Manhattan Excursion
Apr. 23rd, 2022 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSo made a little excursion into Manhattan to see my niece. Aided her in getting to her parents friend's house, where she was spending the night. Tomorrow she'd stay with her friend, whose Birthday is this weekend.
I basically got myself wedged into the weekend - in order to see her. Which is okay, actually. At least I have a niece to see - and at least she wishes to see me. And at least we get along and text message. Glass half full and all that. I feel like I'm on the opposite side of an argument though. I have flashes of my Aunt Kathy, and other Aunts finding time to spend with me in the city, each of us navigating around our busy lives. And feeling hit by their envy of opportunities I've had in my life that they wish they did.
Life, isn't a contest, a competition or a race. We all have journeys. Separate from each other - and we're lucky if we have companionship or even cross paths alone the way. (Sorry, I'm watching Station Eleven as I write this.)
At any rate, spent most of the day on public transit, but then so did she. Also on the plus side - transit moved smoothly and without any disruptions for once. Also, I was able to get a seat for the most part.
N: I've forgotten how dirty the NYC transit is.
Me: London tube is cleaner?
N: So much cleaner. But folks don't hassle you as much on NYC transit. Over there I prefer the buses, over here I prefer the subway.
Me: Well the buses are fun to ride over there, they are just dangerous and stressful here. Not that they aren't dangerous over there - just less so and lot more fun. [That and London buses unlike the Tube run 24/7. I loved the London buses. Which by the way are also in Wales and other places. (OR at least they were when I went over there in the 1980s. I traveled by bus through most of Wales. ]
Me: do people wear masks on transit in London?
N: Hardly at all. I'm actually surprised to see so many people wearing them here. Over there it's like 25% of the population if that - and there's no restrictions over there - no quarantine, nothing.
ME: Here it's the opposite, there's about 25% who aren't, and everyone else is. Did they wear them on Amtrak?
N: Yep, not everyone, but most people did actually. [I noticed that in the Amtrak train station as well - it depended on where folks were though - in the waiting room, a lot had them off. It's an odd inconsistency that has no real logic too it.]
Me: I've decided to take it off outside. I mean if I could sit in a restaurant without one, and talk to you for an hour. I can certainly walk and talk on a sidewalk outside without it. I mean logically - I'm more likely to get it in the restaurant.
N: Exactly.
N has talked her parents and boyfriend into traveling with her after school ends in June. N & boyfriend are going to Greece, meeting up with her parents in Italy, then parting ways with her parents returning home, and N & boyfriend heading off to Berlin to visit her friend over there. Apparently it's dirt cheap to travel in Europe at the moment. It costs $10 to take a flight to Portugal, but $60 to bring a carry on. So niece packs a small personal item, with a few clothes, and pays just $10. She said it's basically the cost of going to dinner. In the 1980s, concerts, food, plays, etc were dirt cheap in London, but travel was wickedly expensive. Now, according to N it is the exact opposite. It's expensive to go to plays, concerts, buy things, or get food - but cheap to travel. Also, according to N, hardly anyone is traveling over there at the moment, there's lots of empty seats. (Curious to see if it stays that way.)
I felt for my brother, he doesn't want to do it. (Any more than I want to do it.) Traveling overseas or internationally during a pandemic doesn't appeal to him. (He wasn't that into the idea in 2019. My brother and I had traveled a great deal between the ages of 12 -36 years of age, due to our parents. We kind of burned out on it. ) Plus my brother is 6 foot 5, N is 5'8, and bro's wife is 5'4. His wife talked him into doing it. Poor guy is caught between two women who ache to see the world. The nice thing about being single - is you can pretty much do whatever you want, without worrying over what someone else wants. The down side - is if you want to travel your choices are kind of slim.
N like pretty much 85% of the population, including my brother and his wife and their friends and all of mine, prefers loud concerts to musicals and theatrical performances. I'm the exact opposite. Although, my brother has informed mother that he has lost some hearing in his ears due to loud concerts - so karma?
