Category Archives: Friends

Two movies, more visiting

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George Washington Bridge from the Cloisters. The buildings are in Fort Lee, where I used to live.

George Washington Bridge from the Cloisters. The buildings are in Fort Lee, where I used to live.

Friday was supposed to be another visit with Mary. We were going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or go to see The Butler. Life intervened and I was on my own. I went to the Met, photographed some portraits then went to a movie, “The Artist and the Model”. I’m trying to pick movies I won’t be able to see in Pittsburgh. It was a pretty movie, but needed to go deeper, much deeper.

Saturday was a total screw-up. Phyllis and I were going to Governor’s Island. I thought we should meet at the ferry terminal, but I wasn’t too clear about where. I got there and couldn’t find Phyllis. I sat and waited for more than an hour watching a wonderful parade of costumed people going to the Island. It turned out Phyllis got there even earlier, got on the ferry and went to the island. By the time I stopped waiting the line for the ferry was too long. I just left and went shopping. Maybe I’ll try again next week.

Today I met Ellen on the High Line. We walked the entire finished part and looked at the last part being worked on. It was a perfect day for walking up there, mostly overcast, a few drops of rain, cool and pleasant, making for a great visit. Afterward another movie: Storytelling. Good film, could have had a little more editing. Sometimes we are so in love with our creations we fail to see them clearly.

Wednesday, Thursday

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Met Phyllis at a bus stop and we took a very long ride to the Cloisters. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, I hated the bus ride and I thought I had seen all the renaissance religious art I ever wanted to see, but– amazing–I found inspiration for my next book. Those heads sitting on the altarpiece spoke directly to me. More about this, probably not until October.

We returned from the Cloisters on the subway; a much quicker trip. I walked around to some bead shops, returned to the apartment for a nap then met C for dinner. I am thoroughly enjoying visiting with all my friends.

Excitement about the new book kept me from falling asleep. Usually I get so tired from all the walking I fall asleep immediately. I am almost ready to go home sooner so I could go to work. Today I’ll go looking for more images.

Thursday was another long visit; this time with Laura. I haven’t seen her for several years. We had lots of catching up to do.

Trying to catch up

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Looking at the rain and at the apartments across the street

\ Looking at the rain and at the apartments across the street

Another sunny, pleasant day on Sunday. I went to the 3rd Avenue street fair, which gave me a major disappointment. One reason I loved the street fairs, besides being able to walk in the middle of the street, was food, particularly “Mozzarepa.” This is a made up, probably copywritten name, for an Americanized, non-authentic, Latin American street food–a circle of corn bread (the kind you get in American restaurants), split in half horizontally and filled with yellow mozzarella (not the fresh kind), and grilled on both sides until the read was browned and the cheese melted.

I’ve been eating this high calorie, high cholesterol for years, at least once every summer. I went to the street fair looking for my Mozzarepa fix, and found a new and different arepa with mozzarella, claiming to be made with real corn. I bought one; it was certainly as advertised and probably more authentic, but not what I wanted. I guess I have to forget Mozzarepa.

Met Jean for dinner and had a lovely visit. This is why I come back to NYC year after year.

Another lovely day Monday: brunch and an all afternoon visit with Mary, dinner with Phyllis. Lots of rain on Tuesday morning. I stayed here until the sun came out, then went to see the other two parts of the exhibit about Al Mutanabi. First stop was Poet’s House in Battery Park City at the bottom of Manhattan, then took the subway up to 114th St. to the library at Columbia University. These exhibits have given me lots to think about, in particular integrating content and structure, and I really enjoyed seeing all the books. After a quick sandwich I went further north to Riverdale to Evy’s apartment where my Teaneck friends gathered for a stitch and bitch.

Busy days 2

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Saturday morning was sunny and warm with much less humidity; so taking advantage of this fine day for walking.I took the subway to 33rd St to walk on NYC Summer Streets. Three Saturdays in August the city closes Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park–no cars, only walkers, runners and cyclists. It was pretty crowded but lovely to be able to walk in the middle of the street. I walked from 33rd to 45th then over to Sixth Ave to Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore, then back to Grand Central where I boarded a train for Bronxville.

Electric Wire Sheep

Electric Wire Sheep

Sybille picked me up at the station and we went to a wonderful art installation by Federico Uribe–Fantasy River–a re-creation of his childhood in Colombia made of shoelaces, tennis shoes, pingpong balls, old books, electrical wire and other unlikely items.

Shoelace Gorilla

Shoelace Gorilla

I loved the show.

Zipper tree on a fabric-leaf wall

Zipper tree on a fabric-leaf wall


Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Sybille and Howard, mostly looking at and talking about photographs.

Today is August

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renee's apt

and I am in New York. I’ve been coming here every August to see my contact lens doc, and so it was this year also–until I got a call last week that she lost her office and won’t be in her new office until some time in September. I think this is a message from on high to get a doctor in Pittsburgh. I’ll work on it as soon as I return. Of course, all of my arrangements were made and my friends were contacted. Renee has gone to Russia and I have the apartment to myself for two weeks. I wasn’t going to pass it up.

I’ll try to blog every day. I like having a travel record. More things tend to happen and I have different views of the world, unlike Pittsburgh where things remain pretty much the same.

