Monthly Archives: October 2006

I had a really super weekend. very busy. am very sleepy, but am having a hard time making myself totter off to bed.

* friday I drove into brooklyn for my friend jenn’s birthday party. it was wonderful – one of those adult parties that is super fun, and where all different areas of her life showed up and made lots of good conversation. I got there around 8 and was shocked (shocked!) when suddenly it was 11 and I had to dash. I was picking up ranger (rachel) at the train in prep for our:

* sat. at the sheep and wool festival. it was so nuts! rachel and I had secretly thought that sarah, being, you know, pregnant, would not be up for a long day. we were so wrong. we met at 10 and didn’t get out of there until 3:30. and then there was fierce traffic. but I had a good time, super good! and bought some fibery stuff. yay.

* sat. night was the alumni art auction and casino night. it’s always a stellar good time. my skirt went over very well, and all the dealers at the craps table were totally flirting with me (hee!) and therefore I didn’t bust out of my fake chips at the very beginning when there was an unprecidented run of bad shooters.  I bid on art but didn’t win anything. it was great! also, paula came, and then I suggested we hit kareoke afterwards.

* kareoke afterwards! I sang private dancer and jolene, two of the saddest songs ever. it was so fun. I caught the 4:30 bus home. am very tired today.

* I did manage to get moving in time to meet rachel for marie antionette this afternoon. we brought cupcakes from the cupcake cafe in with us and the movie was pretty great. not as punk rock fun as I thought it would be, but still very good. and GOSH but versailles is a ridiculous place!

* tonight I made me some dinner and read a book. and goofed off. am going to sleep right now.

last night, as per my “week in advance” plan, I went home and got ready to make a new skirt. and by got ready to make a new skirt, I mean read a book while enjoying a nice cup of soup and cheese and crackers for dinner. When kathleen called at 9:30 I was so embarassed! I saw it was her and thought “oh no! I’m in for it!” she gave me a hard time, but while we were on the phone I laid out my pattern and cut the pieces and marked them. it took me about 2 1/2 hours (and that’s finishing every seam neatly) but I finished!

here’s my messy messy work area:

look! I even basted in the zipper! don’t I look THRILLED to be following the pattern to a T? the zipper did come out awfully nice, I must admit. I don’t know if it’s nicer than it WOULD have been, but that’s ok.

and the skirt:

this was a dry run for my anticipated silk and tulle skirt I want to wear to the casino night I’m attending on sat. it’s the same pattern, but I wanted to do it first on some sturdy materials so I wouldn’t mess up any flimsy silk. tonight I’m going to stop by the rag shop for thread and a zipper and black muslin if they have it, and then home again to whip up a slip with tulle edging. then I’ll see how it looks with skirt #1 (currently wearing), and then proceed with skirt #2 in the silk.

Michelle and Gabbi and I went to see chihuly in the bronx botanical gardens. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been trying to see chihuly for a while. The biggest challenge (besides the bus being ultra slow, us missing our planned train, and worrying that the timed entry tickets wouldn’t be valid) was saying ChiHULY and not ChiLULY. I know, it’s the little things that are the most difficult.

it was a seriously beautiful day.

there were a lot of different things to look at…

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• Monday: gym and therapy

• Tuesday and/or Wednesday: gym, cut and sew purple skirt, start on pretty silk/tulle skirt. Issue: need to finish skirt before friday b/c I want to wear it on Sat., and Friday and Sat. are booked up so no last minute finishing of garments (Kathleen will be so pleased to see the amount of future-planning involved here!). Also, Tuesday and/or Wednesday: potentially dining with friends Paula and Sara? TBD.

• Thursday: Guest lecture in Cooper Union transportation class (leave work early, class is at 2-5) on the subject of “alternative transportation planning processes.” yoga in PM if I’m back home by 8:30.

• Friday: Morning meeting in the field, staff meeting at lunch, evening birthday party in Crown Heights, meet Rachel at Port Authority afterwards to come home to NJ.

• Saturday: sheep and wool festival with Rachel and Sarah (it’s her birthday next week, so we’re having girls day!). Then Cooper Union Art Auction and Casino Night, wherein I will wear my new pretty silk/tulle skirt.

• Sunday: brunch? sleep? gym? Knit corn baby!!

I really love this self-photo – I’m not sure that it looks like me, really, but wow!

I got an email from kevin, an old coworker, asking if anyone would like to go to the jets/dolphins game today ’cause he had two extra tickets. Well, I wasn’t sure about the game but I did call him up this morning and made sure he’d be there, and then I hopped on my bike and rode over to the stadium for tailgating! it was SO Much Fun. I was all smiles the whole way there! I had forgotten how awesome it is to ride a bike somewhere – how satisfying it is to power yourself to a destination, and how fun the trip is. I might be crazy, but I also love the interaction on the roads with cars. maybe it’s the punk-rock speaking but it’s exciting and dyanamic and nothing makes you feel tougher or more awesome than passing cars as they wait in traffic to get into a football stadium.

