Sea & Sky in Magical Realism

So much for moderation. On Thursday evening I made it home right before we would have needed to head out for class, and A only beat me there by two minutes. He was still a stress case so we made the executive decision to relax and share a glass of wine instead. I thought it would be easy for us to show up at 8pm instead of 9pm since we had extra time, but when we got there the restaurant (Bakehouse) was packed so we went down the street to the Jane Hotel bar, one of my all-time favorites, to kill some time instead. A had a bombay sapphire martini, dirty, and I had a negroni. Very nice hour of conversation in the front bar until it was time for our reservation.

This time we went right in and sat at a table with a lovely view of the river. Shared the warm cambozola blue cheese starter which came with citrus honey, poached pears, and a hearty multigrain bread. So good. We had a bottle of white with our red meat entrees. I had the sirloin in a red wine sauce with asparagus, and A had the Bakehouse burger with avocado. After dinner we went back to the Jane which was hopping by that point, and A had to cajole me into going home a bit after 1:30am. Bah. Alarm rang at 5am, showered, dried, and business-ified and was out the door before 6am. Worked a moderately long day and was back home by 8pm. A had beautified the house and picked up dinner from Hu Kitchen which was awesome of him. Conked out by 11pm.

Saturday morning went to grab the zipcar and picked up a lovely breakfast of toasted bagel and coffee. I was still zonked but managed to haul myself out of bed, get ready, and we headed out to Coney Island around 9:30am for the first NYC outdoor swim of the year! It was a really beautiful day out - bright, sunny, air around 55F, water around 35F I estimated?

Here I am, about to get beamed up by aliens:

I got in and the water was still freezing. Okay, not freezing, since it was still a liquid, but not hospitable to humans wearing only speedos. Walking in didn't feel much colder than 50* in the Bay, but the effect on my body was immediate. (I checked online later and it was about 34F/2C.) I felt short of breath starting at around ankle-height, so I walked in as fast as I could and then swam hard. I did my usual count to 100 but it never really got better. I swam back and forth between the rocks until my fingers for a few minutes, until my fingers started feeling fat/prickly, so I knew it was time to head back in. Coming back in seemed to take the looooongest time.

Looks bright for February, doesn't it? I love the blues:

A threw a towel on me, I dried off, took my cap/goggles/earplugs off and put on fleece hat (key!) and my coat. We walked to the parking lot and I did a quick change in the car. Rewarming was fine, I wasn't in long enough to get really cold. We drove back into Manhattan, dropped the car off and walked home. Hung up all the wet items, then got changed for class. (We do a rowing/circuit training class most Saturdays.) Got to the gym nice and early, walked on treadmill and chatted a bit, then worked out hard in class. Went to the library, then grabbed groceries on the way home. Had brunch at home - champagne and raspberry danish, yum.

Took a nap, A made a grilled chicken/avocado salad that was awesome, then I got ready to go out. I wish I had a photo of my skirt - flowy floor-length black mesh over little hot-pants length skirt. Will have to wear it again and get a photo next time Wore it with a black tee-shirt, big black wedges, half-moon wallet on chain and... bare legs - another first for the year - yay! We took a cab up to the event, which was at a photo studio in far far West Chelsea. So much fun and so bizarre. It was high up and basically on the water so we sat outside on the terrace for most of the time.

Check out this view, so beautiful (taken with panorama setting of A's cell phone: Beautiful:

It actually reminds me of the trailer for the recent The Great Gatsby movie, which in many ways, for me, was better than the movie.

Doesn't even look real - could be a green screen and wind machine, right?

He's the king of the world!

We hung out on the balcony for ages, just enjoying it all and toasting (repeatedly!) to our 14 year anniversary. How the eff did that happen? We kept saying it alternately seems like yesterday, and also like eternity, in all the best ways. But seriously, 14 years?! So many miles, so many amazing experiences together, we are truly blessed.

We left a bit early and headed towards home. A was hungry so we grabbed a drink and a bite (mozzarella sticks) at our local. Played pinball, then headed out, and were about to go home but noticed the sports bar on the way home had the Ronda Rousey fight, so we went in, had some more drinks, shared edamame and A had french fries. The fight was okay, but I think they called it way too early. McMann definitely wasn't knocked out. Went home sometime after midnight, usually very reasonable for a weekend, but still way later than we'd anticipated.

Of course 6am came around way too early yet again. A made us oatmeal with blueberries and I hauled myself out of bed. We went uptown to Central Park, ran a half marathon, then took the subway home. Actually "ran" is probably too strong a word, we started slow and I got tired/bored about ten miles in and took frequent walk breaks after that. Oh well.

A showered and then I took a really nice long bubble bath with candles and everything. We brought home a couple of bagels from the race and A toasted them and them to me in the bath. Even better than breakfast in bed - breakfast in the bath. Ha. I am not sure how long I was in there, but I put more warm water/more bubbles in twice and finished a whole (chick-lit) book while laying in the bath. A was asleep when I got into bed, and we slept until 6am Monday morning! I was totally confused when the alarm went off, but it was a great recharge. I think sometimes I stay up too late on Sunday which makes Mondays a little painful, but this was a great start to the week! It will be a long one with a work trip and not coming back until mid-day Saturday, so anything to make it easier.