Bearshorty's musings

We just got back from visiting Marianna and her family today. Marianna's birthday was on October 7th and we all finally got our schedule aligned. We didn't do anything complicated. Bear, Tanya and I drove to Queens to Marianna's place and Yeva came too a bit later. We told her 1pm, so she showed up by 3:30pm. Real time was about 2pm. We played a little inside with Galya, who is 4, and Idalia, who is 15 months - two days younger than Tanya. And then around 4pm we walked to this Himalayan/Nepalese restaurant, which was a lot like Asian fusion.

The food was good and there weren't a lot of people there so we didn't have to worry about toddler/little kids disrupting other diners. And all the kids were pretty well behaved. Tanya actually was willing to eat and had lots of rice, some tofu from miso soup, and a steamed chicken dumpling. She's been really picky lately about eating - it's a struggle to get her to eat sometimes, so it was nice for her to participate. And I got some time to eat too. We had some chicken and beef dumplings for the table, and bok choi, and I got miso soup, their special bread and crispy noodles with chicken. The noodles were ok, but their dumplings were very delicious.

Last week was stressful. We were thinking lately of buying an apartment instead of renting, with some help from my parents. Last Saturday (on Halloween) one realtor called to show us a two bedroom in his co-op. The size was OK and the kitchen was a good size, but the place would have needed so much renovation. Practically everything. We thought back and forth all week, weighting pros and cons and ultimately decided against it since the flip tax (what you pay into the co-op if you sell) was too big and there is no sublet there either - so if something happened it would not be easy to sell. In the last three years, real estate prices went up - but we will just have to keep looking. One good thing from all the stress of thinking about everything, I called my landlord office to find out if we could break our lease if we had too and they are pretty easy going about it. So, a lot of being an adult this week.

On Halloween, we also dressed up at home - Tanya was the cutest cat, I was a witch (my usual get-up) and Bear was Freddy Kruger. We also played some Halloween music on the radio which Tanya was grooving to. She is too young to trick and treat yet, but I'm looking forward to that in a few years. (I don't share pics on social media but I have no problem emailing them to people on my friends list - so if anyone wants pics, just ask)

I caught up on Grimm S5E2 yesterday and this morning. ( Grimm S5E2 )

Happy Halloween! I saw many kids out trick-or-treating today with some fun costumes – my favorite was a kid covered in all blue. We gave out a bit of candy too.

But it was a long workday for me as every Monday is. I have an access to a copy machine on Monday so I do most of copying or other grunt work on Mondays since I’m in my office from 8:30 to 12. And then I have two classes back to back from 1 to 4:10. And I did reading for those classes in the evening.

I also wrote Exam 2 for my law class (which I gave today) , graded In-Class Exercise 2 for one history classes and commented on bibliography for another, started re-reading “El Cid” for the discussion class on Wednesday and read law sources and book for Wednesday too. I did take a few breaks during the day (and I showed the movie "El Cid" for 25 minutes in one class) but it feels like I’ve been working all day. I just want to read “The Hobbit” before I go to sleep if I’m awake enough for it.

One weird thing today: so one of my Global History students asked for a paper extension for Paper 1 a month ago for just one class session, but since then he kept avoiding turning it in though lots of bullshit excuses mostly involving email not working or cooperating. Finally, finally today he brought a paper copy, like I told him too. When he showed it to me right before the lecture (in the classroom with other students gathering) he was enthusiastic and asked for a hug. Which threw me off and I didn’t exactly respond since a) I rarely hug people unless I haven’t seen them for a while and mostly really close family members/friends, except for Bear who I hug all the time, understandable and b) he is a student in college and not in kindergarden and c) I never hug students. But he came over and asked again and did hug me. Now the hug itself was not creepy – it was an appropriate length and everything; it was just something I would never do and I wish I knew how to or, had time to respond properly, to not hug. I did focus on his second paper right away and told him to make sure he had it on time and got in a serious teacher mode, which threw him off a bit. But seriously, dude, don’t hug your professors. And he would never have done that if I’ve been a guy. It doesn’t bother me on physical level, again it was not a creepy hug and I’m not really going to dwell on it after I write this but it was just not right.

