Lost and Found

For the first time last week, I lost my wallet. Like, completely gone, no clue where it could have gone, vanished. I definitely had it on Thursday evening, when I opened my wallet for the LIRR conductor; I handed him the ticket to click, replaced the ticket, then stowed away(?) my wallet in my purse. Dave picked me up from the station in his car; we drove home and picked up Maddie from Joy (our nanny). Then we went out to dinner, but Dave paid, so I didn't need to look for my wallet. We stopped by Stephen's house after dinner to say hi and pick up some tools, but I think I left my purse in the car. At any rate, when the LIRR conductor came by to click my ticket on Friday morning, there was no wallet in my purse. It wasn't at home, it wasn't in the car, it wasn't at the restaurant, it wasn't at Stephen's, it wasn't at the LIRR Lost and Found yet. I had no idea what had happened to it: had I left it behind on the train? Did it fall out of my purse? Did someone reach into my purse and take it? Did I leave it at the restaurant and someone picked it up? A good Samaritan surely would have emailed me by then—my work email is very easy to find by Googling my name.

Fortunately, I had my work ID and a separate credit card squirreled away elsewhere in my purse. But by the time I got to work on Friday morning, I was in full panic mode. Call the credit card companies! Order a new debit card! Order a new driver's license! And most importantly (I guess?): cancel your New York Public Library card so a thief doesn't check out books under your name and then never return them!!!

By Friday evening, I was resigned to the loss. At least most things were replaceable, and as long as no one stole my identity using the information from my driver's license, I would only be out the cost of the cash ($140), my LIRR tickets ($200), my Metrocard ($50), the cost of the wallet itself, and something of sentimental value: my credit card-sized periodic table that says "Proud to be a Chemist" on the back. Don't ask me why I'm still carrying this card from high school. The answer is: I don't know.

Then, a minor miracle! On Saturday afternoon, we received a mysterious visit from...the mailman! He handed me my wallet, saying "My supervisor told me to give this to you." Everything was still there, minus the cash, and my driver's license. I asked the mailman, "Wow, this is amazing! But do you know what happened to my driver's license?" He called the supervisor, who said that it had fallen out and that she had it, and he went back to the post office, picked it up, and brought it back to me! Apparently someone had just put the wallet in a mailbox, and it was taken to the post office, and the post office returned it to me! I didn't even know they could do that. There are still some mysteries: why didn't they just return the driver's license with the wallet, since they knew they went together? Why was everything in the wallet so...damp? And when truly did I lose the wallet?

I suppose I'll never know. Just count me grateful that someone only wanted the cash and didn't want anything else to do with me. S/he took only the cash, and left me the hundreds in public transportation cards! So the only cost was really $140, a day of stress/anxiety, and the $20 for the new driver's license. I'll take it! And be more careful with my wallet from now on...

Spring blossoms

I don't want to jinx us, but we've had a remarkably mild winter! Only one big snow (before the semester started, phew), and generally warmer-than-usual temperatures. Last year was much worse, and since I'm commuting to teach a 9:30 am class this semester, I'm particularly grateful for the mild weather – fewer of those nightmare commuting mornings where everything is late or canceled, the LIRR doesn't tell you anything, and there are hordes of angry, entitled Long Islanders on the rampage.

A few weeks ago, I went for the first time to the New York Botanical Garden, with Julie, to see their "Orchidelirum" show. The show was full of impressive and interesting orchids of all shapes and sizes. And it was enjoyable to learn about the Victorian craze for orchids and the life of orchid-hunters around the world. Plus, it was a beautiful morning, and the company was the best! I'd like to go back to the Botanical Garden when the rest of the grounds are in bloom. Here are some snapshots from our visit:

What I called "Mount Orchid"

All smiles!

Go, Mets!

Dave and I have been talking about going to a New York Mets game for two seasons now, and we finally made it! We drove to Flushing, found free parking, ate delicious Chinese food for dinner, and took the subway one stop to the stadium.

 First time to Citi Field

Dave became a Mets fan during their championship year, back in 1986. He always expects me to remember how exciting it was, but since I was 3 years old, I really can't be blamed for not noticing. This year, the Mets are actually good and generating lots of buzz, so it was time for me to see them live for the first time and for Dave to return after at least 20 years.

Field of Dreams-dashed-by-hometeam's-frequent-mediocrity-but-hopefully-not-this-year

It was a gorgeous night – cool enough to remind us that it's fall, but still pleasant to spend hours outdoors. We had little company in the nosebleed seats, which was good, because I like to yell a lot. Doo-do-do-doo, do-DOOOO: CHARGE!!!

The stadium includes the Mets Hall of Fame, where you can admire the World Series trophies from 1960-something and 1986. There's also this guy:

Unfortunately, the Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, a terrible team. But they clinched their division this weekend and are headed to the playoffs. I'll always count myself a lukewarm Phillies fan, but maybe I have a new team that I can get behind!

back in action?

