ithaca is gorges

good snowy monday morning. i can't believe winter is already here. i need to get me some winter boots and pronto b/c there is more snow heading toward nyc this evening. while it is very pretty to look at, i imagine i will be mostly angry for the next two to three months. we'll see.

so this weekend jes and i went to a bed and breakfast near ithaca, new york to celebrate our FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY yall. i know, can you believe we have been together for four years? who knew i had it in me? anywho i thought it would be nice to get away, see more of the state, and maybe just maybe, see some snow. well mother nature came through b/c it snowed for a good part of our drive up there and jes was beside herself with joy! we went to this b&b that sits on an organic farm. it's called brookton hollow farm b&b. it was divine. here is a picture of the house:



and here is a pic of our room, it was called "joshua's room" after one of the owner's sons:



here is a picture of some of "neighbors in nature"




every morning, one of the owners, debby, would make an entirely vegetarian breakfast. it was lovely.

so we got there friday night after getting a bit lost in the greater ithaca area. it was dark and this farm is in the COUNTRY so its not like you can stop at the local BP and ask for directions. we finally made it there, dropped off our stuff and then headed to get some dinner. we went to this cute place called the ABC Cafe. Both Jes and I got this delicious special of black bean enchiladas. Now it cost about $8.00 so we thought it wouldn't be all that much food. Lo and behold the server brought us these behemoth plates of food and we both only finished half our dinner. This one woman came to clear our plates (not our server) and saw that we wasted so much food and scoffed at us. Jes, being the gem she is, said under her breath "well if don't like the waste, why don't you eat some the leftovers skinny mc skinny" (the woman was very thin) and sure and shit we look over and she was. jes was quiet after that. for dessert (b/c it sounded so good) we ordered a toffee bar covered in ONE scoop of vanilla ice cream. the dish comes to our plate with FOUR scoops of vanilla ice cream. we were both dying. jes kept telling me i needed to eat more or we would look like wasters. i ate until i almost exploded and paid for it the rest of the night. we were going to get a drink at a local bar but i was in pain from too much food and too much dairy. so we went back to the room and played scrabble while my belly decompressed. jes won at scrabble, for the record.

now when we first got to the place on friday night, i went to the bathroom to pee while jes sat and chatted with debby the owner. debby let us know that strangely, she was all booked up for the weekend (she is normally only full during spring, summer and fall) and even more strangely, the two women in the room next to us were also from brooklyn. when i joined them, jes told me, and i thought "oh that's weird" and then i got excited that maybe we would make new friends. jes was up near the window when our neighbors pulled up later that night and she peaked out to see them. i asked her what kind of car they had and she said "honda". i thought "nice car." anywho we didn't think much of it really, but sort of joked about what if it was people we knew and didn't like. then we went to bed.

the next morning we got up and went down to breakfast. we were chatting with debby and the other lady who was staying there from pennsylvania. we sort of looked like this:



you know, just minding our own business. then we heard our "neighbors" (the mystery ladies from brooklyn) coming down the stairs. they sort of looked like this:



then we realized it was ali and monique from our supper club and we looked like this (that's us surprised if you were wondering):




and they realized they knew us and they looked like this:



ok, ok, truth be told that is a photographic documentary of a *reinactment* of our surprise, but still, that is pretty fucking weird, don't you think? i mean i had told them i was interested in taking jes to a b&b upstate and that i found one i thought i liked but i gave them no more details than that. and can you believe it? ali booked a room for her and monique in the SAME PLACE on the SAME WEEKEND. small world yall.

so while it sucked b/c we did not make any NEW FRIENDS, it was so great that our "OLD" FRIENDS were there and we could spend time with them. we chatted for some time after breakfast and made plans to meet up for dinner and a movie and partytime at THE gay bar that night. jes and i spent the day looking at waterfalls and studying. here are some pretty pics of the waterfalls at the gorges in town.





after jes's face started to freeze off we went to the cafe to drink coffee and i read a book while she studied. then we did a little walking around in the "commons" this area with all these shops. we went back to the house and showered and then met up with the ladies to head out to dinner. here they are in their winter gear:



we were going to have dinner at this delish tapas place but there was an HOUR wait. bastards. so we went to the world famous moosewood restaurant. i got some coconut salmon i liked, monique got some great lasagna, jes shared mine and ali got some weird asian burritos she did not care for. after dinner we went back to abc cafe for dizzert and tea/coffee. we were killing time so we weren't too early to THE gay bar in ithaca, aka Common Ground. Here is a pic of the sign:



It was actually really great to have time to chat with the two of them and really talk about our lives and our work. i feel like we don't get to do that as much at supper club b/c we are eating and talking about our days and usually analyzing the l word extensively. as we were leaving the cafe to hit the gay bar ali had a real bad back spasm so we took her and monique back to the room. it was a little bit scary b/c i didn't know how to help her. apparently all she needed was a little massage and to lay horizontal for a while.

after we dropped them off, we headed to the gay bar which was, for reals, in the middle of the country. it is housed in a double wide trailer. i tried to take a picture of it, but there were all these smokers in front and jes thought it would be rude. inside it looked like any other small town gay bar. lights, deejay and some bad fashion. we drank one beer each (only $3 a PINT) and then headed home. jes was very very thankful that that was not the only bar we had to go to in brooklyn. it reminded me a lot of the gay bar in champaign or even some of the gay bars in columbus. just regular folks drinking and getting their dance on.

the next morning we woke up to a few more inches of snow on the ground. it was lovely. seafoam got a true taste of what winter is like:



after we got home, jes studied while i unpacked us and did some laundry. while it was nice to be away, it was great to be home and love on the kitties. it has snowed some here in brooklyn and there is more in store this week. i will try and get some pics of the park and whatnot and post them. ok i need to go and try to move the car.