Weekend Visit

My mom was here from Thursday night through this morning. Derek and I just dropped her off at the airport. I thought my dad might surprise me and come with her, although he wasn't able to. In any event, it was fun. She spent the day with Derek while I worked on Friday - working out and doing a bit of shopping. Toward the end of the day, they came up to my job so my mom could see the offices and meet some of my colleagues. I had planned on getting out of here around 5, but we had some unexpected events come up on Friday and I had to (got to) deal with "press calls" and make "press statements" for the first time. It was fun, but a bit harder than I expected since you often have speaking points that you want to say but that do not match up with the questions you are asked. I will have a lot of press statements around Super Bowl time, and more and more each year, so I was excited to get some under my belt and my mom and husband that it was very cool that they were here for it. We then went to one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants, Burrito Bar, and had some great fajitas and margaritas.

Saturday we went on a long run, went to a new local coffee shop that is really nice (Joyce Bake Shop) with amazing owners, walked around our neighborhood and checked out the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. It was quite crowded (that museum is right in our neighborhood and absolutely gorgeous, but never really crowded), but a very good exhibit so we all understood why. I am a big photography fan -- I don't know much about it, I just love photos of any sort, especially of people. There was also an exhibit of graffiti art and a booksigning by four female graffiti artists, which drew a crowd as well. Then we went to Joya for some delicious Thai food, and I forced my mom to watch Walk the Line since she had never seen it and I thought that was tragic. (This was sparked because there were a number of photos at the Annie Liebovitz exhibit of Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and some of their children and grandchildren). While we were renting Walk the Line, I found 4 other movies that I wanted to see too, so I ended up renting them all (Syriana, Hard Candy - recommended by my friend Laurie after I saw Patrick Wilson in Little Children, Red Dust, and something else....oh, Catch Me if You Can). Hopefully, I actually watch them over the upcoming holiday weekend! Although I bet I just watch 1, at most 2.

Yesterday, my mom and I took Butter & Deuce to the enclosed dog park. We live by Prospect Park, which is beautiful, huge and dog friendly, but I can't take Deuce off the leash there because he is unpredictable in what will catch his curiosity any given day - and usually my commands are no match for his curiosity. So we go about 1 1/2 miles away to an enclosed park which is big and nice. They were going some renovations, so 1/2 of it was closed, but both the dogs had fun anyway. We then went to the Angelika - a true NYC landmark that shows artsy sort of films, but a couple that end up being mainstream as well. We saw Candy (Heath Ledger) which was a good movie - great acting - but also hard to watch. Disturbing in some scenes. We did a few other things that are slipping my mind - christmas shopping, checking a few things out......had fun. Then watched football and baked some brownies to end the day. Simple, fun stuff.

Now back to work. Thank god it is a short workweek! Got in quite early this morning, so hoping to get out early and go to the early Capoeira class tonight. I did not get the chance to go last week, so I am excited to have a good class tonight. My instructors (a husband and wife) are on vacation (they went to Kenya to see the wife's family - she spent part of her childhood there). One of their friends from Brazil is here to fill in for them and teach all the classes, and I am excited to take classes with him.