I had a fabulous weekend
on paper. My emotional state, on the other hand, didn't get the memo.
Friday was Steve's birthday. I had gotten him tickets to see Macbeth (I'm not in a theater so I can say it as much as I like: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!) starring Patrick Stewart. We had nosebleed seats. Nosebleeds, in 500 seat theater? Yes really. The orchestra level has the usual pitch to the floor, but the balcony practically had seats bolted to the vertical back wall of the theater. While sitting my knees were ABOVE the level of the head of the person sitting in the row ahead of me. I wouldn't ski down a slope that steep!
Steve gets a bit of vertigo at heights, and while he said he's be fine I also saw him keeping his hand glued to the floor right behind our seats. Really it made my stomach lurch when I sat down, so I can imagine that he was not happy. That wouldn't do for a birthday. I kindly asked the ushers if something could be done to accommodate someone with vertigo. He got on the magic walkie talkie and secured us seats in the orchestra (we paid the difference, but the seats were so much better).
The show was great. I was blown away by Malcolm and MacDuff, The scene when the two meet in England is one of the best pieces of theater I have seen. EVER. The witches were more menacing than I had ever imagined. Mr. Stewart was, well, fabulous. I just wish I had read the play recently (it has been a few years) because it took me a little while to get into the swing of the language.
That was great, followed by Oh-My-That-Was-Wonderful sushi.
So far, so good.
Then came Saturday. We lazed about and got a little cranky at each other, mostly because we waited too long to eat, but it was fine really because we weren't feeling pressured. Of course that made the process of actually acquiring food take way longer than it should have so we ended up late to meet some friends. We went for a long, long, long walk around Crown Heights and Flatbush, exploring parts of the city we had never seen before. Jacob was great. He has never been so good on such a long walk. I only had to carry him a little bit. (Thanks Fred for entertaining him). Then off to a baby shower which was perfectly lovely, except that J became "THAT KID" you know the one that all the other kids complain about. He actually gave a girl a bloody nose. So much for enjoying that party.
Sunday I caught up on a little work then went to a kiddie birthday party. There were lots of intelligent adults present, but I just couldn't manage to relax and have enough good long conversations. To top things off, J became THAT KID again. This time smacking another kid in the face with part of a board game.
I really need to figure out what's going on with him. It's like he gets pushed or made fun of and then he just snaps and lashes out. He knows it's wrong and when I sit and talk with him he really tries to figure it out, but it just comes down to an extreme emotional reaction to getting pushed too far.
So J really need some help, and I realize I really need some help too. Both the hitting incidents were tiny blips in otherwise nice parties; even so I somehow just couldn't relax and connect to anyone. It's the feeling of one half of my brain constantly paying attention to something else, I'm always on guard or unwilling to get into good conversations because I know they will be interrupted in five or ten minutes. So what should have been fun social occasions, ended up being 8 hours of small talk, making me tired. I started this morning feeling drained instead of restored. Not a good way to start the week.
On the plus side I have a delicious red velvet cupcake waiting for me at home. The buttercream is delicious and there is cream cheese filling. We will finally have Steve blow out the candles since the weekend was too full of other celebrations to properly have a family birthday cake in honor of Steve.
Another plus - we just got a new job at work. As it turns out I will be working on the designs for entry plaza for Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus. It's rather fun to think that Iget to design my old college. Go me!
Friday was Steve's birthday. I had gotten him tickets to see Macbeth (I'm not in a theater so I can say it as much as I like: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!) starring Patrick Stewart. We had nosebleed seats. Nosebleeds, in 500 seat theater? Yes really. The orchestra level has the usual pitch to the floor, but the balcony practically had seats bolted to the vertical back wall of the theater. While sitting my knees were ABOVE the level of the head of the person sitting in the row ahead of me. I wouldn't ski down a slope that steep!
Steve gets a bit of vertigo at heights, and while he said he's be fine I also saw him keeping his hand glued to the floor right behind our seats. Really it made my stomach lurch when I sat down, so I can imagine that he was not happy. That wouldn't do for a birthday. I kindly asked the ushers if something could be done to accommodate someone with vertigo. He got on the magic walkie talkie and secured us seats in the orchestra (we paid the difference, but the seats were so much better).
The show was great. I was blown away by Malcolm and MacDuff, The scene when the two meet in England is one of the best pieces of theater I have seen. EVER. The witches were more menacing than I had ever imagined. Mr. Stewart was, well, fabulous. I just wish I had read the play recently (it has been a few years) because it took me a little while to get into the swing of the language.
That was great, followed by Oh-My-That-Was-Wonderful sushi.
So far, so good.
Then came Saturday. We lazed about and got a little cranky at each other, mostly because we waited too long to eat, but it was fine really because we weren't feeling pressured. Of course that made the process of actually acquiring food take way longer than it should have so we ended up late to meet some friends. We went for a long, long, long walk around Crown Heights and Flatbush, exploring parts of the city we had never seen before. Jacob was great. He has never been so good on such a long walk. I only had to carry him a little bit. (Thanks Fred for entertaining him). Then off to a baby shower which was perfectly lovely, except that J became "THAT KID" you know the one that all the other kids complain about. He actually gave a girl a bloody nose. So much for enjoying that party.
Sunday I caught up on a little work then went to a kiddie birthday party. There were lots of intelligent adults present, but I just couldn't manage to relax and have enough good long conversations. To top things off, J became THAT KID again. This time smacking another kid in the face with part of a board game.
I really need to figure out what's going on with him. It's like he gets pushed or made fun of and then he just snaps and lashes out. He knows it's wrong and when I sit and talk with him he really tries to figure it out, but it just comes down to an extreme emotional reaction to getting pushed too far.
So J really need some help, and I realize I really need some help too. Both the hitting incidents were tiny blips in otherwise nice parties; even so I somehow just couldn't relax and connect to anyone. It's the feeling of one half of my brain constantly paying attention to something else, I'm always on guard or unwilling to get into good conversations because I know they will be interrupted in five or ten minutes. So what should have been fun social occasions, ended up being 8 hours of small talk, making me tired. I started this morning feeling drained instead of restored. Not a good way to start the week.
On the plus side I have a delicious red velvet cupcake waiting for me at home. The buttercream is delicious and there is cream cheese filling. We will finally have Steve blow out the candles since the weekend was too full of other celebrations to properly have a family birthday cake in honor of Steve.
Another plus - we just got a new job at work. As it turns out I will be working on the designs for entry plaza for Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus. It's rather fun to think that Iget to design my old college. Go me!