Good from not so good

Dear Family and friends,

As we waited for the train to NYC at Glen Head yesterday, we got a phone call from Mt. Sinai, a secretary calling to say that our appointment had to be deferred for a week. Disappointment is an interesting word in this context, isn't it. But as it turned out, though it means waiting another week to get started on something meaningful for my worsening condition, much good came of it anyway.

Once in NYC, we went to the NYPL so I could order some books for the next day, and Merwin took off for the Acorn Theater in Theater Row to get tickets to the revival of a Sam Shepherd play. I was to receive his phone call, telling me about available dates and he would then buy the tickets. But I messed up: I did not take my calendar with me when I went to confer with a librarian about a book I need. So the call came, and I had no idea about free days. I decided to go for one I could remember, the day after our next appointment at Mr. Sinai, so that's what Merwin got. We picked up some sandwiches for lunch at Pret a Manger, a British chain that we like a lot. I have been trying to duplicate the sandwich, but don't get it exactly right. I think it is because of the superior quality of their basil.

Here is the basic sandwich as I understand it: ripe avocado spread on on one side of very good whole wheat bread, topped with thinly sliced tomatoes, a few toasted pine nuts, some excellent shaved Parmesan cheese, and very fresh basil leaves. Everything is in balance, nothing in excess.

We rested in the afternoon for the evening plans: meeting with Rhoda and Sami at the Amsterdam cafe for supper, a little later joined by Laury. We three from NCC shared some good recollections about our pasts at the college (where we worked until retirement). Rhoda now teaches physics at the Liberal Studies division of NYU, but she remembers fondly the camaraderie of NCC. Nothing like that at NYU. Office doors were always open and people communicated with each other, and of course the active learning project got all the disciplines together. Sami rents an apartment for one week of every month and has a great time reading, going to lectures, leading a science-oriented book group and the like. Laury, of course, has not yet retired, but is looking forward to a couple of weeks between trimesters.

After dinner Laury, Merwin and I wernt to the 3rd Schoff lecture by Jean Howard, about Carol Churchill. It was brilliant, of course, but since I know so much less about CC than about WS (the topic of her first lecture), I couldn't appreciate it as much as it deserved. Laury, on the other hand, does know Churchill’s work and could better appreciate Jean's brilliance. After the lecture, Laury drove us home to our studio apartment.

The next day, we shopped for breakfast at Zeytinz, next door, washed a load of clothes, and took off for the library. A book or two was there for me, and Merwin did a lot of xeroxing for me. One book was missing. Merwin found Jay, whom I had introduced him to the day before, to ask about it, and before long Jay came into the Allen Room with the book! What a gem he is. Merwin xeroxed a few pages from that also, and also some from N&Q that I needed. I also worked on two huge volumes of TLS and got them off my shelf. We went to the apartment for lunch, rest, Internet shopping for an additional towel rack, and tidying up before leaving for Glen Head.

Once here, we enjoyed the bounty of the freezer for a quick supper. And now it is almost time for bed.

If the appt at Mr. Sinai had worked out, I would never have had the time or energy to work in the library and get so many of the items I wanted to look at for the essay I am completing. And so it goes: what seems bad at first can work out for the best, as Pollyanna says. (Have I mentioned that the Pollyanna books were among my favorites before I met Nancy Drew?). Of course we are eager to know if this pain in my hip is a feature of Myelo fibrosis or just something pulled. But my breathing is much better. I think I am going to have a good report from the pulmonologist tomorrow: O2 still 96, which is very good, and I don't have to stop on stairs anymore because of breathing problems. Hooray, while one system goes down, another goes up.

More tomorrow,
Love,
Bernice