things done today -- errand types: bank, post office, drug store, gym. When I work out on the elliptical I usually read a magazine and listen to music. The number of magazine subscriptions I have is a little ridiculous, but of the ones I read I've started to find I enjoy the women's magazines targeted to families. Instead of Cosmo and Glamour I like Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping.

Here is an ad spread I found particularly funny ... and it was in Glamour - the one with Posh on the cover!

 

There's no way they don't go together, because they don't make sense without the other. I love it! It's the little things in my life.

Busted

At coles watching the women get their butts beat. Sad.

Via my iPod cuz Shawn has a log in.

Hatin on the refs and ready for this to be over.

Ice, Ice Baby

Beth took this picture and I stole it to post here ... looks a lot different from when we were swimming there over Labor Day!

The electricity is out in Indiahoma, but luckily Beth has power (and two days off school so far) so she was able to upload photos for my enjoyment! It's bitterly cold here, but no precipitation to speak of. We had beautiful snowfall on Thursday (?), and now just cold cold temperatures.

There's more basketball on TV than I can watch, but I'm enjoying what I can. We're also big NYU women's basketball fans (it's almost ridiculous how much I love that team), so it was great to watch them win last night.

However, it was "Tear it Up" night, which is when the university gives the students free food and T-shirts to lure them to an athletic event. It's kind of humiliating that it's the only reason the kids show up.

Even worse -- about 4 minutes left in the game and the entire student body stands up to line up for the free food. They had to stop the game because the students spilled onto the floor. I confess that I actually like it BETTER when there are fewer people in the stands -- easier to stretch out/be comfortable AND there aren't any entitled little butt wipes sitting behind us making snide comments about the irony that they, hipster doofus kings, are at a sporting event. Oh brother.

There's a game tomorrow that should be less crowded, and hopefully we can see the team earn another W. In the meantime I'm going to try to make progress on my crochet projects. Can't wait to share the finished products here!

Chore

Blogging today because it's my commitment. I have a headache from ... probably overstimulation.

I left this morning for church, then had to wait 45 minutes afterward before my faith class. At least it was the last one ... I enjoyed it, but it could have been run with a little more ... I don't even know what the word is. Would have been better with more people. Would have been better with ... on and on. But even so, it was good. But I'm also glad it's over.

Afterward I stopped by a little store next door to the church and found the red ribbons/bows I had been needing to complete my mystery crochet project. OH joy. Now assembly, photos and blogging can come this week before I leave for Thanksgiving.

The subway ride - EXPRESS for once - to the gym, where I worked out for nearly an hour (a full hour if you count stretching). On the way in I saw some of the basketball players. I was almost a out-there fan girl, but instead just kept on.

At this point I'd only eaten my breakfast bar so I was getting pretty hungry, but the movie I wanted to see was starting in about 30 minutes. I got my ticket, got in line, bought some popcorn and a diet coke ($12!!!) and got a seat in the 5th row (totally crowded). I could have pushed my way into some of the more choice seats, given I was just one person but I couldn't really be bothered.

I saw Precious. And now I feel so utterly ... depressed, I guess. I mean it's got a bit of a hopeful message, and it DOES make me feel grateful that my life has been nothing like her life (aside from a shared love of writing), but just ... sad that such things happen in our world. It's fictional, but you know that poverty like that exists, as does abuse and a whole host of horrible things.

Now I'm home, and although in principle I don't want to do any work, there is something that I didn't get done on Friday because I ran out of time before the basketball game. I also need to figure out a real meal -- probably hamburger patties and green beans, how original. Oh, and I should take some Advil.

That is all.

Fired Up

If blogging had been around when I was a basketball player I probably would have been kicked out of the conference. I'm way too excitable and ... just don't know that I would have been able to keep myself in check with sportsman-like conduct.

Tonight, however I am a spectator, and I'm all fired up about a team for which I have no vested interest other than the fact that my husband works at their university and we can see the home games as part of our gym membership.

I love basketball. LOVE it. And for whatever reason, I love this team.

The women played against a team who displayed poor sportsmanship but who were GOOD athletes. NYU displayed some amazing coaching, because their defensive strategy worked and the opponent's best players were effectively shut down (and then fouled out).

BUT with so many turnovers and shots not falling it was a wonder that they were able to pull it out, but they did. And it was a sight to see. Really fun times, but would be more fun if the crowd included more fans.

