Poetic Justice

On Tuesday night I went out for drinks with a friend. Over chips and guacamole, he told me that he thinks it is unbelievably stupid that people wear flip flops when they know it's supposed to rain. Though I am sometimes one of those people, I just nodded and the conversation moved on to other important topics, such as how spicy we like our guacamole and how old our cats are. Wow. It is sentences like that one that make it clear I will never be a rock star.

I thought about his footwear comment this morning, as I got ready to go to work. The forecast was 86 degrees with thunderstorms, so I threw on a skirt and my flip flops (also I put a shirt on), grabbed my umbrella, and headed out. My logic was thus: it was hot; I didn't want to wear rain boots. Also, I don't have any rain boots.

No rain on the way to work. No rain most of the way home from work. I made a quick stop at Whole Foods and left with a paper bag full of food, since I had forgotten the handy reusable plastic bags I am so fond of. No rain.

I was three blocks from home when it started, just a drizzle at first. By the time I was two blocks away, I swear what I was walking through could have been classified as a small tornado. The wind was whipping the rain so hard down 23rd street that I had to hold my umbrella directly in front of me like a shield. I was struggling with my three dripping wet bags, one of them full of groceries and starting to tear, another insufficiently protecting my lap top, when my shoe broke. The flip pretty much flopped right out of it. I tried to make my way to the side of the street to look at it, but there was nothing I could do. I had no free hands and the sidewalk was quickly becoming a river. People walked by without umbrellas, and though I know they were worse off than I was, all I could think was: I have to walk down 23rd Street wearing only one shoe. There are so, so many things wrong with that. 23rd Street is just ok when you're wearing shoes. If you're barefoot, it's a toilet.

The paper bag ripped more. I clutched it to my chest and kicked my shoe into a gutter. I hobbled home, every inch of me soaking wet and finally made it to my door, where I was greeted by Manny, the doorman. "I lost my shoe," I told him. "Did it break?" he asked. "You shouldn't wear flip flops when it's raining."

I'm Still Here. Mostly.

So…when we last left off I was slacking on my blog duties and therefore, I don’t even know if anyone is there anymore, save my four lovely followers who probably get some kind of alert when I decide to put words on this page. Hi guys.

First up on the list of things to report on: my trip to LA. Awesome, as always. Liz took me back to the fabulous clothing stores that I love so much, and I stocked up. My mom bought us each a piece of clothing and declared how proud she was of us for shopping in a store where the average price of a sweater is $24. “I’m finally rubbing off on you,” she said, handing over her credit card. Debatable.

It was the kind of long, relaxing weekend that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to blog stories, so suffice it to say we had fun at the beach, by the pool, eating tapas, eating Italian, and making art (my sister taught me how to decoupage.) When I brought my artwork home, Rob looked at it and said, “Huh. Is that for your office?” I rolled my eyes and placed both pieces in our second bedroom, where he routinely ignores them.

More later. I don’t want to exhaust all my illuminating updates on one post. Next up: this past weekend spent with my 15- and 16-year old nephews from Long Island.

Deepish Thoughts on Traveling

The alarm goes off at 6:30am. I hit snooze. I must be up by 7:00 in order to make it to the airport. At 7:30 I open my eyes and then sit straight up in panic. Shit. I didn't hit snooze; I turned the alarm off. I frantically run around shoving things into my suitcase. I manage to put on a bra but no makeup. I quickly shower but there is no time to do anything with my hair other than put it in a low librarian bun, the kind I favor when I am in need of a haircut but not desperate enough to actually make an appointment. I refuse to look at the clock as the cab inches through city traffic. By some miracle I make it to the airport in time.

I wait for 25 minutes in line for coffee, feeling vaguely threatened by the constant announcements that it is my last chance to get on the plane. I contemplate the possibility that I have rushed to the airport only to prioritize coffee ahead of an actual plane ride.

I drink all the coffee and curse the seatbelt sign. When it is ok to get up and move about the cabin, I hightail it to the bathroom. A quick look in the mirror confirms that without makeup and with my hair back I look exactly like my brother. Who is, as you may have guessed, a boy, and therefore not someone I strive to be mistaken for. I vow not to look in the mirror for the rest of the flight.

I read one entire book on my Kindle and then watch Sunshine Cleaning. It's a long flight to LA. But I never said it was an interesting one.

Look at it this way

My friend John L (not to be confused with Johnny Vac) sent me this very interesting piece by Eugene Robinson on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

Two exciting things

Thing 1: Joe makes an appearance in the new Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies! Some of you may know that Joe, in his retirement, has turned to the silver screen as an extra in a variety of films filmed in Chicago. He has now been on-set for Flags of our Fathers, Fred Claus, and The Dark Knight. Though he claims to do it for the free lunch, the haircuts, and the groupies, we all know he has just been waiting for his big moment. And now, 1 hour and several minutes into Public Enemies, he can be seen multiple times in a scene where Johnny Depp and some other guy go into a cigar shop that is a front for a bookie operation. See Joe be a bookie! I haven't yet, but I can't wait.


Thing 2: My phenomenal husband, who does take much abuse on this here blog, has bought me a Kindle. Ellie blogged recently about her experience with Kindle and I must say I am excited to try mine out. As soon as I finish the stack of books on the floor next to my bed. Or sooner, because I think if I don't download a book by tomorrow, I may discover that my new Kindle has been sent to Ellie for better use. If nothing else, I am flying to Los Angeles on Thursday to spend the week with Liz and my mom, and I think this will be the perfect solution to my "I can't decide what book to take on the plane so I'll just bring these five" problem.

It's nice to have exciting things happen.

Saying hello to the seventh month

So far, I have spent the majority of July pretending it is not, in fact, July. I have nothing against the month itself, I just cannot believe it’s already here. It feels like summer is half over and I haven’t even wrapped my head around the fact that it arrived at all. This is likely due to the rainy month of June, both uncommon and unwelcome. My denial of this month has made blogging rather difficult. I wake up each day, pretending it is still June, much the way my friend John wakes up each day pretending he is still 29.

But the month has actually been a fun one, now that I’ve decided to acknowledge it. Rob and I flew to Fort Myers, FL last Thursday, to see his parents. They picked us up at the airport and we drove down to Miami, where our niece Jade was in a national volleyball tournament, representing the state of Arizona. I already feel like a shrimp kabob when I’m around Rob’s family, because even the 14-year-olds are over 6 feet. But now I was at a high school volleyball tournament: it was a whole new dimension of inadequacy. I craned my neck to talk to everyone, and then I ran around, looking for all of the players who were 5’4” like me so that I could stand next to them. The problem with that is that none of them were on Jade’s team, so they were probably wondering who I was and why I was standing so close to them with a huge smile of victory on my face.

Jade’s team won both games we saw, and after spending a couple of days in Miami with the family, we drove back to Rob’s parents place for 2 very relaxing days of going to bed early, lounging in their pool, reading, and watching the Federer/Roddick tennis match that I seriously thought might go on all night. However, I must add that if Rob’s mom told me ONE more time how tired I looked, I was going to throw her in the pool.

So now that I’m back in the swing of things at work, and I’ve admitted that the year is more than half over, I guess I might do some more blogging at some point. Maybe.