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- Last weekend, I joined the Women's March with D. Well, in theory, tried to join with several people, but most of us failed to find each other. Total zoo, in a good way. The march kicked off at 72nd and Central Park West. We got off the train at 59th St. You couldn't get anywhere near Central Park West. Ended up joining the reverse march UP Columbus, of all the people trying to get to the march. Every cross street was filled. Finally ended up managing to get onto the march route up at 81st. It then took us an hour and a half to go the length of AMNH. Fortunately, it was lovely weather and everyone was delightfully friendly. After a bout of indecision in the morning, I'd finally settled on "Couldn't pick a slogan, mad about too many things" for my sign. People loved it. Got a ton of compliments and requests for photos.
- But my favorite part of the march was probably the part where Chuckro was in the kitchen making me a sandwich so I could work on my protest sign. (Really good sandwich, too. Enormous. I split it with D.)
- Came home from march and had just enough time to change for my birthday party. This year's cake: chocolate, with fudge filling and white chocolate cream cheese mousse, plus a forest of pine trees I made from candy melts on Pocky, with sprinkles. Plus little snowflakes coated in luster dust. Very sparkly. Enormous and a little overwhelming.
- I went dress shopping with my MIL. I've been trying to get a new cocktail dress since October, and failing. It took me awhile to figure it out, but every neckline this season is cut at the throat. (Since many have shoulder things going on, it isn't obvious that it's the same neckline at first.) It's not a neckline that looks good with my jaw. (There's nothing wrong with my jaw, but this neckline makes it look like there is.) We hit three different stores, and were continuing to fail, when in the last half hour before we had to leave, we walked into Lord & Taylor. Which was having a 50% off sale. We found three dresses for the combined total of less than I'd intended to spend on one. MIL is my lucky shopping buddy. I don't know why I try to buy things without her.
- Today I tried to go to my semi-regular volunteering gig at the food bank. I did make it eventually, but 45 minutes late. You see, I hadn't really realized, but there is one road to get to uptown from my neighborhood. Just one. It's a ten minute walk. But there's literally no other way to go--the train tracks and the creek, plus the beginning of the cliffs that are the Heights, cut us off except this one road. And on that road, at 6 in the morning, there was a massive car crash. A "close off the entire road, we'll have the crime scene photographers here for the next four hours". (I had a lovely chat with a very nice patrolman who was very apologetic that he couldn't even let me walk through.) And there are NO OTHER WAYS TO GET THERE. There's like a 20 block walk in one direction, and the other direction would involve trying to walk on the Turnpike by foot. I could take the PATH - with a 10 block walk in the wrong way, waiting for the train, and then a 10 block walk back. So I called a Lyft. Only the first guy who picked up...was right on the OTHER side of the crash. I ended up walking 6 blocks in the wrong direction to get a car on my side of the crash to pick me up and then drive in a massive circle to get past the choke point. But I got there! I was very lucky on the way home--they literally rolled up the crime tape as I got to the first barricaded intersection.
- On the minus side--way fewer folks at the food bank today. I mean, if we thought that no one was hungry, that would be great. But we're pretty sure that it's because there are a lot of folks with iffy immigration status who are scared to show up, which is scary. There might be a lot of hungry people out there, and we have food and no way to get it to them. I was talking to a board member and she said that attendance has been down at food banks across the country, and people are worried.
- But my favorite part of the march was probably the part where Chuckro was in the kitchen making me a sandwich so I could work on my protest sign. (Really good sandwich, too. Enormous. I split it with D.)
- Came home from march and had just enough time to change for my birthday party. This year's cake: chocolate, with fudge filling and white chocolate cream cheese mousse, plus a forest of pine trees I made from candy melts on Pocky, with sprinkles. Plus little snowflakes coated in luster dust. Very sparkly. Enormous and a little overwhelming.
- I went dress shopping with my MIL. I've been trying to get a new cocktail dress since October, and failing. It took me awhile to figure it out, but every neckline this season is cut at the throat. (Since many have shoulder things going on, it isn't obvious that it's the same neckline at first.) It's not a neckline that looks good with my jaw. (There's nothing wrong with my jaw, but this neckline makes it look like there is.) We hit three different stores, and were continuing to fail, when in the last half hour before we had to leave, we walked into Lord & Taylor. Which was having a 50% off sale. We found three dresses for the combined total of less than I'd intended to spend on one. MIL is my lucky shopping buddy. I don't know why I try to buy things without her.
- Today I tried to go to my semi-regular volunteering gig at the food bank. I did make it eventually, but 45 minutes late. You see, I hadn't really realized, but there is one road to get to uptown from my neighborhood. Just one. It's a ten minute walk. But there's literally no other way to go--the train tracks and the creek, plus the beginning of the cliffs that are the Heights, cut us off except this one road. And on that road, at 6 in the morning, there was a massive car crash. A "close off the entire road, we'll have the crime scene photographers here for the next four hours". (I had a lovely chat with a very nice patrolman who was very apologetic that he couldn't even let me walk through.) And there are NO OTHER WAYS TO GET THERE. There's like a 20 block walk in one direction, and the other direction would involve trying to walk on the Turnpike by foot. I could take the PATH - with a 10 block walk in the wrong way, waiting for the train, and then a 10 block walk back. So I called a Lyft. Only the first guy who picked up...was right on the OTHER side of the crash. I ended up walking 6 blocks in the wrong direction to get a car on my side of the crash to pick me up and then drive in a massive circle to get past the choke point. But I got there! I was very lucky on the way home--they literally rolled up the crime tape as I got to the first barricaded intersection.
- On the minus side--way fewer folks at the food bank today. I mean, if we thought that no one was hungry, that would be great. But we're pretty sure that it's because there are a lot of folks with iffy immigration status who are scared to show up, which is scary. There might be a lot of hungry people out there, and we have food and no way to get it to them. I was talking to a board member and she said that attendance has been down at food banks across the country, and people are worried.
