Girls Weekend

Not a little girls weekend but a big girls weekend. I took a weekend trip all by herself which in itself is pretty rare these days and I seem to travel as part of a trio. Not bad because Arnie always takes care of everything and I am just along for the ride like the family pet. However when its my turn to negotiate airports, new technology and the like, it seems large. Of course it's all quite doable and I like the freedom to wander through the airport bookstores and buy things I don't need. Anyway it was a last minute trip to Atlanta to hang out with Spook who is as working on a film full of fabulous stars that of course we never see on her days off. Nothing to trade as gossip unfortunately. It was a great fall day in New York but in Atlanta it was all about rain and several weeks of rain. We landed without incident and I got to the hotel easily and then stretched out in my new digs. I haven't been to Atlanta recently except to rent a car and drive to Columbus or no, a couple of years ago, we went to their amazing new aquarium. But this trip involved neither dogs, nor husbands, nor children. How many times have I said that? Saturday night Dinner at the Palm with Spooky which is in the hotel. It turns out that Atlanta has morphed into a pretty sophisticated town and all the many sky scrapers in the Buckhead area of Atlanta remind me somewhat of the crazy buildings that we saw in China. Both Beijing and Shanghai have amazing, truly out of this world architecture and several of Atlanta's building were constructed with the same intent: to amaze and delight. They have lit half arches, or tops that don't match the bottoms. I'm not an architectural writer but suffice to say it was interesting. It sounds relaxing this grown up time but it doesn't take into account the several conversations about how and where Kate might have lost her very new cellphone. She's only had it 2 weeks. I blew my cover by acknowledging that I had insurance on the damn thing but as she is also tracked by GPS we figured out that the phone could find itself. Which it did. It was just playing games in the apartment. Kate went off to her first bat mitzvah in a fabulous dress she got as an hand me down from one of our friends on the floor. She looked stunning and had a great time. The pictures Arnie took show Kate in all her finery and prove what make up can do. Sunday in Atlanta was bright and sunny so we went to Decatur for a garden tour and by the end of the day we were able to sit outside for dinner.

My single purchase was grits from Publix and my purloined item was a towel. Have you tried to buy what my mother used to call a thirsty towel recently? All the towels are these soft cotton things that seem to be coming out of Egypt or Turkey. They are caressable/kissable but they ain't thirsty tough towels. But Spook had a great white towel that was rough and made you feel like you had towelled off. So I asked if I could have it. So like Countee Cullen's wonderful poem about a trip to Baltimore where he says that he saw great things but only remembers being called Nigger, I saw great things in Atlanta but brought home a tough towel.

Feet don't fail me now

Most things about the start of the school year have been very calm but last night it was deja vu all over again.

Where is my science homework?

duh, dunno. Where is your science homework?

HELP ME LOOK FOR IT.

ok, but why are you dribbling a soccer ball around the hall. How about retracing your steps and look again,.

I HAVE LOOKED FOR IT.

Do it again. I am leaving to go to the theatre in 3 minutes....

Oh, maybe I didn't bring it home.

ok how about calling one of your classmates?

He's a nerd why would I want to call him?

Because he has the homework and you don't....Ok I'm leaving for the theatre and you are in the good hands of your sitter.

Just Keep on Truckin

Yesterday we bought Kate some black dress shoes to go with her gorgeous cocktail/evening dress. A superior hand me down from ouur neighbors that is fit for any and all Bar/Bat Mitzvahs that can possible come along. This dress fits Kate and looks sensational so along with the pearl earrings and these new shoes she will be a knock out. Yesterday I took care of the present situation and hope that all will work. Of course this weekend I am out of town for a girls weekend in Atlanta providing that there is still a place called Atlanta and it has not floated down the oakachobee river...Arnie gets to handle soccer and the evening portion of this bat mitzvah weekend....I want pix sent inmmediately to my phone because I can't stand that i won't be home although I'm very glad not to be home....totally clear, no?

The Black berries

I have this faintly romantic idea that when you call someone on their cell phone and it rings, then the callee should be available to you right then on the spot. Nobody else seems to function like that or even to have those expectations. I guess I should manage mine. Just to say that, not because I had a bad encounter with anybody being terminally unavailable.

I am still taking Kate to school which is sweet and I hope lasts for a while. And then in the middle of the afternoon after our housekeeper picks her up I check into the GPS we put on her phone and check her progress coming home. Kinda creepy but also kind of satisfying. No comforting I think is the better word.

