All number one seeds have officially made it to the Final Four. Who would’ve known? My bracket would be pointless by now had I not the extensive basketball knowledge and foresight to pick UNC and UCLA in the finals.
I still have a chance.
We are coming up on the end of a weekend of just the three of us. After six consecutive weekends of friends and family visiting- we had a weekend to ourselves without an agenda. It was glorious.
Friday night we made plans and met at a little (and by little- I MEAN little) Mexican restaurant on Ninth Avenue called El Centro. We met up with some friends, and then called it an early night after dinner and all went back to our respective homes. I caught up on basketball highlights from the evening and my eyelids felt so heavy that I called it a night at around 11:30. Brilliant.
Saturday we woke up at a leisurely but not lazy hour, made coffee and pigs-in-a-blanket and chatted with VHI in the background all morning. I’m fairly confident it was exactly the sort of morning we’ll all miss one day down the road when we have children who wake up early, regardless of the day of the week, and want to be entertained at all hours. It makes me tired just thinking about it.
We shopped around Columbus Circle and Fifth Avenue for the afternoon, and ended up at the flagship Sak’s location. To make things clear, we are not frequenters of this store. AV had a gift card from Christmas from her boss to use, and wanted to check out the make-up counters to find some new products.
We roamed around, looking much like little orphan Annie’s to the Sak’s personnel, and as we were leaving the Bobbi Brown counter a bored Giorgio Armani make-up artist lassoed us to a mirror. Undoubtedly inspired by our naturally glowing and make-up-less complexions, the woman proceeded to lecture us for 30 or 40 minutes on the relative merits of her products. Not sure whether to laugh or cry, we all had our turns with her as she attacked our “blotchy redness,” “uneven skin-tone” and “un-sculptured eyebrows.”
Affronted, yet bearing free samples of the Armani foundation and countless perfumes, we finally left the store of the unhelpful but grossly over-eager sales people poised in attack-mode with their perfume and back into our own territory- Anthropologie. There was a brief period of browsing and surveying of new merchandise, and I eventually found AV and KR half-asleep amid the kitchen section of the store on a huge distressed-leather couch.
We returned home, only to instate a mandatory naptime from the hours of 6-7:30 PM. Evening naps are tricky- and must be handled properly. Sleep too long and you’ll be worthless the rest of the evening, go to bed for real and wake up too early the next day. Don’t sleep at all when you should and you’ll be Party Pooper yawning at the bar out with your friends later on in the evening.
We had pizza and wine for dinner, got ready and made our way down to the Village for our work-friend MT’s co-birthday party. It was at bar called Fiddlesticks with a decidedly college-feel that we had been to once before. The best part was that the bar was packed, probably due to the fact that they were showing the NCAA games, but MT and friends had rented the back room for their party, thus separating us from the dog-eat-dog riff-raff on the other side of the curtain.
We felt special indeed, filtering in with a nod from the dude with the earpiece, while the commoners in the main part of the bar could only watch with curious jealousy at what was going on from little glances when the curtain would part. They had a great turnout, so the room we were in filled up as well.
This morning we braved the sunlight for a few moments to catch the early showing of “Stop-Loss.” Apparently the older crowd on the Upper West Side has gotten wind of the Early-Bird Special at the movies on Sunday morning, since even though we were 10 minutes early, we were surrounded by gray hair and newspapers who had set up camp for the morning.
We had brunch and the roamed around the park for a while, admiring the early signs of Spring and the quality of roller-blading talent that had shown up for the day, and then called I called it an afternoon. Apparently AV and KR were near each other, sprawled out on separate rocks in the same area, because they both came home separately talking about a group of grown men practicing self-defense moves and gently throwing each other on the ground like it was completely normal.
We ended the weekend and started the week by going to church tonight.
Like I said- glorious.
"Hand me my purse, darling. A girl can't read this sort of thing without her lipstick."
- Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Grace
Hope everyone had a great Easter!
Brussels, Belgium
Chartres, France, Cathedral of Chartres
London, St. Paul's Cathedral
London, Westminster Abbey
He is risen indeed!
