Dec 31

Sharon invited us over for dinner tonight.

I don't remember the last time I had New Years plans, and I'm glad to go there for dinner.

Today I cleaned..... definitely the bathroom floor in all those awful places I discovered last night, but also the kitchen.

We had a nie time at Sharon's and se and her husband helped with airfare for the LA trip, which I am stuck doing and I feel really resentful about it.

They had a transferrable free companion ticket, so one of us is basically flying for free but still with the airfare and hotel I am already $800 in and that's not including food and transportation to/from the airport.

If it wasn't for my friend helping I would be in over $1k in airfare.

It doesn't help that Daya booked on the wrong weekend and we have had to wait so the fares went up.

I really truly am freaked out about this and 

no one has any respect  or care about my finances.

I'm just expected to suck it up and overextend even though it 's absolutely beyond my means.

I could easily have another $200 to go with this trip, it will depend on how much transportation in LA traffic costs to/from USC.

I am going to try and get Move NYC to help with this, but I have to pay everything up front and until I have a check in my hands, no reimbursement is guaranteed.

Plus Daya is a total jerk to me all the time and that doesn't help.

I'm having very bad anxiety about this and I feel raked over the coals and basically screwed.

I really, really resent it.
I wish I felt differently but this is a college application and absolutely nothing about it is equitable.

I DO think it should be a much fairer process to apply.

Dance is a rich people's world.

I'm overextended with it but I have done enough to get Daya in the door and keep her there.

However it harms my finances.

What happened to the days of if you can't afford something don't do it?

Move NYC says don't let money stand in your way, don't let that be the deciding factor.

Well, if they are willing to help pay for it, I'll agree.

******

Dinner at Sharon's was really nice.

Daya and I went home and watched the ball drop.

I wish I wasn't starting the new year feeling so salty

Very Bad Night

Last night (Friday Night) was bad but ended up ok.

I went to sleep right before midnight.
When I was taking out my contacts, my left Very Expensive multifocal lens dropped in the sink (water was off) and... bounced. (I have hard lenses and if they fall on something hard they bounce.)

I spent over an hour looking for it.
Hands and knees on the floor with a flashlight, in all the weird places on the floor... I looked through the garbage, in the toilet, everywhere.
It was nowhere.

I have 34 years experience finding contact lenses.
It was nowhere.

The last-ditch idea where it could have gone was..... a freakish bounce past the drain stopper down the drain.

I mean there was literally nowhere else.
So I had to look in the J pipe.

The way my sink is, the j-pipe site flush on the shelf, so I can't pull it down.  

I also couldn't unscrew the pipes and I don't have a wrench large enough.

I prayed.
I had a little panic attack.
It was 1am.

Aside from the replacement cost on that lens which is about $250, I really, really need the lens for all computer work.

So I HAD to look in the pipe.

It finally unscrewed.
But I couldn't pull it down and remove it to empty and look in there.

Because I am a good creative problem solver, I put a container near it and gently flushed water out.  I did make a mess but it was ok.

No lens.

I couldn't see all the way into the J pipe.

I was also low on paper towels but ended up soaking up the water from the J pipe into paper towels.
Then I put some paper towel on a screwdriver and tried to move the sediment forward.

My lens was there, hiding in pipe sediment.
OMG.

I rescued it.

It took 2 1/2 miserable hours.

What a freak thing, to bounce DOWN THE DRAIN past the stopper like that.

The Met is Still Acting Stupid

Grace and I met up again (with her oldest daughter) and went to the Met.

I renewed my membership online yesterday; usually I do it in-person.

At entry, they told me my card expired which I thought was weird because I renewed and it didn't show up. I showed them the email. They said ok, get a new card at the membership desk.

So we went over there.

The woman there was really rude.
Just... rude, and one of those power-trippy gatekeepers with no social skills who have to be snippy because they are miserable with their own lies.

She probably lives in Staten Island.

Apparently their card printing machine was broken. So she gave me a stupid paper slip.

And then she ... confiscated my old card!

The Met has pretty membership cards and I have a little collection of them.
But she wouldn't give it back. She said I can't have 2.
I said but it doesn't work anyhow so why does it matter?
Plus if I never went to the member desk I'd still have the old card so what does it matter?
The card was pretty and has Van Gogh on it.

She said you renewed on a different account.
I said... I used the renewal email to do it. Why is it a different account?

She said ... I don't know.

In the past when I renewed they have always handed my old card back.

I know it's a dumb thing to get upset over, but she was really rude and I've been a paying member for many years.. she should have much better people skills. And it's a fucking expire card. Wat's the big hairy deal?

ALSO:

1. My Memling is not on display again. Boo.
2. The Met has a new stupid backpack rule that you have to wear it on your front now, because.... you might damage the artwork.

They are so so stupid there.

I love The Met but oh man are they dumb in their arbitrary power trips.

******
Anyhow.
We went thru the Tudors exhibit (again for me.)

And the Maya exhibit.

Hannah and I love this alligator.

The Christmas tree.

Grace and I sketched this statue.

Hannah sketched a different statue.

 

This guy was drawing in the American Wing.

Insta @manofthemet

$1 Oysters

Daya has been at a Martha Graham dance intensive this week.
It's only for a couple hours in the mornings, Tuesday thru Saturday.

One of her teachers at school gave her a 50% scholarship.
I have to pay the other 50% plus a registration fee.

