chanaleh: (move to nyc)
2016-12-15 07:46 am
Entry tags:

Teleportation

So, [livejournal.com profile] jessruth and her lovely L are getting married, and the original plan was to have a big formal wedding in central PA (where L is from) in June of 2017. We were planning to roadtrip out there; all was in the works.

However, then the election happened, making things highly uncertain for same-sex couples. And also various medical issues in both their families that are going to make traveling difficult over the next several months. SO, they decided to have a City Hall wedding in NYC on Tuesday, Dec. 20, with assorted celebrations in NYC/PA to follow as planned next June.

So I got an idea, and I looked at tickets, and I emailed JessMom, and I talked to [livejournal.com profile] etrace... and we determined that I could manage coming out by myself on a SAME-DAY flight out and back. 11 hours of travel for 11 hours in NYC, more or less. (This squeaks in under [livejournal.com profile] ablock's rule of not visiting anywhere for less time than it takes to get there and back.)

It's on SpiritAir, which is nervous-making, but hey, I am basically their ideal passenger for this because it's the one day in my life I can get away with NO luggage. I would have taken the United shuttle, but their latest return flight was at 8pm and Spirit's is at 10pm. (If it doesn't get delayed or, chas v'shalom, cancelled. But we'll just have to see.)

The thing about the City Hall wedding is that you can't schedule an appointment, you just have to show up (with your festive wedding party in tow if that's your jam) and wait in line until they call you. They open at 8:30am. But the earliest flight lands at 9am (LGA) and it'll easily be 10am until I can make it all the way downtown. JessMom said, "Look, if we get up to the front, we'll let people ahead of us!" I was thinking at first of trying to make it a surprise for Jess, but decided it's easier on logistics if it's out in the open -- plus then she gets the fun of knowing for the last week and a half that I will be with them.

Once I booked the ticket, I noticed a surprising depth of feels around this... I think I'm perfectly calm but it's really more like paralyzing excitement. :-} I'm nervous about the travel logistics (and about being on the run for most of 22 hours), but not as much as I would be if, say, I were trying to bring the fam along. And, while I don't normally think that I miss being in NYC, the prospect of actually walking on its streets for a few hours is mindblowing. But then, it's not like I will be there to Do Things, or see any people other than the JessClan. (Though anyone who's down around City Hall midmorning on Tuesday, you can find me there. ;-)

Plus, I've never used a teleporter before!

Plus, [livejournal.com profile] jessruth IS GETTING MARRIED OMG OMG!
chanaleh: EVERYTHING WILL BE AMAZING (amazing)
2013-06-13 05:16 pm

Exploding into being

(getting this posted while on the hurry-up-and-wait front here in the office)

So, a few weeks ago I had started to write up some freeform musings to post about my life and what I was going to do with it, since, as [livejournal.com profile] justom and I are giving up on the idea of our relationship as primary, it opens up a sort of vast panorama of how to shape the next steps or phase of my life.

Interestingly, though, I find that a bunch of the ideas that I started knocking around have already sort of resolved themselves in the meantime.

life logistics: moving )

personal enrichment: Russian )

personal enrichment: music )
I don't know who my mischievous angel in the Brandeis Alumni office is, but they clearly looked down, saw us living 2 miles apart and said, "You know what would be a kick in the head? Let's send Erica to Ridgewood B, suite 440."

There are more topics to ponder on the life-expansion front (e.g., work thoughts, possible travel plans, other underdeveloped areas for fun and personal growth), but I feel like this is enough richness to be going on with.

The bad news is, I do NOT think I can plan to come to Boston the weekend of the 22nd/23rd. Sorry, gang. Too much complexity, and I feel we're likely to need that time to view apartments.

I did, however, sign up definitely for the G&S Sing-Out in Rockville, MD, over Labor Day. :-)
chanaleh: (Default)
2012-10-29 11:54 pm
Entry tags:

Art galleries

So this past Saturday, [livejournal.com profile] hahathor was going to be in town, and proposed a get-together to go gallery-hopping in Chelsea. I have not really done this before (last winter, I went once to one gallery in Chelsea for the Demaines' origami exhibition, and as a follow-up, the sweet Jewish guy who picked me up there (!) took me out on a date to the Front Street Galleries on the First Thursday gallery walk in DUMBO... but that's it).