I came here on the Megabus, which developed a bad tire, whatever that means, about 2 hours in, and we waited almost two hours for another bus. This is my second bad experience, out of possibly ten trips. I think I need an alternative.

Other than yesterday, when I just walked around, bought some groceries and hung out in the heat, humidity and occasional rain, my calendar is full. Let the good times roll!

Something to think about

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On Friday, when I returned home about 4:30 pm, my neighbor’s newspaper was still in front of her door. My neighbor is in her early eighties, she has balance problems and trouble walking. Worried, I called her and got her voicemail. I called down to the garage and was told her car was in place. Now I was really worried and didn’t know what to do. I called the president of the condo board. His wife said they would go into the apartment when he returns home in about 45 minutes. More than an hour later we finally went into the apartment and, happily, found no one there, dispelling my nightmare vision of finding B on the floor. The newspapers are piling up; B has not returned. The last time she went away she told me beforehand and I took care of the papers. I will do so tonight and leave a note for her. That’s not the problem.

We have a large number of elders in our building reflecting the population of Pittsburgh. There should be some sort of protocol for watching out for each other and not waiting for the condo president. I don’t have the answer; maybe there isn’t a good one, but I keep thinking about it. I don’t want to be the one on the floor waiting to be found.

 

No excuses

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Nine Mile Run

Nine Mile Run

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I just didn’t feel like communicating. I’ve been working on my photos, remembering the gardens I visited and working on two, or maybe three new books. I’ll write about them when they are further along.

Flowers above are from a wonderful place in Pittsburgh called Nine Mile Run, at the south end of Frick Park. I walked there last week with Friend #1 and went back today with Friend #2. I’m trying to do more walking. We went to a new entrance to the park; one I didn’t know about, and took a long walk. Getting back to the car we drove to Duck Hollow where the run flows into the Monongahela River. More pictures soon.

Next Flight

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The flight to Chicago was uneventful. Returning to Chicago is always filled with nostalgia for me, and this time, a little shock. The airport in Pittsburgh is, unfortunately, a very quiet place, a little backwater. The organized chaos of O’Hare took me by surprise.

My first feeling I no longer knew how to proceed at O’Hare was quickly dispelled as I realized I had arrived at Terminal 2 and had to proceed through an inside revolving door to Terminal 3 to get my bag. It’s been that way for years. Originally a military airbase, called Orchard Field, I think O’Hare had only 2 terminals when it first opened as a civilian airport. It was quite small and served as a kind of satellite to Midway, which was the original Chicago airport. My first flight, in 1953, was out of Midway in a propeller plane. While I was in college I would sometimes drive out to Midway with a date and we would we would park along a fence and watch the planes take off, and amongst other things, sit and eat doughnut holes, sold at an outlet store for some doughnut manufacturer I no longer remember that was on the way..

Over the years O’Hare grew to 4 terminals with a Hilton Hotel in the center. They enlarged it further by putting a tunnel under the hotel and more areas for passengers to meet or depart from ground transportation. This is the part that’s been really confusing to me, but this time I finally figured it out.

I usually try to fly into Midway when I come to the city so I’ve had limited experience with O’Hare in recent years. So this was kind of fun.

The hotel shuttle returned me to O’Hare and I took the blue line train to downtown Chicago and met the grandchildren, who are no longer children, along with one of my dearest friends and we all had dinner. This morning I again took the shuttle back to the airport and now I’m sitting on the plane watching the flight path on the little video. I had enough frequent flier miles to go business class both ways and it’s great. I love all the space.

One more paragraph and I’m going to sleep. Finally got to the hotel and I can’t keep my eyes open. Good night.

Chicago Thanksgiving

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I am sitting in a temporary rental apartment in Chicago with Robin and Steve and friends from New Jersey. Because of having the friends here I have this sense of displacement: I can’t quite believe I’m in Chicago, but I know I’m not in New York. I wonder if this is the beginning of senility.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Eli, Charna and three of his friends. The loft was much enhanced from its previous state that I saw last summer. The kids made most of the food with additions made by Robin and Ilana. We are all vegetarians (much more serious than me) so no turkey. I don’t miss it at all. The veggie dishes are much more interesting.

We flew in from Pittsburgh on Wednesday. I went to visit Betty; Robin and Steve went to the apartment and met up with their friends. Unfortunately, Steve had an accident and fractured a bone in his leg. So he’s on crutches and will be for the next three or four weeks. He’s having a lot of trouble sitting still.

Steve with bionic crutches

Good thing he brought work with him.

On the way home

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I am in a motel in the middle of Indiana; alone for the first time in two weeks.  It feels strange, but I’m enjoying it. I always have mixed feelings about being with other people; I love it, but I also love being alone.

I spent my first week in Chicago at Sandy’s home and visited with most of my family and friends. All week I had the feeling my father was waiting to see me. This morning, I again spent time with family; feeling as I left that I was going to see my dad. Strange how I almost feel like I am revisiting my childhood each time I return. Here I am, the matriarch of the family and I return to childhood.

None of this happens when I am in Pittsburgh. There I am just another old lady, attending classes and still trying to organize my workspace.