Today we were originally supposed to go to Hudson for a day trip but I'm not paying for both so I cancelled it. I got most of the fare back and lost $40.

******
In the evening I met up with Georgina and we went for happy hour and oysters.

It was really good to just... go out.

The oysters were so good.

I could eat oysters every day.

If you are in NYC there's a very good happy hour and $1 oysters over at Crown Alley on W19th St.

Hello Blick!

(I did not go.)

It was nice to not have to wait for the train.

MoMA melted our brains

Today I met up with Grace, her mom, and oldest daughter.

We went to MoMA.

There is an exhibit up about the new Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio film.
It's pretty cool, but mostly Grace and i visited.

The sets were in the exhibit and are pretty cool.

There is a huge hypnotic AI art wall.

I guess you have to be there, the pictures don't really tell the story.

It's mesmerizing in a questionably brain-melting way.

Afterwards we went to a Chinese noodle place and had fresh hand-ripped noodles.

If you have never had fresh hand-ripped noodles (La Mian)  (and you have to eat them fresh), you are missing out on something quite wonderful in life.

It's actually one really long noodle.  Mine was in a vegetable soup.

__PRESENT

The Day After Christmas

 Daya and I went out today to the Winter Village in Bryant Park.

There was Baclava hot chocolate.

It was even better than it sounds.

It was pretty cold- the fountain was frozen!

We also had the stinky cheese raclette, which was wonderful.

Afterwards, we went to H&M and Daya got a very nice casual dress.

I was happily surprised that I could go in the waiting room with her sand she showed me the dress she was trying on.

Wherever I go, there I am....

Christmas

Christmas was quiet this year as usual.

I got Daya a new laptop... a pretty nice one too.

She did express how much she liked it and she said a very genuine thank you.

Daya is very happy with her laptop despite looking miserable.

Pebbles helped check it out.

Daya got me a gift this year too.

Today I left my apartment for the first time since Tuesday.

I have cabin fever.

But covid is behind us, thankfully, and I'm in the clear to go out.

I walked for about an hour and a half and went to light a candle in the church.

Because I was in isolation I couldn't really do anything about Christmas dinner, so we just ordered suchi.

Here are 2 of the bath fizzies Daya got me.

Negatory

It appears I have defeated covid.

Daya is also negative.

I was positive yesterday but today am negative.

Today is Day 5 for me.

I found an interesting Boston University study that found only 17% of people test positive after day 5 and most tested negative after 3 days.

I never got an olfactory vacation.

The other day I told my friend I am so vacation-deficient I cant even get an olfactory vacation with covid.

USC and Juilliard Callbacks

Daya got USC and Juilliard callbacks for in-person auditions.

I am so, so glad she got Juilliard... I knew she would but still.

(Not all of her friends did.)

USC (University of Southern California, aka the University of Spoiled Children) has a really excellent dance program but I think I have mentioned before the school is not a good fit for Daya, yet somehow I am on the hook to go through the application process and all the nonsense it entails.

USC is a huge pain in my ass.

So anyhow we have to go to LA for the audition, which is held over 2 weekends ... NEXT MONTH.

They give a $500 stipend but charge $207/night to stay on-campus.

I think this is incredibly tacky.

And it's one of those things I'm just on the hook for and can't really say no because it's college stuff.
One of those context-specific situations where I can't be the one to eliminate Daya's options.

So of course I'm the one eating the shit sandwich again and I can't say no because then I'm the asshole.

It's one of those parenting things where people on the outside can just easily tell me Just Say No but parenting is not so simple like that. 

It's a weird context.  

I absolutely want to say no but I really can't.

Its easy for other people not living your life to tell you what to do like it's so simple and straightforward.

It isn't.

Because it's college applications and she already has such a short list of schools.

Move NYC really pushes this program.

I did speak with them about it already.

The decision was to move ahead with the application process.

****************

Daya decided to schedule her audition and interview on Jan 22.
Something about that felt weird to me but it's her thing so whatever.

The plan was to fly in Saturday, she has to be at registration at 7:30am.... audition all day, do her interview at 6:10pm...to be with her friend.....

....and she wants to fly back to NYC overnight Sunday night.

I am not thrilled about this but I can deal with it, especially if it saves me $200 and I really don't want to be in LA anyhow.

HOWEVER

My kid pulled a total bonehead move and booked her audition DURING A PERFORMANCE WEEKEND... that's the LaGuardia Winter Dance Showcase weekend. She's performing at 2pm on Saturday afternoon Jan 21.

Her friend didn't check the dates and Daya just followed what her friend did without checking either.

Boneheads, both of them.

Me: you can't audition that weekend.

She: It's fine we'll just fly out after the show.

Me: (!!!) Absolutely not. Fix it with USC.

Daya thinks she can perform a 2pm show (idk how long it lasts) and we can just.... fly to California like we were just taking a train to Brooklyn.

AND THEN audition all day the next day and then spend the second night in a row on an airplane flying back???

You have got to be kidding me.

Fuck USC.

Joining the Club

Welp, it's my turn to join the Covid Club.

Daya has it too so we are both home isolating all week.

Fuck covid.

We both have it very mild ad it's not a big deal other than being annoying.

Its honestly pretty amazing neither of us has had it until now.

The whole city is covid soup, flu soup, and RSV soup.

Our numbers are way up... I guess it was inevitable at some point.

Prima Pigeon

Prima Pigeon is my favorite role in the whole entire production, and Daya was the best Prima Pigeon MYB has ever had.