6/22/02, 4:48 pm

Mom's fifty! I went out to Long Island for dinner with her and the family last night. Funny thing about restaurants outside of New York City-- there's so much space! Big tables with plenty of room between them. It's odd when the normal becomes odd.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that my Mom has a wonderful attitude about her birthday. Turning fifty is an occasion for self-reflection, and it seems that my mom likes what she sees. She's healthy, in love and happy with her business and hobbies and kids.

Went to a late showing of "The Minority Report" last night. I liked it. Good sci-fi flick. I'll have to read the Philip K. Dick story that it came from.

Played sand volleyball with Jeanhee at the gym this morning. She had the brilliant idea the other day of sitting in the hot tub after our tournament, and we did the same today. I feel silly that I never did it before, because it's wonderful. As you sit there, you look out over the Hudson and see Jersey and the Statue of Liberty as the bubbles massage your feet. An excellent complement to beach volleyball.

In musical news, I got an guitar amp. It's a small 12-watt Marshall with some nice sounding distortion. As I took the elevator up with it in my hand, I said a quiet apology for my poor neighbors. I've played both my acoustic and my electric through it, and it is so much fun!

That's the update for today. Back to doing tech support for my grandma.

6/18/02, 10:52 pm

Busted by the park police!

It's not nearly as good as my dad's park police story (ask me sometime), but it's worth telling anyway. I met up with two friends from high school (and junior high and elementary school for that matter) downtown and we sat on a blanket in Battery Park eating bagel chips and drinking red wine from paper cups as the sun set. We were laughing (a bit too boisterously perhaps) over ex- and current girlfriends and boyfriends as a bright orange sun came down over Jersey. We had nearly finished the bottle, when a park policeman marched over and told us he'd have to take it from us.

"But it's empty," Sarah said. He took the bottle anyhow and asked us to pour out the wine in our little paper cups. "Into the grass?" I asked. He said yes. "How uncouth," I thought, as Sarah, Don and I poured red wine into the green grass.

We watched as he walked off, the setting sun shining on him, a bottle in one hand, looking suspiciously like a green-clad wino.

6/17/02, 11:57 PM

Back to work. I was so spent after playing volleyball all weekend that I was asleep before ten last night. I dreamed what I think may be a recurring dream. I'm in high school and it's near the end of the year. The adults in the school are just realizing that I've been cutting spanish class since the beginning of school. In the dream, I'm filled with anxiety about it. Any dream experts want to take a guess on that one...?

Yesterday was a beautiful beach day. Jeanhee and I did well for our first time out, though we didn't won only one game (on a forfeit!). We played our best game against the brother and sister team that went on to the finals, losing by only four points.

I played hard court threes at Chelsea Piers tonight. I've almost met enough of a community of volleyball who are members there to have some good competition regularly.

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof is right on with his perspective on the international women's treaty awaiting ratification by the U.S. Senate.

And, yes, if you're wondering, that last political bit was to prove that I think about more than volleyball.