Notes from ShellyCentral

Hank House

This is the view from Debra's porch. On the right is a house where a man named Johnny was born and lived for almost all of his life. Debra used to live in the blue house in the middle. A lady lived in the house on the right, but it's really the house to the right of it that I want to talk about.

It's hard to see the house from the street. It's the one in the middle here, behind the big fence.

Debra's friend Johnny, from the first house, told her lots of stories of olden days Kansas City. One was that one of the guys in Hank Williams band, the Drifting Cowboys, lived in this house. He said that when ever Hank was playing in or around town, he'd stay here. In the house, right across the street from where I was staying.

As you've probably noticed, I am in love with Hank Williams Sr these days. I was freakishly excited for the whole weekend. Saturday night as we sat outside in the dark, I kept a constant vigil on the part of the house I could see, hoping the ghost of Hank might wave at me. I couldn't help myself and called out "Hank!" once. Silly me. One time the porch light came on (no, not just after I shouted), but otherwise not so much.

Another interesting thing about those houses - if you notice in the picture, it's big house, little house, big house, little house. During the depression, the people who lived in the big houses built the little houses in the side yard to rent out and make more money. Interesting. I've been on that street a million times and never even noticed the pattern.

Here are some links to some Hank, in case you're curious:

Day 1: Travel to DC

Our flight didn't leave till 3:45pm and I just about made myself crazy waiting. I was So Excited.
I was glad my sister was around to help distract me. We ran some errands, finished all the packing, trying to check in online and couldn't and eventually watched a couple episodes of The Tudors on Nextflix streaming until Finally it was time to head to the airport.

- poor barking dog at the airport
- poor barking dog on the plane made the poor baby cry, and the crying baby made the poor dog bark more.
+ noise canceling headphones
- i gave mine to hannah because hers didn't really cancel anything.
+ seats weren't too bad, flight wasn't too long or bumpy

Joel and Gene met us at the airport.
When we left the traffic met us.
Drove past Pentagon and could see a few monuments on the way to Chinatown for Tapas. Is it weird that there's Spanish Tapas in Chinatown? I guess not.

On the plane I had mentioned to Danny that I hoped Joel already decided where we were going for dinner and didn't even ask us. I didn't want to think about anything. When we landed and D turned his phone on there was a text from Joel "Tell Shelly Tapas for dinner>" Hooray.

 

The tapas restaurant, La Tasca, was awesome. Super awesome. My favorite parts were probably the combo of tempura like onion and pepper rings, and the spanish style mushroom risotto. Yum!

 

Me, Danny and Hannah at La Tasca, taken by Joel on his new iPhone 4

 
We were watching a guy in the window make noodles. I thought I had some pictures of another Asian restaurant around the corner that used to be the boarding house where the losers who conspired to kidnap/kill President Lincoln hung out. There's a sign out front with info and I guess it was Joel who took the pictures, not me. We ended up eating there our last night.

Hipstamatic Graveyard Photos

Yesterday Alan and I were out for a drive and found ourselves at the old Oak Hill Cemetery. I jumped out and took some pictures with the Hipstamatic. I shook it each time to get a random lens/film combination. I took 56 photos. These are probably my 9 favorite.

Day 5, Part 2: Tuesday

After we left the Masonic Lodge, we headed out to get some Philly Cheesesteaks. Not that we were that hungry, but it's something you have to do when you're in Philly. We went to Tony's. I loved the bread, and liked the sandwich, but I think it's better the way we have it in KC - with mayo, malt vinegar and season salt. Carolyn thought the malt vinegar idea was crazy. I guess sometimes you like things best the way you're used to them.

Carolyn showed me Curtis, where she went to school and trained to be an Opera singer. We ran into her old vocal coach along the way to a place with amazing capppuccino that we took to a lovely park to drink.

Graffiti in the park

We walked back to the car to park in the part of town closer to Independence Hall and the restaurant where we were going to eat. We got to Independence Hall at the end of the day, just in time for the last tour of the day. While we were waiting we went into the little building where they keep the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and George Washington's copy of the Constitution. They keep it very dark, of course, to protect the documents, so it was very hard to read any words on the papers. And yet it was very moving to see them and consider what they meant and how truly revolutionary and unique they were at the time.

 



  The first room on our tour was this room that was used as the courthouse. People stood behind the bar to watch and/or riot. The person on trial stood in the little metal cage. All the lawyers sat together at the round table. This is also the room where they held the first continental congress in 1774. They made a list of grievances to send to King George, believing he would be reasonable and work with them. They made plans, however, for a second congress if the King blew them off.

By the time the second continental congress met, the revolutionary war had already started. They met in this room across the hall when they were in Philadelphia. They had to meet several times to work things out, and part of the time they were run out of the city by the British army, but eventually they worked out the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence.

Like most American's I have seen images of this room and the founding father's signing the Declaration of Independence so many times, but I never really imagined it the way it really is. I thought it was a lot bigger. It was as moving as I had imagined however. Even more so. Our guide was really great at her job, and made us all realize how these men were really risking their lives and the lives of their families, committing treason and risking everything to try to make a government that matched their ideals of democracy and fairness. I can't even get started on how lame it made our current sent of government seem.
 