"There's nothing left now,
There's only grace."
-Matthew West, "Only Grace"
Brussels, Belgium
Chartres, France, Cathedral of Chartres
London, St. Paul's Cathedral
London, Westminster AbbeyHe is risen indeed!
"There's nothing left now,
There's only grace."
-Matthew West, "Only Grace"
Thursday, March 20, 2008
A Day in the Life
Figure I: Scheming and dreaming
Figure II: Manhattan; as seen from Brooklyn
I just spent 15 minutes deleting all of the voicemails on my phone that have accumulated over the past 24 hours. I get really stressed out seeing unchecked e-mail or voicemail on my phone- those little envelope and cassette-tape-looking are such a source of anxiety to me. Here’s what I had waiting for me:
Mom: “Hi hon, just wanting to see if you need me to pack this pair of shoes…”
Friend KJ: “Hi- we keep playing phone-tag, I’m driving to____, call me!”
Friend MH: “Why isn’t your bracket posted on Facebook yet?”
Mom: “We’re on the plane- we got on an earlier flight and are now sitting on the runway for an hour…”
Friend MH: “You have ONE HOUR left to post your bracket!”
Friend JP: “I love having friendships with voicemail-boxes…”
My parents rolled into town tonight- we had Italian food, Magnolia and a little NCAA basketball for dessert. Texas A&M survived BYU and put up the “W”, and Duke almost screwed up the South region of my bracket by getting into a close one with Belmont. I didn’t predict Kansas State beating USC either, which figures.
I’m exhausted tonight- I stayed up late last night finishing My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and I had been warned of the dramatic ending. I didn’t know what exactly was going to happen, but I was anticipating something big. KR and I have both been reading it, so when she’s finished we’ll discuss it.
My curiosity got the best of me, and so I found myself crying on the couch at 12:45 AM, quietly albeit, because AV and KR were already asleep. It’s pretty gut-wrenchingly tragic, if you’ve never read it, but don't let that deter you- it's an amazing book. I'm strangely okay with sad endings for whatever reason.
I’ve heard before that if you look at yourself in the mirror when you’re crying that it will make you cry harder. I can say that I stopped crying immediately upon seeing myself in the bathroom mirror with a blotchy face and my day-old frizzy hair.
Call it vanity, if you will. I probably would.
"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."
-John Burroughs
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Bracketology 101
There comes a point in every girl’s life when she has to make a choice:
To embrace the madness, or not to embrace the madness.
I, for one, embrace the month of March. The promise of spring in the air, the newly found hour of daylight, and of course, this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. 65 teams (64 now- Mount St. Mary’s beat Coppin State tonight, which I predicted, thank you very much), and an entire month of the best college basketball games of the year for your viewing pleasure.
Oh yes- the RPI’s have been calculated, everyone who cares or has no life has spent the better part of the weekend catching the end of the conference tournaments and trying to see who was “hot” and who was “not” going into selection Sunday.
Let's just clarify one thing, quickly. I'm a girl. I'm a girly girl, if we're going to get specific. The peak of my athleticism is my golf game, I was in a sorority in college, I like to cook, I would be best friends with Nancy Drew and Elizabeth Bennett if they were real people, and I would rather wear a dress than anything else in my closet. Not everyone takes my sports knowledge very seriously- but I also never claimed to know everything.
I just like watching sports- period. Especially basketball.
Many of my female friends who have rolled their eyes at my affinity for college basketball or not paid attention to any of it altogether were suddenly interested this year- many now in the male-dominated financial industry, given the choice between suffering over lunch-hour conversation they won’t understand for 30 days or succumbing to fever, biting the bullet and joining in the office pool. I, for one, happy that a few of my friends finally care, have been e-mailing statistics and predictions to my friends who have solicited my assistance.
AV joined in the fun with me this year, and she’s already sucked in. We both pored over all of the information we’ve collected over the past few days on our coffee table- articles printed and highlighted off of espn.com, the sports section of the Times, random lists and notes made from credible sources, etc.
