Get on up, get the funk up

Crazy stuff happening here, torrential down pours with insanely loud and long thunder (ry thinks that lightening struck nearby our house, it scared both of us awake immediately this morning while Asher slept peacefully through it), we had a minorly noticeable earthquake here (I was in a conference room which sits over water so we kind of rolled through it instead of shaking through it), unseasonably cool weather, weird stuff. 

Work is trying to ruin the awesome chill I've been having all week after coming back from my vacation.  I'm trying really hard not to let it get to me but...I'm eroding.  Stand tall, lone ranger...

So, I have all sorts of things I have been planning on writing all week, believe it or not.  I know, I was going through a bit of a dry spell for a while.  But worry not. Mildly but not entirely entertaining content is back!

So, in NY I was introduced to catcalling.  I'm assuming that it happens here in the Cleve, too, but I apparently am really really good at blocking it out.  I don't even think I would have noticed it in NY either but I was walking with two other beautiful ladies who, in combination with a third regular-ish looking girl (me), obtained a decent amount of catcalls from all the homies on the block. I think that it's just that I assume that they aren't talking to me.  It's obviously a self confidence issue stemming from years of negative self confidence and guilt for nothing in particular.  I would have made an excellent Catholic.  New career choice, would I look good in a habit?  I'd totally be like all Sister Act up in this career change.

I digress.  I didn't even notice the catcalling the first two days.  I guess guys in NY (and other places I'm sure) do this noise "tsss-tsss-tsss" to try and get you to look at them or something.  Like you are a little kitty cat or something.  Other guys say things like "hey, pretty ladies" or offer to carry something for you or something like that.  It's kind of sweet in a way.  I mean, the normal catcalling isn't sweet, the "tss-tss-tss" isn't sweet but the offering to help a lady is kind of nice.  I still even assumed that most of the time the guys were catcalling to my wonderful friends and not me but, you know, take a compliment where you can get one, right? 

Rachel said that guys will not even try to hide checking out a girl in NY, either. I don't think that they did this to me but I saw a guy check out Rachel once.


And I'm pretty sure a guy tried to shoot a basket for me while playing ball with a bunch of guys.  Well, he said he was shooting a basket for one of us but he pointed, and I thought he pointed to me but he could have ben pointing to Rachel or Ann...either way, he missed the basket though.  He did rescind it and told me the next one he got in would be for me instead.  I didn't stick around to see if he did ever get one in for me.  I like to think that he did.  I am wondering if I never notice catcalling in Cleve because I'm almost always with another guy?  I wonder if I went out with a bunch of ladies (or just one or two) if I would get catcalled here.  I think that if I walked by a bunch of guys in the Cleve playing basketball and one offered to shoot me a basket he would be made fun of by his friends, cause obviously Cleve boys are puerile.  Or are they? 

 

Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night

I know I still owe you a blog post about the nerf war but...I'm a slacker, what can I say?  Here's a quickie about my weekend in NYC with the girls. 

Awesome. 

Okay, return to your regularly scheduled program. 

Seriously, it was awesome.  I feel so good.  I know I was super worried about Asher but, as I was told he would be, he was better than me while I was gone as far as the worry went.  It was all good.  Really. 

This game is called Passage, it was
 the piece that moved me the
most in the entire museum. 

I hung out with two of the best ladies I know for a whole weekend of fun in NYC, eating awesome ethnic foods and walking all over the city, taking public transportation (one of my favorite things to do when I go to the city, honestly), seeing the sights and people, listening to good music and generally being in good company.  I felt like a real person again.  We went to MoMA (where we all decided that our children could be actual contenders for professional acclaimed modern artists) and were really awed and wowed by the Tech exhibit called Talk to Me (it's on the third floor).



We walked through China Town and Little Jamaica (where we had vegan Jamaican food).



vegan Jamaican food...yum...



We walked around Brooklyn at night to look at the city across the water. We also saw a weird band playing in Brooklyn inside a building with a creepy freaky guy (or mannequin) just staring at me around the cacophony dressed in a white suit.  He and I were staring each other down.  Grr...

Manhattan across the river.

We walked around 5th Ave (we just happened to be there...), found a random street fair, bought a dress and went to a fine dining vegan restaurant that was a little hippie-tastic but good called Caravan of Dreams and then had Sangria at a cheesy little Mexican restaurant called Hotel Tortuga  (they were super nice and let us eat our bakery food with our Sangria even though they had their own desserts) late into the night on a Saturday night in Manhattan.  



Awesome old abandoned movie theatre in Little Jamaica. 

You know I'm bad at taking photos.  I'm gonna steal more from Ann when she gets them to me to post on here.    





You're always there for music and me

My brother had a pretty awesome Nerf war Bday party last night.  I don't have my normal computer so I don't have any way to put photos on here at all for either of my topics today, expect photos in the next couple of days, hopefully.  That's all I'll say about the party without the pics for now.

So, I come into work today knowing full well that I won't have a wall to my office anymore.  I wasn't expecting the true damage that I walked into, though.  Not at all.  I guess I should have expected my office to be covered in a patina of dust from 100 years of having walls in the office.  Everything was covered in dust, nothing covered or protected.  So, there is that. 

Then, I was told that my sanctuary, which I just finished cleaning and arranged, was supposed to be safe as it was protected by a support wall.  This was not the truth, they ripped a hole in the other wall for no reason.  For no reason at all.  Really, guys?  Really?  Were you getting a little crowbar happy?  In fact, the crow bar is still hanging stuck in the wall.  I'll post the picture when I can. 

Oh, did I mention that they shut off the power to my office, too?  So it's a horrible mess, I don't have any power, it's in unworkable conditions, and I'm still expected to do my job.  Thanks, guys.  Really, I mean it.  Thanks.  Motivation is at an all time low.  I didn't think it could get this low. 

Gah.

To make matters the worst, I planted a tomato plant, Giada the Tomata, in a spare sparse garden bed here and I've been taking care of her, watering her and weeding and tying her up and everything.  And when I left on Thursday she had a nice half ripe tomato on her, the first one.  I expected to have a nice beautiful tomato when I came into work today.  Guess what I found instead?  Someone took it.  My first tomato from her.  I am not against sharing my crops with people here, but no one else helped me grow her so I feel that I should have first rights.  How dare someone steal my first tomato.  It was the final nail in the demotivation coffin today. 

And I'm stressing big time about going to NYC and leaving my little bear.  So that doesn't help with my overall mood.  If Ry was staying home with him I would feel 1000% better.  I wish he wasn't going to Niagara Falls.  I know that is selfish and not nice but I can't feel good about us both being gone.  I'm home with Asher a lot when Ry travels.  I just wish he could reciprocate.  I cannot even begin to tell you how stressed I am about this.  I've been trying not to think about it.  I haven't been succeeding.