N is into rap music and has talked her boyfriend into seeing a rapper this summer in concert. A fav of hers. She'd gotten tickets with her best friend, but her friend caved on her at the last minute, so she's dragging him. He loves country, she prefers rap. (She's her parents daughter. Her mother loves the Beastie Boys. It's how I know about them. I do not show her mother's love, and personally prefer country. Rap tends to give me a headache, but I did download Kendrick Lamar - to check him out. (I will try any music at least once. I try what people rec musically because it tells me something about who they are, and I'm innately curious about people. I'm curious about their likes, dislikes, etc.)
Niece is a touch more talkative than her father, but not by much. I had to work a little bit to get her talking. The trick was not to interrogate but to talk about innocuous topics, and joke.
N: So what are your plans next week?
Me: work
N: Plan on doing anything fun?
Me: working. I did take Friday off as a personal day. Overslept and stayed home, and went to the optomertist.
N: A self-care day - totally get it.
Also found out from niece that my brother cleans the house, because apparently they had a feud. It's not because he wants to, it's because he doesn't want to pay someone else to do it. His wife insisted they get a cleaning lady or cleaner. He refused - too expensive. She said they could afford it. He didn't want to make the extra expense. She told him - then he could clean the house, and not complain about it to her. So, when he cleans it, every Monday, he's very grumpy and in a bad mood. So N has learned to avoid him on Mondays. (Reminds me of my mother who was always in a crappy mood whenever she had to clean. )
My brother is like the rest of my immediate family - none of us understand the concept of paying someone else to clean up our shit. We prefer to do it ourselves. Took mother and my grandmother forever to get around to hiring someone - they only did, when it became clear that they could not do it.
I can't get myself to do it - the logistics alone turn me off. I'd have to give a stranger a set of my keys, and have they messing around with my stuff.
N wasn't operating on not much more than 4 hours of sleep. We navigated our way together - via phone apps to Beyond Sushi. And had Miso Soup, and split a buckwheat noodle peanut roll. Both were very good. And it wasn't expensive at all - about $33.50 with tip. (Niece is a cheap date.) I also got her a pop up birthday card.
Afterwards, I helped her get a metro-card via the machine - not that she wasn't capable, but there were too creepy homeless folks right next to it. According to N, the homeless problem in London isn't quite as bad as it is in NYC. (Partly because during COVID they got rid of a lot of the shelters - and the homeless have no where to go.) She was going to Brooklyn to stay with her parents friend, who lives in a building two stops away from Atlantic Avenue Terminal in Clinton Hill, near Fort Green. We took the train together to the Hoyt stop, then jumped off and switched to the G - she took the G going north-east, and I took the one going south.
***
Station Eleven - reminds me a lot of Cloud Atlas. Also a few other series - where you follow five separate point of view threads, all connected via the focal point of view characters relationships with each other. Intersecting when they come into contact. I'm trying to remember what it reminds me of - it's not Cloud Atlas exactly, but something else.
However I've seen this gimmick done a lot, recently in New Amsterdam, and it can work if done well. If done poorly - it can be difficult to follow.
"This is US" does it, as well. Station Eleven similar to This is US, jumps about in time. The last episode shifted to and from in time multiple times, and it took me a while to figure out where I was in time and the narrative through line. (It was the relationship between the Hollywood actor and his ex-wife, as seen from her point of view.)
I think this what attracted my brother to it - he loves narrative gimmicks and film gimmicks. While they tend to annoy me, once I figure them out.
That said there's some interesting character sketches in this series, and it is compelling, if slow in places.
The theme of this episode - is what if I'm living the wrong life? What if I'm doing it all wrong, wasting time doing art or some meaningless thing - only to die? Did I put importance on the wrong things?
It doesn't quite provide an answer, except that we have no way of knowing.
**
Moon Knight
Continues to be interesting, if kind of wackadoodle. It does remind me a little of Legion in how it is filmed and told. Mainly because we're in the point of view of a mentally unstable super-hero. We basically have Batman with DID. Legion also had DID.