KR and our friend AR both joined forces and decided to be the only two people in the nation to believe that Gonzaga will win it all. I can live with that- I let KR watch The Gauntlet in peace, and she allows me the same freedom with college basketball. AV enjoys Scrubs, and I’m fairly confident I can speak for KR when I say neither one of us really ‘gets’ that show. We’re all okay with our arrangement- it works for us.
At the end of the day we can all come together and watch American Idol in harmony, and that’s all that really matters. That AND my teams winning… winning also matters.
The field has been set, the numbers are there- all we can do now is sit back, relax and enjoy an entire month of hearing the word “Cinderella” over and over again as that one elusive mid-major team fights through round after round, only to finally get beaten- probably in the Elite Eight- by a team everyone remembers was picked to win anyway.
It’s so beautiful, this month of March. I’m picking UCLA to win it all.
“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
- Seneca the Elder
To embrace the madness, or not to embrace the madness.
I, for one, embrace the month of March. The promise of spring in the air, the newly found hour of daylight, and of course, this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. 65 teams (64 now- Mount St. Mary’s beat Coppin State tonight, which I predicted, thank you very much), and an entire month of the best college basketball games of the year for your viewing pleasure.
Oh yes- the RPI’s have been calculated, everyone who cares or has no life has spent the better part of the weekend catching the end of the conference tournaments and trying to see who was “hot” and who was “not” going into selection Sunday.
Let's just clarify one thing, quickly. I'm a girl. I'm a girly girl, if we're going to get specific. The peak of my athleticism is my golf game, I was in a sorority in college, I like to cook, I would be best friends with Nancy Drew and Elizabeth Bennett if they were real people, and I would rather wear a dress than anything else in my closet. Not everyone takes my sports knowledge very seriously- but I also never claimed to know everything.
I just like watching sports- period. Especially basketball.
Many of my female friends who have rolled their eyes at my affinity for college basketball or not paid attention to any of it altogether were suddenly interested this year- many now in the male-dominated financial industry, given the choice between suffering over lunch-hour conversation they won’t understand for 30 days or succumbing to fever, biting the bullet and joining in the office pool. I, for one, happy that a few of my friends finally care, have been e-mailing statistics and predictions to my friends who have solicited my assistance.
AV joined in the fun with me this year, and she’s already sucked in. We both pored over all of the information we’ve collected over the past few days on our coffee table- articles printed and highlighted off of espn.com, the sports section of the Times, random lists and notes made from credible sources, etc.
KR and our friend AR both joined forces and decided to be the only two people in the nation to believe that Gonzaga will win it all. I can live with that- I let KR watch The Gauntlet in peace, and she allows me the same freedom with college basketball. AV enjoys Scrubs, and I’m fairly confident I can speak for KR when I say neither one of us really ‘gets’ that show. We’re all okay with our arrangement- it works for us.
At the end of the day we can all come together and watch American Idol in harmony, and that’s all that really matters. That AND my teams winning… winning also matters.
The field has been set, the numbers are there- all we can do now is sit back, relax and enjoy an entire month of hearing the word “Cinderella” over and over again as that one elusive mid-major team fights through round after round, only to finally get beaten- probably in the Elite Eight- by a team everyone remembers was picked to win anyway.
It’s so beautiful, this month of March. I’m picking UCLA to win it all.
“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
- Seneca the Elder
Friday, March 14, 2008
Saving daylight
It's strange how an hour later of sunlight has suddenly given everyone a whole new lease on life?
Attitudes have changed, everyone feels like they are leaving work earlier even though they aren't, and for some reason I figured all of that meant I could give myself permission to eat Reeces Easter eggs everyday at lunch this week.
Somewhere in the move up North, our eating habits went South. I blame it on all the walking, but I'm fairly confident we have eaten more pizza in the past few months than most college-age males do in their four or five year tenures at school. We have a once-a-week pizza policy that's loosely enforced.
