The Outtakes

Yesterday Cordie turned nine months.  She's a doll baby, but unlike a doll, she is very opposed to sitting.  As usual, I tried to take her monthly picture.  Here are some of the outtakes.  Thirty minutes, eighteen pictures, and several  new gray hairs later we got a sort of okay shot.

Sitting's for chumps.  I think I'll bounce.

 Look, Momma, I'm so tired.  I'll just rest right here.

 Just kidding!  I spy with my little eye, Gloworm!

 

Why do you keep calling my name?

 "Spin the wheel.  How fast will it go?  Round and round and round"

 Winner winner chicken dinner!  The final shot!

10 Lies I Tell Myself

10.  Just one more potato chip.
9.  I will not cry at this Disney movie.
8.  Today I'm going to be productive.
7.  No, I don't have a headache.  Today.  Again.  For the 152nd day in a row.  It's all in my head, but not as an ache, no siree bob.
6.  I'm going to take a quick shower-in, out, no daydreaming, 10 minutes tops.
5.  I exercise moderately.
4.  I'm comfortable with the infertility junk.  No lingering hard feelings about my messed up reproductive system.
3.  Yeah, I cleaned the toilet.  I certainly didn't just pour pine sol in it because I knew you were coming over.
2.  Just one more episode before bed.
1.  I'm not going to GET anything from the new release shelf at the library because I have too many books, I'm just going to LOOK at the shelf.

New York Trip Summary

If you've seen the pictures on FB, you know that Josh and I went to New York for the first time.  I am just now rested up enough to post this because, shew!  It was an exhausting trip.  We did a bus trip that left from here at 6:00PM on Friday, got to New York about 6:30AM on Saturday, and left New York at 11:45 that night.  Talk about a whirlwind!

I have been trying to go to NYC since my high school graduation.  My parents gave me money for the intended trip as my graduation present.  Over and over I planned trips and over and over they fell through.  It took eight years, but I finally got there!  Because it was such a chore to actually get to the city, I was determined to see as much as possible while I was there.  People kept telling me that I wouldn't be able to see very much in that brief amount of time.  Ha, I say, ha!  They underestimate me!  While we certainly didn't see everything, that would take years, we saw most of the popular tourist destinations.  Here was our itinerary.  I worked on it for a long time to get it as streamlined as possible.

7:30-Arrive in Times Square

7:30-8:30-Breakfast/Stand in Awe/Act all Touristy/Get Broadway Tickets

8:30-9:00-Walk to Central Park

9:00-11:00-Central Park

  South End:

  Zoo?

  Carousel

   Mall and Literary Walk

    Chess and Checker House

     Wisteria Pergola

11:45-Lunch-Hot Dog Cart

11:45-12:30-Travel via Subway

12:30-2:00-Chinatown

2:30-4:30-Ride ferry to Staten Island

5:00-5:30-Dinner @ Lombardi's

5:45-6:15-Grand Central Station

6:45-7:15-Carnegie Deli for Cheesecake

7:30-11:00-Theater

11:30-44^th St for loading on bus

We stuck to the itinerary pretty well.  Because we got there earlier, we had more time in the park which was one of my favorite things.  It was cool to see all the park locations that are frequent movie backgrounds.  We also didn't stay in Chinatown very long so we had time to add Rockefeller Center after Grand Central Terminal (no one calls it Station anymore?  Who knew?) and Madison Ave after the park.  Madison Ave never made my first or second tier lists of things to see, but we wandered over there by chance and it was neat to see all the upscale stores.  I did see a Valentino dress that I practically drooled over.  Of course, if I had drooled on it, I would have had to PAY for it and that would have been crazy expensive.

The pros of the trip:  We got to see so much and I checked a box on my bucket list.  I know now that I made the right choice not to go to NY for grad school.  I had filled out an application to a graduate school there, but at the last minute changed my mind.  I've often wondered how my life would have been different if I had gone there, but now I can say that I'm very very glad with the choice that I made and where it led me.  Living in New York is very much not for me.  It was the perfect amount of time for us since we don't want to be gone from Cordie for that long  Finally, it was pretty much the cheapest way to go

The cons of the trip:  Exhaustion!!  We rode a bus for 26 hours in a 42 hour span.  We also walked 14 miles on the day we were there.  Josh had blisters before we even left Central Park.  I was expecting to feel about NYC the same way that I feel about London.  When I went to London it was some odd combination of like I was coming home and going to Narnia at the same time.  New York was not at all the same feeling.  It was much dirtier and more depressing than London.  

I would still like to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade because I'm obsessed with it, but otherwise I don't feel like I have to go back.  I saw what I wanted to see.  Good trip!  I suggest it!

Neverwhere

I just finished a good book, a Really good book.  It's called Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I had read one other book by Gaiman previously.  It was okay.  Good enough that I wanted to read other things by him, but I didn't rush right out to the library.  This book, though, I pretty much want to shake it at a librarian while screaming "I Need All the Books!!!"  I will try to restrain myself.

It's fantasy, but if I were to recommend a book to someone who had never read fantasy, I'd have them start with this (or The Night Circus).  So many fantasy books are either huge tomes or long series.  This is neither.  It's a single book.  I love a series as much as the next person, but I have a lot of respect for an author who can tell the story they want to tell in 300ish pages.  That's a skill.

So what makes this book good?  The characters are good.  Richard is the main character and the reader proxy.  His bumbling idiocy is endearing.  The other characters-Door, Hunter, the Marquis, etc-are all winningly eccentric.  The setting is even better.  Neverwhere is set in London Below which is comprised of the sewers and the Underground.  I love London.  I love it like a fat kid loves cake, or more appropriately for this book, like a rat loves cheese.  I like that the fantasy world is superimposed on the real one.  Not only does it make it easy to picture, it is fun to imagine that there is another realm just barely beyond what we are seeing.  The best part of this book, in my opinion, are the fantasy elements.  I like that Gaiman included so many of the traditional elements (a quest, a trio, specific beasts) but does it in a way that doesn't seem trite and cliched.  It all combines together in this fantastic read that sent me to my computer to learn more...

Where I learned there was a six episode tv series about the book.  Thunk.  That was me dying of excitement.  Aaaahhh!  Also, if mine eyes doth not deceive, the Owner of the Most Glorious Cheekbones Ever to Grace the Planet is in it so I'm practically jumping up and down.  (That's Benedict Cumberbatch if you didn't know.)  I'm a teensy bit hesitant because tv never lives up to what's in my mind, but six episodes has a lot more promise than a single movie, so I'll reserve judgement.

Moral of the story:  Like fantasy?  Winner winner chicken dinner.  Never tried fantasy?  Start here.  Unsure?  Pick it up, read 50 pages, if you don't like it you've at least opened your mind to new things.