Year: 2017

Vince left for Bard last Thursday – we’d been planning this trip for a while and Jeremy suggested that I tag along and go to NYC and maybe spend some time with Vince and Bob/Katherine in NYC and then some time on my own.  Jeremy & Bob even had some suggestions of who I should see to anchor the trip and so I did end up going for a long weekend.   I took Friday & Monday off of work, made a few social engagements and bought myself a bus ticket.  We booked Vince on the train on Thursday.  Vince is so self-sufficient, he managed a tight connection at Penn Station and made it to Rhinebeck right on time. I couldn’t leave Thursday, I left on Friday.

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Bus from Bethesda:

I promised myself not to get too hung up on how much money I was going to spend and just do the things I wanted to do.  Here I am at the top of the Empire State Building.  It was a gorgeous Friday afternoon.  I thought the tourist lines would be short and they were if the stanchions were any indication, but it still took me an hour to get to the top.

I traveled around via subway, which I haven’t done in a long time.  Usually, we are in NYC with Edda and it’s just impossible to manage all the stairs with her so we end up taking cabs or walking.  For an able bodied person, the subway is a dream.  In DC on the weekends, you’ll need to wait 20 min for a train.  Here, even on a Sunday, the trains ran every 5 minutes.

Traveled to see the defiant girl down in the financial district:

Saturday, I went to see Lael in Brooklyn.

I asked her to plan the day and we took a ferry:

To see goats:

And play minigolf on Governor’s Island.

I crashed on her couch that night and said goodbye to her in the early morning on Sunday.

I went to the Met on Sunday.  I had downloaded the Met app and spent a nice couple of hours walking around the 2nd floor of the museum while some guy with a British accent (in my phone) talked about a bunch of exhibits including this painting of Venus with her son Cupid peeing on her.  (I thought they should record the tour with a guy with a New York accent.  I would have found that very amusing, but Jeremy said that the Met would not find it amusing at all.)

Sunday afternoon/evening, I went to the High Line with Charlotte and had a lovely Italian dinner with her and her family Augie & Jane down in Chelsea.  We talked a lot about ballet.  These people are ballet fans.

Monday morning – the NY public library reading room.

Monday at lunch, I met up with Cl*ire who is a nurse by training, and also ended up being the first woman president of an Ivy League college in the mid-1990s.  At 90, she is still an ambitious and impressive person.  Her immediate advice for me – “work for a year, and then get your PhD”.  How old are you? she asked.  Almost 45, I replied.  Well, you have no time to waste then!  All the jobs that you’ll want to do will require a PhD. (Like running a university?)    All my excuses for not being ambitious started to sound a bit lame as they left my mouth.  Why not get a job at Hopkins? Or Georgetown?  Well, because (I have (already) thought of this), I would have to get up at 4:30 am and not be back at the house until 8:30 pm at least three random days a week.  Cl*ire asks,  how much are you needed at home?  (I had told her about Edda and my various other things that I do.)  Well, do I count my desire to be at home asleep in my bed most days at 4:30 am a “need to be at home thing” or a “want to be at home thing”?  Anyways, it was a fun, lively lunch and it reminded me of what it takes to be super accomplished (a lot) and what the hell, maybe I will get my PhD.  (Probably not.)

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I ran all the days I was in town:  Sat morning along the Hudson mostly by myself.

Sunday morning (the whole loop) in Central Park with all the 10,000 other runners.

Monday morning: Van Cortland park in the Bronx.

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In order to indulge my frugal tendencies, I did book three nights at the youth hostel at 103 and Amsterdam for less than $200.  So much value!  Just blocks from Central Park!  There are some people I enjoy admitting this sleeping arrangement to and there are other people who I’m embarrassed to admit this to.  Anyways, it was fine, I’ve done this many, many times before but this is the first time I’ve felt too old.  I texted Jeremy on Friday night that I was too old to be doing this and he laughed at me because he said he felt too young for his biking vacation which was full of retired people.  Here’s the room, I slept on a top bunk.  I got into a silent fight with a person who insisted on keeping the window open even though the (weak) air conditioning was on.  But I know from a decade of au pairs, the window open/closed, HVAC high/low is a serious cultural issue.  I’ve seen windows wide open on the bitterest winter days, heat on to 85 degrees, A/C set low to 55 degrees, etc.

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Finally, indulge me on my side art project where I take pictures of tourists taking pictures.

Expenditures:

$200 – youth hostel
$30 – subway pass (unlimited 7 day)
$80 – Vamoose trip
$33 – Empire State Building
$8 – Falafel wrap (the Halal guys, Amsterdam / 95th)
$20 – granola bars / nuts
$10 – flowers
$10 – minigolf
$25 – dinner (arepas, Willimsburg)
$12 – brunch (Eli’s Essentials Lexington / 86th)
$25 – Met admission
$42 – H & M (needed dressier outfits for socializing)
$25 – umbrella @ NY public library
$30 – Uniqlo – sweatshirt + gift
$44 – lunch w/ Cl*ire (Pain Quotidien, 58th/7th)

$594, let’s say an even $600 with a few donuts/muffins at Dunkin’ Donuts.

