Good evening and happy Sunday! I write to you from December 2022 where, since my last batch of regular blogs, I've left one job, started another, traveled to Vermont, celebrated Thanksgiving, put up two trees with my partner (whom I refer to as "the Mister" since he values his anonymity), and tackled and finished two freelance design projects for a client. Whew. That was a lot to do in just six weeks. I suppose most people would have preferred all sort of spread out but while it felt like that the Michelle Yeoh movie "Everything All At Once" was the guiding light of autumn 2022, change happens when change happens and, although kind of chaotic, I managed to get through it with some grace. More on all of this at one point or another or maybe not, who knows. I sometimes overshare, and sometimes undershare but it all evens out in the end, I think. :)

For the moment I'm just sort of sailing through December trying not to fixate on the stress of the season as those who live here know the "special" kind of place our fair city is during the holidays. Instead, I'm trying to enjoy the moment and, to some degree, succeeding. :) 

Looking ahead into 2023, I realized that two of my favorite obsessions... uhm, er INTERESTS (lol) are celebrating 60 years in 2023 and I though how fun it would be if there was a cross over episode. I mean, Disney owns ABC which produces General Hospital and will start to stream Doctor Who in America next year so it's possible. I mean, common sense tells me that it  will never ever happen but in that small chance that putting it out to the universe will make it happen, here it is. Get to work, universe!

As an aside here, while we're wishing, "hi universe, I'd also like to put in my request for $10M to suddenly appear in my life" thank you. This could be because my comic strip characters get noticed by Netflix or Disney and they just HAVE to own them (now you know my asking price!) or maybe some person in the world decided that I should have $10M. I'm OK with either (but quite frankly, I'd rather it be the former than the latter... how wonderful for these characters to have a life beyond this blog and Instagram). 

ANYWAY. 

The point of all of this really is - I made it through all of last year, It was a LOT but I made it. With the help from The Mister and many friends. Please note that I will not be singing "I'm Still Here", but I absolutely could - I have, as the kids say, the receipts to prove just how much I've earned that (this is slightly cryptic for those who don't know some additional personal stuff that I was battling this year that I have not yet graced this blog with... ) 

The upcoming week is filled to the brim with all sorts of event work/holiday stuff and I am 100% looking forward to it but also looking forward to next Sunday, when most of it will be behind me. :) I probably won't have time to blog til this short cycle is over but know that I am chugging along in fine fashion. 

Finally- here is an advance poster for an event I'm doing at work. We decided to do a "Baked Potato Bar" and so today I purchased a stuffed tater at a local diner, shot it on a white towel, cut out the background and added some dazzle. I'm pretty happy with it and thought I would share it with you my blog reading public. :) 

I've been posting a lot this week and let me tell you, the service that runs this blog has had some major problems this week with their servers, so it's been a kind of challenge. But while those challenges aren't, I think, completely behind us, I have found pockets of time to post. Like with basically everything in my life, I've had to practice great patience this week. I'd like to say that I succeeded in being patient butttttttt having the time to devote to writing at exactly the time when the writing platform goes all wonky can be very frustrating. lol 

Today I took another walk and am realizing that it's probably better to do a walk every day rather than a mega walk every couple weeks. This time I reached the 4 mile mark. I didn't even realize it until I'd gotten home and checked the "health" app on my phone. Granted, I stretched that walk out over 2 hours which I won't necessarily have when I'm back to work next week so the next goal is to be able to do 2-3 miles in an hour before or after work. But that'll come, I'm not quite at the 'power walk' level quite yet. See also the aforementioned concept of "patience". :)

For this walk, I sailed up to 112th/Amsterdam to St. John the Divine.

I take a few minutes to pray every so often and this week, well, I just wanted to give thanks for being alive given where I've been at recently and also just spend a minute or ten contemplating the future and things that have been occupying my mind. Definitely a matter of "thy will be done" for me at this juncture. I'm letting go/letting God, as they say. 

There's a section where they have quotes from various authors in stones and this one from Audre Lorde felt especially appropriate: 

As I walked across W.110th, I noticed this artwork, which felt very much 'of the moment': 

A few photos from today's Park choice: Central Park 

This is one of my favorite buildings in all of NYC (around 102/CPW)- I've always wanted to live here - I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a turret? 

Finally, I walked back across W. 94th Street and encountered a brownstone in full Halloween decoration mode - the women doing the decorating were only too excited to talk about their creation - and that they'd be carving the pumpkins on the front steps the day before Halloween - would love to go back when they're done and carved! I really love it when NYers go out all for the holidays - and Halloween on the UWS is the BEST! 

It's SO easy to sit at ones desk all day every day especially over the past couple years - but this week with a few days off, I've been getting out and getting some much needed exercise. It's the perfect time of year for it with the fall colors but the weather has also been INCREDIBLE - temps in the mid 60s to low 70s are definitely something to encourage long walks. Yesterday I managed to log 3 miles, today, slightly less at 2.5 miles (but that's still not too shabby esp since it's been months since I've had the energy to go further than the Gristedes two blocks away ... and yes, I know how sad that sounds!). 

