Sunny Days and Bicycle Seats!

The past fews days here have been of the fabulous variety - warm, breezy, sunny - perfect for bikerides. Not that I've been out on the ol' Trek in a few weeks (it was, until yesterday, locked away in the rear apartment after a temporary tenant moved in and the landlady mistakenly locked us out and away from our remaining stored belongings). Today I became the thrilled new owner of a baby bicycle seat and will take it over to the Trek store as soon as I can to have the boys down there professionally mount it. I've got the instruction manual, but where's the sense in jimmying with this sort of contraption that is meant to safely contain my sweet goon-child when someone whose done it many times over will do it for a nominal fee? I can't begin to say how excited I'm getting just thinking of strapping her in with the little helmet atop her melon; she will be a sight to behold!

We've been getting out on more runs lately, too, and Rob has been taking one for the team and pushing Olive in the jogging stroller alongside me, then bidding me farewell for the rest of my run after he's done a mile. I'm pretty proud of him. I think I just might be able to pull of this race I'm running in two and a half weeks, thanks in large part to the new pair of Saucony Grid Ignition I got two weeks ago. I blame my recent back pain to the shoes I was wearing - New Balance something or others that were also new. I've been running in NBs since the late '90s and they'd always done well by me until this last pair. When I started feeling tension in my achilles tendon I knew something was amiss and immediately commenced the running shoe research which led to my next purchase. They're easily the ugliest pair of running shoes I've had in a long time - sugary-purple and silver, but I can't be bothered now with cosmetic details. I'd wear Disney princess tennies at this point if they promised to get the job done.

One more subject of note: I have just met and fallen hopelessly in love with a house in the neighborhood that is newly on the market. It's a steal at $399K but still very much out of our price range. It has six bedrooms, a pool, was built in 1920, a beautiful lawn, is on my favorite street in Highland Park, and butts up against the Khorey's backyard. I may just have to run another marathon to raise funds to go towards the downpayment. All contributors will get to come and live rent-free for a year!

Easter

For the first time in four years I attended church on Easter Sunday. When I lived in Maryland it had become my tradition to take my great-grandmother to church then maybe go out to lunch afterwards. Then I moved to Maine which curtailed our Easter outings. This morning I went for the first time to East Liberty Presbyterian Church with Katrina. It was a beautiful service with songs that I knew (and made me a little weepy at times remembering singing them with Gi-Gi when I'd go to church with her), and a welcoming, diverse congregation, and I'd like to start attending regularly on Wednesday evenings since I normally work on Sunday mornings.

This evening we went to dinner at the new home of Katrina, Shauna, and her husband, Cornelius. Libby and Tucker, friends of theirs I met at church this morning, were also there and we shared a delicious meal of salad that we brought, fruit salad from Libby and Tucker, mashed potatoes and deviled eggs Katrina made, and breakfast sausage and mushrooms by Shauna. Their three-story rowhouse is a dream - light, airy kitchen, lots of fireplaces, a decorative staircase, and large windows. I love that I have friends to visit who live in such a neat place!

Shauna and her sausagey labor of love

Katrina told us all the fill our mouths with food and smile for the camera. Looks like I was the only one who followed directions.



I love that foam wallpaper made to look like pressed tin that was used on ceilings in days gone by. My parents had the same kind of stuff in the sunroom in their old house. Nice touch, and nice color, too.

