austin_dern (austin_dern) wrote,
austin_dern
austin_dern

See the people walking down the street

We had set out east with few specific plans, yet, they somehow formed as we approached each day. My brother from Boston and his girlfriend and daughter, who we hadn't expected to be able to see, were going to be passing through New Jersey after all, and we sought a restaurant where we could meet up. This brought us to a Thai place near New Brunswick, which was something like an hour away for us but less of a diversion for them. Since they were trying to drive back to Boston that day it seemed merciful not to meet them farther from their route.

We ran late getting up there, but that was fine because the restaurant was opening late anyway. And we had a rather happy lunch, too, though if I remember right bunny_hugger thought she'd gotten an unexciting dish. My brother assured us that the Big Bad Wolf puppet which we'd brought our niece from d'Efteling was still loved, although right now, she was going through a phase where she was scared of it. She'd like it for a while, and then said no when it was brought out, so, now, they've put it in the closet and every few weeks have it poke out and ask if he can come out again. She's expected to soften on the point, particularly if he keeps eating plush vegetables. I don't mind; I was hoping to give her a toy that would last in her memory as this weird thing that nobody can explain where she got it from and nobody believes her was a toy she had.

Besides lunch we wandered with them over to a CVS as they needed to buy supplies, and then back to a coffee shop which was looking a little pretentious but was pretty nice. They tried to get us to sign up for loyalty cards but we had to admit that there was almost no chance we'd be here again, which I'm sure they get all the time, and is even true (it'd even be out of the way if I got into New Brunswick) but still stung me to say. I also horrified bunny_hugger by agreeing to watch the niece, on the sidewalk, while they got something or other ready in the car. There was a point I couldn't keep her from running into the road except by grabbing her shoulder, and the kid was sick, because kids that age are always sick or falling over, and bunny_hugger was sure that I was going to get whatever Childhood Death Cold was going around. (They said she'd got it from our other niece, whom they visited a few days before. There is controversy about this claim.)

Anyway, with vague plans to visit them in Boston, almost certainly as part of New England Parks Tour (hazily planned for sometime), we hugged and saw them off and were pretty glad we had this chance to see them.

Trivia: As a 13-year-old newsboy on the Grand Trunk Railway, Thomas Edison paid two days salary ($2.00) to join the Detroit Public Library. Source: Empires Of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, Jill Jonnes.

Currently Reading: Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2014, Editor Sheila Williams.

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