Just regular folks.

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.

Last night, I went to a comedy club’s open mic night because Tom was performing. I haven’t seen Tom in a while and this was a fun outing. Only Edda and I went because Jeremy is on a business trip in Arlington, VA which is practically within shouting distance of our house. It’s a long story. I had great time, catching up with folks and hearing about the leadership in Scouting and listening to comics trying out material. I was very impressed with Tom, this is not a thing I would want to do.

We stayed only an hour and left at 9 pm, Edda was complaining a bit about going home, so off we went.

I had a very nice birthday – the best gift was the first beautiful non-humid day in a while and I luxuriated in the feeling. I also felt 100% better after my covid shot and I took the day off of work. I got a birthday massage in the morning and then I spent the day doing things I consider fun which involved some garden work since it was so nice outside – I mowed the lawn mid-day. A treat! I got my cordless weed wacker to weed wack (I will never ever master string deployment on any weed wacker in my life). I protected some new-ish plants from deer with unsightly wire cages. I watched monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, their little mandibles going chomp chomp chomp. I could spend a long time watching that, it’s quite entertaining. I also went to the library where I got a couple of books and to Trader Joe’s where I bought an assortment of flowers keeping it about $20 and then did the arranging myself at home based on some youtube videos I had watched over the weekend. I was in the middle of all this greenery, clipping, leaves flying and water spilling and general messing around when Jeremy walked downstairs and I told him – don’t buy me any flowers for my birthday, I bought them myself. And he looked at me and said – I can’t buy my wife flowers for her birthday? And then he paused and said – I see you are entertaining yourself.

Here’s the bouquet, not bad, the flowers are a bit short the greens a little too much, but it’s all OK!

Jeremy wanted to take me to lunch and we were headed out and then Elka looked at us and said…wait, I want to come! (pls don’t leave me alone). And so we adjusted our restaurant choice to one with outdoor seating and Elka might have gotten a water bowl, a treat from the wait staff and multiple pieces of chicken from us. She was very pleased. I got tater tots! I was also very pleased.

I got my Covid/flu shot on Saturday, so I spend most of Sunday weary and achy. I feel pretty good today which is nice because it’s my birthday! I took today off work and I’m getting a massage and we’ll take a trip to the library.

I also am proud of myself, I successfully tempered chocolate and I found at least three monarch caterpillars on my milkweek plant.

And a bunch of other milkweed bugs.

Someone got a paper published! Nature! So proud <3! And noncanonical is one of my favorite words. Goooo Vincie!!!!

Anita was over yesterday and of all the Elka stuffies (there must be at least 10 in the house) that are available, she took Stitch. Stitch is the only non-thrifted stuffie because we called Elka Stitch when she was a puppy because she was so mischievous. Anita and Elka have a special relationship. Anita takes all of Elka’s toys and then sometimes grabs Elka’s collar and yanks it back and forth and Elka…kind of just stands there looking sad, but secretly I think Elka likes it. We don’t often have little kids in the house and I think Elka would really like a small person to hang out with.

Jeremy is headed to California again today. Not very fuel efficient, but what can you do? He tried to make it one trip, but with something last Tuesday and something this Friday with a long holiday weekend in the middle, it was just a little too much to rope into one go around. And Elka is so sad when he’s gone. She literally just stands there while his suitcase is open with her sad puppy dog eyes. He’s been preparing for a talk and he’s hosting a happy hour for 40-50 people. And this time he brought our Jenga set with him. He’s like my problem is like a Jenga set! He ordered a bunch of colored painters tape and made a prop.

I’m not sure what is going on, but it’s driving me crazy that that one “gas tax” block is upside down (these are his photos). And yes, he put the entire set in his checked luggage. Hmmm, I should have offered to write these for him, I have better handwriting. (Did I tell you that Jeremy fell in love with my handwriting first before he fell in love with me? lol. He was my TA in statistical mechanics. I wrote very clearly, so he could clearly see that I did not really understand statistical mechanics. double lol. But he loves me anyways…).