have you ever been to atlantic city? i’ll show you what you’re missing:
Internet Sabbatical
Well, perhaps I didn’t give it a real try, because I spent most of the day working on a couple of manuscripts I needed to finish before our mini-trip. I woke up and started editing, and worked straight through until 5pm, without stop. When I finished that, I had a bunch of chores to do, in preparation for leaving: laundry, shopping, baking [brownies and cookies for my husband], house cleaning, etc. Even if we’re just gone for a couple of days, I know how wonderful it is to come home to a spotless place, so I always leave clean sheets on the bed, the bathroom shining, the kitchen cleaned, the trash taken out, the floors swept. So I had all that to get done, which meant I was so busy all day it didn’t really feel like a digital sabbatical. Did I go online? Once, to send the completed manuscripts to my two authors. I didn’t do anything else, didn’t “just check facebook,” didn’t “just take a run through my Google reader,” didn’t “glance at Ravelry.” Nothing. But I didn’t feel tempted, either. I’m going to do it again next Saturday. We drove yesterday and got to Atlantic City, and in the way these things go, expensive hotels charge a lot for the internet and cheaper ones give it away for free; even though our room is not expensive, the hotel is so the charge is outrageous for the Internet, which means I didn’t go online all day yesterday, either. So two days offline. It feels good, it feels less noisy in my head. I’m curious.
Sham
So, Atlantic City. It’s a very strange place, and sad — probably a little sadder-seeming than usual since it’s winter, and so many places are closed. The summery places — saltwater taffy shops, ice cream parlors, miniature golf — they’re all closed and what’s left are half-empty casinos, psychics, and malls. Each hotel is a large complex comprising casinos, showrooms, shopping malls, and restaurants, and they all merge together. Just behind the boardwalk are rundown-looking tattoo parlors, check cashing stores, pawnshops, and shuttered businesses.
When I was first married, when I was 21, my then-husband was working for CBS News doing election research. We traveled to 20 states, and in the states he worked, he had to gather data at every county seat. One of our states was Nevada, and we got stuck in Las Vegas for more than a week because their records were so poor (surprise!). It was my first time encountering gambling, and I learned that I should not do it. I spent my little bit of cash and found myself glitter-eyed staring at my wedding ring, wondering what I could get for it. I walked away having learned something about myself. So I came to Atlantic City knowing that I didn’t want to gamble, but I don’t even want to. Now I look at the casinos and see them as oh so sad. Sad people sitting in front of tables or machines, giving their money away, and being blitzed by flashing lights and ringing bells, to keep them doing it. Or to disguise what’s really going on. They feed their money, they keep reaching into pockets and bags and handing over more and more. For the most part they’re older and I don’t know if that’s a difference between Atlantic City and Las Vegas, or if it has to do with this time of year. Or something else. Anyway, I haven’t been tempted.
We went into one place which was set up with an old west theme. Inside there were fake oak trees with tables underneath, and saloons and taverns along the outer edge, complete with swinging doors. All kinds of ‘buildings.’ And then, if you happen to look up, you see the ceiling tiles painted black, and you see so clearly the constructedness of it, and you realize it’s a giant warehouse that could be stripped of the old west theme and turned into anything else. It’s such a strange place. People love to be fooled.
We ate dinner last night at a hamburger place, and it felt as sad as the rest. It had a 50s theme, and the other customers seemed tired and worn down. It was someone’s birthday, so the lights dimmed and a waiter shouted that it’s always a special day, but today is most special because it’s Annie’s birthday, let’s sing! The entire restaurant joined the song, which very quickly drifted into a minor key and stayed there. I swear it was the most forlorn version of that song I’ve ever heard, and it fit the vibe. Minor and sad.
Because we’re here Sunday and Monday nights, the room rates are quite low; ~$70/night as opposed to $300+ for Friday and Saturday. We’re on the 41st floor with an ocean view, and the view really is beautiful. I love the ocean. We’re so used to New York, though, that last night the utter quietness was disturbing. There was absolutely no sound, at all. Bizarre! So we’re here tonight and tomorrow we’ll head home, back to the other world.
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- guess where we’re staying?
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- our view, from the 41st floor. it’s really a gorgeous view of the ocean.
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- the boardwalk — made of boards.
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- there’s also a beautiful beach here
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- late afternoon on the beach, my favorite time
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- i love a place with seagulls
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- blah blah blah Atlantic City blah blah blah industrial achievements. This is on the convention center, where the Miss America pageants are held
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- where else but here can you walk from old rome to the old west. weird weird place.
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- full moon and electric lights over the boardwalk
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- a full, brilliant moon over Atlantic City
thinking about my upcoming digital sabbatical
As I promised myself, this coming Saturday I’m taking a combination internet/knitting break, and I’m anxious about it. I’m allowing myself to use my computer to write, but not to go online. We’ll see how well I do with this; in the last few days, there have been several great articles (two in the NYTimes, including this lovely piece by Pico Iyer) about people taking digital sabbaticals. There’s something to it. I feel increasingly overloaded by all the information flying in, by my distracted and fractured nonstop word and image consumption — more blogs to read, more long articles to read, more insights to consume, more inspiration to absorb, more fiction to admire, more poetry to read, more thoughts to consider (oh! Must read Fareed Zakaria’s piece on the world.…). I feel wobbly, like I need to stop and make some priorities, and do some quality curating. I need to make time to process, to incorporate. I think this post about going on an information diet might be helpful, but I haven’t yet had time to read it thoughtfully — oh, the irony. Time!! I want more time, need more time. I have too many interests, and simply can’t understand people who say they’re bored.
