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Apr. 18th, 2016 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicIt should be illegal in this day and age for a cross-country flight to charge $4/hour for wi-fi and have absolutely NO streaming video or other in-seat entertainment. Bah. I'd be a lot less grumpy if I hadn't been fighting a raging need to relieve myself for the past two hours, as the fasten seatbelt sign has been lit up the WHOLE TIME. Every time someone gets up, the flight attendants get on the PA and get super snippy about it. I don't really feel like telling a whole plane full of people that I'm afraid I'm about to soil myself. :/ I just really hope we get out of the supposed turbulence soon. The only turbulence I'm feeling is in my gut and bladder, but captain knows best, right? This flight is all about the torture.
But let me talk about my trip to New York, which was awesome! I flew in on Thursday. I never really did get a handle on the time change -- I didn't try that hard, knowing it would only be three days, and luckily there was always time for naps. But on Friday morning, Bess and Frankie would have none of my jetlag excuses. I had to wake up "because it's morning!" and because it was absolutely crucial that they tell me all about My Little Ponies right then and there. Sigh. But they eventually had to go off to school, and I was free to curl up and sleep again, which I did for most of the day. I did manage to do a run and several of the training exercises from this fitness app my doctor encouraged me to try. Then I was awake enough to hang out and be Aunt Meg when everyone got home for the evening. Lucy showed up at dinner time, and I also got in touch with my cousin Byron, who has just started his first real-world job in Manhattan. He joined us for dessert and some games at WT's place that evening. It was great to catch up with him.
On Saturday I went for another run, then my whole family went out to Coney Island to have Grimaldi's Pizza. There's actually a Grimaldi's walking distance from their house, but for some reason the Coney Island one was the one to go to. They're both places that have long lines all the time. I guess it's an icon, but...meh. The pizza wasn't that good. I mean it wasn't bad, but it was neither worth $20 per pie nor worth waiting in any line for. But, whatever, I can check off my list that I've done that. The girls rode some rides at Luna Park, but I was nervous about how the Coney adventure was cutting into my nap time -- we had tickets for Wicked on Broadway later that evening, and I was already dragging by 3 o'clock. Frankie's weak stomach to the rescue! After a kiddie coaster, she got ill and we cut the visit short. I was able to nap for about an hour and a half before we had to leave for the show, which was just long enough for me to have enough energy to be engaged throughout the whole thing.
I wasn't really psyched about seeing this play. I know a lot of people who absolutely love it, and it's been a huge success for like a decade now, so I knew it would be good, but I'd read the book a while ago (back when the Broadway show started making waves and everyone was raving about how great it was), and the book SUCKED. It's one of few books I've ever read and truly hated. It was BAD. I kept reading because I figured it would all come together somehow...nope. It was a steamy pile of shit. So it really tempered my expectations for the show.
But the show was amazing. I really did love it. It's got a few of the same characters as the book, but several plot lines (like, more than half of what appears in the book) are removed, and others are changed so that they are more relatable and make more sense. Whereas the book had almost no message at all, the message of the play was super clear. And very well done. Definitely a metaphor for politics and power. Lucy and I had a great talk about that after the show. She asked me why everyone thought Elphaba was evil, when obviously she wasn't. I asked her if she knew what metaphors are, and she said yes, and we talked about how the parts of the play could be compared to government -- and the mistreatment of the public, and certain minorities especially. She really got it. That girl is awesome. I love talking to her about stuff like this. (Tangent: on Friday, her class -- she's in 6th grade -- hosted a school-wide LGBTQ Pride event. She told me about it as if it was just another school event. I don't think she realizes how revolutionary it is.)
Anyway the play was delightful and we talked about it the rest of the weekend.
