Dear friends and family,
My plan always is to schedule whatever I want to do and hope for the best: the anticipation is part of the fun even if the actual event can't take place. But our plans for the 31st and 1st worked out beautifully.
On Sunday we celebrated our 59th anniversary. Harvey treated all of us including his three daughters and a friend/colleague from Israel with whom he is doing some important work. This was for lunch/brunch at the Bryant Grill right across the street from our apartment, and when after a leisurely meal I had to rest I returned to the apartment; the others all came too. Laura had brought all the way from Brighton, MA 4 quarts of the tart yogurt ice that I had had there once and loved: what a honey to schlep that for me packed in ice all that way.
One of the highlights was showing the girls the apartment that has just been rented in our building for close to $3000 a month. A very young married couple was just moving in and he let us all traipse in and see it. Rachael and Michelle will be looking for an apartment very soon, and they thought that this space would have been much too small for the two of them. But marriage is like that: a couple can fit more easily into a small space than two sisters. It's tiny but it has a 500 sq ft. terrace (no views though from any vantage point).
When the others dashed off in the early evening to catch trains or meet others, Merwin and I went to an off-off-off-Broadway play, Trifles, using our pre-paid TDF (Theater Development Fund) vouchers ($9 each). We went by bus and transferred to a subway to St. Mark's Church in the East Village: the young staff members questioned why Merwin would want to see this feminist play. They don't realize he is as much a feminist as anyone. The play combined instrumental music (5 or more musicians played an overture and occasionally throughout), impressive singing by all 5 cast members, gritty realism (1916 farmland poverty) and its opposite, a dream-like vagueness. Slowly it unfolded: the two women snatched some measure of power through their own intellectual discoveries overlooked by the men investigating a murder; they had quietly but knowingly endured being belittled for their feminine ways. We love this sort of experience: finding very off-Broadway plays and paying very little for them—and enjoying them perhaps more than we would more glossy offerings. I am amazed that I could keep going so long, but the long rest in the apartment obviously helped.
We had eaten so much at brunch that we were satisfied after the one-hour play to go back to the apartment and have a slice of bread and cheese.
My night was as usual not good, but thankfully it did not presage a bad day: once up I felt good, ready to do some cleaning and then shopping (next door) for breakfast. We were leaving at 10 a.m. to go by subway to a rehearsal at the Met of Ariadne auf Naxos, a short opera, with a very weird libretto. But the music was lovely, the singing rich and full for a rehearsal (except for that of the main tenor who was clearly holding back). Very enjoyable. The hall was very crowded especially with students, perhaps from music schools. I had thought it would be longer than it was and so prepared a lunch for us to eat during an intermission. One half of Rachael's brunch sandwich from the day before was Merwin's treat. Once we realized the opera was quite short we waited till after and sat in one of the Lincoln Center cafes in Tully Hall to finish our lunch, sitting at huge glass windows with the sun bright outside. I noticed a bus in front of the hall that looked like it would work for us, and indeed it did: we got back to the apartment comfortably on an express M5 bus. From now on we'll try to get to Lincoln Center that way as well. Easier for me than subway stairs.
At the apartment Merwin began dealing with a couple of plumbing problems that had surfaced. One had been taken care of in our absence but the other is more intractable. Nuts!
I went to the NYPL, talked to Jay Barksdale, the librarian who handles the scholars' rooms, and looked up some books I need to complete my essay for the reading on March 12th at Columbia and to submit the final version to SQ. Soon after I returned to the apartment I sat down and ate about a quart or more of tart yogurt ice. I have a sweet tooth these days that I haven't had since childhood. Must be something to do with the meds. I still don't like anything very sweet, but a little sweet seems nice these days.
Then we walked to Penn Station to catch our train home! Walking is a bit of a problem because the prednisone makes me shaky. I tip. So I hang onto Merwin's arm. But the energy level was clearly splendid; after such a long day I was ready for the walk (admittedly very short by ordinary standards, just a few blocks).
Once home, I opened one of my huge royalty checks, just under $60 for the year. Can't make a living that way, unfortunately.
Looking forward to a busy week, with a couple of quiet days till returning to NYC on Thurs.
Love to all,
Bernice
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