Birthday Season, II

Birthday Season swung into high gear today, D-Day, as it were:  cookies at work (some of them were portioned out to the rest of the office, the rest I ate by about 4:30), then a preview screening of Moneyball (thanks, Danielle!) -- the perfect starter to our weekend in COOPERSTOWN!

Oh, did we not mention that we're taking a long weekend upstate to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame?  Because that's totally happening.  It's a combined birthday-anniversary gift from my awesome wife (the first anniversary being the "paper" one, I got a couple of tickets to the Hall back in May).  When I went 22 years ago with my family we spent a solid 3 hours in the museum and I was ready to go back in for more.  We'll see if it holds up this time.  I'm guessing yes.  Yvonne is on photo duty.  She's thrilled.

A word about Moneyball.  Continuing with the tradition that was established in Bull Durham, the town of Visalia once again gets much love in a baseball movie.  Not only does Brad Pitt's character mention our town by name (with the correct pronunciation even -- thanks, Brad!), but some real-game Oaks footage plays a prominent role....and that's all I'm going to say about that. 

V-town rules.

Baseball rules.

Hooray for birthdays!

Birthday Season

Sunday commenced the beginning of Birthday Season in the Team Squeen household, which can only mean one thing: Birthday cake. I have made Dan chocolate concoctions in the past, but this year, I went all vanilla all the way.


I think he likes it.

I made his cake a bit early this year since we'll be going away this weekend for a birthday baseball extravaganza (more on that in a later post) and I wanted to make sure we would have time to enjoy it before we left (someone had four slices this evening after his dinner, so enjoyment is definitely in abundance!)

Speaking of enjoyment, we went to see The Lion King in 3D over the weekend which is my favorite Disney movie next to The Little Mermaid. I used to watch it all the time but hadn't seen it in over a decade. I couldn't stop crying. I loved it so much. It's crazy how well I remembered some of those lines considering I am the type of person who can barely recall the plot of a book I read a few months ago. I get very sentimental about the circle of life. Dan, who never saw it before, thought it was a bit cheesy. He doesn't know goodness. Or what cold means. The temperature dropped to the 60s this week, and you would have thought we were experiencing Siberian winter from his reaction. The long underwear are minutes away from being pulled out of the drawers.

Coinciding with birthday season, I am finishing up my summer job this week. I really liked working at this magazine and am bummed to go, but time's up. The life of a freelancer; you never can get too attached to one job. We moved into a new office building on Monday, so for my last week, I have been demoted to a freelance workstation in the corner, a mile from my other co-workers, with my punishment being that I have to stare at this hideous green wall all day.


The window seat is nice, but my eyes hurt looking forward. Maybe it is time to go.

Birthday season, end of a job, cool autumn weather, the circle of life -- it sure feels like change is in the air and great new things are coming our way. I'll be sure to blog about it on a more regular basis. (I hope!)

California Trip in Pictures

First stop: Los Angeles.



We hung out at The Home Depot parking lot (with Ara and Brett). Because that is how we like to spend our vacation.


The egg aisle at Trader Joe's. The perfect place to have a debate about worker's unions. I wonder what side that girl is on?


We had breakfast with Julie L. and checked out her sweet apartment in Beverly Hills.


SQUEEN-MAGEDDON at the Apices' house. I enjoyed my time at this barbecue so much that I only took two so-so pictures. Here's one.


Here's the other. The sunset from Matt and Katie's backyard.

Next, we headed to Visalia.


California fruit. We ate some. Okay, lots.


Meeting the Dom.


The girls showed us their mad piano skills.


Sleeping on the couch. Like father like son.


We hung out with BFFs Teddy and Maddy at Gram and Grandpa's house.


Card sharks


Monica's birthday cake (I made it!)


On our last day, we took a trip to Sequoia National Park.


General Sherman: The mother of all trees.


The birding mania continued.



I got stuck inside a tree.



Then it was time to go back home. That's all!

California

World's angriest cow.  Just because.

We made it out of New York without a hitch -- exactly as predicted -- a few hours before Hurricane Irene dropped some rain on the city and New Yorkers acted as though they were the first (or maybe just the most important) people to ever weather a hurricane.  Whatever.  By the time the rain really started that day, I'd already had two Mexican meals (if you count Del Taco for one of them, which you should, because it's awesome) in sunny LA.

There's probably no point in giving a blow-by-blow account of the week, especially since I believe vacation is meant to be time off, not packed with plans, even if they're plans for fun.  That is to say we didn't do a whole lot.

