Bull by the Horns
This is the time of year I tend to go a little crazy. This year I am even more insane than usual I think. Mind races, nothing tastes good, the usual nausea/constant dread in the pit of my stomach, checking weather/wind/temperatures obsessively, but even more off-kilter.
Example: After working until 10pm on Friday night, I walked by the Wall Street Bull statue. Normal enough, but this time had an intense feeling that something horrible would happen if I did not rub the bull’s balls immediately. Now this is definitely something tourists do, and each day there is a line at both his front and back ends of people touching him and taking photos. However, I have never seen a professionally dressed woman in her thirties do this. But I walked right up and rubbed those balls, then walked around to his face and touched his horns and nose too. It had been a sunny day and the metal felt warm and smooth from the day’s heat and the touch of so many hands.
Other than my insanity, S and I had a nice, chilled out, normal human being type week together, lots of swimming and a fun event on Tuesday. Thursday we hung out a bit in the morning before he went to meet his friend Dave for breakfast (Dave’s apartment in Brooklyn was water damaged after his hoarder upstairs neighbor had a fire in her apartment.) I went into the office at 8 and worked like a fiend until around 6pm when S told me his dad was having some health problems and he needed to go to their house to help for the weekend. We were supposed to fly to Buffalo the next day for his cousine’s wedding, but instead he had to drive to his hometown that night, picking up the car at 8pm. Ugh. I felt so bad for him, so I left work and went out for a quick sushi dinner with him to get some food in his belly and say goodbye before he had to leave. Walked with him to the car rental place, then said goodbye. Proceeded to stay up half the night, mind racing with crazy thoughts, and finally falling asleep around 3am. Dragged myself out of bed a bit before 8, then into the office for what ended up being a very long day.
Uneventful weekend, I swam both days, cleaned the bathroom, and went to the library. Tried to buy groceries but ended up with only some crystallized ginger, rainbow sherbet, and some tired looking snap peas. Was great to see S again on Sunday afternoon – his dad ended up being okay (a pinched nerve and he was overdosing himself on naproxin not realizing it was the same thing as Aleve and taking both) but it was good for him to go up there, get things sorted out, and help with their house stuff. What a nice person he is.
From Tuesday night – delicious dinner and free rides on the beautiful and historic Jane’s Carousel!
Food: Wildflowers and Honey,
Poached Squid, Watermelon, and Cucumber Consomme,
Confit of Lamb Breast, Charred Eggplant & Wild Sumac
Beignets with Chocolate & Fresh Peach Preserves
More pretty pictures from Ireland! Ahh that water:
Oooh, I love your dress. I hope all is well with S and his dad.
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Love, love, love your dress/shoes combo. How is S’s dad doing now?
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I want that dress.
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Hope S’s dad is all right. I read Chasing Harry Winston while at the beach (they had the paperback at our rental beach house) and it was atrocious. I definitely won’t be picking up any more of Lauren Weisberger’s books between that and your review of her latest effort… Nice legs, lady! Looking good! 🙂
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You look beautiful! Gah I miss Ireland! I am trying to convince the hubby that we need to go back next year. What was your favorite part/town?
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Sorry, I do hope S’s father is ok. I still want that dress. Please give up the deets. Please?
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You look really great! Thanks for your note. To be honest the only time Tommy could be cheating is when he’s training. He trains way out of the city by this lake so I couldn’t really drop by. I don’t think there’s any way I can reassure myself fully. I don’t think he is but I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ll talk to my therapist about it? Blah.
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Will let you know if I come up with any ways to keep the racing/crazy mind under control! Too bad I didn’t rub that bull’s balls. (It makes me feel a bit better that you’re having mind problems — you always seem so essentially healthy.)
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ryn: Thanks. It’s gorgeous in pictures, so you got your money’s worth!
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I’m glad his dad ended up being okay. Probably because you rubbed some bull balls. I’ve been looking for a comfy yet sexy black dress JUST like that one! Where did you get it? And damn, that food sounds amazing.
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Sending well wishes to S’ Dad. Not sure if you’ve been to Trees of Mystery (in real Nor Cal), but they have a HUGE statue of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox at one of the Redwood Camps. Well the thing has massive blue balls and so my friend and I could not help ourselves from hanging on them (and her Mom snapped pics of it without us noticing) haha.
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Lol I love that you just had to touch those balls.
