Driving through the tail end of Isabel on Friday morning, I wasn't seeing much. The sun came out about Hartford and the rest of the ride was smooth. Anxiety crept up as I missed the major deegan and had to take the west side highway down and wend my way through the west village until I was gridlocked at canal and mercer, blocking traffic for miles, it seemed. by the time I turned onto lafayette where Alex's new dorm is I was fried. he came down to unload the car and to help me find an inexpensive lot ($40) in which to leave the car. then we walked- throngs of folks of all colors and sizes and shapes, in and out and around sidewalk artists and vendors, he to Tae Kwon Do practice and I, to surprise Eileen at her opening at 37th street. stopping at Shakespeare & Co to buy some books, and Starbucks for fortification, I arrived early at the opening, in time to touch base with Eileen, who I hadn't seen in several years, and whose work was lovely, graphite drawings on ceiling tiles reminiscent of chinese screen paintings...
later, Alex and I hobbled around Chinatown in search of a Japanese restaurant his friends had recommended, he with blisters from working out barefoot and my feet aching from my walk, only to find the restaurant was on Center, one block over from his dorm. Japanese food and "chinese" ice cream and we called it a night. I drove to Annie's in Park Slope, Annie who has been my friend since I was 10. We sat in the dark on her patio and talked for hours, slept and woke and talked somemore. Tea and scrambled eggs with taco chips and the sun and the butterfly bush. Annie showed me the web a spider had spun, spanning the width of her lush, brooklyn yard. And tomatoes and collards and eggplant growing too. But most amazing, was the hummingbird that dipped and hovered by the bright orange flowers. My first east coast hummingbird ever, in my entire life, right there in park slope.
Back to Manhattan to shop-ink cartridges, a wok and a plumber's wrench- and lunch with Alex. We talked about his "area of concentration," (what Gallatin, his program at nyu, has instead of majors) and found that between his proposed work and my proposed doctoral program were overlapped. Alex: something about the meditative qualities of music, caligraphy (he is studying Chinese) and internal martial arts, taoism. Me: the spiritual/meditative act of seeing. After lunch we went back to his dorm room to put that wrench to use. Alex had lost his tiger-eye stud down the bathroom drain. Calmly and methodically he took apart the drain pipe and retreived the earring. If his BA in meditative far eastern studies proves useless, he can always become a plumber! It was wonderful to see him, see his new digs, meet his roomie, and it was time to go.
winding my way back to the west side hwy, I was treated to a feast of sidewalk artists, music, rollerbladers and the sun setting over the palisades. nice weekend.