A Weekend Away

I had another lovely Zentangle retreat at Copper Beech Mindfulness Institute, my fifth!  I love the location--a huge, connected, multi-building monastery on a forested hill complete with labyrinth and (at least once that I saw, though not this year) Great Horned Owls.  This time, my little room overlooked the woods, my favorite view there. 

I was getting into the retreat spirit early, stopping at the other labyrinth in town--can you imagine, two lovely labyrinths?--which I had never walked.  I do love to walk a labyrinth--it's restorative and contemplative.  And it's the first thing I did when I got to the monastery, walking the labyrinth there, which is my favorite of anywhere.  I love the wide, flat, accessible walkway, and most particularly the beautiful stone circle in the middle.  In fact, I actually bought a print from the Monastery Gallery of a photo of the labyrinth, stretched to make it look painterly.  Lovely.

The majority of the weekend was devoted to Zentangle. I love to learn new Zentangle technqiues, to be challenged in my practice, and to draw with a group.  And I got to do all that this weekend.  Several of the projects were outside my comfort zone--I generally like black-and-white, non-representational tangles.  This weekend we used a lot of watercolor to make little houses and a "creative girl" (inspired by Danielle Donaldson), which would not have been my own choice, but I had such a great time tangling.  And I've gotten more comfortable with color as non-representational, meaning I'm not specifically coloring in particular shapes, but only laying down washes of color before or after drawing. 

The two women at my table were new to Zentangle and asked a lot of questions; so I got to explain and explore Zentangle with them--comfort tangles (the ones you know and use a lot), favorite resources (www.tanglepatterns.com and the books Zentangle Primer and  A Tangle a Day), tips to turn the tiles while drawing, step outs of Huggins and w-2 and pokeleaf/root and Diva Dance Rock 'n Roll, all of which only mean anything to people who tangle. There were tons of supplies, raffle prizes for many (I gave away my blank canvas tote and origami book to one of the newbies at my table who didn't win.) 

We enjoyed several fantastic meals--roasted chicken, lemon fish, roasted potatoes, the best balsamic vinaigrette, orange-y pickled beets, oatmeal with all the toppings (granola, raisins, Marcona almonds, blackberries, cinnamon, yum!), frosted lemon poppyseed cake, a variety of cookies, and delicious little cannoli--it's such a treat to be cared for this way.  It was a lovely little break.

While I was away, Sis worked her last Girl Scout cookie booth for the year and for her term as a Girl Scout (she wants to be an independent Juliette next year, without a troop, so I had my last cookie booth last weekend!)  She also got to walk her horse outside on a sunny day because the ground had firmed up a bit.  (I got to go outside with the horse and Sis yesterday; Patience was so happy that she actually rolled on the ground.  I missed it, though, because I was corralling the dogs who had spooked her just a few minutes before.)  And Bud had his first competition of the year, winning three gold medals and a high score of 9.93 in straight sword.  Yay! 

Fragment dice to choose a tangle!

Zenith of Zentangle

Last weekend, I had a marvelous getaway at a Zentangle retreat at Copper Beech.

Before classes started, I wandered out to the labyrinth, which was covered in ice.  I was nervous about walking on the ice and couldn't do the whole loop, but I enjoyed the solitude and the view.  I even left behind a token I had stamped with the word "peace."  I especially liked all of the other footsepts around the labyrinth which were frozen in the ice.  Just the idea of everyone walking the path separately.  It reminds me of that meme (though it existed before internet memes) about footsteps on the beach and there only being one set at times, when God carried the person.  For me, the footsteps at the labyrinth were the community walking separately but together.

Then it was food and tangling.  We always eat well at Copper Beech!  Salads, baked cod, chicken parmesan, tasty veggie sides, fresh-baked cookies, honey butter with bread.  Mmm, mmm, good.

And on the tangling!  So many great projects, including our double-heart-string puzzle, a piece of which was given to someone else to tangle and returned to us at the end of the weekend.

And the gorgeous bleeding tissue paper that colored our opus tile for our tangled heart.  I experimented with lots of "frills" or "doodads" outside the heart, also with random white dots to highlight the patterns.  And of course, I don't usually work in color.  This was a great way to use color without worrying about coloring or painting in the tangles.  

We also made gratitude bouquets (the vase is made from acrylic paint applied onto paper with baby wipes!), a little book (acrylic paint scraped on paper with a gift card or hotel key card), and a little Bijou tile book which will contain 26 tangles A to Z.  I made the book but will add the Bijous later.  I was mostly focused on the bigger, higher concentration projects like the heart and the puzzle.

I really liked the group of women (and one man) who attended, several of whom I'm now in touch with online.  Of all my Zentangle classes, this one really stands out.  Just lots of fun and inspiration.

Again

Looks like I'm behind again!

With the kids asking me not to post much if anything about them here and the rise in my use of FB, I just don't post as much as I used to, though I know that several friends and family members read this first.  So I'll try to do better.

