Labor Day weekend funtime whirlwind
Thursday to Monday: Four states, two parties, hotel hijinks, Manhattan fun, tons of food, 400 miles on the road, and waking up to Rosemary five days straight.
Thursday seems like so far away now, but that's where it all began. Rosemary came to Bristol for ESPN's employee picnic. We take over the Lake Compounce theme park next door for the day, so it's a free day at the park - rides, food, beer, fireworks on the lake, food, beer ... Rosemary got to meet some more people I know at work (including Mario, his wife and their monster-big baby boy). We spent most of the time with Mike and Virginia, running around for a constant stream of games, rides, food and beer. I ate and drank so much - pizza, ribs, hamburgers, cookies, funnel cake, ice cream, chicken fingers, fries, and beer beer beer. Being at an amusement park when the kids are all gone is a very interesting experience. Horseplay on the carousel, and then we booed people driving bumper cars when they'd bottleneck.
The next morning Rosemary and I hit the road for New York, since I had to work at ABC Saturday for college football. Enjoyed a very fine Restaurant Week dinner at Greek restaurant Molyvos - eat anything they serve in grape leaves. We stayed at the legendary Algonquin Hotel, which is still quite nice. It's a boutique hotel, so you get all these cozy little rooms; don't look for wide open space here. The bed was fantastic - about the best I'd ever slept in. We enjoyed some cocktails in the main lounge, still full of that old New York charm. The hallway wallpaper is of New Yorker cartoons; each room door has a Dorothy Parker quote; the rooms have pull-out writing ledges in the desk and nightstands; and the bay windows have a seated alcove. And there's the resident cat, Matilda, who sits on her chaise lounge-style bed, chills all day, and you're allowed to pet her; I've never seen dog-lover Rosemary be happy about a cat until now.
Work was long, as expected. I spent about 12 hours watching more than two dozen college football and baseball games, running alerts on scores and adding stats and things. Most of the time I'm by myself in a control room that's down the hall from the other control rooms where the broadcasts are being produced. On one hand, I'm free to watch as many games as I need to keep an eye on, but if something goes wrong I have to leave my chair (which I shouldn't) and there's really no time to handle it. Overall things went OK on air, but there were hiccups and rust to shake off all around for everyone, so I gotta post-mortem with my boss. This week I go again and I'm training a co-worker who is taking over, so I gotta put some things together for him to know.
On Sunday, Rosemary and I saw the "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was pretty good, combining both superhero movie and TV costumes (a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman costume, an Iron Man suit, a Michelle Pfieffer Catwoman outfit, fanboy drool) and fashion that parallels or is inspired by the designs. The oddest thing about the exhibit is how much it went into the sexual and festish underpinnings of superhero designs - whether it's the Hulk as untamed masculinity, the S&M push of Catwoman, again and again the exhibit hit the well of the sculpted, perfected and transformed body. I guess I just didn't expect to see so much sex in the exhibit, but much of this ran right over children's heads. The other neat thing was that an outfit from the George Michael "Too Funky" video was there - the motorcycle one that Emma Sjöberg wears. I also bought this awesome coffee table book, "DC Comics Covergirls," in which DC Comics writer Louise Simonson does a cultural retrospective of female characters and the covers. My faves were always the "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" issues - if you wanna see what gender mores were in the 1950s and '60s, look no further.
Rosemary and I then met up with her high school friend Sarit, who now lives in Brooklyn, and all rode back to Philly. After dropping Sarit off, Rosemary and I hit up Pete and Marina's Labor Day party in South Philly. I saw a bunch of friends, many of whom I have barely seen since I moved away. Ate and drank and ate and drank and ate and drank. It was nice to catch up on what everyone's up to - so many weddings, pregnancies and children, and of course sharing news of Rosemary's impending move.
So, now I'm back in CT after what feels like an eternity away from the office and my apartment. Gotta get ready for New York again this weekend. And after the days of massive eating and drinking, I'm back on the exercise - push-ups, crunches and weights already done today.
