...I still made it to Monday night's class. Fun to get to the top of the stairs and see how big the class is going to be by the number of shoes laid out in the hallway.
Headed back out into the world. Feeling lighter-hearted. I don't remember if Dr. Rubin mentioned it during his talk or it came up somewhere else, but I also have this Rumi poem written out in its entirety in my journal for the day:
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
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Later that night, Mer went out and I stayed home and I spent the rest of the evening in marvelous rapture playing WORLD OF GOO on the Wii. It had just come out and I was obsessed with it. Such a fun game.
New shoes (that are exactly the same as old shoes). I hate shopping for new stuff. Which is why 90% of the time I'm just like "This was good. Gimme another one of them." Yes, even with pink sneakers.
Our Stuytown apartment had so much open space that it was difficult to train Maddy to go to the bathroom on puppy pads. On Tuesday night, I ran out and bought one of those wooden gates so we could keep Maddy quarantined to the hallway while we were gone.
Here we are leaving the restaurant. Grammie Pam couldn't believe we took her to a place where they didn't have forks and you had to take your shoes off to eat. Hahaha.
Then afterwards, we ended up driving past some really nice, sprawling park that was sort of close to our hotel. So we parked the car and hung out on the grass...
Ewwww, grody! Marissa thought it would be funny to take a picture of her swimming in a sea of sneakers. Too bad her back ended up smelling like stinky kids' feet all day long! Blarg!
In korea, it's polite to take off your shoes before entering a room. Check out what the outside of the auditorium looked like everytime the place was full of kids.
Sarah (in a rare appearance at someone else's apartment!) come over to Meredith's to admire my new slippers and watch a movie. We cranked up the heat in Mer's apartment and I slipped away to pick up some Sparks and then..
After the reception was over, I took walked my rented shoes and fancy tux-clad self westward and became the most formally dressed person to ever be allowed inside...
To start the night off, I headed out solo to Brooklyn to meet up with Vin and the gang at Chris Rubino's house's party. (Hey, look at the dork riding the subway all by himself on New Year's.)
By the time we left the pub, the shoe store that we were going to stop at on the way back to Grant's parents house was closed. Mr. Stoddard offered to lend both Chris and I pairs of his dress shoes so that we'd be able to get into the club with everyone else later that night. This worked out well for Chris, who like Brad wears a size 9, but didn't work out so hot for my size 12 tootsies. Check out the side by side comparison - I had to keep my toes curled to walk in them.
Afterwards, we emptied our shoes, got some ice cream in the nearby town and then hopped in the car to head back to Rethymnon. I don't have any pics of the ride home, but we ended up getting totally and hopelessly lost on the way back to the highway. We got stuck on lightless mountain roads and almost drove off a cliff when we tried to make a u-turn.
Hey look! NEW SHOES! Some of you are probably all like, "Yeah, so what?" But those of you that know me know that I've been wearing the same ratty-ass pair of of Rod Lavers that I bought near the end of my senior year in high school (in, um, 1994). Nine years later, the finally crapped out when the sole of the right shoe pretty much fell off. So what did I get? That's right, the same exact pair of sneakers.
In true "ecclectic poet" fashion, Bibbins repesented with these classic shoes. (Which, incidentally, are the same pair that Cousin Eddie gave to Clark W. Griswold in the first Vacation movie. Anyone with me on that one?).
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