Visits from Ellen and Ompa

I haven't posted in a long time. Things have happened that deserve some discussion. First, I was sick about three weeks ago. As luck would have it, I came down with the same bad cold again at the beginning of last week. In addition to the nausea, fevers, aches and congestion that I suffered through the first time, I got two ear infections this time around. I am now taking amoxicillin and things are starting to clear up. In order to avoid getting sick again, I have decided to be in bed every night by 11pm and not get out of bed before 7am, no matter how early I wake up. I am also trying to eat lots of fruits and vegetables at home.

Last weekend my sister came to visit for a long weekend. I also had the pleasure of meeting her boyfriend Bloody (his real name is Jesse). During her visit we ate ample amounts of Indian food, walked around Ft. Tryon Park, visited the Natural History Museum and went to a fabulous party in Brooklyn celebrating the birthday of my good friend on roller skates, Jon Rockey. I think Ellen had a very nice time, as did I. On a side note, do you ever notice how the average person is incapable of taking a decent picture when asked? Ellen and I asked two different people to take a picture of us together at the museum. For the first, we were in the jungle section of African mammals, and we wanted a picture among the trees. The girl we asked got down on her knees to take the shot. When we looked at the picture, you couldn't see any trees and the only thing that stuck out was my double chin, gleaming in the glow of the flash. We then wanted a picture taken in front of one of the huge totem poles in the African section. We asked a young woman to please take it, explaining what we wanted in the picture, and she walked off in the wrong direction so that the totem pole wasn't even in the picture. When April and I were in Europe a few years ago this was a constant problem. People would either cut our heads out of the picture or get way too close so that you couldn't see what monument we were trying to get a picture in front of. Could it be possible that the average public is just horrible at pointing and shooting? Or is it more probable that people are so annoyed at being asked that they go out of their way to "teach you a lesson" and take a crappy shot for you? Maybe we'll never know.

This past weekend my friend April came to visit. We had a very relaxing weekend, which was good since I was still recuperating. I was too sick to leave the apartment on St. Patrick's Day, but on Saturday I was able to walk up the street for dinner at a nearby restaurant. On Sunday we walked around Central Park and went to the Met, my very favorite museum in the city. I love those 19th century Eurpean Impressionists! I think our favorite part of the museum was probably the paintings of creepy children in the American wing. One of the bug-eyed little creepsters was even drawn with a pet squirrel on a golden chain. Afterwards we had a quick bite at Sido and headed home. We both had a good weekend, full of laughter and silliness.