Frankenstorm!

We are due for a storm!

Yesterday, Sandy was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm and then quickly promoted again.

The danger of this storm seems to be in its uncertainty. The National Weather Service is unclear where the storm will actually hit- anywhere from Maryland to New York City. Not only will Sandy turn west where she should turn east, and grow stronger where she should be backing down, but cold air it encounters from the north will transform it into a winter storm. Something similar happened in the fall of 1991, when hurricane Grace combined forces with a powerful Nor'easter and created "The Perfect Storm." I faced the resulting Halloween storm in Plymouth in a sled dressed as a "Spanish senorita" with my mouse-brother Anders sitting in front of me. I remember the long broomstick skirt and green lace mantilla I wore that had to be covered up by my neon color-blocked parka.

I just picked up three more gallons of water; we will fill our tub and make chili tonight. Subways and trains are out starting at 7 pm tonight, no work tomorrow, and it will be a 'snow day' for me and Penny.

For now, it's off to brunch at Scottadito with friends.

...

Our provisions: plenty of books, food, music, and vino.

Forgot to put the pumpkin in the picture; we'll be carving that guy up and roasting seeds. 

Amazing what an extra day off can do for the soul!

A Day in the Life.

 

 Our building is on Eastern Parkway, a long tree-lined boulevard with people on walks, runs, and bike-rides. There is a lot of bustle to and from Prospect Park, which is only a 10-minute walk or so. We shopped for our apartment after we had officially moved to New York, and fell in love with it right away! Here's a little bit of our view out apartment.

 

  
Approaching our front door up the old marble steps.

 

Here is our subway stop, literally right next to our house. The 2 and 3 trains, on the red line, go into Manhattan and up 7th Ave. on the East Side. The 4 and 5 trains, on the green, go into Manhattan and up 5th Ave. on the West. We are so lucky to be located on such a hub.  It's never difficult to get anywhere (except for inside Brooklyn- ironically it's harder to get to Katie's house in Williamsburg than it is to get to work at MCP).

Inside the subway (awkward to take pictures here).

Some views of the office: That's Jake and Christine saying hello, then Heather, Anthony, and John in "Estrogen South." I am taking the photo from my little area.

Our 2nd floor rehearsal space.

 

Bear Mountain

Before I left for Bear Mountain on Saturday morning, Penny played this Bob Dylan song for me. Here are a few verses that will give you the jist of the song.

I saw it advertised one day,Bear mountain picnic was comin' my way."come along 'n' take a trip,We'll bring you up there on a ship.Bring the wife and kidsBring the whole family."Yippee!
Well, I run right down 'n' bought a ticketTo this bear mountain picnic.But little did I realizeI was in for a picnic surprise.Had nothin' to do with mountains.I didn't even come close to a bear......

Well, I soon lost track of m' kids 'n' wife,So many people there I never saw in m' lifeThat old ship sinkin' down in the water,Six thousand people tryin' t' kill each other, Dogs a-barkin', cats a-meowin',Women screamin', fists a-flyin', babies cryin',Cops a-comin', me a-runnin'.Maybe we just better call off the picnic....
Now, I don't care just what you do,If you wanta have a picnic, that's up t' you.But don't tell me about it, I don't wanta hear it,'cause, see, I just lost all m' picnic spirit.Stay in m' kitchen, have m' own picnic...In the bathroom.
Now, it don't seem to me quite so funnyWhat some people are gonna do f'r money.There's a bran' new gimmick every dayJust t' take somebody's money away.I think we oughta take some o' these peopleAnd put 'em on a boat, send 'em up to bear mountain...For a picnic.

Love it. Anyway, I packed up the gear (including my never-been-used CamelBak) and headed to Port Authority. Paul was sitting at the station already with our tickets, and we soon boarded our bus along with other hikers, campers, and Oktoberfest goers. Every October for a few weeks, Bear Mountain Inn hosts an Oktoberfest that mimics Trout Fry in the quantity of beer, people, and shenanigans.

The Oktoberfest was marked by an accordion band, huge steins of beer, and women with tall flat brown boots and leggings. We met some hikers who had just gotten off the Appalachian Trail (the AT, they called it), and gave us some tips about how to get on the trail and where to stay. After we explored a little bit, we hiked up to the crest of Bear Mountain for the lookout. We could see the Manhattan skyline far off in the clear-day sky. Our big hiking pack made us an authority of the trail; we got lots of comments and questions from other hikers.

There's the white blaze of the Appalachian Trail behind me! 

We walked back down, Paul bought a stein, and we waited in line for 30 minutes to get a yummy Belgian ale. We sat on a picnic bench by the lake and ate our peanut sauce stir-fry that we brought from home. It was getting chilly and late, so we started across the Bear Mountain bridge. 

The path was all uphill or down, and was constructed with rock steps like the limestone ones in Decorah. We hiked quickly as the sun set, and as the trail descended the other side of this mini-mountain (above), we reached a campsite with several pads and fire grates. Not long after camp was set up, it was DARK (and only about 6:00pm). A through-camper (another learned term) came in to camp right after us and went down to the stream with his head-lamp. He had started in Maine, and was already at the base of New York. I don't think he even had a tent. Paul and I retreated to the tent for Nuts by the light of my meek headlamp hung by the ceiling and chilled red wine from the air. I think we were in bed by 7:45pm. You've gotta follow the sun!

