gathering sun rays for the cold and dark winter days

here's what i have been up to the past ten days or so. i won't give a blow by blow, but here are some of the highlights.

07.13. thursday

• in the wee, wee small hours of the morning, i submitted a grant for more money to bring anu here in the winter and linsday drove me to the airport.
• landed LGA and took a bus to shelley and marsha's. i love queens. and i love them.
  
• i fixed myself lunch and found my very own copy of frederick.
• i made my way on the seven train to marsha and ashlinn -- another QUINN! we met shelley for korean barbecue. the highjinx officially began over dinner. i was wound UP in mostly the best possible way. and i was lucky to have such an appreciative audience.
  
• we went to hear ozomatli at irving plaza. this was seriously the most generous performance i have heard in a long time. i didn't know bands carried their instruments off stage and played among the crowd. for real.

07.14 friday

• went to harlem and had a bite at home sweet harlem. (this was the best meal i have ever had in harlem while doing research. i hope someone helps save them from evil developers who are about to evict them. down with ALDO.)
• pulled some materials at schomburg for my undergrad fall class on african american travel from the paul robeson collection. i felt a little self-conscious because i realized that every single researcher there who was working with microfilm/manuscript collections was white and under the age of 45. weird.
• rushed off to neue gallerie to see adele and immediately found my halloween costume for this year. i did make it to the cafe -- it remains one of my favorite spots in manhattan no matter what jason says.
• headed to the village to see if i could catch shelley in rooftop sun salutations. but it didn't work so i ate a slice and hoped to gawker/stalker. i mainly just watched a mom and her twins and older son. they were adorable.
  
• then, i met marsha on a street corner. as we sat in a very sweet garden admiring royal hydrangea, we bumped into a woman who recognized me from my brick-making days in 2005. i was elated and beside myself with joy.
• we met shelley and had a quick bite in one of their favorite sushi spots in the village and then trundled home to the other borough. long live bastille day.
  

07.15 saturday

• wheeled out to kingston on greyhound. (i left the driving to them) and met katie and lillian in the parking lot of a german-american bakery. as i attempted to get into their car, i was a little confused and couldn't quite figure out which side i should sit on -- booster or no. katie pointed out to me that grown-ups sit in the front seat. just like old times: katie showed me the way.
• lillian toured me through their totally, amazing house. it was so exhilarating to see their furniture in a new homestead.
• we laughed and laughed and laughed all through dinner and dessert and beyond. and i got to hear lillian play all three of her instruments while elias made me the most excellent star wars-themed drawing ever in life. seriously, he is very very talented. such mastery of color. such imaginative use of negative space. i fell in love with him all over again.

07.16 sunday

• we had a big delish leisurely breakfast and then packed off to the mountains.
• we spent the afternoon perched on a rock at the lake. more laughing ensued. and then even more laughing. seriously: there was so much laughing that even the little tadpoles were giggling especially when the rude woman swam right up to the rock like she owned the whole joint.
• i doinked elias about a million times. once he figured out what was going on, he joined right in. i like it when kids adapt to my technologies.
  
• we enjoyed another gorgeous meal on the porch chez scott-childress while their little boy neighbors, jas, jer and j-something leaned out their bedroom window yelling, "hu-llo" through the screens. it all felt so magical and very 1930s.
  
• katie and children zipped me over, across the river to omega and i began puppet camp.

07.16-07.21 monday through friday
puppet camp

• i enjoyed puppet camp so much. i worked with two great, talented affable women: dona and anne. we laughed and worked and worked on our puppet, a 14' monk with articulated arms and a mobile tongue.
• thursday night, we processed through the campus. and katie and rennie and lillian and elias came along to cheer and jeer.
  
• i joined the four of them in the main hall and watched the various talent from the student showcase. it was a total blast. except for maureen fleming's dancers -- they were a little too much for my liking.
• on thursday, katie and i resolved with lillian and elias as witnesses and co-conspirators: next year: we all vacation here together during arts week. it was such fun. such a beautiful setting. so wonderful.
• and seriously, i thought of about five research and collaborative projects to begin related to this work. i am so pleased. it seriously couldn't have been any better -- except i could have rented the linens and brought a fan. it was hot and really humid there.
• but, the stars. the sky. the food. the work. the campus. the flowers. the people.
  
• it was great, really great.

07.21 friday

• mostly a day of travel between kingston, new york, boston, and chelmsford. at the end of the sojourn, i met don-na.

07.22 saturday
[i am running out of steam now so i need to be brief]

• donna and i went to michael and carey tee's totally fab and totally adult home and met their boys liam and aidan; and dana and melissa's son casey and girlie-girl jordan. these are children that i have known only through christmas card correspondence and it was just so great to meet them and to see their parents. seriously. it was, according to local vernacular, a wicked good time.
  
• i really loved meeting these little people and touching base with their parentals. it was like we took up where we last left off...in a hot tub in indiana or in a lux hotel room over old-fashioneds in the eastern parts of mass.
  
• we told stories, hosted a dance party, ate very well, made hats and headlamps and crowns and ears and carrots out of newspaper. we blew bubbles and carried on. we napped and sang and laughed some more and more and more. we caught each other up on the details and minutiae of our lives. it was grand.
• i was so pleased to connect especially with donna, carey tee and dana. these women played pivotal roles in a really formative year for me. much of who i am now and how i relate to others -- especially while living in close quarters -- was worked out at 7538 stanley drive.
  
• donna made us this small movie of our time in alaska: it premiered in north chelmsford this past weekend. i have michelle shocked mingling with memories of moose and wildly patterened tights and snow berms and the midnight sun.
  

07.23 sunday

• more of the same with more photo sessions involved except we ate a red, white and blue patriotic breakfast composed in part of the very best blueberries that dana has ever eaten. and melissa and i took a principled position and didn't drink st. arbucks.
  

thanks for helping me be happy and to find a little mirth this summer. and for loving me and for teasing me. and for your examples of friendship and love and family.

i burned my eyeball today so i need to lick this wound. and need to turn my attention to other things like work and dinner.

and just like liam confided to me on the couch: when you eat a plum, i get juicy inside.

thanks for the friendship one and all.