Manhattan Memories

Saturday was my sister-in-law Dana’s 30th birthday, and to celebrate some of our extended family took her to Manhattan for the weekend. We had an amazing time, thanks to a little planning, some great company, and in my case, heavy doses of Imitrex, Reglan, and Ben Gay. (I hate to think what the amount of Imitrex I took this weekend did to my body, but I was bound and determined to enjoy the time and I certainly don’t do this on a regular basis!)

John and Dana live near Atlantic City, about 3.5 hours away from us and 2.5 from NYC. We drove up there Friday night, and enjoyed a marvelous Dana-made meal of Coque-Au-Vin. Dana is such a great cook, and thankfully she enjoys doing it for us. My parents came too, and my cousin Elizabeth flew in from Ohio for the weekend, so we had 10 people altogether.



Saturday morning we drove to the Weehawken Ferry in New Jersey, and took the ferry to 39th Street in Manhattan. From there we took the free shuttle to 57th Street, near Central Park. We walked (LONG walk) up to 72nd Street and then cut across the park to Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial. 




We also saw the Dakota, which is the apartment building John Lennon lived in and where he was shot. It’s also the building in the time travel novel Time and Again, by Jack Finney. The main character in the book rents an apartment in the Dakota and hypnotizes himself back to the 19th century.


We had a great lunch at Dallas Barbecue, an ironic choice for a day in Manhattan.
The restaurant was decorated with murals of horses, eagles, etc. The food was great, cheap, and plentiful, so everyone was happy. They brought a unique dessert for Dana’s birthday: a piece of cornbread smothered in whipped cream and decorated with a cherry, jelly beans, and drizzles of strawberry syrup.

Then we took the subway to 50th Street, and walked to Rockefeller Center. The NBC Studio Tour was sold out for the day, but we shopped in their store. After that we split up. Doug and Carrie went to Nintendo World in Rock Center, David, Amy, Elizabeth and I went to FAO Schwarz, NYC World of Disney, and American Girl, and John, Dana, Mom and Dad rested and did other stuff. (Not sure what. :)

We all met up at the Empire State Building. David and the kids and I went up to the 82nd Floor Observation level, and the rest of the group waited for us on ground level. It took an hour to get through all the lines, but the view was definitely worth it.  It was starting to get dark while we were up there, and it was delightful watching the lights of the city begin to come on.



We walked from there back to the ferry (another LONG walk), sore and tired, but happy.

We stayed in a hotel on the New Jersey side. Sunday morning we split up again. Mom and Dad headed for home. John, Dana and Elizabeth met up with some of Elizabeth’s friends who live on Long Island. David and the kids and I took the ferry to Ellis Island, where we spent a fascinating hour, and then on to the Statue of Liberty where we climbed (huff, puff) to the observation platform and took tons of pictures.

My laptop sleeve is done! (Plus thoughts on depression)

My felted laptop sleeve is done!

In good news, I finished my felted laptop sleeve.   In case you can't tell, the embroidery is my initials, surrounded by two spirals. 

And some thoughts on depression...

I foolishly let my Cymbalta (anti-depressant) prescription run out this week, and it turned out I was out of refills.  In the time it took the pharmacy and the doctor to connect and get it straightened out I started feeling some very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.  I was extremely nauseated, very jittery/dizzy, and felt like breaking down in sobs for no reason what so ever.  (And I have no more reason to be depressed this week than last week.)  The worst thing, though, was the horrific nightmares I had all night last night.  I kept thinking I was waking up -- but no, I was still trapped in the nightmare.  Thankfully I was somehow able to talk out loud in real life, waking my husband so that he could wake me.  Several times.  But every time I went back to sleep, I went back into the nightmare to be trapped again.  

And my thoughts?  Depression is, for me at least, somewhat situational.  I mean, who wouldn't be depressed about daily migraines and the loss of a normal life?  But there is certainly a chemical element as well.  Of course this is obvious, but it sure came home again to me today.  The chemicals in my brain and the logic in my brain ("Hey, there's no reason for this to be happening") had a vast disconnect, and the only thing that fixed it was -- Cymbalta.  Thank goodness the pharmacy had my refill this evening, and I was able to get it back in my system.  As I write this I'm still kind of dizzy, but the sobbing can wait for something that really warrants it.  Like a sad commercial on TV. 

A plate, felted knitting, ONSTIM/migraines, and profanity in YA lit (yeah, for a person who sleeps all the time, I've got a lot going on in my head.)

I took 9-year-old Amy and her friend to the paint-your-own pottery place last week, and made this masterpiece.  I borrowed the saying from an expensive mirror I saw at a store.  (Does that count as plagiarism?  I hope not.)  I painted splotches of rainbow colors on the plate, covered them in a coat of blue, and then scratched the design in the wet blue paint.  It looks like I should have added another layer of blue, but I'm not sure if the scratching technique would have worked through a dry layer of paint.  I guess it looks cool enough as-is, though.  And I do love that saying, and send thanks through the ether to whoever came up with it.

I've also started knitting my felted laptop sleeve.  It took me two tries to get my practice swatches to felt (by washing the knitted wool in hot water.)  My 6"x6" square

shrunk to 5"x5", which means I have to knit the sleeve that percentage bigger than the laptop and then hope for the best.  Pictured are my felted swatches, and the bottom of the laptop sleeve, with the front and back spread out a bit and the left and right edges starting to build.  

Other than that, I've been getting a lot of sleep.  I've had a bad migraine this week, thanks to letting my rechargeable ONSTIM battery die as sort of an experiment.  It proved to me that yes, my ONSTIM IS doing its job.  My migraines have been less severe lately, even though they I still have them every day.  Even though I only left the ONSTIM off for a few hours, it's taking me days to recover.  I won't try that stupidity again.  Thank you, Medtronic, for your wonderful device.  

Work on Spinning Coins is slow (not enough brain cells to be creative lately), but I have started some preliminary research on the Reformation in France for a sequel.    Oh, and I renamed a fairly major character in Book 1 with a name I found while doing the research for Book 2.  It's going to be an adjustment for me, because I know and love him as Oscar, but Oscar is now Josse.  

My biggest struggle at this point is over the use of profanity in Book 1.  Polly, my atheist character, most certainly does use the occasional four-letter word.  So far I've limited her to what you could hear on network TV.  But there's situation in the story where even I, a staunch non-swearer, might be tempted to use a much stronger epithet.  A "weaker" word doesn't get the emotion across in the same way.  I don't want to alienate or offend any potential audience, though, and I've been assured that using this word would do just that.  Comments on this issue are most welcome.