I DID get a lot of comments about “auntie em” (I understand the reference, but not quite correct), mary poppins, nice socks (pink and fushia stripes – a piece of safety clothing!), and some whistles of the wicked witch of the west theme song. but I got a lot of smiles, a few “smart idea!”s, and some thumbs up too. and I made the 3 1/2 mile ride there in 20 minutes or so, and probably 30 minutes on the way home (it’s mostly downhill there, and I had a stiff headwind on my way back). it is a beautiful day here in NJ today – cool and sunny, and I brought my headwarmer and wore my mittens on the way back.

So very excellent. really awesome. I’ve been telling Kevin I’d meet him there for the last 1 1/2 years, so I’m super glad to have done it.

Last weekend was the philly office party, and michelle and I decided to make a weekend of it. Actually, it ended up being less than 24 hours, but it was still pretty fun. we drove down on sat. after I fixed my skirt and we packed and slept in and were sleepy, and got to town around 4:30. the hotel we were staying at was charitably called “european” on various on-line rating boards, but it was the only one with availability that didn’t cost $334 (pre tax). But despite the nonworking elevator (since june at least! can you imagine?) and the space where there should have been a headboard (ripped from the wall! yikes!) and the part where our room hadn’t been cleaned before we got there and smelled like skunky weed, we safely stayed and didn’t pick up any bugs or other vermin. phew.

The sunday after the office party (where, as I’ve mentioned before, there was arm wrestling – but also kareoke! but just me! ha!) we only had a little bit of time to spend in town. We managed to find a nice diner to eat in. I snapped a few photos from our walk around town.

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a couple of weeks ago I went up to the Worlds! Largest! Garage Sale! in Warrensburg with some girlfriends. it was superfun!

We all drove up the night before and met at daddy-o’s house, where we were kindly housed in the 5th wheel camper. it was a cold night, but the sleeping bags were quite toasty. it was the first time camping for one of our girls! how exciting! it also changed my mind about mummy sleeping bags. I’ve been using a threadbare worn out sleeping bag from (potentially at least) 15 years ago, and I have been reluctant to upgrade to a mummy bag. now that I see how wonderfuly cozy a big new warm sleeping bag is in the fall (favorite time to camp! less bugs! hats around campfires!) I think I’ll make the plunge.

we got up at 5:15 AM (it seemed more reasonable than 5AM) and had some lovely continental breakfast courtesy the folks and drove up in my stepsisters borrowed minivan, arriving around 7:45 or so. And traffic was already backed up until the highway! we found the last free parking spot on the side of the road and walked off into the fray.

there were a lot of things that I DIDN’T buy, including v.c. andrews books and these awesome tree faces.

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so, because I accidentally went to the sock dreams webpage to link to my star socks for the pirate band post, I accidentally became induced to purchase a whole lot of socks. like, 113 bucks worth of socks. um. At least it’s 12 pairs of socks, and I’d say I can wear at least 10 of them to work regularly.

Last week when I was pulling on a pair of knee highs I did stop and ask myself “should a project engineer wear knee highs to work?” and then I put them all the way on, because it was kind of cool outside and heck if I’m going to start wearing nylons to work Every Day. those things are bad for you! and I only own 1 pair of pants! In light of the momentary sock insecurity, I made sure to stock up on a lot of Really Long socks – that will be thigh high length, ergo not knee sock length. That should keep things professional.

[[um. this post is a soap box sandwich b/c it smooshes the soap box post about ecofoods between two fluffy pieces of white bread that are studded with currants, pirates, and socks. see, there’s always a method here, folks. always.]]

last night I met rob in hoboken to see captain bogg & salty, a pirate rock band. it was awesome fun. they were so rock’n’roll – after the show a feller said to his friend (in a humorously loud voice) “this was the best thing that has ever happened to me!” I bought a CD to share with my nephews and requested a photo with some of the band.

I also told them that my uncle was a pirate in seattle. They said “oh, is he with the so-and-so pirates?” and I said “no, but he took a lot of acid when he was a kid!” and then I relayed the disputed cabbage story. I have been told by one parent that we ate so much cabbage when we were children b/c the other parent was concerned we would get scurvy. the other parent disputes this story and says it was because the initial parent wouldn’t eat any vegetables EXCEPT for cabbage. Based on pure ridiculousness, I prefer to think we ate 1/8 of a head of cabbage every night with dinner as scurvy prevention. It worked, I mean, I grew up to be 5’11” and as strong as an ox.

also, not only was the pirate band super fun, but it afforded an opportunity to wear my star socks. it’s impossible to wear these subtly, so I’m just going with it.