This weekend Espen and I had a little adventure to find some furniture and stuff for her new apartment. There was an “estate sale” in town, which sounds much fancier than it really was. We knew the realtor running it though, and got a good deal on some furniture. We then went to check out a new thrift store in town, and then a consignment shop across the river. So much shopping for us! LOL. We had to go back to the estate sale after Alan got here so we could pick up the furniture in his bigger vehicle. Between the two Teslas we got the job done!
Here’s one thing we found at the estate sale that we did NOT buy!
In the afternoon we went to have some fun at the science museum. Lex is working at the Montshire again this summer and he gets a free family membership as a benefit. We haven’t been there in many years, but it used to be a standard in our life. It was fun to revisit the museum, see the new exhibits, and meet Lex’s coworkers. :) We probably embarassed him a bit, but that’s what family is for!
I made them pose for the standard “all done” scene. I have fond memories of finding them sitting on the bench, leaning against each other and watching the perpetual ball machine. That was always the sign that they are done. They were done this time too, but unfortunately Lex had to work for another hour. Fortunately, he really likes the job. :)
Just a few short days after we brought home our new (to us) kid car, Espen was driving back from Long Island and blew out a tire! Fortunately her and Alan were caravanning, and they were only about an hour away. She called me from the side of the road, shaken but ok, with the doggo whining in the seat beside her. Alan circled back to pick her up while I called a tow truck. We got lucky on this one, but it made me realize I really need to get emergency kits in all of the cars and sign up for AAA!
Several days and a thousand dollars later, we’re back on the road again!
Number three! That’s crazy. Even crazier, we’re on the lookout for number four! I guess that’s what comes when you’re financially comfortable with three young adults.
It took us awhile to find a good car, and awhile longer to get all the paperwork finalized, but we picked it up just in time! We got the car last night, and today Espen took the other kid car to Long Island for the weekend! I’m happy that the remaining three of us won’t have to share my car. :)
She left today, with Alan and Huxley, to move her stuff into her new college apartment. Her and her roomies used a storage unit to hold their stuff after moving out of their dorms, but their apartment lease started June 1st, so they are all meeting at the apartment to empty out the storage unit and set up the apartment. She’ll be back home for most of the summer afterwards. I’m glad she’s not moving for the whole summer! I like having her around. :)
He didn’t want a big party, of course, or even a first drink, but we had a nice day of board games, pizza, and oatmeal raisin cookies.
Just some books and Legos. Some things never change! LOL
Alan has a watch that has been inscribed and handed down for generations. Four, I think. He had it inscribed and gifted it to Lex this year. I’m going to send the picture of the two of them to Grandpa Don too. I think it will make him happy. :)
I’m super proud of Lex. (of course) He is home this summer, working at the science museum, working on an Android app, and enjoying his summer. He has a college apartment and one more year of school. He’s funny and happy and kind. I love him. <3 I’m happy to have him home this summer.
Espen and I got to see The Late Show with Stephen Colbert today!!! It was sooo awesome, and sooooooo loud!! LOL The guest was Tom Hanks, and a video of Barak Obama taking the Colbert Questionert. His final show is one week from today, so we got in just under the wire!
According to the ticket they have a pretty strict dress code, so I totally overthought the whole thing. We got there early to find the place (like finding your gate at the airport) then had some very expensive lunch at an Italian place next door. Definitely overpaid, but we enjoyed it anyway. Then we were right near the front of the line when it opened.
There was a lot of waiting in line, but we made some friends (thanks to Espen’s flair!) and had a good time. It had a real party vibe. Once inside we waited for longer. They gave everyone a chance to use the bathroom (thankfully!), then we went into the Ed Sullivan Theater!!!
They require you to turn off cell phones in the theater, so I have no pictures of that. It was actually kind of interesting to just experience it without taking pictures. I REALLY wanted to take pictures though!! There were a few women standing in the aisle chatting and it reminded me of local theater. They stood out because they seemed so comfortable among all the wide-eyed tourists like myself. Turns out, it was Evie McGee!!! They chatted for awhile and then she left. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. LOL. Today is Stephen Colbert’s birthday, so Evie was there and they went out to dinner after the show.
The show has an opener named Paul Mecurio, a comedian tasked with pumping up the audience. We “practiced” being very loud and he reminded the audience that they bring the energy and Colbert feeds off it. We yelled and clapped and cheered until our hands and throats hurt. He also brought people up on stage to make conversation and joke with them. He brought two women up that we had been talking with in the line outside. They were funny and really liked all the pins on Espen’s bag.
After the opening act, the band came out and played some music for awhile. Finally, finally!!, Colbert came out!! It was exciting. But, of course, he stands right in front of the camera and we couldn’t even seen him. LOL. We watched the monologue on the TVs hanging around the studio, but I really enjoyed watching the behind the scenes part. The camera guys, the stage manager (Mark McKenna, who is adorable) handing him props, the band off to the side. It was all just super fun!
