Monday, June 30, 2008

Hudson River Rowing



I just wanted to share some rowing pictures because I haven't been in a very writerly mood lately.






This picture was taken on an earlier excursion to Maxwell House Beach (also known to Pier 40 folk as Playa de Hoboken). We found this abandoned boat that we wanted to take back with us, but there was a hole. Still, it was a cool looking boat.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Butters & Gob



About two weeks ago, Josh and I decided to buy a guinea pig. (We originally wanted a bunny, but bunnies are expensive and require more attention; guinea pigs are more low-maintaince.) We headed over to PETCO and picked out a light brown and white female guinea pig. We named her Butters; the name fits, despite not being gender-appropriate. The following week, we decided that Butters needed a friend, so we went back to the store and brought home Gob, a dark-brown-with-white-splotches guinea pig. They get along wonderfully. Look at their adorableness.





Thursday, June 26, 2008

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Talkin' Politics with a Six-Year-Old

While walking to Clinton Hill during a recent babysitting-adventure, Claire, Rob's six-year-old daughter, we passed by a brownstone with a "Support Obama" flyer in the window, complete with his silhouette.

Claire, being the weirdly-observant girl she is, noticed it. "They like Obama," she said. I looked at the window and agreed with her.

"Who do you like?" she went on to ask.

"Obama," I answered. Figuring it couldn't hurt, I asked her, "What about you?"

"I like Obama," she said. It made sense because Rob was supporting Obama too.

Deciding to go further with this, I said to Claire: "Did you know Hilary Clinton dropped out of the race? So now only Obama's left and he's running against John McCain."

Claire smiled and said, "Good." She paused.

"Do you want to know something really funny?" Claire asked with a smile. I nodded.

"There's a boy in school and he couldn't remember McCain's name, so he said 'you know, that really old president!'" she said, laughing.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Longer & Longer

Doesn't this go against what (one of the things) journalism stands for: providing short, to-the-point information? Yes, features and investigative pieces are the exception, but overall, readers want shorter articles where the writer/journalist doesn't ramble on and on. Who would want to read that?

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Nasim Mama

My dad woke us up at 7 a.m. to tell us that our uncle, my mother's oldest brother, died. My Nasim Mama ("mama" is the Bengali term for your uncles on your maternal side of the family) had a lot of health problems. He has been in and out of hospital for a long time. He was the reason my mother finally went to Bangladesh last December, though, he seemed fine at that time. Out of my family in Bangladesh, he was the closest to me, thanks to e-mail. We'd email each other at least once a week, talking about school, family, etc.

He died around Tuesday night (Bangladesh time) of a stroke.

On the phone, while my mother talked to her sisters, she told them, "At least you were there with him," in between sobs. It made me think of the guilt she must feel for being here in the U.S. while her entire family is back in Bangladesh, struggling on practically nothing. She didn't get to spend enough time with her parents, sisters and brothers as someone should get to.

It's sad.