Potatoes in the Mist

So we arrived in Miami today. The flight was, for the most part, uneventful -- though we hit some turbulence right before landing. E seemed to survive it all, though. There was a scary moment in the cab going to the hotel -- a Jeep rolled over on the highway. They pulled some people out of it and everyone seemed to be OK, though they were holding one guy very straight, I guess so they wouldn't interfere with his spine. It was definitely chilling and made me glad that I don't have to drive or be in a car very often. We got a great room in the hotel. I think it might be bigger than our apartment! After dinner we went to CVS (there aren't a lot of supermarkets around here) to pick up some cereal and other staples. This hotel has refrigerators, which is nice. They didn't have organic milk or the organic version of my cereal, but I figured flexibility is important. D also got pay-as-you-go cell phones for us...mine has been broken for a while, and his just broke. Mine still ...

We're going to Miami on Thursday so my mind is taken up with the kind of mundane details that I hate. One of them is my packing list. I suspect many of us wish we could change in crucial ways, or fantasize about an alter ego. My alter ego can travel with a tiny knapsack, at a moment's notice, no planning required. In reality, my packing list is a page long, and even though I come nowhere near the 40 minutes the "average" woman spends on grooming daily (huh?), I still have a long list of grooming garbage to take: deodorant razor floss toothpaste toothbrush facial cleanser sunscreen hairbrush Oh well. I guess that knapsack was just a fantasy.

So I just got back from a brief visit to my hometown. It was for a sad reason, but I liked seeing all my family. My mother has a really big family -- they have a Christmas party every year, and 70-80 people show up (and that's not even perfect attendance). I like the social aspect of a large family. Anyway, I finished two knitted pieces on the train. Here's a hat for D's sister: And here's a heart scarf: And, since today is D's birthday, he got a couple of presents from my mom:

So I ended up taking quite a few pictures during the weekend (Saturday through Monday, to be precise). Swampscott... Bearette and the fabulous, beautiful Iggy: Iggy and his brother: The sea: The beautiful bike we bought, to use when we go to MA (it rides like a dream): The super-cute pink camera my sister gave my mom: The hat I finished making for D:

So I'm in Massachusetts for Mother's Day weekend, and my youngest nephew is having his first communion tomorrow. Tonight, my mom, D and I went to Swampscott (a tony coastal town) to wander around and sample the local eats. I met a fabulous Hevanese named Iggy, and the little boy who was with Iggy was kind enough to take a picture of us. I also got some nice shots of the Swampscott beach and a little knit bunny my sister gave my mom. Since I don't have my USB cord here, I'll download them back in the city. At dinner, Mom related the story about 2 feuding people at her job...Egbert and Gary. (Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.) A year ago, Gary got fed up with some stuff his boss, Egbert, was doing. Gary was foolhardy enough to send an email to Egbert, calling him out on his worst traits. Egbert has not spoken to Gary since, except when it's absolutely necessary. Once Egbert was sick and had to ask Gary to take someone to lunch or something like t...

So D and I got back from Miami last night. I always get a little thrill from seeing the New York skyline, especially at night. Like San Fran, New York is a city of bridges, and they always look so pretty, as if they have bright little necklaces strung across the tops. (I know, I'm sure that comparison has been made before, but the lights on the bridges really do look like cute jewelry.) There was some drama on Wednesday, our last day at the beach. We checked out of our hotel at 1 pm. They agreed to keep our bags behind the desk, and we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach, which closes at 5 pm. At that point, the "beach boys" put away the rented chairs and umbrellas, which are fairly expensive. But on Wednesday, the beach boy came up at 4:20 and told us the beach was closing in 10 minutes. He claimed there was a beach-wide personnel meeting. He was insistent, so we got off the chairs. The whole thing sounded fishy to me, especially since I saw him race off t...

So we went to dinner with A and R tonight, our friends in the area. Conversation ranged over a wide variety of topics, including whether A and I should attend our upcoming college reunion. Am not sure why I am angsting about this so much. I went to my fifth-year reunion without a second thought, and had a good time. A isn't sure she wants to go, either. I made an "I'll go if you go" offer and she laughed and said, "I'm not ready to commit." She said she got post-traumatic stress disorder from her high school reunion. I steer clear of those :) And I did like my college, so again, I'm not sure why I'm putting so much analysis into it. Moving on... We ate at the Pelican, a fun, uber-trendy hotel with a sharp green awning and a pink padded door to the ladies' room. I got orrechiette with eggplant, cheese and tomato sauce, which was nothing less than splendid; and D and I split a key lime pie, my favorite Floridian dessert. R cracked us up with an...

So today we went to the beach again...pretty much the norm here. The antibiotics seem to be doing their job (knock on wood...I'm quite superstitious about these things). I finished my merino wool scarf: It's a bit folded up...actually longer than it appears. So thank you for all your thoughts on Barbie and her friend. I saw her AGAIN today...with a third guy. I thought guy #2 was the best choice, but apparently she didn't, because she kept going. Anyway, her friend was sleeping alone on her towel as Barbie and Guy #3 frolicked in the waves. But then...2 or 3 guys came over to talk with Barbie's friend. One of them stayed. And he seemed a lot smarter and more interesting than Barbie's boy :) He looked a bit like one of the Native American actors from Smoke Signals . And speaking of actors, I left the beach to get us two panini for lunch. I went to the snack shop and asked for two caprese panini (tomato, mozzarella and basil). There was a corkboard covered with pictur...

