Rosalind, Betsey and Fritz

As usual, Mary and I drank a lot of wine on Saturday. It ended with housing a pizza and Mary going to bed to sleep off her stomach ache at 9pm. BUT, it started with a warm Saturday afternoon at the Veritas Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The wine tour is run by City Wine Tours for $56, but we had purchased half price tickets through Gilt City. Our "wine ambassador" was Rosalind Johnson, who told us this was her first tour through City Wine Tours, but that she is one of the founding members of Diva's Uncorked--Meaning, she was qualified. Not only that, she was very sweet, sassy and fun. Huge fan. Of Rosalind.

There were a total of 7 people on the tour, including us. At the Hotel Veritas, we tried two wines, the first a sparkling and the second a Chardonnay from California.

 

We learned some things about wine including ... How to smell it ("Pear!!!!!", "Vanilla!!!!"), how to hold the glass (preventing warming up your wine by holding the stem), and how the width of the legs (i.e. residue that descends) after swirling the glass indicates the alcohol content.

The Morgan Chardonnay was ultimately my favorite on the tour and I will probably try to find it to buy in the future. I looked it up and it's $20, so more expensive than my typical $4.99 bottle from Trader Joes, but the point is that I'm learning what I like. Right?

We then proceeded through Havahd Yahd and Rosalind pointed out the Harvard library and the statue of John Harvard. Fun Fact! The undergrads pee on John Harvard's shoe. Fun Fact! All tourists touch John Harvard's shoe for good luck.

Our next step was Casablanca, a restaurant that I've seen and been intrigued by but had never been inside of. What a treat! Here we tried a red wine which I found Just OK. Indeed, just as Rosalind said, when paired with the right food, it tasted better. Both the owner and the chef were present and were both very nice and able to answer any questions. The chef brought out a flat bread with baby arugula, mascarpone, balsamic onions, roasted grapes, and goat cheese. Um.....Best. Ever.

In addition, the wine began settling in and we all began having a little bit more fun. Mary and I finally chatted a bit more with the couple that was there, Betsey and Fritz. Fritz was just there for moral support for Betsey because he only drinks beer. They were fun and we found that we had common interests (Therapy.). Highlight of Casablanca--Betsey and Fritz or flatbread pizza? It's a toss up.

The final stop was the slightly stuffy Harvest Restaurant where it was too dark for day time and the waiter didn't stick around long enough to repeat what type of wine it was, though we eventually requested to see the bottles again. The first was Evodia Grenache from Spain. Again, not my thing, it was just OK. And next was a dessert wine, Chateau Bel Air, semillion, from Bordeaux. This was obviously quite sweet, so I loved it.

 

So the conclusion is that I would definitely do the North End version of this tour if I can do it for less than $56. On the other hand, I may just want to get drinks with Rosalind, Betsey and Fritz.

Notable artists of the twenty-first century

I should mention that both of these art-related activities were done in the company of Jamie. We like to hold a make-your-own summer camp in which we seek out activities that help us nurture our mind, body, and souls.

Our most recent activity was seeing the Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. Dale Chihuly is an American- born artist that studied glass as a medium to create art and now creates sculpture and installations using the method of blowing glass. His work is in over 200 museum wordlwide, but some of his pieces are also temporary outdoor installations.

My only complaint about the exhibit is that, going into it, I had no understanding about the process of blowing glass, and I left the exhibit equally uninformed. I imagine I could find out more about this on You Tube ...Chihuly glass blowing at Iittala factory.

Besides that, this exhibit ended up being my heaven. The colors were amazing and enormity of the pieces blew my mind. Blew it like glass. I thank my friend Jamie for taking these pictures with her iPhone. She loves her iPhone.

This is called the Ikebana Boat. According to the sign, this idea was spawned spontaneously when Chihuly threw some glass into a river in Finland in 1995 to see if they'd float, sink or break. Most of them floated, so he had to get some Finnish people to row over and retrieve all his glass. When they returned with boats filled with glass he says, he says to himself, "I'ma make some art!" (-Not a direct quote).

Nex, Mille Fiori, means One Thousand Flowers. I like to call it "the marsh". According to the sign at the museum, while Chihuly has created many versions of this particular installation, the one at the MFA is the largest Mille Fiori to date. Well la-tee-da.

And finally, the Chandeliers, were enormous pieces hanging from the ceiling from metal poles and looked like they could murder you at any moment. They too were in colors that made my eyes sing. The also had organic, visceral shapes within them and I found them to be a quality projective test. That is: does it look like genitals or an animal or like your crappy childhood?

Definitely an octopus

Hehe, frog hands everywhere!

All in all, I went into this not knowing what to expect and ended up loving it. It was beautiful and interesting and it inspired me to come up with this little ditty: "Chihuly, Chihuly, Chihuly preformance fleece...Chihuly, ..."

Just about two weeks before seeing this exhibit, another artist was working equally as hard in her studio. Artist = me, studio = The Clayroom. As you may do not recall, I have been here once before with the same friend. You buy a pre-made piece of pottery and you paint it. Incidentally, when I showed my father he was stunned at my ability to create such a perfectly formed piece of pottery. Then I told him that I merely painted the design on it and hadn't actually physically created the canister.

Last time I painted a calico cat bank. This time I painted a mini-canister. My initial hope had been there'd be mini-planters, but there wasn't. So instead, I stuck to the same design plan, but now it will probably hold solo earring-backings, rather than flowers.

