#CincinnatiVacay

One of the best parts about getting older is that the friendships you made in college gradually get more weight, more history. There is nothing better in the world than a friend who you've known for more than ten years; the sort of ease and comfort that happens when you're around people with whom you have a common history is just my favorite. When those people have a baby, it's even better.

I have known Lisa since freshman orientation, and Charlie since about two weeks after that. I was in their wedding, and when their son was born, I was honored to be asked to be his godmother. Teddy takes after his parents- he loves books, he's almost always happy (unless you're denying him goldfish), and he's generally a delight to be around. Unfortunately, the family lives in Cincinnati, which is altogether too far away from Boston, but I tried to make up for it by visiting them last week.

It was the perfect kind of visit; we visited the most amazing playground I have ever seen, went to a truly charming bookstore/cafe, ate delicious barbecue, and played with lots and lots of trains. It was relaxed and relaxing, the kind of vacation you can have with friends you've known forever. We cooked lots of food and drank plenty of pink wine, and spent lots and lots of time talking when Teddy was sleeping.

It should be noted that Lisa and Charlie just moved to Cincinnati from St. Louis, so Ferguson was on the forefront of all of our minds. We spent a lot of time talking about it; about where we go from here, how we deal with the fact that we live in a world where it is fundamentally dangerous to be black and male. I don't have any answers, but it's something I grapple with a lot, especially now. Talking about it with friends who have lived in St. Louis (Lisa is from there) gave me a new perspective.

California, part 3: Big Sur

 

 

You guys. Big Sur. I can't even.

I flew in to California on Thursday. The Tuesday before that, I convince Sinny to drive up from LA. Neither of us had ever been to Big Sur, so we decided to drive down Highway 1 for a little camping trip.

Except that there was nothing little about Big Sur. It took my breath away. (Kind of literally- we went on some STEEP hikes.) Every time we made a turn on the highway, we'd see another stunning view of the ocean and the cliffs. When we were hiking, we'd be in the middle of the woods one second, and then all of a sudden, we'd turn a corner and the whole Pacific ocean would be laid out before us. It was just so BIG. I love New England more than anything, but things just don't exist on that kind of scale in this part of the country. The cliffs, the mountains, the ocean- this is the kind of place that the word majestic was invented to describe.

California, part 2: Berkeley and a Wedding

True confession: a little part of me kept expecting to see the Bravermans when I was exploring Berkeley. I know you'll be shocked to discover that I didn't.

I've always had this idea in my head that Berkeley was the west-coast equivalent of Cambridge. It's not. I would say it's more like Northampton, but bigger. There, I did all my favorite things in a city: I ate breakfast at a little bistro, I explored the Cal campus, I drank plenty of Philz coffee and then, at the end, I got to go to a wedding in a castle. I'm at that stage in life where all of my friends are getting married, and I have to say, I kind of love it.

A Weekend in Vermont

Last week, I went up to Vermont for the most glorious weekend.

Chris, Betsy and I were going to run a half marathon, which we did in the 85-degree heat (it was a little messy and a lot slow), but mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed a weekend with our friends. 
 

Elizabeth likes cooking even more than I do, so we ate well. We also explored and swam in a river (it was FREEZING, and I was a little worried about getting swept away by the current). I took a million and a half pictures and read almost all of this book.

I feel like now that I've been on that trip, I'm really ready for summer to begin. I plan on swimming a lot, reading even more, and spending plenty of time on my porch.

That Baby

Two weeks ago, I took a little vacation to the midwest. I planned my trip around a visit to St. Louis to visit my friends Lisa and Charlie and their new baby, Teddy. (I prefer to call him That Baby, but I'm not so sure Charlie understands the affectionate tone I use, so I'm trying to work on using his actual name.)

 

It was so fun to get to spend the weekend with my friends, to eat barbecue, and to go to Teddy's christening (I'm his godmother!)

But the best part, by far, was witnessing just how much love there is for this little boy, both from his parents (who are already doing an amazing job), and from his extended family and friends.

