Like a bolt out of the sky

Went to Boston to see Spooky. Doesn't that sound like a children's book. It was the weekend after I went to Vancouver with Arnie....because Vancouver was wonderful but what's not to like when you stay in an amazing hotel, have 4 sunny and cloudless days and don't get sick on an endless and rough whale watching trip. Told Arnie that was it for me and these damn fish.

Then I was off to Boston via the super cheap Bolt Bus to see Spook and it turns out that I haven't seen her in almost 2 years. The bus took forever and the seat slanted so i felt that I was always sitting in somebody's lap. Took 5 hours. Came home by Bolt Bus which also took 5 hours...but this time the AC died. A whole of drama about whether they would send another bus, wouldn't send another bus, whether the air from opening the vents was toxic or not. Who cared? I just wanted to get home and home I got right in the middle of a demonstration about Trayvon Martin which totally tied up midtown traffic. Ugh. and then customer service at Bolt Bus reared its head and sent me a note that they were refunding my money for the Boston to new York trip because the AC died. Nice, very nice.

Kate is tucked away in france which sounds like a good place to be to me. Even when its not Bastille day

My hometown

This is what makes New York City an unbelievable place to live.

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow, nor dark of night can deter this dog and her owner from making their way around the block every morning at about 5:30 or 6. Way before 7:00 am when the trucks start to choke the street and backfire like continuous farts.

Except today at 6am  when the sky was blue and the traffic really light, a truck backfired really loudly this morning which made Miss Murray jump. But then the truck driver leaned out of the cab and apologized for scaring Miss Murray. She's a house dog, right? Right. But still, he said, I am so sorry. Bye doggy....

springing intop summer umbrella firmly in hand

Saw three grey haired men driving convertibles today...red convertibles. Clearly i saw them on a day when there was no rain but for now it's like living in Seattle without the Pike Street market.

What I'm Reading

Actually that should be What I'm Still Reading...

I'm still reading about Winston Churchill but he and I have moved on to the years between 1932 and 1940.  I cannot beleive how stupid and timid the British government was during those years. And I wish my Dad who was the head of the BBC here in the US right after the war  was still alive to chat with me about his experiences. Unfortunately We all wish to go back to the source too late.

And I'm kinda reading some other book...can't even remember but will check in with the title tomorrow.

Went to Nashville for the weekend and swopped out incredible New York heat for iffy mid Tennessee weather and then came back to LaGuardia on Sunday night with the threat of thunderstorms hanging over all airports. No storms until around mid night....Had a nice time but I gotta beleive that Arnie and I can find a decent restaurant in Nashville. By decent I mean good food, menu that is interesting and a relaxed environment that is either is kinda upbeat but not a place for screamers. F. Scott's is probably the best but it is so totally Nashville country club that it just makes me laugh because of the pretensions. Then there is the down and dirty Vietnamese place which I love on occasion...So what else? Yeah, I know Merchants and it is my fave....

It's almost the end of the year and soon I will be free of the summer stormlet that is in residence.

Had a quick call from Lucy Banks who was en route to LAX with Danny who is flying into New York today.TODAY?! Omg, i thought it was Wednesday but not to worry because he has found another place to live....

I am a glow worm

That quote is taken directly from Winston Churchill who was lementing the brevity of life and that we are all worms. But wait, he said, I am a glow worm.

The City is gorgeous today, this week with Linden trees in full bloom with white blossoms on many many streets. The air is heavy and the whole atmosphere yells Spring. We've all been yelling for Spring. Where are ya Honey?  Well apparently it's here now.

The kids in the elementary and middle school where my office is located are all locked into their classrooms for testing. Apparently this ritual goes on for two weeks. Can you imagine?  Some parents are refusing to have their kids to take these tests and bravo to them.

Bummed about Boston

I cannot even begin to explain how bummed I am today...Kate made me turn off the television last night before I sank into the morass of sensationalized reporting about the Boston Marathon bombing. We still know nothing.

But I do know that the ashes of 9/11 are not far from the surface. I don't mean to sound maudlin but the reverberations from that day are loud. Still loud. There is no smoky air or frantic posters going up around town but it's all there. And if you were in New York during that time then you know what I'm talking about.

Everybody in the gym was feeling bad this morning and so that made me feel better. And I had hot water this morning which is always my idea of life affirming. Then the sun came out and it's relatively warm.

A girl could go on living. Or not.

We went to London to see the Queen and I am hoping she was warmly ensconced on the Costa Brava

T'was brillig in the slimey trove where gyre and gimbel...ok I'm sure I've wildly misquoted the only part of Jabberwocky that I pretend to know...but that's how I felt it was in London.

We arrived with snow coming down and for the next two days it snowed, rain and was damn cold and uncomfortable....We had a good flight out on Friday and on Saturday morning we whizzed through the Heathrow essentials so quickly that we had to kill some time when all of us wanted nothing as much as a warm place to park our gear and a nap. We got to our airbnb apartment at the appointed time. Actually the owners were incredibly flexible and enabled us to get into the flat by 10 when they could have made us wait until 3. Impossible thought.

The flat was right off the Marylebone High Street which is a neighborhood that was a total cipher to me. Very twee and upscale with some ok restaurants and a really good Waitrose supermarket. All in walking distance of the Wallace collection. And the flat was enormous. A split layout with a large living room with lumpy furniture covered in bedspreads...it's like being in grad student digs. But it was super warm -- you can easily tell my obsession -- and very light and airy. The kitchen was also doable. Not filled with such high tech gadgets that I was paralyzed.

I would say that the trip was an enormous success with the requisite ups and downs. Too cold...learning curve for Arnie and for me about how to use our phones to reach the states...the oyster card for the Tube which kept running out of money at the most inconvenient time...and I returned home with my trophy hot water bottle. I just wanted one.

We saw a little bit of everything. I made everybody take the Big Bus Hop on Hop off tour which would be wonderful in warm weather but I didn't care. Oh, the warm downstairs is full, well let's go up stairs and sit outside in the snow. It will be good for you. Well it was certainly cold...

We went to Oxford one day and saw the Bodelian library which was one of my goals for this trip. It was a great success and Kate and Lydia both loved Oxford. They also saw a small Science Museum which Arnie had picked to see and it was an incredible cabinet of curiosities. My other goals went right out the window...Stone Henge and Stratford on Avon. We didn't even get to the Globe Theatre. Too cold. Even though we did go on the London Eye which was pretty swell.

Additionally I had told Kate that there would be some great shopping in London. I lied. What we saw was mostly fusty and old fashioned. And, of course, I was trying to keep her out of Agnes B which does have some great shopping and clothes that actually fit her!

We saw Billy Elliott, ate at a Turkish restaurant, a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown where I had never ever been during the time I was living in London, sammpled an inferior Italian restaurant, and then a wildly spicy Indian restaurant. All good.

In the end Kate didn't like London. but who cares. She absorbed more of it than I think she realized.

And this weekend we took a mini trip to see Princeton and the first thing the student tour leader said was that it was modeled on Oxford!

Very satisfying to me.