falcongrrl

I'm so bad about doing trip updates! I never did a proper con report for Anthrocon, and now I'm spacing on the NY trip.

Here's something, at least...

Wednesday, 3/22 - Other than Ellie trying to run away from me at the security checkpoint (!) and freaking out for a few minutes before I caved and nursed a three-year-old on the plane, this was a pretty smooth day. Bee and the mothra were there to meet us as soon as the plane arrived, even with it being about twenty minutes early. Chez Gargoyle was gorgeous, with lots of artwork on the walls and handmade functional pieces (mugs, soap, bowls, etc) that were just gorgeous. I saw something new and interesting everywhere I looked. Ellie, of course, was mostly interested in the snakes and the toys. The mothra shared graciously with her for an entire week--something very tough for most two-year-olds to pull off!

Thursday, 3/23 - I was still trying to get settled in at this point. Bard was off work and we all decided, after lunch, to go to a nearby local working farm. I got to pet the horses, taking advantage of feeding time bringing them closer to the fence. Ellie's attention was drawn most firmly to the giant sow--she wanted to get into the pen with the pig (hopefully not to nurse!), but we prevented her from managing it. Ellie also liked chasing the ducks and guinea fowl. She got bit by a turkey when sticking her hand into the netting; I hoped it was an object lesson and she certainly didn't seem all that traumatized by it. We liked watching the male puff up and hearing them gobblegobblegobble!

Bard made a delicious dinner Thursday night, with the family favorites dread potatoes and yogurt fish. There was also a chickpea and spinach dish that was very yummmy. Vicki was the cooking consultant and did an amazing job of suggesting dishes and spices. Mmmmmm... I really can't praise this meal highly enough. :-)

Friday, 3/24 - We all went into the city, which was a bit harrowing initially. Bard was off work again but drove separately from us, since we couldn't fit everyone into one car. The place where we intended to park had been slotted for demolition, so we ended up driving around Manhattan looking for a place to park. I was navigating while Vicki drove. Anyone who knows me well enough to have been in a car with me irl should be dying laughing by now--the truth is, I don't navigate well under the best of circumstances. Being in an unfamiliar, giant city with lots of one-way streets was not the best of circumstances. We did eventually park and then manage to meet up with Bard. We took the kids to a children's art museum. I was skeptical initially, but Ellie did well, other than getting paint all over herself and her new jacket. But the exhibits were very child-friendly and hands-on. My favorite was a surrealist 'ball pit' which featured lots of oversized balls. Ellie and I were each bouncing on one, holding hands, and singing a made-up chant that went something like, "Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! & Don't! Fall! Down!" There was a theater and costumes in another area. Ellie went for the minimalist witch's hat, whereas the mothra at one point ended up in a lion's mane and tail that was adorably cute.

After we went to the art museum, we wandered over to nearby Chinatown. I was completely fascinated and couldn't decide where to look first, a typical tourist. Ellie mostly just wanted to run away, which was terrifying, but decided that she would deign to hold hands with Bard. Bard was pretty much her very favorite person for a few days, to the point that if he ever corrected her in his mildly pointed way, she would throw her hands over her face and crouch down into a little ball, completely disconsolate. Yes, my child is a bit of a drama queen. I think she gets it from my mom. ;-)

Ellie had won ton soup in Chinatown but was being difficult about eating. For the first few days she ate next to nothing, and then, once she truly felt comfortable, perhaps, she started chowing down on all sorts of things. Anyway, I ordered a spring roll that I thought was a summer roll, because our Asian section of Orlando is all Vietnamese. I was a bit disoriented in general, had no idea what to order, and ended up eating most of the mothra's dinner, which he wasn't all that interested in.

After we got back home, Vicki agreed to watch the kids. Bard and I went to a diner and I got a coffee laced with Kahlua liqueur. This combination made me uninhibited enough to talk, while speedy enough to chatter incessantly. Poor Bard. :-) On the way home, we saw a skunk snuffling about in the front yard, which was pretty cool.

By the time we got back, about midnight, everyone was asleep, or so we thought. In reality, Vicki was still awake. Bard went to bed, and Vicki ended up giggling and cuddling with me on the sofa until very late. Between the two of them, I think I had one complete date, including the kiss goodnight. *grin*

Saturday, 3/25 - Today was the day we decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. The zoo was way cool. We didn't get out until late, mostly because I had already run out of warm pants and couldn't figure out what to wear. I ended up borrowing a pair of Bard's jeans, which worked surprisingly well, and got some laundry started.

