Author: Doris

So I have a new hobby – I’m playing this game maptap (highly recommend) which gives you five cities everyday and a globe with no borders drawn on it and makes you pinpoint where the city is. Turns out…I have no idea where things are – Nebraska? Nope. Bolivia? Nope. Libya? Nope. Any of the south Pacific islands? Totally nope, nope, nope. Hahaha. So I bought like 5 different atlases from second hand stores and they are all over the house now so I can try to remember where things are – my short term memory has turned so poor compared to what it was…I need some sort of memory game to keep everything lubricated. Like my joints. Speaking of maps and navigation – I was so pleased with myself in NYC this past weekend because I got the hang of the city and subway without too much stress – subway everywhere all weekend. The subway map can be overwhelming…

Jeremy and I are hosting a pancake breakfast at the church mid-November and we need to not only cook regular pancakes – we need to have vegan pancakes. I got a recipe from a vegan friend and she said they were so good that she suggested we make all the pancakes vegan. I reported that opinion back to Jeremy and he said absolutely not, I love my pancake recipe. We weren’t going to also do gluten-free pancakes, but I think, we’ll need to do that too. Jeremy was not keen on doing three types of pancakes – he was like, I think we should do a combination gluten-free vegan pancake. So then I asked my gluten-free friend if she was open to having a gluten-free vegan pancake and then she kind of wrinkled her nose and said – you can do that, but it’ll taste bad. So then I went home to report that finding out to Jeremy and before I could finish my story he said – I’ve changed my mind, we can have all the different types of pancakes. Megan came over last night to help with the taste testing. I had texted her – I have something fun to do. We are trying vegan gluten-free pancakes with the maple syrup from Vermont. And she texted back – the syrup sounds delicious! Anyways, we tried the gluten-FULL vegan pancakes and they were surprisingly, unexpectedly good. Especially with non-vegan (regular) butter and maple syrup. I guess anything with butter and sugar is yummy. We’ll need to get some vegan butter. (It also turns out that I’m a very poor pancake maker. I’ve hosted many pancake breakfasts, but I have not actually made very many pancakes…this is a lovely one after many attempts.)

It was raining this morning. Elka is, like many pitbulls, allergic to the rain. She thinks she’ll melt – I’ll just hold my pee until it stops raining.

I made a bundt cake with fresh cranberries. It’s quite yummy, I’ve never had to chop fresh cranberries – they roll around like crazy. And they are white inside. Interesting.

With the announcement of Anne Carson as this year’s Nobel Prize winner in Literature, I can now say I’ve had lunch with two Nobel Prize winners. I think I had take out Indian food with Anne at an apartment in Berkeley when I was in my early twenties. Though it was a small party and I could have made a lasting impression on Anne (hahahaha…no), I don’t think I said much to her – she is more than twenty years older than me, so at 24-ish, I was shy and she seemed my parents’ age. Hahaha. She would not remember me. It’s ok. I barely remember the lunch.

I finally feel back to myself after many weeks of traveling and Edda being seizure-y. She went to camp yesterday and made it through. We medicate her (what feels like a lot) daily and I’m not sure if it does anything. Would her seizures be the same without the meds? Completely unanswerable. I have literally no idea – we like to believe so. So we continue on – the seizures are for sure suffering for Edda. I don’t really like to dwell on how much Edda suffers during this life, but the seizures suck.

I got a baseline DEXA scan for my bones as I’m post menopausal and worried about such things. I’ve not gotten one before – this one is nice, you don’t need to take your clothes off. The results came back *chef’s kiss* – totally regular bones. How grateful I am for my body – thank you for carrying me places and letting me try new things. I am trying to take care of you.

Jeremy wants me to go to a work party with him and I kind of didn’t want to and he asked why…and I said…it’s because I’m shy and don’t like to make small talk. And he looked at me bewildered because I’m really not shy and I’m pretty good at making small talk. I’ve been reading a book which says to hold your identities lightly and try a million things – which I love. Instead of saying I’m shy, you can say – let me try shy out. Or let me try being outgoing out. And you realize that you can try different things on/off. Thrifty, stingy, generous, outgoing, run by feelings/emotions, run by rules, optimistic, pessimistic, open to new experiences, cleaving more to routine. You can try all those things out and see what works for you. It’s a lot of fun. I think I’m going to this work party next week…lol.