Me, Shauna, Libby, and Katrina

First Post-Olive Date/Concert Review

Thursday night was not only a big deal because we went on our first outing together without the Olive since her arrival, but the occasion was to see the Decemberists and Justin Townes Earle at the Benedum Center. Wow, wow, and wow. Katrina was a dear and came to babysit the goon, who had already been put to bed (but because being on the road all day for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday her sleep was thrown off course a little bit and she woke up not long after we left). With it being my fourth time seeing the Decemberists live I knew what to expect, and though I enjoy the music of J.T.E. I was not prepared to be as awestruck as I was. The guy was phenomenal. Channeling Hank Williams circa 1949 like nobody's business, all gangly legs, pointed-toe boots and Tennessee shuffle. It was just him and a fiddler/backup vocalist and they put on a flawless show. After witnessing Earle's booming-yet-melodic twang and mind-blowing guitar work I could've gone home happy but I knew more good stuff was to come. The Decemberists did what they do best by pulling out some of their longer, more epic works (frontman Colin Meloy quipped that, "Whoever wrote the set list must've thought we were a "prog" band. We're a folk band," referring to the group's recent departure from their prog(ressive) rock reputation in favor a simpler, more folksy sound. I hadn't heard much off of their latest album, The King is Dead, released early this year, but it's obvious that my favorite, R.E.M., was a big influence; they even pulled in Peter Buck, the band's guitarist, to sit in on a few tracks on the album. During their performance on one of these numbers, "Down By the Water", just when I was thinking of the particular R.E.M. album that would feature that song, Rob leaned over and said, "I can just imagine them singing FIRE! right now." And he was exactly right. Take a listen to the video clip I've included and tell me that this isn't a total "The One I Love" knockoff. Tell me. I would've taped more of the show but I was being a renegade and disobeying the Benedum's "No Recording Devices or Cameras" policy. I didn't want to push my luck. They played quite a few of the new songs, which I knew they'd do, and in my preoccupation with being a mother I neglected my normal pre-concert homework of getting to know the album front and back. They did do one of my favorites: "The Bagman's Gambit", a really, really cool song about star-crossed lovers - one working for the U.S. government and the other a Soviet spy. Meloy has a real gift for intelligent songwriting that veers refreshingly from the trite, and his language is so creative, if not over-the-top at times. It was little wonder that their set was only fourteen songs long; their first encore was the just-under-twenty-minutesThick as a Brick-esque five-part suite, The Tain. I'm still not sure what it's about (the theft of a cow, or so I'm led to believe) but I am sure that it's amazing. They capped off the night with a tender "June Hymn", an ode to early summer, and it brought a tear to my eye. It was oh, so very nice to attend a concert again. I've come a long way from the days when I'd catch at the very least a show a week, but it's good to dip my feet into the waters from time to time.

Feeling like a tourist in the theater district

Get a load of this chandelier! Twenty feet tall. I love it.

Spring Break Quick Trip

This post is going to be rife with visual aids, so it will hopefully make up for the recent ones where I skimped on photos.

Since I was off work for four whole days this week Olive and I zipped down to Maryland on Tuesday morning after dropping off Rob at the aviary. I was doubtful that the trip would happen since the goon was feeling less than perky the evening before with a low-grade fever, but when 5:30 am rolled around she had most certainly come 'round. We only had two days to pack in all the visits that we wanted to have (and still missed a few, regrettably), so there was a lot of time spent in the car. Expertly gauging and avoiding the DC beltway traffic, we went to visit Sam, my college roommate and 7 month-old son, Grant, who is still wonderfully bald as day is long. Sam's mother, brother, and stepfather were visiting from Massachusetts, so it was really good to get to see all of them, too. Her husband, Howard, got home from work right as we were getting ready to leave. Always a treat. Olive was delighted with Grant, gently touching his velvety head and giving him sweet kisses. I'm glad to have had the cats because I think they've taught her to handle other living things with care.

Wednesday was gorgeous and 80 degrees. Ben graced us with his presence, and when Olive and I went to greet him in the driveway it was clear from her immediate grin that he was no stranger to her. I'm looking forward to seeing the many photographs he snapped of her out on the deck. When she rose from her afternoon nap Ben left and she and I left for Baltimore, first to visit Amaryllis, the jewelry store where I used to work, then see Christina and Teresa, two of my old coworkers from there. Allie, my beloved old boss, was working and it was delightful to see her as always. Olive wasn't at all interested in the jewelry in the cases but in the fax machine on the floor - very telling. It was so great to be back in my old city and see my friends, some of whom I've known for nearly ten years. I'm always a little sad that I don't live there any longer and probably won't again. It's just not a place I see raising my family and I've already spent a good part of my life there, so I can be satisfied to leave it at that, though when driving through the northern sections of the city en route to Teresa's house in Towson I was tempted to think about signing up for the marathon in the fall. We'll see how the one here goes in three weeks before I commit to anything I can't handle.