Let's see.  Today, Bud is home with a cold.  I think it's his first sick day in a year or so.  In fact, if the rest of the week weren't so big--school field trip, chorus concert, piano recital--I would have sent him to school.  But as it was, I didn't want to risk his getting worse.

Now I'm just hoping Sis doesn't get it, because she also has the field trip and concert plus a giant two-night Girl Scout "glamping" weekend at a resort.  Wish us all luck.  The weather has been damp and warm, the trees and such have exploded, and everyone seems to be sniffling.

So, what have I been doing?

Well, I went up against the BOE and school administration with other parents in town and defeated an initiative to unlevel middle school, meaning cancel honors classes.  I've composed a long post about this in my head several times because I'm still quite conflicted.  See, there's a huge achievement gap in our town, meaning African-Americans and Latinos score very much lower than their white and Asian counterparts; they are also less represented in said honors classes.  I recognize this as a social justice issue and know that such scores likely indicate albeit unintentional systemic/institutional bias and even racism.  The Democrat, social liberal, and Unitarian Universalist in me wants to rectify this.  But then there's the mom in me that fears that my children's academic achievement would be stalled by a non-leveled class, especially because they've been in the special gifted and talented class for three years (and are still not very challenged academically--how would they fare in an unleveled class??!!)  Certainly unleveling can succeed if properly prepared for, but the district was trying to rush the measure through without invovling parents (without even really telling them) and with little preparation for the changes.  Their instructional plan for high achievers in "regular" classes?  "Raise expectations, provide support, provide understanding."  BS.  That's not a plan.  They also mentioned an honors option, which is really just more homework and projects AT HOME--meaning they don't get instructional time with the teachers and the bulk of their education is independent learning (tough for 7th graders!)  AND then there were mentions that the accelerated learners would help the typical kids.  Great.  Social nightmare for everyone and then my kids would still not be getting their instructional time with the teacher.  So, the parent in me rebelled, took to FB, organized letters and phone calls, and helped convince the BOE not to unlevel until there is a better plan.  We need a better plan and we need to help the students who are being failed by our district.  But I'm still very torn about defeating the unleveling, which is supported by the National Education Association (NEA) and other groups, though several studies say it doesn't change the outcomes for slower learners.  Probably because middle school is way too late to affect monumental change.  It needs to start in preschool!  So . . . . so.  So, we're not homeschooling or sending our kids to private school next year.  And if the district votes to unlevel with a better plan after next year, I will stay informed and involved and maybe even support the plan.  Or take a "gap year" for 8th with my kids and travel around!!

What else?  On Saturday, a friend and I went to a wonderful mandala workshop at Copper Beech Institute in West Hartford and had a lovely, creative, inspiring day.  We walked the labyrinth and had a picnic lunch before class and then made a freehand mandala and a literal gratitude mandala in class.  And I learned how to make colored Zen Gems!  So much fun!  I spent Sunday practicing my new-found skills.

Last week, Mama's office hosted a special "Take Your Child to Work" Day program and so the kids spent 13+ hours following along her usual day!  They were up at 5:30 a.m. and home a bit before 7 p.m.  They had a tour, a special talk on what the company does and how the US's financial system works (they even got money from all over the world.  Ours got Cambodia and the DRCongo), and then went with Mama to her meetings.  They also played Nerf battles with her co-workers, which was their favortie part.  I think they had new-found respect for Mama's long work day and challenging work life.  Sis said, "I'll never think waking up at 7 a.m. for school is early again!"

The next month or so wraps up the year's extracurriculars, for the most part, as well as their time at elementary school.  There will be several special events and middle school orientations.  Plus the school play.  But I'm anxious that it's all coming to an end.  I've really loved their elementary school, especially their teachers, and am nervous about the move to middle school, particularly because most of the kids of my informal moms' network are going to the other middle school.  Which means I sorta start from scratch, just like the kiddos (though, several of the kids in their special class will move on to honors at the middle school; I just don't know those parents as well.)  But we have the summer to get used to the transition.

And I won't even get into all the summer plans . . . .

Retreating

Gommie and I spent three days tangling our hearts out!  Such a wonderful time.  Before we left for our formal Zentangle retreat at Copper Beech Institute in West Hartford, CT, we warmed up a little at home.  I taught her my Zendala tangle/string TWYST.  With some practice, she got it down.

TWYSTing with Gommie

I also flipped through Gommie's sketchbook, which had these wonderful tiles . . . . 

Which I proceeded to blantantly copy!  I don't know the names of the tangles (except Springkle, which is just an enlarged version of the one I usually do)--and I didn't even get the gist of the middle one.  But I like them and will keep practicing.

