Sunday
Have you heard there’s a chair trick women can do that men can’t? I hadn’t, but Lauren Myracle told me all about it today: Put a chair in front of you and stand a few feet back from a wall. Bend forward so your body’s at a ninety degree angle and your head is against the wall. Then lift the chair up and then stand up, still holding the chair. Supposedly women can do this but men can’t. It’s something about our center of gravity.
Lauren and I met at Books of Wonder. She was there for a reading with my dear friend Wendy Mass, along with a slew of other fabulous writers. Lauren, Wendy and I got there a little bit early so we could hang out and catch up. I don’t remember how the chair trick came up, but other people besides Lauren had heard about. We called a few guys over to try it and they were all able to lift the chair. So then we thought maybe we weren’t conducting the experiment exactly right, but when I googled it, it seemed like the right way. Maybe we were just in the company of extraordinary men.
Anyway, here’s a picture of Wendy, me and Lauren, taken after we’d given up on the chair thing.
I had to leave the reading a little bit early because I’d promised Amy’s son Madden that we’d watch Elf today, and before that I wanted to stop in at Abercrombie & Fitch to get a couple of Chrismakuh gifts for my faux bro IanMichael. Except you can’t just stop into the Abercrombie & Fitch in Manhattan, because even on a non-holiday season weekend, there’s a LINE out the door and around the corner! As if the store was a ride at Disney World! I waited on line, by myself, in the cold, feeling like the best sister in the whole entire world. If you’ve ever been there you know that when you get in, you’re assaulted by this techno-beat music that makes the whole place pulsate, as well as the completely overpowering scent of perfume. Seriously, they must douse the place. My brother has told me on previous visits that he likes the smell. He’s also into the music. He’s fifteen, and I am not. But everyone working in the store was very nice. All these super cute twenty-something guys were smiling at me, saying “hi” and “have a nice day” as I passed by, which made me feel like I looked pretty, even if it was just what they were trained to do. (I think you can tell from the above picture with Wendy and Lauren that it really wasn’t my best day. Though I have to say I loved the boots I was wearing -- $40 on Zappos and they were comfy the whole day despite the fact that it was only the second time I’d worn them and I walked at least a couple miles.)
After all that, I left without even getting anything for IanMichael. I headed uptown to Amy’s apartment, where Madden and Brody were waiting for me. Except they didn’t want to watch Elf because they were watching the Giants game. Naturally, they were both wearing their lucky Giants’ jerseys. Madden knows just about everything there is to know about the Giants, and Brody does this thing when he imitates whatever the players are doing on screen. If someone fakes left and goes right, Brody shouts “Fake left! Go right!” And does just that. Of course I took pictures. This is the only one of the two of them together - most likely during a tackle.
The game ended and Madden said he wasn’t in the mood to watch the movie. Brody didn’t want to since Madden didn’t want to. I spent a while trying to convince them otherwise, and Amy thought it was weird that I was begging a six-year-old and three-year-old to watch TV instead of, say, read books. We settled on listening to Lady Gaga, who I introduced them to a few weeks ago (not in person, just to her music). Madden’s favorite songs are “Alejandro” and “Just Dance.” Brody is partial to “Bad Romance.” He also knows what the paparazzi are because Gaga sings about them and he is very smart.
Finally I asked Madden to watch Elf with me, and he balked, and I pleaded and said, “We’ll just watch for a few minutes and if you don’t like it, we’ll turn it off.” “Okay, fine,” he said, doing me a big favor. Amy had set the DVR to record the movie last week, so we settled in front of the couch. Brody came too and curled into my lap. Five minutes in, and both boys were cracking up. A couple hours later Amy was putting Madden to bed and he was telling her the things he liked about the movie. “You see,” I said. “I told you that you’d like it.”
“Yeah,” he admitted.
“And who told you that you’d like Lady Gaga music?”
“You did,” he said.
“And who told you that yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting is the best kind of cupcake?”
