Slow Going April 22, 2008

By Cat Greenleaf

The word we’d heard was that, after getting all our papers to our lawyer, we would be sent to get fingerprinted within 10 days. (The fingerprinting is to ensure we have no record of child abuse.) But our attorney’s office just informed us that the government clerk who’s dealing with our file is really backed up, and it could be two weeks to a month until we get fingerprinted.

We’re in no rush, but I’m wondering if this is a glimpse into the whole process. Will it be “hurry up and wait”? Will there be massive stretches of time with no word from anyone? And once we’re certified (basically, licensed) to adopt, will it be a year, or a day, until we get The Call?

We’re buckled in for the ride, but it’s funny: Biologically pregnant people know just when their ride ends. We could be riding a while. What else can we say but: Weeeeeeeee!

High Flying Father April 21, 2008

By Cat Greenleaf

While the adoption process promises to be a slow one, yesterday, we had a paternal experience of a wholly (holy) different kind. At the end of an otherwise ordinary weekend, the truly extraordinary happened.

In an effort to shape up for summer, my husband and I went for a run (my first in years) around 7 p.m. As we turned onto the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, there were helicopters hovering overhead, police boats in the East River, and flashing lights doting the FDR and Brooklyn Bridge. The scene was dramatic, and we figured someone had gone overboard, or some other disaster had transpired. But nope: It was the pope, taking off from the South Street Seaport, traveling by helicopter to JFK.

Little by little, people started to gather and the excitement began to build. Before long, Il Popo was airborne, and his chopper did a graceful lap above us. While we’ve all seen the pope  give Mass to thousands of New Yorkers over the past few days, last night it felt like it was just us – this little handful of Brooklynites – and him, the most famous man on earth. And while I’m not Catholic and can’t say I’m thoroughly familiar with Benedict’s teachings, seeing him lift off above us felt serendipitous, intimate, and so New York. Convinced he could see me, I waved goodbye, and then felt silly when I looked around and realized the only other person waving was a  2-year-old on his father’s shoulders. Oh well, it felt right to me!

My husband told me that the pope had blessed my first run, and now I had to keep going. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I am walking slightly lightly today, buoyed by this neat little gift from the city.

My Kids Might Be Named Ben and Jerry April 18, 2008

 

 

By Cat Greenleaf, Features Reporter

 

The Time: Last night, 10 o’ clock

The Place: our couch, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

The Crime: dusting an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s “low-fat” brownie yogurt, without blinking an eye, or even taking a breath

The Reason: None. So I’m thinking of blaming it on bring Paper Pregnant.

 

Can I do that? Is there such a thing as Sympathetic Pregnancy Cravings? There are lots of pregnant women out there, and I sympathize!

My husband helped out with the yogurt. He, too, is very sympathetic.

 

Maybe some dads or other adoptive parents can weigh in here (pun intended) and let me know if they’ve had this issue? If not, I will resort to what I know to be true: I am a woman of weak will in the face of my boyfriends, Ben and Jerry.

Can I Get A Witness? April 16, 2008

By Cat Greenleaf, Reporter

Today I attended a funeral for a friend’s mom in Philadelphia. It was a big, energetic, Baptist affair, complete with roaming uniformed nurses, on stand-by with tissues and smelling salts for the swooning faithful.

After two-hours of prayer, song, and eulogy, the minister took the pulpit. He based his sermon on the 9th paragraph of the 90th Psalm. He spoke about how, every day that we’re alive, we are writing our story.

He asked: If we actually take time to pause at the commas in our lives? What words are so important that we write them in all caps? Is our story honest?

Of course, the minister was talking about writing our stories figuratively.

But I realized that, through this blog, I am writing my story literally, every day. That very act has brought this most un-real process into the realm of reality for me. And because I’m tracking it here, I’ll be able to tell my child the story of how he or she came into our family. I’m grateful for that opportunity.

Thanks for reading, for sharing this experience with my family, and for helping me to write our story.

