New York, New York
5:16 p.m.
We arrived Wednesday evening in time for supper, and I dined with some fellow fine arts profs at Luigi�s, an Italian eatery which seemed to be extremely popular with the NYPD blue. Every second customer was a cop in uniform, and all the rest were plain-clothes. Back at the Y where I had a private room on the prestigious 13th floor, I tried reading a couple of pages in the book I�d brought but couldn�t keep my eyes open. I was asleep by 9:30 p.m.
The next morning the bus (our bus driver was hopeless, he kept getting lost) took us to the Metropolitan Museum where I saw the Diane Arbus exhibit. Her black and white photographs from the 1960s evoke that era so well, the bouffant hairdos and black eye makeup, and her choice of subject matter is fascinating: nudists, cross dressers, burlesque performers. I found it very interesting.
The bus drove us then to the Cloisters, which I visited two years ago. I love this place. It�s a construction utilizing the actual parts of medieval monasteries shipped from Europe, held together with more recently quarried limestone blocks, and it really evokes the ambience of a medieval monastery. I didn�t even have to look at the art and artifacts on display, I just wanted to absorb the feeling from the stones.
That evening my cousin Wilf and his wife picked me up from my hotel and ferried me downtown where we had dinner with two of his children (my second cousins) and another of his cousins (a first cousin once removed). I had an absolute blast. There is something about being in the bosom of your family that feels so good. The only fly in the ointment was the loud music. Everyone in the restaurant was shouting to be heard over the soundtrack, and my cousin Toby was actually getting hoarse. The restaurant was quasi-Thai, and I had salmon prepared in some mysterious way that was miraculously delicious. During dinner my cell phone rang (this is always an occasion; I am simply unused to carrying a phone around with me, and every time it rings I�m surprised) and I had to go to the ladies� room to make plans with teranika for our date the next day. That was the only quiet place in the whole restaurant.
The next day I went shopping at The Shops of Columbus Circle, a new shopping complex of glass and steel with a Borders bookstore (whereat I purchased two de Lint books) and many upscale emporia selling all manner of merchandise. In the cooking wares store I bought a slicer/dicer for onions, and when I met teranika a little while later, she bought one too.
When we met, it was as though we were old friends who had just seen each other a month ago. I felt as though I had known her all my life, and in no time at all we were feeling entirely at ease with each other. It helps that we�re both short, although in my imagination she was much taller. Possibly so was I in hers, but I forgot to ask.
We had a very good-for-you lunch in the bowels of the glass and chrome building, then started walking south, finally hopping a subway to the Village where we had dessert and tea at a charming caf� whose name has escaped me. We then proceeded to meander in and out of ritzy stores, sometimes buying, oftener not. I did acquire a gorgeous silver cuff bracelet set with opals, silver earrings for my daughter and a politically-incorrect T-shirt for my son, but teranika outdid me, buying a stunning silver necklace, an enormous wooden salad bowl (she assures me she loves salad), and a beeswax candle.
Supper was in a tapas bar where we had wonderful red wine and the best garlic-spinach I have ever tasted. Between us we solved all the problems of the universe and set out a thesis for an improved society, both socially and environmentally. I was very sad to part from her, and I sincerely hope we get to do this again someday soon.
Today I met my friend John at the MOMA, who arrived with his 5-year-old daughter, an absolute angel, and we looked at modern art. While I didn�t get to see the Dali I love, I did see Van Gogh�s �Starry Night�, as well as many other beautiful paintings I had totally forgotten were there. We lunched on sushi (divine) and wandered in and out of other galleries. His little girl led us into a store full of the strangest objets d�art I have ever seen: life-size marble lions, a fountain with a naked man and woman cavorting among dolphins (the man actually had a loin cloth; what gives?), enormous ivory and jade carvings, and brass sculptures of very life-like children, which totally enchanted her.
Now, I am waiting for the bus to take us home, and I see that I am running out of internet time. So I had best log off soon. I�ll be home at around 2:00 a.m., so hopefully I�ll be awake enough to get online tomorrow.
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