Out and About

I meant to swing back here sooner, but the last few days have been fraught with too much work and not enough play. So prior digging into the rationale behind today's textual missive, I offer my apologies to those who have come here in search of whatever it is they intend to find.

So where to begin? Friday seems a logical choice. It was a day filled with projects and errands; I wound up heading downtown, where the temperature was approaching 90 except by the South Street Seaport, which has the double-edged sword of decreased temperatures (as it's by the water -- hence the 'Seaport' tag) but also with it carries the sharp, acrid scent of fish. I love almost all types of seafood, but the smell of fish in the 2PM sun on a hot summer NYC day doesn't whet my appetite. And since I am within three blocks of the Seaport with nearly every visit downtown, I get the mixed blessing of cool fish-scent. Pros and cons.

We left the office a bit early on Friday -- around 4ish -- and headed back uptown. I brought work with me to get done at home, which I do with regularity these days. I got an invite to meet friends in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Casino, which I visited awhile back. I'd also taken a trip to Foxwoods, which is near the Mystic Seaport (both also in Connecticut) so I knew the drill and would have liked to go. But work was beckoning, and the plan -- finish my work Friday (and, if necessary, Saturday AM) and then head up. But it didn't quite work out that way; Friday night I crashed early with my other half -- she informed me that we both fell asleep on the phone -- and Saturday AM, despite getting up early and getting shitloads accomplished, became mid-Saturday afternoon before I finally put to bed the big project on which I'd been focusing. So I was/am stuck in NYC. There are worse things in life, but I still would have liked to go to Mohegan Sun and the nearby attractions. I told my friends that the next visit would include my other half, who also would like to hit the Casino. She's not yet been to Mystic, but it's really a nice, quaint town -- very New England with a touch of Vail or Aspen -- so sometime over this summer (perhaps in the few weeks she's here) we'll hit it, and if not this summer, then next. For the first time in a long time, it feels like we've got all the time in the world.

Speaking of my other half...I sent her a package of some goodies, some for her and some for her family. Since she's going to be here for awhile, I wanted to lessen her load coming home, plus I wanted to get some of the assortment out of my place...thus far she's planning on spending about three weeks here, which will be a test-run for the two of us in a manner of sorts. Thus far she's been here for six-day jaunts, and each time it feels that she's packing to leave only hours after she's arrived, so we're looking forward to actually having some real time together.

In other HoB news, today's my mother's -- and Derek Jeter's -- birthday. We're actually postponing celebrating her birthday so my other half will be able to join us. Not sure what we'll do...we may do a backyard BBQ with family et al...but either way we are looking forward to doing something special. As much as it always is nice for us to get together and celebrate, it's even nicer that we're all together and happy. I feel badly for people who are geographically or socially separated from their families -- especially for people who know what they're missing.

I just got interrupted by a phone call from my other half, so now, a half-hour later, I'm going to cut this post short and go skating by the water. But as we plan and conspire over the next few weeks, I recalled a joke a female friend of mine recently told me. "How are oxygen and sex similar?"

The answer, of course, is: neither is important until you're deprived thereof.

And with that, I'll leave you to ponder the significance of that fact :)