Last year I grew in a very specific way: I became more self-possessed. That’s a very neat word, especially for someone who has always been other-possessed, past-possessed, history-possessed. Self-possessed means I take my own counsel, I have integrity and take my time, consider myself, pick and choose with the confidence of my true self. But I’m allowing myself to be overwhelmed, and it’s definitely time to stop, to take stock, to turn away from the easy seduction of immediate gratification and instead move thoughtfully and mindfully ahead. Easy to say, hard to do. I hope Saturday’s experiment gives me a start.
On Sunday my husband and I are driving to Atlantic City for a couple of days, to get out of town and keep ourselves busy and distracted while we wait for some news. We’re going ironically, and we’re Atlantic City’s worst nightmare: we don’t drink, we don’t gamble, we intend to lie around the pool or walk on the boardwalk or chill in our room, and we plan to eat.
It’d be much more interesting to go when Nucky was there, and Chalky, but alas. That’s a tv show. We’ll have a good time together making fun of the whole thing, the gamblers, the Snookies, the plastic glam and fake glitz. I’ll be taking my laptop, and since it’ll be after Saturday, I’ll be reporting live. From Atlantic City.
i miss katie. i really, really miss katie. why can’t i be in two places at once??
The insane boiler heat is back — thanks, co-op board — so I have my cool weather/hounds of hell heat headache once again. I woke up at 2am covered in sweat, and it had nothing to do with hot flashes and everything to do with the hissing radiators. Of course we have all our windows wide open, trying to modulate the temperature.
I’m not ready to get back to my regularly-scheduled life, so I take a minute here to stall it a bit more:
- I put this on facebook so I would remember it — apologies, then, if you read it there. When I was in the Austin airport, the TSA agent was very chatty. I guess Texan trumps TSA, because she wasn’t grim and stern like they usually are. My turn came, and I stepped up to her little table and handed her my boarding pass and ID, expecting to be waved through after she scribbled on the boarding pass. Instead, she said “What’s your specialty?” Well! My immediate thoughts were I’m really good at being happy ….. I knit …. I make excellent bread …. and I just had no idea how to answer her, nor did I know why in the world she was asking me such a bizarre question. I thought maybe it was some kind of new TSA identity check, a person ought to be able to answer that immediately and if they can’t, maybe they’re not who they say they are. Then I ran through possible occupation answers I might give, but I never know how to answer that either: writer, editor, teacher, ah! Psychologist, I said. She smiled and said “It says Dr. on your boarding pass so I was just curious.” (p.s. if you’re on facebook, friend me! I’m ldh.ny)
- My cabbie last night was unusual. First, he was friendly and chatty, which is partly unusual. After he put my suitcase in the trunk and got settled in his seat, I gave him my destination. He said “Columbia.” “Yeah, near Columbia,” I answered. That’s good, I thought, since cabbies often misunderstand my address. Then he asked me if I’m a professor. I do teach undergraduate students, so the easiest answer was yes — and he just beamed. “How did I know!” he said through his big grin. He asked what subject I teach, and when I said psychology he said “Ah! I’m a very lucky person, I can ask you questions! You have a PhD?” When I said yes, I do, he said “I’m right again!” Then he talked a little bit about how arrogant Lindsay Lohan is, what’s wrong with her. He was so charming, seeing himself as such a lucky person, knowing so many things about me. It was a sweet ending to a sad travel day.
- One awful thing about missing my Katie is that now I know the fine texture of her day, I can so easily imagine what she’s doing at any given time. It’s only 8:30 in Austin, as I write, so she’s sleeping, but she’ll be up soon, and she’ll make Trey’s lunch. My chest aches with the missing her.
- My birthday is coming right up, this Sunday. I’ll be 53, which is startling because I think I’ve been saying that I’m 53 for the last several months. I always do this. The coolest thing is that Sunday is the day we change the clocks — spring forward, fall back — which means my birthday is 25 hours long this year. WHEE! And it’s stunningly beautiful weather, and it will be through the weekend:
look at that!
- I bought three gorgeous skeins of yarn at Hill Country Weavers (remarkable restraint, don’t you agree??), which I’ll photograph later. I also made a lot of progress on my Oz Delight sweater, which I’ll also photograph. Knitting post to come, then.
here I sit in the Chicago airport. what do i do, but put down some words and pick up my knitting needles!
I woke up at 3:15 this morning, though I didn’t need to wake up until the luxurious-er hour of 4am, but since I was awake, I got up and had a cup of tea, packed my electronics, and left my apartment. It was raining, which really sucked, because it meant I needed to bring my umbrella….which I certainly wouldn’t need in Texas, for heaven’s sake. I schlepped out in the dark rainy night and headed to Broadway to get a cab. I’ve done that a lot — cabs on Broadway are common enough, and I’ve been out around that time of morning and had no problems finding a cab.