On Sunday, I had plans to meet up with a couple of NYC-based friends. First was Rez, who I only know from mutual Facebook friends. Seth was the one who said "YOU TWO NEED TO BE FRIENDS," several years ago, and he was spot on. We hit it off immediately, and have been good buddies for years now. But I finally got to meet him yesterday! We took a long walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park and talked about life like friends do. When we separated, I was off to meet Craig for some drinks. I was a little early getting to his neighborhood, so I stopped at a Taqueria in a Mexican part of town -- I was the only gringa in there. I thought briefly about trying to order in Spanish, but was too afraid I'd make an ass of myself, and I was fairly confident they spoke English. So I ordered a simple mushroom quesadilla to tide me over while I passed the time before meeting Craig. Mistake! Turns out an authentically Mexican quesadilla is SPICY AS FUCK. (For the purposes of this paragraph, fuck is very spicy indeed.) I didn't want to be rude and just ditch it, though, and I was hungry, so I did my best to pick out the jabaneros, but my whole body was on fire for several hours after eating that. I know that people are wired differently, because there is no way that spicy foods as I experience them can be enjoyable to anyone. Not even a little bit.
I had a nice time hanging out with Craig for a few hours, then headed back to Downtown Brooklyn for one last family dinner. Lucy had gone back to Philly already, but I had a nice time playing with Frankie and Bess. They still mostly wanted to talk about My Little Ponies, but I did what I could to direct our interaction to other things :) I stayed up late to watch the Blazers-Clippers playoff game 1, but by the middle of the third quarter, it was clear this was not our night, and I let myself doze off before it finished. Hopefully tomorrow's game is better. I hate the Clippers so much...I do like CP3, and I liked Blake Griffin until the whole punching incident...but Doc Rivers can go fuck himself. And I want to beat them SO BADLY. Go Blazers!
This morning, I walked Bess to her preschool class. She kept asking me to play games with her when she got home from school -- she never really did grasp that I'd be leaving. But it was nice to walk with her that whole way, just me and her. That girl is so funny. She kept saying she didn't want to go to school "because it's bowwing" and "I know evwything alweady." But as soon as she got there, she became engaged in classroom activities. I don't think she really finds it boring at all -- I think she's just learned that this is a thing kids sometimes say about school. I got one more nap in before I had to leave for the airport, but I still had plenty of time -- 7pm flight out of Newark, and I arrived at the airport at 3. I walked the entirety of the terminal, determined to find a spa and spend an obscene amount of money on a massage, but no such spa ever materialized in Terminal C, so I guess I saved about $75 or something. I was briefly tempted to buy Toby a really girly I <3 NY shirt, but decided to save that $15, too.
I've been in the air for 4 hours now, and flightaware says we'll be landing in 58 minutes. I hope it passes faster than the first four hours. I'm not tired enough to snooze, just tired enough to be bored and uncomfortable. Meh.
But let me talk about my trip to New York, which was awesome! I flew in on Thursday. I never really did get a handle on the time change -- I didn't try that hard, knowing it would only be three days, and luckily there was always time for naps. But on Friday morning, Bess and Frankie would have none of my jetlag excuses. I had to wake up "because it's morning!" and because it was absolutely crucial that they tell me all about My Little Ponies right then and there. Sigh. But they eventually had to go off to school, and I was free to curl up and sleep again, which I did for most of the day. I did manage to do a run and several of the training exercises from this fitness app my doctor encouraged me to try. Then I was awake enough to hang out and be Aunt Meg when everyone got home for the evening. Lucy showed up at dinner time, and I also got in touch with my cousin Byron, who has just started his first real-world job in Manhattan. He joined us for dessert and some games at WT's place that evening. It was great to catch up with him.
On Saturday I went for another run, then my whole family went out to Coney Island to have Grimaldi's Pizza. There's actually a Grimaldi's walking distance from their house, but for some reason the Coney Island one was the one to go to. They're both places that have long lines all the time. I guess it's an icon, but...meh. The pizza wasn't that good. I mean it wasn't bad, but it was neither worth $20 per pie nor worth waiting in any line for. But, whatever, I can check off my list that I've done that. The girls rode some rides at Luna Park, but I was nervous about how the Coney adventure was cutting into my nap time -- we had tickets for Wicked on Broadway later that evening, and I was already dragging by 3 o'clock. Frankie's weak stomach to the rescue! After a kiddie coaster, she got ill and we cut the visit short. I was able to nap for about an hour and a half before we had to leave for the show, which was just long enough for me to have enough energy to be engaged throughout the whole thing.
