Week in Review: Week 273

Count-down to vacation week, woohoo. I’m actually taking a little time off from the blog to help give me time to get ready for the trip, plus 9,000,000 other things that are happening. And I know I SAID I was taking time off from the blog, but I don’t know exactly what’s different, ha ha!

MONDAY

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY. We must have said that two dozen times. From No Traffic, finding multiple perfect spots (if you’re in NY you know those first two items are biggies), to excellent weather, to not having to wait at a popular, crowded restaurant…to just getting to spend the day again as “the threesome,” it was all good. The one friend moved to FL last fall and this is the first time we’ve all been together again.

So we made it her day and whatever she wanted to do. We went to several areas in Central Park: The Conservatory Garden, which is always lovely, and where my sunglasses jumped off my shirt and into a fountain pond.

Then we went over to Bethesda Fountain and…I can’t think of what part that’s called, with the underneath part (ha, I’m a great NY tourguide). We had hotdogs off the truck, visited Strawberry Fields, found a charming little “hidden” side trail along a pond. At that point we met up with another friend, who stayed with us for the second half of the park and lunch.

We had a nice lunch at one of the temporary “outdoor” shelters that so many restaurants put up last year so they could stay open and people had somewhere to eat out of the elements without eating “indoors.” I love these and wish they could stay, but…I feel like at some point the city’s going to make restaurants take them down as they’re built right in the streets. Which was fine while NY was (relatively) empty during the height of covid, but things have picked up a lot…and with Broadway reopening after the summer…they’re going to need all lanes open to traffic again.

THEN we drove back to Brooklyn, to the Brooklyn Promenade, which is a little under a half-mile long walkway cantilevered over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, parallel to the NY Harbor and downtown NYC skyline. People walk, sit on benches, roller blade, etc. It backs onto the backyards of some of the most expensive real estate in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights…so you get a little peek of backyards, balconies, and gardens. I always like going there, it’s always active, the view is wonderful, especially at sunset as the sun drops behind the city.

PLUS, we had ice cream. SOME of us had ice cream TWICE, ahem.

It was just a nice day with friends. Yay.

TUESDAY

Back to work after the 3-day weekend. Quiet day. After work was lasering (ugh, it’s endless. and pointless), then going to pick up my sneakers, then home to clean off the kitchen table that was stacked, literally, like 2 feet high, with STUFF: mail, gifts that need to be mailed, craft supplies, things from Christmas, stuff that has nowhere else to go. Sigh. So much stuff needs to just LEAVE MY LIFE and I’m just not making that happen. I think if Katie could come up and stay with me for ONE WEEK, we could get this place whipped into shape, all excess out, etc. It’s just not happening on my own.

I was able to throw SOME (like 2) of the things away, a couple more got put away where they belong…but most of it just got moved to a spot on the floor in the bedroom 🙁 I’m trying to straighten up for when Landlady Carol comes into the apartment next week to take care of Miss Jane. I’m not doing a very good job.

WEDNESDAY

Ooh! Ooh! First Korean language class! I’ve been waiting since last year…when I first started looking, classes everywhere were already in the middle or just ending and I had to wait for the new cycle. I’d REALLY wanted an in-person class, that’s always better for me, learning-wise…but…obviously nothing like that was available during last winter or even into the spring. So I ended up with an online class hosted by an organization called Also Known As, whose mission is supporting Korean adoptees and their families. Class is Mon & Weds 6:30-8:30pm thru July, so Yay! One More Thing To Do! It’s good, though. I’m happy about it.

Just keep going through the open doors.

THURSDAY

Annyeong haseyo! (hello)

Not shockingly, Korean class was HARD. I mean, I knew learning an entirely new language (and alphabet!) would be HARD, but the class itself is hard. The teacher is a little hard for me to understand and it all goes so fast AND it is VERY interactive, with him calling on individuals for answers, which is always nerve-wracking. I’m like, how do all these other people already know that SQUIGGLE equals CAT, and SQUIGGLE PLUS OTHER SQUIGGLE means FOX? AND they can pronounce everything correctly already? Ha. I have a lot of practice ahead of me!

I was up late last night…I mean, I’m up late a lot of nights, watching this or that, but last night I was DOING stuff. Lasering, UPS drop-off, Korean class, trying on/filming a trunk club haul, still cleaning up for landlady/cat-sitting readiness, etc. And tonight is more of the same as I’m leaving for the airport tomorrow directly from work so I have to everything packed and ready to go tonight.At least I don’t have stupid lasering (#wasteoftimeandmoney) today!

