Adventures of a(n Unemployed) Litigatrix

I’m back!  This weekend I took a little trip on the New Haven line of the Metro North to Guilford, Connecticut where I visited my friends from college Danielle and Matt and their baby Brennen (who will henceforth be referred to as Mr. Doogal).  We had a fabulous time, and my womb alternated between being like aaaaw…baby, and my cervix clamping closed every time I heard crying.  Its currently safely clamped, thank god.

On Friday I finished taking care of business around town, which included getting a fantastic bright tangerine manicure to replace the manicure that I ruined during the NYC Triathlon.  I may be unemployed, but I cannot go around looking raggedy, my mother taught me better than that.  Kelly and I got on the train right after peak hours, and arrived in New Haven at about 9:30.  After a meal of buffalo chicken pizza and too much red wine, we fell asleep at a decent hour and prepared to get up early to have some good old fashioned American fun.

California Sea Lion (c) Alaina Morgan, 2009.

Saturday morning I actually woke up at a decent hour, and after housing a cheddar bagel (amazing!), we got ready to head to Mystic, CT for the day.  I went to Mystic when I was about 10 on our fifth grade graduation trip.  I remember it being pretty amazing.   I remember the ships with their enormous canvas sails, but my strongest memory is that of fresh hand churned pistachio ice cream being served out of a hand cart.  I was amazed that it was white, and not bright green like the kind that they have at Baskin-Robbins.  Growing up in Brooklyn, before the advent of any concern about natural and organic products, I had never seen anything like it.  Green food dye was par for the course.  

We didn’t go to the Seaport, but we did go to the Aquarium.  What I was not expecting was that the aquarium is outside and it was hot as …well you know…out there.  I think the kids really enjoyed it, but they were worn out by the end of the day from the heat.  (And no, by kids I don’t mean me — although I really enjoyed it too).  Probably my favorite parts were the beluga whales, which are around 2,500 pounds and beautiful, and the sea lion rehabilitation tank.  I just think its amazing that they take in these sick animals and help them.  I believe that they occasionally have other animals in the tank, but that was all they had this weekend.  I normally love penguins, but they were in the water hiding from the heat and the only way to see them was by going to the underwater viewing area.  I was hoping to see some fuzzy penguin babies, but to no avail.  Apparently you can also meet a penguin on Sundays at 12:30, but we missed it!

Frog hiding in Lily Pads, (c) Alaina Morgan, 2009

Jellyfish. (c) Alaina Morgan, 2009.

As for the indoor exhibits, I found it amazing that they have bred these new phosphorescent fish.  Apparently, they extract florescent compounds from coral and  inject them into the fish eggs while they are still developing.  The fish born from those eggs are phosphorescent, and the proteins fuse with their DNA, they pass the trait down to their children.  The jellyfish were also amazing, and Kelly had a thing for the sea anemones which photograph great.  Some crazy kids were putting their hands in the tank and I found myself secretly wishing they would be stung since their parents were not watching them appropriately.  But then I saw some parents sticking their hands in there, and I understood why.  Some people should not be able to breed.  At any rate, there are also sea turtles and a new iguana in the indoor center. 

Skunk Clownfish. (c) Alaina Morgan, 2009.

Saturday night we went to Chuck’s Steak House (West Haven, CT)  and ate entirely too much beef and again drank too much petite syrah.  We went back to Danielle’s house, and although we meant to hang out, we all passed out from a beef and wine induced coma.  It was a bad combination — everyone had creepy dreams that night.

Volcano Sirloin at Chuck's, (c) Kelly Murphy, 2009

On Sunday morning, I woke up to Mr. Doogal and Danielle making fresh blueberry muffins.  We lounged around, surfing the internet, and relaxing, and then baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies which were still warm and gooey when I bit into them.  We went over to Danielle’s parents’ house where her sister was having her 27th birthday party.  Three glasses of Sangria, a beef burrito, and a slice of Elmo birthday cake later, Kelly and I were on our way.  And thankfully, for once I didn’t have to sprint to the train

My weekend was, as you can see, very wholesome.  And I discovered, on my way home, that Pathmark on 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, has the BEST deals for groceries in the city.  I mean, suburban prices.  If you live on the East Side, or Morningside Heights-ish area (where you can easily take a bus cross-town), you need to get thee over there.

The last couple of days around here have been pretty low key — in my increasing age I am unable to drink as much red wine as I did last weekend and still function.  Circus class on Monday, however, was absolutely amazing.  I am really bad at climbing, but we did some crazy trapeze work, which I actually really enjoy.

So what’s on the agenda for this week?

• Today (Wednesday), I’m going to go see G-Force in 3D!  I heard that it was awful, but I don’t care.  Any movie with talking animated Guinea Pigs has to be amazing.
• On Thursday, Marci and I will be heading over to the MoMA for their Thursday extended hours and live music (which starts at 5:30) Min Xiao Pen’s Blue Pipa Trio will be playing.
• Friday I’m getting together for drinks with my friend Camille from college
• Sunday Fedak, Kelly, and I are going rafting on the Delaware Water Gap

Pretty sweet times.  And as always — anything could happen.