We headed to Copper Beech midday Friday.  It's the place I attended my first Zentangle class two years ago.  We had a wonderful time--delicious meals (albeit Lenten, so lots of fish, which I don't generally eat), rejuvenating yoga and meditations, a lovely walk to the snow-covered labyrinth, and, of course, the Zentangle sessions.  I especially liked the yoga and meditations, from my first gentle yoga session to the even gentler Restorative yoga session (where you support your poses with cushions and just breathe into them), followed by a lovely tea in the art gallery (with a delicious "Om" blend of cardamom, rose, etc from Culteavo.)  And of course the labyrinth!  Even partially snow-covered, I like the meditative space.  Perhaps especially snow-covered.  No owls this time, though.

There were about 26 of us in the Zentangle retreat.  For the first night, they split the beginners from the more experienced tanglers, with our experienced group doing a black-and-white project working with negative space.  I liked the results.

On Saturday, we did two more projects, both tangential to pen-and-paper tangling.  With Janet, we explored the use of polymer clay to created tangled beads, basing our designs on such tangles as Printemps and Tipple.  We made canes of our designs and Gommie had the great idea to do a class bead and to share our cane patterns around.  In the afternoon, we experienced Zenquility, or paper quilling.  We used basic flowers with coils and teardrops as the start of a Zendala or other tile.  I especially enjoyed this, seeing the possible applications in Zendalas.  Quilling is much like 3D tangling.

I really liked our session Saturday evening, which was a guided meditation with verbal cues for the tile.  The teacher described the tangles, trying not to name them (though, eventually, she did say flux and pokeleaf.)  It was very similar to something we did at the Zentangle retreat at Kripalu.  See the results in our class mosaic--similar yet so individual!  I can't wait to try this kind of meditation in one of my advanced classes.  Over the course of the weekend, we did a few breath mediations, including one called Four Corners or Box meditation--you draw a box slowly, with the verticals and horizontals representing the exhales and inhales.  We also did the Breath of Joy--three inhales and then an explosive "ha!"

Our class mosaic from the meditation

Our last session, was a very complex terrarium, using some Zentangle patterns and sophisticated Renaissance shading in browns, blacks, and whites.  The result is a Zentangle-inspired art work (ZIA). I have to admit this was not my favorite--with the use of compass and eraser, all that representation and specific orientation, the focus on product over process, and not much repetition of most of the patterns save in the base with meer, nzeppel, and tipple.  We barely finished--you can see I didn't finish the shading or even decorate the mushroom.  Still, I learned some shading suggestions, like working from darks to lights, and picking one side for lights and the other for darks (the teacher arbitrarily does darks on the left and whites on the right.)  And I loved the woodless 6B pencil we got--it's nice and dark and smudges beautifully.

Altogether, it was another wonderful weekend and I look forward to the next year's.

When we got home, Gommie and I continued to tangle, playing with some 3Zs.  I drew a continuous string on six of them and we each went to work.  Here are mine and hers in progress.  See the nice shading on mine?  Yep, 6B!






Happy tangling, Gommie!

Warming Up

My Zentangle practice is warming up in these winter months. I've been working my way through the Zentangle Primer as part of my morning practice.   I'll be teaching more classes this winter and spring, and attending another Zentangle retreat with my mom.  And I might even be giving an interview about Zentangle for a local online news site, which is exciting.  For me, Zentangle is still about the practice, the process, the mindfulness, the meditation, over and above the finished product.  I know that many of the Zentangle artworks that people see on Pinterest and the like is beautifully polished and seemingly unachievable.  I'm intimidated by those examples myself, so I try to see them as sources of ideas and inspirations.  My own lines waver, my spatial consistency varies; I leave smudges sometimes.  But I learn from each one.  And I value the time spent on them.

Welcome to 2017!

It's the new year, and, as the song goes, we have 525,600 minutes ahead (yes, yes, if we're lucky.)

And so I've been thinking, at this time of resolutions, how do I want to spend the year?  I've never been one for keeping resolutions, though I've made many of the usual ones.  Diet, exercise, be kind, be mindful--always focusing on flaws and weaknesses, ways I could be better.  What a crappy way to start the year.   I don't turn to Mama or the kids and tell them how I'd like them to be better this year (well, except my cleaning tirade this morning, but I stepped on a video game box!), so why do I do it to myself?

