Category Archives: New York

Eleven years ago

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September 11, 2001, was also a Tuesday, a beautiful autumn day. My brother, Arvin, and sister-in-law, Carol, were visiting from Florida and I took a few days off to be with them. They were staying in a hotel about a mile from my apartment, which overlooked the George Washington bridge. We were supposed to take the boat trip around Manhattan, but went on Monday instead, also a beautiful day and not the predicted rainy mess.

I woke up my usual 5:30 but stayed in bed another hour or so, enjoying my leisure and looking forward to spending more time with Arvin and Carol. My constant early morning companion, the New York Public Radio station, was speaking calmly to me as I drank my tea and ate my breakfast. It seemed like a perfect day–until just before 9 when the announcer said in a calm voice, that a plane just crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. I don’t remember exactly what he said. I think he expressed some confusion, but no panic, not until the second plane crashed into the other tower.

I don’t remember the exact chain of events. Traffic backed up on the highway crossing the bridge. Somehow, immediately, Manhattan was closed, isolated, no one could move and the congestion remained all day and into the night. I called my brother and found they didn’t know what happened, only knew the highway outside of the hotel was filled with noisy, horn-blowing vehicles. They packed up and left, only to spend most of the day trying to leave New Jersey in the other direction. No one went anywhere that day.

I was alone in my apartment, horrified and grief stricken–almost feeling paralyzed. From my terrace I could see all the backed up traffic, and in the other direction, the smoke clouding the towers twenty miles away. Later I could see the smoke and no towers, smell the terrible, chemical, electrical odor I have never experienced before or after. Much later, when people spoke about their fears of further attacks I realized my mind never went there. I dealt only with the moment, never thought about what else might happen. Finally, late in the afternoon, I got in the car and drove 5 miles west to be with my grandchildren. It took only 15 minutes to get to them. It took an hour and a half to get home; I lived too close to Manhattan.

This was my year to think about fear, or maybe lack of imagination. I don’t anticipate fear; I certainly feel it when I am confronted with danger. After the attack one of my Chicago cousins asked me if I was afraid of living so close to Manhattan. I thought about it for a long time and realized my only fear was of being hit by a truck as I made my daily trip across the bridge.

Last month I took that same boat trip. Here are some pictures of New York Harbor with the Freedom Tower rising where the World Trade Center towers had so dominated the skyline.

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Last day but one

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Another week has gone by and tomorrow afternoon I fly back to Pittsburgh. It’s been a very productive week. Monday morning I went to see my contact lens practitioner. In an hour and a half she found more ways to help me than all of my several visits to the neuro opthamologist in Pittsburgh. She gave me prescriptions for reading glasses with a prism to keep my right eye from drifting, the original problem I had, and glasses I can wear when I remove the contact lenses. Then she asked me not to wear the lenses until I returned to see her on Wednesday in order to measure how much change there would be as my cornea returns to its original distorted shape. Needless to say there was a big change. If I had done this for two more days, I would be close to blindness. The contact lenses are reshaping my corneas and I will probably have to continue wearing them forever.

I met Phyllis at noon at the Rubin Museum. We looked at three floors of exhibits then had lunch. I am not hugely interested in Himalayan Buddhist art, but the place is so lovely and peaceful I find myself returning often. Afterward we went over to Pier 38 on the Hudson River and took the Circle Line Tour around the island of Manhattan, another lovely relaxing activity, although not entirely relaxing for me. I took that same trip with my brother on September 10, 2001. Somewhere I have pictures of the twin towers still standing.

Tuesday afternoon I met another friend and went to the Lunch Hour exhibit at the New York Public Library. By this time I wasn’t seeing very well, but what I saw was good and I enjoyed visiting with my friend. Finally, met another friend for dinner.

Wednesday morning a friend from Jersey drove in to visit, then back to the eye doctor, then, with my contacts, a movie with Renee. Thursday was breakfast, lunch and dinner with friends.

