2 Mo' Math
There was the exact wrong weather for snowmaking, even if I'd been feeling perfect, so we punted our original idea for skiing this weekend. With nothing else planning, I suggested we check out the reform synagogue that Jon's ex and son attend. I really liked it, alas. They pray a lot less, going through the prayers only once and with no repetitions; they have a female cantor and pianist; and they do goofy things like add the foremothers to blessings. They only read a third of the Torah portion! And yet... everyone shows up on time, nobody talks, and the rabbi uses the extra time to educate. This is not a shul for people who spent 9 years in a (nominally) Orthodox day school, but I recognize it is more likely to make the atheist and the agnostic in my family more comfortable, so.
We had to take the subway there, but it also happened to be near the new Hill Country, so lunch was all the bbq. Then we headed to the Museum of Math in Manhattan. Like that time the six of us went to the Morris Museum, I think the adults got more out of the puzzles than the child.
Sunday morning, I met Julian and his child at the Houdini "museum", where she acquired several new magic tricks/dvds before we headed... to MoMath. She's been there before, and is generally more patient/thoughtful, so we spent more time at the exhibits. I read through ALL the explanations of some of the exhibits, so e.g. my Harvard lawyer boyfriend made me explain the string calculator using no numbers or letters that aren't part of words. (His specifications.) Some of the explanations seem more like magic than math to me (I'm looking at you, tracks of Galileo, with your brachistochrone curve.) It's interesting to me that there are areas of my life where I don't care how it works: I'm pretty sure the sword trick at the museum wasn't actual magic, but I'm not sure I even want someone to explain how it works. Similarly, I'm willing to believe brachistochrone curves work, even if it's counterintuitive. I didn't realize until I got there how funny it was that I brought my new tessellated bag (and I still don't understand why there are so many tessellation exhibit at Mo' Math, except that they are visually striking.
I suggested we try Max Brenner for lunch. They claimed to have a 2hr wait and we wanted to go to The Strand anyhow, so we did. I haven't been there in over a decade and it kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies to look at books without reviews. Yes, there's serendipity to walking around a bookshop and it was much easier for a staff member to find a child-appropriate book of poetry than if we'd been looking, but I see no reason to go to a paper bookstore again.
Max Brenner was a zoo: it reminds me of eating at Serendipity 3 with all the noise and the hubbub. Julian and I shared an appetizer of fried corn croquettes and a Cubano sandwich made with waffles. Junior merely picked at her food and honestly, I think the best part was the samples of hazelnut and chocolate pecans they were handing out at the door.
I woke up at 7:30am on Monday and was all set to shower and head to my sister's place, but Jon was snuggly and then I woke up at 10:20. oops. When I finally got to her place, she was a little vexed that I hadn't made an appt at any of the dress shops. We went to the shop that sold my sister-in-law her wedding dress - and made all the alterations in 3 days - where I loved the first dress I tried on. I tried on 3 more and loved the last best of all. Apparently I'm not that picky. I was (am still?) hemming and hawing on spending that much on an article of clothing I'll wear once, but later that night, my sister-in-law made a comment that caused me to recontextualize it as a costume for a once-in-a-lifetime event. Which is totally different. Totally.
We had hibachi with my niece and her daddy and then I got to babysit while my brother drove to the city to pick up his wife. It was a really nice family visit, a chance to connect with my sister and to hear about what's going on with the others. It continued the next day, when my mother and I went to the gym and had lunch. We were talking about preparedness, which led me to finally ask her why her parents were caught so unprepared by the fall of Saigon, which led to some interesting anecdotes about her relationship with her parents and her grandfather's girlfriend. Which is probably more important than details about the wedding anyhow.
We had to take the subway there, but it also happened to be near the new Hill Country, so lunch was all the bbq. Then we headed to the Museum of Math in Manhattan. Like that time the six of us went to the Morris Museum, I think the adults got more out of the puzzles than the child.
Sunday morning, I met Julian and his child at the Houdini "museum", where she acquired several new magic tricks/dvds before we headed... to MoMath. She's been there before, and is generally more patient/thoughtful, so we spent more time at the exhibits. I read through ALL the explanations of some of the exhibits, so e.g. my Harvard lawyer boyfriend made me explain the string calculator using no numbers or letters that aren't part of words. (His specifications.) Some of the explanations seem more like magic than math to me (I'm looking at you, tracks of Galileo, with your brachistochrone curve.) It's interesting to me that there are areas of my life where I don't care how it works: I'm pretty sure the sword trick at the museum wasn't actual magic, but I'm not sure I even want someone to explain how it works. Similarly, I'm willing to believe brachistochrone curves work, even if it's counterintuitive. I didn't realize until I got there how funny it was that I brought my new tessellated bag (and I still don't understand why there are so many tessellation exhibit at Mo' Math, except that they are visually striking.
I suggested we try Max Brenner for lunch. They claimed to have a 2hr wait and we wanted to go to The Strand anyhow, so we did. I haven't been there in over a decade and it kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies to look at books without reviews. Yes, there's serendipity to walking around a bookshop and it was much easier for a staff member to find a child-appropriate book of poetry than if we'd been looking, but I see no reason to go to a paper bookstore again.
Max Brenner was a zoo: it reminds me of eating at Serendipity 3 with all the noise and the hubbub. Julian and I shared an appetizer of fried corn croquettes and a Cubano sandwich made with waffles. Junior merely picked at her food and honestly, I think the best part was the samples of hazelnut and chocolate pecans they were handing out at the door.
I woke up at 7:30am on Monday and was all set to shower and head to my sister's place, but Jon was snuggly and then I woke up at 10:20. oops. When I finally got to her place, she was a little vexed that I hadn't made an appt at any of the dress shops. We went to the shop that sold my sister-in-law her wedding dress - and made all the alterations in 3 days - where I loved the first dress I tried on. I tried on 3 more and loved the last best of all. Apparently I'm not that picky. I was (am still?) hemming and hawing on spending that much on an article of clothing I'll wear once, but later that night, my sister-in-law made a comment that caused me to recontextualize it as a costume for a once-in-a-lifetime event. Which is totally different. Totally.
We had hibachi with my niece and her daddy and then I got to babysit while my brother drove to the city to pick up his wife. It was a really nice family visit, a chance to connect with my sister and to hear about what's going on with the others. It continued the next day, when my mother and I went to the gym and had lunch. We were talking about preparedness, which led me to finally ask her why her parents were caught so unprepared by the fall of Saigon, which led to some interesting anecdotes about her relationship with her parents and her grandfather's girlfriend. Which is probably more important than details about the wedding anyhow.