Went to my first meeting at Kate's school for Middle School reps. Thats what Arnie and I are this year: Middle School reps. don't ask me yet what it means. Actually I think it means mandatory attendance at everything but more than that I don't know yet.

Steppin Out to Staten Island

While kate was safely tucked away at camp this summer, we tried to do some steppin' and to broaden our horizons. Quite an undertaking I would say. One excursion was to Governor's Island -- a snore we thought -- but our most powerful trip was to Staten island on the beautiful Staten Island Ferry where we discovered with the help of the New York Times a really funky and terrific restaurant. As we left Arnie kept yelping that our friends Anne and Steve would REALLY LIKE THIS PLACE. And so a plan was born. And after several weeks of unsuccessfully trying to arrange a dinner but coyly refuse to share the destination because after all who the hell goes to Staten island, we blew the destination and all agreed to meet at the Staten Island Ferry. In various stages of business dress and undress we converged on the Ferry and took a really wonderful 25 minute ride across the harbor. And then walked about 5 minutes up to Enoteca Maria which has become even more of a destination since our first trip there. Even Rachel Ray made the trek to Staten Island and promptly fell in love with Joe, a City work by day and the owner of a small 35 seat Italian restaurant by night. What makes this place special is that we uses a rotating list of Italian grandmothers or mothers to do the cooking and his music system gets louder and weirder as the evening rolls on.

A great meal, 2 bottles of serious red wine and 4 hours later, we all staggered out into the street feeling supremely pleased with ourselves. Anne and I were exhausted but pleased because we hadn't drunk as much as our husbands. I think we were also pleased to be leaving the incredibly loud sound system with random selections of joe cocker and opera. Always glad to consider going back and much conversation was had about what a great place this would be for New Year's Eve. I'm a little concerned that this romantic trip on the Ferry will wear very thin in sub zero weather but what do I know. I was also glad that we had no plans for Saturday until 10 ish and then unlike Anne and Steve our trip to Chinatown wouldn't be until the late afternoon.

Mercifully our soccer game was cancelled by the player herself who said it was not really a game and next weekend would be fine. Fine with me. More time to read and nap. I even started a chicken stock which is trully a commitment of many hours. then off to a Chinese brush painting class and dinner in Chinatown.

Splat The Cat

isn't that a fabulous title for a kid's book? I love kids books and wish I had more kids to buy for. I just read about this book which has a winning picture of a black cat wearing what looks like a fright wig. Fabulous. Laugh out loud stuff. One of the books that I loved for Kate was called the Maestro and was so helpful in getting her to speak English. I'm going to try and find it again.

Breakfast this morning with a friend who is a jeweller to sort through the knotty and potential expensive problem of gifts for Bat and Bar Mitzvahs. I just hope that the Doppler 4,000 so often wrong about weather will be wrong about how many of these events will be coming down the pike. My budget is about $50 per person and with Roberta's help it's all gonna look fabulous. Actually I'm hoping that Kate is wildly unpopular and gets very few invitations to these pot latch ceremonies aka occasions to throw around money uselessly. aagh I also have to buy Kate some more grown up shoes. She was given a fabulous dress which fits her to a T but even I understand that it would look better without sneakers.

First week of school

Apparently i coughed a disgustingly juicy cough with such vigor, regularity and enthusiasm this week that my office asked me politely to stay home. I've had this cold/headache/rushes of fatigue/running nose/cough for two weeks now and theoretically it should be over. OVER. So I had a clear day and I gratefully stayed home. Kate would be at school, Alice would be moving around quietly and I would be alone. Scheduling error! My husband would also be at home I realized. Reading, working, talking and having the interminable tv on in the background. What's a girl to do when she's given a pass from work but can't schedule a sick day on the right day at home. I slept in Kate's room most of the day and then slept in our bedroom some more. No, I don't have sleeping sickness I just needed some sleep. does that say about my life that I need to schedule my sick days....

And then last night both Kate and Arnie declared themseles some variation on sick. Not a surprise because although I've been clutching my purell it's all been a failure because I've had a cold. Not them. Until now. So last night I gave Kate some proprobably imapproriate cold medicine and she passed out. That was actually my intention and this morning she still felt coldy and tired. But by 9:00 sm she wanted to go to school and after a great deal of hestiation on my part but no fever for her I agreed that she could go. And to get her there in some reasonable time frame I suggested that special treat -- one time only -- she go by herself in a taxi. Would she want to do that? a resounding yes. So the doorman got her into a taxi -- I was of course hanging out the window -- and off she went. Kevin immediately called up with the taxi # and within seconds following instructions Kate called me and we had a nice chat as she went downtown. Is that kool or what?