Getting comfortable at the in-laws'
That's him, the boyfriend.




Uncle Trev
Buggy and Sam's mom, "Oma"

Trying to make sense of Christina's hair

The handsome rowhouses of Baltimore's Charles Village

Blueberry Goon

Happy Birthday to My Sis

Today my little sister turned 27 years old. Though I have a number of friends who are a few years younger than her it always strikes me as funny since she's always sort of been a little girl to me (don't worry, Kell - I regard you much more highly than that, but I think you know what I mean). Though I didn't get to see her today, I know she rung in her 28th year with lots of sweet tots by her side.

Hope to see you soon after we get back to Pittsburgh, Boot!

Going 'Round the Bend?

To use a phrase favored by my mother, I swunny. Today I finally started feeling like the walls were closing in on me. Though I was able to make it out the door to work this morning without having to call in the S.W.A.T. team to locate my car keys or forgetting to bring something critical like the cash drawer with me to the market, things are beginning to pile up and go awry. I honestly don't know how my sister does it. It's not like my job is all that taxing, but it does involve some take-home business for me wherein I utilize my never-impressive mathematics skills to balance the earnings of not one but two booths (I know, I know. Woe is me for having to count cash and bottles of olive oil when some folks' work consists of circumventing the intricate network of arteries to perform life-saving surgery). I left work early to be home in time for Rob to get to his overnight educator job at the zoo. While walking to the car Olive's full bottle (that we'd just found under the couch not thirty minutes prior) fell out of the diaper bag and landed with a heartbreaking shatter on the cement. We'd done remarkably well with our two Dr. Brown's glass bottles over the last year, so it was really the loss of milk that pained me most. Olive and I dropped him off then headed back down to the market because I'd not brought in the correct key for the zippered envelope for making bank deposits so I needed to go back to take care of that, only I couldn't find those keys while I was home (where were they?, you ask. Oh, just right on the shelf where they always are, just hiding behind a box of batteries).

I think my biggest problem is that our apartment is trashed and I can't live here with a clear head so I'm constantly going around in an addled fog. This must be how a drug addict must feel, I think sometimes. I can easily see why people hire housekeepers - because they simply cannot maintain their spaces themselves. I fear that I am one of those people, and it's really starting to drive me batty. I work all the time, Rob works quite a bit, too, and I have a hard time tearing myself away from those sweet moments together with my family to give the place the thorough reorganizing it needs. It may be time to hire a professional.

Oh, What a Glorious Day!

After being thwarted numerous times by unfavorable weather, sick children, or scheduling conflicts, our plans to visit the zoo with the Ryans finally came to pass. As Iris had never been there outside of the womb - their last trip was made just three days before she was born last May - I'd say it was high time. While Olive and I waited for them to arrive we took in the gorillas to see what sort of hijinks our old pals were up to. We browsed the grounds more once Kellie and her brood arrived and I was once again amused by how worked up Jack becomes over the small things; while standing by the fence surrounding the giraffe and elephant enclosure, it was the school of fiery orange koi that had his rapt attention. "Momma, I've never seen a fish before!" Because wildlife of the African savanna is commonplace in his world but fish...well, fish are the epitome of exotic.

Because we got to the zoo right about the time Olive would normally have been bedding down for second nap, she was contemplative, quiet, and a little bit irritable, so we departed as the Ryans were setting up for lunch near the sea lions. She dozed sweetly in the stroller (it was a little warm for the Ergo) on the 30-minute walk home and transitioned easily to her crib once we arrived back home. After a day spent in the sunshine that's been pretty rare this month, I would've gladly done the same.

Sweetiedoll Iris
Jack and Gail. Little did they know they'd get to see fish at the zoo!
The new African painted dog puppies. Ridiculously cute little mongrels.

Another cute mongrel

Running Thoughts

After another day of somber, miserable, raw April weather, the evening miraculously brought clear, sunny skies and more springlike temperatures. And so I ran. My back's been feeling better, though I've yet to take much precautionary action (namely yoga, which lots of friends with back troubles have prescribed). In the last week I've run only one other time - the first ever Cramer family run - and I took it very easy with only a mile. Tonight I did five around the neighborhood and park and thoroughly enjoyed the stream of thought that accompanied my outing.

