Friday, July 27, 2007

a little potter with chocolate goes a long way


It's hot in New York. I'm sitting on my futon with all four fans running, thinking. Thinking about what I could do tonight, since I'm not going up to New Haven to see Nostalgia. I could go to Trader Joes. I could do some of the freelance work I didn't do while on vacation last week. I could go jogging in Bronxville. I could unearth my suitcase from under the pile of clothes I pulled out of it and clean my room. Or I could finish off the chocolate bar I bought at the airport and then take a nap with my face buried in the next chapter of Harry Potter.

All options--besides unpacking and the freelance work--sound good to me, and seem equally likely ways to spend the evening.

It's been a bit of a rough ride of a week, and I've got a lot to think about. My Mum got remarried to a man I didn't meet until a day before the wedding. Two people I know died last week--one quite tragically. A close family member had emergency surgery for a critical condition. And I've had a few serious conversations with the man I seem more or less to be dating.

Mid-July I went to Portland for a week, ostensibly for the wedding. I hung out with my brother and sister, bantered around with my Dad, slept in my childhood bedroom, had dinner with my ex-husband's brother's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, talked to people at the wedding I haven't seen since I was a little girl (they all seemed to think living in New York was paramount to living on the moon), fielded awkward questions from people at church, spent a few misty days at the Oregon coast, and hiked up by beloved Eagle Creek in the Columbia Gorge. Since I haven't been back to Portland in four years--for reasons too complicated to discuss here--the trip was both exhilarating and exhausting. In the short time I've been back in New York I haven't really managed to put myself back together again, much less readjust to Eastern time. My refrigerator is empty, my clothes need to be put away, and my mail needs to be opened. And Fr John, Jenny, Anna Pepper and Natalie are arriving this weekend for yet one more funeral.

No wonder a little Potter with chocolate, while laying on my bed, sounds enticing.

P.S. Photos from Oregon, and the wedding, can be found here: oregon, family, wedding set on flickr.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I wrote a comment once and then lost
it having to recover a gmail password
which I forget every time since I
dont use gmail. feh.
well in general that I had read some
harry potter on plane yesterday and
like it better than expected and
if you like harry potter to begin
with it ought be a treat. that my
week though not fraught as yours
(at least apparently or as I would
expect on the whole though perhaps
a fault line here or there) was
hectic and I am left sleeping
last night as if back across many
time zones with troubled dreams...
on another matter off topic, were
you free to meet our little group
some saturday in august excepting
the first as we spoke with fr
michael?
+Seraphim
now to do the word verification and
hope I dont lose this. livejournal
really is more visitor friendly.

A M B E R said...

An addendum to my post:

For those of you worried about whose funeral the Schroedels were here attending, that would be Fr John's Grandmother Sally, who was well-loved and well up in years. The tragic death was the young wife of a co-worker at the seminary, who I doubt any of my readers would know.

What I really did that evening: TJ's, unpack, and read Harry Potter.

Bp. Seraphim: yes, I'd like to get together again. I'll talk over the matter with Veronika and get back to you!