Happiness is

New Year's with my family.

Someone to see all the beauty

Night at McGolrick, one more pair of soaked boots, soaked socks, wet feet. When will Joe's bus arrive? This kind of snowy scape should be shared.

Location:Brooklyn, NY

New Yorkers don't let a little blizzard stop them

Woke up to sun melting snow.

I'm learning the lengths people will go to get home, if that home happens to be New York.

Joe has been traveling by bus for over twenty-four hours because his flight was delayed and he wanted to get home. With only two hours of sleep in him, he was trapped in Cleveland's bus terminal in a room full of exhausted and homesick New Yorkers for over five hours. Finally he is barreling east and if there are no more setbacks, he will be home tonight.

I'm amazed.

Everyone is stuck

Small



And big

Location:Brooklyn, NY

Up to my knees, loving it

Beautiful blizzard


The park is magical and quiet, except for the temperamental wind.


Nobody is around.


Agnes and Nukah, snow fetishists


He swims and bounds.


Tirelessly running


His favorite time of year


Our block, that's my car on the right


No interest in going inside, a perfect morning in Brooklyn.

First big snow

Nukah loves blizzard weather. He's full of energy and would run forever if I didn't get cold and make him come inside. Everyone's talking about precipitation; there's all sorts of estimates being bounced around. I was out all morning, but the evening will be spent under the comfort of my comforter if Nukah lets me have my way.

Change of plans

The Spalding Gray movie was perfect; I can't blemish it with additional screenings.

A tuna-melt and coffee next to the ceaseless dancing and singing Santa at a diner in the West Village. Then bundle up for the train home. Maybe hot cocoa, Cynthia Ozick, and pajamas for a cozy afternoon.

Location:Jane St,New York,United States

Christmas Movie Marathon- Part I

11:15: And Everything Is Going Fine

Location:Avenue of the Americas,New York,United States

Happy architects

Illnesses aside, year one was a big success.

Fair is fair: if I get my latkes and sufganiyot, Joe should have his gingerbread house.

How wholesome we pretend to be.

Mercurial architects

Joe and I are building a gingerbread house. It's our first time and we're finding the whole construction challenging. The roof kept falling off, so Joe came up with the brilliant idea to tie it together with twine. Both of us are particularly irritable because we are suffering from some sort of influenza.

Next step: adhering the candy to the house.

A visit during quarantine

Veronica stopped by for brunch during dog-sitting weekend. The dogs took advantage of a fresh warm lap.

Joe and I managed to watch about 16 hours of television while we stayed at Jim and Kerry's. It might be one of our records together. We like to think of ourselves as a sort of power couple, even if it's just for our amazing attention span for television.

Weekend at Higgins'

Guilt-Shmilt

I just realized that I lit the menorah candles backward this Hanukah. Luckily, it's been ingrained since a very young age that Hanukah is a minor Jewish holiday, so I think I'm getting credit for effort.

Oy, the endless guilt.

A New York sort of treat

Meredith Monk performed last night at Le Poisson Rouge. I've been a fan of her music since attending arts high school with music nerds. Listening to Monk was a trip down avant-garde music lane.

She sang one of my favorite pieces, The Tale. Accompanying Monk were three other virtuosos.

I love how easy it is to spend my nights engaging with brilliant artists in venues where their work is appreciated.

Bah hermit

Manhattan is a bad, bad place when Christmas is approaching. Grown people in antlers and shiny brown unitards, SantaCon, and herds of awestruck tourists congregating on every corner.

Stay indoors if you can.

Reflections on getting through a big day

Today was a big day.
I am getting closer to who I am and what I'm about.
In order to accomplish what I set out to do, I need to step up the self-care.

That means:
Starting my day with jumping jacks
Listening to Everything That Happens Will Happen Today by Brian Eno and David Byrne
Treating myself to a pumpernickel bagel with scallion cream cheese from Ess-a-bagel
Drinking milk-tea
Decompressing with my homeboy

(Getting through a big day sometimes requires a big bagel.)

As promised, sufganiyot!

Joseph made his famous sufganiyot for the sixth night of Hanukah.


They turned out delicious, just like the last time we made them.


And this year, no scalded fingers.

I'm not promising anything, but I will say that Joe and I have plans to try another sufganiyot recipe tomorrow night. So many cliff hangers lately!

(Additionally, MoMA has been forgiven. We watched the 1955 psychological thriller, The Night of the Hunter tonight at MoMA and this time I was happy for Joe's corporate membership privileges. I love free movies!)

Joe's famous "Jewish" cuisine

Joe made his first latkes inspired by 2nd Avenue Deli's recipe.


They tasted even better than the way Jews make them.


Stay tuned for tomorrow's feature: sufganiyot, which we made two years ago. This time we are going to try to fry the delicious treat without the skin of Joe's finger burning off.

Happy Cha-NUKAH!

Coast to coast

On the way to the Bay Area,


Joe and I entertained ourselves


in our usual fashion.


Thanksgiving morning, we walked around Lake Merritt in Oakland.


The food was super yummy for Thanksgiving dinner.


Rui-Bing broke it down before we stuffed ourselves.


Hungry (and thankful) guests.


Everyone made delicious dishes except me. (I was Joe and Rui-Bing's helper.)


Sandra and Rui-Bing (on left) were gracious and lovely hosts.


In the morning, Joe and I visited the Pork Store in the Lower Haight.


It was as greasy and delicious as I'd remembered.


We walked around the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.


In the afternoon we hit up Dolores Park Cafe for hot chicken sandwiches and lattes.


Later we had chocolate pudding and other divine sweets at Tartine.


The next day Joe fell in love with the Indian Pizza at Zante.


We topped it off with ice cream at Mitchell's. They no longer sell Thai iced tea ice cream, so I got macapuno (sweet coconut) and avocado. Joe got Mexican chocolate and pumpkin.


We met up with an old friend of mine, Carmen to visit Folsom leather stores. She tried out the swing at Mister S.


While visiting San Francisco, Joe and I took in two films, Prince of Broadway at the Roxie, where the director answered questions after the screening. We also saw Guess Who's Coming to Dinner at the Castro, which was heavenly. After the movie ended, the organist played the theme song.

We also took in an Aikido class in Oakland because an old friend of mine attends the dojo. It was Joe's first Aikido class. He's a natural!


Our trip wouldn't be complete without visiting Taqueria Can-Cun one final time.

What I learned: Some things never change. The food in the Bay Area is still dependable and amazing. The air is fresh and San Francisco is a beautiful city. I'm glad to have visited and to have the opportunity to show Joseph around my old stomping ground.

Going away reaffirmed my love of New York.