Anyway, Ellie was not at her easiest for most of the day, and I was getting pretty frustrated. Still, we saw some neat animals: tigers, rodents, reptiles, monkeys, and camels among them.

After we got home, Ellie and I took a nap and then we had a very nice dinner--or the adults did. The kids were being picky and wouldn't eat the cool dinner that Bard had made. After dinner, Vicki and I went out and left Bard and both kids awake putting puzzles together.

We didn't want to go too far away from the kids, so there were about three or four local places we had decided that we might try, and I think we managed to hit all of them. We started at an Irish pub, but the extremely loud and very bad musical act prompted us to look elsewhere as soon as we arrived. After some meandering, we ended up at a coffee shop in Peekskill that was having Open Mic Night. We thought it would probably be more bad music, but the acts were surprisingly good. A couple of boys who looked to be in their teens were especially, phenomenally good, with tight vocals and amazing stage presence for two so young. Another young woman in her twenties got up and played an earnest song she'd written for her mother. Her mother, a veteran of the local folk scene, got up and used her daughter's guitar to sing a song back to her that made me cry. Simply beautiful.

We also ordered one slice of vanilla cheesecake (with 2 forks) along with 2 lattes. Wow! NY cheesecake! Better than any other cheesecake I've ever had! I had forgotten how good it is.

After that, it was still early, about 10:30, so we decided to try someplace else. We went to a place we were calling the 'Tiki Bar' (I don't know if that's really its name) that had actual straw matting on the walls and looked vaguely Polynesian. We each ordered beer--I had two and I think Vicki had one--prompting the dread chattery caffeine and ethanol combination in me again, but Vicki didn't seem to mind. A guy at the bar started doing a bunch of macho posturing with me that I didn't quite understand. I think I accidentally jostled him while I was trying to get the bartender's attention. The whole thing was a little unsettling but blessedly shortlived. It was difficult to talk because the music wsa blaring, but it was good music, from an mp3 jukebox sort of thing, and it was nice being out away from the kids for a while. (Though I was fretting a bit about not hearing the cell, and Vicki put it on vibrate and on the table for me).

Afterwards, pretty much having exhausted the local scene, we came back to the house and giggled and cuddled until 3am. A lovely time. :-)

Sunday, 3/26 - We decided to go to the UU church. I had maybe 2 hours of sleep at this point, because I hadn't been able to get to sleep or stay asleep very well after the mommy 'date.' The kids were kind of wild at church, but I ended up getting to hear most of the sermon, which was cool. I hadn't been to church in quite a long while. Ellie and mothra seemed blissfully unconcerned with the topic of their children's church lesson...but things they had learned in class kept coming back during the rest of our visit. So I think they really were listening more than we thought.

Due to some chance comments I'd made about candymaking, Vicki remembered a soap-making project from a few years back that she thought we could do with the kids. We tried it, post-nap, in the afternoon, and it seemed to work really well. I think I've now been bitten with the same bug--I want to try the project at home now, too, if I can scrape up supplies. I think Daniel would like it too.

Sunday night I watched the kids while Bard and Vicki went out to dinner. Yay! I wish I could have done more babysitting for the two of them while I was there--they deserve to get out and enjoy each other more. They came home relatively early, which turned out to be good because I was pretty tired. I think Ellie and I crashed around ten or eleven, not sure.

Dave and I never managed to connect on Sunday night. It's normal enough, given that we both were doing lots of kidstuff, but I was missing him by this point and dropped him a short email.

Monday, 3/27 - I woke up mopey and tired. Getting to bed at 3am on both Friday and Saturday night (Sat and Sun morning?) caught up with me and hit me very hard. I missed Daniel and Dave a whole bunch and mostly just wanted to stay at the house and mope quietly. However, Rhys had a music class that Vicki really wanted to attend, so Ellie and I dutifully got ourselves together to go. I still couldn't get in touch with Dave, and I was frustrated by that, as well as just tired as hell. Anyway, we got to the music class, and it was a blast! I was so glad that we had gone. The teacher was both marvelous with the kids and good at playing the guitar/dancing/singing, sometimes simultaneously. He used many varied props and got them distributed to the kids and put back away with incredible ease. (As a former teacher, I know how hard that can be.)

