the (short) date and the playwright (and the heat wave breaks)

before heading over to the beckett theatre on 42nd street, between dyer avenue and ninth avenue, greg and i stopped at westway diner for a short "date." thirty minutes, actually. he's been reading anna karenina, and i've been reading a series of mystery novels that takes place in venice (in addition to studying maps and tour books, travel books and other non-fiction books about venice). i also had my knitting, which i had been working on in the car, so it's not like i expected to sit in the diner and read and knit and talk to greg. i expected to read and eat and talk to greg. instead i took pictures and talked to greg. and i ate. i had a chicken salad sandwich of which i ate half and of which the other half is now sitting in our refrigerator (our NEW refrigerator, as our OLD refrigerator was no longer keeping food cold and everything was rotting . . ). greg and the playwright. korrina works with the MCC youth company; part of the MCC theatre begun by a group of actors, writers and directors in 1986. she's part of the playwriting lab which she auditioned for two years ago. it's a free program for nyc youth who get to work with professional artists to gain experience with writing, and acting in their own productions. her teacher is lucy thurber, whose expertise and thoughts she appreciates, and whose exuberance she loves dearly. korrina's play was wonderful. afterwards, she joined the actors for a discussion of the process with the audience, facilitated by her teacher. it was great to see her up on stage. she looked so grown up and capable; a young person really getting to work hard on something that means so much to her. it was really special to be there. where are we here? on rockaway! we met morgana and chanda with lizette and joe and sami at plum tomato, an italian restaurant on beach 129th street. (korrina traipsed off with her friends). when greg and i saw what lizette was having, we had to have one of that too: salad with goat cheese, beets, pear and raspberry vinagrette. and what's this . . . ???? an italian pastry cafe! conveniently located across the street from the restaurant! i tell you, rockaway is the place to be . . we had espresso and our favorite italian butter cookies filled with jam! we had the best time at a neighborhood cafe with neighborhood people who come up to you and say, "hey, let me take a picture of all of you!"

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so that's it for me for two weeks. we're off to connecticut for chanda's swimming lessons. greg and korrina will be holding down the fort and taking care of the cats (korrina begins rehearsal for an HB show for which she is stage managing). jack comes along with us. oh! and we're all happy tonight because the temperature has dropped and it's a balmy 78 degrees with a "real feel" of 85 degrees and we can sleep comfortably. all the pets are breathing more easily and not looking quite so torpid (as are we!).