I wasn't really psyched about seeing this play. I know a lot of people who absolutely love it, and it's been a huge success for like a decade now, so I knew it would be good, but I'd read the book a while ago (back when the Broadway show started making waves and everyone was raving about how great it was), and the book SUCKED. It's one of few books I've ever read and truly hated. It was BAD. I kept reading because I figured it would all come together somehow...nope. It was a steamy pile of shit. So it really tempered my expectations for the show.
But the show was amazing. I really did love it. It's got a few of the same characters as the book, but several plot lines (like, more than half of what appears in the book) are removed, and others are changed so that they are more relatable and make more sense. Whereas the book had almost no message at all, the message of the play was super clear. And very well done. Definitely a metaphor for politics and power. Lucy and I had a great talk about that after the show. She asked me why everyone thought Elphaba was evil, when obviously she wasn't. I asked her if she knew what metaphors are, and she said yes, and we talked about how the parts of the play could be compared to government -- and the mistreatment of the public, and certain minorities especially. She really got it. That girl is awesome. I love talking to her about stuff like this. (Tangent: on Friday, her class -- she's in 6th grade -- hosted a school-wide LGBTQ Pride event. She told me about it as if it was just another school event. I don't think she realizes how revolutionary it is.)
Anyway the play was delightful and we talked about it the rest of the weekend.
On Sunday, I had plans to meet up with a couple of NYC-based friends. First was Rez, who I only know from mutual Facebook friends. Seth was the one who said "YOU TWO NEED TO BE FRIENDS," several years ago, and he was spot on. We hit it off immediately, and have been good buddies for years now. But I finally got to meet him yesterday! We took a long walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park and talked about life like friends do. When we separated, I was off to meet Craig for some drinks. I was a little early getting to his neighborhood, so I stopped at a Taqueria in a Mexican part of town -- I was the only gringa in there. I thought briefly about trying to order in Spanish, but was too afraid I'd make an ass of myself, and I was fairly confident they spoke English. So I ordered a simple mushroom quesadilla to tide me over while I passed the time before meeting Craig. Mistake! Turns out an authentically Mexican quesadilla is SPICY AS FUCK. (For the purposes of this paragraph, fuck is very spicy indeed.) I didn't want to be rude and just ditch it, though, and I was hungry, so I did my best to pick out the jabaneros, but my whole body was on fire for several hours after eating that. I know that people are wired differently, because there is no way that spicy foods as I experience them can be enjoyable to anyone. Not even a little bit.
I had a nice time hanging out with Craig for a few hours, then headed back to Downtown Brooklyn for one last family dinner. Lucy had gone back to Philly already, but I had a nice time playing with Frankie and Bess. They still mostly wanted to talk about My Little Ponies, but I did what I could to direct our interaction to other things :) I stayed up late to watch the Blazers-Clippers playoff game 1, but by the middle of the third quarter, it was clear this was not our night, and I let myself doze off before it finished. Hopefully tomorrow's game is better. I hate the Clippers so much...I do like CP3, and I liked Blake Griffin until the whole punching incident...but Doc Rivers can go fuck himself. And I want to beat them SO BADLY. Go Blazers!
This morning, I walked Bess to her preschool class. She kept asking me to play games with her when she got home from school -- she never really did grasp that I'd be leaving. But it was nice to walk with her that whole way, just me and her. That girl is so funny. She kept saying she didn't want to go to school "because it's bowwing" and "I know evwything alweady." But as soon as she got there, she became engaged in classroom activities. I don't think she really finds it boring at all -- I think she's just learned that this is a thing kids sometimes say about school. I got one more nap in before I had to leave for the airport, but I still had plenty of time -- 7pm flight out of Newark, and I arrived at the airport at 3. I walked the entirety of the terminal, determined to find a spa and spend an obscene amount of money on a massage, but no such spa ever materialized in Terminal C, so I guess I saved about $75 or something. I was briefly tempted to buy Toby a really girly I <3 NY shirt, but decided to save that $15, too.
I've been in the air for 4 hours now, and flightaware says we'll be landing in 58 minutes. I hope it passes faster than the first four hours. I'm not tired enough to snooze, just tired enough to be bored and uncomfortable. Meh.
