About Word of the Month and New York

Hi everyone,

Today and tomorrow I’ll either be visiting with editors or sitting in theaters or maxing my credit card in restaurants without a “Mc” in their names or simply following my M.O.W. in and out of wherever she says I want to go. On Tuesday we bought sandwiches, chips, and tea at a Whole Foods store on Avenue of the Americas and ate them at a sunny table across the street in Bryant Park.

We stopped in the NYC Public Library where the kind librarian pulled out several of my books in stock and asked me to sign them. We talked about the possibility of my making a presentation sometime next spring or summer when I’ll have two new books in stores.

From there we shopped for Sandy and she found a skirt she’ll look fantastic wearing. Then we stopped at a Barnes & Noble where I signed all my books they had in stock and started the process of agreeing on a signing time next year that might line up with a library talk.

Back to Word of the Month. I’ll take care of cleaning out the September poems posted on Word of the Month when we get home. For now, please allow a little slack for my slovenliness. Forgot to mention that my sweetie got a kick out of seeing one of her old students on the side of a bus outside the library.

Don’t tell the turtles

Hi everyone,

Saw BEAUTIFUL night before last and wound up the evening with bread and wine at a sidewalk table. Young men and women paraded by our table in some pretty incredible Halloween costumes. Some were having fun; others looked like hookers advertising their wares. My M.O.W. allowed me to look just a little.

Yesterday it was lunch at Tavern on the Green. It rained without stopping all day. We waded through water that soaked shoes. The NYC Marathon (in a downpour) caused all sorts of mischief with traffic. Many streets were blocked off so everybody got to walk. We went to the MoMa but rain had driven so many people inside the museum that we gave up waiting in line and walked with our umbrellas to Ticketron for more play tickets. Last night we saw CATS for the fifth time, including London, New York, and elsewhere.

The rain isn’t supposed to stop before noon today. I’m sure I’ll get wet again as I move from editor to editor, but there’s not much I can do about that. Tonight it’s BROADWAY COMEDY CLUB. More later.

Last dash for fun

Hi everyone,

Went for the river cruise over a fourth play. Along the Hudson and up East River. Saw the boroughs from a different point of view and enjoyed it.The lady in the bay always gives me much to think about and be grateful for. My supervisor was in her element reading maps and brochures. After the river cruise we marched for thirty minutes back to our hotel. Nothing like walking on NYC streets to make your spirits soar and your arches fall.

Just another New York moment

Hi everyone,

Saw Fiddler on the Roof last night and loved it all over again. Tonight it’s a toss up between Cats and taking a harbor cruise. We went to the Whitney Museum yesterday. Liked some of it but our taste in art runs more to the traditional. Glad we went though. A Vanderbilt started it, which I didn’t know.

I just remembered a fourth time when we bumped into someone we knew here. My silliest New York story happened years ago when Sandy and I were seated at a sidewalk café here on this corner. The tables are gone now but we enjoyed eating there and watching people go by. At our backs was a rather tall apartment building. This one. Halfway through our meal an object was thrown or fell from a window in one of the apartment units above us and hit the umbrella beside us with a startling sound. Luckily that table was empty. The object knocked the umbrella askew and landed with a rubbery thud on the concrete.

When the waitresses realized what it was, they giggled, threw a napkin over it, and rushed off carrying it to the kitchen. Sandy and I looked around at all the other tables and not a single person was paying attention or acting like what we had just witnessed was out of the ordinary. Just another New York moment.

By contrast

Hi everyone,

Sunday: tall buildings, long city blocks, crowds of people, constant sirens, world famous stores, Broadway, incredible museums, street vendors and food trucks, subways stations with filth-littered steps and sounds of oncoming trains ricocheting off walls and down tunnels. A rat scurrying along the tracks zipping into a hidden hole just in time.

Yesterday at Goose Lake: quiet street, three crows on neighbors’ driveway and two more in the street, pecking away at walnuts crushed by car tires. (Pretty clever to figure out how to break away that tough outer casing as well as the inner shell.) First of autumn flocks of starlings wheeling around above the trees before deciding by group mentality which direction to take. Caterpillars fallen from tent worm webs crawling up my newly painted white garage doors, seeking safe places to spin their gauzy cocoons.

New York. Goose Lake. New York. Goose Lake. Truth is I choose to live by Goose Lake but I need the sizzling hot sauce of New York now and again.