My Story: Searches

Wednesday, April 05, 2023

Searches

The last time I was in New York, I had a very disappointing walk in Central Park.

I left the house later than I'd expected, wasn't dressed warm enough,

and to top it off, I had to pee.

Walking around the reservoir this morning was my redemption.

I didn't take a pic from the far side of the skyline with the new Central Park Towers covered by fog because I've taken pics of that spot a million times and it seemed redundant.

And now I'm kicking myself.

But I did get a cherry tree in full bloom.

After my walk I took the longest shower and used real shampoo and conditioner for the first time in 10 days. (In Charleston, we actually had nice shower products, but we were on a schedule so I couldn't linger. And on the cruise, we had a wall dispenser with body soap and shampoo "all-in-one" which smelled like Fabulosa, the terrible smelling Latino cleaning product.)

Not only did I have a heavenly shower, I could also just be naked for a bit wandering around my own room and home, which apparently is a routine I miss when I'm traveling and sharing space and have to get dressed before I'm properly air dried.

The rest of the day I was able to help Courtney by shopping for Friday's party while she worked on her

dissertation defense slides and presentation.

Ran to a few different markets and shops to get everything I needed: The Nut Shop, Broadway Farms, and a third and fourth shop, looking for Michael's favorite cereal so I could avoid going to Key Foods, which I vowed to never go in to because their exterior signage isn't very cute. It's the Walmart of grocery stores around here. (In design, not scale. But actually, it is a little bigger than the more typical markets here, so Walmart in a couple different ways, if Walmart was the equivalent size of a two bedroom apartment.)

No other shop carried Cracklin' Oat Bran. Not surprised, can you believe they still make that cereal?

I loved it as a kid, probably because it was so unexpectedly sweet.

And Key Foods on the inside wasn't as bad as I expected.

Next, down to Columbus Circle to Williams Sonoma to get new silverware because the less expensive look-alike style from Macy's I bought is flatter and lighter with a much cheaper feel, which wouldn't be all that bad except the spoons are so thin that the edges are sharp and not only that, they're wider than a normal spoon so eating ice cream is like eating from a wide double-edged serrated knife.

They had exactly four sets in stock -- just the number we needed for Michael's birthday breakfast tomorrow!

Whole Foods was downstairs from WS so I finished up the shopping

(speaking of store sizes, its ironically a HUGE store in comparison to most grocery stores in Manhattan).

When I got home, I was the mom and ordered dinner (#iykyk) from Spiaga-to-go and picked up some gift cards as well, except that their reader wasn't working and it was a long tedious process to get them validated, but Marco and I made a good team with me reading the numbers as he entered them into the computer and we're pretty much best friends now.

Or at least I think if I wanted a job there, he'd give me one.

Courtney met me for dinner here at home, and then we decorated!

As Courtney said, it's so much more fun doing a project when you can do it with someone fun.

Hanging the tissue paper globes from the ceiling was kinda precarious standing on the backs of two barstools to get high enough. But turned out darling! And even though Courtney and I are the same height and I even have a longer wingspan, she can reach higher than me by about 2".

No other fact about myself -- reading glasses, weight highs and less highs, workout strength variations, exchanging running for walking, and miscellaneous aches and pains that come and go -- none of these things has made me feel as decrepit and unsettled, as the fact that somehow my body can't stretch and reach as far as it used to!