So D and I are both sick, but starting to feel better. We had dinner last night with friends who live in the area. They are a fun, genial couple, and the husband is a doctor. He was able to diagnose me swiftly and efficiently after peering down my throat in the light from his cell phone ;) For dinner tonight, D and I went to Nexxt (yup, they spell it that way). It's a crowded place with outdoor seating, and the tables are packed close together. As the meal drew to a close, a huge burp tore out of me. It came out of nowhere, like a force of nature. I looked furtively at the couple next to us, to see if they heard. They looked stunned, and then they laughed -- but in a nice way. For a couple of minutes we giggled together. I still can't believe I did that! On the beach yesterday, a pair of girls settled on their towels near us. It was one of those situations where I feel bad for one of the friends. One girl looked like Barbie, with carefully dyed platinum hair and cute, tight-fit...

Well, it must be said...bienvenido a Miami. (Calling to mind Will Smith's '99 hit, etc., etc.) The plane ride was a little hairy. I did sit next to a father with a cute kid, though. The father saw my knitting and became quite animated. He told me how one of his favorite running backs, for Boise State, is an avid crocheter and sells his creations online. The running back makes beanies for his teammates. They used to mock him, calling him "Crochet Guy," but then he had a bunch of important wins or goals or something and they stopped making fun of him and started wearing his stuff ;) After we got off the plane, our luggage was nowhere to be found. Newark 1623 appeared on *none* of the baggage claim charts. It was as if the flight had vanished into thin air. Even more puzzling, there was no large group of disgruntled travelers. It was like everyone got some memo except us. Then we found another girl who was confused, and we were directed to a random baggage chute. "T...

But I admit it. Isn't that an important step? The scarf above is the darker pink one, which is my favorite so far. We visited Rainer (my Brooklyn cat) at the bookstore recently. He really didn't want me to leave, so I promised I'd come back next week. We like going to Dumont Burger, anyway. In other news, we're going to Miami in March for a week. I'm a little tired of the place, but D loves it so. A plus is that we have friends there now. A college friend and her husband, who is doing his residency in Florida, live nearby. So we're planning to get together with them. Last night we watched Smoke Signals , a movie from Netflix. In the past, I spotted it in the video store and noted, "I'd like to watch that sometime." Based on the video cover, I thought it would be a light-hearted romantic comedy about Native Americans. Boy, was I wrong. It was a dark, depressing movie about Native Americans. Granted, it was an interesting perspective on life on the C...

I have a bit of a travel bug. Usually I want to stay firmly rooted in New York, but a few places are beckoning me right now... London. Our friend P is there, I like it, but I have been there before so it won't have the novelty thing going on. However, they have many books by British authors before the US gets them...always a perk. I don't know what the weather is like there right now. Oh, I think it's snowing (based on British blogs I read). Tokyo. Maybe by way of San Fran or L.A. Thailand. If we went there, we would go after D's friend moves there. Or maybe just San Fran by itself. Last night we went to a resto with DG. I used to love the place to the utmost, but they've brightened the lights, killing the atmosphere, and it's obscenely crowded. As usual we were relegated to a couch under the stairs. And the waitress seemed to be on crack (until DG asked her if she was an actress, due to her dramatic energy. This seemed to anger her and she faded away.) So, I do...

A while ago, Amtrak called and asked if I wanted to be part of a focus group. I would be paid $100 to talk about my experiences with Amtrak...during dinner hour! Nah. But when we took the train today, it occurred to me that they could use a yoga car. The car would have no seats, and lots of floor space for mats. Of course, they will never do this because they could pack the car with people instead and make a profit. But I think they should! Once I tried doing yoga in the aisle (on a different trip) and a well-intentioned girl asked, "Are you lookin' for somethin'?" So now I'm too self-conscious. On today's trip, the conductor kept announcing, "Claire Kirby, this is your stop. Get off now," and repeating that with different names. I didn't know they had a reminder service. They did have a number of elderly people on the train who may have asked to be reminded. One of them, a woman behind us, struck up a conversation with D. "Do you smoke?...

So we just got back from Massachusetts. We had a nice time at the party. The food was good and the Yankee swap was tame. I noticed my niece did not participate, though she did call out people's numbers. D ended up drawing the 101 Margaritas book that we bought, and although some people said, "That's a keeper," no one took it. So we have many margarita recipes; each one has either a salt shaker with a check mark or a salt shaker with a line through it. I really like flying to Boston. It only takes an hour. And they feed you. Curiously, they made me surrender my toothpaste, but allowed me to keep my razor. I guess they want you to be able to defend yourself in case there are crazies on the plane. I also patted a bomb-sniffing dog. I could tell how nice it was, and the security officer was saying that the dog is best friends with a 10-year-old girl. Finally I got close to the dog and it wagged its tail and licked my hand. It also engaged in some recreational sniffing.

It is definitely the sniffles time of year. In class tonight, there was a whole fusillade of them. (Okay, I just wanted to use the word "fusillade"). On the subway on the way over, a father and child sat next to me. The child, a little boy, was upset because he wasn't on the side of the car where there are windows. (Never mind that we were going through a completely dark tunnel...he wanted a window!) Child: (in injured tones) Those people have windows. Father: (sympathetically) I know. Child: They're not even using them. It's not FAIR. Father: A lot of adult maneuvers aren't fair. Child: Adults are badder than kids. Father: There's more than a smidgen of truth in that. Then the train went above ground...it goes along one of the bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn...I think it's the Williamsburg Bridge. It is a pretty view. The kid and father stood up and went to look out the window. I was glad he was getting so much joy out of it. I remember when we...