( House S8E4 )

“Love Hurts” by Jim Butcher – short story printed in “Side Jobs.” This and “Aftermath” are the only stories/novellas in Dresden Files in this recent short story collection that I haven’t read yet. Bear got the book on Tuesday and now it is my turn. I really like that in Dresden Files Harry and Murphy never really got together. They acknowledged the attraction that grew as they became friends and then best friends but they were always very grown up about it. They talked it over in book 8, I think, and decided that it would just end badly if they got together for many complicated reasons and they should just stay friends. While the possibility is always there, Harry’s reactions to Murphy muted too over the years – in one of the latest books when Kincaid was hurt and Murphy was worried, Harry was concerned but not really jealous. This story again points out and reinforces that the characters think a relationship between them would be a bad idea. But, at least, because of the spell they get to have a little happiness and some kissing. But they know it wouldn’t last and while they love each other, it is not the kind of love Harry had with Susan. It can be, if they actually get together, it certainly has potential. Murphy is awesome and Butcher is actually great on strong female characters. I’m just really happy that in this series people’s relationships and interactions feel very realistic and adults are allowed to have adult choices and that most people don’t get a happily ever after – those that do have to earn it.

So Halloween Saturday:

The major plan today was to carve pumpkins. So in the afternoon we drove to a pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins. On the way there we stopped at this awesome bagel store where I got a cranberry muffin. I was very hungry since it was past my lunch time so the muffin was a necessity. Also, it was delicious. Bear wanted to go to this pumpkin patch because it advertised its corn maze. The corn maze was not that impressive and it shouldn’t have cost $3 but we managed to have fun with it by running around like crazy kids and trying to hide and chase each other. The weather was certainly chilly and very fall like this weekend so it was fun to run around. The pumpkin patch itself was ok, it was really just a field where people drove up pumpkins too and put them there – but I did like walking around trying to find the right pumpkin. I got a small one for $4.

( corn maze and pumpkin patch )

This was only my second time carving pumpkins ever (Bear and I carved pumpkins three years ago) and it was fun. I tried carving a traditional pumpkin scary face with bear ears. I don’t know about the end result but I liked the process. Bear likes to carve much bigger faces – I have no artistic talent whatsoever (that is why I love cross-stitch, it is just following directions), so he much better than me at this stuff. My pumpkin just looks sad. The most amusing thing about carving pumpkins this year was Katie, Bear’s parents little kitty. She is eight month old or so and very feisty. (She really liked a little stuffed bear I gave her and kept jumping around with it. Yes, bears are a theme with me.) Katie was very curious about the whole pumpkin thing; she was fascinated. She jumped on the chair by the table and was watching me pretty closely. She kept putting her little paws on the table and we kept telling her to put the paws down. Which she did. But she continued to look intently at what we were doing. It was very amusing. (In the morning, when I turned around to pour myself some tea, she jumped on the high counter chair and stole a piece of my bagel with cheese when my back was turned. Feisty.)

( pictures of Katie and pumpkins )

In the evening, Bear and I went to hang out with his best friend and we all went to a thai place. It was very delicious, I got a seafood curry. Nicely spiced. Then we went back to the friend’s new apartment and hung out there for a bit. We originally planned to check out a haunted house, but his friend really need to be social for a bit so we just stayed in. It is a nice one bedroom apartment that he lives in with his fiancée and they have a dog, a cat and several geckos. I had to get used to the dog but he was just all bark, he stayed away for the most part. (I have a phobia of dogs which got a bit better over the years, but I do need to get used to individual dogs to be in their company and they can’t jump on me in any way.) We watched some documentary TV like “Lockup” about prison and juvenile system. It just really made me feel sad for the kids in the system.