Something about running around the northern edge of Highland Park overlooking the Allegheny River reminds me of my runs in Nashville during the summer and autumn of 2006 when I was training for my first marathon with the Cumberland River serving as the aquatic backdrop through the Shelby Bottoms Greenway where I'd usually run. Boy, did I love living there, though I could've trained more diligently. The problem, like here, is that I was spending too much time living life and not enough time hitting the pavement. My training regimen for my second marathon in 2008 was far more successful, but the difference was that I was living in Maine, had a grand total of two friends in the state, neither of whom monopolized too much of my time. I also (to my knowledge) had zero children. Running nine miles nearly every day was not a problem for me. I'm not really sorry that I haven't made training my top priority these past few months. My days are busy enough, and by the time I'm free to run I don't really want to be out for longer than an hour, and not because my muscles, joints, and energy level protest, but my desire to spend time with Rob. I don't know how some couples do it, barely able to snatch a few moments over coffee in the mornings, and that isn't for me. I was spoiled for the first year of our marriage getting to spend all of my time away from work with him, so it's been more difficult with him working normal hours now (though good for him, career-wise, and I'm happy for and proud of him for doing what he loves to do).

Another thing I was considering on my run this evening was the incorporation of music with the running. I've rarely used a portable music-listening device while running, and really only employed one in 2008 and 2009 (playing a very limited mix of R.E.M., Deer Tick, and Blitzen Trapper tunes that will forever remind me of my regular 9-mile course through the back roads of Pembroke, Maine along Cobscook Bay during the winter of '09). Though I love music and it's always played a major role in my life, I have less of a taste for it while I'm running. Strange, especially given the fact that most people I know or see who are running or working out in some capacity have the ubiquitous earbuds and tendrils of wires connecting to their iPods that are no doubt pumping out high energy aerobic jams to motivate them to keep moving. Me, though, I liked to run to whatever music I normally listened to, regardless of tempo. To combat the boredom of treadmill running - what little bit of it I did this winter - I found a cheap little mp3 player that I still haven't used on my runs. I don't know if it's because I have such difficulty getting those pesky little nodules to stay in my ears or what (I don't think I have ear hole openings shaped much differently than most people, so why is it that I see countless people bounding along like gazelles with ear buds firmly in place while I can't make it from the couch to the kitchen without having to cram them further down my ear canal? Giving up, I've found that I really savor the time I have to simply think and take in my surroundings - a sort of moving meditation. Music can be distracting, and as chaotic as my days can be, a little time spent taking in smaller details is really appreciated.

I am constantly reminded that (and I can say this with confidence after having lived here for almost eight months) Highland Park is the best neighborhood in Pittsburgh, in my opinion.

Fruit trees have amazing shapes. They're bent, craggy, twisted, perfect in their imperfection, and they bear fruit. And who doesn't love that?

When I run up around the reservoir and reach the top of the flight of stone steps, I'm humbled by the stillness of the water, reminded of how water, when still, is perfectly level. Being in Pittsburgh with all of its many hills makes me that much more aware of a patch of perfectly flat, and it's wonderfully settling.

The sunset this evening - that there was a sun to see at all, with the way the day started! - was inspiring, and I wish that you could see it. The sun, passing down through the not-yet-leafy trees, was topped by a flourish of some of the wispiest, most expressive clouds I've seen in a long time. It was as if the contents of the sky had been tossed into a blender and had been set into frenzied motion, the funnel of it suspended in time. I just think I might have missed appreciating these things if my mind was focused on the lyrics of an R.E.M. tune playing in my ears.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Second Child

