CherylKatz.org

And back in the saddle, though I’m re-adjusting to Pacific time very slowly and poorly.

Only by sleeping in other beds for a few weeks do you really appreciate your own, that’s all I can say.  On my visit to my parents’ place and Michelle and Andy, I slept in some mighty comfy beds, but the understated familiarity of my own is frankly insurmountable.

It’s great to be home, Sami in school during the day, eating my own food, cooking in my own kitchen, driving my own car, working in my office, sleeping in my own bed.

I spent a weekend with my parents, showing off all Sami’s new abilities and recuperating from the long day of travel from San Diego to New York.  My father met Sami and I at the airport and helped get us and our checked luggage from the terminal, over AirTrain, on the rental car shuttle and all the way into our rental car.  And I don’t know how I would have done it without him, so let’s not think of that just now.

Sami got to play outside in the same yard I played in at her age, took a walk in the old neighborhood, and spent an afternoon with my friend Jenn’s kids, Ryan (7) and Cynthia (5).  She met her cousing Madeline, age 13 months.  (Sami was NOT excited about a baby close enough in age to want to share her toys, and was thus most decidedly not charming.)

Then we drove up to Ithaca, NY to visit Andy, Michelle and new arrival, 5-weeks-and-counting Milo!  He is sweet and wonderful in the way that only babies who can’t roll over and run away can be, but still young enough and demanding enough a taskmaster to keep his momma ready to pull her own hair out - in only the way a needy infant can be.  Sami was half fascinated, half jealous of the baby - especially when I’d take him to give A&M a break here and there.

Sami was not the poster child for reproduction - but I’ve come to wonder what toddler is.  Having a toddler in the house with a new baby, when said house has not been toddler-proofed and said baby’s parents are similarly unprepared for the unrelenting persistence of said toddler… was challenging for me, the seasoned, toddler-proofed toddler-mom.  I’m sure A&M have made a list of things that Sami got into that will need to be solved before Milo is mobile.

Ithaca is just a lovely city.  This visit, I didn’t get near the college areas, so I got a real look at what the residential life is like in Ithaca.  And I like it.  I’ve spent a little time trying to sell Ben on Ithaca as a place to live, and he’s game to explore it, but I’m partly waiting for the recent-visit afterglow to wear off.  It’s SO GREEN there, it nearly blew my mind.  The supermarket, Wegmans, did blow my mind - it was as if someone rolled Henry’s, Whole Foods and our local Vons into one humongous super-super-market, but the organic and holistic offerings were exponentially larger than anything I’ve seen in any single market here in SoCal.  But mostly what blew my mind about Ithaca was the people, the upstate hippie vibe, the open space and the plethora of local chains.  It feels very alive there.

This concludes my whirlwind overview of the trek to New York.  I feel like I have tons more to write but I need to hold off lest I fritter the entire day away with posting.  More to come.  I swear.

I just got a package from Nicole.  (It makes me almost sing the “We just got a letter” song I remember from when I watched Blues Clues with my friend Jenn’s kids years ago.)

It contained many articles of awesome, including but not limited to the first BEST FRIENDS bracelet I’ve had in the last hundred twenty years! Squee!  She made it herself, and it has a New York charm on it, and it is so special to me, I can’t stop smiling.

It also contained my first ever Star of David.

Pictures later.  I have to focus on not letting my smile carry me away, so I can get some work done.

I sometimes feel bitter thinking about all the occasions on which I’ve brought friends from separate worlds together, only to have them go off and forget me.

Even now, I still sometimes feel that twang.  But I’ve come to realize that ultimately it’s not the worst thing.  In most cases, I’ve brought people together who might otherwise not know each other, but who really belong being friends.  And when I am wearing my completely truthful hat, then I must admit that the friends who drift away are not the ones who are necessarily the best choices as friends for me.  (I don’t mean people who are busy, which includes me.  I mean people who can’t find motivation to reach out every once in a while.)

People who don’t love spending time around kids, people who disapprove and/or disagree with my parenting/lifestyle/fashion/etc. choices, people who don’t share compatible interests with me, all fall into this category.  (I mean, if I knit and you scrapbook, we can be together and do those things.  However if I like to ride a bike and you like to row a boat, not so much.)

Relationships can be made to work over distances and differences, but only the ones worth keeping tend to be maintained in reality.   I really treasure the friends who have stuck with me and made it work.

This may seem like Social Behaviour 101 or something, but to me this is all new territory that I’ve only recently come to terms with.  I’m not very good at letting go.

I’m starting to be able to look at it as a positive thing, and feel joy for the people who moved on without me for the rich new friendships they’ve found.  No one is going to assign “credit” for this, and I’m certainly not going to try to claim it, but it is rewarding to have had some active, if circumstantial, part in others’ happiness.

In fact, I’m actually pretty good at matching people up.  That’s something to be proud of; good judges of character are tough to find.

Re-reading this post, I realize I’m kind of rambling.  Oh well.  Just had some mental runoff waiting to happen.

http://birdsnestbody.com/scents.html

Little did I suspect that when my new friend Nancy had a few jars of the Pineapple Oasis salt scrub out on her coffee table, that it was part of a whole line of natural body products!  I haven’t tried any of her products, but the Pineapple Oasis scent was to die for - as in to die of complete decadence lying on a beach in the sun.

I love supporting local businesses, even better when the proprietors are my friends.  I think Nancy is giving LUSH a run for their money, and I’m all for it because… there is no LUSH in San Diego, and since she’s local, no shipping involved!

