Home again

Back from NYC. I'll have more to say later, I'm sort of vegging right now, on the couch with Rover sleeping on my leg. Since getting home I've: retrieved the pup, mowed the lawn, done some laundry, and watched a batch of Doctor Who (season two, or twenty-five, or whatever).

I got dinner from a seafood chinese restaurant around the corner (on Westmount). The location has gone through a few changes of hands; I realized while walking Rover that we hadn't tried the latest incarnation. It's pretty good. I got shrimp with vegetables and peanuts. For once, the shrimp aren't 36-to-the-pound. They're not afraid of spices, and they have pretty good fried dumplings. My fridge now has a ton of sweet-and-sour sauce; they gave me my takeout with a big vat of it.

Bleh. I should go swap laundry, take a shower, and head to bed. Back to work tomorrow!

Memorial

Well, yesterday was the memorial for my Grandmother. The day started early; melted_snowball did a brilliant job at getting us to the cemetary alive. And what a cemetary it is. It just occurred to me how creepy it could've been- but it wasn't. Until just now when I looked at the size of it by google maps satellite photo... But the memorial itself went well. A celebration of her life, and a support for the rest of us. She was just shy of 99. As I said in the service, since I met her (at age 30), I believe she's taught me how to be old... without being too old. I'll miss her.

Then a bunch of us walked to find my Grandma Esther's parents' and sister's graves, which were "five minutes away". Hah. The less said the better about the search, but we did find the grave sites. An hour later, we were back at the car, where Dan was patiently waiting in the shade along with a few cousins who didn't go.

Then, to the Upper East side, for a reception at a cousin's. This would've been easier if it wasn't also a HUGE Puerto Rican Day Parade shutting down traffic just where we were supposed to park. Anyhow, we made it to the reception, and I had an OK time chatting with distant relations; and I was glad to note that dan was doing very well for himself socializing as well. That whole "professor" thing will get you far!..

I caught up a bit with my cousin who's done the most work on archiving that side of the family's records. He's built a website or two on the family, which I don't expect would be interesting to anyone else, so I won't link to it.

Afterward I had dinner at my dad's brother's house, out on Long Island (30 minutes further out than dan's parents). Dan went back to spend time with his parents. I chatted with my other grandmother (who is also 98; she did a huge batch of cooking for all the visiting family, yesterday and the day before. Yeah. Pretty remarkable person. I talked with her about recipes, mostly.)

A bit later dan picked me up and took me back to his parents', which was our home base. That was the right choice. In contrast, my folks looked pretty frazzled from all the socializing by the time I left. My mom had even preceeded the day with two days at her cousins' summer home 60 miles to the north of NYC.
It sounds like a pretty good gathering, but... too much. As I understand it, she drove home today to be at a church committee meeting, too. Ugh.

My flight back seemed to feature stupid people. I walked back to my seat to discover it taken. She said, "sorry, someone's in my seat" as she got up for me. It took her a few minutes to realize she was on the wrong plane. Oops. Then, the woman one row back decided none of the rules applied to her, and when we were landing, she had her suitcase open on the seat next to her, so of course when we landed, her phone and a bunch of other things ended up three rows ahead on the floor. Sort of funny, actually.

Ways to approach Manhattan

Oh, and before this wine totally puts me under the table:

The best way ever to approach Manhattan, if you can fenangle it, is in a window seat, as the pilot goes all the way down the west side of the island, around the tip, and most of the way up the east side toward LaGuardia. F'ing awesome view. I'm surprised we could get so close. The capper for me wasn't flying over Shea Stadium or the '67 World's Fair site or near the Empire State Building or the UN building... it was realizing that I could pick out my Grandma Esther's old apartment building on the Upper East Side. (one of two tall buildings one block in and two blocks down from Gracie Mansion, just near the top of Roosevelt Island). [here.]