“You,” he said again.
“So what have you learned?” Madden looked unsure, so I answered for him: “You learned to never doubt me, ever again!” Both Amy and Madden thought that was very funny.
Lauren and I met at Books of Wonder. She was there for a reading with my dear friend Wendy Mass, along with a slew of other fabulous writers. Lauren, Wendy and I got there a little bit early so we could hang out and catch up. I don’t remember how the chair trick came up, but other people besides Lauren had heard about. We called a few guys over to try it and they were all able to lift the chair. So then we thought maybe we weren’t conducting the experiment exactly right, but when I googled it, it seemed like the right way. Maybe we were just in the company of extraordinary men.
Anyway, here’s a picture of Wendy, me and Lauren, taken after we’d given up on the chair thing.
I had to leave the reading a little bit early because I’d promised Amy’s son Madden that we’d watch Elf today, and before that I wanted to stop in at Abercrombie & Fitch to get a couple of Chrismakuh gifts for my faux bro IanMichael. Except you can’t just stop into the Abercrombie & Fitch in Manhattan, because even on a non-holiday season weekend, there’s a LINE out the door and around the corner! As if the store was a ride at Disney World! I waited on line, by myself, in the cold, feeling like the best sister in the whole entire world. If you’ve ever been there you know that when you get in, you’re assaulted by this techno-beat music that makes the whole place pulsate, as well as the completely overpowering scent of perfume. Seriously, they must douse the place. My brother has told me on previous visits that he likes the smell. He’s also into the music. He’s fifteen, and I am not. But everyone working in the store was very nice. All these super cute twenty-something guys were smiling at me, saying “hi” and “have a nice day” as I passed by, which made me feel like I looked pretty, even if it was just what they were trained to do. (I think you can tell from the above picture with Wendy and Lauren that it really wasn’t my best day. Though I have to say I loved the boots I was wearing -- $40 on Zappos and they were comfy the whole day despite the fact that it was only the second time I’d worn them and I walked at least a couple miles.)
After all that, I left without even getting anything for IanMichael. I headed uptown to Amy’s apartment, where Madden and Brody were waiting for me. Except they didn’t want to watch Elf because they were watching the Giants game. Naturally, they were both wearing their lucky Giants’ jerseys. Madden knows just about everything there is to know about the Giants, and Brody does this thing when he imitates whatever the players are doing on screen. If someone fakes left and goes right, Brody shouts “Fake left! Go right!” And does just that. Of course I took pictures. This is the only one of the two of them together - most likely during a tackle.
The game ended and Madden said he wasn’t in the mood to watch the movie. Brody didn’t want to since Madden didn’t want to. I spent a while trying to convince them otherwise, and Amy thought it was weird that I was begging a six-year-old and three-year-old to watch TV instead of, say, read books. We settled on listening to Lady Gaga, who I introduced them to a few weeks ago (not in person, just to her music). Madden’s favorite songs are “Alejandro” and “Just Dance.” Brody is partial to “Bad Romance.” He also knows what the paparazzi are because Gaga sings about them and he is very smart.
Finally I asked Madden to watch Elf with me, and he balked, and I pleaded and said, “We’ll just watch for a few minutes and if you don’t like it, we’ll turn it off.” “Okay, fine,” he said, doing me a big favor. Amy had set the DVR to record the movie last week, so we settled in front of the couch. Brody came too and curled into my lap. Five minutes in, and both boys were cracking up. A couple hours later Amy was putting Madden to bed and he was telling her the things he liked about the movie. “You see,” I said. “I told you that you’d like it.”
“Yeah,” he admitted.
“And who told you that you’d like Lady Gaga music?”
“You did,” he said.
“And who told you that yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting is the best kind of cupcake?”
“You,” he said again.
“So what have you learned?” Madden looked unsure, so I answered for him: “You learned to never doubt me, ever again!” Both Amy and Madden thought that was very funny.