Auntie Failure

On January 19^th at 8:20pm, my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy – Blake Robert Geimer. At 7 lbs, 15 oz, both baby and mom are doing great. I, on the other hand, am suffering from both complete admiration of my sister (once again, no drugs, screaming, yelling or hitting) and Post Auntie Failure Syndrome.

After missing the birth of my first niece almost two years earlier, I was ecstatic to make it to the hospital in time to see Dana and be there for her. And after plenty of baby showers, baby talk and baby time, I thought I was ready to be part of the miracle of birth. I was ready and excited to put my personal issues of child birth (brought on by watching my brother being born at age 3 and numerous Joy of Birth films) behind me.

Ray, Kim (Ray’s sister), and I hung out with Dana in the room while the rest of the support group (Mom, Dad, Bob and Sharon Geimer, Dori, Audrey, Cassidy and Martin), all waited patiently for the big reveal downstairs in the cafeteria. Everything was going great! I was giving Dana water, talking her through the contractions and trying to comfort her the best I could. It wasn’t until they started prepping Dana to push that I freaked out…I am not sure if it was the anticipated pain for Dana, expected blood or just my own personal issues that caused the break down…Regardless, consistent with all other trips to the hospital for medical emergencies, I could feel my knees starting to get weak, my stomach drop and ears ring. And I realized I had better leave at that moment before it was too late and I passed out on the floor.

As I made my apologies, kissed Dana good luck and backed away towards the door I heard Ray laugh at my weakness and Dana promising “No big deal. I want my kids to have cousins one day, so it is probably for the best!”

I re-joined the group in the cafeteria just as they finished up their delivered pizza and opened up the first of 2 bottles of red wine. And as I sent my mom upstairs as the Gimbel replacement I hung back and anxiously waited for the news…Glasses were raised shortly after, as we received the anticipated text “BOY”!

30 minutes later I met my nephew and fell in love. A full head of hair and a smirk on his pouty lips, I even broke my rule about holding babies too early. And while I wasn’t there at the first breath, 45 minutes later still isn’t too bad.

Congratulations to Dana, Ray and sister Cassidy!

Photos to come shortly...

A weekend of brunches

Ah, New York City…a perfect city to enjoy over brunch.

I landed Saturday morning and after a quick power nap, Erin and I were off to a late brunch on the upper west side for bloody mary’s, food and a much needed catch up – she had just gotten engaged and Martin was at that moment tearing up half of the house.

Brunch continued into an afternoon of football in the village with Nick, Erin´s fiancé, and friends followed by the mandatory 5 hour karaoke marathon later that night at the nearby Karaoke Bar…it wasn’t until 3:45 am that we could pry Nick away from the microphone and our 2 single girlfriends away from the bar’s local napkin artists.

Sunday began with a slight headache and a cab back to the village for brunch at Extra Virgin with our old college friend Katya, also recently engaged! Brunch was amazing, including the explosion of flavor that the Basque scramble and passion fruit sangrias provided. And convinced it was too cold for shopping afterwards, we continued our brunch-time drinking at the nearby, and oh-so-exclusive, Soho house. As a side note, I never thought I would be cool enough to 1) have friends that belonged and 2) who would be willing to take me! Thanks Katya and Unity- drinks on the leather couch was the best way to spend the afternoon!

Erin and I said goodbye later that evening and conveniently crossed the street for our traditional girl´s night out dinner of guacamole and margaritas at Dos Caminos. We rounded off the night with Nick and his rowdy friends at a nearby sports bar and made it home in time for the last few Golden Globe Awards.

The weekend of brunches was wrapped up Monday morning with a more traditional diner breakfast with old Zurich friend Jason, a recent re-pat of just 6 months, before heading off to the airport for home.

Overall a great weekend of friends, food and brunch-time cocktails!

Back to the Beginning

After 3 years of dating and just over 5 months of construction, we are back to where we started…a studio apartment and complete chaos!

With the kitchen/living room combo 95% done, we have now shifted our focus to the other side of the house (or as I refer to it, the East Wing) to rebuild the two bedrooms, put in a wall of closets and finish Martin´s office. And so, just weeks after having things somewhat back in order, we have plunged back into demolition mode.

On Thursday, Martin cleared out the office and bedrooms, moving everything into the basement while I tried to consolidate all of the closets into one. Within hours, we had reduced our two bedroom apartment into a functioning studio in the west wing and suddenly it felt like 2008 again…Martin and I began our relationship in 2008 in his studio apartment in Zurich where you would watch TV, make coffee and sleep all within 200 square feet. And so with the East Wing completely under renovation, we are back to the beginning, albeit with a few more yardage.

I am amazed at how well we are functioning within the small space and with only 1 closet… It sort of feels like camping, including the thin layer of dust from demolition of the interior walls and need for a flashlight in the bathroom (yes, Martin cut the power lines)… thankfully the new oven is shiny enough to serve as a mirror in the morning for me to check my outfits before leaving for work. And while it is nice to be this close and living such a simplified life, I am excited to have the full house again.

Happy demolition!

The East Wing (looking from Bedroom 2 into the Master Bedroom and Office)