It's true I am an idealistic government geek. And Independence Hall really fed that. I loved it.
 
From there we walked to Ben Franklin's grave. Apparently people throw pennies on it. The graveyard was closed by then, but luckily I got a couple pictures through the gates.

 

It wasn't quite time for dinner, so we went to a little coffee kind of shop. I've forgotten the name, but it was nice and I had a very yum mango smoothie. We hung out and chatted until it was time to walk down to Zahav, an incredible Israeli/Middle Eastern restaurant. If you live anywhere near Philadelphia you should certainly go there. It was so good; awesome atmosphere, wonderful wait staff (for the most part), a fantastic view (of the pantheon) (for me) and the food was so different and delicious.

Oh the hummus!

Loved the presentation of the delicious little salads. My favorite was the eggplant, but they were all really very good.

 

Eben picked the best wine ever. Seriously. Chateau Musar from Lebanon. Apparently a rare choice. Some worker came over to comment on it and ask why E picked it. He told us a fair bit about the wine. It was seriously fantastic.

Our three main entrees.

It was pretty cold on the walk to the car after dinner, and I was kinda whiney.
We all crashed out pretty quickly when we got home. We all had to be up early Wednesday morning to take me back to the train station by 8.

Day 2: Part 1 Saturday

When Mat and I headed out on Saturday morning, we walked along the river towards the subway station. Roosevelt Island usually has a sky tram thing (like the SkiHi at Worlds of Fun) to get from the Island to the city, but right now it's out of service till the fall. I was looking forward to riding on one, even though I'm afraid of heights. Drag. So it was the subway to head over. (I forgot to add that to the list of things I didn't get to do). At any rate, the walk was beautiful.

Another tidbit about Roosevelt Island: There used to be a prison on the island. Emma Goldman was put there for supporting birth control (and not supporting the WW1 draft). Mae West was put there for public obscenity charges. Billie Holiday was put there on prostitution charges.

 
 
 
We headed first for Greenwich Village so I could see some of the places my counter culture heroes had lived and hung out. First stop, the Chelsea Hotel.

Did you know it's still a hotel? You can stay there if you have a lot of money. I think it's most famous for the tragic story of Sid and Nancy, but an unbelievable number of famous, talented people lived here to do a number of fantastic things. For example (and this is just a partial list): Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Arthur C. Clarke, Dylan Thomas, Sid Vicious, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Herbert Huncke, Dylan Thomas, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, K. Charles Graham, Jack Kerouac (he wrote On the Road right here), Simone de Beauvoir, Robert Oppenheimer, Jean-Paul Sartre, Stanley Kubrick, Mitch Hedberg, Dennis Hopper, Eddie Izzard,  Jane Fonda, Edie Sedgwick ... and the list goes on and on. I think a life goal is to stay here some day, even just for a night.

As we wandered down Greenwich Avenue, we came upon a street fair. Very fun. We watched people and had some treats as we walked south towards 10th street to find a little cul-de-sac called Patchin Place. Lots of famous folks lived here as well: ee cummings, Djuana Barnes, Theodore Dreiser, Marlon Brando and of course, Jack Reed and Louise Bryant (the reason it was a destination). I think that Eugene O'Neil also lived there but I can't find any proof right now.

I spotted the sign right by the Jefferson Market Court with it's giant clock tower. It was super lovely. At first I thought it was all gated off but then realized the gates were open, so I went inside and walked all up and down the sidewalks thinking about Jack and Louise walking the sidewalks.

 

Next up, 157 w 4th, where Jack Reed rented a room to write 10 Days That Shook the World, his book about the Bolshevik Revolution. We walked past the offices of the former Masses newspaper, the socialist paper Jack wrote for back in the day but neither of us felt like backtracking for it. Of course I dorked out when we found his building. We ate some lunch across the street and sat so I could gaze at the building and imagine Jack coming and going from there.

 

About two blocks away is the lovely Washington Square Park, complete with a lovely arch. It was meant as an answer to the Arc de Triumph in Paris although a lot smaller. I remember walking through the park and under the arch when I stayed in NY in 1984, but the park was a lot different then. Scary and full of people offering to sell me some drugs, now it was full of people with their kids and dogs.

 

That day there was also a jazz band playing in the park so Mat and I sat and listened for a while. They were pretty good and Mat bought me their cd so I could listen and remember (but I forgot to pack it up when I came home!) There was a dog park and so there were tons of dogs. As I watched them go buy I started noticing there were lots and lots of dachshuds. Short hair, long hair, wire hair, I thought 'oh, lots of New Yorkers must have dachshunds because they're small and good in apartments". But when we got up and walked further into the park the dachshunds were everywhere! It was Dachshund Day in the park and man, the people and the dogs were celebrating. Very very cute. I want a Lhasa Apso day here in Lawrence.

