E-squared on the subway

E-squared on the subway
Originally uploaded by typingelbow

Last weekend, my friend Emily and John's friend Sean came to visit us. Emily is my oldest friend, and every time we hang out, no matter how long it's been since we actually hugged, it's like she's just dropping in from across the street. Even though we live incredibly far apart now, I never feel the distance with her.

This summer, Emily served as my maid of honor, a job she's had to fill for several friends, and she struck up a friendship with Sean, one of John's groomsmen. He's a college buddy of John's, and it was fun getting to know him over the long weekend.

The four of us ate our way through the city, since that's how John and I like to show off New York. But it was more interesting this time because Emily is the pickiest eater I've ever known, and Sean is a human vacuum. She won't eat anything green, leafy or mushy, and Sean likes to eat pre-hors'devours and double desserts with every meal.

We made the most of their four days, though, eating pizza, pasta, olives, hot dogs, cannelloni at Emilia's in the Bronx, fresh bread, ice cream, sorbet, cupcakes, Katz's pastrami sandwiches, oysters, carpaccio, brunch at Craft, and anything else we could fit into our mouths. We washed it all down with copious amounts of red wine, limoncello and a little sambuca.

If we hadn't walked all over creation while they were here, I'm pretty sure that Weight Watchers would have revoked my membership for good. What a lovely weekend! (There are pictures at Flickr, if you wanna see.)

My first memory

My earliest memory is about my dad teaching me how to say my name.
We were in a sunny, yellow bedroom. He was sitting on a bed with a white bedspread, leaning over with his face close to mine.
He would say my name with long syllables, E-Lis-A-Beth, and I would repeat it back to him. I must have been having trouble with it, because it seems like he kept saying it slowly for me, over and over.
I was probably just one or two years old, and I have no idea which house it was... maybe on Faulkner Street in El Dorado.

What's your earliest memory?