Dinner at NoMad with Karen (CHICKEN!!), early to bed Friday night. Up super-early Saturday for open water swim at Coney Island followed by 50 minute run on the boardwalk. Lounging in Washington Square Park with Moxie Mutt, beer and pretzels at Der Schwarze Kölner with Josh, Jeramy & baby Sid, drinks/snacks/dinner with Colin, Jen, Jenny, Rob & Sara, with stops at Joseph Leonard, Bobo, Amor y Amargo & Terroir EV. Slept in on Sunday, then brunch at Red Farm with Rob, Nic & Liz, and Pride-parade watching with Karen, and a pit-stop at the 8th Street Winecellar for a frozen margarita (special for Pride). More Moxie time in the park, then wine and snacks with mom at Terroir Murray Hill, and a quick visit to Gin Palace on the way home. This week I plan to lay low . . .
Category: Life
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Weekend Wrapup
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Time Flies in Pro Bono Land
Holy shit! It's my seven year anniversary at D&P today — I'm honored to be managing one of the best pro bono programs in the world and part of an amazing worldwide pro bono community, fighting the good fight.
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Recovery
What a weekend. It encompassed a wide range of emotions, tears, laughter, mourning, celebration, love, and friendship and I ran, bike, ate, drank and danced. I celebrated life, love, endings, and beginnings, all the while reminding me to treasure the wonderful people I have in my world. As someone said to me while we were waiting to partake in some Indian food at the wedding celebration I attended this weekend, "relationships are everything." Sending love and strength to Lauren, and love and congratulations to Roopa and Mike. A very special thanks to Jon for making the trek to NYC to keep me company. And now, I will try to recover a bit. -
Rant of the Day: Texting While Cycling
Sometimes I get all riled up about non-important things. For example, when people put their stuff in a locker at the gym and then don't put a lock on it and I end up opening up five full, unlocked lockers before I can find a free one, I secretly think this. My latest issue? People who text while cycling. It should go without saying that this is incredibly stupid and unsafe behavior regardless of whether you are doing it in regular street traffic or on the pedestrian paths in Washington Square Park (where it seems rampant). I want these people to crash — not into me, but into a streetlamp, or a pothole, or a mailbox — and suffer just enough injury to realize that they should no longer text while cycling because IT IS STUPID AND UNSAFE!!! Sheesh. Thus ends today's rant. Except that I will add that this weather sucks.
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No Sleep Till . . . *
After a fun weekend (with not nearly enough down time, but fun nonetheless), I've continued right into a week full of work, writing, and training, then Speed Rack, Maine, MCC, Jacksonville for the Equal Justice Conference, then GoogaMooga. When that's all done, I can breathe. And, of course, ramp up the triathlon training even more. I'll sleep after July 8th, apparently.
* RIP MCA. And Maurice Sendak. Rough week.
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Ennui
Not sure why Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies popped into my head today. Must be the gloomy weather. Perfect weather for working at home in sweatpants on a couch with a puppy. Alas, I am at my office working in clothes that are completely inappropriate for the weather with a shawl wrapped around my legs.
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The Graduate
I know I've already posted this on Facebook, but I'm so proud that I couldn't resist! Miss Moxie is now an obedience school graduate. We attended a six-week Basic Obedience class through Kate Perry Dog Training, and I can't recommend it enough. Kate and her team were wonderful and gave me useful tools to continue working with Moxie going forward. We worked on "look," "sit," "stay," "down," "leave it," and "come," all of which we practice every day on walks and at home (she's better at some than others, but there's been a great deal of improvement overall). Kate offers a 10% discount to rescue dogs and runs classes at various locations throughout the city. We even had a little graduation ceremony and I swear I almost cried. God help me if I ever have kids . . . -
TV or Not TV?
Last night I connected two friends, one who creates documentaries about food and the people who make it, and another who is interested in pitching a video or TV series in the culinary realm (I don't want to give away any secrets!). We discussed his idea, tips to focus a pitch, and more, and I think it was a productive and fun evening all around (and, of course, it was all over delicious food and wine at Corkbuzz, so that didn't hurt). It got me thinking of how many times friends have told me that I should have my own show — they seem to think it should be a reality show of some sort — showcasing my life with all of its food and beverage adventures. I suppose some of it could be very interesting, but that's where the heavy editing would have to come in. There would be quite a bit of not-so-exciting footage, for sure. My working title is Eat, Drink, Dog. :) I don't think I'd really be interested, but it's amusing to think about at the very least.
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Don’t Pass Over Passover
I learned this weekend that, despite having been at most of the same Seder tables I've been at for the past 30 or so years, not everyone in my family has the same understanding of Passover as I do. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm the Jewiest Jew in the family, which isn't saying much, but I do recall the story of Passover from year to year, and have hosted my own Seders. After a heated discussion based on this recent NYT article in which a new father questioned his own knowledge of Judaism and decided to proactively learn more to teach his son (and decided to write a new Hagaddah in the process), we abandoned The Concise Family Seder, used another, almost too-basic, Hagaddah as an outline for our Seder the following night.The result was a hodge-podge, somewhat crowd-sourced Seder where we bounced back and forth from our remedial Hagaddah to my friend Peter and I telling the story of Exodus with fill-ins from the group. It was somewhat unruly — not ideal for a ritual that literally translates as "order" — but fun nonetheless. I was told by some that they got more out of it than our usual Seder — but we'll see how much they remember next year. Maybe I'll draft a brief quiz.
The following came up over the course of the evening as good sources for basic and/or additional information about the Seder, the story of the Exodus, and Judaism in general:
The Brick Testament, particularly the story of Exodus.
The Prince of Egypt – Passover simplified.
Seder in a nutshell – there is a structure to a Seder. It includes the telling of the Exodus, but there are a few other things we're supposed to do as part of the evening.
And, my favorite, Google Exodus.
If you're interested in deeper knowledge of the history of the Jews from 1500 BC to shortly after the destruction of the 2nd temple, you can watch this PBS Documentary:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1354541084
http://video.pbs.org/video/1354542849
http://video.pbs.org/video/1354548543
http://video.pbs.org/video/1354559410Next year, in Jerusalem!!
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Fresh Air
After some hemming and hawing about having to remove the bracket on my window that holds up my A/C unit, my superintendent has informed me that my windows will basically be sealed for the next 4-5 months while demolition is being done to the exterior of my building. Given that I keep my windows open at least a crack year-round, I am not pleased. Already feeling suffocated . . .