I have so much catching up to do that I feel intimidated about starting to blog. If I don’t I’ll fall further behind and be even more intimidated. At least I’m recognizing that and writing. Now if I could only do that about important things. Sorry for the short shrift I’m going to have to give to important things. Let’s see how far back I can remember.
Saturday night I went out to hear live music. For most months that’s the norm I have not been doing nearly as much of it as usual this August. I went to see delightful Jo Kroger. I’ve been friends with Jo for over six and a half years and I still have to fight calling her Jo Grant. Jo Grant was a companion of the Third Doctor Who, and on the short list of best companions, so this is a compliment to Ms. Kroger. I have not been seeing her nearly as often as I used to and that’s not good so I made sure to see a show I could make. This was a band show, she came up with a great name for the band, or somebody in the audience did. Sorry, I no longer remember it. I told you that I forgot important things. I’m me so I do remember that I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to buy garlic salt, theirs is the best, and was happy to discover they had lavash bread. That’s the best thing for making breakfast rolls. It’s been over a year since Trader Joe’s stop carrying it. It might be more than two years. Hey my mind works weird, even from my point of view. I remember some things in great details and others are lost in a haze. Maybe I have the onset of brain cataracts.
Saturday was easy to remember, I did something I do every year around this weekend, went to Katherine and Deb’s birthday party. That reminds me of something I remembered about Saturday but forgot to write; it was two days after Jo’s birthday. She said it wasn’t a birthday show. It was a birthday show. Three years ago she gave a show on the same date and there was even a cake. I don’t remember that, Facebook put it in my memories. I do always remember her birthday as she was born the exact same day as my nephew Max. How does it work that I have a friend the same age as a little kid? Max is a little kid that’s married and has a baby. Someone has to explain to me how time works. It doesn’t make any sense.
Now back to Katherine and Deb’s birthday. They’ve been celebrating together longer than I’ve known them. The location as changed a few times but it’s been a Brooklyn Bridge Park for years. Even from the Bronx that’s not that hard to go to. I mentioned it to my therapist, and her reaction was, “What if it rains?” I assured her that it never rains, just like when I celebrate my birthday outdoors; it’s a miracle how well human sacrifices work.
Katherine and I run in the same social circles but this year all the other attendees were people that I know through Katherine. That might not be quite true as I might have met Dot at Jalopy. She is certainly someone I see outside the parties. As so many are regulars I know many of them fairly well. That’s a good for a party, we have enough in common to start a conversation and enough we don’t know so we learn about each other.
This was the best weather of any of either Katherine and Deb’s or my birthday parties. Yet for some reason I ended up never playing frisbee. That’s always one of the activities. I also didn’t take part of the jamming but that’s because I can’t play anything. I did sing along when I knew the lyrics. The music making is always an important part of the party.
Then there’s the food. I should not be allowed near a buffet. They make a table, complete with tablecloth, out of cardboard boxes. There was more food that I love than usual. The spread is usually dominated by vegan and veggie options, and I’m a carnivore. Someone who I hadn’t met before, and I forgot their names, brought ribs! When the wife put them down I said, “Gordon food!” They were delicious and spiced unusually for ribs. I suspected something Asian. I asked her what was in them and she told me that she didn’t know I’d have to wait for her husband to show up. When he did I asked. It was some Chinese spice. He said he’d bring them next year. I hope they can make it. You might be thinking that I’m remembering the food again. You’re wrong; the important thing is that I forgot the exact spice.
There were also chocolate chip cookies, cheese, and various salty snack options. It too me a long time to get more than a few feet away from the buffet.
I then put on my photographer hat. I brought my real camera so I could get some good ones and got videos of the singing and rope jumping. I sent it all to Katherine to edit as I knew I didn’t have the time for the photos or the skills for the videos.
Yesterday I was back at Allison to work on filing her CDs. That’s not an easy job. The first trip Bri and I separated the CDs by genre and first letter of the artists. Now I had to alphabetize each letter and insert them into albums that each hold many CDs. I’m thinking 150 to 200. It doesn’t say anywhere and I wasn’t going to bother to count. It’s some multiple of 8.
Allison and Joe were each busy with their own tasks. Allison was meeting with her financial advisor and Joe was working on genealogy. That was all part of Allison’s business, Experience Sicily. She gives boutique tours of Italy. A new service she’s offering is helping people of Sicilian heritage with their genealogy and personalizing the trip to visit their family history and even meet long lost relatives. I bet I have friends that would interest. If so follow the link and contact her.
Allison had to talk to the financial advisor, Joe and I could talk and work at the same time, and I’m me and Joe is Joe, so we had a geek out fest. Joe’s a computer engineer turned musician. I’m a mathematician by training and a geek by lifestyle. We discussed aerospace history and boondoggles, the history of alien registration in the US, immigration, science fiction and science books, pure and applied math. I told you we were geeky. There was also great Sicilian chocolate involved. Allison and I made a food run that included a trip to the supermarket so I could get Taylor ham! Guess what I’m eating for brunch today.
Finally in the evening we all stopped work and went out to the Pancake Factory for dinner. I had chocolate and peanut butter pancakes. They had both chocolate and peanut butter chips and were dripping with chocolate and peanut butter syrups. If I need to tell you that’s heaven you have my pity.
Today is another busy day. In the early afternoon I have a follow up visit with my surgeon. The tough part is the traveling. Even though it’s on the Bronx, like me, it takes me almost as long to get there as it does to get to Allison and Joe’s house in Englewood NJ. It’s a subway to a bus to a walk to the surgeon. According to google it’s an 1:04 by public transit and 1:22 walking. There’s no efficient way to get there even though it’s only 4 miles away. Tonight I’m going to the Mets – Cubs game. Bad timing, Stroman is pitching, the team’s worst pitcher and the one I saw pitch last game.
Now I better go eat. It’s going to be my first day making hot coffee in ages .I’ve been living on cold brew for most of the summer. Let’s see if you’re paying attention. What am I going to eat? That’s right, a taylorhameggandcheese sandwich. That won’t be on the lavash but an English muffin.
Wise Madness 