Gingerbread Season

I had a doctor appointment today......... I hate going and haven't been since my 2019 surgery but I suppose an annual physical is a good idea so I did it. Also I think I'm anemic again so need to get that checked.

I have a new doctor on referral from a friend and she's amazing!

Daya forgot her ipad and begged me to bring it to her....she has rehearsals for Knickerbocker pretty much all week until late. So after the dr I went west to MMAC to bring her ipad because regardless of what my teenager thinks, I am a good parent and am even nice sometimes.

On the way I passed toe Columbus Circle holiday market, and that means Drusilla's favorite gingerbread!

I got gingerbread for her and me (they were out of girls), and chocolate chip cookies for me and Daya. (See note above about sometimes I am nice.....) I left a cookie for Daya with the ipad, shipped gingerbread to Dru, and went to Trader Joes.

We had a nice pink sunset.

And also, completely unrelated, my cats were snuggly.

Furball is so fat!

Explosive Granola from Rochester

This weekend I went to visit Teresa in Rochester.
I have never been there before, and I haven't seen Teresa since before covid stuff, so it was great to see her. 

Flying was the way to go, and I haven't done that either since 2019.

We had a really lovely time.

I bought a log of local butter and 2 bags of amazing granola.

On the way home, TSA security searched my suitcase because they thought the granola was explosives!!!

So if you are ever travelling with granola... now you know.

Teresa took me to the pier she is always posting amazing photos from.

Teresa has a terrorist squirrel.

But she still buys food for him even though he is an asshole.. he even peed on her door on purpose once because she wouldn't give him more of something.

Teresa lives in the house she grew up in... and downstairs is a mint-condition stove from 1955!

It was nice to take a quick trip away.
This is the third trip I have done since October!

Pearl as a HIgh Elf

Weekly figure drawing is a good time to be a little experimental.

For the first time in a long time, I brought out my large set of Derwent Coloursoft pencils.

Just to do something different and mix things up.

And also to dig into my absolutely ridiculous cache of art supplies I almost never use but still definitely need to have around.

Mostly I didn't do good work, and this 40 minute pose also isn't that great but it was fun!
And also a good way to end the month.

The model is Pearl, she was dressed up as a high elf.

9x12 Derwent Coloursoft on black Artagain paper

Jackie Before, Jackie After

Right before covid lockdown I went to the movies with Jackie.
We saw that movie Emma (I think that's what it was called)... it was good.

Then I didn't go to the movies again until today.... again with Jackie!  We saw House of Gucci which was really, really good and you should go see it.

(FYI I mostly forgot how to get dressed these days, I don't care about my hair anymore, it's hit-or miss if I wear makeup, and I don't care.)

Room, Painted

 We went to Jackie's for Thanksgiving which was very nice.

Then over Thanksgiving vacation Daya was drafted** to help me finish painting my room.

It's all done now, all the walls and the ceiling, which is now officially no longer in damaged status.

.

** I would have normally paid Daya to help me, but she owed me one for being..... a little too teenagery for my liking.  If she wants my significant financial support for certain she needs to be nice at minimum.

Sweet 16

Daya chose to have her party at The Sugar Factory.
She had a good time and so did her guests.

9 out of 10 people showed up, they are all LaGuardia dance juniors.

I was VERY upset at the service though, to the point where I feel they broke their contract.  

The writing of this post is after the fact because I am playing catch-up, but I have disputed the charge.

I signed a contract for this dinner.  Everything was pre-ordered six weeks in advance and it was very expensive.

Among many issues, the waitstaff said no one told them we were a party event, we waited almost an hour for appetizers (was supposed to be 10 minutes), they never served dinner plates and everyone used the same little appetizer plates for the whole meal, our 2 side dishes never came out... it was really, really mishandled.  I talked with several people but no one  actually called me back like they promised.

I did burn them on yelp and google reviews, and those reviews will stand.

Anyhow, the upside is Daya had a good experience but I feel burned for the amount of money I spent.

For $1300 I had better get freaking DINNER PLATES.