I am slowly re-emerging from a summer of all-consuming, all-intensive language teaching. I didn't intend to take a complete hiatus from blogging, but I guess I'm not surprised that it happened anyway. I'm often overly ambitious about piling on activities, social events, and travel during periods of academic stress. This summer, I toned it down and just focused on getting through each day, trying to have a normal conversation with Dave before bed, and then sleeping! Even then, I didn't always succeed, but at least I never got sick.

But now I'd like to get back into updating this blog! I briefly considered abandoning it entirely: I've got a long and intimidating list of things to write in this upcoming semester, and the fewer distractions, the better! But I do love looking back on the record of the things I do write up, and the challenge of finding visual material to enliven that record helps me think and grow in new ways. Besides, we all need to take a break from work every once in a while!

So here's a quick catch-up on some highlights from the summer, starting with May:

The dress rehearsal for my choir's spring performance (all Beethoven) at Carnegie Hall! I've decided not to rejoin this choir in the fall (too much to do), but I'm glad I had the chance to participate last year.

U2 concert at Madison Square Garden – the band is on the near part of the stage, and the spotlights are about to come on. 

Our tenth college reunion!

 Paint Nite with Katie and Julie in Manhattan

 Dave and I recently discovered Cedarmere, the summer home of William Cullen Bryant (of Bryant Park fame). It's a little estate on Roslyn Harbor, perfect for a picnic!

And now it's on to fall. But first – Dave and I get to go on vacation! We're headed to Costa Rica for a week. More pictures when we return!

'tis the season

There are lots of fun Christmas traditions in New York, but this year, for the first time, I got to participate in one – the lighting of the tree in Bryant Park! My chorus was hired to provide festive music before and during the program.

Here I am in my Bank of America-branded hat, with our precious corporate scarves:

We caroled in small groups around the park, welcoming visitors for the ceremony. It was just my luck to be stationed right by the Wafels and Dinges stand – smelled so good, but must. keep. singing.

Although it was drizzling, a large crowd turned out for the event. There were famous people on the program – Evan Lysacek (Olympic gold medalist) skated, Ingrid Michaelson performed a set of songs, and I even learned about a new sport, synchronized skating! Here is the US national champion synchronized skating team warming up:

The best part was that I got to lead a carol sing-along from the stage with about a dozen other folks from the chorus. I've often sat in Bryant Park and enjoyed the on-stage entertainment; I used to eat lunch there regularly when I worked at 42nd and Madison. So it was very exciting to be up there myself! Eventually an ice-skating Santa showed up, the tree was lit, and the whole chorus burst into Joy to the World.

Waiting off stage

Merry Christmas season!

O, sad day

What could be worse – after a long, hard day at work, getting trapped at Jamaica station on a suspended train because of a track fire ahead, missing dinner, and getting home late (thanks for the ride, Stephen!) in the cold rain – than to be stymied by THIS??

#sob #shameonyouoxo #firstworldproblems

the nerdly pleasures

There are a lot of not-so-great things about being a junior academic. But there's still one thing I love: I get to spend time in beautiful libraries and read nerdy books! It's not so easy anymore; from 2001-2013, I was no more than a twenty-minute walk from a world class library. Not only did those libraries have incredible resources, they also had the will and motivation to make those resources as accessible as possible. I could order books delivered by hand to my mailbox; I could ask for articles in the stacks to be PDFed and emailed to me, so that I didn't need to search for them myself. Ah, the halcyon days of yore!

Learning to use the academic resources in New York has not been easy. Like so many other things in NYC, everything you want is available, in theory, but in practice, those things are difficult to access, prohibitively expensive, oversubscribed, or inconveniently far away. And so it is with the books. To get reader's privileges at the library at Columbia, I had to apply to a University Seminar and be accepted; but I'm not allowed to check out anything or use the online resources from off-site, so I have to be physically in the building (an hour and twenty minutes from home) in order to access the information. The New York Public Library is easier to get into, but most of the scholarly books are kept in New Jersey, so you have to order them a few days ahead of time, and even the books on site take over an hour to be delivered to you from the closed stacks by the library gnomes. You can't take those books home with you either.

I complain a lot about the schlep and the waiting, but once I get through them, it's so good. Here's Columbia, with its special non-circulating reading room devoted to Ancient/Medieval Studies:

 

 The view, when I need to rest my eyes

The NYPL, after sunset

 

And here's a book that I couldn't access anywhere - except at the NYPL. It's a 1912 dissertation written in Latin by a German scholar, and, as you can see, it's just crumbling into bits. No library in all of ILL was willing to ship it out (all copies are probably in similarly poor condition), so it's a good thing I could find a local copy!

at the zoo

Our first official adventure in New York City – a trip to the Bronx Zoo! It was a beautiful fall day to visit the animals.

