the underwear drawer

thankful

Well, never even made it to the restaurant. Not that we didn't try. We kept Cal up late the night before so that he would wake up late on Thanksgiving, in an attempt to push back his naptime as far as possible. We got him dressed in his little oxford shirt and khakis. We filled little baggies of snacks, tupperwares with chicken tenders and grapes, and stuffed a messenger bag full of amusements. But by the time we got to my parent's house, he was tired and cranky, by the time we were ready to leave for the restaurant, he was screeching. There was no way he would have made it even beyond the bread selection, so we decided to take Cal home and put him down for his nap.

We hopped in a cab, and on the way home, a red truck tried to cut off our vehicle at a busy intersection in the middle of the pouring rain. Our cab glanced off the truck, skidded, veered to the left, and then ran up onto the curb, narrowing missing a lamp post. We were all fine, including Cal--he actually grinned and clapped when our car stopped, probably excited about both of his parents suddenly throwing themselves on top of him--but there are so many ways that scenario could have played out where things could have turned out very differently.

So I guess it was a good Thanksgiving after all.


* * *


Today was a better day in that we had no further BRUSHES WITH DEATH--Joe and I took Cal up to the Museum of Natural History to meet up with our friend Andy and his family. It looked like the entire native as well as tourist population of New York had the same idea (to go to the museum, that is, not to meet up with Andy, though he is a popular guy) which meant long lines at the ticked booth and witness to such high decibel family psychodramatic monologues as, "FUN? WE'RE WAITING IN LINE, IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FUN, WHAT, AM I SUPPOSED TO ENTERTAIN YOU 24 HOURS A DAY?" Ah, building those sweet childhood holiday memories already.

So anyway, we took a few pictures that turned out badly because of the poor lighting conditions, but as I was downloading them, I realized hey, there are a lot of other old pictures on this camera too. So here are a few of them.



These are pictures from Central Park from more than a month ago. Man, I am not good with keeping our picture files up to date.




Clambering all over the Alice in Wonderland statue next to the little boat pond. It is fun for climbing and also very trippy.



Ah, yes, the Halloween pictures. I was on call that day, so Joe took these. Apparently Cal was not too excited about his costume.




But eventually he allowed himself to be photographed. This is before he got too hot and had to take off the top half of the costume, however, thereby downgrading his costume from "monkey" to "monkey legs." Also, for any of you wondering how small a New York City apartment kitchen is, see the first picture above: that small.



Some guy was selling these skull and crossbones hats on the street. I guess you can see what happened next. I also got Joe one (a black one with white skulls), so that he and Cal can team up and terrorize old women.



At the museum today. Here Cal looks a little freaked that his gorilla escaped from our playpen at home and followed us out. The thing I always think about when I go to the museum now is that whole Holden Caulfield thing about how he loves the museum because nothing there has changed from when he was a kid. The thing about that is--the museum has changed a lot since I was a kid. There used to be all these great old creepy exhibits, like that whole room about parasites and how people used to have beds with holes in them when they had CHOLERA. And that really dark tank with the whale fighting the squid, where you had to lean in reeeeeeeally close in order to make out what was inside, and once your eyes adjusted, you jumped back, because HOLY SHIT, THERE'S A SQUID FIGHTING A WHALE IN THERE! And that whole old school section from the 50's about migratory birds or some such, and how the dinosaur exhibit was all clunky and inaccurate, with T-Rex standing erect and all. Now the parasitology room is this schmancy HALL OF BIODIVERSITY. The whale fighting the squid is still there, but there's a cafe in the middle of the room, and they brightened up the lighting in there so much that it's not really creepy anymore. I think they either eliminated or moved the migratory birds exhibit (maybe it turned into a gift shop--the ultimate insult!) and the dinosaur exhibit is fully revamped. Don't get me wrong, I think the museum is overall much nicer now, but still, sometimes I miss the way it used to be. Actually, pretty much the only things that haven't really changed are the anthropology exhibits, because no one really cares about those anyway (except for the ones depicting various aboriginal peoples with NAKED BOSOMS).



More fun in the Hall of African Mammals. At least I hope it was fun, because we shelled out TWENTY-EIGHT BIG ONES for admission. I know that it was just a "suggested admission fee," but I didn't want the museum people to think I was being chintzy or anything.

So anyway, we're having a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you all are too. Be cool, stay in school.

Currently reading: "The Floating Light Bulb," an old Woody Allen play. Nothing spectacular, but according to the casting notes, Bea Arthur was in the original Broadway (well, Lincoln Center, I guess) cast. I always thought she was a man in drag.