ZimWex Family Blog

A Night Out.

Last night was a pretty big night! The US premiere of Hysteria at the Tribeca Film Festival.

So we got all gussied up....

We started at a work dinner for Tanya, where I tried to catch my outfit in the bathroom mirror!

We got to the red carpet and accompanied our kids down the red carpet for the first time...

Nice shoes!

We watched Tanya charm the press...

And then I captured this shot of my two glamorous pre-teens.

And got a shot with me as well!!

Then the real fun began...we got to watch Hysteria with 900 other enthusiastic audience goers.  Way to go, my love. I am, as they say around these parts, kvelling!  

AZ

Book #8: How to Be A Woman

I read this book thanks to Tanya Wexler, who discovered it in England and is loving it.  How To Be a Woman is a book by a British woman named Caitlin Moran, who is a journalist in England and f&*$ing hysterical.

Reading How To Be a Woman is like reading a combination of Tina Fey, Bridget Jones, and Germaine Greer.  Caitlin is an avowed feminist, but a feminist for a new generation.  She is wildly funny, self-deprecating, and hugely perceptive.  She takes on everything from waxing to botox to bras to sexism, as she writes her own story.

On the lighter side, check out this excerpt from the chapter, "I Get Into Fashion".

    Here is what I have learned about clothes...

    1. Leopardskin is a neutral.

    2. You can get away with nearly anything if you wear the thing with black opaque tights and boots.

    3. Contrary to popular opinion, a belt is often not a good friend to a lady.  Indeed in many circumstances, it acts merely as a visual aid to help the onlooker settle the question:  'Which half is fatter--the bottom or the top?'

    4.  Bright red is a neutral.

    5. Sellotaper is NOT strong enough to mend a hole in the crotch of a pair of tights.

    6. You should NOT buy an outfit if you have to strike a sexy pose in the changing room mirror to make it look good.  On the other hand, if you immediately start dancing the minute you put it on, buy it, however much is costs;  unless it's lots, in which case you can't , so don't.  Fashion magazines will NEVER say 'Actually, don't buy it if you can't afford it.' Neither will your friends.  I am probably the only person who will EVER say it to you. You're welcome.

    7. You should never describe your look as being a mixture of High street and Vintage.  Remember how angry it makes you when Fearne Cotton says it.  Don't let the abused become the abuser.

    8. You are very, very unlikely to look bad in an above-the-knee, fitted 1950s-style dress with sleeves and a cardigan.  Have you seen what Christina Hendricks--the stacked, hot Joan Holloway in Mad Men, the woman Vanity Fair  recently christened 'The Body'--looks like in modern combat trousers and a top? Awful,  there's a lesson for us all there.

  ...

It goes on. 

I recommend this book highly for anyone who wants a good laugh and also to think about things a little differently. She has a great take on many "women's issues".  Unfortunately, its not available in the US yet, but you can order it from amazon.co.uk.  Also, Caitlin tweets, if anyone wants to follow her, her handle is @caitlinmoran.

Back to you next week with more!
AZ 

 

Where we are.

After four plus years of waiting for this movie to be green-lit, we have finally arrived in London.  It is somewhat unbelievable, yet here we are.

I hope to be a much more regular blogger during this time, but to start out, here is a look at where we are.  

 

   

 

 

A little bit of inside, outside, and the touches we are making to make this feel like "home".  And, of course, the school supplies for the homeschooling that is about to take over all of our lives for the next few months...Which nobody in this house enjoyed organizing at all.

AZ

     
 

Num Pang

Thanks to Tanya, I have been turned on to a new great lunch spot by Union Square, Num Pang.  It is a Cambodian Sandwich Shop and it is delicious!

Housed on 12th street between University and 5th, Num Pang has a window to the street, which is where you order.* If you want, you can eat upstairs, in a very very small dining space overlooking the garage below.  So New York and gritty and not at all scenic but kind of cool because of it.

But what its all about is the food.  To date have only tried two sandwiches, the coconut shrimp and the pork belly.  But both were great.  In what I can only assume is traditional Cambodian sandwich style (?), they are served on yummy baguettes with cilanto, carrot, chili mayo, and cucumber and served on tables that feature big ol' bottles of Sriracha sauce.  Heaven.

It is grungy, affordable, and yummy. What could be better?

AZ

*Reminiscent of the Soup Nazi.

Telluride.

Okay, so there is no catching up with my long-ago vacation at this point.

But here is a single photograph of a two cuties on the gondola.  

Their faces kind of sum up how we felt the whole time.
 

A theatrical first.

Last night T and I were lucky enough to have tickets to Wishful Drinking, the new Carrie Fisher one-woman show playing on Broadway.*  We were very excited and even more excited to see as we sat down that the row in front of us was the house seat row...saved for Tony voters, and celebrities.  There was Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue!  And there was Wally Shawn!

And then, the folks in front of us sat down.

Now many of you have had the unfortunate luck of sitting behind someone much taller than yourself.  Who hasn't?  But how many of you have had to sit behind this????

No joke. This was my view of Carrie Fisher.  The hair (one foot tall, according to its owner) was a major part of my theatrical experience last night.

Tanya, who is unfailingly good with celebrity spottings, was the first to notice that this wasn't just any hair, this was celebrity hair.  Whose? Bello the Clown  , seen here with full makeup.  Yes, this famous daredevil clown was there to yuk it up at Carrie Fisher.