We fortified ourselves with brunch first at Rafaella's (quite charming, and the $14.95 prix fixe includes one brunch cocktail!), then made basically one circuit of 21st-to-22nd St. in the next 2 hours.

Highlights: cut for length; geekery abounds within )

Which we declared a good stopping point and went off to lunch at Patsy's for good measure.

I really, REALLY need to do this again.
chanaleh: (crow's nest)
2012-10-29 11:48 am
Entry tags:

Hurricane Sandy on the move

Bucket of water for flushing: check. Batteries and flashlight: check. Stash of candles and matches: check. Gas stove/oven: check. Fridge turned down to coldest setting: check. Milk frozen to a predictable slush: check (our fridge has definite cold spots).

I am told that the power lines in Manhattan are mostly underground, so we should actually be pretty good -- unless the power station downtown gets flooded out!

Nevertheless, school's closed preemptively today, and indeed until further notice, as we will follow the NYC public schools. Transit closed last night at 7pm, which meant we made the disappointing-but-prudent choice to skip our dinner plans on the Lower East Side, and stayed home. And I made tortilla casserole and pumpkin muffins (actually pumpkin-cranberry-walnut-white-chip muffins, brought to you entirely by Trader Joe's), and spent time uploading photos to Flickr, and got calls from both my parents making sure that we were safe and prepared and not being evacuated from NYC (we're not -- just the immediate perimeter, and we're pretty far inland).

It's actually all good timing, personally, because I woke up yesterday with the I'm-getting-a-cold sore throat, which turned into sniffles right on cue late last night. So I was in bed by 11 and slept the clock round, which was great.

Right now, it's so quiet here, it's like Christmas. (Literally, not metaphorically.) No rain yet, but the wind has picked up.

I have lots more on my stuff-that-would-be-great-to-get-done agenda for today: some cooking, mostly computer work. This may include a number of catchup LJ entries, so if you're wondering why a sudden spate, that'll be totally why. (And if they don't come, it may well mean the power went out, because guess what, no power = no router = no Internets.)

I also do have to make some updates remotely to the website for work, which -- look! I CAN! So I'm going to go do that for now.
chanaleh: Snoopy and Woodstock, celebrating (birthday)
2012-07-05 10:08 am
Entry tags:

New York abstains... courteously!

[posting this "backdated" several days later, so we'll see if that does the right thing on LJ as well as DW.]

Quiet 4th of July, the first one in years I haven't spent in Boston. It being a Wednesday made it a little weirder, as there's just no way to mentally pin it to either "weekend", but that also made it stand out more on its own, in a way.

Slept in, had some good home time, did some good freelance work. Then we went over to watch 1776 (first time I'd ever seen the movie version!) with [livejournal.com profile] crewgrrl and [livejournal.com profile] mbarr, and paused it near the end to trot down to Riverside Drive and watch the fireworks over the Hudson.

I got a little tipsier than I expected. First it was the "barleywine style" Bigfoot Ale, which I brought and liked (even though [livejournal.com profile] justom pronounced it nasty), and fully expected it to hit like a hammer when I chose to have a second one. But only after that did [livejournal.com profile] pecunium show up and ply me with rum and homemade mead, so I blame him. ;-) But no ill effects, so whew.

And there were lots of good people there, including [livejournal.com profile] shirei_shibolim and [livejournal.com profile] terriqat's little one, who has reached new heights of adorable with the stage of "curious look... electrifying grin" and also "sit up... lean forward.... faceplant".
chanaleh: (scream)
2012-06-08 08:52 am
Entry tags:

Shootings

Well, I did it again, posted to FB as the expedient thing when this is a perfectly reasonable thing to write an LJ post about.

There was a shooting last night at Columbia. Or rather, three bodies were found stuffed in a car on W. 122nd, between Broadway and Claremont. [livejournal.com profile] gustavolacerda posted about it, living near enough to happen on the scene and thus be interviewed by the TV crews. :-/

ABC News: "3 men fatally shot, execution style, in car near Columbia"
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8693419

FoxNY: "Triple shooting by Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music in Morningside Heights"
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/18733449/triple-shooting-in-morningside-heights

Columbia Spectrum Spectator: "BREAKING: Three dead from gunshot wounds on 122nd between Broadway and Claremont"
http://spectrum.columbiaspectator.com/spectrum/breaking-three-dead-from-gunshot-wounds-on-122nd-between-broadway-and-claremont

Columbia Spectator, update: "Three men found dead in car parked across from Knox Hall"
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/06/08/three-men-found-dead-car-parked-across-knox-hall
Predictably, this is the most comprehensive story thus far. I'm oddly amused by the second paragraph, though: "The news rattled Morningside Heights, a neighborhood in Manhattan's second-safest precinct."

