Rabbit, Rabbit!!! I was scared to put this in yesterday in case it cursed it by doing it early.

I was shamed into doing the beginning of this post. Shameless self promotion, what a quaint blogging term.
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You really can’t buy this kind of publicity:

Courting Destiny This writer is absolutely amazing. She may be too busy, but I hope not.

Thanks Riley!

I used to have a page of good things bloggers said about me. I gave equal time to the ones who didn’t like me. I had the quote in The Christian Science Monitor out. Tried linking to the group interview in Newsday but, uh, they wanted me to buy it, and I have never bought a newspaper article that has my name in it. I do keep out the paper that loves me’s cover because I just find it so darn adorable.

I suppose that I should be more publicity-oriented but staying under the radar suits me right now as I am focusing on my book when not obsessing about throwing away money each month.

One person thought the four figures I give my building was rent. No it’s money I pay on top of having bought the apartment outright.

i did that because I sensed that real estate was going to go to the sky. My bank kept offering me a mortgage and I never even inquired. Now real estate in most of the rest of the country is going down and in New York it might go up a bit. I’m not selling yet.

The condo in North Myrtle was so organized that cleaning four and a half rooms took at most half hour a day and was fun.
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When I came home I thought I was depressed and had one of many revelations.

I wasn’t depressed. I was sad.

That was before I saw a book in B&N about people buying into thinking they’re depressed when they’re sad, which is a natural thing and can be easily helped without medication.

So I acted which is, I think, the only thing that can solve sadness.

i spent the week organizing my apartment. I have done everything but one dresser in my one closet that is 6′ by 12′ so I really can’t complain, get rid of clothes, and uh, the storage cage in the basement. But those things can wait or be done when in between other things.

Any more time spent organizing and I will be procrastinating. It was sad to leave a duplex for six hundred square feet, or two and a half rooms with a granite kitchenette and a marble Doris Day/Rock Hudson bathroom.

When I finally sell, I will come back to New York often.
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I have been having a perfect New York weekend. Yesterday afternoon I took a nap because all this organizing uses parts of my brain that haven’t been used in years. Lucia called while I was still sleeping but before I would have overslept and been too tired to go out.

I met her and Little Luce at their apartment. The building only has about 20 apartments. Everybody knows everybody and it’s what people think of when they think of the Upper West Side. As we had friends living there 30 years ago, i know all the older tenants and most of the new ones. It feels a lot like home.

I say “it’s me” and have checked to make sure that I’m “0″ on speed dial, on the landline. “0″ is the really coveted spot because it’s the operator, and was my mother on mine for many years.

We went to a new sorely needed Italian wood burning pizza restaurant, and sat in the tiled and brick covered terrace that faces the street. They were prepping before filming a new thriller On the hook

It used to be that filming a movie was a tortured experience for the pedestrians that passed by. I would be on my own street, and a lowly PA would physically stop me from walking up the block. Never stopped me for more than 30 seconds. i do feel that people come before film shoots.

Now they’re more humane. They only stop people when they’re actually shooting. They only shoot for about a minute, and they try to let you pass even if filming. Yes, the people of New York won that one.

It was interesting to watch from a table because they were doing the light to simulate daylight. I see that often and assume it’s because night light can be used to make the exact lighting they want. There was a time in my life I would have Googled this, called the union, and found out everything I could.

Now I like the magic.

People began screaming from apartments for the noise to end as Elliot Gould was being filmed, and filmed, and filmed. Don’t know how many takes they took.

He wasn’t noisy, but some machines were.

Tomorrow the first overhaul of New York noise laws, in 30 years, will go into affect.

I don’t think that construction noise will be affected, but I’m getting my revenge on the penthouse next door anyway. They have incredible furniture that was obviously custom made. My building is on its second summer of pointing work on my line, and the dust goes into the deck also. Revenge can be sweet. Of course I sit here sneezing from the dust edging its way in as I have the windows open because it’s too beautiful for air conditioning.

