She with the beautiful name

She'll be one day old later today.
I am, as expected, in love.

She seems healthy, despite being in the NICU. I haven't had an update since about noon today, over 6 hours ago. But mom and dad have had almost no sleep for 2 days so I shouldn't expect to hear anything right away. I guess. This is all so new.
My daughter's first and probably only, or so they said at one time.
I’m not particularly superstitious but maybe if I post this I’ll get a text or a call.

The last of my political thoughts until 2020.

From the mouth of Kellyanne Conway:

“Why is everything taken at face value?” she asked. “You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he’s telling you what was in his heart, you always want to go with what’s come out of his mouth...."

This explains everything. It's the new world order. We aren't supposed to listen to what our next prez says or believe our lying eyes when he acts. Kellyanne will tell us, for the next 4 years, what our prez really means and thinks. I see. If I could block him from my thoughts and off the pages of the news I follow I would do it.

Since I seem to be blogging again -- but only in the early (this is early to me) morning when I first read the news -- I wonder if I can restrain myself from posting about politics. I'm gonna give it a try.

The picture is some impromptu wall art that my daughter made on New Year's Eve at a small party. She's not taking this whole election sitting down. She's mad as hell and not getting over it.

Arthur and Anne. And Rebecca.

A good friend, and lapsed blogger at The Complaint Department, gave me this print in honor of my love of crows (and a convenient birthday). I loved it from the moment I saw it. It now hangs in my dining room so I can see it every time I eat at the dinner table. Which is most nights of the week. The artist is Colette Davis. Thanks again Anne!

I named the crow Arthur, and of course the lady is Anne. She asked if I thought the lady in the painting looks a little like my daughter. I think she does!

On having children.

 

This is a book I read a few years ago. I have zero, and I mean zero, memory of the book so I'm going to break one of my informal rules and read it again. I was reminded of the book (it's short stories, not a novel, which partially explains why it didn't imprint on my brain) when I read an interview with actress Frances McDormand who starred in the HBO miniseries based on the book. In the interview she said this:

About children: "... the minute you smell them there’s a pheromonal reaction between the parent and their child. My son smelled like a cinnamon bun, and that smell entered into my biological being, and it became an imperative that I keep him alive at all costs, so then there’s this monster—this tiger, or lion—that comes forward in you to protect them. And it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t matter if they become men or women. The whole point of a teenager driving you insane is because they’re supposed to wear you down so you can fuckin’ die sooner and get out of the way, because it’s their place.

This passage speaks to me. My children didn't wear me down during their teen years and they're not wearing me down in their early adulthood. But my gut tells me that Frances is right.

And the 2-night, 4-hour miniseries that aired Sunday and Monday nights was wonderful. She's a great actress.

New York!

My daughter and son-in-law live in Brooklyn, so off to Brooklyn we went for a Friday through Sunday visit. As always, trips to New York give me energy and brighten my mood. Plus, I always come home with memories that seem to get stronger as the days roll by. Such is the power of that city over me.

After we got to Penn Station on Friday we walked the 15+ blocks to Rebecca's office and got a quick tour of the place (I think she prefers that I not literally name the company she works for...they're a bit private). The sculpture currently on display outside the front door is Jeff Koons' Orange Puppy, which last sold for 58 mill. I know, I know, I don't really get it either. The puppy's nose is roughly facing the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center. At Christmas you literally can't walk around easily because of the crowds.

Rebecca was able to take the afternoon off so we hopped on the subway and went to Brooklyn to drop off our bags at the airBNB apartment we rented for the weekend. It was a spacious, funky, and perfect place for us to stay. Comfortable, quiet, good collection of books, nice wall hangings. And a wonderful fish/plant setup! Hard to describe but here it is:

The apt is a yoga studio during the day.

Then we walked to R's apartment to spend time with the grandcats, James and Robert. They are adored and pampered beyond description.

Next we had lunch at a new place in Crown Heights called Berg'n. I had a Breakfast Ramen Burger. Not exactly healthy eating but I've eaten much less healthy things. And oh was it yummy.

Then we walked a bit south to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Wonderful, interesting, pretty in that nice fall'ish way I love:

Dinner that night was in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn at an Italian-Spanish-Portuguese place called Convivium Osteria.... Yum, yum.

On Saturday we got our typical late start and had brunch at R and S's favorite neighborhood restaurant Mayfield. Sort of southern American food (translation: lots of grits).

Next we subwayed into Manhattan and visited a gallery none of us has ever been to before: the Morgan Library and Museum. So many museums in DC and NYC are huge so this was a nice change of pace. And the library...oh that library!

We saw art spanning eight centuries: The Crusader Bible from around 1250, Cy Twombly art from the 1970s (meh), 19th century drawings and paintings by Theodore Rousseau, and a fascinating series of cartoons called From Here to Here: Richard McGuire Makes a Book. This drawing is from the collection: vacuuming woman in curlers is saying "the older I get the less I know." Yep.

The High Line came next. We visited the lower portion of it last year during a winter trip to the city, but we hadn't yet seen the recently completed upper portion. The guys who came up with the idea for turning an abandoned elevated railroad line into a pedestrian walkway filled with plants, benches, and great views deserve all the honors they've been given:

Sean, Becca, and Doug checking out the Hudson River.

 

 

 

After the High Line, we walked around Chelsea and the West Village before ending up at The Strand  ("Home to 18 Miles of Books") in the East Village. That's Doug walking toward the store entrance. I could have stayed for hours.

But we had to be off to the Laura Pels Theater in mid-town to see the Tom Stoppard play Indian Ink. Doug read the play this semester in his British Drama course at the Univ of MD so he was able to fill in many details about the British in India in the 1930s. Here's the stage before the show:

After the play we Ubered back to Brooklyn and had dinner at... I've forgotten where; maybe Mayfield again. Then walked back to the kids' apartment and I took a few shots from the roof. The white building near the center is the Empire State Building.

On Sunday we had another pleasingly late start -- 11 AM. Had coffee at R and S's apartment, and then walked from Crown Heights to Clinton to visit the new bakery of R's good friend Anna. Anna has been in Brooklyn for about 4 years, same as R, and in that span of time she created a cookie business from scratch (ha). In her small Brooklyn apartment kitchen, she started making Dutch cookies called stroopwafels (her newish husband Steve is Dutch) and selling them at street fairs and festivals. She then quit her day job and rented space in an existing bakery, continuing to get new business and expanding into ice cream sandwiches. In September, she opened her own bakery, The Good Batch, on Fulton Street. Can you tell I'm impressed? Local Girl Makes Good in Brooklyn Cookie Biz! Here are Doug, Anna, and Rebecca in the kitchen:

We had another great brunch at a place called Three Letters a few doors down from The Good Batch. I was taken by that picture near the kitchen door. Andre the Giant? I forgot to check.

So that's pretty much the trip. Many great memories. And it's always good for me to leave my comfort zone, as they say. My comfort zone is my couch, which I love almost as much as my new iPhone.

One last shot of the newlyweds walking through mid-town. Aren't they cute?

More about that New York City trip.

The day we arrived it was snowy and brisk, but not exactly blustery.

 

Downtown Brooklyn, which means sort of in the northwest part of the borough.

The young couple at a Mexican place near their apartment.

A block from their apartment, which is in, sort of, central Brooklyn, on the northeast corner of Prospect Park.

Sean and Doug in downtown Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Shots of their apartment, featuring Robert, left, and James.

New York's High Line in mid-December.

Above: Doug (left) and Rebecca walking south on the High Line. We started at the north end and walked down to Sean's office at West 22nd.