I will report back when I’ve tried a few of her items.  Yum!

2-ply superwash merino in blues and greens!
Originally uploaded by cinediva

Here is the crowning achievement of approximately the last week. At least, the crowning achievement of which I already have pictures. I spun this yarn on a wheel lent to me by a local spinner, after an ad hoc crash course in the functioning of a wheel.It happened like this. About two weeks ago, I posted on Ravelry that I had scored a spinning wheel on Craigslist but didn’t know if it worked, and asked for advice on how to tell if it could be used and if so, what repairs might be in order. Lovely Wendy came to my house and tinkered, prodded, hammered and oiled, and told me that my wheel could indeed make yarn, and that while it is a quirky fellow, a beginner spinning on it certainly garner props of the mad variety from people who know spinning.

To wit, the wheel has been christened “Cantankerous ‘ol Dude,” because after having spun on the modern wheel Wendy lent me, I can say for sure that every inch I spun was a challenge.

In any case, the blues and greens pictured here are my handiwork, two bobbins of singles spun separately and then plied together to form a textured, bulky yarn. I am rather chuffed with my handiwork, and am also pleased to mention that subsequent offerings are improving on the first.

Need I say that I really like spinning? I have my eye toward saving my pennies for my first new wheel.

In other news, Christine and Greg were visiting, outstanding and home-warming guests that they were. They were here to see Christine’s new nephew - my friends Cathy and Mike’s baby boy Christopher (I believe my pile o’ possessives violated some kind of grammar law, but I’m beyond caring.) Greg was unbelievably cute with Sami (Christine is believably cute with Sami, but only because she’d handled Sami when she was nary a month old, and so I could already believe it.) I really loved this visit because it’s comforting when friends come to stay who are really more family than friends. We had a blast, and I really just let C and G set their schedule, as I didn’t have many pressing things to do. They’ve left for Vegas and then back to New York after New Year’s, but I miss them already and can’t wait to see them in New York whenever we manage to get there.

I got up early to make bagels for everyone this morning for breakfast before the planned departure, and they were a hit.

Sadly, I never once pulled out the camera, so all the Sami/Greg/Christine pictures were taken by Christine. Bad momma, no cookie.

This post is actually of very little consequence, just a space saver to let the world know what I’ve been up to lately. I expect there will be a year in review of some sort coming up.

Of course, I’m rooting for Amy - not just representing San Diego, but all around awesome person (whose kid plays really well with my daughter!)

But this week went pretty predictably, and Ben and I nailed the eliminated folks before the show was half done.

Colombe - not only did she passively sabotage another contestant, but then couldn’t even bring it up in a timely way when he searched and questioned for his stuff? What EVER. The French Toast. “It tasted good to me, but…” HELLO. This is because your regular diet consists of twigs and berries! Which are fresh, if flavourless. Her frenetic camera presentation combined with bad French Toast, cheez-wiz nachos, and generally crappy personality made it clear from the get-go that we’d (finally) get our wish for her to go home!

Adrian - nothing too much to say about him. He has flown pretty much under my radar all along. The bacon mushrooms did look good though.

Salmon - Always makes food that looks good, but his personality doesn’t do it for me. I disagreed with the selection committee about the game food challenge, though. I liked the little persona he assumed. It said “New York Street Vendor” to me, and I felt it worked toward the challenge.

Amy - I always agree with what she makes, but then I like culinary adventures, and I live in San Diego. I *wish* you could get goat cheese quesadillas at sports events. I get why that wasn’t the best choice for that challenge. I also think she handled the feedback with more poise and grace than anyone - she never cracks, always responds responsibly, and takes the critique on to the next challenge. I’m also glad she said what she did to Colombe - she probably guilted her into helping Paul with the challenge she sort of snapped out from under him at the market. *GO AMY*

Tommy - I was sad to see him go, since I thought his meatball looked great (though I would have wanted to eat it with a fork.) Deep down, he wants to be home with his family, and his camera presentation was exceedingly dry. I see why he’s going home, and I can find peace with it.

Paul - I would have preferred he go home, rather than Tommy. He generally responds to things like a poodle. Advised not to “spin out” by the selection committee, he chirps a parting phrase and prances out the door. He did face greater challenges this challenge than other players, mostly due to Colombe, so keeping him despite his poor showing does make sense to me. I suspect he’ll go home next week, though.

Rory - I’m not her biggest fan, but I must say I am a fan of her using her rack to sell her cheesesteaks. And I was a fan of her annoyance at Colombe’s flakiness. She’s becoming more of a character. I just wish she wouldn’t look so hurt every time she gets a little bit of negative feedback.

JAG - meh. Clearly he is his own favorite project. I think he generally does a great job of making himself a multimedia product. Something about him registers as childish and petulant to me - kind of like my little brother was when we would have “contests.” Lots of attitude, but not so much delivering. He is clearly a good cook, and I don’t think he’ll be among the next round of eliminations.

In general with this show, I like people who show personality and calm on camera, who show poise and adulthood as contestants, and who take on interesting dishes in their challenges. This is why I’d be rooting for Amy whether or not I knew her personally. (Though I admit, having a friend on the show makes me feel like I’m executing the strategy myself.)

The show’s shot sequence during the stay/leave scenes is becoming formulaic enough that I can tell 20 seconds before they announce the next contestant, who they’ll be naming.

I’m ready to see Amy start kicking some real butt next week, but I’m comfortable with her simply maintaining a safe position. You don’t have to win all the challenges to be one of the last two finalists.