voting, coffee, jfk and bay ridge

 morgan and i went to vote for a civil court judge at the elementary school and then met ellen for coffee at three of cups on sullivan street. at three o'clock we drove to jfk to drop morgan off at terminal seven, norse airlines.

off to london . . 

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and then we consoled ourselves with a visit to bridgeview diner . . 

house cleaning and saying good-bye

morgan helped me clean out the hallway closet (and pluto is in the black coat pile on the right).

let's just say that most of the items in the closet did not belong to me, and it felt like a wonderful accomplishment to finally have it clear (we now have two more bags for the thrift store, one for the garbage and one for the laundry).

writing a few cards before leaving . . 

and getting ready to wind the yarn for the project i bought from myak which, until recently, was around the corner from me. the pattern is for a kerchief (for morgan to take back to london).

dinner was fusilli with almond basil pesto sauce, which i think i made at the beginning of the visit, and to which i added sautéed shitake mushrooms.

 

waving good-bye . . 

driving past artist tom fruin's watertower 3 in brooklyn bridge park (plexiglass and steel) on the way to the airport where we dropped morgan off and said good-bye at the departures drive through for jet blue.

a selfie after going through security (where they emptied the bag contaning the knitting needles which were wood, thank goodness).

heading home again . . 

lasagna for dinner and morgana leaves for london

 this evening i made lasagna and greg and i took morgana "to college," aka, jfk airport.

 it's been awhile since i made this meal, and it takes me forever! (i used giada's classic lasagna recipe from her cookbook everyday italian.)

 maybe if i did it more often, it wouldn't take me so long.

 saying good-bye to little fir while stuffing clothes into the guitar case . . there's no checked baggage for this trip, only carry on.

 (it's a good thing airport security didn't request the case to be opened . . everything would have fallen out!) . .

 we left at 7 pm for a 10:10 flight . . and charlotte and hudson came along (their mom had a dream workshop to attend).

 checking in through the computer, which was good as the check in for checked baggage was eight lines long!

 off to college! (i've already heard that the first class for the part time acting course went really well.)

and back home for us with two sleepy little friends in the back seat.

sunday travels

 i often think that madeline is the most comfortable living creature in this apartment.

 chanda spent a few days at a friend's lakeside cottage, and is now getting ready to fly to sarasota for a week's ballet intensive.

 we stopped in the car outside the rite aid drug store so she could get a travel size toothpaste . . doesn't everyone leave a package of granola on top of their bicycle seat?

(greg was talking about the weather in florida . . )

 driving through the canyons of nyc on a very hot summer's day . . 

 la guardia airport is all torn up as they're putting in a new parking garage . . i think. they're doing something! they actually had good directions on where to go for one's terminal, and also several people outside helping out and welcoming people to new york! this is risky. it'll give people the impression that we're actually nice.

almost forgot a good-bye pic . . she's heading down the ramp to security . .

 i love this view of the empire state building and the city driving west along the long island expressway . .

packing and leaving

 morgana's suitcase was very full, so we needed to pick up a belt from the travel store on our way home from the gallery visit with ellen.

 madeline wanted to be in the midst of all the packing activity.

 last minute organzing . . 

and picking the lint off my coat for me . .

 driving along the belt parkway . . 

 towards the verrazano . . 

and to jfk . .

 when we were leaving, a woman who was saying good-bye to her son for his first airplane trip, asked if it got any easier.

 i first started to say yes, but then realized i had to say no. definitely . . no. it never gets easier. we just keep breathing and growing our personal pearls.

when i was little, my aunt gave me a book titled "amy loves good-byes." i don't love good-byes, but i am compelled to fully live them. 

 and i guess that means waving until the last minute.

 waiting for greg, who decided he would like to visit a diner in bay ridge that we used to go to . . thirty years ago! he said that several times . . "thirty years ago."

 passing gotham rising up west of canarsie in the sunset . . 

 bay ridge with the verrazano in the distance . .

 we used to call it the DNA diner, as it had a sculpture that looked like DNA . . this is no longer so.

 matzoh ball soup . . 

 and omelettes . .

and then home over the brooklyn bridge after traversing third avenue in brooklyn . .