wednesdays can feel full of woe

 we had a thunderstorm today . . 

 pluto had fun watching it from below the window (he's unable to jump onto the sill due to his cerebellar hypoplasia).

 we both miss madeline today. yesterday we all decided we had to let her go as she seemed to be suffering too much . . pluto went to look for her today beneath the bed in morgana's room . . i feel so very, very sad.

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i put up three posts from this past week: thursday, saturday, sunday.

at the met and dinner at home

 amelie and i took the bus up to the metropolitan museum of art today.

 the main entrance was so crowded that we walked to the education entrance instead. the line to enter was much shorter.

 our first stop was the greek and roman rooms which she loved . . . above are two portraits from a funerary relief, which would have included likenesses of other members of the family: roman, ca 13 b.c. to a.d. 5.

 three marble funerary stele that belonged to a family in rome around a.d. 69 - 80. the head on the left is of gaius vibius felix, aged 49, made in his honor by his daughter; the head on the right is of gaius vibius severus, aged only 23, probably the grandson of felix. the hairstyles on both stele reflect the time period in which they lived, which is a little different from when the monuments were commissioned. felix's hairstyle reflects that of the julio-claudian period (a.d. 14 - 68) , and severus' that of the emperor nero (a.d. 54 - 68).

a marble funerary alter of cominia tyche: roman, flavian or trajanic period, a.d. 90 - 100. her hairstyle reflects the court of the late flavian period, and the latin inscription below her reads: to the spirits of the dead. lucius annius festus [set this up] for the most saintly cominia tyche, his most chaste and loving wife, who lived 27 years, 11 months, and 28 days, and for himself and for his descendants. she was young!

 marble statue of a seated muse . . roman, from the 1st or 2nd century a.d., a copy of a greek statue from the 3rd century b.c.

marble statue of the three graces, a roman copy (2nd century a.d) of a greek work (2nd century b.c).

after the greek and roman wing, we picked up an audio guide for amelie and then made our way to the ragnar kjartansson exhibit of a film he made just after midnight at the height of the summer in iceland, which greg had recommended seeing and which i think i enjoyed more than amelie. i then went home and amelie explored some more before returning and making a delicious dinner of spring rolls . . 

rice paper is wrapped around tofu, carrots, avocado, mung bean sprouts and cucumber. we dipped them in a peanut sauce. her cousin matt joined us as he lives on the lower east side.

after dinner pluto watched madeline drink water from the tub . . madeline isn't doing very well and is slowly dying from kidney failure.

poem for a sunday morning

 

an emerald is as green as grass

an emerald is as green as grass;

a ruby red as blood;

a sapphire shines as blue as heaven;

a flint lies in the mud.

a diamond is a brilliant stone,

to catch the world's desire;

an opal holds a fiery spark;

but a flint holds fire.

by christina rossetti (1830 - 1894)

dinner in nyack

 greg and i drove to rockland county this afternoon, to meet our friends joyce and neal for dinner in their neighborhood.

 crossing the hudson river on the george washington bridge . . 

 the palisades parkway . .

 we talked for a little bit at their home, and then visited the rockland county bakery which i've heard so much about from korrina. it did not disappoint! it was rather an amazing place. it's a huge working bakery where you grab a paper bag and help yourself to bagels, rolls, cinnamon raisin bread, irish soda bread, whole wheat bread, italian bread . . etc . . and if that isn't enough, the room where you pay is filled with the sweet side of their business: pastries and cakes and cookies. 

 after the bakery we drove to nyack for a lovely restaurant on the waterfront.

 the sun set as we finished our meal of different pastas and risottos and tea and coffee. it's relaxing to sit outside in a quiet place and watch the sun set . . it was my second dinner with sunset of the week . . not bad!

i had greg take a pic of me with our friends this time . .

 heading home on the tappen zee bridge (now renamed as the mario cuomo bridge after the govenor's father . . yes, i'm rolling my eyes . . i'm not a big fan of renaming all these bridges and tunnels - i find it very annoying).

 i took this photo of a gas station we stopped at in hastings-on-hudson . . i thought it was cute with its planters and it reminded me of one we used to stop at in sag harbor . . 

 passing the gwb which we had taken on our way . . (the tappen zee is much cheaper!) . .

 . . and the intrepid aircraft carrier . . along west side highway . .

riding the staten island ferry

 while we were on our way to the funeral on tuesday, we had a guest making her way to our apartment from jfk airport. i had left our keys with our neighbor so she could get in. she's the daughter of my friend olga's friend anne,  and hails from hawaii . . from maui. i'm really enjoying hearing all about maui! she's in town to intern with a family friend who is a physical therapist for the new york city ballet.

 greg called me from work this morning, saying that he would like to ride the staten island ferry this evening, as we hadn't ridden the ferry in years. i thought it would also be fun for our guest to do, so all of us met up across from greg's work, which is also across from the ferry terminal.

 amelie is a lot of fun to be with, and we enjoyed her company on this expedition. she met us after finishing her intern hours for the day, and also after attending a dance class. it was supposed to be a ballet class, however, the assistant at the desk directed her and another student to a modern dance class instead. she said it was a very strange class with talking and yelling and group movement, and was very different from anything she had ever done before. i thought it was very brave and open-minded of her to stay for the full two hours! it didn't sound like something she wanted to repeat, but she said it was an interesting experience.

 heading out with the brooklyn bridge in the distance . .

 brooklyn straight ahead and governor's island to the right . . 

 the verrazzano bridge . . 

on staten island, everyone had to disembark from the boat (even if we were making the return trip) and we waited for about twenty minutes for the next ferry back. i was disappointed that the staten island ferry terminal no longer displayed the flags of all the states, which they used to do. i always loved picking out california's and new york's.

heading back with manhattan in the distance . .

 i think the last time we rode the ferry was in 2007 or 8 when the girls had a dance performance at the alice austen house. i remember that the outer deck was very crowded then also. however, i don't remember the outer deck being crowded when we rode the ferry in the 80's! i don't know if it's because there are more tourists, or because the outer decks are so much smaller. perhaps both . . in the past i remember the outer deck running the full length of the boat.

 it was a beautiful time of day . . it has been incredibly hot, but with the sun setting and the sea below, it felt cooler.

 back on land, we talked greg into walking home along the river, rather than taking the subway. this is looking north towards the freedom tower . .

 

 we then turned south and walked along the battery where there was an outdoor concert happening . . 

 as we came around to south end avenue, everyone realized they were hungry, so we decided to eat at a chinese restaurant with a beautiful view . . greg and i ate here once with our friend clyde in 2016 (you can see that post here).

 greg had chicken and broccoli in garlic sauce, and i had mixed veggies in brown sauce and amelie had something different that was very good: shrimp and noodles with curry and a brown sauce.

 the beautiful walk home with the statue of liberty in the distance . . 

 the battery park city esplanade . . 

and the view of hoboken . . it was a rather warm evening!