Archive | City Matters
I came back to NYC today with a tiny hole in my heart. It was a great three days out of time in Cape Cod, especially since so far this year I know more about what’s not working–what has ended, what needs to end–than what I can safely count on, even in myself. I needed to step out of the flow of life and focus on the elements- sand, sun, salt–and that is what we did. Brand New Heavy
I woke up early for the first time in months, wrote for two hours, and then bounced down to the coffee shop to fetch a laaarge americano. The winter sun was bright if distant (like so many of my lovers; like me, arguably), the Brand New Heavies were blasting in my ears–“I like it!”–and I felt positively ecstatic that all I had to do was duck back home, throw open the windows, and write some more on a topic I genuinely find interesting. It’s amazing what a difference a day makes. Having finally fixed the website problems that have been hanging over my head for weeks, the rest of my routine–which only yesterday seemed Sisyphean–feels like a winter trip to the Bahamas.
When Time and I Collide
With my Sunday supper bubbling in the oven, I guess it’s time to call it: I crashed into walls the entire weekend. Yesterday I wrote and read and forgot everything I remembered. On the way to dinner, I ran into two different friends and couldn’t recall their names or even how I knew them. Today I went to Meg to fetch a pair of pants I’d specially ordered and realized they simply weren’t for me. I ran for the ferry only to arrive as it was pulling away from the dock. I left my bag at the 1st Avenue L stop, and dashed back from Brooklyn just in time to catch two guys rifling through it across the platform. “Gentlemen!” I called across the divide. “Do you mind watching my bag until I can get back to your side?” They pointedly looked away when I arrived in front of them, red-faced and panting with my hand outstretched, but handed it over.
It didn’t matter, any of it. I got home in time to make the lasagna I’d planned. I eventually remembered who my friends were. And my bag still contained the purple scarf I made the winter I couldn’t stop knitting, the long fingerless gloves that make me feel like Jo March, the notes from today’s session with brilliant astrologer and general wise lady Virginia Bell. Continue Reading →