Luckily we DO walk everywhere and there are now trips to the gym included in our schedules, as well as power-walks on the weekends. Salads are great for summer months, but when it's 20 degrees outside and I've been gone all day I'm not in the mood for something a rabbit would eat.
We also often make something sweet when people come to visit, which is always. We don't have to bake so much anymore though, considering everyone always wants to go to Magnolia Bakery. We even instated a cupcake-sampling tour of the Upper West Side while AV's mom and brother were in town.
Speaking of visitors, our dear friend AR showed up on our doorstep, pink suitcase and pillow in tow, promptly at 7 AM this morning. I had hardly had time to fumble around and find the switch to the leopard lamp above our refrigerator before AR was changed into a pink (of course) plaid nightshirt and hopping into my bed.
I felt sorry for her- she was stuck with a middle seat for her five-hour red-eye flight on her way here from Phoenix, which she was actually preferable to her original seat on the aisle, in the back of the plane by a couple and their baby and across the aisle from a woman with a parrot.
That's right- a parrot on an airplane. Why? I mean really, why would you do that? In what context would that ever seem like a good idea?
In any case, I went ahead and started the getting-ready process and drew her a map to show her how to get to KR's and my office to meet us for lunch. It had arbitrary landmarks and a cartoonish- vibe, but she actually made it. For someone who has never been to the city before, I'm surprisingly unconcerned with her ability to get around.
How lucky we are, to be so loved by our friends that we hardly spend weekends without the company of one or a group of them... Either that or they just want to come to see New York. Either way, we hardly ever have reason to feel homesick, because we have 'Texas' as a guest most weekends.
"When one is young and has little money, it is prudent to spend that little on the unnecessary, the emotional dividends being higher."
-Clifton Fadiman, Writer
Attitudes have changed, everyone feels like they are leaving work earlier even though they aren't, and for some reason I figured all of that meant I could give myself permission to eat Reeces Easter eggs everyday at lunch this week.
Somewhere in the move up North, our eating habits went South. I blame it on all the walking, but I'm fairly confident we have eaten more pizza in the past few months than most college-age males do in their four or five year tenures at school. We have a once-a-week pizza policy that's loosely enforced.
Luckily we DO walk everywhere and there are now trips to the gym included in our schedules, as well as power-walks on the weekends. Salads are great for summer months, but when it's 20 degrees outside and I've been gone all day I'm not in the mood for something a rabbit would eat.
We also often make something sweet when people come to visit, which is always. We don't have to bake so much anymore though, considering everyone always wants to go to Magnolia Bakery. We even instated a cupcake-sampling tour of the Upper West Side while AV's mom and brother were in town.
Speaking of visitors, our dear friend AR showed up on our doorstep, pink suitcase and pillow in tow, promptly at 7 AM this morning. I had hardly had time to fumble around and find the switch to the leopard lamp above our refrigerator before AR was changed into a pink (of course) plaid nightshirt and hopping into my bed.
I felt sorry for her- she was stuck with a middle seat for her five-hour red-eye flight on her way here from Phoenix, which she was actually preferable to her original seat on the aisle, in the back of the plane by a couple and their baby and across the aisle from a woman with a parrot.
That's right- a parrot on an airplane. Why? I mean really, why would you do that? In what context would that ever seem like a good idea?
In any case, I went ahead and started the getting-ready process and drew her a map to show her how to get to KR's and my office to meet us for lunch. It had arbitrary landmarks and a cartoonish- vibe, but she actually made it. For someone who has never been to the city before, I'm surprisingly unconcerned with her ability to get around.
How lucky we are, to be so loved by our friends that we hardly spend weekends without the company of one or a group of them... Either that or they just want to come to see New York. Either way, we hardly ever have reason to feel homesick, because we have 'Texas' as a guest most weekends.
"When one is young and has little money, it is prudent to spend that little on the unnecessary, the emotional dividends being higher."
-Clifton Fadiman, Writer
Monday, March 10, 2008
Birds of a Feather
While I was flying around town with my aunt and cousin, who came to visit, KR and AV made a trip to the suburbs.
