new york

A weekend trip to New York, free of expectations other than to see friends, is bound to be relaxing no matter how active. I saw three separate friends or friend groups this weekend and had a terrific time with each. Recently, especially, I think, being at home, I've been less patient and more sarcastic, which is frustrating for me and can't be pleasant for Mom, Dad or Lincoln. It's not as much of a problem at work. But this weekend, starting really with yoga on Thursday, I could almost physically feel myself unwind and calm down. I didn't have any plans in New York, only bought my ticket on Thursday afternoon with the hope of seeing a few different groups of friends, and that meant that I was never anxious about anything, or in a rush to get somewhere or worried that I was holding someone up or pissed off that someone was holding me up.

On Saturday I woke up on Anita, Sam and Charlotte's couch in Brooklyn, did some yoga on the floor in their living room, went out for a bagel and coffee with Anita and then walked for hours with her in Brooklyn and then the Lower East Side, first helping her with some errands and then just exploring. It was pure pleasure to be able to mosey along, stopping into interesting-looking stores, stumbling on a park dominated by gorgeous, towering weeping willows and eating a slice of pizza there, before moving on and pausing on the way back to Brooklyn to sit in on a free jazz show in a garden between three tall apartment buildings. The band, it's worth mentioning, played a rendition of "In a Sentimental Mood" that hit me so hard I listened to the Coltrane-Ellington version three times in a row as soon as I got back to Jenna's apartment to pick up my stuff. Seeing her (on Friday night) was also great, I can't believe it had been over two years! And last night, helping Alex move and then going out with some of her friends for dinner and then to a couple of bars for her birthday was really fun. But I think the daytime on Saturday, with Anita, was the best of all just for the, word escaping me, maybe the easiness of it. We did lose our first game, at home, to Utah, which is awful. But we couldn't find anywhere with the game on and I'm glad of that. Even such a painful loss, at the beginning of what will likely be a very painful season, couldn't ruin my good mood. At any rate, these couple of days were just what the doctor ordered. To celebrate, and because I haven't put up any music in a good little while, here are the two songs that capture the weekend for me. The first is "In a Sentimental Mood" and the second is "Slip Slidin' Away," by Paul Simon.

emerald isle, nc

This past week at the beach was just about as good as it could have been. The weather was beautiful, the water was warm, everyone was in (mostly) good spirits, Dad and I JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE, we played mini-golf and cards and Bananagrams and Apples to Apples and watched the Olympics and read and swam and on and on. So relaxing. And tomorrow, back to work. Oh yay.

Also, I skydived.

One more thing: Skydiving provided me with a couple of seconds of absolute clarity. Not really fear, but about as pure a rush of adrenaline and awareness of the present moment as I have ever experienced. Nothing existed except for me, the plane, the wind and the 11,000 feet between me and the ground. And then I jumped. Whew.

from the department of boo-yah

Just check this out: Represent with respect

camp coddling

Interesting piece in the NYT sometime recently about uber-high-end summer camps that coddle kids and (especially) their parents. Even more interesting, a response in the Times' op-ed section (link here). Most interesting of all, the comment below. Still chewing over how much I buy into this, but my gut reaction is that the guy has a good point:

“The sense of entitlement which enables them to navigate adult institutions”? Or do you mean simply the habit of ordering serfs around? Like the rich patients recently mentionned in the Times who refuse treatment and boss their therapist around because they can?
The assumption that these children grow up to be harmless is a dangerous delusion.
After being admitted as legacy ( something inexistent in Canada) and then accepted immediately into business and political circles of power, they reveal themselves as irremediably incompetent in their annointed role of god-ordained manager.( Recent example anyone?)
The U.S. class system, the strictest and least mobile in the developped world is now approaching in its inefficiency that of Britain in the mid-19 th century.
The U.S. is nearing the point where Britain, after the charge of the Light Brigade, realised that hereditary officers were a sure way of losing wars and instituted proofessional training for their officer class.
Fun thing is, until recently, the U.S. was on top of the world because it refused such a way of behaving and bred the best managerial class in the world.