I brought my tunnel book to show my friends on Sunday and to the Thursday night friend, who is very knowledgeable about art. Watching my friends, and particularly my very knowledgeable friend examine it, made me think about doing it again and making changes. There are three kinds of pages in the book: bridges, which hold the book together, path pages, i.e., pages that illustrate the path through the tunnel, and wall pages showing the water cascading down the walls. The path and wall pages are not clearly differentiated, making the viewing a complicated experience. Now I feel I have to do something about this. Also, I haven’t really looked at the piece since I made it. I can see it better now that so much time has elapsed, and I am finding it confusing. I’ll bring it with me to Chicago and see what my artist friends have to say.

Friday I went back to the Met to see what was on the roof. I got there just before the rains came. Here is a picture:: you can see the storm clouds brewing. 
Next I tried to go tp the Whitney. There was a line around the block, it was raining hard and I was wet. I got on the bus and went back to the apartment. After the sun came out I went up to East Harlem to see the tower built for the Giglio Di Sant Antonio Feast. I’ll have pictures after I get home. In the meantime here is another picture from the street fair.

New York continued

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Saturday morning we took another long bus ride; this time to the South Street Seaport, a primo tourist destination. We escaped the crowds and went to the museum. It had been written up in the NY Times on Friday, probably bringing a small increase in customers, but it was quiet and pleasant with some good exhibits. I particularly enjoyed the Manhatta/Manhattan room where a plastic model of the island demonstrated what it looked like from the time before the first Europeans arrived until the present. Very nice.

Afterward I tried to do a little shopping, mainly a new pair of sneakers. I wanted to buy them in Pittsburgh but my favorite shoe store now carries only New Balance. It may be a good shoe, but I’ve never had a pair I liked. The neighborhood store here in NY also seems to have mostly NB. So I went to Macy’s. They are renovating. The signs promise it will be magical but for now it’s a zoo. I finally found the shoe department, found something I wanted to try and couldn’t get a sales person. Exhausted, I left and went uptown to Harry’s Shoes, a Manhattan icon. At one time they had three storefronts. Now they have one. They had the same shoes for $50 more, and again no salesperson. Maybe I have truly become invisible. Although I would like another pair of shoes here, I’ll wait and try again in Pittsburgh.

Sunday was the street fair and then a train ride to Bronxville, a northern suburb to see friends. Lovely day. The picture below shows the women who belonged to the goods laid out in the previous photo.

New York first week

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Can’t believe I’ve been here a week already. Yesterday was the day I came for; the first of two visits to my contact lens practitioner. I have problems with my vision. I had a series of appointments with a specialist in Pittsburgh who ultimately did nothing for me. An hour and a half with my wonderful New York doctor and I think I’m on the right road. I go back to her tomorrow.

So, Mage, I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing. I arrived last Wednesday to a hot, humid, rain-soaked day and did much of nothing. Renee made dinner for us and our only activity was to go for a walk after dinner when the rain stopped.

On Thursday we went to the Asia Society and saw the work of two Chinese artists, one very modern, the other contemporary over a lifespan of ninety years. The real hit of the exhibits was work by grade school children inspired by a previous show.

Renee was supposed to go on  a trip, leaving on Friday. She canceled the trip because her brother was having surgery on Thursday. After a great lunch and some partially productive shopping she went to the hospital and I came back to the apartment with my purchases, rested briefly and then went to the hospital to sit with J while the surgery was happening.

Friday I got to the Whitney about eleven and found out it didn’t open until one. I walked over to the Met and saw a wonderful show about Japanese Rinpa art.  From there I took a badly needed long bus ride down Fifth Ave. to the Center for Book Arts. This is the place that makes me want to cry because I don’t live here. I think I would spend all my time there. I will write much more about it later. It gave me lots to think about.

Here is a photo from Sunday’s street fair. I’ll finish the week in my next post.

