1:39 p.m. - 25 June, 2009
the biggest game of catch-up ever
**Mike examines food on placemat.**
Mike: “Hmmm.”
Me, KP, and sister: “Don’t eat that! Ewww!”
Mike: “The question is—is it pasta or pie?”
**Mike tastes food.**
Mike: “It’s pie!”
So much has happened over the last few months that I don’t even know where to begin. Here we go!
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OLD ENTRY that I meant to post at the end of April:
Let’s see...I finally bought a new car. It’s adorable, gas-efficient, and shiny. I’m calling it “Habibi,” but I won’t put that on the license plate. I don’t want to be targeted for having Arabic on my plates. I’m totally in love with my car!
We went to NYC for a few days to celebrate my mom’s 50th birthday/Easter. I wanted to call my peeps in the area, but there was no free time. Besides, I would have felt bad for ditching mom on her birthday weekend. She had such a lousy birthday on the actual day itself—my sister and I just wanted to make 50 special for her. (Of course, she did have a fabulous birthday dinner at L’Auberge Chez Fracois when she visited over her Spring Break. Mike and I got her Tiffany’s glassware and a 50th anniversary Barbie for the occasion.)
The NYC trip started with my train ride to Penn Station. I honestly prefer the train over flying because I hate take-offs. Dad actually met me at the train itself, which was rather nice of him. After dropping off my stuff at the hotel, I headed to Bloomingdale’s to meet mom and my sister in the dress department. I had a very entertaining experience in the elevator. Several people entered with me, including a well-dressed, perfectly coiffed elderly woman in large Prada sunglasses. She had an unidentifiable accent—the closest thing I can think of is Italian. Apparently, a man who entered after this woman bumped into her, and that definitely frosted her cookies. Here’s the exchange:
Prada Shades: “Excuse me, but you do you have manners? You bumped into me. Maybe I am standing here because I need to leave the elevator soon!”
Unaware Man: “I’m sorry.”
Prada Shades: “You should be! You have no manners at all!”
Unaware Man’s Wife: “He apologized. You just needed to say ‘excuse me.’ You don’t have to be so rude.”
Prada Shades: “I am not rude! He is the rude one. He stepped on me, with no considerations at all. He didn’t even look as he walked into me. No manners at all. So rude.”
**Insert giggling from the Australian teenagers also on the elevator. Awkward silence ensues. Elevator stops at the third floor.**
Prada Shades: “Excuse me. I am trying to get off at this floor. You’re blocking my exit. I told you that I had to stand up here because I had to exit soon.”
Unaware Man: “I’m sorry, m’ am.”
Prada Shades (as she flounces out the elevator doors): “You are so rude. So typical, no manners at all.”
Unaware Man’s Wife: **Some retort about Prada Shades being rude.**
Unaware Man: **Mutters some comment under his breath.**
Prada Shades: “You are...you are a savage!”
**Insert wide-eyed looks from all of the elevator passengers as the doors close.**
Anywho, we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for a Mother-of-the-Bride dress for mom. While there were possibilities, there were no winners found. Macy’s on Herald Square did have a beautiful Spring floral presentation throughout the store, and Bergdorf-Goodman’s was as snooty as ever. (I think that I prefer Bloomies in NYC!) We eventually headed back to the hotel to retrieve dad after his trip to the USS Intrepid. Dinner at Piano Due that night was scrumptious. I had a delightful arrabiata pasta dish with wild mushrooms.
We headed to the Nederlander Theatre after dinner to see “Guys and Dolls.” Aside from the Sinatra movie version, I have seen this musical on stage before. This production was much better than the San Francisco one that I saw as a teenager. Oliver Platt was playing the role of Nathan Detroit. While he is no Sinatra smoothie, I couldn’t help appreciating his adorable goofiness. I was quite surprised by Lauren Graham’s singing voice. She did drop the Miss Adelaide accent on more than one occasion, but the woman can sing. Who knew? The actor who played Sky Masterson (I can’t remember his name, but he was Carrie’s A.D.D. musician boyfriend on SATC) was incredible. We were all impressed. The smaller theatre made the entire experience very intimate, and I appreciated that. The costumes were deliciously vintage too. Overall, I found the entire musical very endearing. I love leaving the theatre with a smile on my face!
The next day, we took tenement tours in the rain. I enjoyed all of the history lessons, but the downpour was less than pleasant. Dad was a super-grump all day, so that did nothing to raise anyone’s spirits. (Re: Umbrella Incident.) Eventually, we left him at the hotel and went to eat dinner at Chola. We ate there last year too—it’s our favorite Indian restaurant in NYC for now. ;) Dad eventually met up with us at “9-to-5.” Honestly, I was rather skeptical as we sat down. How would Dolly Parton manage to turn her movie into a Broadway musical? It turns out that the show was even better than “Guys and Dolls” from the night before. Stephanie J. Block was in it, and she was spectacular (they even managed to toss in a “Wicked” joke, lol). She deserved at least a Tony nomination for her role! The actress who was in Dolly Parton’s old role was also superb. They both out-sang their co-star, Allison Janney. Ms. Janney, while aptly cast for the character, can neither sing nor dance well.
