Hello Friends!
Another first – our first Sunday night at home, with Fall in the air and football on TV. We are so excited!
Nothing like a little travel to add some punctuation to the end of one chapter – the 1st Summer in Saratoga, and the start of the next – our first Fall in our upstate NY home. We took the Megabus to NYC on Thursday night and had a really fun, restful, change of scenery version of the reset button – with a much craved dose of super spicy chinese food at Xi’an Famous Foods and an awesome meal at our designated “special treat” foodie experience at The Bar at Ko (by David Cheng) – adding both immediately to our faves list We so enjoyed the change of scenery, the yummy food, the time with family, and for me, a more needed than I realized break from nonstop running. I found myself completely out of gas on Saturday, and after sleeping 12+ hours Saturday night, I still slept the whole way home on the bus this afternoon.
It was such fun to drive home from the train station (where the bus picked us up and dropped us off), and realize… once again – we still live here! And, now, with racing season behind us… we really get to begin to explore our new home, establish a new routine and find new favorite haunts. It’s another beginning!
With that in mind, we jumped right in to trying a place on “our list”. We have at least 5: we each have a list we’ve been building in Yelp, I have one wunderlist of “Capital Region to Explore”, we have a Happy Hour list, and we have a Pizza list…we love lists! As we wandered homeward, we decided to drop in on the Ripe Tomato, which was on each of our lists… and lo and behold, we entered through the Tap Room entrance to find the all day Happy Hour in effect at the bar… I think we rolled in about 3:30. Yay!
Without boring you with the what we ate and drank (oh, there will be plenty of this over the days ahead), the fun thing was to get home to our quiet, grey home and find a mashup of symbols… our first three tomatoes ready to pop off the vine – see photo of super crazy volunteer tomato plant below; and a cool breeze in the air… a huge contrast to last Sunday, when the racing meet was still going. Super quiet, but just lovely. Our kitties were super happy to see us – and Bobby was in his “comfy clothes” in no time, ready to watch the Redskins from our couch while I put on leggings and fleece to head out for a walk around the State Park. I’m considering putting a dollar in a box every time I do that loop… as it seems like one of those things I’ll do more times than I can imagine over the years ahead. I can only hope!
As I walked, I found my thoughts swirling around all the things I can’t wait to do at work this week, this month and over the coming weeks . So very grateful for the feeling of excitement, anticipation, creativity, and positive energy I feel about my work… and the incredible opportunity to apply myself whole heartedly to something I am so passionate about. Meanwhile, I started thinking about all the new habits I want to add into this next chapter. It’s about to be the perfect season for jogging, and I foresee 5ks many weekends ahead – I’m signed up for one on 9/22 in VA, and I know there’s one here on 10/13, and I just noted one next Saturday 9/16. Good stuff! I’m also feeling alot of achi-ness, and I’m aware of how long it’s been since I did any stretching – having taken a hiatus from yoga since the end of March. I’m looking at the classes available on Sat & Sun AM at the Museum of Dance while planning to find a class on TV or on a DVD which I can do in the basement this winter. Meanwhile I certainly could start a simple routine of my favorite poses in the living room, if I set my mind to it… I could put a routine together, be my own teacher. I’m also thinking about all the thank you notes I’m overdue to send… determined to catch up and get more timely with these over the months ahead. And looking forward to spending more time writing – notes related to work, letters related to work, diving into more thoughtful topics here in the blog… and hopefully tackling a bigger project too. More on that later, but it’s exciting to put a plan together for a winter writing adventure. Plus, I want to knit, I want to read, and I want to catch up with folks on the phone. So much to do – and fortunately, the time and the place available to do it all. So grateful!
Meanwhile, as our center of gravity now switches from all the summer activities toward the Fall – more homey-ness, more new restaurants and day trips, and also our upcoming travels: MD/VA in Sept, KY in Oct, NY in Nov, CA in Dec and hopefully New Orleans in Jan, and maybe Florida in Feb, I want to not move too quickly away from the summer without spending a bit of time giving thanks for all of the beloved friends and family who added their love and laughter to our first Summer in Saratoga. It was a whirlwind, and we loved every minute of our time with dear ones in the house, on the porch and making this new house feel like a home. I truly hope that everyone felt warmly welcomed! I had done a tally in my last post about the total of heads that had rested in Casa Weir, but I also want to say a special thank you to each person who came to stay with us over the course of the Spring & Summer. We thank you for the joy that you each brought to our lives here.
In first five months at 123 Madison, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have so many of the people who mean so much to us travel – my train, plane and automobile – to spend time with us. Tonight, before I sign off, I want to thank each one (and many photos below).
A recap of overnight guests to date (March – August), thank you!
- Marilyn – March, Bobby’s mom, our first overnight guest, just days after the furniture arrived!
- Adam & Alyssa (2)- May
- Shana & Kathy (2) – May
- Auntie Sue – June
- Dinks – June
- Anne & Kendra (2) – June
- Rebecca – July
- Scarboroughs (4) – July
- Padre & Linda – July
- Alpersteins (4) – July
- Dallas & Sack & Augie (3) – August
- Melanie, Ben and Marilyn (3) – August
- Dave, Melissa & Hudson (2+) – August
- Adelmans (5) – August
- Mike & Michelle and Patrick & Sara (4) – August
And, beyond our wonderful array of houseguests, we also loved the porch-guests who brightened so many of our evenings – from the girls who joined in the Doobie brothers, to Maura who helped me “break in” the new porch furniture one marathon Happy Hour Friday, to Robert our new friend and plant-whisperer, to our many racing fan friends who gathered in our cozy gazebo while Bobby grilled Brats in the rain.
We are so happy to be here – and we are so grateful for the opportunity to share this happiness with those who care about us, and those who have made the investment of time, travel and vacation time to share their precious free time with us. It makes this whole adventure feel more real to have you here with us. Thanks for bearing witness and adding your sunshine to our summer!
XXOO
M & M