Instead, I got to thinking about things I did last year that I want to continue into 2017.  This was a more do-able list, mainly because I'm already doing them.  It includes but is not limited to:

• hiking 
• birding
• volunteering (hospice, Girl Scouts, lay ministry, historic house)
• making things to give away (crochet or Zentangle)
• Zentangle (esp. teach Zentangle classes)
• personal retreats (I have two coming up in the next few months)
• family getaways (or longer vacations)
• attend concerts/musicals (opera on Friday, Sunset Boulevard in February)
• playing piano
• hosting social events/meet up with friends
• cooking with the kids and/or Mama
• purging unused books and items (I unloaded a ton of books and things last year)

Now, I'm not one of those people who believe things change magically with the new calendar.  There have been lots of FB memes about 2016 taking our 80s childhoods and hoping 2017 will be kinder.  And it has been a year of loss for celebrities that I have "known" for a long time--Carrie Fisher, George Michael, "Mrs. Brady" Florence Henderson, Prince, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, to name a very few.  As I wrote to Lambeth earlier this week, I was especially saddened by the deaths of Carrie Fisher and George Michael.  As a teen, I had loved the music of Wham! and George Michael and had even seen him in concert twice.  I hadn't listened much recently, nor followed his brushes with the law for public sex and drugs, but I was sad to hear that he had died.  Even more so Carrie Fisher, whom I adored as Princess Leia since I was six years old.  Now I had seen her other films and read some of her books, liked her sharp wit and public pronouncements.  And I had been so glad to see her in the new Star Wars movie.  I'm sad that she's dead, especially because she had a 24-year-old daughter.

So I've been reflecting on why we're sad about the deaths of people we've never met.  I think, in the case of celebrities/authors/artists/musicians, I have been grateful for the entertainment and pleasure they've brought me and so wish them well in life.  When their lives are over, especially young, I am sad that they didn't live longer (or suffered disease etc at the end), that I won't have the pleasure of their art anymore.  I suppose it's also why, when they're alive, people seek autographs etc.--to have connection with those who make us happy, to feel special by connecting with people we think are special (I'm not much of an autograph or photo seeker, though I do have a supposedly-signed pic of Carrie Fisher from when I wrote to her as a child.)  Like when we had the kids' picture taken with Alex Kingston, whom they adored in Doctor Who.  I did look up to Fisher as a role model, both in the character of Leia and in her outspokenness and advocacy later on.  

With her in mind--"the new hope" from Star Wars--the word I've been focusing on the last few weeks has been "hope."  In hospice, we learn that sometimes we have to adjust what we are hoping for, i.e. no longer hoping for a cure but hoping for meaningful visits with loved ones.  I can't hope that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named will not be president; it's going to happen, despite all the past talk of the Hamilton Electors and present talk of early impeachment.  What I can hope for is that he continues to be unskillful at keeping his promises and that many diverse groups can band together to oppose him regularly.  I can hope that a chastened majority, including myself, and news media will be vigilant.  And I can hope for sensibility and calm and patience and understanding.

Because we're going to need all the hope we can get for 525,600 minutes multiplied by four.

Highlights

So much to tell, so little blogging time while summer continues and school preparations begin.

We had a MARVELOUS time with Gommie!  And, as you saw from my earlier list, we managed to squeeze so much in--and that's with a very slow Tuesday when everyone was tired and blah (both kiddos seemed to be fighting something virusy.)  I'll spare you a day-by-day description in favor of highlights, in random order.



Schooner:  It's a tie for my favorite thing we did while Gommie was here, but since I hadn't done a sunset schooner cruise with lobster dinner before, I vote for it.  We headed to the port midday, stopping first for a quintessentially New England lunch at Abbott's Lobster in the Rough in picturesque Noank.  In a series of little shacks, we picked up lobster salad rolls, steamed mussels, steamed corn, frozen hot chocolates, apple crumble, and lemon slab pie with ice cream, all of which we ate overlooking a brilliant blue Sound with lots of white sailboats.  I felt like the cast of Carousel would burst out singing at any minutes!

Then we headed to the dock in New London where the Mystic Whaler was waiting for us.  It's a I-don't-know-how-many-feet-long schooner built in the 1960s and refurbished.  With three sails and wooden decks and detailing, it felt older to me and transported me back to the great age of sail (without all the danger and hassle.)  New London, of course, was a major seaport in the country's colonial past--we even sailed by Revolutionary War-era Fort Trumbull and another fort.  We cruised out past the London Ledge light and got some great photos.  Gommie, Mama, and the kids even helped haul the sails while singing a chantey! It really was idyllic.  And the food was good, too.  There was clam chowder, lobsters, tasty grilled chicken for me and Sis, coleslaw, rolls, and cheesecake.  Even though there were two dozen or so other passengers, it never felt really crowded.  And the crew was especially helpful and nice.  I think it'd be lovely to take an overnight cruise with them.  I know Gommie had a great time, which made it extra special to be able to find something new for her.  Being on the water and dusk are two of her favorite things.  Though, she refrained from calling it "the nicest time of the day."