I guess i should recap on what i did in china.

We were a group of six kids, all from different parts of the states. starting left to right we have Aubrey, she was the person who kept us all from becoming dead over the proses of the trip. Then we have Megan who was probably the most well rounded out of the whole group. She was willing to try new things, she was also very level headed and calm and collected (her Chinese was also the best). Next is Erin. She was deafeningly the one most out of her element. she was very picky and one of the few people I would even call a carnivore, she also knew very little Chinese dew part to having very crapy Chinese teachers, but she was by far the most improved by the end of the two week trip. Third in line is Merela (or something like that ;p) she was very into the historical and religious parts of the Chinese culture. Then there is Devon. she was the head honcho when we had free time she was the one mostly calling the shots. Next to me is Fallon, she was very interested in the Chinese culture as a whole she was also very weird and energetic. Don’t we all look like great friends in this photo!
(P.S. if you didn’t catch on I was the only Dude on the trip, I was also the Baby of the group. Fun!)

The first full day in Guilin we walked around town and did a scavenger hunt in downtown.

We got 2nd place. I also tried Durian, But I have no photo:( I didn’t like it.

Day two we did tai chi. it was hard, but also fun. watch out Rina i might get better then you!

on the third day i learned how to pour tea. it was intense.

This guy was playing this traditional Chinese interment named a gu zheng. then when all the girls were dress shopping next door me and him had a jam session on the guitar. which i don’t know how to play. but i did keep a beat.



Guilin has some very steep mountains so we climbed one and i proceeded to make a very “Vincent” face.
 
now we look like we don’t hate each other.



Then mask painting and karaoke and i’m so sad i don’t have any photos/videos of me singing to show any of you (sarcasm).

Over the weekend i stayed with a Chinese family.

We made dumplings. All of the four kids helped!
then we went on a boat which was fun and cold! In all my host family was very nice and they gave me a lot of great fruit!

On Monday we went to the more tourist aimed part of town. We bought a lot of dumb stuff, and we tried a fish pedicure. But we were all having so much fun we forgot to take photos

 we got back from the weekend we learned how to draw calligraphy. because of my lack of delicacy, there were not many photos of my art. :p
    

Later that day we went out to try si chuan hot pot :o. It was very hot/numbing, but nothing I couldn’t eat.

Me with duck intestine hanging out of my mouth!

on the second to last day we went to a historical part of Guilin. It was cool and all, but we were all tired and getting over colds.

On the last day all together we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. we look like we don’t hate each other by the end. which is good.

Look at this crazy drink.  I did not know I was ordering something so…college spring break road trip-like.  I just wanted a margarita!  And tachos.  I wanted tachos.  We met Lana after work downtown last night, but I got no picture of Lana.  We moved from the happy hour place and had dinner at this burger place – Duke’s Grocery which was delicious and we were seated at common tables with many, many 22 year olds.  We were recommending various burgers that we were eating to the newly-seated 22 year olds next to us, but one of them was a “picky eater” and the other was exasperated that she was dating said “picky eater” – “You are 22!”, she exclaimed, “It’s time to learn to eat other things besides a plain burger.”

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Tonight (wearing the same Wonder Woman shirt), we went out to celebrate Kitachi’s last day with us.  Always makes me a little weepy when Edda’s helpers move on.  We went to Founding Farmers.

Where we got a chocolate cake the size of our heads.

And a thank you bracelet in a nice blue bag.

National night out on our block.  I brought my famous fruit salad.  Nice to see the next generation of babies on the block.

This is a nice photo of Edda’s pissed-off teenager face.  I’m doing camp pick up this week.

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I’m sick.  Did I catch Edda’s little cold from last week?  Maybe I picked it up from somewhere else.   I couldn’t quite tell if it was a cold or allergies yesterday, but I can tell today.  I’m glad erred on the side of caution and didn’t go see Molly (Edda’s Rett sister) in the hospital yesterday – last Friday, she had her spinal fusion by the same surgeon who did Edda’s back.  No need to bring little cold germs into the PICU.  Of course, I’m well enough to work, so I’m working.

Jeremy’s home!  He wanted me to embed his route into the blog.  He did make it the 500 miles in a week, though I think he’s done with this kind of biking event.  It would have been more fun if he went with a friend.

I went to a dumpling bar in Kentlands with Debbie for lunch.

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Before lunch, I worked on house stuff – like repainting our house numbers.

Spray paint is incredible – this is when the paint is dry!  The seven looks like it came right off of a factory floor, so even and shiny!  Did you see how faded it was in the photo above?

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Before the spray painting, we had to go to the Home Depot to buy the spray paint.  I paused in front of the roses because I thought I could add to the front yard now that I’ve tamed it for the next 4 days.

It took me many evenings this week and a little today.

But I cleared out the side jungle and used up the eight mulch bags that I ordered in April from the high school (they sell them every year as a fundraiser).