That's right- they went to Target AND Chili's. And to be quite honest- if I hadn't just been to Texas last weekend and found a cute pair of peep-toed heels and southwestern eggrolls along the way, I would have been jealous.
We had serious rain on Friday and Saturday, and New Jersery was not spared. KR and AV hopped on the Path Saturday morning and spent the day roaming the well-stocked and un-crowded aisles of Target. I returned home from my afternoon at the Met to find their always-tidy room askew with new lamps, wedge espadrilles, boxes of granola bars and a multitude of red and white plastic bags everywhere.
Despite their clearly damp jeans and soaked ballet flats, they were in high spirits. Sometimes nothing puts a smile on your face more than finding a cute sweater in your size, as well as your favorite breakfast bar within arms reach of each other.
They received lots of eye-rolls and "are you serious-es?", but they continued on their journey, and were rewarded with inexpensive toothpaste and free refills.
And you know what? Maybe everyday in New York isn't glamorous, but we are never lacking in entertainment.
We make our own fun.
"Off we go,
Into the wild blue yonder..."
- U.S. Air Force anthem
That's right- they went to Target AND Chili's. And to be quite honest- if I hadn't just been to Texas last weekend and found a cute pair of peep-toed heels and southwestern eggrolls along the way, I would have been jealous.
We had serious rain on Friday and Saturday, and New Jersery was not spared. KR and AV hopped on the Path Saturday morning and spent the day roaming the well-stocked and un-crowded aisles of Target. I returned home from my afternoon at the Met to find their always-tidy room askew with new lamps, wedge espadrilles, boxes of granola bars and a multitude of red and white plastic bags everywhere.
Despite their clearly damp jeans and soaked ballet flats, they were in high spirits. Sometimes nothing puts a smile on your face more than finding a cute sweater in your size, as well as your favorite breakfast bar within arms reach of each other.
They received lots of eye-rolls and "are you serious-es?", but they continued on their journey, and were rewarded with inexpensive toothpaste and free refills.
And you know what? Maybe everyday in New York isn't glamorous, but we are never lacking in entertainment.
We make our own fun.
"Off we go,
Into the wild blue yonder..."
- U.S. Air Force anthem
Now You See It
The newly re-opened Modern Art wing at the Met...
... apparently they added ghosts.
My cousin KH, admiring a Monet.
Such the happy little artist.
"Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."
- Oscar Wilde
Party of Five?
There’s nothing I love more than hearing about snow in Dallas, while enjoying sunny, 45-degree days in New York.
Unfortunately the change in temperatures has also brought the flu to the city. I started feeling under the weather Friday, and have been nursing a sandpaper throat and fire-breathing dragon-cough ever since. Lovely. Especially since I started coughing during the most inconvenient time possible this evening- the prayer before Communion at church. To further make matters worse, our service meets in a beautiful old Episcopal sanctuary with great acoustics. Not a person within earshot was spared.
I learned the hard way this week the near-impossibility of making brunch reservations in Manhattan on Easter Sunday. Thinking I was such the responsible hostess for planning three weeks ahead of my parents’ upcoming visit- I made a list and started making phone calls.
To say I was met with resistance would be an understatement. You would have thought I was asking some of these people to give me one of their kidneys, the way they scoffed at me. AV even solicited the help of her NYC-savvy coworkers, who threw out suggestions left and right and gave her a page of places to try calling.
As we have come to learn in New York, brunch is an art form. Manhattan-ites are serious about it- weather it’s a corner booth in their favorite neighborhood diner with the special and a copy of the Times, or a white table-cloth affair with the in-laws- it’s the perfect weekend indulgence.
Some places were booked solid, some would not take reservations for parties of fewer than six, some will be taking walk-ins but seemed reluctant and others will essentially be free-for-alls the day-of, and are not taking reservations period. I’m envisioning women in pastel shades and fantastic hats, bustling around trying to pretend like Easter in March is occasion-enough to pretend like it’s not still 40 degrees outside.