In the morning we were up and out by 6:45am, came back to the Bear Mountain Inn, and caught the bus back to the city at 8:30. It was a completely wonderful 24-hour vacation.

Weekend Project for the Pennies.

Can I has rug?

Can I has scarves, hats, lamps, drawers?

Can I has door?

Love the contrasting prints, pictures.

Laura has a 6-paned antique window to use for hooks and a make-shift white board.

Mom and Dad visit New York, walk

My parents visited last weekend, right in the middle of their longer road trip through Canada, upstate New York, Cape Cod, and back across the Midwest. They camped on the North Shore of Lake Superior (the actual North Shore, in Canada), visited the Thunder Bay Palmquists, Niagara Falls, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

I put on my hospitality coordinator hat and made some itineraries for the four of us to see Manhattan, Brooklyn, and my life in both of them to the fullest.

Thursday:
Wine night. We got to relax, hang out, and be with Laura, Katie, and Brent. Laura and Mom navigated their conversation toward writing and memoir, Dad and Paul took up a lighthearted debate on PC vs. Mac. We had boxed wine, listened to Joni Mitchell on vinyl, and unwound in the living room. We learned that Dad knew Mike Fuller, Laura's father, when they were students together at St. John's. Instead of taking my offer to sleep in my bed, they made a nest on the living room floor with their camping gear and blankets, and had the dull roar of the subway under their resting bodies.

Friday:
On Friday morning, Mom and Dad came to work with me. They were able to see my commute and the path I take to work, complete with all its idiosyncrasies and delays. A man in our car actually had a seizure or fainted or something, and before we could blink there was a doctor with her stethoscope around her neck, giving care. (This morning I saw the same guy again, and I noticed him right before another couple did too. They asked him if he was feeling better). They came in to the offices of MCP, saw the rehearsal room, my space, and met everybody before our 9:00 staff meeting. While we were working, Mom and Dad took in the Flatiron District (and some of the historic Flatiron buildings), the Museum of Modern Art, and then the TKTS line in Times Square. They got tickets for Porgy and Bess, which was in its closing weekend. We met Mom and Dad at Kashkaval, a Mediterranean wine bar in the Upper East Side that had been recommended to us by several people. We got plates of hummus, tapenade, and roasted red pepper, baskets of pita bread, and big glasses of wine. My new camera was in tow, but a new memory card was not. Porgy and Bess was quite the show. Audra McDonald had won a Tony for her performance as Bess, and Norm Lewis had been nominated for Porgy. It was a very stirring production- both sweet, sad, and then heartbreaking at the end. The audience was right at the edge of their chairs when Bess was on stage. Even when the audience knew that something bad was going to happen, we groaned and sighed anyway when our expectations were realized, hoping that something or someone would have intervened. We walked through Times Square and over to Central Park, and trained home- pretty exhausted.

Kashkaval.

Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis.

Saturday:
On Saturday we got up and met Paul at the 9/11 Memorial. We printed our passes at the Brooklyn Central Library, and then waited in a long tourist line at the World Trade Center site. The memorial had rows of oak trees, including a lone pear tree- The Survivor Tree- that actually survived the attack. We spent a long time observing the two pools, both footprints of the  former buildings. The foundations are now huge cavernous fountains, with tiny individual streams first falling from the upper edges, then spilling into a deeper space where the bottom is unseen.  We walked uptown and had lunch in TriBeCa, stopped at some shops in the Village (including a glasses place where Paul later got new glasses), and then bought paella ingredients at Murray's Cheese Shop. They have caves for aging cheese in the basement of the shop, and tours are available! We were again exhausted at the end of our day in the city, but it was only 4:00 p.m. Dad and I went to the hardware store for some home improvement projects, and then I made paella for all of us as we bummed (again with wine and vinyl) in the living room.

One World Trade Center or "Freedom Tower" will stand 1776 feet when completed.

The branches of the Survivor Tree.

Look what we found! Philip Marie cafe.

Walking in TriBeCa.

Lunch.

TriBeCa Farmers Market 

Poor guy! 

Some subway shots.

 

Beautiful West Village apartments.

Sunday:
Today was our Brooklyn Day, probably my favorite of the visit. We started the day with church at St. Charles Borromeo- I got to show off our wonderful priest, Fr. Ed. After church we took a cab to the Brooklyn Bridge (the most gorgeous morning, no camera, though) to walk across. Bikers, walkers, and tourists crammed the bridge, and we were able to see the entire Manhattan skyline and much of the East River on the way across. Brunch commenced at Alice's Arbor (brunch is a huge New York thing- we had to experience it with Mom and Dad) with steak and eggs, veggie omelettes, and cocktails. We were very hungry from the already long morning, and the slooww service didn't help. After brunch we trekked through Prospect Park into Park Slope, where we shopped stoop sales (NY garage sales) and dined our way up 5th Avenue. This was the place where my mom finally got to see the Brooklyn brownstones I had been building up. "This is where I pictured you living," she said.

"Me too."

We made our way to the most fantastic dinner spot, Flatbush Farms. Between the four of us we took down martinis, ginger cocktails, Brussels sprouts, mussels, steak, duck, parsnip soup, and raved throughout the whole dinner. It was a great way to celebrate the close of the trip!

This block was lit entirely by gas street lamps!

Please come again soon!