Zip Car

We had our first foray into Zip Car yesterday. I signed up on Friday and went to their office to pick up my card in possibly one of the least fun places to be in the city (31st and Broadway), especially when it’s 85 degrees.  We had initially reserved a car for the afternoon to go to the amazing furniture place in Greenpoint (whose name I still won’t disclose) and wound up switching plans to go to Philadelphia for Barbara’s birthday.  Yesterday morning we woke up, walked over to Montague Street, got in a little red Mazda and drove the 99 miles.  After a great day with the Behars (and maybe the most delicious carrot cake cupcakes I have ever had) we drove back, filling up the gas tank with their gas card and blowing through the EZ Pass lanes with their included EZ Pass.  A few hours later we were back in Brooklyn.  We dropped off the car, locked it back up with my card and we were done.  It was pretty damn easy.  So far? Pretty impressed.

Pineapple Street

We’re getting ready to move again.  If all goes well today, the people who live in the apartment we want to rent will be relocating to their brand new apartment a few blocks away, a cleaning service will scour the 1300 square foot space tomorrow, and on Thursday, we’ll be able to move our things in.  Scott and I have been without our own apartment for a long time.  We moved from Rio to Sao Paulo on December 2nd, dismantling something quite comfortable.  We lived in the flat at the Staybridge Suites until February, the two of us in one room, trying not to trip over one another and cooking all of our meals on one electric burner. From February on, we’ve been moving.  We stayed with Paulo and Edite for a week, then it was off to the north–to Pipa, Fortaleza, Jericoacoara, Salvador, Morro de Sao Paulo, Belo-Horizonte, Tiradentes, then back to Paulo and Edite’s, then Juquehy, and then Tryp with Lucy.  When Scott left (where he began the bounce between New York and Philadelphia) I stayed with Karen and Andre, then back with Paulo and Edite, and back and forth until Lindsay came and we went to Juquehy, then back to Sao Paulo, then to Rio.  Since I’ve come back to the US, Scott and I have alternated between our parents’ houses, added in a trip to North Carolina, a stay at the Holiday Inn on 26th Street.

This is all a long way of saying it’s time for us to have a place to live, to take all of our stuff out of storage, to have everything in the same apartment.  It will be nice to take stock of what we have and discover things we haven’t seen in a while.  I hope everything goes well, and we can move in, no snags.  For now, we’ll be driving back from Philadelphia to New York, after having packed up again last night.

Barefoot Running, Reconsidered

Running since I’ve gotten home has been challenging.  First I thought it was the cold.  I started going to Exhale again, and was feeling pretty strong.  Then running in my Vibrams all over Philadelphia and around Larchmont was hurting my feet.  I went to the Philadelphia Runner shop and talked to a woman there about intermediary shoes between the flat flat Vibrams and my clunky Asics.  I walked out with a new pair of snazzy, lightweight runners. I thought they were great the first time I used them, trotting through Center City and along the path beside the Schuylkill River.  After my last couple of runs, I’m worried that the combination of core fusion/yoga/pilates and barefoot running isn’t quite agreeing with my body. I used to love running (and I still do!), but now it’s not coming that easily to me.  Five miles feels difficult, not on my lungs, but my legs feel dead every time.  Sadly, I may have to return to the old clunkers, we’ll see.

Phillies, Phila, and Yoga

Yesterday was a perfect day for a baseball game.  The sun was shining and it was opening day at Citizens Bank Park.  The field was green, everyone was excited.  Bob, Scott and I made our way into the stadium and we had a lovely afternoon watching the Phillies win, eating crab fries and cheering.

This morning I went to Philly Power Yoga, which was great, and after tearing my favorite jeans last night, went on a quest to find another pair.  I think that doing things in Philadelphia is generally easier than in New York.  I was looking for a pair of lightweight minimal sneakers to switch out with my Vibrams and went to the Philadelphia Running Store, where the people who worked there were extremely knowledgeable.  I needed black shoes to wear to the six weddings we have between now and next March and it was easy to find those as well.  After a hot, relaxing yoga class, I felt ready to bend myself into any pair of jeans that Barneys Co-Op could throw my way.  Not so simple.  It was lucky for me that Anthropologie next door had a great selection.

Now it’s back to New York to see all of our cousins for dinner!

Stick Shift

Since I’ve gotten home, Scott has been teaching me how to drive stick.  When he was living in Boston, we took one spin around a suburban parking lot, and it went pretty well. Nearly two years later, after watching Scott drive through Brazil, it’s clear that I needed to learn.  We’ve been using his sister’s Jetta, and one day last week we tootled around Larchmont, practicing in the manor.  It was a beautiful day, and I only got into trouble once, where I had to stop at a stop sign on a slight hill.  A woman with a stroller crossed the street just behind me and was not happy when I rolled back the tiniest bit by accident.  I promise, I don’t actively try to hit babies.  

Today, I wanted to practice more.  Since we’re on our way to the Phillies game, we didn’t have a lot of time, and definitely not enough time to drive to the suburbs, so it was Society Hill, Philadelphia or nothing.  It was too big a  jump.  I was terrified, I stalled.  I forgot everything I had learned.  I think we need a good middle ground first.

Picasso and Summertime

Scott and I had a great day yesterday.  After having bagels (coming back to the US during passover was not ideal for catching up on foods I missed), we went to the Philadelphia Art Museum (where Rocky ran up the steps) for the Picasso exhibit.  It’s been a long time since I went to an extensive art museum with a thorough, informative audio guide (Pinacoteca is beautiful, but a little different).  I loved learning about Cubism and the exhibit focused on Paris in the earlier 20th century and the rise of the avant-guarde.  I love thinking of the lost generation hanging out, this ‘crucible’ as they called it, for creativity.  I feel like New York in the 1970s and 1980s was the same way–like there was really a creative community, and I wonder where that’s happening now.  What happened to it?  Where does it go? 

After running a few errands we went for a run, and everything here smells like summer.  It’s sort of dreamy–the warm air, the flowers just blooming.  It’s strange enough to be back anyway, the abrupt switch in weather just makes it more surreal.  I was saying to Scott that our first few days in New York were just madness with looking at apartments and being at my parents house always feels like being in a bubble. Being in Philadelphia just feels surreal, and more like I’m back.