 

 

Work Avoidance

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My kitchen, living room and bedroom are organized and comfortable. Even my linen closed and medicine cabinet. But that work room and the office, particularly the work room, needs lot of work (help). So what am I doing? Not sorting through the box of papers I should have sorted before I moved. Not going through the photos I should trash. Not arranging tools and supplies. I’ve been making books. I have a little workspace cleared off (and I’m keeping it clean). I had an excuse for the first book: I had to get it ready for the party last Sunday. But I was inspired to make more books and that’s so much more fun than all the sorting and arranging. I had to wait for more ink which stopped me from working on the garden book. The ink came and I have to get back to that one also.

The party book is my attempt at a popup book. It met with success, although I see every flaw in it. First, it has no real theme. I looked for photos that had distinct foregrounds and realized most of my photos don’t have obvious distinctions between fore- and background. I have known that for years but never gave it much thought. So this is a collection of five disparate photos, six if you include the cover. I made two copies of each photo, one in color, one black and white. Then I cut out the colored foreground and floated it in front of the black and white image. Floating it means raising it above the page using strips glued on two sides and on the center fold. This page is the piano man in Bryant Park, New York. I kept the green plantings on either side of the photo but made the rest of it black and white. The man is too dark to really pop out, but the piano has color in it. The color in all of the pictures, except the covers, was not good. It was much better on my screen so that disappointed me. You can also see where I wasn’t able to trim the lower edge of the page. My craftsmanship could have been better.

The next photo was taken at Millennium Park in Chicago. I kept the color in the large projection screen that’s part of a fountain. The whole scene reminds me of Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte at the Art Institute just down the street. This page has two floating pieces that should have been connected and one should be above the other. Maybe in the next book. The page is embellished with a butterfly charm from my bead collection. (More boxes of stuff that should be sorted.)

Three other pictures are from Japan and one from New York. The people under the umbrellas may have been employees at Meiji Mura, an open air museum of buildings from the Meiji era of Japan. This one is also embellished with a butterfly.


I saw this young woman walking toward the fountain. I followed her and got her dancing, embellished with an angel.
The one below, embellished unnecessarily with a fish, is from Katsura, one of the emperor’s palaces outside of Kyoto. The garden was wonderful; the photo doesn’t do it justice.
This is from Pontocho in Kyoto. Pieces of sculpture were placed in the stream that runs through it. In this photo I removed the sculpture from the black and white background using the clone tool in Photoshop.

These last two photos are the cover. I took the picture at an event here in Pittsburgh and used one photo wrapped around the pages.

I’m not finished with the next book. It will be a star tunnel book and, so far, I am much more satisfied with it. Photos in the next post.

More New York

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In addition to the last two doctor’s appointments we spent time doing some fun things. Steve is a big Dickens fan. Before he returned to Pittsburgh, we went to the Morgan Library to see their Dickens exhibit: a really great show. The last time I visited the Morgan was just after their famous architect enclosed their buildings in a glass shell. It was mobbed with all the other people who wanted to see what the FA had done, and it was unbearably noisy. I hesitated to return, but this visit was quiet and very pleasant. We also viewed a show of Persian art and enjoyed J.P.’s original office and library. I would like to own all those books and have my own librarian.

On our last day Robin and I went to Chelsea Market and walked on the High line. This was Robin’s first visit to both places and she loved it. We walked the entire park on this beautiful, amazingly warm day. Before our walk we fortified ourselves with a salad and sandwich from Amy’s Bread. Also bought some to take home; not nearly enough. Maybe it was the bread that set off the alarms when I went through security.

I’m back to my usual Pittsburgh routine, taking Osher classes and looking for another place to live. Robin is continuing to make great progress.

