Much to tell

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Above are some of the tiny white flowers in our front yard. The cycle of flowering and shedding continues, too many items to mention. Below is my dear friend Vaughan in a pool, enjoying a day with her daughters and granddaughters in Southern California where she now lives. Her birthday is just about 6 weeks before mine, same year.

Dear Friends and Family,

Continuing about our weekend: when we returned from Salmon River, we noticed that there was a line of people extending from the front door of the NYPL, down the steps, around 40th Street as far as we could see—at least to the end of our block and perhaps more. It turned out to be an event at the NYPL, a ball or something. The next day, after rejecting the Morgan Library after all because the shows there did not seem too appealing, we decided to go to the exhibits at the NYPL. We planned to ask for a wheelchair for me. The guard told us that the party-goers or the breakdown crew had broken both elevators. She walked upstairs to get us the exhibit booklets so we could see if it would be worth taking the stairs (2 flights to the first floor), and another guard encouraged us to go, as did another library worker. "You can do it. Go slowly." I am supposed to climb stairs as part of my exercise regimen, so up we went. Ironically, our home elevators at #32 were not working on Sunday (more about that later), as well as the escalator at the 32nd St. entrance to Penn Station. How come all these broken systems happened in one short weekend?

The show was a celebration of the library's 100th birthday—and later we found out that this is also the 100th birthday of the Penn Station that was. Coincidence? The library's great donor ’s grand plan was to provide free service to all, and it has grown into a magnificent facility, besides being very beautiful, walls, ceilings, fittings and all. It was inaugurated on 23 May 1911 and has recently been restored to its original lustre. We went through that process, watching from our apartment as scaffolding went up on dingy facades and came down to reveal the clean marble. We didn't know that it was all headed for this event. If you can get to the library, do so to see it and the exhibit, which shows many treasures of all sorts. I was taken by a reel of film of dancers from the past, including faded images of Martha Graham. How insightful to collect such art. Our visit, however, was cut short. Merwin has trouble at museums because walking slowly and stopping frequently makes his hip hurt. Walking fast does not bother him, but that's not possible at an exhibit, or when he is giving me his arm. And of course I am not much better at exhibits. We will have to cross such things off our list. There is a lot in NYC besides museums and exhibits.

We had had breakfast and lunch in the apartment, especially easy since Zeytinz, our dear convenience store practically at our building's front door, is open for the present on Saturdays. I am not sure how long that will last. People right across the street at Bryant Park could benefit from the delicious sushi rolls and good selection of fruits and vegetables, among many prepared foods. Now that the empty Gibbs secretarial school down the block has been replaced by a NYC Community College, there will be more people looking for food, but will they even notice Zeytinz further down the block towards 5th Avenue? I feel like starting a campaign, beginning with our own building of about 100 apartments.

We met our next door neighbor, Claudia, 4F, who seemed very nice indeed. We are happy to have a pleasant person there, though to be sure there is little interaction among owners, except at meetings. Her apartment has a bedroom and a separate kitchen with a window.

Michelle, one of our granddaughters, came to visit for an hour. she had been volunteering for a young children's theatrical program: the kids write plays, and chosen one are produced. Michelle does anything necessary. This is on a day off from her regular job, which keeps her busy from 9-8 or later. Soon after, she left for her planned evening activities, and we contacted her twin sister Rachael, who wanted to join us for dinner after she went home to shower and wash her hair (that means blow-drying too). We met at Szechuan Gourmet at 8:00. We enjoy talking to these young woman very much; we like hearing about their work and its ups and downs; their plans and frustrations.

The next day, we met Kathryn for breakfast at Le Pain Quotidian, a restaurant down the block from us—a very nice if weird place. It's all organic. They serve soft boiled eggs, which Merwin loves, especially when the yoke is runny, but no omelets or fried eggs. No meat, I believe. I had their vegetable quiche, which is very tasty. Kathryn insisted on treating us for no special reason at all, and I cannot argue with Kathryn. She showed us photos of her three young grandchildren, Henry, Analise, and Vivian. Now that she has retired, she has time to enjoy them all, though I must say that her schedule of concerts, ballet, political events, etc. would daunt most of us, retirement or not. She will leave for Italy and Antonio the day after our next writing group.

After breakfast, we dashed back to apartment to pick up our bags to take home, including my leftover eggplant from Szechuan Gourmet. That's when Merwin had to walk up and down the 4 flights of stairs, and we were late for the train we had wanted so we could have some breathing time before our Hillwood concert at 3 p.m. We left home in Glen Head at 2:45 and were in our seats at Hillwood at 2:55. I was exhausted by that time but enjoyed the concert anyway.

Lazy day today: I will continue with the concert tomorrow.

Love to all,
Bernice