Guitar

Shana and Nate have a pattern, usually on Monday mornings: they go to Fairway together and do some quality food shopping. They have a blast. Mostly. On this Tuesday morning, however, what with school closed, Shana and Nate headed over. Nate wanted to bring his guitar. Ridiculousness ensued.

Pizza!

On this cold-ass Saturday, Nate and I had an afternoon together. We went to the handball wall and worked on our throwing form ("step and throw"). Nate isn't that much of a pleaser; he does not derive joy by making you feel joy. He more or less derives joy from telling others what to do. We then started feeling pizza, and headed to Driggs Pizza on N7th and Driggs, where we climbed into the booth in the back and each had a slice. It's thrilling to sit across from Nate and eat pizza and chat. It's kind of insane actually.

Canarsie Pizza Trip

Nate and I hopped the subway to Canarsie, Brooklyn on this chilly Saturday to check out what the last stop on the L train looks like. Let's just say it's rough over there, not much to take in aside from the Canarsie Pier (we hopped on the Rockaway Parkway bus loop to get there), which overlooks Jamaica Bay (and on the other side of that, Far Rockaway where my parents grew up). The Pier was all stark and battered, with only 4 fishermen giving it a go. Nate couldn't get over the word "seaweed", laughing his ass of each time he or I said it. I didn't get the joke but I laughed when he laughed.

After that, Nate and I went to Original Pizza, a morose and cavernous pizza joint that's stood its ground since the 70's. Nate kept eating the paper plate that sat below the slice. But I gotta say, that slice was tasty. When I asked Nate if he was done with his slice (so I could finish it up), he smiled his big smile and said, "Noooooo..."

Funny moment of the trip was at 10:30am, waiting in the cold at the bus top on Rockaway Parkway near the Canarsie Pier and the entrance to the Belt Parkway, when Nate tells me he wants to go "night night". "You aint CLOSE to goin' night night my man," I laugh. Night night?? Anyway, he rallied, had a delicious old school slice of pizza, and gazed out of the L train window as we bounded home, westward towards our Williamsburg. Back at the apartment, Nate napped for 3 hours...

Waterfront

Here is Nate on a warmish morning by the East River in Williamsburg. We threw rocks into the water and watched the boats and ferries. We played with a tennis ball.

3 Boys

Nate and his two buddies from school, Remy and Ronin, got together on this blue-sky Saturday for a hang at the playground on Grand Street. Something clicked with Nate a few weeks ago with school; he gets it, likes it, goes happily. At the playground, the boys scattered quickly when they first saw each other, running in various directions.

Then they got into the play. At the end, they were on the jungle gym together smiling and talking and posing for a few pics.

Then they started singing.

DC with the Gesser Girls

The family headed down to Love's Folly / DC for a long weekend, in part to attend Sadie's 6th year birthday. After the party -- held in a pottery making place of which Nate had no interest -- Nate and I headed over to the Gesser's place for a hang. Here are the 3 kids -- Nate, Sadie and Mae -- playing in the leaves in back of their house.

Loud! Mess!

In Love's Folly, we attended a "Waterfowl Festival". Nate, Opa and I watched dogs leap into pools in a competition over who could jump the farthest. We browsed hunting gear, guns, etc. I chuckled nervously and muttered to no one in particular things like "Those birds wont stand a chance with you wearing that sweater" or "Look at that, a saddle bag that can carry up to 8 dead geese... awesome..." After, Shana and Mimi joined the three of us, and we went to watch the dogs in action, as they dove into a pond and retrieved fake dead geese from the water, behind bushes, etc. "LOUD!!" Nate said after they shot a gun towards the sky to get the dogs going before they threw a pretend goose carcass into a hidden spot. "MESS!!" Nate said noticing Ron had poop on his shoe. What a Jew.