 In line for the Asia Monorail. Pro tip: it costs an extra $5 per person, and it's not worth it!

 Though we did get to see these cool stripey deer.

 So insincere.

Meet the fossa, a cat-like mammal from Madagascar.

High flipper!

The red panda looked awfully cuddly!

On the way home, we stopped by Flushing to try a new Chinese restaurant and do some grocery shopping. We can hardly believe that this is our life now! We went to Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, which has been widely praised online. The soup dumplings were as good as advertised. Next time, we need to return with more people, so that we can try more of the menu – any volunteers??

There's always a first time...

Last weekend, I had a new experience: I was ignored by Sasha Frere-Jones! He's the pop music critic for the New Yorker, and I've been reading his criticism for years. So it was fun to go to a New Yorker festival event that featured a conversation between him and indie singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten:

Actually, his comments weren't too insightful; he often rambled on about whatever, cutting off what Sharon Van Etten was trying to say. Go figure. How did I know that he was ignoring me? Because I stood up in the balcony at the microphone to ask a question during the Q and A session, and when he saw that there was no line at the microphone downstairs, he decided that the session was over. Alas. But here's something he doesn't know: until 2010, I thought he was a woman.

It was a delight to hear about the ideas and experiences of the musician. I hadn't listened to her music before some friends suggested we go to the show, and it's pretty good! Her lyrics are dark and sad, but sometimes it can be cathartic to listen to that sort of thing. And in person, she is humble, unassuming, and funny. All in all, a lovely experience.

details of the commuting life

Because I no longer go to the city every weekday, I've started using 10-trip passes on the Long Island Railroad, instead of the monthly passes. What this means is that I need to get my ticket punched each time I ride. It's a bit of a hassle, since I always need to pull the right ticket out of my wallet, make sure I keep straight which direction I'm heading in, etc. But what I love is seeing how each conductor has a differently-shaped puncher:

Aren't they cool? It's a bit of a Rorschach test – is that a Christmas tree, or a bell? A fish? A heart on legs? What do you see?

Walking the runway

I got to attend my first New York Fashion Week runway show last weekend! My former college roommate Chrissy had been invited to walk in a show of the designer Soni Soho's spring fashion line. (In addition to being a runway model, she is also a published poet, actor, musician, and member of the writing faculty at NYU. Sigh.) The show was on the rooftop of the Empire Hotel, right next to Lincoln Center. Benet and Julie joined me, and we had no idea what to expect. We did our best to dress "fashionably," nervously approached the velvet ropes, and arrived at the rooftop bar. Everything looked normal. But where was the catwalk? Where would the fashion be?

The models were dressing in a corner behind temporary drapes, and the catwalk was a path down the center of the patio and around the corner. We got to stand right on the edge! Here she is, looking so fierce:

My cell phone camera was kinda struggling. And here's a picture from behind her, as she pauses in front of a phalanx of photographers:

So cool and fun! Benet and Julie and I rounded out the weekend by escaping from a locked puzzle room. We paid money to be locked in a room full of locked cabinets, codes, and hints; we then had an hour to solve the puzzles and find the key that would open the door! It was actually pretty fun.

And here we are, toasting over a decade of friendship. It's nice to be in New York.

La la la

A sign that life might be returning to normal: I auditioned for and was accepted into a chorus today! Life was too chaotic last year to put another weekly commitment on my plate, but now I'm looking forward to getting back into it. Even when I'm tired and cranky (and annoyed at my fellow choristers), it's still a pleasure to participate in music and use a different part of my brain.

The group is called the Cecilia Chorus of New York. It's a large group (120-odd members), and we have two performances this season, both in Carnegie Hall: a Christmas-y concert in December of Poulenc and Vaughan Williams and a May performance of Beethoven. Time to dig out the ol' black folder and hideous choir uniform, hurray!

a taste of summer

Lest I give the impression that it was all work and no fun, I want to share a few highlights from July! First, I ran my first race in New York City! It was a four-miler in Central Park, and it was Julie's first race ever. Even in the July heat, she did an amazing job!

Triumphant at the finish line!

The fun group of girls we ran with. After the race, we had a relaxed picnic in the park on a perfect afternoon.

A few weeks later, S. came to visit, and we had a busy NYC-LI weekend. We tried out a trendy restaurant run by a friend from her youth group, Contra. It was delicious, but not so filling that we didn't want to go for gourmet ice cream sandwiches afterwards:

 

Then we went out to North Fork to taste Long Island wines! It was fun to try different wines and learn some of the lingo, and it was very beautiful and peaceful out there.

 We had a seafood dinner by the bay:

And the next day, squeezed in some beach time:

One of the big reasons I'm glad I returned to the east coast is the opportunity to see my dear friends more frequently. Here's to more good times in New York!