Final Saturday in the City

Probably not my last ever, as I intend to revisit this place when I can, but our last as true residents I'm sure. We'll be pulling out of here in the wee hours of next Saturday morning. Blurgh.

We couldn't have had better weather. There was very low humidity and the temps didn't get much higher than 80 F! Shawn woke me up early to tell me about tickets we could get to Race for this week (woo hoo, one last Broadway show!), so I went to the gym and then Morton Williams to stock up on Mud Truck coffee, although I can order it online from Baton Rouge after this stash runs out.

After I had a shower we went to a street festival nearby for lunch -- gotta love that $5 Thai combo special. YUM! Then we walked to the subway ... found the entrance we needed was closed ... and walked on up to 14th Street. The inconvenience was more tolerable because of the stunning weather.

We took the train to Grand Central and walked over to the UN. Despite having liquid (in the form of sunblock and Nalgenes full of water), we were able to get through security, check our bag and go the basement to mail postcards officially from non-U.S. soil. I wish we'd done it sooner because it was certainly an educational thing and probably would have been something our families would have liked. We did not do a tour - just mailed the cards and collected our bag.

We grabbed an M-15 bus; of course it had a broken speaker, so the driver announcing each stop was painful to the ears. We rode to South Ferry, the last stop, and hopped on the free ferry to Governor's Island.

So-Much-FUN. We rented bikes (I'll add pictures soon) and rode around the island, which gives views of the Statue of Liberty, Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. Very much worth the cost of the rental, and we got even more exercise to boot!

After returning our bikes and ferrying back to our home island, we walked back through the closing street festival for a necklace that I'd kept thinking about the entire day -- it's a little silver star. And it was still there! Shawn purchased it for me (huzzah, my husband has now bought me jewelry other than my wedding ring!) and we went on for our last sushi dinner at our favorite place.

Super exhausted, we got home and watched Young Frankenstein. It must have been funnier when it first came out! But it was good enough, and now Shawn's juggling, I'm computing and we're both avoiding packing. I think we need to get to it ... maybe tomorrow.

(More likely it will be a Thursday mad dash to get everything packed before the truck loaders show up at noon on Friday ... I certainly hope the weather is like this for that work, because then it would go quickly and painlessly!)

Edit: here's an image of the star necklace!

Seven Days, Seven Books

Books I read
Originally uploaded by silvermari

While on vacation I managed to read seven books. I would have read more, but there was limited access to NEW material. This was the only time I've wished for a Nook or Kindle or similar. Mostly I wished I'd packed more books. Anyway, highlights of what I read:

Little Altars Everywhere, by Rebecca Wells
This is set in Louisiana and is about a family named Walker. So of course I bought it! It's the book that comes before Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, which I'm sure I read when it was making it big, but I intend to re-read or at least re-watch the movie. Any recommendations for LA-themed movies or books would be welcomed. This one mentioned three books, and I'll look into procuring those when I'm down south.

No Lifeguard on Duty, by Janice Dickinson
I know of "the world's first supermodel" because of her judging on America's Next Top Model. This was about her life well before that, in that ANTM isn't even mentioned (I think it got a book of its own later). This was OK, but mostly felt sorry for her.

The Summons, by John Grisham
I think I read this in a day. Nothing special about this legal drama except there was very little involving a court case and in fact there wasn't even a scene that took place during a trial.

How I Write, Janet Evanovich, et al
Big text made this a really fast read, also it was in Q&A format. It has some good practical tips ... and HILARIOUS excerpts from Stephanie Plum books (honestly I should re-read the entire series). I don't know that I have any better idea of how to put together a story, but good reference and maybe once I have a story to tell I can apply those tips.

Dearly Devoted Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay
This was the lone book of interest in the stack of about 20 that were for sale in the ship's gift shop. Lucky me, it was the next I needed to read in the series. I love Dexter, and although I enjoy the direction that the Showtime series has taken the characters more than the original books, I do like the books and they're tense and fun reads.

The Turing Option
This was one of Shawn's books. It came to that. He thought I wouldn't like this one, but I was desperate. It wasn't too bad, but just sci fi stuff from the 80s (?) that had funny projections about the future (120 MB would be more than enough memory to run a human brain, etc.!). It left a lot of things unanswered and wasn't well written or tight from that aspect, but better than twiddling my thumbs.

