Our Holiday Midwest Vacation

DIARY

This will not be of interest to many of you, but I thought I ought to recap what happened on Jess and my vacation in the midwest before I completely forgot.

* Friday, December 23rd.

I rode the subway (yes, the florid, functioning subway) to work for my two hour stint at the writing center. Things had been a little hairy since various writing tutors had left for the holidays but their appointments were not blocked. To my dismay, both of my appointments arrived and I was not able to pass the time reviewing the CMS and eating Tostitos. After the tutoring sessions, I went shopping for Christmas elements at the Union Square market and took the train back home to Jessica.

We spent a lot of the remaining day cleaning, though we took a break to go to the French restaurant up on Myrtle. It's changed since the summer, though it still has the same velvet wallpaper. Somewhere along the way they picked up a southwestern theme, right down to the menu and cow skull over the tables. I kept expecting a Frenchman to step in wearing spurred boots and a cowboy hat.

Picking up the car... we rode the subway out to LaGuardia around midnight, but after huge complications involving mistakes made on Jessica and my part, as well as Avis, a free taxi-Avis ride to and from our apartment, and getting lost in Astoria-Greenpoint-Bedstuy, we finally made it home around 4 AM. We chose to push back our exit a couple hours to catch at least a little sleep.

* Saturday, December 24th.

Got up at 8 AM. Puff puff. Took a shower. Refresh! Loaded up the car. (Don't pack too much.) And finally, at 9:20 exact, we were loaded up and roared off into the sunlight. I've learned a few things about driving in New York City. The traffic can be fickle and variable. The streets were as clear as they are ever likely to get. Take the Manhattan Bridge. Ignore the signs that will wind you around the Lower East Side. Head straight for Delancey, than curve south. Always take the Holland Tunnel. Never take the Lincoln Tunnel. We emerged from the tunnel in New Jersey, (all roads lead to New Jersey), and managed not to take any wrong turns separating us from I-78. After a short while we cleared New Jersey and stopped for gas. Made good time across Harrisburg and I-76 with her four mountain tunnels and Appalachian Vistas. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state, and not as long as she's accused of being. The illusion is heightened by Pennsylvania's xenophobic resistance to posting the mileage to extrastate cities. The sun was just setting when we entered the Wheeling tunnel, skipped through Wheeling, and hushed across the Ohio River. Martin's Ferry. St. Clairesville. Jess has slept almost the whole way. I set a challenge to pull into her father's driveway without waking her, so I drove really smooth as we passed Cambridge, and played the last track of my Doris Henson over and over again to soothe her. I actually made the exit in time, but Jess woke up just in time to see St. Nick's in the twilight. Foiled! We'd made the trip in eight hours.

After a brief stop at the Jalbrzikowski house, we had to shove off again to pick up Julie then drop off the rental in Columbus. We made it back a couple hours later, with just enough time for a conversation and a quick nap before midnight mass.

The Mass at St. Nick's was the first time I'd been in that church since the wedding, and the very first time I'd been there at night. The service was warm and reassuring, but I was so tired throughout that I had to dig my nails into my hands to simply stay awake. Later, we returned to the Jalbrzikowskis and Jess and I wrapped our presents before going to bed.

* Sunday, December 25th.

We got up around ten and unwrapped our presents with Jeff, Chelsea, and Julie. Chelsea had gotten me in the gift-exchange, and she got me a stainless steel coffee thermos, some quality beans, and a reading flashlight. Also, Jess had gotten me a new shiny leather jacket (to which my book on sharks paled in comparison). After celebrating at the house and eating some homemade nutbread, we loaded in the car and drove out to the Fultons in Cambridge, to celebrate with them. We opened presents, which included a beautiful shirt, an a tub of goodies from "the grocery fairy," then sat down for a meal of ham and candied yams. I wish that I ate this well all year long. I wish that I was very, very fat.

After a couple hours, Jess and I returned to Zanesville to visit with the Jalbrzikowski side of the family. The house had filled, and uncle Mike and aunt Becky, and uncle Gary were there, as well as Mandy and Maria, and Beau played with Sharkey. Jess and I ate more good food, including more ham, and pie, and fruit salad. Everyone was asking about New York City (we said we liked it, but it wasn't Chicago), about the Transit Strike (we did a lot of walking), and about our CNN appearance (we still hadn't seen it).

* Monday, December 26th.

On the 26th, Jess and I spent the day visiting her relatives. We drove down on Maple to first see her Aunt Polly, and from there we visited Aunt Sue and Uncle John. Polly gave us a John Adams spoon, and we got some nice gifts from John and Sue as well. We stopped back at Brighton and drove out to New Concord to visit with Bill and Becky. We didn't get home until late, as often happens.

* Tuesday, December 27th

First we stopped for haircuts with July, and Jess got her hair colored. My hair was layered, a small deviation from the haircut I've essentially worn since I was eight (with the exception of the eighth-grade mushroom cut and the tenth-grade mullet). Later, we met up with Jeff and Julie at the mall (again) and finished off some last-minute post-Christmas shopping before going to Garfield's for dinner. Jeff treated. And then, back home. We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

* Wednesday, December 28th

Today was mostly filled by the drive up to Michigan. We left around ten thirty, I think, and made a couple stops on the way, first at Mike and Becky's. We talked for awhile in the house, discussing travels and adventures and farming, then drove up near the road where the family is building a log cabin. The space was gorgeous, bright with the light-colored pine beams and wide views of the rolling hills and fields surrounding. In an ideal world I'd have a place like that as a writers' retreat... but then one might argue that in an ideal world there'd be nothing to write about.

