Running with Pencils

Since my last posting I've been fortunate to be revisited by old .. old friends.. one I've known since i was 4, a SF pal and another a college pal whom I hadn't seen in 15 years.

Out of the Past. . .

L to R: Dee is the gypsy blond .. .and can anyone guess which child is moi?

DeeDee (now monosyllabic Dee) and I were best friends as toddlers in California. She bossed me around (yes, it is true) and I did whatever I could to remain in her select group of pals. She had blue eyes and platinum blond hair. . I had eyes everyone called hazel which at 35 I realized was the wrong description (hazel=brown/green and my eyes are green-blue) and stringy yellow hair (see photographic evidence above and YES I am the yellow blond, the brunette is NOT me but rather my sister Kerry. The Easter dresses were made by Dee's mother, Sharon.) So Dee and I hadn't seen one another since I was about 13--we met up in Morganton, North Carolina. I awaited her arrival sitting beside a Confederate statute (the irony). Why we haven't' seen one another is a long story that may one day end up in a novel but suffice it to say, we met up, fell into hours of conversation over wine (which for some reason folks in NC thought we shouldn't be ordering after 1:00 pm? Were we supposed to wait until 5:00?). I was due for dinner elsewhere but couldn't part from Dee, we just keep talking. I finally hit the Interstate back to Lexington around 6:00. What a magnificent day it was, one I'll always remember, wine, chocolate and a childhood friend with whom I still had an easy rapport. Photographic evidence of this reunion is stuck in Dee's camera . ..

Why was I near Morganton, North Carolina? I was visiting old SF pal, now NC resident, Kivi Leroux-Miller. I hadn't yet met her 2nd daughter, Jianna for whom I came to feel a great deal of affection for (particularly one night when I mistakenly took her off the sleeping regime and tried to rock her back to sleep for over an hour. . at 3 or 4:00 a.m. I put her back to bed. . .) Jia's older sister bewitched me two years ago on a similar visit to NC. I love the little girls but still don't want my own. . okay Ma?!

Kivi, Robin and I shop for Pottery in Seagrove, NC and sip chardonnay

at the Childress Winery

15 years since our last rendezvous in NYC

Etsuko Shimabakuro and I knew each other in the late 1980s at McPherson College. She traveled from Okinawa to attend school. . i ventured oh ..a 100 miles from my parents front door. The last time we saw one another was when I lived in Washington, D. C. and Etsuko flew into Dulles for a visit. She and I took the train to New York City. We were joined by fellow pal, Laura Shelton (now Dr. Shelton!) who jumped onto the train in Philadelphia. We spent a few exciting (err creeped out actually) nights at the Chelsea YMCA in New York. That was before the neighborhood was gentrified and gay-ghettoized. The Y was right across the street form the Chelsea Hotel where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols knifed his girlfriend and apparently Janice Joplin did adult sexual things to Leonard Cohen (hey I'm only going by his song...).

Etsuko returned to a very different New York. .and apparently I look the same r so she kept saying at brunch~~ flattery will get you the best tour of NYC folks!

What am I reading?

Various folks ask me for book recommendations .. .a pal sent me this link to a website called GoodReads .. so I've easily populated the site with books I've enjoyed (and some I've NOT)
RJ's GoodReads recommendations

Call/Email the White House

I have this on my speed dial and call routinely . . . I will NOT resign my belief that this IS a democracy and say my actions wont result in any change. . .that's capitulation. . call 212-456-1111 and voice your opinion and VOTE!

Florence Foster Jenkins--take a listen

Last year there was a great little musical on Broadway called Souvenir about a New York society lady who in the 1940s held little fund raiser concerts each year. Invites to these soirees were highly sought after as Mrs. Jenkins believed she had a voice of an angel. She sold out a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1944. She died a few months after the concert. Unfortunately Flo did not honestly hear her own singing-- but you can and then you'll understand why people flocked to hear her. Stories of people falling out of their seats laughing are legendary in NYC--click on the link: Flo

Emmy buzz for my Dobbleganger:

TV Guide A & A with MM

My Lunch with Andre'

Okay in 1980 this talkfest movie came out directed by Candice Bergen's French husband to be, Louis Malle. It was called "My Dinner with Andre'" In it a New York writer agrees to have dinner with his pretentious New York theatrical director friend, Andre Gregory. They both venture out on a blustery New York evening for a 2-hour dinner dominated by Andre's pretentious self-realizations. I saw this film about 5 months ago at the Museum of Modern Art. . . it was a double feature with Shaft! I can't figure out WhY the 2 films were doubled billed but they were. Okay so 'Dinner' was a bore and I only liked the last 10 minutes when Wallace Shawn yells at Andre Gregory how much he liked his hum drum little life with the electric blanket, "I love my electric blanket!" and didn't need all the sophomoric self-revelatory insights Andre went on and on about.

Sunday I'm in the West Village having lunch with Matt and Cecelia and their two kids. We are imbibing on a complete American meal (the 1950s style soda shop I had suggested nearby is now no longer!) Sitting there, Cecelia says "there goes Andre Gregory". ..and so he did, walking along, greyer, a bit craggier but tall and erect. And we watched him walk on towards greater self realizations. YouTube clip of Andre' click here

What's Next. .

In Sept-Oct, I'll be with a few friends turning 40 at the 15th century, 13-bedroom Chateau St. Andeux outside Dijon. Stay tuned for the RJ's adventures in France!