The City That Never Sleeps

We saw the Yankees play the Red Sox last night at the Stadium. It all ended at midnight with a walk-off walk by Juan Miranda in the 10th inning. After 4 hours eating hot dogs and drinking beer on a cool, windy, misty night in the Bronx, the Bombers came through and avoided a series sweep.

We brought Harry from school; Mariel came from Providence on the train; and Mark couldn't make it so we invited our friend Victor. The seats were great--worth the money. It was great to finally be away from Red Sox Nation, in the heart of the Bronx. Yankee fans are a special breed: brash, passionate and mostly drunk. The sellout crowd was irreverant and so New York, meaning that no matter where you are from, you were part of the Yankee family, dysfunctional but obviously related.

When they finally won, the Stadium was still packed, and we joined the flow of fans heading for the exits. These little town blues were melting away, and we were a part of it. We took Mariel to the Metro North train, and we took the 4 to Wall Street, arriving home around 1 am. The concierge had watched the game on his iPhone, fully aware of what we'd witnessed.

Today we're all tired but when we think about why, it will be with smiles on our faces.

Let's Go Yankees!

Stop Making Sense

Harry will be 18 next week so I thought I'd get him an American Express Gift Card. I walked over to the Amex office. They'd sell me one for cash and a processing fee. Thanks. I went to Borders, thinking I'd buy Harry a card and send him a (free) check.

I saw the new Jonathan Franzen book Freedom and couldn't resist. The card and the book cost $20.57 which seemed like a steal. I do have a Borders Rewards card.

The book's protagonist is named Patty, so I'm slightly appalled. Of course she's around my age, hence the name. The book flap refers to her as a member of the Whole Foods generation. Did I ever tell you what I think about Whole Foods? That they're fascists? I don't want to give them any more press, so I'll stop here.

Poor Patty has some kind of meltdown. We can rely on dark comedy here, if the book is anything like The Corrections.

Franzen is a graduate of Swarthmore College, a Swattie like my daughter.

I will seriously review the work after I slog through its 562 pages.

Book Notes

These won't be reviews of the sort I like to write, more of a laundry list of what I've read recently. It's too early to think deeply.

Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon. Why do I read such depressing novels? Jaw-dropping resolution.

Once a Runner, John L. Parker. Get inside a runner's head; it's foreign territory.

Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead, beach book for black folks. Great author; this was fluff.

Olive Kitteredge, Elizabeth Strout, profoundly bleak and Maine-like.

A Meaningful Life, L. J. Davis. Buying a brownstone in Bed-Stuy and losing your soul. Read it and weep.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski. The heart of a dog. I cried.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett. Toilet segregation in the South. No really, it's a good read.

I'm currently reading Spooner by Peter Dexter, which is funny so far, a welcome respite from the dark.

Speaking of dark, there's still 15 more minutes to sunrise.

Time for coffee and a good book.

Buy This

The following three items are for immediate sale.

E11 wood clarinet for intermediate players valued at $500. Practically new!

2002 Mini Cooper with only 41,000 miles. Bright red, manual transmission, great gas mileage. Asking $11,000.

4-bedroom house in the woods of Rhode Island. Beautiful setting on 1.4 acres 20 minutes from Providence. Offers over $449,000 will be seriously considered.

Buy the house for full price and I will throw in the clarinet for free. I can't throw in the car, but there will be a serious discount for homebuyers.

Operators are standing by ...

Scammed!

Okay, so Mrs. Wu is a bad person. She contacted me three times to tutor her darling son Zemin, blessed me each time and then fell off the face of the earth. Forgive me if something bad has happened like a plane delay or lack of funds.

Marty said it sounded ridiculous but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained. (Confucious?) I wasted some email time and showed up at the library today but other than that I'm unscathed.

Maybe she found somebody cheaper. Maybe she's delusional. Maybe she's part of the Chinese mob and they're going to get me while I'm sleeping snug in my apartment. I did divulge my address and cell phone number although not my banking information! I only give that to my Nigerian friends who beg me for money.

Fortune cookie for Mrs. Wu: Progeny who speak other tongues like English fare well in Amerika.

To all my Chinese blogging fans: Please keep Mrs. Wu off the Internet.

Back to the Woods

I arrived at the old homestead Friday noonish and started sorting through the wheat and the chaff. There was much more of the latter. This was exhausting labor so it was most fortuitous that Sue arrived to help me. I needed to make a stop at Hilltop Creamery to get my soft-serve fix. It was not an ice cream day, but that doesn't matter to a true afficionado. By this time of the season, the nuts and brittle topping is finally fresh since they've used up last year's stock. I was in creamery heaven.

Patty Sidor was happy to see me and started fussing over me immediately. I was really tired, so I took a shower and a power nap. We had a delicious dinner and I crashed around 9:30.

Saturday was a test of my organizational skills. I returned to the Moose and hauled trash to the curb. Then I jumped in the Mini and went to the Resource and Recovery Center to dump some electronic devices. On my way back to EG, I stopped in Providence to pick up Mariel's and my race packets for Sunday's 5k. Then I got the van and took it to be serviced and went out for lunch with my friend Susan. I returned the cable box to the provider, picked up the car and headed back to Patty's, stopping off for a quick coffee with Lisa Ross.

Reinhardt made wiener schnitzel for dinner, which was fabulous. I slept really well, and prepared to go to the race. I met Mariel at her apartment and we walked downtown. It was a pretty hot day for a race.

Rhode Island Moment: the woman lined up in front of me was swishing her pony tail in my face, and when she turned around to apologize, she said, "Patricia?" She looked familiar. Turns out it was Dianna Glass, Mark's Team in Training Coach four years ago when he ran the San Diego Marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The race was true torture. I felt like my head was going to explode from the heat. The rest of me was generally numb. I did my personal worst, something like 45 minutes and change. I think had I walked it, I might have gone faster.

We went out for lunch at a cute little place called Duck and Bunny. I had the Eggs Buniduck. We finished the meal with yummy cupcakes. Then it was back in the car for me for the drive to NYC. It gets so tiresome. 95, my nemesis, made sure it wasn't easy, but I made it in just over 3 hours. Marty had a martini waiting for me in the freezer, which I desperately needed. We went out for Chinese food after that, really good Chinese food. The peking duck appetizer was superb.

This will be a social week, capped off by a trip up to the country house and a weekend at Vassar visiting Harry. Sunday night we have tickets to the Yankee-Red Sox game at the Stadium.

All good things.

See The Plog Blog

Please see The Plog for the latest word news, which I posted on the wrong blog by mistake. The storm rattled me, I guess.

No word yet from Marty.

Word on West

I'm blogging from Manhattan where women glow and men plunder.

I'm no longer a RI resident. You can find me in the Big Apple. No fresh air. Times Square!

What I did today:

Jogged

Shopped at Gristedes

Went to the library

Met with Turbo's sitter

Got hopelessly confused with the massive amount of paperwork spanning 2 states and 3 locations

Had a manicure & pedicure

Tried to fill a prescription

Got a tutoring gig

Am imbibed red wine awaiting M's arrival

Had a ball