Cats:  Our trip into NYC was a close second to the schooner cruise, especially because I think the kiddos had never been in the city with Gommie before.  We spent the day around Times Square, which is familiar to all of us, albeit never all together.  In fact, we really did the tourist thing, quite embarrassingly (and jokingly) pointing at tall buildings, stopping on the sidewalk for selfies, and going to tourist traps!  We did not, however, wear "I (heart) NY" shirts!  Our first stop was Madame Tussaud's, where there was a virtual reality Ghostbusters experience.  The kids and Mama loved donning the proton packs and hunting ghosts, but I didn't even try (the packs were 15 lbs) and Gommie got disoriented by the VR and stopped when it malfunctioned a bit.  The rest of the place was mostly uninteresting--the kids didn't know 90% of the figures and couldn't have cared less.  We did see a few they liked--Katniss from Hunger Games, some of the Avengers, and three of the Ghostbusters women--and decided if the whole place had been geeky was statues--Doctor Who, Star Wars, Pokemon, Studio Ghibli, etc--we would have had a blast.   Gommie did really enjoy posing with Hillary Clinton, too.

We had dinner at Sapporo, our favorite quick pre-show eatery (don't forget that it's a cash-only place!)  Sis and I had our usual katsu chicken cutlet, to which she added gyoza and I added the potato salad with sesame-Japanese mayo dressing; and there was the yummy house slaw and soup.  Bud got soupy noodles (because there was enough time before curtain) and Mama got cold noodles.  Gommie got this delicious gyun-don shredded beef rice with sukiyaki sauce (I think), which I think I'll get next time.

In the time before curtain, we perused both Hershey's and the M&M store, neither of which Gommie had seen.  Then, because it was hot out and we were a little tired, we sat in the Crowne Plaza--where there was the Liberty City Anime Con!  Gommie got to see all the cosplayers!  It was the perfect NYC people-watching spot.  With seats and AC!

Then it was time for Cats.  We had great seats, second row Orchestra on an aisle; we don't usually sit that close at all, but it was great to see the elaborate garbage set and the amazing dancers close up.  And, during all the action, numerous cats ran down the aisle beside us.  In fact, Rum Tum Tugger was flirting with me!  (I had the aisle seat.)  At one point during the show, some cats pretended to take a photo of Tugger and me together.  Later, when he came down the aisle, he purred, "How do you like my fur?"  And yet again, he winked right at me from stage later.  Funny.  You're a cute kitty, RTT, but not my type.  Amazingly, during intermission, they let you up onstage to take photos with Old Deuteronomy!  We didn't know this so Mama and Sis had left for the bathroom and missed it, but Bud and I went and Deuteronomy played with Bud's hair (or, made a gesture similar to one he made in "Moments of Happiness" about memory.)  It was amazing to see the house from the stage; Bud grinned from ear to ear the whole time.  I was really sorry Sis missed it; so was she.  The show was pretty much exactly how I remembered it from when Gommie and I saw it on tour in Houston, in, oh, the early 1980s.  Though, there wasn't any "Growltiger's Last Stand" this time.  I loved it then and I loved it again.  Maybe even more sitting with my mom, my wife, and my kids, all of whom were enthralled.  We've been humming the songs ever since.  And both kids read T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

After the show (and the purchase of some pins and magnets and a eared hoodie for me), we had our requisite trip to Junior's for snacks for the ride home--chocolate egg creams, cheesecake, black and white cookie, Cel-ray soda, and some French onion soup for Bud to eat the next day.  I think we weren't asleep until 2 a.m., but it was worth it.


Food:  You know we love to eat out.  In addition to the Japanese food mentioned above, we ate at our favorite local Japanese place (after going to see Kubo and the Three Strings; more below.)  Mama, Bud, and Gommie had a big boat of sushi, while Sis had a chicken udon stir fry and I had chicken teriyaki.  There were also gyozas, harumaki, soup, salad, green tea, and mango mochi.

We also took Gommie to a new German place we'd found, since we know she loves sausages and sauerkraut.  The table was groaning with a sausage tasting platter (kielbasa, weiss weiners, and something else), raclette (cheese on potatoes and pickles), big buttered pretzels, currywurst, jaegerschnitzel, chicken schnitzel, cold potato salad, steamed mussels, apple strudel, black forest cake, and I don't remember what else.  Whew!

We also got take-out from the Italian deli, with various chicken parm and meatball grinders, seafood salad, chicken cutlet salad sandwich, etc.

I almost forgot the meal her first night at a local bistro--steamed mussels in wine and garlic (the better of the two mussels she had this trip), hummus with olive gremolata, salt and pepper shrimp, homemade bread, and roasted chicken.

Other food included the best local doughnuts, my own sourdough biscuits, Sis's oatmeal lace cookies

I'm sure I've forgotten a few places--I don't think I cooked much if at all.


Movies:  As a family, we've been going to more movies this year and we saw two with Gommie.  First, the kids wanted to take her to the new Ghostbusters, which she hadn't even heard of, to prepare her for the Ghostbusters experience at the wax museum.  She laughed through the whole thing, which was entertaining to Mama and me, since we know it's not her kind of film.  I enjoyed it just as much as the first time.  I think I liked Holtzmann even more this time!