Neuromancer
Uh ... this was the one I didn't understand AT ALL. I finished it in New York, the day after we got back. It was another sci fi novel. It apparently was revolutionary because of its imagery. I just didn't get it, but again, better than twiddling my thumbs.

No TV allowed me lots of time to read before bed, plus there was plenty of waiting time in lines, before shows, etc. And of course I was able to read on deck, on the beach and so forth.

Video: International Juggler

Shawn, International Juggler from Mari on Vimeo.

I meant to take video of Shawn juggling on every beach ... but I didn't remember until Jamaica, our last port! But rest assured that he juggled in our cabin all along the way. He's getting quite good and can do tricks to amaze and defy gravity! This video is just a standard juggle, I think.

This is the Ocean

This is the Ocean from Mari on Vimeo.

A panoramic view from our deck.

It's Bananas - B-A-N-A-N-A-S

I can’t believe I didn’t mention this before. When we get to the New York airport, we’ve got plenty of cushion time. We’re nothing if not early birds when it comes to air travel. Anyway, Shawn took our big suitcase (remember the water) to check, and I stay put with the small carry-ons.

It’s super early – pre-6 a.m. – but everyone who walks in the doors looks around at the crowds in a panic, wide eyes and hearts beating too quickly. Eyes dart, looking for escape, or at least the shortest line. Eventually that leads to acceptance, and they trudge in line like everyone else. But the panicked faces continue to flow into the terminal. And I just stood there and watched, fretting as more and more time ticked off the clock (what a way to start a vacation, right?)

After about 30 minutes of that (i.e. how inefficient can American’s check in system be? VERY!), a group of 20-something girls comes through, and they each have small rollers. There’s something stuck underneath one. It’s small and white-ish, and it’s hard to tell what it is. I thought she’d dropped something and I was going to tell her, but then her suitcase rolled over it and it was obvious – AN UNPEELED BANANA.

Seeing as how I had no paper towels and no way to navigate with two rollers anyway, I just stood there and watched as people smashed it, slipped on it and wheeled through it. It got caught underneath a few suitcases as well, until finally a cleaner happened by and wiped it up. Nobody fell, thank goodness, but it was still ridiculous.

Butch, our cruise director, told us to look for those “once in a lifetime experiences.” I’d say seeing an unpeeled banana act interrupt the day of dozens of travelers is something I’ll only see once in my lifetime!

State Room Video

Cruise 2010 Cabin Video from Mari on Vimeo.

This is the video of our cabin on the Carnival Liberty cruise. I mistakenly say the bed is smaller than ours, when in fact it is larger -- two twins together make a king, and at home we have a queen. I realized it a few days later but was too lazy to reshoot this clip. Enjoy!

Edit: Also, our stateroom was 8352 (in case I ever need to know that)

Bittersweet

Last day working from home, at least for now. I just carted the two computers, monitor and phone, plus assorted cords, to FedEx. After a somewhat harrowing walk with my granny cart loaded down with more than 50 pounds of equipment, it took more than an hour to get everything shipped, mostly due to the incompetence of the employees working there. I guess you can't expect much more than that.

What's done is done, and although I didn't find out how much shipping was (i.e. no way to make a judgment call as to whether it actually made SENSE to ship everything vs. recycling it), too late now and hopefully I won't get in trouble. What are they going to do, fire me? Badum-dum-shee.

I didn't expect to feel quite so sad, or feel so empty when looking at the big expanse of my desk. It's dirty and there's still my printer, laptop, speakers, keyboard and external hard drive. But it's not the same. My life will never be the same.

For this I am happy, and excited. But at the same time I'm beyond scared and certainly sad to say goodbye to the way of life I've known for so long -- four years working, with nearly two and a half from my NYC apartment.

Shawn is my constant, my bliss which I follow. So I can't feel entirely bad.

I have started packing some things -- had to do some today to make way to get all the computer stuff together. But I've got a long way to go and many boxes to fill. I have a feeling my goodbye to the city will involve more packing and less touring, but maybe we can take a break tomorrow for a jaunt to governor's island and/or the UN. There is some shopping to do and a few museums I'd still like to see/revisit. I just don't know that there's time.

