UPDATED WITH BABY PICTURES (scroll to end)
I had such a fabulous weekend that figuring out where to start talking about it is almost impossible. With that, I’d better just go in chronological order.

On Saturday morning, I flew up to New York and arrived in time to have lunch with Aunt Anna and Uncle Jason before they went to the hospital for Anna’s labor to be induced! We had wonderful NY pizza and then parted ways with a promise that they’d call me as soon as there was any news.

From there, I made my way to Central Park where I met Shelli and Lizzy, and of course, Malka and Henry (and Lizzy’s husband The Mistah).

Shelli and Lizzy are even nicer and more charming in real life than in the blogosphere, and there was a near toxic level of cute going on between Malka and Henry. Especially after Henry burned off some of his “I’ve been in the car too long” energy by running laps around our park area, flirted with da ladies, and tried to chat up a group of middle aged men. Malka took on her fear of grass like a champ, and gave me hope that the clingy stage might end.

Next, I hauled off to meet Brandi, Alister, and Heather (and their charming daughter Lily) for fabulous Indian food. Lily fell asleep at the table while the grown-ups ate and laughed ourselves silly. When Alister and Heather headed home to New Jersey, Brandi and I had a drink and then crashed in anticipation of our class Sunday morning.

(Oh yeah, and in my delayed realization that I had to cross Central Park to meet them for dinner, I managed to hike “all over” the park and come out 3 blocks south of the exact spot where I started. Doh!)

Sunday morning started out colorfully — at least 3 of the Puerto Rican Day Parade marching bands stayed in our hotel, and busily warmed up while we tried to get the bell hop to store Brandi’s bag.

Then there was The Class.

Catherine Orenstein’s class, Opinion Writing (How to Write to Change the World), was fun, intellectually stimulating, and inspiring. There were about 25 of us, ranging in age from 20 to 60s (?), including students, health care professionals, lawyers, academics, business women, clergy, writers and activists, including Cooper and Emily!

I was especially excited to meet them since Cooper and I had a great email exchange last week, about the initiative they just launched with BlogHer — to organize around a single global issue and make a substantial difference, and to identify the top 4 issues of concern to women bloggers in the 2008 presidential election. They are getting fabulous participation!
The three things I most enjoyed about the class itself were:

1. Exercises to identify our areas of expertise, and find ways to articulate them in a short, persuasive way.
2. Clear decriptions of the core elements of an op-ed piece and how to pitch it “cold.”
3. The other women in the class. Amusingly, one is working on an initiative with my old boss!

I have a few op-ed ideas percolating already — and I would encourage any of you who can to take this class the next time Woodhull offers it. Don’t use the excuse that you live too far away — we had a participant who flew in from Sydney, Australia!

Last but certainly not least, I left during the lunch break and flew up to the hospital to meet my new nephew Max when he was a couple of hours old.

Max is adorable and perfect, and it was wonderful to get to meet and hold such a new little person. I’m glad I was able to help welcome him into the world.