On preview night, we went to see Kubo and the Two Strings, which Bud had wanted to see since spotting the first trailer.  And then we learned that the brother of a friend of mine was the production designer.  Wow!  It was a masterpiece.  And I'm not just saying that because Sew and Sow reads my blog sometimes.  It was beautifully made--with this incredible stop-motion technique--with papers and fabrics.  Oh, the flying origami!  The original story seemed taken straight from Japanese folklore (and I loved the details of the samurai armor, netsuke, wabi sabi-like rice bowl during a meal, the cemetery and lantern ceremony, etc etc etc)  And what a story!  No spoilers here, only to say I loved the non-violent resolution.  If you go--and you should--stay for the credits; there's a behind-the-scenes bit that Bud tells me shows the largest stop-motion sculpture ever made (how does he know that??)  We talked about it for a few hours straight--over a Japanese dinner, no less.  Oh, and we even got free little pins because it was preview night.


Maple Syrup Incident:  This was on my list so I feel I must explain it.  While trying to get food on the table before Bud had to go to kung fu, I realized an entire jug of maple syrup had been de-capped and upturned in the fridge, spilling all over not only a shelf but in both crisper drawers.  UGH.  Gommie saved the day with her thorough cleaning.  And Sis finished cooking Bud's dinner while I helped Gommie.  Bud was oblivious to it all and, probably wisely, stayed out of the kitchen.


Pokemon Go!  Gommie had a thorough introduction to the VR world of Pokemon when Bud directed her around town for two hours hitting many of the best Pokestops.  I believe she even got one herself.

Clockwise from left:  Sis, Gommie, me, and me again

Clockwise from left: Sis, Gommie, me, and Bud

Gommie's new tiles.  She really likes lace, on the bottom tile.

Zentangle:  Last but not least, we did some tangling.  Gommie poured over my new books and practiced some new tangles.  And we all made a couple of family mosaics together.  I had gotten Gommie a special Zentangle "No Mistakes" t-shirt and also some little carrying-pouches for supplies that we decorated.  It really is a wonderful thing to do together.  And she's gotten really good!


Games:  The kids save a lot of their game playing for Gommie, because she is so enthusiastic about it.  They played checkers, Simon's Cat, (tried to play) Harry Potter Clue, the 5-Second Rule, and Rummy Q.  We all played Telestrations, which Gommie picked up for us, a kind of old-fashioned telephone game plus Pictionary; we laughed and laughed at some of the outcomes (including "chicken man with furry face," "narwhal with legs," "bird in a pie," etc.)  Gommie was also game to try the Wii games Fantasia (directing an orchestra) and Just Dance (like Digital Dance Revolution.)  And we all told her all about Dragonvale.  Plus, of course, Pokemon Go, as described above.

And that's about it.  Sure, Gommie went to horseback riding lessons, kung fu lessons, piano lessons (albeit in the house), and ice skating lessons, too, and there was down time swimming at a neighbor's pool, watching Olympics and such.  But, mainly, I think we squeezed in as much as we had energy to do.  And we started making plans for next time!!!

Our Fifth Honeymoon

It was our fifth annual "nano-honeymoon," our nickname for our getaway weekend without the kids, since we never had an official honeymoon (though, you could say our first 8 years--without kids--were one, I suppose.)  We've been to the same hotel near Union Square four times and then Block Island once.  We love the alone time, the break in routine, the relaxation and restoration, exploring both the familiar and the new.

The kids spent the very rainy weekend with their NYC grandparents, devouring a ton of Chinese food (both in restaurants and at home), visiting the beach when they could, and going to the movies.  They also spent some time playing computer games with their uncle, Goo, introducing him to Dragonvale.  They had a great time and were sad when we showed up.

We were a little sad to show up, too!  Re-entry into the world of chores, work, bills, and discipline can be rather harsh, but at least there were no hairballs all around the house when we got home.  We have a wonderful cat sitter who takes good care of the cats and house when we're gone.  She even made friends with our new cat, Eris.  And the tree work we had done came out just fine (our tree guy could only squeeze us in this weekend and we weren't changing our reservations.)  See, the electric company is brazenly cutting down many of the town's lovely huge trees because they are caught in the wires.  It's awful (the whole state has been razing trees along highways and state routes--it looks like another storm hit.)  And so, with hopes of saving the giant maple on the side of the house, which is officially a town tree, being on the other side of the sidewalk, we surreptitiously paid to have the tree trimmed and entwined or dead branches removed.  I hope it helps.  The tree looks shorn, but perhaps it won't be cut down, if the electric company ever gets to the secondary roads.

Okay, back to the fun part.

It was, as I mentioned, a wet, humid, hot weekend, which isn't our favorite, but we didn't have any firm plans and we could change activities as needed.  A combination of restaurants, walking, browsing, books, Harry Potter, doodles and Zentangle, flowers, and rainbows--just lovely!