 

 

If you were interested in my artistic process, I have created a You Tube video to demonstrate: Jessie's Creative Process

Animal Summer Funtimes

Summer is a good time for reading outside, going to BBQ's and sweating a lot. Because I never like to spend more than 5 hours out of range of an animal, there must  cbereative solutions developed to ensure that they can join in on summer funtimes.

A well known fact is that I own a cat gazebo. Another well known fact is that Nuni (age/sex/race?3/female/calico) hates Beatrix (8 months/female/stately grey tuxedo). To kick off the summer and to celebrate her third birthday, Nuni was given the pleasure of spending some alone time in her cat gazebo as I read in the sun.

 

 This is the greatest gift she could have ever received. A few days later, when Adam and I chose to dine outside, we decided to give Nuni the opposite gift. Which went Just OK. 

 

Yes, this is Beatrix leaping full throttle at the netting.

First, Beatrix didn't understand that this was fun and instead meowed for 40 minutes. Second, Nuni was perturbed that Beatrix was now stepping on the toes of her outdoor toys as well as her indoor toys and decided to supervise and meow for 40 minutes at the window.

Seriously. Look at that.

Thankfully, rather than murder each other once they were put back under the same roof, they turned into soupy pancakes because of the heat

 

Next destination: BBQ in Connecticut. But how will we transport our new, timid, puppy sister-in-law? Well...

A puppy car seat, obvs.

Sometimes I travel with animals and other times I travel for animals. For good measure, I will display hilarious looking animals that reside at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island.

Chickens are always hilarious

For realsies doing the one-foot thing

Just a porcupine snoot

Fun fact: Look how small camel poop is!

Our national bird sitting majestically in a bush with it's mouth wide open saying nothing (political commentary or...the literal truth?)

 

180 degree neck action

23:35

This is a story of bravery, triumph, and hubris.

I decided to sign up for a 5K (3.11 miles) because I run that distance most days a week anyway, I want to increase my hobbies, I wanted a T-shirt, and I wanted to see if I could improve my time. I run the 5K at my school each Fall, so I have data to show my time improving over time. My times for the years that I ran that are as follows:

2007:  30:26

2008:  26:55

2009:  24:51

This year, I felt that a solid time would be 24 minutes flat. The week before the race I tried some pacing on the treadmill (it rained all week). It was hard. I don't really like challenging myself.

On race day, I was a little nervous and my bowels were working overtime. I should mention I have a nervous stomach and when I ran track in high school (due to being coerced by my friend into doing so), I would vomit before and after every single race.My nervousness on 5K day was nothing even remotely close to that, so I'm not complaining. I should also mention that this was based out of a Gold's Gym and was literally called "Just a 5K", and was followed by a fun run for the kids. So, I'm ridiculous.

I also don't get nervous for competition, it's more about getting nervous about needing to 'push myself'.

My darling husband came for support and fun times.

Before the race, I looked at the map..., gave up looking at the map because I knew I could just follow people, and tried to stay warm while all the latecomers registered.

 

I made a  play list for the race which only had 9 songs, aka 36.2 minutes of music because damned if I was going to be running more than 25. My play list contained

Boys, Boys, Boys by Lady Gaga

Letting Go (Dutty Love) Ft. Nicki Minag by (Mr.) Sean Kingston

Like a G6 by Far East Movement

Teeth by Lady Gaga

Harder, Better, Faster Stronger by Daft Punk (I had meant to add the Kanye West version and became very dissapointed at mile 3 when I discovered my mistake)

We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel

I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

Gasolina by .... I don't know

Later by Dr. Dog

My ipod was accidentally on shuffle...Another mistake I was dissapointed by when I discovered it around point two miles. So, I don't actually remember which songs I heard during my run because I maintain that I was completely blacked out during it.

I sure am building up this story, aren't I?

So whatever, I run, I do stuff, I black out during it, I push myself somewhat, passed some peeps, got passed by some peeps.....Didn't really feel like I was making my time, was cool with that because I hadn't passed out and died yet....

As I approach the finish line, I see the time clock and it says 23:25, I was going to make my time, Mo...Fo!!!! I saunter in at about 23:3-something. 

Then I pass out for a little while because my lungs and heart are bleeding and probably also my brain

After recovering, I wanted to get my official time. I told my husband that we could skip out on the fun run and face painting as soon as the times were posted. 

As you may or may not be able to see, there is no Jessica in or around 23 minutes. I get sad and mad and scared. I talk to the lady that's managing the race. She goes and talks to the timers for ten minutes. I complain to my husband that they're all dumdum heads and I shouldn't run dumdum head 5k's anymore.

She comes back and she says, "It's OK we found your time. There had been an X next to your name because they weren't sure what your number was. Oh and you came in first for your age group."

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I tell my husband. And then we both decide that she's totally mistaken. I go back to her and say, "Sorry, can you just double check the time because I'm a little surprised that I would be first for my age group". She looks at me weird and says, "Yeah, Jessica, from Natick, 23:35". And I'm all like, 

 

K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So then, of course, we don't take off. We stay around for the fun run, the face painting, the oranges....In order to attend the AWARD CEREMONY.

A TRIFECTA VICTORY WAS MINE: Personal best, "free" TSHIRT (with registration fee) AND A MO'FOING MEDAL!!!!

I was out of my mind, as usual.

My age range, by the way, is 20-29. Indeed, all the people ahead of me were either 40 years old or 14 years old, so I won fair and square. I also beat all the men in my age group, but they award men and women separately. Just saying.