It was an all-too-short weekend for me, after a short work week that felt longer, and my four-day weekend over Memorial Day. I'm really beginning to feel the effects of not having any vacation time this year, having blown it all in January and February. Plus, all the recent happiness and love that has infused my life lately has made it difficult to focus on work because I'm enjoying my home time ever so much more than I did a month ago. When things weren't going as well at home, I threw myself into work and was probably heading down a path that got me into trouble earlier in my life. Fortunately, things turned out differently this time.
The weekend started out pretty miserably because Friday during the workday, I started coming down with some inexplicable rash on my face, perhaps from getting too much sun during my lunch break. By the time I went home, my face was covered with pink welts that itched and burned, and it was all I could do to keep from clawing my skin off. I had planned to see my friend Agnieszka (the one from the Polish Film Festival, not the girl of the same name I knew in college) that night but had to cancel. I spent the rest of the evening on my couch watching videos and putting cold compresses and itch medicine on my face.
Saturday morning most of the swelling and itching had subsided, and I was starting to look normal again. I used some foundation to cover the residual blemishes and went out to run my errands with Tara. We went to Borders, where I picked up Day of Vengeance and Copying Beethoven on DVD. I've been on a Beethoven kick lately if you haven't noticed: I picked up a copy of Immortal Beloved at a Duane Reade drugstore in the city last week as well. At Costco, Tara spotted all the Star Wars movies in the limited editions with both the old and remastered versions in the same case for only $9.99 each. I bought Episodes I-III for myself, and she resolved to come back later to get Episodes IV-VI to complete her collection.
Afterwards we went back to my apartment to amuse ourselves until Bee got off work and joined us for a dip in the pool, our first use of it since I moved here last July. We got cleaned up and came home where Bug showed us her work for the day, a collection of short writings she had bound into a small book. We took turns reading it and talked about it over dinner, and it showed me a side of Bug that I hadn't really seen before, which was enlightening and led to a wonderful discussion about creativity, love, religion and art while Tara and Bee went out for a walk.
Sunday was hot and muggy, so we decided to take a drive down to Princeton to see the campus art museum and visit my family's old haunts. We specifically went to see Frederick Church's exhibition of Hudson River School paintings, but it was a wee bit disappointing compared to the outstanding Asher Durand exhibit we saw at the Brooklyn Museum back in March. On the way home we stopped at one of our favorite diners, the Omega, for dinner, and drove through the leading edge of Tropical Storm Barry, which made the ride home rather harrowing. But we arrived safely and settled in to watch an exciting Yankees-Red Sox game which lasted a little longer than I'd have liked it to, but A-Rod hit a game-winning homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win it, so it's all good. After a bit more quiet family time, I dragged myself home in the pouring rain to get ready for another week of drudgery.
Not much to write about during the week unless something interesting happens, so look for my next weekend entry for more news.