Friday

Our first stop was Craftbar, one of Chef Tom Colicchio's restaurants, where we had reservations for a late lunch as part of NYC Restaurant Week.  Oh, it was so good--celery shrub tonic; my first of many mint ginger lemonades; cold sunchoke soup with a black garlic reduction; a delicious pecorino fonduta with honey, pine nuts, and crostini; a table salad; a perfectly seasoned and roasted Amish chicken breast with kale, fava beans, and pickled eggs; duck hearts with dumplings which Mama liked; a light and creamy vanilla parfait; and a divine chocolate peanut butter tart with peanut brittle and peanut ice cream.  Oh, and cappuccino!  Mmmmmmm!


We walked off the meal at the art supply store, Dick Blick, where I picked up more pens and canvases for Zentangle and Art Rocks; we also got two little books--642 Things to Draw and 642 Things to Write About--which we filled out off and on and a coloring book of Delft tiles which we used a set of blue colored pencils on.  We also made our first meander around the Greenmarket in Union Square.  At the heat of the day, we took a break in our room, a lovely back room in the Inn at Irving Place, in a  jewel-like 19th-century brownstone (a friend, seeing photos of the lobby, asked if we were staying in Downton Abbey!)  I loved the large mirror, grated fireplace and mantle, tall windows, fluffy duvet on the bed, high timbered ceiling, moldings, and wooden floors.  It's like being back in time.  But with air-conditioning, hot running water, electric lamps, wifi, and flush toilets.  (I'd never really make it in the past.)


At dusk, we walked the Highline, which I had never walked before.  It's a perfectly New York kind of garden, on the abandoned elevated rail lines.  I loved the dense plantings of the informal garden--black-eyed susans, the purple spiked gayfeather, and the lovely purple coneflowers--plus the water features (I waded one foot in!), the public art, the exposed rails, and the views of the city and river.  We got some refreshing treats from the People's Pops, blueberry with jasmine and grape with coconut cream.  The most unexpected part of the Highline were the three topless women walking around with a topless little girl and a topless man; and he was photographing the whole thing, particularly people's reactions.  Two of the women--women of color--seemed to relish the nude exotic stereotype of the female "other" by artists like Gauguin--with elaborate necklaces and translucent wraps (and she didn't have on anything underneath); they posed but didn't seem to undermine the historical paradigm at all. The Caucasian woman was voluptuous, the nice way to say overweight--with large sagging breasts that clearly breast fed and a stomach that's held at least one child--but she was subverting the Rubenesque stereotypes of languid, sexed big white women.  Plus she was cursing up a blue streak.  It was all very odd.  Especially because it doesn't seem to be illegal for women to be topless (cops came and went, actually throwing two skateboarders off the Highline.)  All of which is good, i.e. the right to be topless, but honestly I'm not quite sure I understood the point.  It wasn't particularly political or even performative art; if anything, it seemed like exhibitionism intended to shock.  And good ol' NYC barely batted an eyelid.  Everyone noticed but no one seemed particularly shocked or bothered.  I was intrigued but also a little . . . bored by it.


We went to nearby Chelsea Market afterwards, wandering the shops of arts and crafts (including cream-coloredlace in hoops, which I'm inspired to make, with a small crochet hook, a little like my mandalas), books, and food items.  We ate some delicious crepes--a lemon sugar one and a truffled mozzarella one--and some currywurst, plus some Fat Witch brownies and some chocolate orange peel from Li-Lac, which is a shop we had visited in the Village on one of our first city walks together back in 1994.  I liked the architecture--despite reminders of its role as abbatoir--and how it has been converted into a modern-day market.  And there were twinkle lights!  Also, lots of rainbows around town . . . .

We took a cab back to Union Square, grabbed some falafel with fixings (chickpeas, cabbage, beets, carrots, and garlic sauce) and another mint lemonade from Maoz, and headed back to our room for the night.  I just love walking through NYC.  I miss it.  But I know it isn't always easy to live there--so many people, traffic, expense, dirt--which is why we still visit.

Saturday
We slept in, til almost 10, and wandered over to brunch at Friend of a Farmer--toasted quick breads (lemon, banana chocolate chip, cornbread, zucchini bread) with apple butter; pumpkin walnut pancakes; chicken salad; and iced coffee.  Very tasty.  And I love the incongruity of the homey farmhouse decor--even pig and chicken plates! plus ingredients in jars, baskets, etc (looks like some of the cross-stitch patterns I have)--in downtown NYC.  But sitting chair to chair squeezed in together, you never really forget where you are.

After brunch, though not hungry, we wandered Bedford Cheese Market next door, picking up interesting things--buttermilk chocolate bar, orange blossom water candy, little pepperoncini sticks, chewy Haribo candies for Bud.  Our local grocery stores just carry the usual things, for the most part; if we want unusual international or epicurean food, we pretty much have Whole Foods.  I like the little markets of NYC.