Aside from just cheering for the Violets (how great is that name?!) I was against this team even before seeing their foul attitudes on the court. In their season opener they beat another team 111-32. That's just ... excessive. And the way the coach was acting I have a feeling that he shows no mercy, even when mercy is called for.

It wasn't tonight, and the poor sports went down. But I'm certain they'll do better going forward, because even poor sports come out on top sometimes.

Violet Violence

The Violets won the first game of the Tip Off Tournament, so that's pretty good. It was frantic and sloppy play in a lot of cases, but it was fun. I think I like screaming even more than watching the sport. Now we've got some NBA ball on the tube.

The fans/crowd at the NYU games are sad and nonexistent. The women's team is pretty good, at least I think so, but no one really there to cheer them on. And those who are there are lackadaisical (yeay spell check) and quiet. I have to check myself because I'm probably one of the loudest there and I make a racket. Eeep!

Tomorrow Shawn will be on his way to a conference in Minnesota, but we have a few craft fairs to visit before he leaves. Hopefully we'll hit the gym too. (His flight is late in the day.) My church craft fair is tomorrow, and there's one in Union Square Park and Bryant Park (not sure that they're "craft" fairs but are definitely holiday affairs). A fair in Grand Central opens Monday, so maybe I'll find time to visit it before the Thanksgiving trip.

Time flies regardless of whether you're having fun, and November 2009 is certainly slipping through  my fingers.

AMLBO.

Three of Four

The third Faith Class session was today. It was a little rocky, in that we started late and then were booted from the regular room. But overall it was good. I'm definitely going to transfer my membership, something that I probably should have done as I moved from church to church. My current membership, on paper, is still in Stillwater. But since I left that town I've been somewhat invested in three other churches (UMD, Fairlington and now Park Avenue). So even though I may not be a member for long, I'll belong somewhere in the city. So there's that. Definitely a step I should have taken in year one of my tenure here in the NYC.

My faith class attendance and its over-time meant that I missed the kick off NYU women's basketball game, but Shawn was there and gave me a good report. I met him at the gym in time for the men's game, but we only stayed for the first half. I was hungry, tired and cranky, plus I'm completely out of work out socks ... so laundry was in order.

That's going right now. How exciting. I am really looking forward to the day that I don't have to share filthy (and I mean FILTHY) washing machines with a building full of people. When I don't have to pay $3 to wash and dry each load (sometimes more depending on which dryer you get stuck with). When I can do laundry every night without it seeming like a chore. When I don't have to wait for an off-peak time to avoid squabbles with neighbors over clothes, and when I don't have to RACE down there to be sure I move my laundry before another resident decides to remove it for me!

But I keep up the mantra "don't wish your life away." There's also some country song that plays on my Pandora ... about "you're gonna miss this." And to really live in the moment, relishing that's happening in your life NOW instead of always looking ahead to what's coming next. Good advice, but easier said than done.

One year ago today was our Waldorf-Astoria caper. Time really flies.

Last night's five-course meal at the French Culinary Institute was a lot of fun. I don't think I've ever eaten such fancy food. Kellie, Shawn's cousin, is a graduate of the school, and her birthday is this coming Wednesday. We made the invite list and got to hang with the cool kids, which was very fun. Also made me miss Kellie, even though we've never spent a lot of time together I always have a good time when we do! We'll see her again at Thanksgiving, which should be an interesting blow out for the family. And an interesting birthday celebration for me.

Turning 29 on Thanksgiving Day. I'm hoping to get to webcam with Owen and Beth at some point that day. I think our next plot should be to get Gran's house hooked up to wifi so we could webcam with her! That'll be the day.

I write blog posts in my head and always think of interesting prose and fun word play. On the subway, with the rocking rhythm of the cars rolling I have, what I think, are good ideas. And then when I'm here at the keyboard it just seems to be the same old "I did X, then Y. GRIPE GRIPE GRIPE." But bear with me as surely I can put together some useful posts at some point other than just this-is-my-life type drivel. But then I remember that at its core, my blog's main goal is to keep my family, friends and anyone else so inclined informed of our life on its surface, so I guess these posts have their place too. I just wish I could do a better job of note taking when my inspirational thoughts hit me.

Giving Thanks

This month my mom has been blogging daily about things for which she's thankful. I've tried to write gratitude journals but am usually less-than-committed to that. I really like the idea of it though.