It was such a treat to get to spend the weekend with them, even if they wouldn't let me take Teddy back to Boston. I guess that means I'll just have to go back to visit ASAP.

While we were in DC, Em, La, James and I stopped by Union Market, where we cooled off from the muggy day with iced coffee at Peregrine Espresso in Union Market. The coffee was amazing, and Union Market was so nice. It's the kind of place I'd visit all the time if I lived there, I think.

Weekend in DC

Oh, man. What a weekend. Manoli got married on Saturday, and I met up with a bunch our buddies in DC to celebrate. I flew down early on Friday, so I got in plenty of time to explore. It was magical. There was lots of good food, beautiful sites to see, a wonderful and love-filled wedding, perfect weather, and most of my favorite people. Really, it could not possibly have been better.

Guess what guess what guess what!

Tomorrow, I'm going up to Dartmouth!

Bonfire bonfire bonfire!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

Headed Home

What a lovely weekend!

I am on the bus home now, watching hulu and reading magazines, but I just wanted to check in to tell you that I had the most darling time. We pretty much never stopped eating (although we did have a lovely walk through Central Park, and we bought Lisel some converse to match mine), and I'll show you all the pictures we took tomorrow morning. Right now, though, I've got some Grey's Anatomy to watch.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

{Lisel and Abbie, sporting some lovely headwear, August 2007}

The Holga and I are currently on the Megabus to New York, on my way to visit Lisel.

I cannot wait to see her.

I'm so excited for all our adventures!

What adventures do you have planned for the weekend?

Crap.

I lost my phone in the security line at SFO, and my plane was boarding and I didn't have time to search diligently for it and now I don't have a phone and I don't have an upgrade because my mom borrowed mine and how can I enjoy a two-week trip in Boston if there is no way for anyone to get in touch with meeeeeeeeeeeeeee????

New video soon.

I always eat burgers when I travel.*

I am sitting in a restaurant/bar in SFO, waiting for my flight to go home and eating a delicious cheeseburger with fries when I pull out my latest book (thanks for all the suggestions, by the way), In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. The cover exhorts me to Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. I take another look at my non-local, non-plant-based meal, and decide to blog instead.

*I used to always eat McDonalds when traveling, but most aeroports don't have them anymore. This makes me sad.

Zzzzzzz

Today on the train into work, I sat in the middle of a row of four seats. Two stops before I got off, I looked to my left and right, only to realize that every single other person in my row was asleep. ASLEEP! On MUNI!
That's weird, right? This city is strange. Very strange.

Homeward Bound

Here are some tidbits that I have learned in the past couple of days:
1. You can pay $2.99 for an hour of wireless at SFO, and, I presume, most airports. (I am aware that most people already knew this. I am not, however, most people.)
2. UCSF medical center has a walk-in urgent care clinic. You don't have to have a doctor at UCSF to use it.
3. The nurse practitioner at UCSF is not all that helpful when you have an attack of the MRSA. They do give you a prescription that, so far, has not caused your face to swell up.

Here are some things that I have observed so far while waiting for my overbooked flight:
1. Two sisters approximately 8 and 10, dressed in matching pajamas and bathrobes. The younger one's p.j.-bathrobe set is blue. The older one's is pink.
2. A 12-year-old girl staring at me strangely for wearing my neck pillow. Her sister is wearing headgear. Headgear is weirder.
3. The planewear of choice for children taking redeyes seems to be pj's, with the notable exception of one little boy who is wearing cutoff kahkis, an orange Ralph Lauren polo shirt, and a suit jacket.

I cannot imagine raising my children on the opposite side of the country from my family. This West Coast adventure is really great for now, but small children + redeye every holiday? I can't imagine that that's fun. Plus, I want my mom around to help me take care of my babies.

Adventuring

This is Emily.

In addition to being one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, she is my travel companion. On Tuesday, we went traveling to our friend David's family's house in Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard.
We had to drive to get there, and Emily has a convertible. The only sensible thing to do was put on a traveling outfit.