I like it better than Legion, mainly because the lead is a touch more likable and it has a remarkably strong female lead character. Plus all of the Egypitan mythology, and archeology, and I'm sold.
The wackadoodle doesn't bother me - I read comics. However, I am growing weary of the whole insane asylum trope that the writers pull out whenever a character is being psychologically manipulated or tortured by the bad guys.
Assuming of course, it's the bad guy doing it.
After Moon Knight - we're getting Ms. Marvel with Kamala. I tried to find Naomi on the CW - but I can't and gave up. Highly annoyed by that.
***
Sensors - or the whole Glucose tracking thing I plugged into my arm.
* The readings are interesting. When I eat it goes up. When I don't it goes down. Sometimes. It was at 240 at 12 am, then dived to 140 at 1am, went back up to 241 at 12pm, then went down to 148 at 3pm, then up to 210 at 7pm, an has dove down to 100 now. Granted I just started on Friday, so may need to wait and see if it stabilizes first.
I do not have finger sticks and have never used them. So am new about this whole thing. Also it is Type 2, not Type 1, so no insulin shots, just meds.
Mother keeps getting confused.
***
Anyhow...going to try and revise a bit more of my book then bed. I got cold when I returned home. So I'm wearing sweat pants (LL Bean joggers - which feel like pjs), sweat shirt, and no socks. Yet, feet are oddly okay.
Weird.
I basically got myself wedged into the weekend - in order to see her. Which is okay, actually. At least I have a niece to see - and at least she wishes to see me. And at least we get along and text message. Glass half full and all that. I feel like I'm on the opposite side of an argument though. I have flashes of my Aunt Kathy, and other Aunts finding time to spend with me in the city, each of us navigating around our busy lives. And feeling hit by their envy of opportunities I've had in my life that they wish they did.
Life, isn't a contest, a competition or a race. We all have journeys. Separate from each other - and we're lucky if we have companionship or even cross paths alone the way. (Sorry, I'm watching Station Eleven as I write this.)
At any rate, spent most of the day on public transit, but then so did she. Also on the plus side - transit moved smoothly and without any disruptions for once. Also, I was able to get a seat for the most part.
N: I've forgotten how dirty the NYC transit is.
Me: London tube is cleaner?
N: So much cleaner. But folks don't hassle you as much on NYC transit. Over there I prefer the buses, over here I prefer the subway.
Me: Well the buses are fun to ride over there, they are just dangerous and stressful here. Not that they aren't dangerous over there - just less so and lot more fun. [That and London buses unlike the Tube run 24/7. I loved the London buses. Which by the way are also in Wales and other places. (OR at least they were when I went over there in the 1980s. I traveled by bus through most of Wales. ]
Me: do people wear masks on transit in London?
N: Hardly at all. I'm actually surprised to see so many people wearing them here. Over there it's like 25% of the population if that - and there's no restrictions over there - no quarantine, nothing.
ME: Here it's the opposite, there's about 25% who aren't, and everyone else is. Did they wear them on Amtrak?
N: Yep, not everyone, but most people did actually. [I noticed that in the Amtrak train station as well - it depended on where folks were though - in the waiting room, a lot had them off. It's an odd inconsistency that has no real logic too it.]
Me: I've decided to take it off outside. I mean if I could sit in a restaurant without one, and talk to you for an hour. I can certainly walk and talk on a sidewalk outside without it. I mean logically - I'm more likely to get it in the restaurant.
N: Exactly.
N has talked her parents and boyfriend into traveling with her after school ends in June. N & boyfriend are going to Greece, meeting up with her parents in Italy, then parting ways with her parents returning home, and N & boyfriend heading off to Berlin to visit her friend over there. Apparently it's dirt cheap to travel in Europe at the moment. It costs $10 to take a flight to Portugal, but $60 to bring a carry on. So niece packs a small personal item, with a few clothes, and pays just $10. She said it's basically the cost of going to dinner. In the 1980s, concerts, food, plays, etc were dirt cheap in London, but travel was wickedly expensive. Now, according to N it is the exact opposite. It's expensive to go to plays, concerts, buy things, or get food - but cheap to travel. Also, according to N, hardly anyone is traveling over there at the moment, there's lots of empty seats. (Curious to see if it stays that way.)