He couldn't have been nicer about it.  Checking in with me to see if I was okay ( I was not okay), slumping, and leaning to the right throughout the show while I leaned to the left.  Nonetheless, the temptation to take my contraband beverage and dump it right on top of the hair and help it deflate just a teensy tiny bit was strong.

Carrie Fisher, blessedly, was funny enough and compelling enough, that the hair was a mere anecdote in my evening.  Had she been anything less it would have been intolerable!

Shouldn't he have to sit in the back row?

AZ

*if you can still get tickets, you should absolutely do so.

What I'm thankful for today.

1.  The ocean.

2.  The free on-demand children's networks.

3. The fact that I am not at an amusement park today.

4. My beautiful, funny, talented, generous wife.*

5.  The soundtrack of [title of show]  which I listened to no less than four times on the plane ride from JFK-LAX.

6. The breathing time I have acquired this year while Violet is at school in the mornings.

7.  No visits to the emergency room all year.**

8.  The Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno that my mother-in-law treated us to last night at NOBU.

9.  Wireless internet.

10.  The fact that none of my children's fingers have been amputated by any of the Maclarens  we have owned over the past ten years.

11.  The widespread introduction of Greek yogurt into American Grocery Stores/Starbuckses.

12.  Living just two blocks from Li-Lac Chocolates and being able to get those dark chocolate covered apricots at least once a day every once in a while.

13.  Time to read books like the beautiful Olive Kitteridge .

14. These folks.

So, what are you all thankful for?

AZ    

*Mushy, mushy, mushy,

**This is where T would say I am jinxing things. But the year is over, and I am thankful that we escaped this particular pitfall for at least 12 months.

Not so current.

By now you have probably figured out that if you are reading this blog to stay up on current affairs, well, you are not current.

I am not current.

I still can't find time to read the paper, and very often our hour of Rachel Maddow floats over me as I multi-task away the end of my day.

Which is why I had not seen this until my friend L sent it my way the other day:

The Big Gay Parenting Article

Well, look at that!

Our girls are more likely to be doctors and lawyers.*

Our kids are more likely to work in social justice.

What do you all think about the article?

AZ

*Actually, T and I aren't even gay.  We just did all this so our kids would have a better chance for the medical and legal professions. 

A discovery.

Violet: (After finishing on the potty) Ima?

Tanya: Yes?

Violet: I have a hole in my butt!

Tanya: That's right, honey.

Violet: Where did it come from?

Tanya: We all have holes in our butts.

Violet:  But I don't want to have a hole in my butt!

Tanya:  baffled silence followed by hysterical laughter.

Hello, Mudda. Hello, Fadda.

We are just back from Cheley Family Camp. This is the vacation that we as a family willingly go on where we sleep in a covered wagon in 30-40 degree temps, wake up at 6:45 AM to a bell, hike in the hail, and walk to an outdoor shower only occasionally.  Ahh, Paradise.

Why do we do it?*

Probably because there is something about being really away from it all and challenging ourselves and singing around a campfire that is somehow irresistible...

Also, we always learn new things about ourselves.  I learned (at least) 12 new things at Cheley this year.

1.  The lyrics (and tune) to "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" .  How have I gone this long without that song?

2.  We have crap for stars in New York City. 

3. Jerry and Ella are too young for pocket knives.  We might have suspected so earlier**, but the deal was sealed after we saw Ella trying to carve a dime in half while it rested on her jeans.

4. The mountains are COLD at night!  Luckily, as we had only four single beds in our wagon and five campers, Ella and I were not all that cold as we were the two elected to share a single sleeping bag.  It was a little cramped, but MUCH less cold.

5. I still love a Phatwich. What you say, you don't know what a Phatwich is? Ah, but that should be an entry of its own...It involves at least six different fats, and is big and yummy.  More to come on this later...

6. I like BEING on the top of mountains more than CLIMBING to them.  But despite feeling like I might die of hyperventilation whilst reaching the top, I was pretty glad AFTER I got there.  I did three of the major peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park and braved hail, snow, sleet, and rain to get there. Take that, US Postal Service!

7.  After fishing, do not stand too close to the pond.  Ruby made this unfortunate mistake and fell right in.  Luckily she had caught two really big fish first.

8.  How to canter!  Yep, first canter on a horse.  Gotta say, it was kind of scary.  

9.  How to do a really really cool hairdo....Ella was "Medusa" for the camp movie and had her hair sticking straight up.  When I first saw it, I thought it was a lot of hairspray, but turned out to be a water bottle inside her hair.  Hair pulled up around it.  Truly frightening.  She then took to this as her default wacky hairdo in the evenings, and became something of a cult figure at camp.***

10.  All the lyrics of "Mom-isms" ....which I then performed at talent night.

11.  People sometimes don't see the obvious.  On the last night of family camp, Tanya was asked by at least one other family where her husband had been this week.....

12.  2nd Skin  is a life-saver for blisters.

* I have no choice.  I signed a pre-nup agreeing to mandatory Cheley attendance. 

**And by "we", I mean me, as opposed to the other Mom, who bought them.

***T took all the pictures this week and then took her camera with her to L.A.  I will post a hair photo upon her return.