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And I baked a banana bread.  Vickey sent me a fancy recipe that makes you cook the bananas first to release the banana juice and then boil down the juice to concentrate it and then add the concentrated banana juice back into the bananas.

I’m quilting a lot, making these Dresden plates (flowers).  I like to make them as Edda falls asleep at night.  I enjoy the quilting more when I’m using it to procrastinate from something else I should be doing.  So I’m enjoying quilting less now that I have a lot of free time.  Does that make any sense?

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I did cook dinner tonight, I’m attaching these photos of proof.  I can cook!  I can.  But I’m so much less good than the boys.  I’m better than Edda, but that seems unfair as she can’t hold anything in her hands.  Sometimes I lament that at almost every evening meal, there is a “guest” – meaning one of Edda’s caregivers or sometimes we’ll have houseguests or Vince’s friends or my parents or Jeremy’s family.  Can’t we ever have a dinner just us?  When there is someone else at the table, I do feel compelled to present a proper dinner with place settings and doling of served food from a common dish when my nature might be to make a sandwich and eat it over the sink and to give Edda some oatmeal and fruit because I’m tired and lazy.  (Vince was out watching the emoji movie – he reports back that it’s terrible!  Don’t go see it.).   I did have the eating over the sink feeling tonight, but Adriana was here and so I made a simple salad and scrambled eggs with a mushroom, spinach, cheese and bacon crumble topping and toasted a bagel and buttered it.  It was a semi-proper dinner (Jeremy, I think, frowns on breakfast being served as dinner, but I’m an all-day breakfast kind of girl) accompanied by a long, meaningful conversation and Edda laughing the whole time.  It was better than eating over the sink and watching youtube videos.  Why do I think that would be more relaxing and enjoyable?

I have been in a foul mood all week, but I can feel it lifting.  I should know this by now, but wrestling with a bad mood never makes it release any faster.  I usually just have to wait.  Jeremy’ll be home in less than 24 hours, I have some weekend plans which involve getting out of the house and talking to people.  I think that’ll be good for me.  I also uploaded all of Vince’s China photos onto flickr.  I’m hoping to get him to post a blog about it soon.

(Eliana, early morning)

Thank you Eliana & Adriana for helping with the am & pm Edda-care this week.  And thank you camp for taking care of the middle.  Edda was a raspy voiced last night when I got home and was sneezy and snotty.  Predictably, Edda squirmed and couldn’t settle down to her usual steady sleeping schedule so I crawled in next to her and spent most of last night sleeping with her.  She never seemed warm to the touch.  With some guilt and conflicting feelings, I sent Edda to camp today slightly under the weather with dose of Motrin and a steady hope for the best (on a wing and a prayer).  Aurora said Edda was extra sleepy today, but they didn’t scurry to the camp nurse, she just kept the day easy and relaxed and hopefully slightly removed from the other kids.  Adriana said Edda seemed much less congested this evening.

(Adriana, early evening).

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My work group.

I went to lunch with Andy and Yin (and Vickey and Karuna who I’ve been hanging out the whole time).  Andy and Yin are outside of the chemical arts, but they are often at work online at 6 am when I sometimes have procedural questions.  And, you know, I don’t just want to hang out with chemical engineers, I want some diversity in my relationships.

Vickey said I should get me some Warby Parker glasses.  You like these that Vickey has?

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I came home to Vince hosting his first D&D party.  All the other kids live on the other side of town within a block of each other, so Vince doesn’t usually host, but this time, no one else could host, so all the kids trekked to our side of town.  They were very loud.

I wanted you guys to know about a This American Life episode on Rockville.  Access it here.

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I commuted the 1.5 hours each way from home to work today.  Bicycle, subway, walking.  There is a two day team building training that’s going on and so people flew in from all over the country to do this exercise.  I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen since I started working from home in 2009.  I met people in my group whose voices I’ve heard but never met.  We did the standard personality Myers-Briggs testing (Guess what everyone in my group is?  An SJ.  We are completely dependable, reliable, hardworking and detail oriented.  So boring.) and a scavenger hunt (why do these things always involve a scavenger hunt?).  Vickey and Karuna were there.  A long day, out of the house for just about 12 hours.

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Yesterday, I asked Vince to make dinner tonight and he asked me to shop for shrimp and heavy cream which I did at Giant last night.  I thought he was going to make some sort of alfredo, but it wasn’t quite that, it was lighter than an alfredo sauce.  It really was the best thing he’s made yet and it was ready as soon as I walked into the house.  And he made up the recipe in his own head without consulting the internets beginning with marinating the shrimp in a mixture for two hours.  He did use four sources of fat: butter, olive oil, heavy cream and cheese.  Delicious.  omg.

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Jeremy’s having a good time.  He sends photos to me each day.

Closing in on the 500 miles for the week, getting tireder and tireder.  He asks if he should go easy one day in order to go faster the next day.  I told him I wasn’t entirely sure if going easy on an 80 mile day was really possible.