Saturday was spent hanging at Brett and Emily's and accompanying them on errands as they prepared for Burning Man.  After they took off on Sunday, Yvonne and I borrowed their car to drive around LA and explore neighborhoods where we might want to live in, oh, say, three months.  (The strong leader in that race is Beachwood Canyon, if we could only find a little detached back house on the cheap.) Sunday night, we went to Apice's because they threw a perfect backyard barbecue to bring together all our friends.

By Monday evening, we were up in V-town for our fourth Mexican meal in three days.  My dad and I were both feeling an entree at our usual joint, Colima, but it felt wrong not to have a burrito, too.  So we did both (we split the burrito, not that that made it any less gross after having had like four baskets of chips).  

The rest of the week was a blur of over-eating, binge-eating and eating to excess.  (I had Yvonne's leftovers from Colima for lunch the next day, plus taco salad that night to bring my Mexican meal total to six.)  Throw in a few visits to the grands, a little motivational speaking to a class of high school seniors (I know!!!), a day of birding at Kaweah Oaks Preserve and a hike through the big trees of Sequoia National Park, and you've got a pretty sweet seven days.

Sweet red-tailed hawk.  Pic by Mom.

We Better Not Miss Our Flight

New York City on Sunday:




Yvonne and Dan on Sunday.

Three Posts in One Day!

(What can I say, we're making up for lost time.)

I have to weigh in on this earthquake nonsense. The Great Quake of 2011 -- the one that revealed New Yorkers to be giant pansies.

New Yorkers honestly believe they're tougher than everyone. Put on your most obnoxious Brooklyn accent and say, "We're New Yorkers. We don't take shit from nobody. Nothin' scares us," and that's pretty much what it sounds like to live here on a daily basis. And then the earthquake hits and everyone FREAKS...OUT.

They're earthquake virgins, I get it. But the floor shakes for two seconds, not even enough to knock picture frames off the window sill, and these New Yorkers are paralyzed with fear. I mean, they're evacuating buildings and closing offices (see below)! What's great is that all these moments -- much like dining in a Mexican restaurant -- reveal who has lived in California before. And we're like, "It's an earthquake that struck five hours away. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along."

And that was the story of the Great Quake of 2011.

My First Earthquake

Two days ago, in preparation to our upcoming trip to California, I asked Dan, “What do I do in case of an earthquake?”

His answer: “Nothing. By the time you realize you’re in an earthquake, it’s over.”

Fast-forward to today, I am at the office where I am working as a maternity fill-in for the summer. Kristin, the girl who I am covering, had made a special trip to the office to show off her adorable baby boy. My entire department is in my boss’ office at around 2 pm on the 20th floor, cooing the baby, updating Kristin on what’s happened since she’s left, when suddenly someone said, “Is the building moving?”

We pause, and sure enough it was. The floor was swaying beneath our feet. I could see the ceiling lights swinging back and forth. Then it stopped.

First thought: Is this an earthquake? Second thought (Because I live in NYC and hey, you never know), is this some kind of aftershock to some terrorist attack? Our building lies right on top of a major subway station. If it was bombed, our building would definitely rattle. While a terrorist attack seemed more likely (unfortunately), I was thinking it was probably an earthquake.

I work in an office with all girls, and so everyone quickly grabbed their purses, slipped out of their heels into flip flops, and without formal instruction, by instinct, we all proceeded to the stairwell and walked down the 20 flights of stairs. Poor Kristin was carrying her baby. Two girls held her stroller all the way down. The whole scene reminded me of the blackout of 2003, which is probably the last time I walked down a billion flights of stairs.

Once we made it out to the street, there were mobs of people milling about. I checked on Facebook and saw people from Washington, DC to Boston posting about the earthquake. Everyone was on their phones trying to figure out what was going on and contacting their loved ones. I emailed Dan to make sure he was okay and of course he was.

We decided to walk to Bryant Park nearby because it is wide-open space. I was excited by the adventure, but the girls from work were shaken up and nervous. I thought we would all have lunch (I hadn't eaten!) and then head back, but some girls didn’t want to go back. At that point our office building had imposed a “mandatory evacuation” so my boss let us go home(!) Everyone ran off in a flash, but I stayed put in the park. It was a gorgeous summer day, so I ate lunch, enjoyed my free afternoon and felt the buzz of excitement all around me.

I imagine this is what it must be like when it snows one inch in the South and everything shuts down and everyone freaks out for no good reason. It’s kind of fun. The entire city is caught off-guard and you’re all sharing the moment together.

My mom sent me an email: “Hi Yvonne, I felt that earthquake too. Now you are ready for California.”

I guess I am!