One year when we were little we did a Thanksgiving tree in our bathroom. It's possible we did it more than one year, but it's a distinct memory. We cut out all these leaves from yellow, orange, brown and red construction paper. We taped a brown paper "trunk" to the hot water heater door, and then every day of November we wrote something we were thankful for on a leaf and taped them on the trunk.

I'm sure I was thankful for family, friends, books, my toys, the usual things a kid likes. I'm still thankful for all those things (I still have my Brownie bear and Heidi "My Child" doll). And I LOVE the idea of a Thanksgiving tree -- seeing the gratitudes "grow" before you.

Another thing I love about this time of year are the turkey hands. Tracing a hand and using the fingers as the feathers and the thumb as the turkey's head. And if we're ever blessed with children I like the idea of tracing their hands each year and building the turkey that way -- each year adding more "feathers" with the larger hand outline. I have all sorts of crazy ideas of the things I'd like to do with kids ... but I know I'll be lucky to just keep it together!

But today, specifically I am thankful for basketball with my husband, ridiculously warm weather in November, the joy of giving my crocheted works to the craft fair and a grande skim latte on a downtown bus ride after church.

Happy weekend.

They Named a Street After You

Just back from the voting place. An old man was pulling the "reset" lever between each voter, and when the other worker took my name said "They named a street after you." (There's a Walker Street downtown.) I just smiled and said, "Actually they named it after my husband. It's his name." Then the old guy kept talking to me but I couldn't understand a thing. Civic duty done though.

Last night's game was super fun. It was our first NBA game -- Knicks vs. New Orleans Hornets. Knicks won. We had trouble finding our seats, but we did just in time for the National Anthem. We took some pictures:

Mari at Madison Square Garden

 Shawn at Madison Square Garden

Shawn watching the City Dancers with the binoculars!

Final score: 117-111

I think we'll have to go back some time. It didn't last too long, which was good, and basketball is entertaining. I wonder if Owen would like a sporting event like this. We were very high up though, so that might not go over well. Mario Batali, a Food Network chef and NYC restaurant owner, was the most famous person there. All the other celebs were at the World Series I'm sure!

Until tomorrow...

H-O-R-S-E

For the first time Shawn beat me at Horse today. He was drilling shots left and right. We had a great time.

Now my back is killing. Hope it's better by the morning.

October Round Up

Shawn killed a HUGE mosquito today on the wall. It was FULL of my blood, judging by the mark it left and by the various bug bites on my body. Especially troubling are those on my elbow. Hope its friends go away and die soon, and that it wasn't infected with West Nile.

There was a flier in the basement saying "be careful" of the virus and it's been spotted in the West Village ... hard to do that when the windows in the building have no screens. A screen wouldn't work because the windows open out and you need access to be able to open them. I wonder if a weighted drape of screen-like material would do the trick.

Going to the gym every day is not a welcome ritual, but it is a ritual none-the-less. Today we got to see the men's basketball team working out. There are about 18 of them, and they're pretty good, at least against each other. They're all white. I have probably mentioned that before when we were watching them last year (only in double headers with the women's team).

Work is the same, which means there's plenty to report if I were to get into the habit of recording my reactions and thoughts about that. But we ALL know that's not in anyone's best interest, so for the time being Shawn is the sounding board and so it goes. I'll survive.

Lots of potentially fun things coming up. Shawn has a conference next week in Lubbock. I should have invited someone to come visit me over Halloween. The parade of crazies should be pretty fun -- especially since it's a Saturday night.

Shawn's cousin's birthday is in November (a couple weeks older than me), so we've been invited to her soiree (had to spell check that one). Shawn has another trip in mid-November and then we're off to Danville for Thanksgiving.

One week after we're back we'll be on our way to Miami for a week. I'm actually taking a week off from work! I haven't really done that since the wedding (and even then I'm not sure if I took a full week off because Memorial Day was involved). Shawn has a conference there and I'm tagging along. Then just a couple weeks after that and we'll be on our way to Oklahoma for Christmas.

We also checked out the NYU ticket website, and there are cheap Knicks tickets and a couple plays we'd like to go see, so we can certainly have a few date nights in the midst of the travel and excitement.

My crochet is trudging along. I've done about 12 snowflakes and stars for the upcoming church craft fair. I'm going to keep making them because I can't starch them (make them stiff so they can hang from Christmas trees) until it's a clear day (strict instructions from Gran on how to do that). I am almost finished with the green Tiramisu blanket, which I also plan to donate to the fair. It's a really pretty spring green and I'm left with excess yarn, so I'm trying to come up with a project for that. I think I might do a quick scarf, either as a gift or an additional donation. The fair is coming up quickly though, so I don't know if I'll have enough time to get another project done.

