Vermont

Being out of the city always gives me time and mental space to think. I love it. Can you tell I was happy during our long weekend in Vermont?

Last night I started working on my long-term career plan. I've been gaining more and more experience and clarity, and the thinking space in Vermont proved very productive. I'm excited and a trifle scared. But at the end of it, I will be making that face that I'm making in the snow-tubing photo!

Mexico

OK, I'm not going to be on the Interwebs for long, but it is still early and I'm hanging around in my PJs and the sun has just finished coming up over the ocean. Which I can see from my room. Holy cow.

We are good and married and so happy that so many of our loved ones could be there to witness it. Now, we're winding down from all the planning. So far, Mexico highlights include: complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries (for honeymooners), guacamole made at your table, and not 1, but 2 iguana sightings.

All moons should be honey moons. Why do we need a crescent (well, Pilsbury rolls can stay), a gibbous...why must any moon wax or wane?

Image above of Trader Joe's Honey Moon wine. I rather like it for $5 a pop!

Backity back!

Back in NYC from sunny CA. Survived the redeye flight reveled in the purring when I got home! 

Highlights of the West Coast wedding extravaganza: friends from afar, drinking champagne on a boat, bride rocking a feather fascinator (hard), seeing a real-life California surf shop and real-life California surfers, beach, Indian dancing. WHEW. My first real visit to CA was a success—now to rest up and beat the jet lag!

Farewell, old friends

I have chosen the occasion of my 100^th post to bid farewell to some old and faithful friends.

We have journeyed many miles together. We’ve finished high school and packed for college. We have trekked the streets of this city, loitered in the back of the Bowery Ballroom, climbed the steps to the subway. We have traversed campus and finished a degree. We have marched in protest. We have wended our way along wooded paths beside the Corrib River. We’ve stood for hours at some rotten jobs. We’ve run the course of relationships. Twice, we helped lead 300 adolescents to and from the country’s oldest Fourth of July festivities. We’ve been caught in many an unfortunately timed rainstorm. We’ve trod, sauntered, perambulated, strolled…you get the point.

You don’t need to walk a mile in my shoes to understand me. You only need to look at them.

I like simplicity, practicality, versatility. I stand by that which serves me well. I form attachments where maybe I should not. I step in gross stuff.

These shoes and I started far from here and walked and walked and walked our way to someplace very different. Thank you, old friends.

Do not go gentle into that good night. You won’t; I’ll make sure you live on...

Childhood “loveys” aside, have you ever been attached to an object that you felt somehow defined you or a chapter in your life? What was it?

Quick visit

Well, only 2 days in Rhode Island brought a wedding dress fitting, some catering decisions, and a minister to perform our ceremony. It also brought visits to staples such as The Crow's Nest and The Mews Tavern. (I wasn't going to link to The Crow's Nest's website because it is so bad, but decided I had to for precisely that reason. Once you get through the intro, you get to click on quahogs to navigate the site.)

I hadn't been to The Mews in ages and had forgotten how much I love the ceilings, lined with dollar bills and white Christmas lights, and the creative tap handles—this place boasts a famous 69 brews on tap. See above for my favorite tap of the night, the Red Sox-themed Green Monsta Ale. And the sampler board is a must: mini glasses of any 4 brews (your choice!) neatly arranged in a little wooden test tube rack.

I missed little ol' Rhode Island. It was good to see everyone and to be in the kinds of places where someone you know could walk in at any moment (and my cousin did walk into the bar while we were there)! I somehow always feel like my best self when I visit. Next time I just have to make sure my dad doesn't rope Chris into vacuuming the pool...

Rhode Island born

...and Rhode Island bred. And when I die, I'll be Rhode Island dead. Off to the Ocean State this evening. Looking forward to a quiet road trip with the boy and a little break from the city. What's your favorite mini-getaway?

Score one for history

image via NewYorkology

History wins: Ellis Island will be receiving $26 million in federal funds for the restoration of the baggage and dormitory building. I can never get enough of Ellis Island. There is some sadness in the soul of the place, but mostly I leave feeling the residual effects of the determination, bravery, and audacious optimism that passed continually through it. To think some of my own relatives came through here from Ireland, ready to carve out a new life. More restoration details here.

Orlando

Being back in rainy New York is not quite like being in Florida, and nothing like being in the bizarre time warp of an Orlando amusement park. Armed with some JetBlue buddy passes (a birthday gift to Chris), the boy and I hit the airport at 4am on Friday morning and waited for standby seats to Orlando. 

This trip was only semi-planned. If you know us, you know Chris and I are nothing if not planners, schedulers, list-makers, etc. This trip was very adventurous for us! Knowing that there was a chance we might not get a flight, we decided to book our hotel, car, and park tickets once we made it to Florida. 

And did we ever make it to Florida! We even ended up getting great last-minute hotel and car rental deals through Priceline.

We agreed to sit through a mind-numbing timeshare presentation on Saturday morning to save money on our theme park tickets. I wouldn't recommend this as a general practice, but in trying not to break the bank for a 4 day trip, it worked out well this time. As I told Chris, "Be a writer about it!" Anyway, once we skipped away from the salesmen, the cynicism was gone and we commenced acting like 5-year-olds.

I thought about Travels in Hyperreality a handful of times, but every time I started getting intellectual about the experience, there was some kinda spontaneous parade:

  Or ice cream!

Or fairy-tale thing!

We spent the first day at Disney, making it to nearly every ride in the Magic Kingdom park, staying til close and topping it off with cotton candy and fireworks. The second day we spent at Universal's Islands of Adventure, where Chris went on giant roller coasters like The Hulk and I was enthralled that there was an entire "world" constructed to look like Jurassic Park.

I find occasion to quote this film alarmingly often, as do, I believe, my brothers. I'm not sure why a movie about a failed science experiment involving deadly prehistoric creatures is so applicable to our lives, but I do hold it near and dear to my heart.

That just about sums up our whirlwind weekend! I don't know when I'll be in Orlando again—either in 2010 when Islands of Adventure finishes building their Harry Potter "world," or not until I've got little ones in tow. It's an interesting town, to say the least.

Happy birthday, Gram!

Another birthday today! This time, my paternal grandmother. At 89, she has raised 11 children and has been keeping ovarian cancer in check for nearly 2 years. In honor of her extraordinary strength, an excerpt from a poem I wrote about visiting my family's bakery in Galway, Ireland:

...I used to wonder

about stretching everything thirteen ways. Eithne lives

above the bakery. It has stood for over a century.

Downstairs, no one is still. Quite simply, we do not

stretch. Do not rest. Quite simply, there is always enough.

Another post about Ireland

It's been about four years since I lived next to the Corrib River. Some memories:

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

The Aran Islands

My family's 130-year old bakery, Shop Street, Galway

Flats off of the river, Galway

Blarney Castle, Cork
Man playing the whistle in archway, Belfast

Beannachtaí na Féile Páraic oraibh

You may take the shamrock from your hat
and cast it upon the sod,
but 'twill take root and flourish still,
though underfoot 'tis trod.
My grandfather used to sing me this song. Although much of this ditty is not exactly child-friendly (lots of hanging), I always sensed he was trying to impart to me something crucial about our heritage. This morning, singing this verse in the shower, the message truly clicked. I have faith that no matter how difficult things get, something in my genetic composition will kick in and enable me to not just survive, but to flourish. [title translation] A Saint Patrick's Day Blessing Upon You.