One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

I'm back to the usual routine after a wonderful mid-week road trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

My travelling companion, nounsandverbs, describes our adventures better than I can.

Trying to decide if I should do Readercon or the Clearwater Festival this year.

Admission is more for Clearwater, but food and shelter will be more at Readercon.

I posted a slightly silly idea for getting more exercise the other day.

After going down to the Bronx Zoo with Tom & Kailey this Saturday I had better numbers to use, and figured out that it's probably not cost effective to go every week. Maybe once a month.

Instead, I'm going to try to explore closer interesting places each weekend. The problem with that plan is that I'm not sure what nearby towns are worth exploring. Note: By "explore," I mostly mean window shop. Yes, I like hiking in the woods, but since I'm using this as a way to trick myself into getting more exercise I need something that keeps my brain too busy to notice how tired my body is getting. Cities and towns do that for me in a way that nature doesn't.

I'm defining "nearby" as less than a two hour drive away. Anybody have any suggestions? They need to have a downtown with enough interesting shops in it that it will take me several hours to fully explore.

This is my list so far:

• Lake George, NY
• New Paltz, NY
• Chatham, NY
• Hudson, NY
• Red Hook, NY
• Rhinebeck, NY
• Bennington, VT
• Stockbridge, MA
• Pittsfield, MA
• Williamstown, MA
• Springfield, MA
• Northampton, MA
• Catskill, NY
• New York, NY
• Saratoga Springs, NY
• Ballston Spa, NY
• Woodstock, NY & Saugerties, NY - Woodstock takes me about 4 hours, Saugerties about 2, so I'm combining them into one day from now on.
• Shaftsbury, VT
• Cooperstown, NY
• Great Barrington, MA
• Cobleskill, NY
• Manchester, VT
• New York, NY

I need to get more exercise. I've tried joining gyms on several occasions, but after the first month or so I always find myself making excuses to not go. I suspect that if I hired a personal trainer and made regular appointments with him/her, I would keep those appointments. I don't think I'd enjoy the exercise any more than in the past, but I think the feeling that I was wasting somebody else's time and even more of my own money would be a pretty good motivator.

The other motivator would be finding a fun way to exercise that I can do on a regular basis. Just about the only type of exercise I enjoy is walking around a place with interesting things and people to look at. NYC is great for that. I've learned that as long as I have decent shoes I can walk around The City for 8 hours and not only not be bored, but I won't even feel any aches or pains until I stop moving. (Of course, once I do stop moving I feel like a train hit me.)

This has me wanting to do a cost comparison between joining a gym & and hiring a trainer VS going down to NYC every weekend. I'd have to include gas, train tickets, food for the day, and probably one or two other things I'm not thinking of now.

Thoughts?

This was a very full, very long weekend.

We spent all of Friday driving and just collapsed in our hotel when we got to East Lansing.

Saturday we slept late, then went out to lunch at El Azteco, my favorite mexican restaurant. After that we wandered around downtown for a couple of hours and bought some odds'n'ends at Flat, Black and Circular, Curious Books, and a yarn store that wasn't there last time I visited. Then we went back to the hotel for a little while before heading to Dad's for my step-mother's surprise birthday party. Nancy was expecting the Beard kids, spouses, and grandkids, and her two local-ish daughters and grandkids. But, Dad decided to also invite her brothers and their families. Nancy was blown away. The party was a lot of fun overall, if very loud and crowded. The food and conversation were good and the wine flowed freely. What more can you ask?

Sunday we went for a little walk near the hotel and otherwise goofed off in the morning, then drove out to Grand Ledge for Grandma's party. All 27 (I think) of us went to the decent Chinese place in town, and then back to Grandma's house to hang out for the rest of the day. Again, good food and conversation add up to a good party. We also went back to Dad's after leaving that party and hung out with him, Nancy, KC, and Erin for a couple more hours before going back to the hotel. We stayed up a little late watching some mindless TV, and then passed out.

Monday we forced ourselves to get up early and then drove back to Grand Ledge to pick up my 18 year old sister, who was riding back with us. We had breakfast with Grandma, Mom, and the kids, then hit the road. The only really memorable part about the drive home was the call Tom got from the repair guy about my car. It turns out I need a new transmission. That will be expensive enough that we're trying to decide if we should have it repaired/replaced, or just get a new car. Blah.

And then we got home and passed out.

What's everybody doing this weekend?

I'm going down into NYC tomorrow. Tom & I are going to check out the Guggenhiem museum. I'm looking forward to seeing their collection of the Impressionists.