I felt for my brother, he doesn't want to do it. (Any more than I want to do it.) Traveling overseas or internationally during a pandemic doesn't appeal to him. (He wasn't that into the idea in 2019. My brother and I had traveled a great deal between the ages of 12 -36 years of age, due to our parents. We kind of burned out on it. ) Plus my brother is 6 foot 5, N is 5'8, and bro's wife is 5'4. His wife talked him into doing it. Poor guy is caught between two women who ache to see the world. The nice thing about being single - is you can pretty much do whatever you want, without worrying over what someone else wants. The down side - is if you want to travel your choices are kind of slim.
N like pretty much 85% of the population, including my brother and his wife and their friends and all of mine, prefers loud concerts to musicals and theatrical performances. I'm the exact opposite. Although, my brother has informed mother that he has lost some hearing in his ears due to loud concerts - so karma?
N is into rap music and has talked her boyfriend into seeing a rapper this summer in concert. A fav of hers. She'd gotten tickets with her best friend, but her friend caved on her at the last minute, so she's dragging him. He loves country, she prefers rap. (She's her parents daughter. Her mother loves the Beastie Boys. It's how I know about them. I do not show her mother's love, and personally prefer country. Rap tends to give me a headache, but I did download Kendrick Lamar - to check him out. (I will try any music at least once. I try what people rec musically because it tells me something about who they are, and I'm innately curious about people. I'm curious about their likes, dislikes, etc.)
Niece is a touch more talkative than her father, but not by much. I had to work a little bit to get her talking. The trick was not to interrogate but to talk about innocuous topics, and joke.
N: So what are your plans next week?
Me: work
N: Plan on doing anything fun?
Me: working. I did take Friday off as a personal day. Overslept and stayed home, and went to the optomertist.
N: A self-care day - totally get it.
Also found out from niece that my brother cleans the house, because apparently they had a feud. It's not because he wants to, it's because he doesn't want to pay someone else to do it. His wife insisted they get a cleaning lady or cleaner. He refused - too expensive. She said they could afford it. He didn't want to make the extra expense. She told him - then he could clean the house, and not complain about it to her. So, when he cleans it, every Monday, he's very grumpy and in a bad mood. So N has learned to avoid him on Mondays. (Reminds me of my mother who was always in a crappy mood whenever she had to clean. )
My brother is like the rest of my immediate family - none of us understand the concept of paying someone else to clean up our shit. We prefer to do it ourselves. Took mother and my grandmother forever to get around to hiring someone - they only did, when it became clear that they could not do it.
I can't get myself to do it - the logistics alone turn me off. I'd have to give a stranger a set of my keys, and have they messing around with my stuff.
N wasn't operating on not much more than 4 hours of sleep. We navigated our way together - via phone apps to Beyond Sushi. And had Miso Soup, and split a buckwheat noodle peanut roll. Both were very good. And it wasn't expensive at all - about $33.50 with tip. (Niece is a cheap date.) I also got her a pop up birthday card.
Afterwards, I helped her get a metro-card via the machine - not that she wasn't capable, but there were too creepy homeless folks right next to it. According to N, the homeless problem in London isn't quite as bad as it is in NYC. (Partly because during COVID they got rid of a lot of the shelters - and the homeless have no where to go.) She was going to Brooklyn to stay with her parents friend, who lives in a building two stops away from Atlantic Avenue Terminal in Clinton Hill, near Fort Green. We took the train together to the Hoyt stop, then jumped off and switched to the G - she took the G going north-east, and I took the one going south.
***
Station Eleven - reminds me a lot of Cloud Atlas. Also a few other series - where you follow five separate point of view threads, all connected via the focal point of view characters relationships with each other. Intersecting when they come into contact. I'm trying to remember what it reminds me of - it's not Cloud Atlas exactly, but something else.