Die Clique

By the time I had been at work for several hours I was as sick as the proverbial dog. I had been mainling sudafed for days and finally the headache moved in and whacked me good. I'm sure I looked pale and wan and everybody sent me home which I do now by subway because if I'm going to be sick then I'd rather be sick on the subway rather than spend $15 to be sick in traffic! But I desperately wanted to be well enough to take Kate to the first group of Chinese American kids who meet once a month and discuss I don't know what. It would also give me access to a group of Moms who are struggling or not with some of my issues. Kate agreed reluctantly to go and then to go on to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. So, it's one hour of chat among the girls and then off to St. Mark's place for what I thought was very good food. I had managed to drug myself into welldom and had thoroughly good time. I'm very comfortable with women who have also adopted because many of them are not 20 or 30 somethings. They are grown ups.

Saturday was Chinese with Yue and then soccer. For Kate. I was still feeling pretty lousy but whipped myself into getting to the hairdresser. Being unable to make a hair appointment would signal a terminal illness. And then once I arrived looking all snappy and putting on a brave face I had the wrong day. The wrong day. how pitiful is that. But something was done and then I went home and back to bed. In the end I decided that I was just making myself sick! And to get over it. To murder people in a righteous manner. of course I also managed to lose 2 pounds. A welcome loss.

But as I felt better I realized that I wanted to go back to Maine for a weekend. I;ve been thinking about the wonderful path down to the beach from the house and the smell of the trees and the ultimate opening in the trees with it's calming view of boats bobbing in the sound. Unfortunately it's a little early in the year for me to be feeling wistful about Maine. I'm supposed to be calm and centered because of Maine.

First Day of School

Kate was really excited to be going back to school, and you know what? Me, too. I was excited that she was going back but it was as if I was going back to school too. Clothes carefully selected for the first day and some sulkiness because the cell phone we finally got her hadn 't arrived. But all in all a very upbeat morning. When Kate is in school it totally changes the rhythm of our lives. We've spent a very luxurious summer in terms of being able to get up in the morning when we walke up rather than being shocked awake by an alarm clock. Get up a 6 and walk the dog, go to the gym, have a leisurely cup of coffee and go off to work. Now it's
get up, rush the dog around the block, gulp a cup of coffee and be ready to leave at 7:15. First stop school and then to work for me. But yesterday was really fun for me too. i saw lots of parents that I've been seeing aolmost every day for the past 8 yars because Kate started at her school in Kindergarten. And I saw all Kate's classmates and how they've grown and changed over the summer. Some of them are giants and some of them look normal.

First day of school was a two-hour orientation and today it's real school.

Kate's cell phone arrived yesterday afternoon and she was estatic, bananas, over the moon, whatever the phrase, that was she, her, the girl herself. I think she will get over taking the phone into the bathroom with her in a couple of days and then life will sort out. No games, no texting, no music, just a phone which is of course erroneous because these damn phones can do everything else short of cooking you dinner.

Labor Day Weekend

No knifings, stranglings or other end of life events. It all sorted it self out.

It was a weekend of birthday celebrations and included a trip to Blue Man Group but even better the walk to the theatre passed a very busy garage with the usual car detrius including broken metal parts, used tires and greasy mechanics, all of which fascinated Kate. So we used this as a launching pad to discuss what it was that she liked about this and what she might like to do. use her hands. Well, that could be many things we discussed including architecture or engineering. I am always happy to have a conversation where Kate can think of many things to do including going to MIT which certainly came up in this chat.

a trip around New York harbor in a clipper ship and then, the most important trip of all, to the Verizon store to buy a cell phone. All shoals mostly avoided and she came away with a cell phone with a keyboard although she will have no texting ability and I came away with a chaperone capability which is essentially a GPS so that anytime she uses the phone it flashes her destination to my computer.

Big Birthday party for extended family and now reality. School tomorrow. One of my oldest friends called today and when told that the first day of school was tomorrow, asked what kind of dress kate would be wearing !!!!!

I read a Time article characterising people who have migraines as those with excited brains. I have migraines and henbce I must have an excited, or was it excitable brain. I woke up this morning at 4 thinking and having thoughts unspool out of my brain like the new receipts that you get at the supermarket. just run on paragraphs about stuff, stuff and more stuff. I had a hot brain and excited brain.

This is the end of summer and my birthday usually marks it. We all had a great time in Maine especially Miss Murray who loved loping up and down the path to the beach and even went out happily in the rain. Amazing because here in the city, she like all other dogs in our apartment building, get to the front door, sense or see the rain, plant their feet firmly and refuse to move. It's endemic when it rains.