Afterwards, we decided to try lunch out and ended up getting NY pizza by the slice. Yum. Then we went to a local park, where I tried to call Dave yet again. This time I got him, which was good, only to have him remind me that sending personal emails about cuddling a female friend to his work address probably wasn't the best call (*oops*). Still, he said he'd be happy to read anything I wanted to tell him on his personal email address. *grin* Shortly after that, Ellie faceplanted off a small ledge and was screaming, so I had to get off the phone quickly and run to her side. After the rescue and comfort, I called him back, and he was headed to a meeting. He promised to call me back that night.

We ordered Chinese takeout that night and I had mooshoo for the first time. It's a new favorite. :-) And yes, I pretty much wasn't following any sort of eating regime by this point. Dave never called, which depressed me a little, and I crashed early enough with Ellie that I didn't manage to get any time hanging out with grownup friends independently of kids. It was my dad's bday, and I did remember to call him at about 9:30 pm or so.

I woke up about 1am, after a rather disconcerting nightmare where one of my friends told me he didn't ever want to talk to me again. This was a dynamic I was actually fretting over in real life, so it felt like my subconscious was confirming something important that I suspected or feared. Anyway, I couldn't get back to sleep, and decided to get up and check my email and try to de-stress a bit.

Well, my friend was online, and for better or worse I decided to try to talk about it. Probably for the worse, though I don't know for sure--it was an issue that really needed to be addressed, but...meh. We got into a mini-argument about it and I logged off in a huff after he used the word 'clingy' in reference to me, not knowing what to do about the conflict, not knowing if our friendship could survive this particular issue (one we keep coming back to). I still missed Dave, too, and was pissy that he hadn't called me like he said he would. I drank some water, went back to bed and tossed and turned for a bit, but finally fell back asleep.

Tuesday, 3/28 - By now I was definitely in schizophrenic mode. I was fretting over relationship issues but also determined to make my last day in NY a great one. Rhys had preschool, so Ellie and I had a slow, lazy morning...just the kind I like. ;-) After Vicki picked him up and we all had a quick lunch of leftover Chinese at home, we went to get some ice cream. The store we wanted to go to had closed, so we ended up at Friendly's with the world's worst employee occasionally tending to our table in-between reprimands. I got the wrong order but it was still decadently delicious. Ellie spied a dog outside from across the restaurant and bounded over to the window in front in order to see it better. The couple walking it good-naturedly brought it over close to the window, where three toddlers gathered to ooh and ahh over it. It was quite a cute little scene.

Afterwards, we went to the pharmacy. I needed to pick up some essentials and had gotten a tad obsessive about the topic, as Vicki can attest to. :-) We then went home and Ellie and I crashed hard. The nap (along with a resolute email to my friend) helped to bring a bit of clarity, and Vicki commented on how my face looked lighter. We all decided to eat dinner at Chili's, where I giggled nonstop at Bard's stories about exploding antelope characters (don't ask).

After I finally got Ellie to bed, Vicki and I tried to recreate some of the cuddly magic of earlier evenings, but I was still too tired and stressy to be a really good 'date.' We both finally headed to bed at about 1am to get some sleep before our trip to the airport on Wednesday.

Wednesday, 3/29 - My eticket said to report to the Delta Song counter for check-in, which was at a different terminal (2) completely from Delta (3). Unfortunately, that was wrong. So we had to walk from terminal 2 to terminal 3, two toddlers in tow, for check-in; then I had to go back to the other terminal to get to the Song gates in order to reach the plane. Meh. That combined with the unexpected traffic jam we'd had on the way to the airport really stressed me out; I was terrified of missing the plane. Vicki and mothra said goodbye to us before we headed to the gate, and Ellie and I pretty much ran the whole way there.

The plane ride was fine, though. I listened to angsty music and wrote a poem. Ellie fussed with various toys. I bought one of the snack packs for kids that the plane was selling, and that proved to be a godsend as Ellie munched happily on animal crackers and a rice krispy bar.

I couldn't reach Dave after our plane landed early, but we had managed to touch base by the time El and I got to baggage claim. I dropped her and the carry-on off in the car with them, kissing Dave and Daniel hello hastily, before going back in to get the checked bag. This worked really well as it was easier to find our bag without having to worry about chasing a three-year-old (hard) or getting her to sit still for the duration (harder).

***

And, that was that. It was great being back home with Dave and Daniel, who I'd missed considerably, but then I also found myself missing our friends and the closeness I'd felt being a part of another family, however briefly. And Vicki and Bard are definitely still two of my best friends; I look forward to the next time we all see each other face to face.