And There Was Christmas

It came and went pretty quickly. We missed the big ole blizzard that shut down NYC, but did get a light dusting down in south Georgia, which has maybe happened twice in 30 years. I took a lot more pictures of the snow, but forgot to upload them today. Will try and post later. There was family, there was food, there was Clay's (special whiskey) Christmas Punch and there were pretty intense games of Monolopy - one that will even go down in history.

(Please imagine the following paragraph read by the guy who narrates the timeless holiday film, A Christmas Story.)

It was nearly 1am. Clay's special Christmas punch was melting in everyone's glasses. My brother was dominating the game as usual, had picked off Geoff and I in rapid succession and owned nearly every property on the board. He was about to beat poor cousin Clarke, who owned one measley monopoly, nearly all of which were morgaged to keep him in the game while he languished in jail. The Free Parking pot had grown considerably. No one had landed on it for nearly the whole game. We realized there was a fortune in there. Clarke's final chance to roll doubles and get out jail came. He shook the dice, gave it a special magic "Hail Mary" blow and....BOOOOOOM! DOUBLE FIVES! As soon as those dice hit the board, I screamed, forgetting it was 1am and my aunt and uncle were sleeping in the next room. Clay's face sank. Clarke appeared to be in shock. Double fives! Liberation from jail, a trip to Free Parking to collect All.That.Money and the game took a turn. Despite all of Clay's scrambling and wheeling and deeling that occured afterwards to emerge the victor (and it was impressive), Clarke won that night. And underdogs the world over rejoiced. He stood a little taller the next day. No longer could we be held down by they tyranny of Clay having a monopoly on winning Monopoly. There was equality. There was hope. There was Double Fives!

There wasn't much that could top that epic game.

There was, however, a family jam session.


I forgot to bring our stockings so Mom stitched Geoff's name on the back of the one I had when I was a kid. So we shared. And even though it's crocheted, and therefore stretches to become the world's largest stocking, it didn't fit everything. And it kind of looks like it has a tumor in this picture.


The blizzard did affect us getting home though. Even though the blizzard was over, our travel day was over 24 hours instead of a 2.5 hour plane ride. It was Planes, Planes and Automobiles. After attempting to leave Savannah at 12noon, we eventually got out of Atlanta at 8pm on a flight to DC, rented a car, drove a few hours, got a hotel room near the Delaware border and drove the rest of the way the next morning. Turned the rental car in at Laguardia, where (thankfully!) our luggage was waiting patiently and hailed a cab home. Have never been happier to be home in my life.

Some scenes from our epic journey...

The Savannah Airport - where it all began


The Delaware Memorial Bridge



Some Drive-by scenes of Brooklyn from the BQE





Very very glad to be home. Very.

Many more thoughts and exciting things coming up in the New Year to share. Stay tuned!

Sean and Christina

Realized we haven't posted a video in a while. For your Christmas-wrapping procrastination pleasure, here's one we did earlier this year. Such a cute young couple. I liked that the groom seemed all tough, but you could tell he was really emotional all day. It was such a pleasure to be a part of their wedding!

Streetscenes: 6th Avenue (10th-14th Streets) - Wednesday 9:45am

Cinderella in the City

I walked past this sight on my way home from the gym this morning.


It seems my neighborhood had a visit from Cinderella in the night. Now, how does this happen? A lost scarf or hat, I totally get. A glove...absolutely. But a shoe? How do you not realize that you're barefoot all of a sudden?

From what I can figure, this could only have transpired in a few ways:

1) It fell out of some poor girl's overnight bag. She was on her way to her girlfriend's place for dinner and then a night on the town and a sleepover and she was probably so pissed when she realized she was down a 4 inch heel. They do not let you into da' club with no shoes on. This ain't no beach town.

2) An angry girlfriend walked in on her man in the presence of a lady he had no business being with and promptly threw that lady and her crazy ho' heels out the 5th floor window. This shoe is all that survived the incident.

3) Cinderella does actually live in my neighborhood. If this is the case I'm glad I didn't tamper with the evidence and I sure hope he finds her. I am a sucker for a Rom-Com after all.

Here's hoping.....

Ho Ho Ho

The latest addition to this year's Christmas Extravaganza. I have to say, I am reeeeeeeeally into Santa-in-a-Hot-Air-Balloon. Kind of a lot. Am I wrong that he classes it up a bit?


I mean, as much as this crazy display can be classed up?


I will say, the landlord sure is bringing it this year. There are more lights and garlands than last year and way more Santas-in-snow-globes than ever before. Last year they were in the place of honor, before they were usurped by Hot Air Balloon Santa. This year you can sorta see them tucked in the back corners near the door. I bet they feel totally jealous of Hot Air Balloon Santa. There could actually be a lot of politics and rivalries with all these decorations, now that I think of it. I bet all those Santas and Christmas Carousel Creatures TOTALLY hate the new kid who usurps the place of honor every year. It probably gets ugly. Or at least awkward.