I can't reven remember what other excited or excitable thoughts I had this morning but felt as if I had to releive the pressure by writing. Does this really releive the pressure? Well part of the way to releive the pressure today besides lots of migraine medicine was to stay home from work.

Now i actually feel better and can enjoy the day. Enjoy the process of going out with Kate tomorrow to buy a cell phone for her. I still think it's totally unncessary for this kid who is trucked from place to place and hardly has a moment to herself, let along going anyplace by herself, but so be it. I want to give the false impression that she has some independence. Actually she had some independence in Maine with Lile when they could go out on their bikes and just be gone. Now as I told her I'm struggling with how to deal with the phone issue. And at one point I thought I would have to deal with a new computer, the itouch and a Nintendo DC. Somehow i've narrowed the focus to the phone for this week. Kate is excited as a flea about the phone and I'm just hoping that she doesn't lose it. Losing it well losing it.

Oh, i've discov ered how to recoup some of my costs with her. She charges me $1 for a random list of swear words and $5 for the "F" word. I was glad to agree because it's better if I don't swear which of course I do especially when I'm stressed. And I wanted to cooperate with Kate who hates swearing and feels that itis violence. Which it is. So I'm poorer but purer. But just recentlhy I've levied Kate a fine of $1 for cracking her knuckles and now I'm add a $2 fine for leaving her cereal bowl or any food in her bedroo m.

That's parenting in the big city.

The wrap up to our vacation

we made it up to Maine in 4 hours and the drive home took almost 6 hours because of ennui and terrible traffic.

I think we were all glad to be home although some of us more than others. Now we are back in the thick of the new School year with the apartment full of to do lists dealing with school supplies, clothes, shoes and order for Kate'[s birthday cake. She had a small cake on the morning, or was it the evening before we left and this Sunday we're having an extended family/friends party and I'm ordering a cake. or trying to. I should find another place other than the Cupcake Cafe because they have such incredible attitude and do't answer their phones in either store. i finally call the adjacent bookstore just to make sure that they had not gone out of business. Nope, just the business as usual ethos of NOT answering their phones.

We are on the precipes of getting a cell phone for Kate. Much ado about this.

The Voyage

So, we sat at the Casco Bay Lines for at least 3 hours waiting for the freight boat which was to take the 4 of us plus Miss Murray and untold boxes of food from Whole Foods over to Chebeague. I finally broke away to find a book store and stumbled on an outdoor air show which was great. i really like Portland and think it would be a great place to spend a weekend and just stroll around. It is a real sea port town with an active Front Street, a sensational Museum, an excellent bakery and some great restaurants.

we finally made it out of town on the boat and settled in for the trip. Originally I had resisted this trip but now agree with Grandma Dot that that the trip across and around Casco Bay serves as a transistion to island life. However I was already pretty mellow. Shopping done at whole Foods and brioche loaf collected from the Bakery.

The house I rented sight unseen turned out to be great. We all hated to leave the Aaron's Wharf house but it was sold. So we rented this house on Hamilton beach and Dorothy stayed with us when her rental was cancelled because of a malfunctioning septic system. That was very important for Kate and for me because it's all about Dorothy and the 8, or is it 9 summers that we have spent together.

We arrived at 7:30 pm after a full day of travelling and had a quick dinner and then crashed. Miss murray seemed to feel at home immediately. We knew this because she peed and went to sleep without hours and hours of pacing.

Sunday we went off to get bikes which are the life blood of our stay on the island. As usual the bikes while free are terrible and have no gears. I've decided that next year I have to have a newer bike that has gears so that I can bike out to Deer Point and don't have to spend more time walking my bike up hills than riding up them. The girls tooki off on their bikes and werent' seen for hours. This kind of freedom to just wander around an entire island is unimaginable for city kids who are taken from place to place and have absolutely no wiggle room. Even as I write this I'm looking at cell phones for Kate which have a GPS so that I will know where she is at all times. Yikes. Is this childhood?

One day they played tennis at the local courts, biked to the Rec Center and ran into one of Kate's classmates at the local grocery store. We had lunch at the Clam Shack and then were able to barbecue on Tuesday night. There was enough rain on Sunday and Monday that we couldn't barbeque. Our days followed an island pattern without consideration for time and tide. Arnie and I would take Miss Murray down to the beach early in the morning or we would hide under the covers until she smoked us out. Breakfast, reading, the beach, lunch, naps, reading on the beach, dinner. Do it all again. I had a great time cooking.