I have no idea if this is likely to make national news, but as I did just post it to Facebook, my family will hear about it, and presumably freak out. :-/ But the thing is, somehow, execution-style drug-trade murders in my neighborhood (and properly speaking, this doesn't even count as "our neighborhood", in NYC terms) don't actually trouble my feelings of "safety" as much as, say, muggings or stranger rapes. Which, on reflection, I think is the case because I can say to myself "They were involved in something. It doesn't increase my personal odds of getting shot."

Naive? Discuss.
chanaleh: (Default)
2012-01-20 11:54 pm
Entry tags:

Art, or, some things I learned last night on W. 21st St.

Apparently:
  • The neighborhood of Chelsea is the epicenter of the global art world.
  • You can print off daily listings of gallery exhibits, events, and openings (this is, I'm sure, a no-brainer, but I'd never been aware of it before).
  • Head-to-toe black (turtleneck, knee-length tiered skirt,tights, motorcycle jacket) plus funky shoes constitutes Artist Drag.
  • "Are you an artist?" is completely a pick-up line.
  • Especially when uttered by guys clasping printouts of gallery listings in their hands.
  • I have crossed a line since moving to NYC where the peak audience for my attractiveness is men aged 45-55. Weird, but observable.

    Oh yeah, and I also learned some new stuff about the behavior of flat surfaces (e.g., paper) when folded on curved creases.

    Plus some things I already knew:
  • Math is cool.
  • The Demaines (père et fils) do incredibly intriguing work.
  • Geeks are reliably the most interesting people in the room to talk to.
  • [livejournal.com profile] gremionis has cool friends, even if he never has any time to hang out with them. ;-)

    I took some pictures, too; will try to post them later this weekend.
  • chanaleh: (Default)
    2012-01-06 07:18 am
    Entry tags:

    In which I am an appalling bachelor

    I came home to NYC right after Christmas because I had to work, but [livejournal.com profile] justom stayed in Boston and has been there the entire past 2 weeks, with a brief side jaunt to Lenox this past 2 days. He's coming home this evening.

    Last night I did dishes -- and I mean, literally, I had not washed a dish (other than rinsing out my daily coffee mug) in the entire 10 days. And I'd even made a dinner at home in that time: a one-saucepan tuna casserole which I proceeded to eat for three nights in a row.

    Left to my own devices, my philosophy on dishes is much like that for laundry: I will do them when (a) they get too annoyingly piled up or (b) I run out of a particular commodity, like spoons (or in this case, cereal bowls).

    I'm pretty sure I ought to feel guilty about this habit, but really, every time I got a glimpse of the stack of cereal bowls collecting in the sink, I instead got sort of an exultant feeling, like Muahahaha. It's kind of cool to have two weeks at home alone!

    But, we're good now. I also hadn't shaved in two weeks, so I took care of that too. X-D.

    Also, right now I'm going to go put chipotle chicken in the crockpot for tonight's dinner, which necessitates changing over all the visible utensils, so I promise there will be lots more dish-doing (and domestic companionship) in my near future.

    Shabbat shalom, and see (many of) you at [livejournal.com profile] arisia in a week! ... Don't forget, we're having services (davening) on Friday night, led as always by me, at 5:30pm in an as-yet-undisclosed location (check back at the Facebook link or see flyers at-con). Oh, and also, I'm bringing the yeshiva bochur. :-) Also also, I will again be vending buttons -- I'll be taking pre-requests in an upcoming poll.
    chanaleh: (crow's nest)
    2012-01-02 08:39 pm

    Year in review, year in preview

    Pro tip: Crossposting from Dreamwidth requires different syntax for LJ user links. But it works, it works!

    Anyway.


    Ten achievements of 2011: 2011 was the year I... )

    Ten goals for 2012:

    1. Finally replace the Treo 680 with an Android phone
    It's coming to be necessary for my professional cred as a web/social media maven.

    2. Go contra dancing at least once per calendar month
    This represents a sixfold increase over 2011, when I went a total of twice.

    3. Establish a habit of walking home from work at least once a week
    When I was unemployed on vacation for 2 months, I was walking miles every day and it was great.