Good Weather, Good Times! July 6, 2007

Sachi Ezura, TINY Blog Contributor

Cat Greenleaf’s Good Weather, Good Times series has been a favorite of mine to shoot. That’s because we get to go all over New York City, finding the very best ways to spend the summer. I grew up on the Upper West Side and had everything I needed in my little neighborhood, so I’m not used to venturing outside my lovely little borough. But shooting this series has prompted me to check out what the other four boroughs have to offer—and they have a lot!

For the first installation, we hit up Queens, Long Island, Staten Island, and even the Hudson River for some outdoor (and indoor) fun. One of the highlights from our shoot was the NY Splash Tours’ AquaBus, which brought out the tourist in me. We zoomed through Times Square with our tour guide, Barnacle Bon, but after going through a simulation of Henry Hudson’s first ride, the bus morphed Transformers-style into a boat. On a particularly sunny day, we also headed out to Robert Moses Beach, where a friendly lifeguard took us on a golf cart ride along the coast.

The best part of the shoot, though, was definitely Il Laboratorio del Gelato—the perfect way to end a summer day. I recommend the mascarpone cheese and dark chocolate flavors, but if you’re more adventurous than I am, try the avocado flavor; and let me know how it is!

For more information on the places we visited go here.

Gazillion Bubbles June 21, 2007

Sachi Ezura, TINY Blog Contributor

When Features Reporter Cat Greenleaf told me we were headed for a shoot at the Gazillion Bubble Show, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen a gazillion of anything, let alone something so beautiful and with such a short life span as bubbles. I was psyched to spend the afternoon with the world’s greatest bubble artist and scientist, Fan Yang.

Fan was born in Vietnam and grew up in Yugoslavia, so as his PR rep said, “He looks like Bruce Lee, but he sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Before the show, he treated us to a private lesson in how he works his magic. Cat even got in on the action and learned how to blow a square bubble. Fan makes it look so easy, but it takes a steady hand and tremendous breath control.

In his show, Fan shares childhood stories on how he got inspired to work with bubbles and uses lots of kids as volunteers. He brought up the cutest little girl to act out a story about him and his niece in Hawaii. And no matter what he did, the kids went wild!

It’s been a while since I really stopped and marveled at how cool bubbles are. As Paul Rudd says in the movie Knocked Up, “I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles.”

Next time you see a kid fascinated by the seemingly ordinary, stop for a second and check it out. It just might brighten your day!

A Soldier Weighs In On Va. Tech Massacre April 23, 2007

Cat Greenleaf, Lifestyles Reporter

Over the last several months, I’ve been emailing with a solider from Brooklyn, stationed in Iraq. His insights have been illuminating, and this week, he wrote with his perception of the shootings in Virginia.

Read his letter below:

Hey Cat,

It’s weird but some of us happened to watch a news piece on that shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday. I have to admit that for the most part the guys here are pretty much numb to what happened – me included. After a while being here we kinda expect loss of life and it’s not a matter of if, it’s just when and how many.

Back home, there in the states, it should be safer but if your guard isn’t up, something bad can happen. This kid Cho should not have ended up the way he did. It’s amazing that in an environment with so many brilliant people, unique people, a person could go so unnoticed. Enough signs where there that some social failsafe should have been tripped to catch this guy before he fell apart. That massacre should not have happened.

Over here we have a buddy system where one soldier has to look out for another so, if he or she is coming unglued, hopefully they can get the help they need. It’s not fool proof, but if someone is feeling suicidal or destructive, first thing you do is take their weapon away. Then try get them some treatment, ‘combat stress counseling’ we call it.

The one thing I think people may not be looking for is the amount of guilt the students at Va. Tech may feel in the months to come. They are a family and although this guy was a loner he was still part of the school and those who knew him even vaguely might take on some of the weight for what happened.

Well gotta go. As always stay safe and say what’s up to everyone. In the sandbox as always.