Regardless, any way you slice it, it's....

Just Like The Olden Days

When Geoff and I were dating and he lived in CT, I got very familiar with the Metro North. Getting to Grand Central in time to make an express train, which ticket machines had the shortest lines during rush hour and how to navigate the tourists waiting to meet their friends at the clock.

Last night was a Christmas party for all of Geoff's photography friends and I was able to go with him. He headed up earlier by car and there I was catching the 6:11pm train on track 25, scrounging for the best seat on a full train, and arriving in Bridgeport to find Geoff waiting for me. He was in the car, right outside the entrance to the station and he leaned over and opened my door for me, just like back in the old days. It was a lovely flashback to weekends in Connecticut and the early stages of our relationship. I liked it. It made me smile.

Oh Christmas....Shrubbery

Last year you may remember my attempt at a Christmas tree was a wreath. Now granted, a wreath that got a much better photo shoot than I managed this year. And complete with a very excellent decorating idea that I did (in fact) see in Real Simple this year. I think they are stalking my blog for ideas.


Hm.


Anyhooooo, this year, we're making a bit more progress toward an actual tree. We've graduated to a small bush. A few days before Thanksgiving, Mom mentioned that she could cut me a Christmas tree from their land in Maine and bring it down to hand off at Thanksgiving. I insisted that I would need something small, something that could maybe sit at the end of our entertainment center, as opposed to a real tree on the floor. Well, Mom heard me loud and clear and just in time to pack up the car, she pulled me a "tree" out of a rock in Maine, stuck it in a pot, and lo, I have officially moved up in the world. From wreath to... shrubbery.


I love it so much.

Forgive the fuzzy iPhone photos. I love how random it is. How it swoops weirdly to the side. I'm calling it avantgarde. It's very "artsy". Very non-conformist. Very "doing its own thing". I honestly could not love it more. It's the perfect amount of "tree" for us to manage with our crazy lifestyle. And those shell ornaments sure were just plucked from the beach on a walk with my mom over Thanksgiving and just tied right on with red string. It couldn't look more busted, particularly in these horrible, horrible photos.

I mean it's nothing fancy and legit like this.


But that's even a hair overdone/Martha Stewart-ish for my taste. Though certainly, closer to my actual taste. I mean, honestly my shrubbery looks like something a third grader brings home from school. But when those little white lights come on, all is right with my world.

I think it's heaven. Even if the photos are atrocious.

Coming Up for Air

Well, it's December. Which means I survived October and November. A feat in itself. And honestly, the last two months have felt kind of like I've been continuously scaling a building. It's been difficult. On a number of fronts. I normally feel like I'm a fairly positive person. I can take a lot of things thrown at me and just keep soldiering on. But these past couple of months have been different. Have kind of beaten me down in a way I'm not used to. Nothing epic or life shattering, and there are zillions of people who have it a lot worse than me, but it's been surprising (to me, though not to the other people in my life) that I've not really been able to rally back like I usually do. I'm hoping that a bit of a holiday lull at work will help things. Ultimately, there's more to examine than just that. And I'll be attempting those things as well.

In the meantime, I can't believe how much you've missed. The annual Halloween extravaganza outside my apartment building, our visit to a farm in Queens in October (so fun!), the return of Tom the Pilgrim Turkey, many adventures in cooking, multiple openings at work, my visit to a burlesque show that a friend was in (one of the cleaner ones out there I would imagine - pretty fun!),Thanksgiving at the Cape, and an attempted burglary of our apartment (luckily it happened when Geoff was home and scared the idiot away before he could even get inside). Other than that it's been mostly work, work, work. Here's hoping things are going to turn around soon... They have to. A good weekend which included time in the kitchen and real conversations with my husband led to me returning to my creative pursuits today...blogging and photography. So that must stand for something.

Stress Therapy Haiku

Work is too busy
Which means no life at all
And also no blogging

No cooking or fun
No seeing of husbands and
Friends are forgotten

Husband is stranger
(as in: unknown, not weird/scary)
Who sleeps in my bed

Twelve-hour days suck
Make me sick and unable
To deal. Or to care.

I don't want to work
This weekend. Last weekend was
enough, thank you much.

I've now caught a cold.
Even my poetry sucks
Mom-sorry I said "sucks".

May run away and
Join the circus instead of
this. Show-biz = B.S.

If I stay absent
you will know why - lion tamers don't
use the internet.

Streetscenes: Southwest of Union Square, Monday 10am

Pain Update

It's better.

It's still there, but the Crunchy Man said he saw visible improvement in my lower back as soon as he looked at it today. And I could feel it was a bit better too. And not just 'cause of the vicodin that I took for the first time today. Though that sure helps in its own way too.

So I'm not out of the woods yet, and I don't want to speak too soon, but certainly better. And I will take what I can get.

And I am now a fan of chiropractors. Who knew?