Because I'm in desperate need of things to fill my days to maximum capacity (HA!), I took on another child to watch in my pre-Khorey time (9-4). Luca is a 2 year-old, the daughter of Josiah, the Khorey's landscaper (he solicited my services last week while I was by dropping off some laundry and it seemed like a good idea at the time). Usually I'll be watching her on the rainy days when her dad will be less likely to be working in the field, which was why today was a bit of a surprise (rainy and yuck). He brought her by and she, Olive, and I were housebound save for five minutes when I took Luca out into the rain to knock on the door of the vacant house next to ours, imagining who might live inside - this was to give Olive some quiet time to fall asleep, but it was all in vain. She's been spoiled living with Rob and me, being allowed near silence during her nap times, so the incessant and irrepressible babbling of a tot was making falling asleep for her impossible. Not a comforting thought. It was interesting, though, the way having Luca over today was making me think. Not that I feel like I could or should be loving my own child more, but having someone else's in my home all day elicited an even stronger affection and attachment to my sweet Goon. Maybe it was the fact that Luca, newly in the throes of the Terrible Twos, according to her dad, made Olive seem all the more dear in comparison. When having to tend to Luca's needs I was feeling some pangs of guilt when Olive would look at my quizzically, possibly wondering about this new child with whom she was sharing me (and who was napping in her bedroom behind the closed door). I couldn't blame Luca, really, but she was bossy, not a good listener, defiant, selfish with Olive's toys, and a little short-tempered with her, to boot. At one point she was kicking her feet in close proximity to Olive and I could see that she would easily kick her if she wasn't careful. I warned her, Olive was kicked, Olive cried, then I explained to Luca that that was why I'd asked her not to kick, though I knew she didn't mean to. I asked her again to reinforce my no kicking rule, and she kicked again just to test my limits. I sat her in time out in the darker corner of the hallway, then went to get her and asked if she knew why she was there. "For kicking," she quietly replied. "Good. I'm glad you understand, " I said. "Are you going to kick again?" "Yes." Hmm. I have some work to do.

All in all, though, it was an okay day. I'm still picking up bits of apple that she spit out or offered to Ché, but it's not so bad. I've just been used to having Olive, and though I've heard that two is not much different than one, I'm begging to differ. I am seeing this as an opportunity to learn about a child this age and to gain more patience for when Olive begins to test me. So far she's given me us a pretty easy ride and we love her for it.

Note: I need to locate my camera battery charger; in the meantime readers will have to be content with being just that: readers.

Picnickers

To cap off a glorious, warm spring day (dig the 79 degrees!), Rob, Olive, and I joined our new friends, Katrina and Shauna, for a picnic down the street. There's an open space on the grounds of the King Estate, a privately-owned historic manor seven blocks from our home, that has sort of been turned into a dog park. Tall trees encircle a grassy bowl of lawn - perfect for spreading out a blanket and enjoying a light dinner on a sunny Sunday evening...

The Goon happily explored her surroundings, becoming more adept at navigating the unpredictable grassy terrain, though not the puddles. At one point, she ventured off the sidewalk and aimed to walk through a puddle whose depth was deceiving; down she went and waddled about in muddy shoes and britches for a while afterward, till Rob stripped her of her overalls and we were left with my favorite: a pantsless Goon (my camera battery died before I could capture footage of those darling bare legs). She was fearless as she independently wandered down the hill to the base of the bowl. Rob went to snatch her before she rounded a corner, never to be seen again, and brought her back to join the party. We dined on local turkey-spinach-and-cheese sandwiches, apples, celery and peanut butter, Shauna's maple walnuts (wow), and oranges, and Katrina and I learned how to play Hearts on the lovely floral playing cards Shauna brought. It should be noted that Katrina and Shauna are fellow market employees who work across from me at the Clarion River Organics stand, and happen to live three or four blocks away. Both are delightful, interesting and fun gals (and Shauna's husband, Cornelius, is a dear, too, but is usually working at a men's shelter in the evenings when we're all getting together), and we've been taking advantage of our proximity to each other by playing games, cooking dinners, biking to and from work, and visiting art galleries as often as we can. Katrina's going to babysit Olive in a few weeks when Rob and I go to a concert, and I'm glad we've got someone who she knows and likes (and whose name she can pronounce: Kat!). It's great to know people who enrich your lives the way they do, and I'm feeling pretty fortunate to have fallen in with them.