Columbia Relay Teams Rock!

Mark's the big guy in blue

What a day. What a weekend. We drove to Phillie Saturday morning to see Mark compete in the Championship Men's 4 X Mile Relay. Columbia was up against some of the best running teams in the country.: Oregon, Indiana, Oklahoma, Princeton, Georgetown. This made their 2nd place finish to Princeton even more impressive, two Ivies placing 1st and 2nd in a national event. This proves that brains and running talent can go hand in foot.

Mark's time was 4:03, a PR for the mile. Columbia's DMR (Distance Medley Relay) team finished 5th the day before, and their 4 X 800 team finish 3rd later on on Saturday. The Penn Relays are legendary. I'm so proud of Mark, whose hard work and determination are inspiring.

After having a late lunch/early dinner with Esther and Lenny, we drove back to New York. We listened to the Yankees lose, and watched a really bad George Clooney movie, The American.

On Sunday morning, we went to Junior's Restaurant in Brooklyn, another legend.  Junior's is famous for its cheesecake. We bought two as we were leaving. Then we drove deep into the bowls of Brooklyn and signed up for a temporary membership to BJ's a bulk shopping club. We'd belonged to a BJ's in Rhode Island, but this one was four times the size. Both Marty and I felt sick and finally walked out buying $175 worth of paper products, toiletries and I forget what else. The idea is that if I want to, I can shop at BJ's in the Catskills, which I'm sure is smaller.

Next we did a mitzvah, or a good deed. We went to visit a friend who's in a rehab center who's trying to increase his strength and lung function. We brought him a cheesecake, which he loves, and spent an hour chatting. Then, it was back to Manhattan, where we made one more stop before going home. We thought the Columbia relay teams deserved a little reward for their efforts, so we delivered a cheeecake to Mark, who also took some deodorant and toothpaste. We could have made a mint selling those BJ products from the back of our car.

The weekend was capped off by a delicious dinner at the Atlantic Grill. Friends had given us a gift certificate. We ate raw oysters, lobster maki roll. Marty had grilled shrimp and scallops. I of course had soft shell crabs, my first of the season. Yum.

It was a great New York weekend.

Easy Rider

From our record collection

We finally saw Easy Rider, after getting Five Easy Pieces 3 or 4 times. I guess it was the Jack Nicholson connection, Jack as a very young man.

I saw Easy Rider in the movie theater when it first came out. The shock and outrage I felt then I still feel today. I don't remember the drugs as much as I remember the extreme prejudice and violence against anyone perceived as different, especially if they had long hair. You can say long hair on men is accepted today but you would be wrong. There are places in this country where it will never be accepted as normal. I don't think anyone will be murdered for having long hair, but if you happen to be gay, watch your back south of the Mason-Dixon line. While I was visiting Florida, I noted the hatred in some voices directed at Arabs, Latinos and Blacks. How about the young man cut down in Sanford, FL by an overzealous white guy thinking the kid was a risk?

"All they wanted was to be free."

A Favorite Writer

Joyce Carol Oates is a prolific writer. I don't know how she does it. She writes a book per year while teaching at Princeton University. My favorite is When We Were the Mulvaneys. I've met Joyce Carol Oates at PEN events. She's a bit on the shy side. 

I just read Mudwoman, written this year. It's the story of a child whose mother tries to murder her when she's 3. Mudgirl is saved by the King of the Crows, who leads a backwoods simpleton to the creek she's stuck in face-down. He brings her to a foster family, one step up from her crazy murderous mother. Mudgirl is lucky. She's adopted by a loving, intelligent family who cherishes her and makes sure she's educated.

She becomes Meridith Ruth or Merry. She's the valedictorian of her class and applies to Cornell where she receives a full scholarship. Then it's on to Harvard, a doctorate in Philosophy, and a job offer at the University, aka Princeton. At Princeton, she's a star. Now known as M.R., she's a liberal woman in a mostly male world. Not every one accepts the fact that she's a woman. Within a few years, she is appointed President. Shortly after, her life spins out of control.