Wasn’t I giving myself “off” this week? How does that never actually work out? Ha.

FRIDAY

At the airport. I’m Melting. MELTINNNGGGG.

I haven’t flown since before Covid and some things are different. I wish they’d put a little sign right inside the entrances: 1) print a luggage tag at a kiosk 2) drop your luggage at “luggage drop-off” 3) go through security – THESE things go in the tray, THESE things go directly on the belt, etc.

There’s less direct human interaction and guidance now, you’re just supposed to know these things.

I did not know these things. So I stood on two lines twice. Fortunately I was here in plenty of time so no harm other than…

I’M MELTING.

SATURDAY

In the end, my flight was delayed for three hours as there were lots of big storms in the area. Happily, I was in the calm group of waiting passengers, who were just like, “oh well” and went back to their laptops or conversations when they’d update us every 20 minutes or so with “it’s going to be another 20 minutes.”

A group a few gates down was not as mannered and I thought they were literally going to start rioting and there was gonna be tear gas and everything. Plus, I had my phone, chargers, a book, and snacks. A chair. Air conditioning. Bathrooms. How bad could it be?

ANYWAY, I got here just before 1am and I was happy to see my baby 🙂 She’s such a good (30-year-old) baby.

So, we got up shockingly early in the morning after the late night, went for manni-peddies…which was lovely…then came back here and lay in the ac and dozed much of the afternoon (also lovely), then went to the Ste Petersburg (Oh, yeah, I’m in St. Petersburg, Florida) Pier, walked a bit, sweated a LOT (HOW do you people live here year-round?), had a late lunch overlooking the water, ran some errands, came back home where The Chef (aka The Boy) was preparing for our sushi-making lesson. Here is my out-take from the lesson. Leave the sushi-making to thr professionals. Mine were sad. His were lovely and tasty. Oh well, I don’t have to be good at EVERYTHING ha ha ha ha ha.

THEN, they very obligingly watched a k-drama with me. Well, the first episode of Crash Landing on You (not my Number One Favorite, but the one I recommend most to newbies as it has something for everyone). The consensus was “intriguing, will watch more when I’m not so tired.”

OH, I forgot to explain that last night’s theme was Asian Immersion 🙂 We had sake and plum wine and sushi, while listening to “Google, play Japanese music,” at which point, Google, with his wonderful sense of humor, played BTS’ new single, Butter. Ha ha. You so funny, Google. And rounded out the evening with k-drama. And I prcaticed my Korean vowels while sushi-prep happened.

It was sweet of her to plan that for me.

SUNDAY

Some sort of amazing smelling sauce is being made while I write this sunday morning. And I believe freshly-made lobster ravioli is in our future. We’re leaving in an hour for a glass-blowing class, THAT’S exciting. And I’ll report back later when I wrap this up.

Not surprisingly, glass-blowing was HARD. We weren’t actually BLOWING, but heating and manipulating. Still hard. And HOT. And not just a little scary. It was a wine glass class, so…on Tuesday we can pick them up after they’ve been in the kiln for 2 days.

Then erranding: market and liquor store. I feel like having and bring company is all about daily trips to the market and liquor store. We soent the afternoon in the pool which was lovely.

The Boy worked hard all day making crab-shrimp ravioli with a lobster reduction, gnocci in a sausage cream sauce, and fried heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and roasted tomato sauce. So, dinner was a delight. We’re about te settle in with episode two of Crash Landing on You and cannoli. And amaretto.

And the week’s a wrap! Three more fun days to come!

WHAT I’M READING

Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. Well, a) I READ ANOTHER BOOK, ha ha. It helped to have the little bit of free time when I was pretending to take time off from the blog. Anyway, this is one of those books that comes highly recommended…and I just don’t get. I mean, I UNDERSTAND the book, the story, but I don’t see all the…I don’t know.

It was basically a very straight-forward recounting of a Korean woman/wife/mother’s life and how she developed dissociative personality disorder (which was not really a big part of the story, and part of what attracted me to the story, hence part of the disappointment). It portrayed the misogyny in Korea and the workplace/salary discrimination against women. It was fine. It was a pretty quick read and interesting, just not what I thought it was going to be. 3/5

WHAT I’M WATCHING

BTS’ Bon Voyage series. I think there’s nine of them. This was a reality/documentary series of some of their earlier trips. The first one I just watched was a surprise gift of a trip to Norway/denmark/Sweden for working so hard and doing so well. I just love watching everything they do together.

See you next week!!!