rachelpink rides the bus

My nephew and my niece have had a hard weekend. More than anything I wish I was there giving them hugs and kisses. They have a new house to live in, and I hear that Donovan has his own bathroom. He'll like that. 

I love those kids more than anything in this world. 

Cable Update

So I'm going on week three without cable. 

I'll be honest--I thought it would kill me. But look! I'm still alive! 

It was the morning I dreaded. I loved my NY1 news. Instead I bought myself a radio and now I listen to NPR. This makes me much more wordly and fancy. I know what's happening in the world. Everyday there's new news about Myanmar. 

I'm finding that the time I most miss TV is the time right after I get home from work. I still compulsively go to turn it on right after I feed the screaming cats their half-can of skipjack in sauce. Instead I pop in a Buffy or BSG disc, and those are able substitutes. 

And then there's Hulu. My computer is so teensy I thought watching TV on it would blind me in under a week. Not so. I watched the season finales of "The Office" and "30 Rock" via Hulu. Last night I watched "Glee." "Glee" is going to be my very favorite show come September though I'm not sure I can wait that long. Singing. High school angst. Jane Lynch. Jazz hands. It's everything I need. 

So yeah. Cable. I've got an extra 100 bucks in my pocket. I'm learning about Myanmar. I watch the things I need at my leisure on Hulu, and Netflix keeps me flush in Buffy episodes and indie movies. I'm wondering wondering wondering why I didn't do this sooner. 

About a Boy

Matthew is 3 and his mom is my dear friend Tammy. 

I love him a lot. And not just his arm (more on that later). 

He is a smart, funny, and good-tempered kid. I wish I saw him more. In fact, I need to find a way to see him more. As much as I love NYC, the lure of Tammy and Matthew makes me think that one day I could see myself somewhere closer to DC. Time will tell. 

Here are some things I learned about Matthew:

If he gets mad or frustrated, he gives himself a time out. That's right, a wee little three-year old has the self control to leave a bad situation, go to a quiet place for a minute, and return refreshed and happy. Isn't that genius? I'm so impressed. 

The way he says "Aunt Rachel" makes me so happy I could cry. 

He is very polite and friendly. 

He likes chocolate milk, pancakes,  cheese, carrots, and donuts. 

He LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine.

He fell in love with my upper arm. "Aunt Rachel, I love your arm." And then he hugged it. 

He named the plastic "hairy" ball I bought him "Charlie." He told Charlie that he was his "very best friend."

When I showed him pictures of the shelter kitties on my camera, he petted them on the viewing screen. 

He sings and dances and that boy has rhythm. 

When he says "carnival" it sounds like "caramel" and it's spectacularly cute. 

Oh, and he LOVES the carnival. Especially the Dragon Wagon. 

I love love love this kid. 

Just Plain Good

If I could wrap this weekend up and give it a hug, I would. 

Some times the world is an unkind place marked by cloudy days and crowded subways and dollars stretched too thin. This weekend none of that mattered. The sky was blue. The sun was high. The hugs were abundant. 

Meg and I wrote a book. It comes out in November, and it makes me very very happy. I've been waiting to show the cover, but since the publisher's catalog is out,  I think it's fair game to show the world (ahem, the 10 people who still read my blog).  It's a palimpsest of love. And yeah, I can still spell "palimpsest" after a decade out from grad school.  

Don't Hit!

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging. There's really not one GOOD reason, but here are three mediocre reasons:

1. Work got busy again (yeah) after a long and scary quiet spell. 

2. Dating had me preoccupied and a wee bit crazy. 

3. Speaking of crazy, I started a new birth control prescription and it made me very nutso for a month. 

Tadah! 

Happy Birthday, Donovan!

How can it be that most favorite nephew turns 9 today?

I love that boy with every last bit of mitrochrondia in my body (there's a lot of that, right?)

He is kind and smart and funny as heck. For his birthday dinner he's having steak, corn, potato wedges with cheese, and a triple-chocolate-fudge cake with triple-chocolate-fudge-chip icing.

I wish I was there to share a slice.

Happy Birthday, pumpkin.

Getting Things Done

I am very sleepy from a productive and loooong day. 

Edward and I met up in the village and took the train out to Brighton Beach for piroskis--big amazing tasty treats that taste like a savory zeppoli stuffed with mashed potatoes. Holy christmas, Batman! Mmmm. We ate the tasty morsels on a bench on the boardwalk. It doesn't get much better than that. We walked the Boardwalk over to Coney Island. . . it's half-dead, but still interesting. Edward had a hankering for a Nathan's hot dog, so we did that too. I love Nathan's fries. So soggy. And they come with the little red devil fork. That does it for me. Everything tastes better when speared with a devil fork. 

After some subway confusion, we ended up at the transit museum. Let me tell you--that's a cool destination. You can play in old subway cars! And pretend to drive a city bus! You can also read all the signs (Edward) and learn about the history--or, you can run around and play with stuff and take lots of goofy pictures (Rachel). Highly recommended! I'll be taken Donovan there when he comes for his annual summer visit. 

OK, so here's where things take a turn for the worse. . . it took me almost TWO HOURS to get home. A series of transportation snafus and slow-downs meant trouble for me. It did not help matters that I ended up in a packed car surrounded by a horrid band of teenagers who were screaming, making out, and playing terrible music through their cell phones. 

Let's just say that by the time I got to Queens I was roundly disinterested in ever riding in a subway ever again. I'm going to have to learn to fly. 

Rachelpink Drives the Bus