background, swings, against-3WW on Wednesday, fiction

“Hey you,” they both said at once. Your odds of meeting somebody you know in Manhattan are supposed to be lower than elsewhere, but they had met in the park on Sunday and at the newsstand on Wednesday.
“It’s the third time in one week,” she said.
“What are the odds of that?”
“Hell if I know.”
He looked at her:
“The third time’s the charm.”
“And what does that mean?” She asked.
“Hell if I know.”

It wasn’t really funny. They laughed anyway.

TonyL asked Corrina if she wanted to see his newest acquisitions. Tony owned a brownstone on West End. Most evenings there were crowds of people, some quite well known, sitting in the almost over furnished living room, with a dizzying amount of things on the wall. Somebody, usually a professional musician, would be playing the grand piano.

Of course she did. Tony bought new couches the way other people bought seasonal clothes. There were always new things to see, even if you had been there a week ago.

Tony had to spend much of the cash he made. He had amazing taste for a straight man, and seemed to keep MDC the Upper West Side furniture store in business with custom orders for the brownstone or the house in Amagansett.

He liked deep roses, sea greens and other colors she associated more with women and gay men. Yet nobody would ever doubt his sexuality. He had a Jack Nicholson thing going, but always kept in shape and had work done before it was needed.

She had never felt strange going to his house, never felt that she was going somewhere sleazy.

Corrina wished he made his money some other way, but visiting Tony was the surest way to meet interesting people.

She wasn’t a customer anymore, hadn’t been for years, but knew many people who were. Tony knew who was safe to invite over, and who should only get deliveries.

Corrina didn’t understand why people did most of the drugs they did, but wasn’t going to moralize about it. She knew many middle aged mommies who were customers of Tony’s.

Tony had been in the background of Corrina’s life for so long she was always shocked when people would introduce her at parties as a “good friend of TonyL’s” They would kiss up to her to try to get an invite to one of his “salons.”

It amused her that so many parents would give rabid anti-drug lectures, yet indulge themselves. That did go against her morals. Don’t do it, but tell them you used to, or tell them you do, and be risked being killed by your own kid.

Young kids were always checking their parents for signs of alcohol intoxication by making them open their mouths and smelling. later they would more subtly check for other things.

Trying to fool teenagers was almost impossible and Corinna thought stupid. It’s hypocritical and swings against her belief that kids shouldn’t be lied to. She had seen too many families wrecked by lies and lies of omission.

Running into Tony so often this week brought up so many feelings. She knew he liked her, and she really could have liked him, if it weren’t for his line of work.

He was a studio musician in the 60’s and 70’s, who had begun this endeavor by connecting people. Now there wasn’t anybody bigger. if only he had remained a musician. One of her boyfriends had played with him. They did couple’s dinner a few times and she found herself drawn to his kindness, and inherent sexiness.

Her “relationship” with Tony had out lasted three subsequent, real, long lasting ones.

“It’s still sunny out,” he said jolting her out of her thoughts. Want to go to the park?”
“I’m never one to refuse an invitation to the park.”

A children’s playground was almost empty. They sat on the swings, and talked politics. Corrina thought why not? Maybe? No. Not a good idea.
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This is the link to Liz’s article. I use Firefox and it works for me. Liz is in the friends/family category of my real life. I never knew her mother. I do know her father and when I read the article was laughing and crying at once. Somehow the link messes up for other people. Lizzy lost her Mom way way too young, and well, read the article.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976967591

The much loved and missed Shayna had a beautiful baby boy, Carter. Congrats Shayna!!

if you have been wondering why costs in New York have spiraled this might be one part of the answer. more importantly Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD are committing gross acts against individuals who peacefully protested the 04 RNC.

Never took either Bloomberg or the NYPD for being McCarthylike. It’s a Select article. I will put it in a page in a few day as I feel very strongly about this.

As costs are spiraling out of control, there was a record budget surplus. This is continued in the rant.