 

Next up was Union Square Park. When my bff Debra went to Parson's in the 80s, she stayed in a building across from that park. And for a few weeks, when I thought I was preparing to go to the New School for Social Research, I stayed with her there. So I for sure wanted to see it now, especially since it was highly sketchy back in the day but is full of people and sunshine now.

I also wanted to check for Stomboli's, the terrific pizza place we ate at a lot while I was there. A lot of years had passed but it was still there. It's been there since 1966 (the year I was born). That's a big deal. It's good pizza.
Next up: the Statue of Liberty


After showing me the building at the tip of the island where he worked, we took the Staten Island Ferry across the water to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty. I love that statue. I love how giant it is. I tried to imagine seeing it after escaping my bad life in Europe and a long crap sea voyage. My great grandmother was only a little girl when she came here from Russia in 1908; I wondered if her parents held her up so she could see it over the railing.

  

After we rode back, Mat suggested (since I like to wander alone) that he go back to his pad and I head to Central Park on my own. I was all for that so he gave me directions and we went off in our separate directions.

Ancient Cyprus Boyfriend

I am back from New York.

I've been back for a couple days, but getting caught up online has kind of fallen to the bottom of the to do lists. I want and intend to tell you all about the trip, photos included, but it might be a couple days before I get started.

Some of you may know that there are a handful of men from history that I think of as my boyfriends. In the way Leif Garrett was my boyfriend in grade school. Meaning in my fantasy world. I am an easily crushed girl, and sometimes I get crushed on people who've been dead for hundreds of years. It's really not that different than having a crush on famous people, if you think about it.

Some of you may also remember than when I was walking through the British Museum, I came across a statue of a priest from Ancient Cyprus. I don't know why I was instantly drawn to him and entirely convinced that in some sense of the word we seriously loved each other.

Here's his picture:

One thing I was excited about visiting the Met about was their large collection of art from ancient Cyprus. It was incredible. They had room after room full of statues and artifacts and art. I loved it. And I found two more guys who look a lot like my boyfriend.

I thought maybe this guy was my boyfriend's dad:

And this lovely guy is his little brother, in my fantasy version of ancient Cyprus:

 
What do you think?
Do you have any history boyfriends or girlfriends?

Our Spring Break

notice the giant dog trying to fit in the bed meant for tiny dogs

Hannah and I got back yesterday from going to see my mom for a few days in Pittsburg, KS. Like most trips, short or long, it was a mix of excellent and suck. The best part was hanging out with my family. The worst part, no contest, was Hannah's insulin pump breaking and not being able to keep her blood sugar anywhere near healthy for a while.

My mom has 4 dogs: one small, one medium, 2 giant. My sister has a cocker spaniel who usually lives with my mom. We left Henry home (he's too old for traveling), but took the 2 girls. So all together we had 7 dogs in the house. In one part of the house actually because they're not allowed to roam the entire thing. Keeping in mind two of the dogs weigh over a hundred pounds, man, that's just a lot of dog.

We didn't do anything too crazy while we were there. Lots of chatting as usual. I took my girls to my  mom's much cheaper groomer there. Luna looks great and I'll have to show you a picture later, but Daisy - not so much. Not everyone agrees with me but I'm going to save her her dignity and not take any pictures of her for a while. At least till her ears grow out.

My sister Lindsay is a stylist so one night Hannah and I went to her job to get a little girlied up. The next day she colored Hannah's hair. Kind of mahogany. And she trimmed H's hair, but didn't cut it because Hannah is trying to grow it down to her waist

My mom and I went thrifting one day. I found a lot of treasures. Especially bedding treasures. I'm always on the look out for pink/peach/orange bedding - the more 70s looking the better. I love having a beautiful bed and like to change it up a bit often. I also found a 70s owl napkin holder and other kitchen table gadget. Hannah got a leather jacket. I got a couple fun skirts. (Now if I could only get some fun skirt weather to wear them in! It's supposed to snow this weekend.)

We drove to Joplin, to the health food store. My mom has decided to become a vegan and there's not much health food action in Pittsburg. On the way we talked about all the civil war sites around the area and made plans for a trip where we focus on visiting many of them. I have passed the Battle of Mine Creek site, and the Marais de Cygne masacre site a million times back and forth from my mom's over the years and I always want to stop. This summer I'm going to. There are a few Civil War museums scattered about too that might be worth checking out.

Before I knew it, it was time to go home. The night before we left Hannah's insulin pump broke so things ended on a stressful note. We were checking blood sugars every two hours, even though the night and doing lots of worrying. Luckily the pump was still under warranty so they over nighted us a new one. It was here before we got back and Hannah's back to normal and in good range again. But man was that stressful. I so love the pump! I don't ever want to live without it again. Unless it's because there's a cure.

Now I have a day to 'relax', although I have lots of chores and an appointment, the regular weekend, and then back to the boring routine of the school year.

Except I think I'm going to take a trip. I need a trip. I have a handful of friends in various places who have offered to let me stay with them (offered after I put a beg out on FB) which makes me feel blessed and lucky. I'd either have to go super soon or not for a few weeks because the first half of April is always insane in our family.

You know I'll keep you updated.