I also need to revisit my "wedding" bedspread. I think I've done five of the ~24 or so squares I need to make. Each one takes HOURS, and I haven't done one in probably a year. I'm also pretty sure that the one's I've done don't match each other exactly, so I'm not sure how hard it will be to piece them together. Crochet is flexible, but thread crochet is less so. The bedspread is something I definitely want to see finished. I guess the additional year in NYC gives me that much more time to shoot for having it done before we move into a real house. I won't beat myself up if it doesn't happen though. I'm always better at meeting my deadlines creating things for other people than creating things for myself.

The rain's really coming down today. Very soothing.

Bloody Sunday

My mom (or main reader of this humble blog) just told me she doesn't like negativity online. But this has been such a terrible day I can't help myself but chronicling it. I'll try to add some positives to balance it.

MTA hates me. Transit never fails to screw me up somehow. Last weekend it was the 4/5 running local, and me getting off a 6 train to church to wait for the express that never came, meaning I was late for church. I knew better this time, so Shawn and I got to church on time no problem.

The service itself was disjointed and long - over an hour and a half. There's a rotating cast of guest organists and this one played extra/delayed the start of the service, and the pastor got confused a couple times about the order of worship, causing some doubling back. Really pretty strange.

Positive - I think someone's prayers are being answered, as the pastor's sermons are getting better to me ... they're not as good as the pastor previously before her, but they're definitely delivering messages I need to hear. So that's something.

The trip back from church ... not so easy. We decided to save $ and take the bus home. We walked to 5th Avenue to take the direct bus, and get on. Of COURSE at 59th street the driver informs us no buses can go "up" 5th Avenue due to a parade. First of all, it's DOWN 5th Avenue. The only way you can go up it is to go against traffic, but I digress. We could have stayed on the bus and gone over to 7th Avenue, but then we would have been on the opposite side of 5th Ave. from our apartment, meaning we could find ourselves in the same situation we did during the gay pride parade. No thanks.

So we got off at 59th street and got on the subway there, no problem. But of course it's another $4.50 we wouldn't have paid had the bus just run normally. I guess the moral is to check MTA before EVERY SINGLE TRIP you make - no matter how often you make it.

A positive - the German family that was on the 6 with us to church was ALSO on our bus when we got out of church (they went to a museum - either the Guggenheim or the Met, we couldn't really tell). I thought that was a funny little coincidence.

Another positive - we went to the gym again today. I'm not feeling 100% but definitely well enough to shoot around. We did the same yesterday, just goofing off but also getting sweaty and working on our shots. Good times. It leaves me exhausted, but that's a good thing.

After watching the DVR'ed SNL from last night (meh, but better than last week's), I decided to turn on my laptop ... the dreaded black screen again. Not sure what's going on, but I'm making the executive decision that I need to toss this one and move on/buy myself a new, lighter purple laptop. (Purple is optional but desirable).

So, fire up the desktop and log on to my AOL mail. I've got about 50 messages from Facebook... Including several from "myself" ... meaning someone hacked my account and started posting advertising messages. Frantic, I change the password and go through a few other accounts (MySpace, Twitter) that have similar passwords to change them too. I hope I'm not forgetting any. But just really gets my blood pressure up and cranks me right out. UGH. And it started posting things on people's accounts that I haven't thought of in a long time. If someone did that to me I would probably de-friend them. So it's possible my already meager friend count will drop. I guess I'm OK with that. I think if I had my druthers I wouldn't really log onto FB all that much anyway.

Now I'm writing this and feel so ... yucky. Just ... I don't know. And add to the fact that work creeps into my mind constantly ... just things to do/things I wish I didn't have to do kind of stuff ... and the stress/excitement of our future makes me even crazier.