Screaming Banshee

Or actually a dinosaur ... but don't worry. It's just a costume!

Last webcamming session from NYC in all likelihood. *tears*

Traveling Woman

Oh geez. I am the world's worst traveler. Like I mentioned, it's the anticipation that gets me. The packing, the pre-worrying about the lines, missing connections, etc. And I've just had my share of travel ... and it continues! Some samples of recent hiccups:

In the taxi in Miami, en route to the cruise ship. The driver feels the need to tell us that we would have much more fun if we were going with more people on the trip, i.e. take some friends next time. I'm seething, mostly because I don't think that's an appropriate thing for him to say to us. It felt all around rude and judgy. And besides, who takes friends on a honeymoon cruise? ARGH!

Will be mentioned in cruise-related posts, but we had a bit of stress involved in getting on/off the boat and taking part in our excursions. We carefully planned everything in advance only to have times change on some of the excursions and/or the time we were in port be shorter than expected. Basically we missed one (but got a refund) and missed some shopping because I was too stressed to take a chance to walk over to the shopping center before getting in the giant line to re-board the ship.

In the Miami airport, we are five-ish hours early, because Carnival never gave specific information about debarkation or when we could expect to be off the ship. We certainly didn't want to schedule a flight before we could get to the airport, so we had hedged our bets and chosen an early afternoon flight.

As we're checking in, a woman comes up from behind and rolls her GINORMOUS suitcase into my foot and leg. I instinctively scream and she looks at me with disdain and sidles up to her screen without so much of an acknowledgment of what she had done. I'm left with a small scrape on my ankle and a giant bruise on my calf. Charming.

We check in our bag, only to realize that we could have tried for an early flight. If we got on an earlier flight now our bag wouldn't make it until much later, so we'd just be hanging out at the NYC airport instead of the Miami one.

And travel continues -- on Monday I'm taking a trip for job hunting purposes. It was certainly not in my plans, but you never know what's going to be thrown in your path. And I'm going to do my best to stay positive and turn things into a good situation for me. If nothing else, this will be amazing experience and help me become more employable. I can learn from any missteps and practice public speaking (!) and general interview techniques.

I know I prayed for employment, but I forgot to mention that I'd like it to come a couple weeks after we moved so I could get our apartment settled!

Quick Cruising

For whatever reason I'm not feeling like writing. A lot of things are going on, and I'm feeling pulled in a hundred directions. In reality I just have to slow down, enjoy the time I have left and deal with the rest, including snatches of time in the city I'll never get back. Be careful what you wish and pray for, because getting them can impact your other plans!

But onto the cruise ... Overall a good time, but in hindsight I wished we'd stayed longer in the ports and had fewer "fun days at sea" on the ship.

We weren't as impressed with the food as we thought we might be. Also the "golden dining room" was pretentious ... and unnecessarily so, especially since nearly ever surface was painted gold -- and clearly paint. Yikes. We did eat breakfast in the silver dining room one morning, and although it was a little less tacky, we mostly stuck with the buffet. I will say this that there was always a lot of food, but I wouldn't say it was very good quality -- except the fruit, and I did like the coffee OK.

The shows were pretty good. At first I was unimpressed because the dancers weren't an par with what I've seen on Broadway. But as the cruise progressed I realized -- we're on a moving ship! So it is probably a lot more difficult to hit your marks when they're moving. So I appreciated their work much more after that realization!

The first night's welcome show was overly hokey though. F-U-N was the name of the game, i.e. that's the Carnival tagline and almost everything includes the word (Fun Ship, Fun Times, etc.). Anyway, the medley of songs HAD to be the result of a Google search for "songs with fun" -- everything from "All I wanna do" to "Girls just wanna" ... But otherwise the variety song shows were good. I especially liked the Around the World one -- the Irish and French dance sets were especially fun to watch. All together their sets and costumes were flashy and over the top. But I guess they want people to think they're getting what they pay for!

One night there was a juggling show, which was right up Shawn's alley. The two jugglers, The Village Idiots, were from Oklahoma! They also had a juggling workshop the next afternoon.