However I've seen this gimmick done a lot, recently in New Amsterdam, and it can work if done well. If done poorly - it can be difficult to follow.
"This is US" does it, as well. Station Eleven similar to This is US, jumps about in time. The last episode shifted to and from in time multiple times, and it took me a while to figure out where I was in time and the narrative through line. (It was the relationship between the Hollywood actor and his ex-wife, as seen from her point of view.)
I think this what attracted my brother to it - he loves narrative gimmicks and film gimmicks. While they tend to annoy me, once I figure them out.
That said there's some interesting character sketches in this series, and it is compelling, if slow in places.
The theme of this episode - is what if I'm living the wrong life? What if I'm doing it all wrong, wasting time doing art or some meaningless thing - only to die? Did I put importance on the wrong things?
It doesn't quite provide an answer, except that we have no way of knowing.
**
Moon Knight
Continues to be interesting, if kind of wackadoodle. It does remind me a little of Legion in how it is filmed and told. Mainly because we're in the point of view of a mentally unstable super-hero. We basically have Batman with DID. Legion also had DID.
I like it better than Legion, mainly because the lead is a touch more likable and it has a remarkably strong female lead character. Plus all of the Egypitan mythology, and archeology, and I'm sold.
The wackadoodle doesn't bother me - I read comics. However, I am growing weary of the whole insane asylum trope that the writers pull out whenever a character is being psychologically manipulated or tortured by the bad guys.
Assuming of course, it's the bad guy doing it.
After Moon Knight - we're getting Ms. Marvel with Kamala. I tried to find Naomi on the CW - but I can't and gave up. Highly annoyed by that.
***
Sensors - or the whole Glucose tracking thing I plugged into my arm.
* The readings are interesting. When I eat it goes up. When I don't it goes down. Sometimes. It was at 240 at 12 am, then dived to 140 at 1am, went back up to 241 at 12pm, then went down to 148 at 3pm, then up to 210 at 7pm, an has dove down to 100 now. Granted I just started on Friday, so may need to wait and see if it stabilizes first.
I do not have finger sticks and have never used them. So am new about this whole thing. Also it is Type 2, not Type 1, so no insulin shots, just meds.
Mother keeps getting confused.
***
Anyhow...going to try and revise a bit more of my book then bed. I got cold when I returned home. So I'm wearing sweat pants (LL Bean joggers - which feel like pjs), sweat shirt, and no socks. Yet, feet are oddly okay.
Weird.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 06:21 pm (UTC)I may eliminate sweets. (Not that hard - done that before. And I don't add sugar to things, stopped over ten years ago.) Also, I'm done with sweets, and they are no longer available (the ones I want).
I discovered something else - when the sugar level is within range - I feel like myself, fine. When it's not - I'm tired, brain fog, and tingly.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 09:47 pm (UTC)Grumpy old man
Date: 2022-04-24 01:43 pm (UTC)My parents never went anywhere till I was about 12, and I shamed them into to taking a long road trip. They got the bug, and from then on till I was in college we went every summer and saw a new part of the country. Once I (their youngest child) was in college they took trips in the fall when it was much less crowded at places they wanted to see. I went to Europe by myself when I graduated, then didn't travel because I was busy with grad school. Once I was well settled I started taking road trips by myself. I did it for about a decade, then the nuisances of travel caught up with me in my mid 40's and I really haven't enjoyed traveling since.
I kind of liked rap in its very infancy back in the 90's. I called it "bad poetry to a good beat." But the music behind it got worse and the poetry never got better. So I tired of it quickly.
Re: Grumpy old man
Date: 2022-04-24 03:34 pm (UTC)They were just curious. Also traveling was easier in the 20th Century. It's harder now. More restrictions in place and more people traveling.
Rap? For me - I tend to like the hip-hop form better, which is less angry, and less talking and more singing. Rap is more a sound of the streets, and has a hard edge.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 06:24 pm (UTC)And yes, I was just thinking that about Moon Knight after this latest episode, that it reminded me of Legion.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-25 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-25 02:59 am (UTC)