(Do you KNOW what a convertible can do to your hair? It's not pretty.)
We had a really lovely time and I wish I could prove it to you with photos, but unfortunately, Emily is my photographer as well as travel companion, so all of the pictures of the beach and David waking up before nine a.m. and me snoring attractively are on her camera somewhere.
Although I did eat a strawberry on the drive down. It was delicious.

A Story from a Bus Ride

The Mean Mean Lady

By Abbie, with some help from Lesley

We waited for the bus in Hanover, forced to listen to an obnoxious girl talk to her best friend on the phone for fifteen minutes.

“Oh, my Gawd! Hahahahahahahaha!!!! Can we SAY passive aggressive?”

As we wait, trying to tune out the din of her annoying words, we notice that the line of passengers waiting for the bus is getting longer than usual. We are a bit concerned, but we’ve both survived Thanksgiving travel on the Dartmouth Coach, so we think we’ll be okay.
We get on the bus, and it’s so crowded, we are forced to sit together, but that’s okay, ‘cause we don’t mind talking. Five minutes later, we arrive in Lebanon, where we de-bus to purchase our round-trip tickets. We notice that there are also a lot of people waiting in Lebanon, but it’ll be okay, we figure. How naïve we were.
“There are quite a few people waiting to get on the bus, so please leave a personal belonging on your seat to mark that someone is sitting there. Please do not block off the seat next to you.”
Being good little citizens, we leave our backpacks on our respective seats before the de-bussing begins. (Can you tell I like to say de-bussing?)
We wait in line, purchase our tickets, and then get back on the bus.
“Hmm. That’s funny,” we think, “there aren’t any empty seats. We definitely left a backpack on each one.”
THEN we notice the Mean Mean Lady scowling at us.
“Um, excuse me, but I think we were sitting here.”
She has shoved our backpacks and water bottles and other detritus all onto one seat. Does she seriously think that only one person could have that much stuff?
“WELL,” she says, scowling some more, “they shouldn’t sell tickets when they clearly don’t have enough seats. This really sucks for those of us who get on in Lebanon.”
Finally, she gets up, to go complain to the bus drive
Refusing to get off the bus, she stands in the front, forcing everyone to squish past her to get to their seat. After every passenger is comfortably situated, the bus driver comes to the realization that he will have to move the cooler of pretzels and water from the front seat so that she and a quite large man could sit down.
“I’m going to have to put the pretzels and movie headsets under the bus, so if anyone wants them, please come and grab one now.”
As we are pulling out, the bus driver makes his announcements.
“Hello, I’m David Harrison, and I’ll be your bus driver today. Today we’ll be showing SOMETHING LIKE HOME, starring Kathy Bates. You can listen in on your headsets. I hope you all have them, because now they are under the bus.”
Lesley turns to me.
“I think the Mean Mean Lady should have had to hold the pretzels and headsets on her lap.”
I think so, too, Lesley, I think so, too.

And I'm Back

After a lovely weekend visiting boys at Swarthmore with Marissa, I return to Hanover to write a paper and do other sorts of homework I don't really feel like doing. However, I haven't told you about my trip, and I'm sure you're all dying to know.
It was superfun. Highlights included:
1. Seeing Mikio's performances with Marissa and Manoli, and sitting next to Marissa joking about things you can only joke about with your sorority sisters and select other close girlfriends. The concert on Sunday night was hi-larious. I'm not really sure why. I just couldn't stop laughing. Sitting between Marissa and Manoli certainly didn't help.
2. Learning how to tell the difference between bad feta and worse feta from a real Greek person. Unfortunately, Swarthmore Pennsylvania is lacking in any feta that is better than bad feta.
3. Lovely weather, and sitting outside on the (non-muddy!) grass in the sunshine, pretending to do reading but really just talking.
4. Donuts on weekday mornings from the construction people. Dartmouth students need to learn to negotiate better; I spent an entire year living in a building that shook next to a construction site where they started work at 7 a.m., and I never got a single donut. Or anything at all. Except woken up by a shaking building and loud construction. I don't even like donuts that much. I just like the idea.
And that was my weekend. It was fun. Now I shall go write my paper.
p.s. Happy Birthday to my Favorite Child in the Whole World! I can't believe she's five today!