A final positive, although from yesterday, we went and saw "Whip It" ... Drew Barrymoore's directorial debut. VERY good. I love Kristen Wiig, like want-to-write-her-fan-letters love her, and the past two movies we've seen have her in them. (She's also a big reason why I watch SNL ... just kidding/just kidding/just kidding/just kidding.) Anyway, I loved Whip It, except for the blatant commercial I thought was subversively added - "You can never have too much eyeliner ... or Lash Blast" was a line in the movie. Lash Blast is Cover Girl's brand name for mascara and is shilled by Drew Barrymoore. I don't doubt that she got paid for that placement, but I still though it was weird. I wonder if there were others like that I missed. Oh, and it also REALLY made me want to move to Austin. Fingers and toes crossed that dreams can come true, but we'll see. I bet it also planted the idea of my friend Holly in my head (Holly of Austin fame), as I dreamed about her last night. Hrm.

Time to start making something to eat and try to talk myself off the ledge of digital fury. At least I checked it tonight and didn't have to be stressed out about it while also working. Right... Maybe some crocheting will help. (And Dexter!)

This is just a brain dump of anxiety. Pray for me, my sanity and my husband!

Folk Art

Thanks to a perfectly timed shared blog post, I found out today was the Smithsonian Museum Day - a lot of museums offer free admission. We picked the American Folk Art Museum, since we'd heard about it on Friday at a party.

It was a cool museum, what parts of it were open. There was even a Titanic replica in metal that was made around the time the ship was built (1912-1915). Admission was free even if you weren't with the Museum Day because most of the museum was closed for an installation (including the yarn section, which I just assume they must have ... based on the gift shop). Bummer in the summer, but it was something to do and getting out is always a good thing.

I got back from DC yesterday at about 6 pm, and we went directly to the aforementioned party. It was in a 34th floor apartment on 86th and 3rd. WOW the view south. I told Shawn if we could have a view like that it would almost make staying in NYC seem palatable. ALMOST.

The party was for a visiting lecturer and there were about 20 people in a very small living room without enough seats for everyone. As the evening progressed (pizza, wine and assorted nibblies), the room got increasingly hot and stuffy. After three days in the office, with travel, the event on Thursday and my general nature, I was chomping at the bit to leave after just over 2 hours standing talking to people.

Most of the guests were fascinating, easy to talk to and just nice. (I tend to like mathematicians, as you may have guessed.) There was also a guy who reminded me of Kahn from King of the Hill (ah, second Mike Judge-project mentioned in a week!) ... basically the guy was laughing at Shawn and me and trying to be sly about our "red neck" ways ... Perhaps it was just a cultural thing (he didn't say red neck, which is a signature of Kahn on the cartoon), and he is new in NYC/the department. But it was a bit off putting to be present for someone trying to belittle my beloved.

As we took off (my excuse and apologies to the hostess being centered on the truthful fact that I had been away and traveling all afternoon), we were invited to take a look at the view from the roof. So we went up there, where it was nice and cool. A crisp gorgeous night - we could see Staten Island it seemed. It was all so beautiful - and there was much more seating and a better temperature up there. I would have been able to stick it out longer if we'd been on the roof. Shawn and I spent a few minutes up there before taking the ride back downstairs and going back to our nest here in the Village.

I won't talk too much about work, other than to say it was a pretty good visit overall work wise. The event went well and I didn't come home on Friday to any urgent or upsetting emails. The ride home was MUCH better than the last one (after a crippling faux pas, which consumed my thoughts and still upsets me if I let myself dwell). I did have a coworker express feigned concern about me not getting out enough -- it was a really weird catty remark that I'm sure I took more seriously than it was intended. I feel worse about my close-knit lifestyle when having to try to explain it than actually living it, but there is some truth to the need for a more "normal" work lifestyle. Em to the eh. Meh.

Church and plasma donation tomorrow. (The last scheduled appointment had to be re-scheduled due to ... let's say technical difficulties on my part involving a trip to a Duane Reed walk-in clinic and a three-day course of cypro ... but I'm all good now.) Dexter starts tomorrow night - the first time we'll be able to watch the episodes as they're released. I also may spend some time working on my website and exploring the idea of transferring this blogspot blog to a self-hosted wordpress blog. Not sure if I have enough web storage on my site though, so we'll see if I get anywhere. I also need to get on the ball re: the IUMC website and such.

Shawn and I also played basketball earlier in the day, so I'm overwhelmingly exhausted now - a very nice feeling. Zzzzzzz.......

Happy Anniversary!

Go Magic!

Updates and photos from our anniversary day to come.

Good Ad: State Farm

> LeBron James dancing to Kid-N-Play

> McDreamy's voice over

>Good stuff!



I've got to say I laugh EVERY time this commercial comes on (and watching basketball, especially a Cav's game, it comes on a lot)!