I must’ve been out just earlier enough to make a difference, because I stood in the dark rain for 8 or 9 minutes, watching the completely empty street. Once a cop drove past, but that was the only vehicle of any kind. Finally, a cab pulled up and I guess the driver didn’t feel like getting out in the rain to help me so I struggled to get my heavy suitcase in the trunk while holding an umbrella and balancing my purse and backpack on my shoulder. It’s hard to lift a heavy suitcase with one hand and do the necessary turn and flip to get it into the trunk of a cab, let me tell you. The lip of the open cab trunk is higher than most cars, so it requires a very high lift before you turn and flip.
Anyway. I got to the airport and got on my plane, took my seat, and started knitting. Sweet. The pilot told us the flight was going to take longer than planned because we were flying into a very strong headwind. This gave me pause, because I had a close connection in Chicago, but plenty of time to make it. Not more, but more than enough. So I thought ‘well, either I’ll make it or I won’t, and freaking out won’t make any difference, won’t make the plane go faster, won’t make me arrive earlier or later.‘ Nice. I can’t always pull this off, but I’ve become increasingly able to do it over the last couple of years.
The view out the window was particularly beautiful; for a long time, it was very dark and the light was that eerie scene of an airplane’s lights bouncing off clouds in the dark. But as the sun rose, the clouds became this gorgeous powder blue, and everything out my window was one or another shade of that color. The sky was slightly darker light blue, and the blanket of clouds below was lighter light blue, but the whole view was that beautiful, tranquil color. I enjoyed it so much.
So we arrived at the airport, the pilot drove the plane in from another town, it seemed, and we finally taxied to the gate where the gate folks fumbled to get the jetway connected. I knew. I really did. I knew. When the doors finally opened, I had 12 minutes until my connecting flight was scheduled to leave. AND! As these things happen, I arrived at the far end of Gate C in Terminal 1 and my connecting flight left from the other far end of Gate F in Terminal 2. I ran. Like Forrest Gump, I ran. I ran and ran, ran and ran, ran and ran. I got to the gate and learned they had just closed the doors. Like, just. If I’d gotten there 30 seconds earlier, I could’ve gotten on my flight.
the tarmac at O'Hare -- my view for a few hours
But luckily I’m me, and have my Kindle and my knitting and my laptop so I can deal with the 5-hour wait. The worst part is just these lost hours with Katie. Boo.
A little change of pace, something I’m dying to tell you! Last night the coolest thing happened, though it was really just a tiny thing. I was standing in the subway, and I noticed a small man walking toward me — I thought he looked like an imp, a little elf or something. He had red-gray hair and he wore these funny wool pants that came to mid-shin, and he wore odd little leather boots. His clothes were strange, and something about him was just so unusual. I looked a little closer, and it was Philippe Petit! The man who walked on the tightwire between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. It was actually him.
I felt such awe, and could not take my eyes off him. Such an audacious person, such a truly alive, audacious thing he did. Watch Man on Wire, if you haven’t already seen it (it was available streaming on Netflix the last time I checked — I’ve watched it 4 or 5 times). I just learned that he’s Artist in Residence at St John the Divine….which is in my neighborhood, which explains why he was getting in the subway at my stop. Which means I may run into him again.
bold and alive
I so wanted to speak to him. I so wanted to thank him for taking that walk, but I felt shy and didn’t want to intrude. When we were both in the train, at opposite ends of the crowded car, I caught his eye and smiled at him and he looked away. I did it a second time and he looked away, but after that he kept looking at me. I wish I’d had the courage to thank him, but the thing is I can’t even say why it means so much to me and touches me so much that he did that.
[read more: a piece on him in the NYTimes, and a brief PBS biography]
just sitting in the quiet, feeling happy and grateful this morning for more things than i can say
I don’t quite understand this, but adjusting to the 12-hour time difference when I arrive on the other side of the world isn’t that big a deal, really. For the first few days, I crash h-a-r-d in the late afternoon and take little skipping naps before dinner and go to sleep relatively early but that’s it. Then I’m adjusted and that’s that. Coming home, though, is another story. If you’ve been here long, you know this is what I talk about after every other-side-of-the-world vacation. First, I don’t seem to need very much sleep, which is bizarre. And second, no matter when I go to sleep I’m wide awake just after midnight. I crash h-a-r-d in the late afternoon and take little skipping naps before dinner and go to sleep around 9pm, and then I’m wide awake at 1:30 or 2am, and that’s that.
Boring. Real boring. What I realize this time is that resistance is indeed futile. I have these precious mid-night hours, all to myself. I’ve come to really love and appreciate this and will be kind of disappointed when my regular sleeping pattern returns in several weeks (that’s another thing, why does it take so long on this end!). I’ve been up since 1:30, reading and knitting, and feeling a lot of pleasure for these things:
The delicious humor of John Prine, especially in Dear Abby:
The wistful gorgeous beauty of Judy Collins singing Sons Of:
The color red, in all its punch and power and vivid life. I especially loved it this morning in the work of Catherine Ryan:
I just love the quality of color in that piece, but it’s characteristic of her work and the colors all make me feel grateful to be alive this morning.