I posted photos on Flickr (click thru for a few captions and the photo titles). I plan to write posts about each port and a post about ways things could be improved to suit me (although again I'm not the target demographic, some of these are no brainers). I'll also read through the journal/notes I kept of the trip and share some snippets that make most sense. Until then...

Equilibrium

Oddly I still feel like I'm on the ship -- a bit of rocking motion. Maybe just feeling slightly dizzy or perhaps an inner ear issue. I do know that I'm still tired from the travel and commotion of it all. Otherwise, headlines are: we did not get sea sick and we did not get sunburned (although Shawn's shoulders got red in Cozumel). We had a good time overall.

I took loads of notes on the trip, and I will probably do a series of posts about what we liked and what we didn't. I intend to send customer feedback to Carnival on ways they could improve, but we also came to realize we're not the target demographic for cruising. More on those thoughts later. I'll also do a post each about the ports, create a photo album on Flickr and post a video or two on Vimeo.

But that will wait until I make it through this work trip. Tomorrow morning I have to wake up at 5 a.m., put on work clothes and take the train south for one last trip. For now I'm going to unpack our FreshDirect delivery and PACK a bag for my trip tomorrow. Here's one photo, rum punch in Jamaica:

Happy Birthday

 
To the best sister in the galaxy!

Techno-Break: Cruising

With this post I've crossed the halfway point to my goal of 300 posts in a year. I should be able to catch up, given diligent blogging about the upcoming move as well as post-wrap up of our cruise. (After a full week of NO computer access, which means I won't type at all ... for the longest break ever for me since ...)

We leave the apartment tomorrow VERY early. Our flight leaves around 7 am, and we will be in Miami by 10. Gives us cushion time for delays, and in any case want to get on the ship around 12:30 or 1. (Leaves around 4.)

I'm not the best traveler. I am OK, in that I can navigate airport terminals, and I'm quick through security and stowing my luggage. But it's the ANTICIPATION of the delays, the hassle, the gretchy feeling that makes me all tense.

I was also a bundle of nerves today because I had two Skype interviews for "perfect-for-me" jobs I may have mentioned before. Very much blessings, and I'm hopeful they will turn into real live job offers. It's not too soon to hope, and I've done all I can at this point -- thank you notes sent, references given, etc. I'll follow up upon my return and even if nothing works out before we move, I'll hope my good luck in landing interviews (and relevant job openings EXISTING) continues.

We're trying to pack this evening. I've put my small rolly suitcase together, and I know we're overthinking everything BUT this is who we are. Will be glad when we make it to the ship with our luggage and can REALLY relax. In the mean time I'll do my best to pre-relax while we pack.

This is our honeymoon, after all, so going into it with all the love and anticipation that should go into that type of vacation.

I painted my toenails (purple, natch) for the first time in ages (maybe over a year?) -- in anticipation of taking pictures of bare feet at all our stops and in various stages of recline on the ship. So you have that to look forward to on my return! Right?

In any case, talk to you then.

Hunger

I am hungry, and it's almost all I can think about. Very troubling but expected. I don't want to buy groceries and can't bring myself to eat the scrappy things we have left in our cupboard. The worst, and poor Shawn.

Last night Shawn and I decided to take advantage of a break in the rain and take part in a free movie screening on the Hudson River. It's like Screen on the Green in DC, except with NYC in the background instead of the Capitol Building.

We walked a mile and a half, only to find that the event was canceled due to inclement weather. I suppose that could be true if there were any more storms slated to come through ... but there weren't. Oh well. We got a 3+ mile round trip walk in really nice weather.

Evening wasn't a total wash because we were home to watch the season premiere of Psych. Man, that show cracks me up. What I HATED was the weird credit card advertisement bumper that featured the actors in character. Ick.

Similarly, I hated the Closer's "Salt" tie in -- you could see the movie ad on a bus in the background of an early scene, and then the safe word at the end was "salt." Grrrr. Would I be as peeved if the movie in question didn't feature AJ? Probably not.

Unrelated: SO excited for Ramona and Beezus movie. Seriously.

