America may never be decadent enough to have an average of 6 weeks of vacation like some mythical European countries do, but the three-day weekend is a staple that should not be messed with ever. Columbus Day weekend passed, and my parents came to visit New York City. I’ll talk of their visit on other happenings during my two-week lapse of blogging.
Recently I reported that I got a new computer, it is great. However my Internet connection is still fussy. Most likely the modem needs to be changed. I waited the three-hour timeframe on Columbus Day for my cable company and they did not show. I made another appointment nearly two weeks later. I wonder if they expect people to take time off for weekday appointments. So my Internet has been mostly off, but maybe every third day it works. I’m hoping I’ll be able to post this blog tonight as it now appears to be working.
Early in the month I took the first class of a ten-week course through Gotham Writers. I’m optimistic about this class. Actually the following week, without the internet as a distraction I finished a short story written by hand. My last fiction attempt was a brief try at the novel last winter. Before that it was a longer failed novel attempt a few years back. Writing my blog has improved my writing quite a bit, and has made it a routine for me. But writing a blog is much different than writing fiction. Fiction is the ultimate goal for me, and it is a more involved process than recounting my weekends or my life. I’m happy that I finished a story. The next week I typed it out, and I think it’s an improvement. I joked with my parents and my roommate that it is squeaky clean. There is no profanity, no sex, no drugs, and nothing crude in any way. I joked that either I’m maturing or becoming a boring person. My dad said it’s probably both, that I’m growing old and becoming boring. Now that I got a draft and a half typed out I need to do a serious attempt at revision. In one week I’m sharing this story to be workshopped in the class. So I need to decide how to quickly revise. To me it seems clean, so I’ll sit on it until Tuesday evening of next week.
Now to my parents visit, they came short notice to see Beth’s art sculpture in Riverside Park south. Lately on weekends I’ve been skating regularly. On Saturday I skated early in the morning at Flushing Meadows. The skate park was closed for some type of refurbishing, so we went near the unisphere, and all those empty fountains. We saw a sponsored skater from Poland trying a switch-frontside-pressure-flip over the famous grate gap in the Unisphere fountain. This is a super tech trick from the early nineties that is usually done low to the ground, and has fallen out of fashion. But this guy was getting it near knee height and across the grate that might be near six feet long. My friend filmed a few attempts for him, but he did not get it. My friend filmed me in a nearby fountain on flat for me to see my technique. I learned that I do my tricks low and do stomp down too much. I posted it on facebook and I’ll try to post it on this blog entry too.
I left Flushing Meadows at 11 and was there to great my parents at Penn Station at noon. It was good to see them, and we stayed mostly in the midtown area. My dad wanted to go on a water boat tour, and we found one on 42nd street by the Hudson. It was perfect weather, and the announcer really knew his stuff about New York history and architecture. I got picture happy with my cell phone. I think I took a great picture of my sister, my nephew, Kamil, and the statue of liberty. I think the it was called cruise line, and I recommend it. It was about 30 bucks per person, and you were on the water for 75 minutes. Another cheap option is to take the Staten Island ferry for the cost of regular transit. Being on the water around Manhattan is worth it.
After the boat ride we went to Riverside Park south (between 60th and 70th street and the Hudson water) to see my sister’s sculpture. We ended up watching the sunset there, and it was enjoyable. It was the first night of the second round of the American League playoffs, so we simply got pizza and watched the Tigers and the Rangers. My dad in the past few years has watched the Tigers religiously, and I enjoyed talking with him about it. Baseball is the one sport that I can make legitimate comments in conversations. At the rain delay I headed back to Queens.
The next day we hanged out in Bryant Park, and then had Korean food in Midtown. It was a short visit, but a good one. I’m already looking forward to thanksgiving.
This weekend I plan to skate, take my writing class, and read some. For my work bookclub we are reading Light in August by Faulkner, and I’m getting so much more out of it than when I read it my freshman year in college. With reading, writing, skating, work and anything it is amazing how things continually develop and in most cases progress!
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