More photos will go up on Flickr soon. Including more adventures of Chops.
Thursday seems like so far away now, but that's where it all began. Rosemary came to Bristol for ESPN's employee picnic. We take over the Lake Compounce theme park next door for the day, so it's a free day at the park - rides, food, beer, fireworks on the lake, food, beer ... Rosemary got to meet some more people I know at work (including Mario, his wife and their monster-big baby boy). We spent most of the time with Mike and Virginia, running around for a constant stream of games, rides, food and beer. I ate and drank so much - pizza, ribs, hamburgers, cookies, funnel cake, ice cream, chicken fingers, fries, and beer beer beer. Being at an amusement park when the kids are all gone is a very interesting experience. Horseplay on the carousel, and then we booed people driving bumper cars when they'd bottleneck.
The next morning Rosemary and I hit the road for New York, since I had to work at ABC Saturday for college football. Enjoyed a very fine Restaurant Week dinner at Greek restaurant Molyvos - eat anything they serve in grape leaves. We stayed at the legendary Algonquin Hotel, which is still quite nice. It's a boutique hotel, so you get all these cozy little rooms; don't look for wide open space here. The bed was fantastic - about the best I'd ever slept in. We enjoyed some cocktails in the main lounge, still full of that old New York charm. The hallway wallpaper is of New Yorker cartoons; each room door has a Dorothy Parker quote; the rooms have pull-out writing ledges in the desk and nightstands; and the bay windows have a seated alcove. And there's the resident cat, Matilda, who sits on her chaise lounge-style bed, chills all day, and you're allowed to pet her; I've never seen dog-lover Rosemary be happy about a cat until now.
Work was long, as expected. I spent about 12 hours watching more than two dozen college football and baseball games, running alerts on scores and adding stats and things. Most of the time I'm by myself in a control room that's down the hall from the other control rooms where the broadcasts are being produced. On one hand, I'm free to watch as many games as I need to keep an eye on, but if something goes wrong I have to leave my chair (which I shouldn't) and there's really no time to handle it. Overall things went OK on air, but there were hiccups and rust to shake off all around for everyone, so I gotta post-mortem with my boss. This week I go again and I'm training a co-worker who is taking over, so I gotta put some things together for him to know.
On Sunday, Rosemary and I saw the "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was pretty good, combining both superhero movie and TV costumes (a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman costume, an Iron Man suit, a Michelle Pfieffer Catwoman outfit, fanboy drool) and fashion that parallels or is inspired by the designs. The oddest thing about the exhibit is how much it went into the sexual and festish underpinnings of superhero designs - whether it's the Hulk as untamed masculinity, the S&M push of Catwoman, again and again the exhibit hit the well of the sculpted, perfected and transformed body. I guess I just didn't expect to see so much sex in the exhibit, but much of this ran right over children's heads. The other neat thing was that an outfit from the George Michael "Too Funky" video was there - the motorcycle one that Emma Sjöberg wears. I also bought this awesome coffee table book, "DC Comics Covergirls," in which DC Comics writer Louise Simonson does a cultural retrospective of female characters and the covers. My faves were always the "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" issues - if you wanna see what gender mores were in the 1950s and '60s, look no further.
Rosemary and I then met up with her high school friend Sarit, who now lives in Brooklyn, and all rode back to Philly. After dropping Sarit off, Rosemary and I hit up Pete and Marina's Labor Day party in South Philly. I saw a bunch of friends, many of whom I have barely seen since I moved away. Ate and drank and ate and drank and ate and drank. It was nice to catch up on what everyone's up to - so many weddings, pregnancies and children, and of course sharing news of Rosemary's impending move.
So, now I'm back in CT after what feels like an eternity away from the office and my apartment. Gotta get ready for New York again this weekend. And after the days of massive eating and drinking, I'm back on the exercise - push-ups, crunches and weights already done today.
More photos will go up on Flickr soon. Including more adventures of Chops.