We bought this little egg cooker to see if we like it. Generally, we don’t like single use objects in the house. But this one is very little. It’s….entertaining.

So while I was gone, Edda had two small seizures on Sunday, but Jeremy and Ginny thought they were “half” seizures and not her full regular ones, so Jeremy sent her to camp on Monday and she made it through the day on Monday but within 30 minutes of me getting home late Monday afternoon, she had a pretty big seizure and so we went on her benzo protocol which now we are on day 2. So she missed camp today and will tomorrow – probably for the rest of the week.

But today, we had a dental appointment scheduled and so we drove sleepy Edda to the appointment not knowing if the dentist would be willing to do a dental cleaning on zonked out Edda, but the dentist was willing and the cleaning went much more smoothly with much less thrashing of limbs and gnashing of teeth.

I spent rainy Sunday in Brooklyn, first going to Books are Magic (a small independent bookstore where I had done some ordering online from) and then to the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn for Sunday service where our current minister in Rockville had worked about 15 years ago. I went about 45 minutes before the service started and settled into a book I had brought and listened to rehearsal and admired the building. Built in 1844 with Tiffany windows, it was the first Unitarian church in Brooklyn. The minister there said hello and I said I was visiting from Rockville and he knows Rev. Shari (our minister) and we had a nice chat. Haha, life is a weird road because I still consider myself to be not religious, but apparently I am semi-religious-literate now because (as I was telling Jeremy), I know all the hymns! I know I’m completely confusing my parents who recently asked if I believed in God and I said no and then they were like (very resonably) – well how can you not believe in God and run the church? and I sighed and said that it’s complicated. It’s even complicated for me!

Then I went to eat at a pizza joint! My only pizza on this trip. I did have two (maybe 3) bagels tho.

I went to visit Lael and co at their new place in Brooklyn. All I can say are that little kids are exhausting and they impressively got the kids out and walking in the rain to the little street fair a few blocks down from their house. I was just tired helping out the tiniest bit.

It’s Monday morning and I’m getting ready to go home. I’m looking forward to the last quarter of the year – as I’m getting older I enjoy the time more – with no really small children in my orbit and perhaps a more spiritual and gratitude focused life, I can take the time to enjoy the meaning of the season. For a long time, I kind of resented putting up the Christmas tree because I felt like everyone else wanted it up, but no one was helping me and I kind of resented having to fill the bottom with gifts that folks might not want – but these days I realize I want the sparkly lights myself and there is no need for gifts in the house. Maybe this year, I’ll get some lights on a tree outside!

I spent more time with Dave than I anticipated this trip. So, Saturday was the big opera day! This is how this whole trip started – it’s the end of the fiscal year at work and Dave and I first got to know each other in 1994 and now we work together – he in Minnesota and me in DC. Anyways, his favorite opera (he’s a big fan) – Cosi Fan Tutti by Mozart was playing this weekend and he wanted to go see it and then I said I’d make a long weekend of it and I got to meet his sister and his niece which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We were waiting in the lobby of his sister’s apt for the ride to the Met.

This is a funny photo because you can see me in the mirror of the lobby. There are a lot of big dogs in small spaces in NYC. Anyways, the opera was…not my favorite. I mean, the singing was beautiful and Dave helped prep me for the storyline and what I was suppose to look out for in the music. But still, it’s a three hour performance in the dark and it’s warm and they are singing in an entirely different language. It was a little nap-inducing. His sister treated us to the tickets (which were the best tickets I’ve ever had) – front row dress circle. We went out to dinner afterwards, which was a lot of fun and then I took the subway home to Harlem and talked for a while with my airbnb roommate. OK, so I’ve seen two operas now, a Verdi and a Mozart.