Then we went to Forbidden Planet, which looks more and more like Hot Topics every year, with more toys of popular culture staples (Doctor Who, Marvel superheroes, Star Wars) than comic books and alternative culture artifacts than there used to be--but the air conditioning is better!  Strand Books was very crowded, typical Saturday afternoon, I imagine.  We browsed the art books and I picked up a Zentangle title which, according to Amazon, hasn't even been released here yet.  We also got a book about NY architecture.  The shop was clearly getting ready for the Harry Potter launch that night, with HP books and such around, including a "Hermione 2016" t-shirt.  We hadn't chosen where we were spending HP night.

We wandered our little neighborhood--the house where Washington Irving lived, the tavern "O'Henry made famous," and Gramercy Park, the last enclosed private garden in NYC.  I left a tangled Art Rock at the gate (I'd left another in the planter right outside our inn), after gazing at the formal garden inside.  Then we had a delightful walk through the Greenmarket; it was more packed with booths and customers than the evening before.  My favorite maple lemon mint tea, handspun and dyed yarns (picked up two skeins of cream to make some embroidery hoop hangings a la Chelsea market), artisanal garlic, and these gorgeous English garden roses with a dense sphere of petals, a light scent and delicate pink color.  I carried them around the rest of the day, as my own poesy, sniffing them as we went.  We stopped at Gothic Revival Grace Church, with its stained glass windows, faux stone plaster tracery, and a memorial to a parishioner who gave up her seat on a Titanic lifeboat for a woman with children at home.    We sat in Washington Square, looking at the surrounding buildings, the people, and the gathering clouds; Mama always remembers childhood summers there while Ma finished her PhD at NYU.


Next, lunch at Mario Batali's Otto, one of our favorites--outstanding spinach salad with ricotta salata and honey truffle dressing; roasted beets; crusty bread and thin breadsticks; delicious fusilli with sweet Italian sausage and escarole; pasta putanesca; and amazing desserts--a butterscotch pudding with coffee bourbon glaze and rosemary biscotti and a sweet corn gelato with polenta cake and corn crema.  Mmmmmm.  Mmmmmm.  And iced cappuccino.  We watched it rain outside while we debated our choices for the rest of the day.  We opted for some down time in the room doodling and resting, then another evening out, despite the rain.

I had fun with two new Zentangle books, including The Great Zentangle Book (which, according to Amazon, isn't out yet!) and Zendoodle, which together introduced me to Rubenesque and Geo-flower.  Love these new tangles!

After dark, we headed to Barnes and Noble for the launch party of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, billed as the eighth HP story (though it's a script to a West End play, not a novel, and was only written in partnership with Rowling, not her own original story.  Some fans don't count it as canon, we read in the paper at breakfast--along with reviews of the new Sharknado and the drop in ticket prices for Hamilton--but I'm not that picky, perhaps because it wasn't my childhood obsession (now, I'm much more adamant about who shot first in Star Wars); I look forward to a new installment, with her blessing.  There were a few different groups at the store--kids who are probably just now reading the novels; mid 20s who grew up with HP; and older fans like us.  There were also costumed characters (Snape, Trelawney, Hagrid, Dumbledore) and lots of store staff. We didn't need the wand making or face painting or photo ops--even Sis and Bud would have felt a little old for that.  But we did enjoy the owl show, with a live Ural Owl.  I hadn't seen one before.  We didn't need a copy of the book--ours came via Kindle at midnight, with hardback delivered Monday--but I bought a little snowy owl to carry around by way of a costume.  We popped over to the Book of Wonders party, totally prepared to buy a book for entrance, but it was so packed that we left.  It was too bad the kids couldn't be there, but they had chosen to go to their grandparents instead.  And we still all managed to have the book read in less than 24 hours!  More on that later.

In the driving rain, we stopped to pick up some Belgian food--sausage and stoemp (mashed potatoes and, in this case, carrots) plus mac and cheese, and a sugar waffle--which we ate in our room while we waited for midnight and the release of HP.  We both did some more drawing and some Dragonvale.  I'm on level 20 now.  Not bad for about a week of play.


Sunday
We finished reading HP on Sunday morning, a real page turner.  Nice to be back in that world and to see HP as a father.

We breakfasted downstairs surrounded by the lush decor of the tea room, with gorgeous pink roses leftover from a baby shower the day before.  Almond and chocolate croissants, Earl Grey tea, and the New York Times, with some drizzle outside.  An ideal city Sunday morning.  We popped back to the Bedford Cheese Market to grab sandwiches to go--a baguette with Chandoka Cheddar and Parma Cotta for me, tuna with gruyeter and pickled onions and eggs for Mama--which we snacked on in the car parked next to Gramercy Park.  We could admire the trees and surrounding buildings through our windows and sun roof.

And that was it.  We went to fetch the kiddos, stayed for awhile talking to everyone, and made it home with time for dinner and some down time before bed.  The cats were glad to see us and, though we loved our vacation, it was good to be home.