Easter Sunday involved Mass at St. Patrick’s, brunch at the St. Regis, and a stroll down the Easter Parade with all of the interestingly-costumed individuals. Some of them were verrrrry interesting indeed. I need to post the pictures that are still sitting on my camera, lol. I hopped on the train later that afternoon and came home, but the rest of the family stayed in town for another day. Lucky them!
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May arrived with a super busy schedule for me. Alay’nya suggested to Gerson Kuhr that I would be a very good demonstrator for his core fitness DVD for bellydancers. As it turns out, I am. I helped demonstrate the Fitness Pharaoh DVD core exercises and run the booth at the annual Tiraz convention. (Mike even came to see me!) Gerson was very impressed, and he said that he would happily hire me again as a demonstrator. The convention was much smaller this year—I guess that the economy is being felt everywhere.
Cut to a week later...Mike and I moved to a new place on my birthday! We’re not that far from where we lived before, but this place is more affordable and larger. The kitchen was just re-done recently, and there are mirrors everywhere. It’s a dancer’s dream! We don’t have a balcony, but we do have garage parking, a REAL pool at our disposal, as well as peace and quiet (no more Beltway noises, yay). The property and the condo itself are both much nicer than our previous location. Plus, our landlord is basically a property management company. The company manager is wonderful to work with, and I find that infinitely superior to the asshole landlord that we had before. (He’s so delusional—I sincerely hope that karma slaps him smartly across the face in the near future. Fuckin’ loser.)
KP is in Mongolia! Holy cow, I almost forgot to mention that. She’s excavating Bronze Age burial mounds with the Smithsonian until the end of next month. It’s about time that she got some return for all of the hard work that she’s done at that place.
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Come June...my grandma and youngest cousin (15) on my mom’s side of the family arrive for a visit! My mom came up too, but she opted to stay with my sister. We took them to Williamsburg, which was oodles of fun. We toured Colonial Williamsburg, ate at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern, visited some of our old haunts, and worked on wedding preparations all in one weekend. When we got back to NoVa, Grandma took me to get my headband for the wedding as well as my shoes (they sparkle). I had to return to work that week, so mom took them out to tour DC during the daytime. At night, we’d go out to dinner and hang out together. I love my cousin, but when she talks about her all-girls high school, I realized that she can be one of those “mean girls” sometimes. It’s conflicting, really. She’s a nice girl, but she’s spoiled rotten. I yelled at her a few times for the way that she treated Grandma (so disrespectful). There are things that my aunt has taught her that are questionable to say the least. She wants all of this name-brand, couture stuff at 15 (ridiculous), but she comes from a middle class family. Being intelligent is more important than being beautiful, but she doesn’t quite understand that either. She also has some screwed up body image issues that my aunt has implanted in her. I’m concerned that she will have problems once she goes away to college and reality pours over her. (Honestly, my sister and I were raised better.)
All of my observations aside, we did have fun together. I’m so glad that they were able to come before the wedding to see where I live and stay with me. I like having company and all of the noise around me. Being raised with your extended family and then moving somewhere without them was hard for me. After all of these years and minimal visits, I suppose that I just like reconnecting.
This brings us to the present. Mom stayed for another week after they left—she just went home last Sunday. Originally, dad was supposed to come up here and retrieve the truck, but my dog at home is too ill to be left at a doggie hotel. =/ (I imagine that he won’t make it much longer.) Mom completely defragged after everyone left. I think that being the tour guide extraordinaire was a little taxing on her.
I got to see Marisa again! The divine Miss E was in town for training with her job. We grabbed some Indian food and caught up—it just made me a happy kitten. :)
Last Saturday, I was fortunate to attend part of the Raqs America weekend. I took a workshop with one of my favorite dancers, Zoe Jakes. It was A-MA-ZING. I will have to write another post just to gush about it. She was a fantastic instructor. I took a second class with Ansuya. She is such a character! I enjoyed the fusion fun with her, but Zoe’s workshop was still better. I wish that I could have stayed to take another class and watch more of the open stage, but I had to see mom on her last night before she left town. I still left with the biggest, dumbest smile on my face. Heh.
I don’t recall mentioning it before, but I have continued my second dance class with another instructor since March. The Mosaique classes have made me just that much better of a dancer, and I feel more educated about my art-form too. I think that there’s a balance between the two classes and instructors. It allows me to incorporate the artistic, free-flowing, esoteric nature of Alay’nya’s dance with the technique, precision, and artistry that I’m learning from Katayoun. There are lots of bellydance-related things on my mind, but I should save those for another post.
That leaves me at today, all caught up. Work is busy as hell and the wedding planning is still inching along. I can’t believe that we’re five months away from the date. There’s still so much to do! Catch you later, peeps!