I think I just don’t really enjoy live performances – I’m pretty mid about concerts, plays, operas in general. I know people love them, I think I just don’t really get it. I guess I mean big productions – like stadium concerts, met operas, broadway plays. I like little intimate performances where it’s not too loud, not too long and I have friends along.

Whenever I’m in NYC by myself, I feel a lot of gratitude for the life I live not in NYC. I’m so grateful for my body which goes up and down three steep flights to my room, for Jeremy & team who are caring for Edda at home, for friends that do interesting things in NYC and for the money to be able to not worry too much about spending on museum tickets and food out for a few days. It took a long time to be here, I wish I had this feeling when I was younger – where many of these things were also true, but I was unhappy & unsatisfied.

I spent the morning yesterday with Kristen and her hubby at the start of a very involved (expensive) tattoo. We just happened to be in town at the same time for this to happen – no coordination needed. I’m tattoo-curious, so it was nice to see a high end process.

I left at noon with the understanding that it would be done by 7 or 8 pm – I headed to the upper east side to meet up with Dave for lunch and meet his niece and the niece’s dog – Grimm – who insists on licking you, but doesn’t like you to pet him. Interesting. There was a lot of licking at this visit. Then Dave and I went to the Central Park Zoo, the site of one of Edda’s favorite movies – Madagascar.

And we lucked out that the MOMA was open late on Friday nights sponsored by Uniqlo and if we had been residents, it would have been free, but we were not residents, we were visitors and hence, not free.

Then I wanted to try to go to an open mic – which said on the website started at 6 pm. This was at a comedy club which says started some big name comics – it was a little scary to open the door as it was a big heavy wooden doors with no windows to see what was going on inside. But I opened it and it was…empty. Save for a single guy and I asked if it was open mic night and he said – ummm, there is some competition, but I’m not sure how open it is. And then the more important question – are you serving food? (looking around at the bar and the empty booths with tables). And the answer was no.

I was pretty hungry at this time – I love to eat many types of things, but when I’m out and about I try to not eat too much (because eating out is always too much) so sometimes I overcompensate by eating too little and not quite knowing when the next meal is and then it’s too long between meals and I get tired and my decision making capacity diminishes quickly. And Dave tends to not be decisive. And so there we were surrounded by restaurants and no good decision maker between the two of us.

But we ended up at a Mexican restaurant that was very lively, but then ten minutes after we sat down, they told us that the kitchen was broken and that they didn’t know when they could make food for us, so then we walked across the street to a second (technically third) restaurant where finally I got a frozen margarita and a whole basket of chips and immediately got brain freeze and slightly tipsy and ate the entire basket of chips and was very happy. We sat in outdoor seating and it was a beautiful NYC night which mean that we were 4 feet from a busy intersection with sirens and some honking and…it was fun.

Then we went to a gelato place where I got to have a pistachio crunch creme brulee and it was DELICIOUS.

So I’m in NYC for a few days. Under ideal conditions, I would have put more time at home between California and NYC, but it couldn’t happen for 10,000 reasons. I’m happy I’m here. Mainly to see the opera with my friend Dave. Because I’m traveling on my own, I tend to find quirky spaces to stay at. The last time I was in NYC, I almost fainted from the charge on the “affordable” hotel that I booked, so I decided to look for other accommodations. I found a room share in Harlem through AirBnB with a lovely woman named Lotus. I’ve never stayed in Harlem before – so new adventure for me. The place is lovely, just steps from the subway and from Whole Foods and Dave, my opera friend, came over last night and we went to the Red Rooster restaurant which had live music and was an entire vibe. So lovely and fun. Not touristy – lively, but no line to get in. The waitstaff was incredible and dressed so NYC – the maitre d’ had no hair on his head, but a magnificent beard and a flounced white shirt with ruffles on all the exposed edges and red silk pants. As we were leaving, the staff was like – why are you folks in town? And we said – the opera! And he smiled and said – that’s an entire different part of town than where I hang out. Haha. That’s what it’s all about, trying different things, meeting different people.