Stick with me on this one: death. I’m grateful for death. I don’t want my life ever to end, but the fact that it will makes everything matter. Is this what I would be doing, right at this moment, if I knew I had 3 months to live? Maybe, it’s only 3am and I’m enjoying this moment, but keeping the question in mind makes life vivid. I’m thinking about it this morning especially because one of my dearest friend’s mother died on Sunday. She’d been lost to Alzheimer’s for years, and my friend was lucky enough to spend an hour with her mother Sunday, telling her stories of how much she’d been loved, and then other family members arrived and her mother slipped away, gently. Her mother had introduced her to Mary Oliver’s work, and my friend is the one who introduced me to Mary Oliver’s work, so this morning I remember her mother with this poem:
When death comes — Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
I’m also grateful this morning for metaphor and the artistic articulation of meaning. My daughter Marnie just got the first part of her new gorgeous tattoo done:
that's Pallas Athena
See this blog post she wrote about the levels of meaning behind her artistic choices, what these images mean for and about her. Since the image and story are on her public blog, I assume she won’t mind my putting them here.
There’s a lot more — I seem to be feeling extremely grateful this morning! — but this is getting long and I want to get back to my knitting. Speaking of: I’ll be finished with my Wintry Mix sweater in about an hour, and the yarn for my Vodka Gimlet arrived while I was gone and ohmygod it’s a gorgeous color. Another post on knitting-related things to come soon!
[and p.s., posted here for myself, so I don't forget: two nights ago I dreamed I was being held in the back room by the Chinese. That's it. There were no images with it, I just woke up and knew I'd dreamed that. WTF!! It's kinda funny.]
home again home again jiggety jig. but no fat pigs purchased at the market this go-round.
my last evening in the Mekong Delta
We got home around midnight from our wonderful trip to Vietnam and Malaysia. It was just amazing; if you are interested, here’s a link to the flickr set. We saw such gorgeous scenery in the mountains near the China border, in the Mekong Delta area, and on the island of Borneo. Oh my, I can’t think about any of it without crying.
I got a lot of knitting done, because we were traveling around a lot. Also, 2.5 days floating down the Mekong River with nothing to do but watch the scenery means plenty of time for knitting. I finished the body of my yellow featherweight cardigan, and I’m ready to pick up the first sleeve. Maybe Sunday, though I’m awake all night long since I’m 12-hours off schedule so perhaps I’ll sleep on Sunday, who knows.
So what’d I miss? Anything great in your life? In the world? On Rav? I know I won’t get to read all the things I missed, so if I missed a great post on your blog please direct me to it! It’s good to be back home, but I desperately miss Vietnam. Hard to think about it without crying, seriously.
so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye, i leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye, goodbye!
It’s time, yo! We’re off on our fall vacation, to Vietnam and Malaysia (and the island of Borneo). I won’t be posting here until Sunday October 16.
We’ll arrive in Hanoi at 9:30am on Saturday, which is 9:30pm Friday (NYC time). However. From the looks and sound of the typhoon that’s approaching Vietnam, it’s extremely likely that we’ll be stuck in Hong Kong for a day or more. Not that Hong Kong is a bad place to be stuck — in fact, we wanted to see it — but I’m just so eager to get to Hanoi, and I don’t want our train trip to Sapa to get screwed up. Keep your fingers crossed, say a little prayer, send good thoughts, burn incense, please do whatever you do!
My travel knitting will be my little yellow featherweight cardigan and my KtyKozue scarf, in case it’s too muggy and sticky to deal with the malabrigo.
The title of this post is goodbye in both languages, so here you go in more familiar tongues: goodbye! au revoir! despedida! kveðja! hwyl fawr!
i talked myself into feeling better by writing this post!
I have to start with something good — my flagging spirit needs it. The body of my Wintry Mix sweater is complete, as is one sleeve! With one sleeve, assembly, and the large cowl-ish collar to do, I won’t finish before we leave Thursday night. Which brings me to the craptastic news:
Typhoon Nesat, heading straight for Hanoi
Sigh. Yep. We’re arriving in Hanoi Saturday morning, though we’re betting we’ll get stuck in Hong Kong at least one day because the currently-projected 75mph winds will cancel/delay the little trip to Hanoi. I just don’t want our trip to Sapa to get goofed up…..
Such a first-world luxury problem. I will stop complaining now.
Way down south way down in Borneo, we’ll dance til the break of dawn-io, way down, on Borneo Bay. (Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band)
our little sampan, with our own crew of 3
I feel kind of breathless about this — it’s coming up so quickly, and I’m so excited — but a week from this Friday, at 1:30am, we’ll be flying off to Hong Kong for our next great adventure. From Hong Kong we fly to Hanoi (one of my favorite cities in the whole world), then we’ll take an overnight train to Sapa, in the mountains near the Chinese border. Back to Hanoi on the overnight train, then we’ll fly to Kuching, on the island of Borneo, then to Malacca, on the Malaysian peninsula, then up to Ho Chi Minh City where we’ll travel out into the Mekong Delta, on a private sampan. Our last night we’ll stay in a beautiful lodge in the delta, before heading back to Ho Chi Minh City for our flight back to Hong Kong and NYC. We’ll be gone for 16 days.
