waves hi.
Sorry, I really do exist. Just have been busy.
And, I admit, enjoying a passionate affair with Facebook.
It was just supposed to be one kiss, now I'm touching WordPress and my laptop's remembering the address... (Ok, so I've also spent a LOT of time at the gym, listening to Popular Music. I have no idea who sings that song, but I actually googled the lyrics to this other song because I was pretty sure the guy wasn't singing "Somebody told me you've got a boyfriend, but it looks like the girlfriend's getting a better view..." only the actual lyrics were even more tittilating. Ah, the degenerate youth of today. I miss Drag Ball.)
Today: Got up early(ish) to make it in (almost) time for my 2 hour shift of gate duty at the garden from 10 to noon.
Spent my gate time pulling bindweed and old peas out of my own plot (the bindweed will survive whatever it is finally wipes out the cockroaches. bindweed will live forever.) then watered and consulted with fellow gardeners about current garden politics (despite myself, I seem to appear to be supportive to all parties and the people I like seem to genuinely like me. i am flummoxed and pleased that this means the Rastas and Latinas and the Hipsters and Grumpy Old Farts all check in with me. How did this happen?) as well as composting (we're none of us perfect at it, thank goodness, and no one made fun of me that I suck at making kitchen scraps turn into dirt-- but at least i know *why* i suck at it! knowledge counts for something, right? and i made someone else laugh, which i also think counts) while the children dug in the dirt and avoided getting sunburned somehow. I was not as good at that as they were.
Honeeeeey, can you help me with the AfterSun?
Then we went to the Noguchi Museum's Family Day... we've lived here for 5 years and I've been thinking the entire time we really ought to go there. Not that I knew anything about Mr Noguchi, but it seemed like a Good Idea.
Severely unimpressed.
Ok, so mostly I was unimpressed because-- despite advertizing it as a Family Day-- once we arrived we were told no strollers were allowed in the galleries. WTF? This is NYC, not suburbia. If you have a child, you have at least one (sometimes more. cough cough) stroller or you would Never Get Anywhere on time. Also, Adam was asleep in the stroller. You do not wake a sleeping baby. You just don't. So Owen spent the next hour in the cafe (ok, so he was happy about that. but still... he was supposed to be having an Uplifting Cultural Experience. With Me.) while Sam and I walked through several galleries filled with giant stone things and big signs saying "Do not touch"... unfortunately, those were the only words on the walls. There was no context, no histories-- heck, the only titles were on little laminated pieces of cardstock tucked into slots on the wall. "Little She" stuck in my mind. also "Elbow". Both big lumps of carefully executed modern rock art. but i liked the names.
So I asked Sam what he thought everything was, and we got through ok, though I was still bugged that Owen wasn't there (because he really should have seen the small scale twisty marble slide. I need one, full size. When we have a yard and several tons of greek marble, anyway)... which leads me to my second complaint.
The second floor was full of 3-d models of all the playgrounds and parks he designed that never got built. If I had known anything about the guy beforehand I might have been more sympathetic. As it was (and with Sam starting to get bored, so I was skimming), the brief descriptions of the pieces seemed to boil down to, "Everyone Else loved this, and they let him do it in Japan, but mean Mr. Moses [the NYC Parks head at the time] wouldn't let Mr Noguchi do it. The big sissie."
Now, considering my own garden's love-hate-i-demand-a-divorce-now relationship with the Parks Department, I would otherwise be inclined to side with the artist. But those models so carefully rendered? They looked like post-Apocalyptic mini-Rodin city scapes. They weren't in cardboard or clay or even wood and marble. they were (or at least looked like) cast metal, pointy and grey. I'm very pro-Art, but I wouldn't want my kids impaled on one of his slides either!
plus i was grumpy about the stroller. and to add insult to injury, we got yelled at for touching an outdoor fountain (even though there were no signs outside saying "This is still art, please still don't touch it") on our way to find Owen. so i left grumpy and bitter and didn't even buy a coffee because i didn't want them having the satisfaction of getting more of Owen's hard earned money.
do not piss off the mothers.
really, just don't.
came home, had coffee (yea) caught up on the computer (yea!) and Made Raspberry Gin.
hopefully it turns out well. i'll let y'all know @ christmastime.