Tom & Alissa

It was pretty lovely here this weekend, lots of warmth and a fair amount of sun . . .

On Friday night, after work, we had dinner at Risotteria and then to Film Forum for Goldfinger - I kid you not, on the big screen - which was appropriately followed by a Goldfinger sing-a-long. Yep. Gotta love New York. Everyone was very into it. And we passed Dominic West on the way down 7th Ave.

We got home and discovered that our landlord had gotten a new window put into our shower (checking my voicemail later, I found out that the date had been unexpectedly rescheduled, and he apologized profusely and said he’d stay there the whole time). There is a window directly at the head of the shower, and it was so old that the wooden frame had practically rotted out. Plus, since the window started at waist height, extended to the ceiling, and looked directly into the kitchen of the dude across the airshaft, there was a mildewy curtain over it that skeeved me out tremendously. But now! A beautiful, modern, frosted window that lets the lovely light in but keeps us hidden, with a metal frame so as not to be susceptible to the moisture and steam. It makes me happy just to look at it.

Tom had a job on Saturday, so I got up mid-morning, cleaned up the apartment, showered (squee), then grabbed the camera and headed to Central Park to take pictures. The light was bad, but the blossoming trees were pretty, and there were cute small children running around with balloons and kites. I don’t get uninterrupted camera time often. It was just lovely, and very zen. I used to go out and take pictures all over town when I first moved here, but my time has decreased substantially since then. So it was therapeutic.

Then a jaunt over to a surprise birthday party, and then I came home and roasted some cod and potatoes for dinner (salt and pepper and olive oil; so simple, and yet scrumptious) and made a salad. And after Tom came home, we met friends at the Chocolate Room. A late night, but a lovely one.

After church on Sunday, we went to SmorgasChef and had a bunch of celebrity sightings (or, some of us did). Good meatballs. And then we came home and finished Season 2 of the Office, including all the special features, and I had to talk Tom down from going on iTunes to buy Season 3. I did realize I’d actually watched the season finale (”Casino Night”) about a year ago when I was stuck in a hotel room in Chicago that inexplicably did not have cable.

I am excited; tomorrow night we’re going to see Michael Chabon read at the 92nd Street Y. He has a new book coming out - The Yiddish Policemen’s Union - and I suspect we’ll be buying it tomorrow night. Chabon’s books currently number among favorites for both of us (Tom loves The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which won a Pullitzer, and I adore Wonder Boys, which was made into one of the most perfectly-cast movies I’ve ever seen). We bought these tickets back in February, I think.

Also, by way of breaking my weird book-related ennui, I started not one, not two, but three books this weekend. I never do anything by halves. So far, What the Dead Know is gripping (I only haven’t finished it because it was too big to fit in my bag), In Cold Blood is amazing, and I’m finally finishing On Writing (by Stephen King) because Josh (of the celebrity non-sightings above) is continually referencing it, because I need some help starting this new season of my life (hey, it occurred to me recently that if I sold more than just a handful of articles I might not have to stay in this godforsaken industry, and I can’t do that if I’m not writing anything of consequence), and because it’s actually quite good. I haven’t read a single thing Stephen King’s written or seen any of the movies that are based on his books, but I might have to because he seems like the sort of down-to-earth, no-nonsense, I-stumbled-into-success-inadvertently guy that would be good to know.

Did you know? My mom’s birthday is this weekend. We’ll go home the following weekend, though. (Mother’s day, and my brother’s 18th birthday.)