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I guess I should try to catch up some on da bloggin’. Let’s see since April I’ve:
· Visited my daughter in New York – all by myself.
· Taken a world literature course – aced it.
· Grown ‘maters and other veggies – without insecticides.
· Saved the lives of three birds so far that have gotten trapped in the bird netting covering the aforementioned ‘maters.
· Become grandmother to one dog and two cats – Delta, the chocolate lab adopted by my son and Marlon and Orson, the obese cats adopted by my daughter.
· Gone to a 4-day work week – love it, love it, loooovvvve it!
I’ll start with New York. A mere three weeks after returning from France, I was off to New York. My daughter’s roommate was out of town so I even had my own room. I booked Super Shuttle for the trip from the airport and, though it took a bit longer, cost less than half as much as a taxi from LaGuardia. While my daughter was at work the next day, I did a little grocery shopping (I emphasize little because the apartment is a 6th floor walk-up). In the store, I managed to bash my shin into a carton of canned goods while simultaneously getting a cramp in the other foot. I limped home and up the 5 flights of stairs and promptly got my finger wedged in the door jamb. Don’t ask me how. I was not off to a good start. I spent the rest of the day puttering around the apartment and managed to not injure myself any further.
That night I went, by myself, to a Broadway play – “August, Osage County.” I noticed when I emerged from the Time Square subway stop that there were a lot of sailors around. I wracked my brain; wasn’t there a reference to this in an episode of “Sex and the City?” What did they call it? Oh yeah, “Fleet Week.” There were sailors in their whites everywhere and most of them were easy on the eyes. The novelty wore off pretty fast because they were adding to an already crowded area and were in my way. I now really, really, really hate going to Time Square but, unfortunately, you have to if you’re going to one of the Broadway theaters. The play was fantastic and I got home a little after midnight.
I also saw a new musical, “Passing Strange,” this time with my daughter. It was very good also. The rest of the visit was spent going to the Metropolitan Museum, walking the Brooklyn Bridge, helping out with a wine & cheese party my daughter gave on the roof, going to dinner on Memorial Day at the apartment of friends (wonderfully cool people – and excellent cooks), shopping and just hanging out with my daughter in the city.
We were resting on a park bench when we encountered the most gimped-up pigeons I’ve ever seen. One of them had a foot problem (it was missing) that was cringe-worthy. Another had hairy legs. I shit you not. I started referring to him as the “werepigeon.” It was like they were trying to freak us out ‘cause they wouldn’t go away – and there was an old lady feeding pigeons on the bench across from us. I’ve posted a picture of the werepigeon.
At the end of my visit, I Super Shuttled back to LaGuardia and that trip wasn’t quite as smooth as the one from LaGuardia. The shuttle was an hour late and it took forever to get to the airport. The fact that it was the handicapped van added, I’m guessing, about an hour to the trip. I still got to the airport in plenty of time. We sat on the tarmac so long before takeoff, I fell asleep. When I awoke I thought I’d slept through the whole flight and we’d already landed in Memphis. Nope, we were still waiting the take off. The pilot got on the intercom and bitched about how LaGuardia, like most of the east coast airports, had only two runways, a crazy amount of air traffic, and how we’d burned $1,200 worth of jet fuel waiting in line. I had to run to my gate in Memphis and was the last one on the plane, but I made it. Seriously, I can’t wait to go again.