Choosing Words Wisely April 12, 2007

Rob Morrison, Anchor

Recently our industry has been reminded about choosing words wisely on-air. Sometimes, it’s best to say nothing at all.

Watch this TINY moment to see how two married men (Chris and I) deftly avoid potential hot water…both at work and at home. We’re reacting (or not) to Cat’s story about mini skirts.

What Is It About The Gowanus? April 9, 2007

Cat Greenleaf, Lifestyles Reporter

If you caught this morning’s story on Traffic Mysteries, we hope you found the answers to some long standing questions.

As a former traffic reporter, I am always amazed by people’s fascination with transit terms. I can’ t tell you how many times I was asked: “Is it the L-I-Double-R, or the LIRR?” (It doesn’t matter), “Can you actually turn on a turnpike?” (actually, you turn off of one), and “Why is there always a back-up on the inbound Gowanus?” In fact, people always made me say that very sentence to them upon learning my profession: “There is a backup on the inbound Gowanus!”

But in thinking about this story, I suddenly developed my own obsession with he meaning behind a particular crossing: The Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects Westchester and Rockland counties over the widest point of the Hudson River. It turns out the bridge was named for a local Indian tribe, the “Tappan”, and “Zee” means “sea” in Dutch. It makes sense, right? Yet I was strangely disappointed when I found out the literal meaning of the bridge.

After listening to people’s well considered questions about traffic landmarks, editing, and completing the story, I slowly realized why I have an affinity for the Tappan Zee, and why no word-for-word translation will ever satisfy me. It was the Tappan Zee Bridge that carried me to my grandfather in the final weeks of his life in Tarrytown. It was the flourish with which he said “Zee” every time he asked me how I got there to see him (which was every time, even though the answer was always the same). “Did you take the Tappan Zeee?”!
“Yes”.

So now I guess I understand why everyone wants to know about the Throg’s Neck, the Deegan, or the FDR. Whether you’re lucky enough to live in the tri-state area, or have just passed through, everybody has had a memorable moment crossing a bridge, a fit of the giggles for no reason on the train, or a darling of a grandfather who said “Zeee” so beautifully.

This Weekend in Iraq January 2, 2007

Cat Greenleaf, Lifestyle Contributor

At Christmas dinner, my family passed around my Blackberry and we all wrote notes to the soldier in Iraq who’s been corresponding with me, and contributing to this blog. I didn’t hear back from him until New Year’s Eve after a couple intense days in Iraq. Here he is with news from the front line, and well as some exciting personal news of his own:

Happy New Year to you and your family,

It’s surreal being here and Saddam being executed. I kinda didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. Over here there were rumors of insurgents heading our way (can’t get any more detailed because some info is still time sensitive). Nothing directly effecting me though. The reaction to his death up here is pretty tame. People aren’t rejoicing in the streets and there aren’t any significant acts of aggression either. Like any other day really.

I gotta say that history usually favors those that write it. So decades from now someone will probably forget to mention that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Or the fact he and Osama were enemies. So to me his death is a rather hollow victory. Not to mention Al Quaeda and several other insurgent groups have found a battleground in Iraq which to kill Americans and their allies. And a lot of them didn’t exist before 2003. More explosives and complicated devices to set them off. Sniper rifles from Russia or China, funding from Iran. We had highest casualty count this month with about 106. I was watching the Daily Show and one observation is very true, how does the president go from ‘We’ve won the war in Iraq’ in 2003 to ‘We’re not winning, but we’re not losing’?

So in the end, however this is recorded they gotta really put a spin on it. I have a job to do , that’s the way I look at it, so long as I’m following orders, it’s pretty simple. The only thing is that in the end everyone should be better off and it should be obvious. Nuff said.
By the way, [my wife] finally told me, I’m having a son :). Looking forward to coming home and being a dad. I gonna mold his young, impressionable mind and create a perfect little mini-me. At this point, picture me laughing insanely with my pinky finger pressed against the corner of my lips!

Talk later.