Travel (mis) Adventures

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Sometimes I think I am living under a travel curse–at least for that last trip. I haven’t been happy about flying since they first made me take off my shoes. The TSA doesn’t understand how important shoes are to old ladies, especially on hard floors. So I’ve been taking the train or bus–no security, no problems. Having more time than anything else I bought a ticket on the Megabus to go to New York the day before I had to be there. I chose Megabus over Greyhound Express because they had an 11am departure, in addition to the ghastly early and not-quite-overnight trips. On December 15 I made a reservation to go to New York on January 4 at 11am. I got to the departure point about 10:30 with a few people in front of me and about 20 or 25 people finally lined up after me. It was a bitter cold day. The bus from Harrisburg arrived and passengers dispersed. The bus to Washington D.C. came and went. The bus to Philly came and went. About 11:10 a Megabus employee asked us which bus we were waiting for, then told us there was no 11am bus; we would have to wait until 12. Megabus, which does most of its business online, never notified us the schedule had changed. We walked off to find someplace warm and came back a half hour later. The employee told us we could call and complain, which I did, but never heard from Megabus again. Needless to say, except for this public complaint, they won’t hear from me again.

Coming back to Pittsburgh I flew with Robin. She could not have taken the bus and I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to do it again. She had a huge, heavy suitcase and a heavy backpack for her laptop and other technology. She isn’t supposed to lift anything over 5 lbs. and I probably can’t lift much over 10 lbs. We got lots of help. A skycap took care of the heavy suitcase and someone from the airline walked us over to security. We took a bunch of those trays and put our stuff into them: my coat and shoes, Robin’s coat and shoes, her backpack, her laptop, her jacket, my jacket, my suitcase, etc. Etc. because I know there were more than six trays. I started to move the trays toward the scanner and suddenly realized I would have to move everything to another table next to the first but not connected to it. So everything had to be lifted over. This was obviously a tour de force of design and efficiency. I finally got everything going through the machine, then a little nervous about having it piling up on the other side without me, I walked through the metal detector and set it off.

I don’t know what did it. I had on my watch (plastic, but who knows what’s inside), my hearing aids (ditto), pants with a metal zipper, and of course, my pacemaker. I’ve walked through other times with same and no consequences, but I mentioned it and the TSA turned white. She literally did not know what to do with me. Finally, still in stocking feet, she patted me down. The advantage to being my age is that I’ve been to so many doctors and had so many other nasty experiences, I just didn’t care. The only really annoying part was being shoeless. She found nothing, but, surprise, something in my possessions set of an alarm somewhere. Another TSA (all female; a man would have been more fun) took me, shoeless, to another place and did another pat down. She discovered the dirty tissues in my pocket; the other one ignored them. They finally concluded I wasn’t a terrorist, then Robin and I got a ride of one of those electric carts over to the gate. We had help going down the jetway steps and up the plane steps with our stuff; by now just the coats, backpack and my carryon. In Pittsburgh we were met with a wheel chair. Neither of us needed it, so we piled all the stuff on, now including my suitcase, and walked with the attendant to the baggage claim where Steve met us. More about New York next time.

Home again

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Flew back to Pittsburgh last night. Robin in doing very well. I’m having minor troubles getting organized. I’ll write again soon and tell you about our last day in NY, being patted down, twice, all of the places I stayed and a few more things.

Back to Renee’s

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I think this is my fifth move. We are scheduled to return to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Two more doctor’s appts and we are out of here. Steve is flying back now. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing else happens.

Robin is feeling much better; much of her energy has returned. Today we went to the Morgan Library to see an exhibit about Charles Dickens. Steve is a big fan, and he was very pleased.

Apartment #4

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Today was moving day again; this time to a quilter friend. I am hugely impressed that I’ve had so many offers of apartments. I like my friend’s place. It’s not as fancy as the last apartment, but it looks like someplace I’d live in. I expect to be very comfortable. I don’t know yet whether this is for three nights or four. In any event, I’m hoping to return to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Robin seems to be doing very well. We actually went to a movie yesterday. She had a Dr.’s appt this morning and I’m waiting for the report.