I must tell you that Oates loves the Gothic. M.R. is pulled into the past where she confronts the fact that her mother tried to kill her, that she feels she doesn't understand what loving another human being means. She has a nervous breakdown, filled with odd imagery from her battered imagination fed by the past. At one point she kills her arch-conservative nemesis at the University. Cuts off his arms, legs and hands and feet, as well as his head, stuffs the parts into garbage bags and hauls them to her car, all of course in the middle of the night. Then she drives each parcel to a different garbage bin and assumes they'll be sent to the landfill . She rushes home to clean up the mess. In the morning, a staff person breaks into her room to find M.R. unconscious in her bed, with all kinds of cuts and wounds that she's suffered over the last few months. She's hospitalized and is given a leave of absence for the summer. Her dreams continue to be bizarre and extremely dark.

M.R. fights her demons and comes to an understanding about her life. This book is a great read, well-written and typically Oatesian. She's not everybody's cup of tea, but I admire and respect her immensely.  

The Kvetch

Greetings from Boca Raton, Florida, where the elderly come to complain about their lives, most of which aren't so bad.

My mother-in-law doesn't complain, much. When you get to be her age, you have a right to speak your mind and tell people what to do. I rented a car, and she's been directing me around, which is good, except when she tells me to get off the highway and I know it's wrong. I just tool along and we make it to our destination just fine.

The weather has been great, 80 degrees and breezy. I've been doing a lot of reading, and we've gone on a few shopping forays. Many of the people who live here are extremely prejudiced. Anyone who's not white (and Jewish) is suspect. They hate Obama; they fear black people moving into the complex. My mother-in-law, who used to be a bit prejudiced, is now a beacon of light and understanding in the darkness. She tries to see the best in people and has learned not to judge, as she and her family were so horrifically judged during the Holocaust.

Not to complain but, people here eat all their meals between 8 am and 4 pm. Dinner at 4 pm is a bit too early for me, so we've been stretching it out to 5. I return to NYC tomorrow in the late afternoon. This weekend we're going to the country and traveling to Troy, NY on Saturday to watch Harry run.

I'm relaxed and ready to get my blood pressure up.

Pick Pocketed

I was going for a follow-up at the dentist when my purse was opened and relieved of my wallet. I'm not sure if it was outside the subway or on the train or platform. As soon as I arrived at the dentist, I received a text from my bank alerting me to possible fraud. I called them back and said that the wallet wasn't in my bag. I have 2 wallets. The one snatched had my Chase debit card, 2 Chase credit cards, my license, my health/dental insurance card and several other easily replaceable items. No photos, no money--that was in the other wallet.

During my lunch with Jeffrey (bless him), i cancelled all the affected accounts and thought about my license. I was driving up to the country in a little while, but more importantly, I was planning to rent a car in Florida on Monday when I go there with Frances. This was a pickle.

Jeffrey swung into action on his iphone and looked up the address for the DMV in Sullivan County. It was in Monticello, 25 minutes away. We returned to my apartment where Jeffrey, with Marty's guidance, opened the safe so I could take out my passport and social security card. Then he helped me pack the car and I was on my way.

I listened to a book on CD by Haruki Murukami, one of my favorite writers. The time passed quickly and I was at my house before 5:30, 2 hours and 20 minutes including stopping for gas.

If you've ever experienced the DMV in NYC, you know that it's mind-numbing, humiliating, and you stand/sit for a long long time. They've worked to streamline it over the years but the same people work there and they've been trained not to smile. I walked into the Sullivan County DMV, was handed a form and a number, and before I could complete the form, my number was called. The woman said to take my time and finish it right there, not like at the Post Office or other government agencies, where you're asked to step aside and the next person on line is mailing 25 packages to Indonesia.. Within 5 minutes I had my temporary license ($17), and left to go home. Everyone seemed to be smiling.

Today has been a quiet day, spent reading, shopping for groceries, and going to the Post Office. I took a few things to the local consignment shop and collected $22.19 for items sold. That covers my license and some gas.

I love country life.