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

My boxes are actually full of other, flat boxes. There are about nine boxes of boxes in total throughout our apartment. Here's a mini slide show to give the full effect. I didn't use a flash though, so the pictures are kind of blurry and rushed (kind of how I feel).

I write like?

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Not sure about this. The first one said James Joyce, but then I pasted four other posts and got this each time ... I've never read his stuff, although I've heard of him because of the blogosphere explosion following his suicide in 2008. My reality TV post said I write like Stephenie Meyer. Wonder how the algorithm works on this thing!

Read and Watch: Notes on a Scandal

Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel by Zoë Heller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Picked this up at Greenflea for $4. The movie was in our Blockbuster queue and got to the top BEFORE I had a chance to read the book. So, once I'd seen the film, I decided to go ahead and read the book now (clearly I'm buzzing through my cruise reading prematurely).

A quick read that wasn't as tense as the movie, and there was a change to one of the major characters that made the movie better than the book, in my opinion.

It deals with sexual abuse of a child, and the double standard when the adult is a woman (although Roman Polanski anyone?). So the book (and movie) wouldn't be for everyone, but I found them entertaining enough and I liked the language choices in the book and the perspective of the narrator.

View all my reviews

My Now

I tried to leave a comment on mandythompson.com's post "What's your 'now'?" and was thwarted by the computer -- or something. So going to post my list of 15 words that describe my now here:

marriage
NYC
packing
waiting
impatience
job-searching
planning
wishing
praying
hoping
loving
writing
crocheting
exercising
sweating

Righting the Ship

I still haven't figured out the blog's RSS feed -- why it just wasn't working. It is working again for me, but I'm not 100% convinced of its health.

I AM happy that FeedBurner stopped including FriendFeed followers in the subscriber count. 20 is much more realistic than 244 for this piece of internet real estate. (And it's more like 4 people who actually read regularly -- hey-oh!)

Other technical glitches include my regular website and the inability to connect via FTP to my silvermari.com server. The place I host with says the problem can't be theirs, so my next step it to talk to Time Warner. Is it wrong that I want to just wait until I have a different ISP to test the connection? I'm convinced the issue is with the web server, since I can connect to other FTPs without issue. Grrrr. Oh, and I also tried on my work computer ... and was able to connect. So something is fishy. Windows 7 failure? THAT would be my luck I know...

Probably what I should do is switch this blog to be my main page and then drop the web host entirely, just paying for the domain name.

Random: Delivery.com updated its site navigation, so when I ordered Thai last night (I know, bad wife) I failed to check "pay by CC" (I think it used to default to that?) and the delivery guy needed cash. Uh ... Luckily I just called the restaurant and charged the order, but so humiliating ... and still makes me feel yucky. Clearly I have issues...

Got a pair of kicks repaired yesterday -- they had been ripped to shreds on my last visit to Old Town Alexandria. For $15 they've got new heels and should last a while, once I start wearing them regularly (please oh please oh please). Nothing concrete to report on the job hunt ... yet. Being away all next week will probably put a hitch in things BUT we need the vacation more than the possibility of employment. We'll see if I still feel that way in a few weeks when I'm sitting in our new apartment going stir crazy.

Hey, I guess I can always just blog my boredom.

Complete: Baby Blue Bow Tie

Hooray! I finally finished this labor of love, a blue and white baby blanket for Baby Gunther! Just in the nick of time ... he's scheduled to make his appearance in the world on August 1. Now I just need to get it in the mail, on its way to Woodbridge, VA. Hope his parents like it. A few more photos in my crochet set on Flickr.

Some notes on the process and pattern (also on my Ravelry, membership required):

The kit I purchased from Herrschners contained the right amount of “weight” listed in the pattern, but not enough yardage. And even after they sent me an additional skein of blue and white (one each), I still didn’t have enough blue to make the pattern to size. I basically needed twice as much yarn as was included in the kit, and a bit more than what was listed in the pattern. Perhaps I just have loose tension, but I don’t think it’s THAT loose.

All that said, the pattern is adorable and the resulting “bow ties” that are created with single crochet and chain (read: it takes forever), plus the puffy stripes created after the fact, made a darling blanket that I’m quite proud of. I also loved the border and the long double crochet, which was done across groups of double crochet to make a really nice diagonal design around the border.