I always thought New York City and Paris were my favorite places in the world, and I do love those places, with all my heart and everything I am. But I very deeply love Vietnam — can’t say why, exactly, though I can list all kinds of things I love about it. I keep finding myself on the verge of tears, so happy that I get to go back there. I went to Vietnam in 2005 with my husband (6 months before we got married), and it was my first jarring travel experience. Before then, I’d been to Montreal and Quebec City, Cozumel and Isle Mujeres, Paris, London, and Glasgow. None of those places were jarring, they were Western and familiar, obviously. But Vietnam, it just blew me out of my socks. After a full day, I kind of hit a wall and didn’t think I could bear it. The alphabet was different, I had no idea what was going on, I couldn’t make sense of the money, almost no one spoke English, the food was sometimes mysterious, I couldn’t read anything, and some of the rules were unknown and scary, like the time we were taking a photo and an armed policeman ran toward us. That panicked feeling passed, and I relaxed a bit, though I continued to feel that sense of Otherness for the entire trip.
But the people were so gentle and busy and fast and laughing, the architecture (in Hanoi especially) was so distinctive, like Parisian architecture is. In both those places, you know where you are. The food was fresh and delicious (but don’t ask me about what my husband ate in Hue, he still can’t talk about it). The countryside is beautiful. But mainly, I think, it’s the people. I feel like I could live there and be very happy.
Will I feel the same sense of Otherness this time? Probably not, because I’ve been there before and I’ve now traveled to a lot of places that were uniquely foreign to me. I’m just so thrilled to be going back, I keep getting all choked up.
You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age. Homer, “The Odyssey”
My understanding of the traditional anniversary gift ideas (i.e., the first anniversary is paper, the 50th is gold) is that it’s about replacing wedding gifts that have worn out. So whatever you got for a wedding gift that was made of paper would be worn out by the first anniversary. That seems like a dicey explanation, but whatever, I’m going with it.
the traditional 5th year anniversary gift is wood, but look at the gift ideas on the bottom line, there! GO RIGHT AHEAD, I won't stop you if you want to give me that gift. You're wonderful like that.
So I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary at the end of April, whee! That’s a biggie for old people like me who finally got it right, here at the end of the game. Since I’m struggling along economically as a freelancer (read that: not making nearly enough money), I’m thinking hard about our vacation strategy. I always use frequent flyer miles, so that’s a huge savings right there. In the late winter/early spring, I always take a 1-week beach vacation, and in the fall I take a 2-week far away vacation. For the last two springs, I went to an island off the coast of Honduras, and it was wonderful but I’ve kind of exhausted the possibilities in that fun place. I was considering Barcelona, but MAN is it expensive.
It’s looking like I’m talking Turkey. Istanbul for sure, but then very quickly to the Mediterranean coast, to Olympos. This is where Poseidon stood when he watched Odysseus sail away from Calypsos, where he got really pissed off and sent yet another big storm to throw the weary wanderer off track. Asshole Poseidon. He’s a real jerk that way.
Been to Turkey? Visited Olympos? Got any recommendations to share? It looks like some of the most fascinating scenery is over near the Syria border, but for people with my passport and last name, that doesn’t seem like a smart place to be. I’m kind of hooked on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, so I’d love to hear any experience you may have!
i’m home from laos and cambodia! what happened while i was gone?
So hey y’all, I’m back! What’d I miss? Anything good? What was the best new thing you saw on Ravelry in the last couple of weeks? What was your best post – I’d like to say that I am going to catch up on everything, read all your back posts, look through Ravelry extensively, but we know that can’t possibly happen. So if you feel like it, leave a link to your best post in the comments so I can be sure to see what I missed.
And in a stroke of sheer brilliance, last year I scheduled this year’s mammogram when? MONDAY. I’ll take my seriously jetlagged and place-confused self to be squeezed and smashed on Monday. Excellent.
I missed you and appreciated your following our travel blog, and really appreciated your sweet comments! Your comments on facebook too, I loved them all. Tomorrow I’ll do a culminating post on the travel blog, but for now I am extremely wonky and tired and hungry and damn glad to be home. I can’t wait to climb into my very own cozy bed….
follow us to laos and cambodia!! here’s our travel blog -
click here to visit our travel blog!
We’re en route to Laos and Cambodia, y’all – you may not know this, but we’re good about keeping up our travel blog while we’re traveling. As long as we have a connection, we try to post every day. Pictures, stories, even little bits of video. We’ve done this for all our travel blogs – vietnam, croatia, peru, holland, honduras, india, everywhere.
We’ll land in Phnom Penh Saturday Nov 20 around 6am (NYtime), so we won’t have any posts until later that day, at the earliest. But do check in with us now and then – we’ll be seeing some amazing things and we love to share! I’ll be back to Thrum-ming on December 5.
(four words to tempt you – Thanksgiving at ANGKOR WAT)
Angkor Wat at the approach of sunset - incredible....