I’m still having a rough time from the jet lag, I don’t like going east and this NYC vacation isn’t going to help with the later mornings and later nights. And, of course, because I’m paying less for my accomodations, it’s not quite perfect (not that the other accomodation was perfect either, lol). The bed is good, the room is good, the location is good. The weather is good for open windows, but there are plenty of traffic sounds from outside all night – so I’m weighing the breezy air with the traffic noise. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll try some white noise tonight.

This year, I’ve done a family trip, a friend trip and this is my solo trip. I do like them all for different reasons. My favorite solo trips are my NYC trips – this is usually where I go, Jeremy doesn’t really like NYC and it would be terribly hard with Edda (though we have gone with her in the past). I know it’s too expensive and too crowded and loud, but somehow I enjoy the feeling of…possibility & potential. Maybe next time I should do a solo trip in the woods and hike – I also really like that, that’s also gives me a good feeling too.

Still recovering from the trip, the time changes really mess with me these days, especially going east. I’m scheduled to go to Europe next summer and I’m kind of dreading the time change, I find European trips to be difficult and generally less fun because of the time change.

This is a nice photo of Edda on the plane with Jeremy. We did not travel lightly – we had eight pieces of luggage (one of which was a bicycle and one enormous bag that had Edda’s bed and some supplies for her) and her wheelchair and 3 bodies. We struggled a bit with the luggage, but we managed including the very long bus ride from LAX to the rental car terminal.

I usually like to come home on Saturday for a working Monday, but we came home Sunday because Jeremy went to his 40th high school reunion on Saturday night. This meant that we got home late on Sunday – our dog sitter Lexi (Kimchi’s mom) – dropped Elka off in the early evening, so Elka was waiting for us when we got home.

Monday, I had to show up at 9:15 to a fancy golf course in order to volunteer all day. I was tired, but I enjoyed the day even though it’s very odd for me. Not my usual crowd, but I like learning about people who are not like me. I learned how to cut cigar tips (I was giving them away at the 15th hole – I gave almost all 50 away, who knew cigars were so popular?). I also learned a lot about day drinking and these weird drinks that they are selling now – Surfside? Iced tea and lemonade and vodka. The strangest thing that I heard on Monday was “I’m in charge of the drink fridge at work.” Drink meaning alcoholic drinks. I didn’t think there were any work places that still had a drink fridge.

We had a great time last week bouncing around the west coast. First in Oregon visiting my parents. Happy to see that they are doing well and managing my mom’s broken arm (which is healing) with aplomb.

We found a vinyl store where we picked up Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue for Vince – super cool are we!

We drove to Corvallis and met up with Dani at Oregon State where I got to step into some retro labs.

And OMG, this vintage lecture hall.

And posing, as per usual, in front of the ChemE building which has retro futuristic things in the metalwork.

Of course, we went to the bookstore to get orange things. This is also a beaver mascotted school.

By strange coincidence, Seth was in town for work, so we all went out to dinner together at this super healthy vegetable place which turned out to be a mound of vegetables in a bowl. I’m sorry! When we are eating out all the time, it’s hard to find vegetables.

Then we drove to Klamath Falls and visited with Emy – I love visiting Klamath, Emy is doing well and it was fun to chat and hang out.

Then we flew to LA – OMG the LA airport is enormous and we stayed with Julia where we hung out and cooked. We drove to Irvine to see Vince on Saturday and had brunch with him and Dani’s parents. We went to a nursery.

Vince was hosting a BBQ in the evening, so we went to Costco to buy all the ingredients.

And because we had a minivan, Vince manage to purchase a drum set which we moved for him.

And then we drove back to LA and said goodbye to Julia who was a wonderful host and let us stay in her lovely home. Edda did great – she had one seizure which she recovered from and didn’t turn into a cluster, I discovered that I really need trifocals – I’m struggling now with distance vision more and used my “driving” glasses much more often. And this is my favorite kind of trip – a road trip, spending time with friends, very chill. Jeremy biked a lot (not pictured) and I napped a lot.