Caped Crusaders of Support

"When your whole world is shaken-
From all the rhythm we have taken,
Dance with me..
dance with me, to the colors of the dusk.
When you have awoken,
From all the dreams broken
Come and dance with me, 
dance with me into the colors of the dusk...." 

'In the colors'
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals


I trust you all tried to at least glimpse the red wolf moon last night- apparently Leo is in something (must ask boo) and if we apply ourselves, dreams made last night will come true this very year...!

Anyway happy MLK day. Today is a good day to kiss anyone you know who can give a good speech, because I can't live without them. Read King's speeches, as well as any little beauty by Lincoln or Churchill before the sun sets tonight. It's like being given a pleasant electric shock; a reminder of ancient truths we rejoice to hear.

T and I resolved on our day off (ok don't laugh at the idea of us having a day ON...the market is closed, which means all podcast listening and internet shopping occur at home #hardship.) .. so we resolved to dive deep into all horrible customer service departments we had been avoiding- changing credit cards registered with the charity in Africa and Javier's gym membership; cancelling the comcast contract, merging jet blue accounts. I usually tell Thomas that I will handle everything- that he is too European, too civilized, too innocent to roll in this kind of mud. I probably throw in a "watch and learn" as I took the list. But invariably it is I who loses it and mauls some customer service rep being paid 9 bucks an hour.
After the third person asked for my birthday, my secret high school crush, my social security in Cyrillic, and how long I needed to be cuddled after, and THEN had the gall to ask: "How my day was going so far???" I said it would be going a lot fucking better if I were not on the phone with them.
This was kind of a mood killer, and made me feel bad. I am blaming the wolf moon.

But here is the good news: in the approximately 9 days that I was on hold with Jet blue, they played some music that was so good, I bought it. I am herewith sharing it with you- Ben Harper and the innocent criminals. Turns out that Tommy's band plays a really good version of their song "steal my kisses". highly recommend it.

PS T just told me that the man at our new "one Password app" signed off as
"Your caped crusader of support." (HA!)
I think i may be in love.

Green Juice with Ingwer

Coffee and Juice Almhof style

Coffee and Juice San Francisco style......the espresso was small and bitter, like my mood. 

Christmas 2018 is in the books, and Frederick is tucked into Wentworth Hall- a place he is increasingly emotional about leaving. I wish I could help him, but there is no cure for love, or its shitty cousin attachment. Saying goodbye is just such a bitch. (I seem to be swearing a lot in 2019).

We had never spent three weeks in a row at the Schneider, and I am here to report it is not all bad. We came to breakfast early and were met with a small battalion of waiters who looked as if they had waited for us all night. Guten Morgen Familie Wehlen! "Two green juices with ginger, and two double espressos?" We would nob appreciatively through the jet lag, and then get down to talking about avocado toast. Somewhere around the second week Thomas announced he could get used to this.

When we left, there was a bit of a hub bub- Luis arranged for much of the staff to come down to see us off waving white handkerchiefs. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so tragic.

Harumi and I made some progress this year, and she and Thomas are delighted. They speak about me as if I am Eliza Doolittle. Sometimes one little tip works, and this year she told me my hip had to go up at a point in the turn- or at least more than it had been. The effect was amazing- I could be in thick snow, or weird snow or facing a steep fall into the valley, and I felt like I had this little secret weapon: Hüfte Hoch! she kept saying, and then I started saying it, no matter where I was. "Hüfte Hoch!" Hüfte Hoch!" over and over; over hill and dale.

Curiously the "Hüfte Hoch!" mantra is non transferable. Thomas had literally no idea what this meant, or where the hell his hip should be.

I am so jet lagged, that I don't know what I am writing- also just found out I have to go to the dentist this afternoon. I am too dehydrated for tears.

F seems very happy and pleased with all of his deferrals. The worst one had to be Cambridge because the start of the letter lauded him and his little application. But by the end they said uh no. Call us when you have taken all five APs. But nice work and fancy footwork at that interview!

He said that he knows people who turned on each other when one got into a school and the other didn't. This horrified him: "I guess I picked the right friends mommy..." So ok, maybe he won't get in to a big name physics school in this country. It looks increasingly unlikely unless we cough up a large check to make up for his whiteness, which we won't.
But here is the good news: he is surrounded by friends, and he is sleeping like a baby.

My new Castro look in Boston. I mean it's cute, right? Thomas keeps yelling VIVE!!!