For a brief moment of insanity I tried to think of how we could somehow manage to get my brother up here for the trip. Not that I wouldn’t love his to see him any other weekend, but primarily because he would make our brunch-party the ideally round number of six instead of the frowned-upon five.
Yeah, I actually thought this was feasible. Flying my brother to New York and using him as a warm body to sip mimosas in a collared shirt and blazer? Sure, why not? Sarabeth’s, Penelope, Pastis, Balthazar, Five Points and many other brunch locales would certainly suggest it. Otherwise?
“My apologies, ma’am, but we’re all booked.”
"I went to a cafe that advertised breakfast anytime, so I ordered French Toast during the Rennaisance."
-Stephen Wright
Unfortunately the change in temperatures has also brought the flu to the city. I started feeling under the weather Friday, and have been nursing a sandpaper throat and fire-breathing dragon-cough ever since. Lovely. Especially since I started coughing during the most inconvenient time possible this evening- the prayer before Communion at church. To further make matters worse, our service meets in a beautiful old Episcopal sanctuary with great acoustics. Not a person within earshot was spared.
I learned the hard way this week the near-impossibility of making brunch reservations in Manhattan on Easter Sunday. Thinking I was such the responsible hostess for planning three weeks ahead of my parents’ upcoming visit- I made a list and started making phone calls.
To say I was met with resistance would be an understatement. You would have thought I was asking some of these people to give me one of their kidneys, the way they scoffed at me. AV even solicited the help of her NYC-savvy coworkers, who threw out suggestions left and right and gave her a page of places to try calling.
As we have come to learn in New York, brunch is an art form. Manhattan-ites are serious about it- weather it’s a corner booth in their favorite neighborhood diner with the special and a copy of the Times, or a white table-cloth affair with the in-laws- it’s the perfect weekend indulgence.
Some places were booked solid, some would not take reservations for parties of fewer than six, some will be taking walk-ins but seemed reluctant and others will essentially be free-for-alls the day-of, and are not taking reservations period. I’m envisioning women in pastel shades and fantastic hats, bustling around trying to pretend like Easter in March is occasion-enough to pretend like it’s not still 40 degrees outside.
For a brief moment of insanity I tried to think of how we could somehow manage to get my brother up here for the trip. Not that I wouldn’t love his to see him any other weekend, but primarily because he would make our brunch-party the ideally round number of six instead of the frowned-upon five.
Yeah, I actually thought this was feasible. Flying my brother to New York and using him as a warm body to sip mimosas in a collared shirt and blazer? Sure, why not? Sarabeth’s, Penelope, Pastis, Balthazar, Five Points and many other brunch locales would certainly suggest it. Otherwise?
“My apologies, ma’am, but we’re all booked.”
"I went to a cafe that advertised breakfast anytime, so I ordered French Toast during the Rennaisance."
-Stephen Wright
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Weekend Traveler
I went home Friday for the weekend. I punched the clock at straight-up five to get to La Guardia in time to mill around and do nothing for 45 minutes.
I found a book store and continued to mill, looking for something to read and preferring something other than the 42 magazines I read last week. I also decided I didn’t want to read some random bestseller that I would usually be happy to bury my nose into, and a stark white cover caught my eye.
That’s right- I looked, I judged and I purchased. That's about as shallow as the prospective book-buyer can get.
My book of choice was CAD: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor. Definitely not my usual literary choice. It was an impulse purchase, but I wasn’t about to pick up another Jane Austen wannabe and also not in the mood for something sappy, so I went with the clear alternative.
I really didn’t like the guy for about half of the memoir, but I found that I really enjoyed his writing style and I had nothing better to do during my layover in Charlotte, NC, so I stuck with it.
Other than his hideous substitution of women’s names (he didn’t use their real ones for obvious reasons) with names like Tabitha, Chloe and other things people name cats, I actually really enjoyed the book. I wouldn’t touch the guy with a ten-foot pole after reading about his goings-on, but he won me over via prose and I recommended it and passed it on to my work pal MT Monday morning.
