by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
chanda met korrina yesterday for dinner at her restaurant, where brian also joined them (these flowers and vase are from the bar). she had a great time and came home so stuffed. she said they kept sending out dish after dish. she needs to send me some of the photos she took and i can add them here.
here are a few book recommendations: native venetian paolo barbaro wrote about what venice means to him and the changes that have occurred over the years. his observations mirror my own at how nyc is also changing.
tasting the sky was a beautiful and poignant memoir of growing up in palestine during the years 1967 to 1971, and gary paulsen's winterdance, was a funny and amazing retelling of his participation in the iditarod, the thousand mile sled dog race from anchorage to rome. the physical and mental strength the racers must have to ensure that they endure the grueling terrain is astounding. both these books were great for subway riding also, as they weren't too heavy and i was always instantly engrossed.
greg and i decided to visit the museum of modern art today, as i won the bid for a membership there at the patrelle gala last week. when we stepped off the train in the afternoon, we realized we needed some lunch first, as breakfast had faded into the past.
one of the few affordable places left is apple jack diner. i used to go here after my thursday night acting class with my acting buddies.
passing beautiful city center on our way to moma.
it was built in 1923 and was originally known as the mecca temple, by the ancient arabic order of the nobles of the mystic shrine, also known as the shriners. according to city legend, the shriners used to meet at carnegie hall, but there was so much cigar smoke during their meetings that carnegie management kicked them out. they held onto the building until the financial crash of 1929, when they could no longer pay the taxes and the city took it over. in the early 1940's the building was slated for demolition, but mayor fiorello la guardia decided to make it a home for the performing arts. thank you mayor la guardia!
at the (astounding!) charles white exhibit at moma . .
i look forward to going back . . his paintings and sketches are incredibly beautiful and profound and there is always something new to find in them.
we walked through rockefeller center on the way home . . i think the tree lighting is this evening . .
everyone was in line for the new fao schwartz toy store.
i'd love to visit one day . .
we also popped into the new american girl place which, sadly, no longer holds any allure for me. they discontinued the historic dolls that made the company so popular in the first place. years ago the original creator and owner sold everything to the toy company mattel.
we headed home this morning, and met my cousin for lunch. she was in town with her husband to have thanksgiving with a very dear friend who has cancer. we ate delicious za'ater bread and humus and babaganough and massouka from the restaurant moustache, before dropping them off at port authority for the trip home to annapolis.
morgana and chanda slept in the den. jason slept downstairs in the basement, and greg and i slept in the living room with kathy. the upstairs rooms haven't had new ceilings put in yet. my sister and brother-in-law had mold up growing on the ceilings from faulty gutters, so all insulation had to come out, and a new roof went up and new gutters were put in.
making breakfast . .
we had another visit with nana . .
playing one of our favorite games: "bowl." we each write on a slip of paper about five to seven different books, films, places or people and then act it out three different ways. first is words to describe, second is charades, and last is just one word.
warren made it home in time for dinner this evening. we had a second thanksgiving feast . .
i was able to get myself out the door after getting madeline off my coat so that we could have an early thanksgiving dinner in connecticut with my mom and sister and nephew. my brother-in-law was visiting with his brother (who is recovering from a stroke) in virginia, and my other nephew stayed in florida, where he's working in the everglades, and korrina was busy cooking for her restaurant in the city. the dinner at the assisted living community was very good, and we even met the new chef who began work just this week. there were two choices: turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, or beef with sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts. jason and i chose the beef and it was incredibly tender. i chose the beef primarily because it was supposed to come with applesauce, however, it didn't, and when i brought it up with the waitress, she looked incredibly confused, so . . . . i just let it go. oh well!
my sister discovered a pool room on the second floor . . we had a lot of fun playing pool.
helping nana take a shot . .
there's a screening room in the assisted living complex, so we put on the yorkville nutcracker which my sister had asked me to bring. she thought it would be fun to watch on the big screen with my mom and jason. chanda played mary (dances patrelle's clara role) and morgana was a mouse in the battle scene and a ballerina for dance of the flowers. they performed these roles in 2012.
we call this scene "tree growing" as the christmas tree grows while she dances . . it moves into battle scene, which is my favorite . . well tree growing is my favorite too . .
battle scene continues . .
and then there's "snow," another one of my favorite scenes (ha ha . . big surprise) . . chanda comes on at the end in the sleigh . .
and here is where the flower ballerinas enter (dance of the flowers . . another one of my favorites) . . morgana comes on second to last . . and this is the final segment that i filmed while watching in the screening room. it was fun having such a big screen.
korrina turned twenty-five today, and greg and i went to meet her for lunch before she went into work. i brought her gifts with me . . several skeins of knitpick's capretta yarn which was on sale, a skein of yarn and stitch markers from out trip to indie untangled in october, and a belt morgana brought back from london from a man who sold them on the street (and added her initials). it was nice to see her on the appropriate day.
actually, greg only had lunch, i was still full from a big breakfast, as was korrina (who had also picked up her birthday coffee from starbucks . . i think she had a peppermint mocha or a holiday chai . . it was some kind of sweet concoction which she asked them to make not too sweet, hmmm . . ).
it was a cold and grey day, though the sky on the walk home, as the sun began to set, was tinted blue and pink and purple. tomorrow we travel to connecticut to see my sister and my mom and my nephew. it's supposed to be even colder! have a happy thanksgiving, everyone.
the storm that blew through last thursday left so much wet snow, that leaves and branches came crashing down for hours. i was walking home from running birthday errands and i could hear the branches creaking and then crashing down from so many trees. i even had to be careful of what i was walking under. it was really dreadful and sad.
these photos were taken several days ago, but the branches are still in the streets today. they haven't all been picked up yet. city workers are still trimming broken limbs from the trees in the parks. it's been such a massive clean up.
this is a pic of the new fence we have for the small garden on jane street. it looks . . dapper!
we hadn't finished with autumn . . and winter came!