This was yet another in a string of really busy weekends.

Saturday
We helped Mark and Kristina move to their new house. It's a very nice place with lots of public space and an inground pool. They were informed that they'll be hosting the gang's parties from now on. :)

Sunday
I took the morning to run a few errands and get a manicure & pedicure, then I headed down to Harmony Drive for the night. Jeff, Katie, and Charlie were out of town; but it was nice spending the day with Matt, Kae, Rachael and the Bester-kids.

Monday
I got up early-ish and went into New York City for the day. It was... not a bad trip, but nothing quite went right. My phone ran through its entire battery overnight (even though I had it plugged in - grr) and I never really managed to get it charged back up enough to be useful. Since I was planning on using the map app on it to figure out where I was in relation to what I wanted to do, this was a minor problem.
My plan for the day was to go to MOMA, and then hit a bunch of shops that I'd heard about. The first thing to go wrong with that part of the plan was that I got to the museum and realized it wasn't the one I wanted. I had it and the Guggenheim confused. I went in and looked around anyway, because it was still a museum I'd never been to before. It was generally interesting, but not really my style. I prefer representational art, or at least stylized, to abstract and conceptual stuff.
After leaving the museum I got onto the subway and headed for the part of town that has most of the stores I wanted to go to. (I'm not really sure what neighborhood that is. When I plot them on a map, it makes sort of a big circle around Washington Square Park.) Unfortunately, I'm still figuring out the subway system, and the train I got onto didn't stop where I thought it did. I ended up getting off at the south end of the area I wanted, almost into Chinatown, instead of at the north end. I managed to find several of the stores on my list, but it turns out that Labor day is not the best day to go shopping in NYC. Most places were either closed for the holiday, or had closed early by the time I got to them. Mostly I just meandered back uptown to Grand Central, stopping into anything that was open and looked interesting. I found a few things that I could have bought, but nothing that I liked enough to want to carry it around for the rest of the day.
Then I got back onto the train and headed north. I was home by 11, and asleep by 11:30.

I decided I am going to the Clearwater Festival. It will be a little expensive, but not more than I would have spent on Readercon (which I've decided I'm not going back to until I have someone who'll go with me.)

So, my tickets and hotel room are booked, and I'll hit the road after work tomorrow.

*squee* I'm going to see Pete Seeger! And the Indigo Girls! And Billy Bragg! And John Sebastian! And Dar Williams! And Jorma Kaukonen! And, and, and bunches of other people!

It's only June first, and my month is already pretty much full. How does this happen?

This weekend: heading down to NYC with a friend to the Met. We're specifically planning on seeing this exhibit, and I'm sure we'll look at a few others. There will also be shopping and random wandering and people watching.

Next weekend: I'm driving 90 minutes south to the Beacon Sloop Club's Strawberry Festival. Should be a bunch of good folk music, hopefully including an appearance by Pete Seeger.

On either the 18th or the 19th I'll be going down to Crafts at Rhinebeck. Probably the 18th, because there is a friend gathering on the 19th.

The weekend after that Dad and Nancy will be visiting, so I'll be busy showing them around the area.

And of course the weekdays are full of work, my share of the housework, Thursday night dinners with the gang, and assorted other parts of life.

This was a very full, fun weekend.

It started Friday. Sometime during the afternoon I learned that one of my favorite blues performers would be at the Helsinki club in Hudson on Friday night. Over dinner Tom & I decided we'd go to the show. I waffled a little, doubting that we'd be able to get there in time or that there'd be tickets left if we did. Tom didn't let me talk myself out of it. :)

The opening act was Scrapomatic. They were very good, but didn't quite cross the line into great. I think their biggest weakness was not enough variety of mood in the songs they chose.

The main act was Shemekia Copeland who put on a fabulous show. A good mix of up-beat and laid back songs, and she and the band seemed to be having just as much fun as the audience.

Saturday we got a (relatively) early start, and headed out to Brimfield, MA for one of biggest antique shows in the country. Mostly we just wandered about looking at all the cool old stuff. I bought a couple of pretty decanters for my cordials, and some old skeleton keys for crafting with. Tom bought some old books of the "how to fix anything" varity.

Getting dinner on the way home Saturday night was more effort than we wanted it to be. Nothing really sounded good, and finally we ended up at Arizona Pizza in Lee. It hit the spot.

Sunday I took as a lazy recovery day, doing a little dishes but not much else, but Tom kept running around. He did laundry, went rock climbing, and got together with some buddies.