Choum reap lia! and La gohn! (goodbye, in Khmer and Lao) See you from the other side of the world.
xoL
i love cee-lo green, and i love brooklyn brown ale, and i love my family. wait, that’s not the right order.
- Cee-Lo Green. Maybe you caught him on The Colbert Report, singing a modified version of his big hit (replacing the “f*^ you” with “Fox News”). I’m not embedding the video here in case you’re offended by the F word (in which case don’t click his linked name….but really, you’re missing SUCH a great song, maybe you can just pretend he’s saying Fox News or something).
- Brooklyn Brown Ale – man, if you like a very hoppy beer, this one is GREAT. I don’t drink much, never more than one drink of anything, and this one will be my new go-to ale. YUM.
- anticipating my trip….I leave Thursday morning for Phnom Penh, as I keep saying. Because I am so so SO excited!!
- knitting. See posts on this blog for evidence. I don’t need to tell y’all about this one.
- Y’ALL. My friends, my deeply loved kids, strangers who just aren’t friends yet. All a y’all.
knitting. ravelry. katie. travel. joy.
My morning ritual (like yours, probably) involves drinking my 2 cups of coffee while catching up on email and other web stuff. Of course this includes Ravelry. I scan through my friends activity page and investigate projects that look interesting. Nothing newsy there. But as I was doing that this morning, it hit me that one of the really great things about knitting is that it always meets you where you are. Just learning? Plain old scarves are in your realm of possible while also being just a little bit of a challenge. Getting better? Lace, shawls. Getting better still? Garments. Getting better still? Yeah, there are still more techniques, more complicated patterns, more horizons. That’s one of the many things I love about our shared passion.
The whole purpose of my trip to Austin is to soak up as much of my daughter’s time and attention as possible – plus, I’m going to meet Kelly in person, very cool. My Katie girl and I will chat, play games, run some errands, give candy to trick-or-treaters, bake a LOT, and just hang out together, and I know the time will be too short. Still, I’ll need to have knitting with me so while I’m packing this morning I’m considering which project(s) to bring. Definitely the lace ribbon scarf; I hope to finish that, for sure. The flights from NY to Austin are long and I have a connection both ways – in Charlotte NC going down, and in Houston coming back. Lots of good airplane/airport knitting time, yay!
At the end of today’s journey will be my daughter’s smiling face, and [finally] good Mexican food. See y’all later -
and p.s. I woke up with Neil Diamond in my head singing “Love on the Rocks.” No, my marriage is NOT on the rocks. I can’t get the song out of my head now. This may be a long day. 
my head hurts, and there’s no way i’m eating a tarantula, even if they ARE deep friend. and no, a grasshopper doesn’t sound better.
New things! A skin for my Kindle, courtesy of Decalgirl. Since I rarely carry it in my purse, seeing as how I’m home all the time, I don’t have to keep it in the heavy leather case. But I don’t want the white surface to get dirty-looking, so voila!
love the little boy in the dunce cap
even the back gets a skin cover
Also: the lace ribbon scarf I’m making for my friend is going much faster than the other two I’d knit in sock-weight yarn. Also, I’m a much more skilled knitter now than I was when I made the other two scarves with this pattern. No mistakes, no need to check the pattern, it’s as easy as falling off a log.
it's going pretty quickly in Rowan Felted Tweed!
Every variety show needs at least one kind of freaky sideshow, right? One thing that’s an acquired taste, not for everyone? Well, this fits the bill in a lot of ways. This appears to be one of the most common street foods in Cambodia. NOT FOR THIS GAL.
deep-friend tarantulas. but hey, the hairs burn off!
tarantulas not your thing? then how about.....GRASSHOPPERS! no? (me neither!)
I might lose weight on our vacation, but there are lots of things to eat besides bugs. I’m counting on it.
Today was one of those lost days, thanks to the terrible low pressure system hanging over our heads. Ugh, the headache, the too-many sudafed, the pressure on my forehead. I’m knitting and watching a yoga video on Netflix. Somehow, it’s helping.
wow, has it been a year since i went to ireland with katie?
even death is beautiful in Ireland
Just around this time last year, my darling daughter Katie (who was born Katherine Kennedy Galloway, such a pretty green-eyed Irish girl) and I went to Ireland together. It was her first trip out of the country, and she’d always wanted to see Ireland so I felt incredibly lucky to have the chance to take her. I was attending an academic conference in Dublin, so we went several days early, and stayed in a gorgeously wonderful little B&B in Lough Gur, under the eagle-eye care of a marvelous woman named Bridget. After traveling around for those pre-conference days, Katie explored Dublin while I conferenced at Trinity University.
Ireland is even more beautiful than people say it is. I think it must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Thanks to Pip for her comment in the previous post, mentioning Galway. It caused me to look back at my flickr set:
flying the great circles
Well, anyway, I’ll be flying over the North Pole when I go to Laos and Cambodia in the fall. Want to see? I’m so excited!