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I laughed at your compulsion to touch the bull balls… am glad you followed through. Of course I am a highly superstitious person, so don’t mind me. LOVE that dress and those shoes together! And oh god, the photos of Ireland. So beautiful. Glad things with S’ father turned out okay!
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Love the dress and shoes. S is a good son.
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Love your legs!
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That’s a gorgeous shot of you.
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ahhhh the bulls balls. well, who wouldn’t give those bad boys a rub on their way home?! Pics are amazing, food looks amazing and love the dress 😀
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That’s a beautiful picture of you! Question: do you think you could ever live in a village or countryside? Would you shrivel up and die?
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One of our swimming group has moved to Ireland. I can’t wait to get over there and play in the water over there! CD xxx
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R: I’ve never seen “Girls.” What’s up?
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Glad S’s dad is doing okay…so scary. Hope your brain is a little more settled..you’ll have to stop by the bull daily if not!
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R: too funny! I would never attempt that again!
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I love that you had that strong urge to rub its balls and so you went for it. You are great! Hope S’s dad is ok.
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Ryn: my school totally isn’t rough! This one student was pretty tricky to manage this year but it all sounds worse than it was — he would pretend there was a bomb in the heating vent, talk about murdering other kids, etc all the time but it barely registered as a problem because that’s just who he was. Once he pretended to kick me in be head and only missed by like two inches and I didn’t even
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report it! Haha, I’m not making it sound better at all. Point is, he’s not a thug or anything, just a weird kid with quirky behaviours that most of society would find shocking but that are actually harmless (we all know there’s no bomb in the heating vent). What he needs is an educational assistant sitting with him all the time, but there’s no funding.
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ryn BUT I DON’T THINK THAT HE SHOULD EVEN DO THAT AT HOME. He was eating his foot.
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RYN: done and done! Hi! I love the Ireland photos, I miss it everyday!
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Love your dress and shoes, your legs go on for miles! You look fabulous! Glad everything was ok with S’s dad, he must have been so worried.
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This student is a special case but because we’re a neighbourhood public school, we admit anyone who lives in the boundaries and wants to attend (although there’s a tech school around the corner so we get mostly academic types). We don’t have much support for high needs students so they tend to go elsewhere. This boy has a super high IQ and is smarter than most of his teachers, by a long shot.
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When he was in Grade 8, he hacked into the director of the school board’s email account. During exams, he set the keyboards so they all typed the wrong keys. I kind of love his disregard for rules/authority and his trickster personality. But we really don’t have kids like him. He’s one of a kind, ha. I loved having him in my class, he cracked me up and his vulnerability was so moving to me.
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Love the pic of you by the bay. Hope S’s dad is still doing better. Oh Ireland.
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I’ve been reading, I swear, just really sucky at noting these days. xoxo,
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RYN: I’m a Virgo, but I’m August 25 so almost a Leo 🙂 Also, don’t feel bad. I LOVE talking about tv. I just noticed I did it more often when something was on my mind.
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hehe, always nice to read you!
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You look lovely and summery in those photos. I am jealous of the Northern Hemisphere! One of the best parts of New York I found was eating out 🙂
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Sounds like life is mostly treating you well. Glad to see a recent update!
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You and your life always look so lovely. I’m glad S’s dad was just a pinched nerve – hope he’s feeling better.
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ryn: Apparently not yet, but he’s always improving and the site is still in Beta.
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ryn: hahah no i was going out for lunch. right now i am in walmart shorts and a maternity top with no make up and my hair in a messy braid. HOT!
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I didn’t know about rubbing that bull’s balls. Will have to do that next time I’m in NYC. 😉
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haaaaaaaa! i really love the bull story for whatever reason.
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GORGEOUS photos. How did I miss this entry? And also, you have the most amazing legs. I’m going to pretend that’s just from scuba and someday I will have some of my own 😉 I do really want to just dive without a suit. I think it would be much more comfortable to stay shallow and explore reefs with a BC and some flippers THE END. The hassle of getting INTO the damn suit is enough to make me hate them, and then all the extra buoyancy? Making me wear ANKLE WEIGHTS?! Argh!! Doctors should really be specific about medication interactions. If they prescribe something that’s just a high-dose OTC, people should be TOLD that. Explicitly. Repeatedly. I’m glad he’s okay though.
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