Remember Me To Herald Square

 It’s been a while since I wrote about day to day happenings.  Too long to go back and try and get everything, so I’ll start with mid-September and go from there.

A couple of weekends ago I went to Palm Beach Florida to visit my parents from Thursday to Saturday after what was already a very long week.   View was amazing, their place is literally right on the beach.  The weather was very warm, I swam every day, took walks, ate at local restaurants, and went to bed early.  Only opened the laptop once to edit and send on a powerpoint deck, other than that only periodic blackberry.  Good stuff.

Got back Saturday night and S met me at the airport.  We took the train back, had a chill night.  I had to work in Connecticut on Saturday, but I rented a car and drove there with S instead of taking the train, made it much nicer.  The rest of that week was a lot of really late nights, but I maintained my holy grail of white space in the inbox which made it worthwhile.  S has been taking a woodworking class on Thursday evenings so that is usually a good day to plow through work.

Friday night we went out for all day Dim Sum at  Red Egg, a funky Cantonese place downtown.  We shared a bottle of wine and ordered way too much, but were smart and brought some home as leftovers, for once.  After a long leisurely dinner we walked up Bowery and I really wanted stopped in at Saxon + Parole, one of my absolute favorites, for another drink.  I had the champagne bottled negroni, and S had a “fall spice” sazerac which was not quite a traditional saz, but came garnished with a skewer of toasted marshmallows – mmm!  After that we walked home and totally crashed!

The next morning we woke up around noon, which felt like the crack of dawn, and I went to get a haircut and S went to get fitted for a new suit.  Then we did errands, I went to the library (a different one than my normal branch) and got so many awesome books.  I had a papaya drink and a hot dog for lunch, and then we walked home.  We took a nap and then headed up for the premiere of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” which was really cute.  Ben Stiller did a great job as the title character and as the director, and Sean Penn, Kristin Wiig, and Patton Oswalt were all good in supporting roles.  They were all there and looked really happy with the movie – I see some mixed reviews on-line but I’d completely recommend if you want a simple, uplifting adventure story, with some really gorgeous scenery.  We cut out early from the Q&A, walked home, then crashed.

Sunday morning we were supposed to get up early for a run, but I was still zonked so we had breakfast and went back to bed.  Headed out mid-afternoon to see “The Immigrant” with Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix.  I’m not a huge fan of the director, James Gray, but he was really funny and the movie was really nice.  A little disjointed but I loved seeing his vision of the early twentieth century New York City, and Marion Cotillard is just amazing, was kind of disappointed she didn’t come to the screening, I would have liked to see her in person.  Preferably in a kick-ass fishscale patterned gown.  After that we walked home, cleaned up the house, and lazed around the rest of the evening.

Monday and Tuesday were both late nights, Monday S made me chopped mixed cucumber, tomato, and avocado in vinegar – so good.  Last night was tilapia with homemade mango salsa on top – I am ridiculously excited to have leftovers of this over green salad for lunch today.  

This morning I headed up to Herald Square to join Diana Nyad for a slot during her 2 day Swim for Relief to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.  The whole thing is pretty amazing…she is swimming for 48 hours in a specially built pool basically on the street next to Macy’s under the Empire State Building.  Different people were invited to swim with her for short shifts, including first responders from the NYFD, Ryan Lochte, Richard Simmons (in a flowered cap and specially designed crystal swimsuit!), Alcide from True Blood, hurricane survivors, and me.  It was really interesting – the pool was really nice and quite large for two lanes, with changing rooms and a restroom.  We walked in, got situated, and got briefed on the do’s and don’t for the shift.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, there weren’t too many rules for us, just to come in, let Diana say goodbye to the previous person, have her greet me, then swim with her, making sure to stay behind her (which is the usual rule for pace swimmers.)  She had been swimming for like 24 hours at that point but was really consistent.  

We’d do a length, flipturn at the far end, then a touch turn at the near wall.  It was really neat, usually when I swim with people I am racing them, but this was collaborative, swimming in unison.  Toward the end of my shift she was fed various liquids, had anti-chafing cream applied, and was about to get out to use the restroom (handlers brought her a robe) but then decided she’d wait until the next feed.  (I was really curious about the bathroom thing!)  There didn’t seem to be any rules about touching people, holding on to the wall, or standing/walking on the pool bottom.   The time passed really quickly and before I knew it, the next swimmer was there, Diana gave me a hug, and we said goodbye.  She was extremely gracious and tinier than I expected.  Diana is a polarizing figure in the marathon swim community and I’ve already caught flack for swimming with her, but it was a unique experience and I was absolutely thrilled to be invited.

After the swim I got out, dried off, then ran into a few friends who were there to cheer on their triathlon teammates.  Such a small world!  I went downstairs, walked into Diana’s changing room accidentally, and saw a congratulatory letter from President Obama on the desk!  Went into the appropriate room, changed, chatted a bit with them, then met up with S and my mom for breakfast. We all had breakfast and coffee, then said goodbye, got ready for work and the day is flying.

Most importantly, today is S’s birthday, so I’ve already shared a few birthday surprises with him, and have a few more in store – yay!