Pain, Pain, Go Away

Last Monday night I was washing dishes after dinner and felt my lower back kind of twinge and tighten up. It wasn't too terribly bad and it had happened a time or two before and usually went away fairly quickly. I didn't think much of it. It was a little worse on Tuesday morning. Ok, by "a little worse" I mean i couldn't stand up straight without feeling like I was going to puke or pass out, so I took my time getting to work. By Tuesday afternoon I was walking around like I was 8 months pregnant. By Wednesday, I was walking around like I was 90 years old. I couldn't stand up straight. At all. I wasn't sleeping well. There was constant pain, especially when getting up/sitting down and walking. Which basically covers your whole day. Sometimes it shot down my leg. But mostly I could tell that the rest of the muscles in my back were getting even more wacked out by trying to compensate for the lower back pain.

So on Thursday I took the advice of a friend and called his chiropractor. I was nervous as I'd never been to one before. But this guy came highly recomended and I was beyond desperate. He ended up being very reassuring (even when I cried while telling him I was nervous about the whole thing) and the treatment was very helpful. He said he thought it was a pinched nerve, and that the natural response of your spine was to bend away from the thing that hurts - hence my semi hunchback state. By the time he was done I was nearly standing up straight again. But then I had to go straight to an opening night at the theatre and sit for two hours (apparently the worst thing for me) and then stand in heels for another two. Which I can imagine isn't a ton better.

Friday morning I was almost back to where I'd been two days before. The chiropractor wasn't as helpful as he'd been the previous night and the whole day was pretty painful. I tried to go back and see "the crunchy man" (as mom had taken to calling him) Friday night (as he is not open on the weekends) but work prevented me from getting there before he left for the evening. I cried in the middle of 7th Avenue when I found this out. Out of frustration, pain and just general exhaustion. But I went home on Friday night and tried to make the best of it. There may or may not have been wine involved. Purely for pain management purposes, of course.

The weekend was spent alternating ice and heat and sleeping with two pillows under my knees. Wasting the gorgeous fall weather due to my invalid status. And figuring out that the mornings were far more painful that the evenings. Taking two walks a day, incorporating some great stretches and marveling at how back pain affects not only your body, your sleep habits and your social life, but even your ability to carry on an interesting conversation. Or any conversation at all that doesn't involve your current pain. So I felt a bit sorry for Geoff. And we both spent a good deal of effort trying to avoid thinking about Monday. For him, it meant jury duty. For me, a full day of auditions and a three hour class to teach.

Monday dawned early for us both and regardless of the extra time I spent trying to warm up my back (hot shower, heating pad, stretches), it was a painful commute and very difficult morning. Geoff did get released from jury duty and auditions didn't go too badly. But my body didn't feel any better until nearly 5pm. Not sure why it likes the evenings better, but I suppose I cant blame it too much. I will also choose not to dwell on the fact that in addition to the all day pain, my "fat" jeans were tighter than I would have liked this morning. I am moving on from that. Well, I'm not really, but there are bigger fish to fry at the moment.

So here we are exactly a week after I felt that first twinge at the sink last Monday. I go back to the chiropractor tomorrow and he and I are gonna have a bit of a chat. Get a game plan and get me fixed. Cause here's what - Im over this whole not being able to walk/sit/stand/sleep thing. I have a feeling at a ton of it is stress related. But work will be madness until Thanksgiving, so that stress isn't going anywhere. We'll just have to find a way to handle it better I guess. I'm thinking wine, massages and puppies might be the perfect prescription. But we'll see what the Crunchy Man has to say about it.

Streetscenes: 42nd & Broadway - 46th & 6th

Scenes from my walk to the theatre last night.

In the breezeway of the newly christened Stephen Sondheim Theatre


43rd Street


44th Street


6th Ave


46th & 6th

Brunch in Brooklyn

A few Sundays ago, Alison hosted a girls brunch at her place in Brooklyn. And being the Little Miss Martha Stewart that she is, it was absolutely fabulous. I got there a bit early and helped with last minute prep; making coffee and whipping up a salad dressing for the CSA greens that were to be part of the meal.


Is it weird that I really like making homemade salad dressing? Like, kind of a lot? A mustard shallot vinaigrette is my new favorite I think ....


Alison made this fabulous quiche.


Then the girls arrived and we had a feast...



Amanda brought Miss Laura of course and she was QUITE the life of the party.


She's about seven and half months and at that I-must-be-Bouncing-at-all-times stage. Her legs are always moving. She also needs to know where Mom is at all times. But eventually she relaxed and got really into the rest of us. Particularly Alison's dog Rupert, as he is just her size.

Here they are really sizing each other up.



We don't all get together nearly often enough. Truly. Life gets hectic for all of us, I know - shows and jobs and babies and husbands and all that. But it is lovely to get together when we can. We should probably just put a quarterly brunch on the calendar, so we know it at least happens 4 times a year. Maybe we could make it happen more often than that if we remember that Alison will likely make us something like this.


Yep, that should do it.