So in between readings of the CAD novel, I was in Texas. I enjoyed my quick weekend,; back among my SUV-driving kinfolk I’ve missed so much. You can talk to people everyday if you want to, but nothing beats seeing their smiling face in 3D again. That was really the point of the whole weekend for me; enjoying my parents and friends in person. Quality time. And good Tex-Mex… food is also always somewhere near the bottom line.
My friends MK, SR, CC and KW all came to my parents’ house Saturday night for dinner and drinks. My dad cooked out on his grill (rib-eyes and chicken) and my mom fixed twice baked potatoes and asparagus. We ate outside on the screened-in porch and my dad even came around the table making wine suggestions. For dessert we enjoyed Light Chocolate Silk Blue Bell and Cool Whip, in mom’s cute Anthropologie bowls every girl has/wishes they had.
I snuck upstairs Saturday before anyone was at my house to catch the sunset, the view from the upstairs balcony facing full west to catch it perfectly. That’s one thing I need to resolve to do this summer in Manhattan is find the best place to watch the sunset on the weekends.
KR got to spend the weekend with her mother, who was in town, and AV stuck to exploring the Upper West Side with some of our other friends who are also in the neighborhood. We had a lovely 55-degree day on Monday, and KR and I went for a walk down by Riverside, only to return home to an e-mail from my mom with full reports and picture-proof of snow in Texas.
Looks like March Madness got an early start this year.
"Believing something doesn't make it true; refusing to believe it doesn't make it false."
-Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
I found a book store and continued to mill, looking for something to read and preferring something other than the 42 magazines I read last week. I also decided I didn’t want to read some random bestseller that I would usually be happy to bury my nose into, and a stark white cover caught my eye.
That’s right- I looked, I judged and I purchased. That's about as shallow as the prospective book-buyer can get.
My book of choice was CAD: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor. Definitely not my usual literary choice. It was an impulse purchase, but I wasn’t about to pick up another Jane Austen wannabe and also not in the mood for something sappy, so I went with the clear alternative.
I really didn’t like the guy for about half of the memoir, but I found that I really enjoyed his writing style and I had nothing better to do during my layover in Charlotte, NC, so I stuck with it.
Other than his hideous substitution of women’s names (he didn’t use their real ones for obvious reasons) with names like Tabitha, Chloe and other things people name cats, I actually really enjoyed the book. I wouldn’t touch the guy with a ten-foot pole after reading about his goings-on, but he won me over via prose and I recommended it and passed it on to my work pal MT Monday morning.
So in between readings of the CAD novel, I was in Texas. I enjoyed my quick weekend,; back among my SUV-driving kinfolk I’ve missed so much. You can talk to people everyday if you want to, but nothing beats seeing their smiling face in 3D again. That was really the point of the whole weekend for me; enjoying my parents and friends in person. Quality time. And good Tex-Mex… food is also always somewhere near the bottom line.
My friends MK, SR, CC and KW all came to my parents’ house Saturday night for dinner and drinks. My dad cooked out on his grill (rib-eyes and chicken) and my mom fixed twice baked potatoes and asparagus. We ate outside on the screened-in porch and my dad even came around the table making wine suggestions. For dessert we enjoyed Light Chocolate Silk Blue Bell and Cool Whip, in mom’s cute Anthropologie bowls every girl has/wishes they had.
I snuck upstairs Saturday before anyone was at my house to catch the sunset, the view from the upstairs balcony facing full west to catch it perfectly. That’s one thing I need to resolve to do this summer in Manhattan is find the best place to watch the sunset on the weekends.
KR got to spend the weekend with her mother, who was in town, and AV stuck to exploring the Upper West Side with some of our other friends who are also in the neighborhood. We had a lovely 55-degree day on Monday, and KR and I went for a walk down by Riverside, only to return home to an e-mail from my mom with full reports and picture-proof of snow in Texas.
Looks like March Madness got an early start this year.
"Believing something doesn't make it true; refusing to believe it doesn't make it false."
-Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)