Today's trek took me up Columbus Ave to the park at 110th Street. The entrance descends in to the park and you feel like a grand dame arriving at the ball. OK maybe that's just me <blush> I visit Riverside Park all the time, Central Park comes a distant second (the cyclists have kind of ruined my enjoyment of it, sad to say) and I usually completely forget about the park at 110th- so much so that I don't even know its real name ( a quick google check to discover: it's called Morningside Park. Well, now I know). 

These walks are not only for a mental health break and a bit of exercise, but also in an attempt to lose some weight - I clocked in at a hefty 210 at one point in the thick of the pandemic (all the treats were just... RIGHT THERE!) and today I'm hovering around 195. My goal is to lose the belly and get back into the 170s. For someone who is 5'8", that's still a bit on the large size (as is measured medically, anyway) but I think do-able through no in between meal snacking, small portions and healthy exercise which will continue to include walks/cardio and, at some point, when life works out that I have access to a gym again, lifting weights. Usually putting ON weight has been one of the life long challenges and am hoping that I can make these changes on a slow and steady basis. 

Anyway, in addition to the scenery, I had a lovely call with an old friend while got some air and sun - all good things! Here now, a few of my favorite shots from today's walk. Enjoy! 

I had the day off today and needed a walk so I took a couple hours and walked through Riverside Park. The fall colors are starting to emerge but there is still plenty of summer to be seen. Here are just a few shots I took. Enjoy! 

Riverside Park is my go-to place normally but has been an essential destination over the past year. Spring has sprung a little later this year than usual, but, like everything else, even the seasons are teaching patience. Photo by Andrew Altenburg, 2021.

As I approach my one year anniversary of working from home, I thought I'd look back a little into what was going on a year ago - I'm cheating, slightly, by going back to the 19th as I thought it funny that I had gone on a site visit to The Edge with work colleagues. We had to sign a waiver that we would not post pics from the visit until after March 1st but by the time March 1st rolled around, I had much bigger fish to fry than posting pics from a site visit. (more on that in another entry). 

The place is gorgeous and a friend of mine now works there and posts pics daily, but this is my favorite shot. 

As a side note, when I looked into the folder with pics from Feb 19, 2020, I noticed this other pic I took of a design I whipped up for a possible branded face mask for in-person events. Ah, in-person events. I do miss them but we probably won't be getting back to them until 2022.  I think it was something that I came up with on a dept call as we were starting in earnest to take notice of Covid and the fallout of it. So, actually 2/19/20 is a good place to start as I think it begins the not so gradual build up to those very very dark days in March. 

Hope that you can take this journey with me - I hope to continue posting these as a way to try to continue to make sense of it. As, maybe we all are. 

So as it's already mid-February and supposed to be 50 degrees today here in NYC, and the amount of snow that we've had in New York has been roughly, about zero, I think all the signs point to winter being over. Yes, I know we technically have a few weeks left, but any snow we get will just go away immediately anyway. Bummer.

I love snow especially when I'm inside with my honey and we're watching the world get snowed under from our south facing bedroom windows so this winter has been kind of a bust for me but I suppose it's nice for us city dwellers not to have to deal with subway closures and slush... still, I miss it.  

I made this graphic up a few years ago and it came up in my 'memories' on the Facebook. I also wrote that the so-called snowpocalypse had turned out to be a kind of a bust. But I thought I would post the graphic anyway because I'm pretty proud of it and besides, who doesn't love a little Godzilla first thing in the morning? 

Nothing more to say at this time..  have a great day! 

Good morning and happy Saturday - hope that you had a great Valentine's Day - I spent part of yesterday braving Tiffany for a piece of Italian glass I've had my eye on for some time. I knew the Mister would love it (I wasn't wrong) so in I went. It actually was not as zooey as I thought it would be. I did have a "moment" while getting this shot of the Empire State Building built out of Tiffany blue boxes - my crazy fear of heights rears its head again.

There was a time, years and years ago, when I was in Trump Tower and nearly lost my footing and pitched over the edge. That it, by the way, a metaphor for how I feel about the last three years, but I generally try to eschew too much political talk on this blog. I mean, if you don't already know my political affiliation by me being a middle aged gay New Yorker, then nothing else I can say will help you figure that out. As usual, I'm against anything that will kill me, my family and/or the planet. 

As for the Vday itself, we had dinner at a little seafood restaurant in our 'hood - it was amazingly good and the meal was topped off by a complimentary slide of chocolate lava cake (they certainly knew their audience). I would tell you the name of it but I've learned my lesson - don't tell people about fabulous restaurants because then they'll go and it will be too crowded for us! LOL (I should add here, that this is more or less just 'snarky' as I don't think for a moment that me telling the name of this place on this blog will cause an avalanche of patrons to descend upon this place, but hey, you never know so I'm not taking any chances). :) 

Today, Saturday, it's a super cold day here in NYC so we spent the morning lazing around the apartment in jammies, making banana bread and sipping super incredibly strong Bustelo.... I would like to have used the cold as an excuse to just not go anywhere today, ah, but errands called as did an out of town friend who requested a dinner meet up, how can I say no? :)

But there are worse ways to spend a chilly Saturday afternoon than wrapped up in a blanket on the couch watching movies and occasionally dancing around the apartment to "Staying Alive" (BeeGees rule!)

Tomorrow, it's supposed to be summer (comparatively). Welcome to the new normal for climate: if you don't like the season you're currently experiencing, wait a few minutes. (see also being against things that will kill me, my family and/or the planet).