We drove on to Flint, arriving at my parents around seven at night. From there we had a soup and saki meal that Jun had prepared with Cody's help... the crowd was my parents, Jess and I, and Cody and Jun. We sat for a little of the Michigan football game, then drove into Flint to Sam's where we also ran into Marcy and Joel, as well as the whole Perkins-Harbin family. We visited for the next several hours, and after Marcy and Joel had left, Jess and I went for a drive with Sam. We tooled around Flint as we usually do, the South Side, then the West, and finally stopping at Angelo's where I saw Ann who I worked with several years back. Finally, Jess and I headed out, though I told Sam I'd come down again in the morning to visit for a couple hours before he had to return to Chicago.

* Thursday, December 29th

I drove in to see Sam at around 10 AM. We were goign to watch War of the Worlds, but ended up just hanging around instead. Which was all I wanted anyway. I got to talk to Don and Liz and Emily some, and they invited me to stay for breakfast. Sam transferred my afterdusk account to hereisnowhy which means that Pual can shut down the site without me losing my emails for two years. It might now sound like much, but that's actually been a huge headache in the last some months.

At around one, I drove a short mile to the Flint Institute of Arts, where I met with Cody, Jun, and Jessica. We took our slow time rotating through the galleries, which have undergone a huge renovation in recent years. I know that the FIA has one of the best collections in the midwest, but it wasn't that long ago that I could still see everything on display in a couple hours. This time, after about three I still felt like I was gliding past some of the more impressive exhibits. The featered work, a collection of Andy Warhol's, had been set up in a large gallery near the front, not far from the FIA's own Starbucks. That's right: Flint has a Starbucks. In total, I had only one major gripe: they ripped out the reflecting pool, which I know was a headache for all of the adjacent buildings, but at night when the multicolored lights went on the fountain was spraying twenty, thirty feet into the air below the glistening dome of the planetarium... it's one of the most beautiful memories I have of Flint.

I'm sure they'll replace it with something equally beautiful, and at any rate, things must change. Right?

On the way back into Flushing, Jess and I stopped and visited with Grandma Coyne for a couple hours and then headed back to my parents.

* Friday, December 30th

Friday was probably as close as we came to a "relaxing day," and I honestly can't remember what I did this whole time, though I think some of it may have been spent organizing my room. I would normally guess reading, but I'd put a "reading ban" on myself to force me to "live in the moment" and "enjoy the holiday."

So I can't honestly recall what I did all morning. I do know that for about three hours in the middle of the day, we went to see King Kong, which I enjoyed immensely, especially due to, and in spite of, the scene in the spider hole, and most especially the toothed planarians. Yummy!

* Saturday, December 31st

On Saturday morning, my mother and I drove up to see my Grandma Mascroft at the hospital. She's been in for a broken hip, but seemed to be recovering well enough. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds on the way back home and had a long talk about life plans and desinations and friends and families and futures. The snow was blinding, blowing in our faces and a headed home along US-23 and I-75... I wouldn't have taken that for granted if I knew that I wouldn't be seeing much snow in January.

After we got home, Jess and I drove back out to the Crawford's. They were hosting their own New Years Eve party and hurrying about the preparations, but as usual we got lulled into the (unsurprisingly) more primal rhythms of coffee and conversation, and talked over and about John's recent adventures at the hospital, Sarah and Lindsay's plan, the Big Apple and our plans for the future, the wedding, and education in America. Big subject for two hours, and then we headed home.

By the time we got home Caitlin and Craig had arrived, and we spent awhile talking and hanging with them. We were only home for a couple hours when we got dressed up again (I had to wrap out presents to my family and stash them under the tree) and drove out to my Grandma Coyne's. We met my Aunt Georgia there for dinner, TV, cards and puzzles, champagne, New Years Eve. 2006 arrived. All was well. We didn't leave for over an hour afterwards.

* Sunday, January 1st

On the 1st, I got up to go to church, but either the mass time had changed or mass had been cancelled altogether (I can't imagine... it was a Day of Obligation). So I missed church, dispite my best efforts. However, since I was already in Flint, I took some pictures for my Urbantasm website and stopped off at the Atlas which was, of course, closed. Brown painted side. Unblinking globe. I miss it.

Back home, my grandma and aunt came over and we finally opened our deferred Christmas gifts. My parents got Jess and me a nice set of knives and I got fuzzy flannel shirts (which are as close as I'll get to wearing a sweater) and the new Sufjan Stevens CD.

After a "family portrait," Jess and I packed up and were on the road by a little after four. We stopped en route, Upper Sandusky, to visit with Mike and Sienna and Clayton and Cassalyn (some of you may remember Clayton, our ring-bearer, from the wedding), and continued on to the Columbus airport, where we picked up the car we'd drive back East the following morning.

We made it into Zanesville around eleven. Jeff was asleep, but Jess and I made tentative preparations for the next morning. It had been misting on the way; light fog and slight rain.

* Monday, January 2nd

With Jeff's help the next morning we were able to get on the road again about 9:30. We stopped off in St. Clairsville to visit with grandpa and grandma Fulton, and not long after that, we whisked across the Ohio river, through West Virginia and into Pennsylvania. The incessant rain and fog made the trip considerably more stressful than the drive west had been, but we made good time and pulled into New York at around sevenish. Our added preparation also meant that we crossed at the Holland Tunnel, easily navigating across Manhattan to the brdige. I dropped Jess off at the apartment, and we unloaded the goods, then I drove to LaGuardia to return the car. It went without a hitch, and one train and two subways later (ie. two hours - why isn't there a subway to the freaking airport?!) I got home.

Jess had made a nice warm meal, and combined with the warmth of a kicked on radiator and the mist curling outside our window signalling a lack of either gusts or snow, it was easy to settle in again.

That was our Midwestern Vacation, and I'm looking forward to the next.

END OF POST.