After dinner I walked the eight blocks and two avenues home which is only a bit over half mile. A mile is 20 city blocks. Avenues are measured differently, and have differing widths.
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This morning Lucia came over and we walked on the Hudson River Parks to the West 30’s and back up. At one point we were walking in a bike only road, but didn’t see a pedesterian one, nor did it say “bikes only, no peds” anywhere. We were given a friendly warning by a policewoman. I wish I had my camera or a phone with me, and should next time, in case I’m given a ticket. Actually, exactly where she stopped us, it said “yield to peds” so uh…..

Then we went to the 79th Street Boat Basin for brunch. They only have white toast. How weird is that?

This is why I generally don’t write about my day. It’s not exactly fascinating. And I talk about things like toast.

We tried buying tickets for a New York Waterways Fourth of July fireworks cruise but we should have tried months ago. And don’t even ask about this.
Dylan in Bethel.

For all you Wikipedian’s, Bethel was the site of Max Yasgur’s farm where Woodstock, the one and only was.

However Lucia and I are determined to go to every thing we can. New York’s at its best in summer. The new river parks are everything I have dreamed of. They have many activities and we plan…..We’re also into a boat thing.

This morning we toured a tiny wooden boat that came here from Germany. They’re raising money to go to Scandinavia. I had neither camera nor phone nor can be trusted to photograph the right things. Also I have panic attacks when walking down staircases without good bannister’s or ones I’m not familiar with. it is part of my inability to judge space properly.

Now that I know there’s a physical cause, I wish I had let myself believe what I always intuitively knew years ago. It’s amazing the changes a bit of faith in oneself brings.

I’m listening to a Dylan song that sounds an awful lot like Tom Waits. I have to admit Dylan’s voice is uh easier on the ears. Yes I am that weird. I love Tom Waits and will come back to New York the next time he performs at The Beacon. I’m beginning to love Dylan again.

I count the years
and I shed no tears….

The games gotten old…
I’m going to have put you down for awhile

Dylan’s amazing. When I was in Junior High, he lived in the Marlin Hotel on Eighth Street. My great aunt, or my mother’s much older cousin, I was never quite sure of the relationship, managed and lived in apartment in it. My father and I went to visit her, and I won’t tell the rest of the story.
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Cooper get over the yuck crab factor. I have been kind of forced to watch people trap them and then we would cook and eat them.
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Stumble it!

Rabbit, Rabbit
a href="http://fridayflashback.blogspot.com">

In June 1968, the country was in turmoil. On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. On June 6, Robert Kennedy was.

I was seventeen and had always cared passionately about politics and our nation.

At seventeen I cared much more about my love life. No I’m not giving details here. The book is about my late adolescence through my early 20’s.

It wasn’t the book that I set out to write. But it’s the book that’s moving along.

And so I go to Myrtle Beach, deathly afraid of sitting in coach, because I have gotten sick after riding in coach but never in first class.

However the flight is just under two hours and I have never gotten sick after a short flight. I guess the eight Aeroflot rides in the Former Soviet Union, which began this vicious bronchial cycle count as one ride.

I am going to try not to blog next week as blogging can be a good excuse not to write.

Also, I feel out of words. I will never consult a book that tells me what to blog as that, to me, would be defeating the purpose of using a new medium my way.

As I said I’m out of words. I do hope I’m not out of book writing words. There is always my Sally Brompton horoscope to inspire. It’s on the sidebar

Actually I’m not out of words as much as angry. Somebody, not the health insurance company, cashed my May check. It’s not due until the 25th but I always pay it early. Yes I know, never use a check.

When I saw that the account was delinquent, I called. After almost an hour on hold, I was told somebody would call me back. I insisted on speaking to somebody who could help me,

That’s when I found out that they were going to cut me off today. But I Fedexed them a check.

Two things I don’t understand: the envelope was metered 5/24. If it wasn’t due until the 25th how could it be delinquent?

If I paid in April and that check was supposed to be for June, how could they cut me off in June?

I asked if having paid every bill on time or more usually early counts for something. Yes, they wouldn’t report me to a credit agency.

Since they were going to cut off my service and I had paid for the month of June, shouldn’t I be reporting them somewhere?

I learned yesterday that it truly doesn’t matter if you play by every rule. When I asked at the pharmacy for a good health insurance company, the pharmacist said “they all suck. And cut people off for little reason.”

Stumble it!

It’s true. Frequent breaks are needed. Continue Reading »

Stumble it!