    4. Implement new website for Ramaz
    A professional goal, not a personal one, but then the professional is personal, as they say.

    5. Host a Shabbat dinner
    With lots of singing. In NYC. Who wants to come?

    6. Take (and post) more pictures
    Documenting my experience of the city. You see things differently with a camera in your hand.

    7. Get net worth up over $100,000
    90% of this is locked up in retirement savings, as it should be, but still. It's reachable.

    8. Join the Frontstage side of the Blue Hill Troupe
    Hoping that next year's shows will be of more interest to me than Utopia. We'll find out this spring!

    9. Establish a partnership with the shared goal of having a family
    Let's acknowledge that there are lots of possible (and many mutually exclusive) subgoals under this, the exact combination of which will vary highly depending on the chain of circumstances, so I'm not really ready to unpack all of them right now. But I'm naming the intention.

    10. Complete a draft of a novel
    In some ways this goal feels the farthest away... and reaches the farthest back, since I wanted to Be A Writer from the time I could hold a pencil.
    chanaleh: Snoopy at the typewriter, pondering (snoopywriter)
    2011-10-05 12:31 pm

    Happy new year, 5772

    Things I have done in the past... wow, 2 weeks:

    This got long. )

    Today I should finish sending my second batch of R"H cards, do some more cooking, apply to some more jobs, and -- oh yeah -- invite people to come have birthday cake with me tomorrow night! 8:30pm, our house. There will also be a dinner outing beforehand for the trayf-inclined, 6:30pm at Dinosaur BBQ. To clarify: all b'day festivities will be in the UWS/Harlem area; sorry, Boston gang!!
    chanaleh: (tom + erica)
    2011-09-28 06:26 pm

    A year of sweetness to all

    Here's the Rosh Hashanah postcard I sent out. Let me know if I forgot to send you one!
    Note to [livejournal.com profile] vettecat: I fixed the typo you pointed out. :-}


    Click for larger image, or you can also view the PDF.

    L'shanah tovah, everyone!

    *scurries off to JTS*
    chanaleh: (kaylee/simon)
    2011-09-21 01:07 am

    A bit at loose ends

    There's an ice cream truck that sporadically takes up residence down the block in the late afternoon. Mercifully, its beepy little tunes actually comprise quite a nice repertoire, ranging from "Für Elise" and "Greensleeves" to "Moon River" to "Morning Has Broken" and "The Sound of Silence"...

    But last time I absoutely swear heard it playing "Dona Dona". A Jewish folk song about a calf being led to slaughter? Really? I mean, really?

    Only in NYC, I guess.

    ... You guys, I'm actually starting to get a little bored here in week 3. )

    On the plus side, today I went out and had a nice lunch date with [livejournal.com profile] justom's sister-in-law, who was passing through Midtown, and then I walked around and window-shopped (successfully getting all the fun of trying on clothes without actually succumbing to buying anything). And I got a library card, which means many more new books and DVDs in my immediate future.

    And don't forget we have our housewarming this Sunday night!

    And now I think it's really bedtime.
    chanaleh: (pirate)
    2011-09-19 12:42 pm

    Minutiae

    Last night we were kept awake well past 5am by throbbing hip-hop bass lines from somewhere in the downstairs vicinity. Oy. Only after [livejournal.com profile] justom went down and ascertained that it was in fact immediately downstairs (but unresponsive to knocking on their door, no surprise) did I think to apply the universal "cut it the f**k out" signal of stomping on the floor five times. This had the desired effect: it did come on again a bit later, but more quietly and not so cell-pervading, hardly worth getting up to register another complaint.

    So, rather than get up at 7:30am with [livejournal.com profile] justom, I managed to stay in bed and mostly asleep until 10:30. I'm grateful to be on vacation and get to do that, but I feel awful for him today, poor love.

    Speaking of being on vacation, since I have the luxury of time right now, here's the recap of what else I did this weekend... )

    For today, I'd been thinking it would be a good day to get to a museum, but the Met is closed on Mondays, of course, and so is the Frick Collection. Maybe I'll try for the MoMA. Off to put some chicken in the crockpot and get rolling.

    P.S. I almost forgot to mention: 'tis the nineteenth of Septembarrrr, known across the seven seas as International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Avast!
    chanaleh: (snoopydock)
    2011-09-16 10:54 am

    Housewarming! and housekeeping

    We're having a housewarming next Sunday night! I set the Facebook event to "private", so if you are (or might be) in the NYC area and I didn't get you added -- or, of course, if you are not ON Facebook and need the details -- let me know.