When he sat down at his desk the cameras moved with him, continue to block our view a bit. I bet the view is better from the top deck. I bet pro audience members already know that. We were newbies. Our first and only time.
The guest was Tom Hanks, who was funny, of course. He brought Colbert a gift (typewriter, copy paper, and Hanks coffee) and they talked about his new documentary about WWII. There was also, of course, lots of joking around, content creation for the socials, and plain silliness.
The other two bits were the prerecorded Obama questionnaire, and a prerecorded Broadway performance. They mentioned the Broadway performance, but didn’t show it. Instead Colbert sang a song with Lewis Cato and the band. Just before he left the stage the audience started singing Happy Birthday. Colbert stopped, laughed, sat on the desk and swung his legs. LOL. Then he left to have dinner with his wife.
Colbert is funny and the show is fun, but it’s clearly a job for him. It was interesting to see how much goes into making the show. It was also funny to see the transition from the camera men (all middle-aged white guys) to the social team that swooped in, all young, diverse women. They recorded some outtakes and other clips you see on the socials. Watching Tom Hanks joke about “content creation” was funny.
When it was all over they funneled us right back out the door. They handed out bookmarks and stickers along the way. E and I were hoping to get to use the penny machine (we both brought lots of pennies and quarters!) but we were told it was out of order. Sad. I got the feeling it was out of order a lot. I was actually surprised at how uninteresting the lobby area was. It’s just a big white hallway, with a few TVs playing clips from the show. No big posters. Not warm and inviting. Just a big L-shaped hall with Colbert staff moving people along. It was interesting.
We left feeling happy, over-stimulated, and completely exhausted. LOL. We grabbed a slice of pizza in Grand Central, then took the train back to the island.
Then I stayed up late to watch the show on cable! LOL. Just to see how it crops together, and, of course, to see if we’re in it!
This is a long and rambley post, but I’m going to leave it as is because now I need to go to bed and sleep for many hours.
I got to see my momma on Mother’s Day this year! Yay!
My momma is an awesome human being. She raised me right, gave me a good family with strong ties. She taught me how to be a good mother to my own brood. She’s one of the smartest people I know and always makes me smile. :)
I just got back from an amazing national conference in Minneapolis, MN — Public Library Association’s National Conference!
My library sent me, along with two of my co-workers, to this three day conference. We flew out on Tuesday (on a flight full of librarians!) and home Friday night. It was so awesome! We had three days of inspirational speeches, informative and engaging sessions, and a few vendor after-hours parties. :)
We stayed at a fancy hotel called the W Foshay, with fancy rooms that included white noise machines and a robe! The hotel had a speakeasy (very well advertised) on the 27th floor and amazing views from the observation deck on the 30th floor.
The conference started with a few speakers, including Dr. Brandy McNeil, the President of PLA, Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis, and Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. The speeches were energetic and inspirational. Over 6000 librarians from around the world attended!
I was super nervous about this whole event. We reserved our tickets around the height of the ICE invasions around the city (because that’s when we got approval to do so) and as the event grew closer and ICE moved to the airports, my anxiety grew. But we got there, saw no ICE activity (in the airport or on the streets), and were surrounded by 6000 other brave librarians there to celebrate libraries and the the freedom to read! It was amazing.
The sessions were inspiring, informative, and (sometimes) a little boring. LOL. The exhibition hall was HUGE and filled with vendors giving aways stickers and free books. We had to check an extra suitcase on the way home to bring back all the free books we got!
Several vendors also offered after-hour parties, so on Thursday night we hit up two of them. The first was fancy and a little subdued, but they gave away even more books. The second was a big old party, full of delicious food, free drinks, and a rocking dance floor.
My work bestie :)
We flew home Friday afternoon, again with lots of librarians. I’ll bet that plane had way more books than the average Delta flight! LOL.
I feel so fortunate that I got this opportunity. So grateful we had a safe trip there and back. And so happy I had a weekend to recover before going back to work tomorrow!
Also, here’s a great article about the conference from Publishers Weekly.
I’ve been thinking about the idea of community a lot lately, for a variety of reasons. Today I attended a No Kings rally in town. I carpooled with a group of women ranging from people I’ve known since my kids were babies, to women I’ve taught their kids, to women I’ve met only at random parties and couldn’t normally pick out of a crowd. We gathered in an old minivan and drove to the rally to stand together with our community to protest the evil in the White House. I saw my neighbors there, a few coworkers, parents of kids I’ve taught, my own kids’ old babysitter, former colleagues, and so many other faces I knew or at least recognized from somewhere. People I haven’t thought of in awhile and people I think of almost daily, all gathering together to protest our current political situation. It made me realize how rare it is these days that we gather together as a community. Other than farmer’s markets and the annual Block Party in town, both of which I don’t go to now that the kids are older, there are no other times that large numbers of people come together. Those events, and No Kings rallies. It’s interesting and kind of sad.
