morning poem and an excursion

advent

the gift of light

i thankfully hold

and pass to my neighbour

its shining gold

that everyone may

feel its glow,

receiving and giving

may love and grow.

anonymous

----

greg, morgana and i rode citibikes downtown to the world trade center and walked through the oculus on our way to south street seaport.

the oculus . . all decorated for christmas . . 

greg is explaining how when he was working at brookfield place he would walk from that building to the oculus and come out via the steps to which he is gesturing. he didn't have to walk outside to get to the subway, which is always nice when the weather is rainy or snowy or . . too hot . . or too cold . . 

vestiges of the prior building and it's facade (i'd have to do some research as to what businesses were the original occupants).

our destination . . mcnally jackson books at south street seaport.

aurélien has one of the escargot books (there are three) which i love reading with my pathetic but amusing french accent.

at the cafe in the bookstore where i was hoping to get a tea and scone, but greg was too hungry for such so called trifles so we left to search for a taco place (something more substantial) which they thought was in the area . . 

time for a google search on morgan's cell phone . . the wharf is just to our right . .

beneath the fdr drive . .

morgan is leading us to a restaurant once visited with sami, a homeschooling friend.

cowgirl sea-horse . .

we had a lot of fun reading the menu: "cowgirl's famous ice cream baked potato, a sundae that looks like a baked potato, crafted with house-made hot fudge and mont blanc tahitian vanilla ice cream." there was also: "peanut butter pretzel pie." 

we chose coffee . . 

and biscuits with chili jam and honey butter . . (i knew greg would go for the biscuits)

greg chose a quesadilla with guacamole and jack cheese and morgan had the slow simmered black bean nachos with jalapeno peppers, jack cheese, guacamole and sour cream. i had two sunny side up eggs to go with the biscuits . . and shared some of the nachos.

the entrance to the brooklyn bridge was not far . . 

we thought the menu was so fun that we had to send pics to korrina . . and she sent one back of her building's holiday decorations which had just been put up.

looking up the best train route to head uptown . . morgana was on the way to meet victoria to help with the ongoing organizing and clearing out of her apartment.

the building on the far side of the bridge ramp is the david n. dinkins manhattan municipal building.

the jenga building lit by the setting sun . . 

and the snowflake decorations were up . . 

----

at 6:25 i met morgan at the subway entrance to ride uptown for a dance concert at which three of ellen's teen students were dancing . . 

 

it was the fourth night of a special festival sponsored by the american dance guild at the alvin ailey center. choreographer h. t. chen, who founded chen dance company, was honored, along with christine jowers, dance critic and author of the online journal the dance enthusiast.  many local companies and dancers were asked to perform, and ellen chose three of her students to present their original work.

it was a fun night with much laughter and camaraderie.

afterwards, outside the dance center ellen showed us an article written by a past student of hers for a japanese newspaper.

the photo on the left is her student as a young child performing one of her solo pieces, and the photo in the center is of a young ellen. we'll have to get a translation.

wash the cat and a friday dance performance

wash is slowly making himself at home and we've been enjoying his company.

 

i ushered again for ellen's friday show and greg met me there. this evening i was able to catch up with some friends i hadn't seen in awhile which made me happy. amelia's piece is the perfect opener for ellen (the dancers warm up to orchestra tunings and then as the music comes in they come together as an ensemble and present ellen . . who walks through them towards the audience. also, chanda and brynn and another dancer begin in the audience and join the main group onstage almost halfway through). alumnus krista also created a really fun and clever piece that took my breath away; both dances were . . . . exquisite, adept, whimsical, excellent . . lots of superlatives to scatter about here  . . just wonderfully brilliant.

 

thank you, chanda, for my backstage pic.
 

greg and i walked home through wet streets (it must have rained during the concert), past the aids memorial which is lit up in neon for gay pride.

it was a quiet and pretty walk home . .

to wash, who came out from his cozy spot beneath the bed to grace us with his presence for a little while. (actually, we stopped and fed two neighborhood cats as a favor for chanda so she could go home early - the owners are away and she cat sits for them. i don't mind, these cats are so sweet. one is pudgy franklin and the other is shy orange tabby mert.)

breakfast with morgan and ellen's 80th birthday

 

last night greg and i drove to the airport to pick up morgana whose plane came in a little bit later than scheduled. it's wonderful to be together again and we had a delicious breakfast of apple pie, sunnyside eggs and coffee before morgana and chanda ran off to ellen's 80th birthday party.

(i was very happy because my pie came out perfectly.)

(the magnolia tree is in bloom)

 

(sweet pluto)
 

 ----

today was the celebration for ellen's 80th birthday. krista (her long time assistant and alumnus) planned a surprise party for her at the paul taylor studios on the lower east side.

warming up . .

(chanda is all the way on the right in the lavender top, and morgan has on the green mask)

(you can see chanda on the right in this video - she slips in her socks on the floor)

when they had just begun working with the music (in this video you can see morgan on the right in the black t-shirt), someone walked into the studio saying they smelled smoke, followed by the paul taylor admin assistants saying everyone needed to evacuate as there was a fire.

they all grabbed their things and headed out to the sidewalk . . 

 

of course, the good part about being outside was that they could all take off their masks to see each other and speak more personally and just enjoy being together.

krista and ellen . .

happy 80th birthday ellen . .