    Also, I designed a new Rosh Hashanah card which I should, assuming they get delivered reliably, be sending out at the end of next week. Thus:

    [Poll #1778990]
    chanaleh: (good grief)
    2011-09-14 12:17 pm
    Entry tags:

    Goodbye, little car! *sniff*

    It's the end of an era.

    On Sunday I drove the little car up to Boston for the very last time, and on Monday I signed it over to [livejournal.com profile] paradoox and left it in his garage as he drove me to South Station to get my bus home to NYC, car-free once more.

    I only cried a little when I got home. :-}

    I keep soothing myself with "Someday you can have another little car..." "But I don't WANT another car, I want THIS one! I never did get to take it on that cross-country road trip!" *sniff* At the same time, it's already a mercy not to have to deal with parking. And at least it's still sort of 'in the family', so if you Boston folks happen to see it around, you'll know why.

    more notes from the UWS, week 2 )

    Oh right, and Saturday night I'm singing chorus for a "semi-staged production" of Iolanthe, 7:30pm at 40 E. 35th St.; you NYC folks should come see me if you can. :-) We had a stumble-through rehearsal last weekend and it made me incredibly happy, reminding me just how much I adore this show. Though I always say about Iolanthe that it's really more fun to be in than to watch.

    And hopefully soon we'll schedule a housewarming and actually have people over (besides [livejournal.com profile] jessruth)!
    chanaleh: (kaylee/simon)
    2011-09-07 12:39 pm
    Entry tags:

    Amid the boxes

    Here it is Wednesday, my third official morning as a New Yorker. :-} And the cable Internet guy came today, so we now have a happy little wireless router blinking away on top of the big bookshelf in the corner.

    notes from W. 116th St., day 3 )

    Also, I'm going to have to come up to Boston sometime in the next ~5 days to hand off my car to its buyer. I won't make it to the End-of-Summer Party (lunch plans with [livejournal.com profile] jessruth!), but am hoping to time things so as to get to see [livejournal.com profile] theatreatfirst's As You Like It. :-} I'll try to keep you all apprised.
    chanaleh: (Default)
    2011-09-04 10:48 am
    Entry tags:

    Move: completed

    The movers came at 6am this morning, and finished the unloading in NYC right around 6pm.

    It's now 10:45pm and wayyyy past bedtime. More later.
    chanaleh: (move to nyc)
    2011-08-31 08:34 am
    Entry tags:

    Try to remember the kind of September...

    Did I mention that moving was postponed to Sunday 9/4? (Any NYC peeps who want to drop by Sunday afternoon/evening or Monday daytime to help with unpacking and setup will be MOST welcome. :-)

    September 2011 calendaring )
    chanaleh: (move to nyc)
    2011-08-16 11:53 pm
    Entry tags:

    Movers: booked!

    Sunday, August 28.
    Starting at 6:00 a.m. (oy).

    On the plus side, we should be unloaded in NYC well before dinnertime. :-}

    Still working out the idea of a final farewell get-together in Boston -- will advise.

    I've taken off work on Friday the 26th for packing/logistics errands, as well as Monday the 29th for unpacking. (But then I'm returning to Boston to finish out four more days of work, so might be somewhat available for visiting, esp. Tue/Thu evening.)

    Right now I'm posting stuff to Freecycle -- that counts as packing progress, right??

    *zonk*
    chanaleh: (move to nyc)
    2011-08-01 11:40 am
    Entry tags:

    Ack! It's August!

    No question about it: this month, moving is upon us. No, we don't know yet (as of this posting) exactly when that will take place. Hence, everything after about the 15th (or certainly the 20th) is totally up in the air. (Also, no matter when the physical move gets accomplished, I'm expecting to come back to Boston for a few days to finish out work through Sept. 2.)

    Also: Yes, I would like to see you socially before I leave. Yes, you. All of you. At least those of you in the Boston area. No, I'm NOT going to be able to manage that even with [livejournal.com profile] sunspiral's patent-pending Time Crowbar. I will probably have open-house packing evenings where I want people to come sort through boxes with me (and/or consume my booze), so watch this space. :-} Yes, I will be back to visit semi-regularly after the move. Yes, you can come visit me/us anytime in NYC.

    August 2011 calendaring )