A friend from the infant days (her son was in my daycare back in the day!), me with a wet sign, an acquaintance who’s son I taught, an acquaintance who’s husband reassured me that Lex would be ok at the middle school, a friend who’s daughter was in E’s class, and friend (and red hat rage knitter!) who’s son was in E’s class. These awesome women are all part of my mom friend group.
I’ve been thinking about community at lot at work as well. When I worked at school I felt very involved in my community. I taught at the school my kids and neighbors attended. I knew everyone involved in the school community. I knew my neighbors with kids. I knew parents, teachers, school advocates, and, of course, lots and lots of kids.
Now that I’m no longer working in the school, and my kids are no longer in the district, I’m feeling a real loss of community. I’m still tangentially connected through my website and newsletter work, but that’s a loose community at best. And while I enjoy my public library job, it’s in a different community with a lot less people contact, so I feel like I’m not part of the community in the same ways I have been before. I’m now working in a community I don’t live in, my kids never attended, and a community that has a very different ethos and norms than Hartford. I have very little patron contact, so that further limits my community engagement.
I’m not complaining here, just observing. I have multiple friend groups, at work, and outside of work, and I’m not lonely, but somehow, simultaneously, I am feeling a lack of community recently, a lack of shared values and goals. I’ve been sitting with this feeling, weighing it against the world and my choices in life. I have no actionable goals here, for now, just observing and feeling. Lots of feelings these days. So many feeling. LOL. (Now that my job is calm and the kids are away, I have plenty of time to sit with feelings!)
These past two weeks were spring break for my college kiddos. The boys had the same week off, then the girl had the following week. It was a grand time all around. I picked River up last Friday night and Lex drove home Saturday.
Project Hail Mary
On Sunday we all went to a sneak peak of the movie Project Hail Mary. I was ridiculously excited for this showing. We all had read the book when it first came out, then I read it again with my sci-fi book group last month. One of the members of that group told me about the free showing. Apparently the directors are Dartmouth grads and they always doing advance screenings of their movies at Dartmouth. I don’t remember their names (and I’m not going to Google them now), but the kids knew who they were and we excited. We got there half hour early, and found a HUGE line!!
I got sad thinking we weren’t going to get a seat, but we decided to wait anyway, just in case. I’m glad we did! The line moved fast (easy when there are no tickets or money changing hands!) and we got in easily. I looked back when we got to the door, and the line was STILL as long! Turns out the theater seats 792 people and the place was packed! They even had people raise their hands if they had an empty seat near them and they sat people individually to make sure every seat was full.
The movie was a lot of fun. We spent the remainder of the evening talking about how much we liked it, then the remainder of the week talking about all the ways it was not as good at the book. LOL.
For the remainder of the week Lex hung out with me (in between playing video games), River hung out with his friends, and the birds at work attacked my window. It seems to be a seasonal thing.
Robotics
Lex also had the great idea to attend the FIRST Robotics meet happening the following weekend. Their old team, The Grasshoppers, were competing and he wanted to watch. I forgot how much I enjoy these events! Alan came along and we had a great day! The team is really good this year and the game is super fun.
Lex headed south that evening and Alan and I headed north, catching a few more matches when we stopped to charge.
NYC with the girls
After a week with the boys, I dropped River off at his bus and continued on to meet Espen and my sisters in NYC!! We had tickets to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers at the Beacon Theater!! It was an awesome show! I knew they had a residency there, but I didn’t really know what to expect. It turned out to be an opening comedian for 20m, then an hour of John, then an hour of Seth, then another 20m of the two of them on stage answering audience questions. The whole thing was hysterical.
Air jail!JohnSethJohn and Seth
One thing I’m really enjoying on these recent trips to NYC is the beautiful architecture and design in the older buildings. The theaters, Grand Central Station, the NYPL, etc. There was so much thought and detail put into them. So much work. Buildings these days are so boring and plain. There’s an interesting plaque in Grand Central dedicated to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the work she did preserving Grand Central and other buildings in NYC. (apparently I’ve hit the “reading plaques” age. lol)
Rose and Joyce had a hotel in the city, while Espen and I took the train back to LI. The next day we had a whimsical drive home, stopping at the mall for awhile to charge the car, and a Starbucks or two to charge me.
You can always tell when the artist is back in the house. <3
Finn
Unrelated to anything there is a cat that lives in the neighborhood by the library. His name is Finn and he LOVES the library! He is a free spirit (his owners recently put an airtag on him because people kept “adopting” him into their houses. lol) He likes to sneak into the library, through the front door and the back door. This past week he was particularly persistent. He even made it all the way into my office one time. He’s pretty bad at being sneaky, often just sitting out front until some kind patron opens the door for him. LOL.
This morning Alan picked Espen up and drove her back to school. I spent the day getting caught up on past newspapers, finishing a puzzle, finishing an audiobook, and enjoying the silence again. For a few weeks, until summer comes and I get them all back home again! :)