That leg will be 15 hours, following a Great Circle, then I’ll change planes and fly 3 hours to Phnom Penh. I’m flying Cathay Pacific, which may well be a great airline, but it’s not Singapore Airlines, which is the airline I flew to Vietnam. But I don’t care! It’ll be my 2nd flight over the North Pole, I am a very very lucky girl. Here are the specifics, once I’m there:
I just finished watching The Big Sleep and spinning – what a nice morning! I slept in so late – 9:30! – and wish the day weren’t half over, but what to do. You need a lazy day now and then, right? Now I think I’ll make some bread, my favorite ciabatta recipe, and then do some knitting, and maybe a little more movie watching. One of my goals is to see all the AFI’s top 100 films, so there’s an abundance waiting for me. I hope you’re having such a lovely Sunday too!
what makes YOU happy?
This was the newest post on Dropped Stitches, and it just caught me at the right moment to think about the question myself. What makes me happy?
great big blue skies full of mountains of white clouds
the smell of bread baking
certain songs that make me so happy i cry. and they’re often unexpected, like the ending of Say You’ll Be There, by the Spice Girls. (SPICE GIRLS!!! really? I’m 51 years old with way too much education!)
that shift in the light and air when fall has really arrived
brownies
my kids’ voices and hands, any time
the plane lifting off the ground
the smell that means i’m home
those moments when i feel peace inside myself
You play along, too! It’ll make you feel good.
we’re going back to the other side of the world!!
First, this is a reservation. An actual, already-booked reservation. Here’s the legend:
- JFK = JFK airport in New York
- HKG = Hong Kong
- PNH = Phnom Penh, in CAMBODIA
We’ll be going to Vientiane and Luang Prabang in Laos; Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and Kep in Cambodia, and of course, Hong Kong as a transfer point. The blog is set up, and I’ll add information there as the itinerary firms up. For now, what I know for sure is that I’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Laos or Cambodia. Isn’t that amazing?
4 more years! 4 more years!
Yep – next Thursday is my wedding anniversary, but I’m beginning the celebration in about an hour. I’m heading upstate, to a little hamlet in the Catskills called Phoenicia. I love the area, and always eat at a great little restaurant called Brio’s. In fact, I celebrated my birthday there last November, and I could’ve just linked to that post but OH YEAH my blog died. Crashed. Burned. I lost all those old posts. Which just means I have a new opportunity to post about it again!
I’ll stay in the same place I stayed last November, eat at the same place I always eat, hike around in the woods as I always do, piddle around Woodstock as I always do, and just enjoy myself. As I always do. Happy anniversary to me! Photos to come.
hard yarns and fun places to go
I had a wonderful weekend – got a lot done on the wedding dress (but not too much, since Marnie is coming for a fitting at the beginning of May), had some great food, got outside a bit, and did a bit of knitting on my blanket:
love the pattern
I do love the pattern – Totally Autumn, by Anne Hanson – it’s great fun to knit, and the scrunchy dimensionality of it is fun to touch. The yarn, though, not as much. I’m using Cascade 220 for the first time, and finding it a bit hard. Ravelry lists it as the most popular yarn, and I got it on a great sale at Webs, but it’s not soft, and the hand is a bit heavy at this point. We’ll see how it goes; it’ll be just fine for what it is, but I’m not sure I’d use this yarn for anything that needed to go against my skin.
we had joy we had fun, we had blanket in the sun
And in other news, I may just be taking an exciting trip in September. I’m not sure yet, there are some impending changes in my life that make it a little uncertain, but if I do go, here’s the masthead for that blog:
I really did love Vietnam, so much, and I’ve heard that Laos is amazing. I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope……….
back from vacation and planning the next!
……and, we’re back. Roatan was just wonderful – even better than last year, in many ways. We weren’t able to be online with any ease, so I just put up one giant post on the Roatan blog, with a flickr slideshow. It was great to be there, and kind of awful to be facing work tomorrow. I only have 235 emails, so it could definitely be worse, but I can’t bear to look at them today. Tomorrow will be soon enough.
I did a lot of knitting on vacation, partly because I had a dreadful cold the first couple of days, and there was an amazing storm for a couple of days. I finished the holey socks, and am ~75% finished with the other pair:
side view of the holey socks
holey socks, accompli!
- Pattern: Holes in my socks! By Nicole Okun
- Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Multi (Colorway: Beverly 209) – 2 skeins were more than enough
side view of the monkeys
looking down on the monkeys
- Pattern: Monkey, by Cookie A
- Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks (Colorway Meadow 1518)
I’m going to try to knock out the rest of sock #2 and get them both out in the mail to Katie asap, then I need to return all my knitting time to the wedding shawl.
While we were gone, spring seems to have arrived in full force here in Manhattan! It’s sunny and gorgeous outdoors, and people seem refreshed. Today is the post-vacation normalizing for us – piles of laundry, straightening up and putting everything away, getting ready for the week.
One thing that makes it better, coming home from vacation, is that we always start planning the next one. Our current idea is to go to Laos, with a trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and maybe a side journey into Thailand, avoiding Bangkok if at all possible. Or to the degree possible, anyway. The child sex trade there is too horrifying to bear, and I don’t want to give a penny to the country that supports it. Every country supports horrors of one kind or another, and there’s little gradation between things at that far end of the spectrum, but that one in particular is unbearable for me. So we’re focusing on Laos, and trying to figure out how best to get there at a reasonable price. We loved Vietnam so much, and especially enjoyed Hanoi, so we may just make a stop there, too. Fun fun fun, anticipating and planning. It makes the coming home a bit easier.
If you met me, you’d see a tall 53-year old woman with a big smile and bad posture. You’d hear my deep Texas accent, which people up here in NYC describe as a “cute southern accent.” (oh.no.it’s.not!) You’d also hear about the people I love, my husband and kids: my husband goes unnamed here to respect his privacy, but he’s there in everything I do; my oldest daughter Katie and her husband Trey, who live in Austin; my 2nd daughter Marnie and her husband Tom, who live in Chicago; my son Will, who lives here in Manhattan and who is a dashing man about town; and my stepdaughter Anna, who is a college junior at a fancy school far away. You’d hear about social psychology, since I have a PhD in the subject and until very recently, acquired books in social psychology for a famous university press, the one that published the very first book. Now, I am a writer and editorial consultant.
Continue Reading–71 words totally
knitting in croatia
If you met me, you’d see a tall 53-year old woman with a big smile and bad posture. You’d hear my deep Texas accent, which people up here in NYC describe as a “cute southern accent.” (oh.no.it’s.not!) You’d also hear about the people I love, my husband and kids: my husband goes unnamed here to respect his privacy, but he’s there in everything I do; my oldest daughter Katie and her husband Trey, who live in Austin; my 2nd daughter Marnie and her husband Tom, who live in Chicago; my son Will, who lives here in Manhattan and who is a dashing man about town; and my stepdaughter Anna, who is a college junior at a fancy school far away. You’d hear about social psychology, since I have a PhD in the subject and until very recently, acquired books in social psychology for a famous university press, the one that published the very first book. Now, I am a writer and editorial consultant.
Obviously, you’d have to listen to me prattle on and on about knitting, and other handwork. My Aunt Meecie taught me to crochet when I was 5 or so, and I specialized in skein-long chains of acrylic yarn. I took up embroidering pillowcases in kindergarten, and generally made shit throughout my growing-up years. I took up knitting when I was 23, followed by spinning and weaving, quilting, bobbin-lace making, sewing and smocking. And woodworking. I’ve never met a type of handwork I didn’t love. Yet.
And now, me by the bullets:
- I’ve been to 612 cities in 20 countries (that number is constantly getting bigger).
- I’m 5’10″ (that number is consistently getting smaller).
- I have 2 graduate degrees (that number won’t be changing, though I do periodically toy with the idea of going back for a 2nd PhD [philosophy] or taking creative writing classes).
- I’ve moved 80 times. I’m done now.
- I have more than 15 tattoos (changing? perhaps).
- (I love parenthetical comments; also, semi-colons.)
- I love Cap’n Crunch and Pop-Tarts.
- I am a social psychologist. Before I started college, I thought it was just like 13th grade or something. My family did not have any education.
- Inside, I’m poor white trash. Outside, I’m fancy. Kinda.
- I am a photographer.
- I love odd-ball instruments like the accordion, banjo, and bagpipes.
- I’m pretty cool if you get to know me.
- I’ve suffered. A lot.
- Places I’ve lived: [texas] Graham, Tyler, Kilgore, Abilene, Austin (back and forth lotsa times), San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Richardson, Irving, Wichita Falls; [connecticut] New Britain; [virginia] Fredericksburg; [alabama] Huntsville; [arkansas] Fayetteville; [new jersey] Ramsey; [new york] Rochester, Manhattan.
- Cinnamon toast makes me happy.
- I started college at age 36, and grad school at age 40. NOT EASY, when you have 3 little kids.
- I didn’t get out of Texas until I was 29 years old. (Mexico doesn’t count, when you’re a Texan.)
- I am a baker.
- Learning new things makes me happy.
- I have an intriguing relationship with light.
- I used to think of book ideas and find people to write them.
- I am a jealous person, and it makes me suffer terribly. I wish I could not be jealous. Ideas?
- I love clouds and big skies, they make me feel like I can breathe.
- My favorite places in the world are Manhattan, Santa Fe, New Orleans, Paris, Hanoi, Cusco, Arequipa, Vancouver, Luang Prabang, Phnom Penh, and San Francisco. That list is not in order of favoriteness.
- Annie Lennox is my favorite singer and songwriter, and so is Lyle Lovett.
- I love live theater and modern art.
- Singing and dancing make me so happy I cry.
- I love to sing, but only do it privately these days. I used to be that girl with a guitar in a bar.
- I’m an 8th generation Texan. You read that right. My kids are 9th. My grandkids (some of them, anyway) will be 10th.
- I have a sweet tooth. Duh, given the food faves above. I love Easter because of Peeps. (PEEPS!)
- I am writing a memoir of my father.
Yum….one night we’ll have fish, another night veggies, and on another night, we’ll have….
Can you guess?What does that look like?
…
Continue Reading–1 words totally
Yum….one night we’ll have fish, another night veggies, and on another night, we’ll have….
Can you guess?
What does that look like?
…
…
…
…
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