On the first day of Thanksgiving week

I have no idea how to follow that title.

Lately i have been feeling like a carnival barker trying to entice people into my sideshow. “Podcast? Podcast for sale.” I don’t have a very loud voice, I’m not a warm and cuddly person, but I give good blog and good podcasts.

Tomorrow I will take New York pictures after beginning to plan my trip to the part of Puerto Rico, Lucia’s family is from. I will try to do a podcast on Wednesday, after I buy a winter coat or jacket, and the right kind of coconut custard pie for Thanksgiving. The right kind being almost hard and not too eggy. I am very into frequent vacations as a salvation for the New Yorker I’m not rich but should stop worrying about money as much as I do.

I want to eat Puerto Rican food, and stay on the ocean/sea with a long beach right there so I can spend endless hours walking. I crave beach vacations because I need the beach to work its magic and make me feel alive and whole.

I’m officially back in love with New York. Crime is going up. Lucia thought that’s a good thing as we’re rebounding from 9/11, and she might have something there.

Today is Little Luce’s sixteenth birthday. Yes, sixteen years ago today this amazing girl came into my life, and wow. We had our one and only fight when she was eight or nine over M&M’s–she thought one gray one would win 100K and I kept trying to explain that the whole bag should contain gray ones. She read very well, but her math was fuzzy, and I think this was more a math problem.

The Ralph’s gave her great make up, and a box from Crate & Barrel. after opening several more boxes, she found the blue Tiffany’s box and bag, and a beautiful pennant. Now it’s official. Every kid I know has jewelry from Tiffany’s.

Do I? I have some of their crystal paper weights because I collect all different types of glass. If you ever want to buy me a present, Aventura on Amsterdam is wonderful. If you want to go even higher, I do like some Lalique very much, and there’s a perfume store on Madison with amazing glass canisters.

I bought Little Luce personalized M&M’s. I made her guess what the present would be, and she couldn’t. Just said something you love very much and we had our one and only fight over it. We’re not exactly sophisticated humor people. Once Lucia was on a board supported by some flimsy ladders stripping her building’s lobby to its original 1898 grandeur. Little Luce and I told her that we lost the only keys to the apartment.

Okay I’m totally sick and have been one of Little Luce’s many great teachers on practical jokes. For a second it seemed as if Lucia was going to fall. I knew that she wouldn’t. Little Luce and I still laugh over that. I think that I should be embarrassed by this, but what has held Lucia’s friendship together for 30 years is the laughter. I have been laughed at too many times to even think about. As long as it’s friendly, I would never think to be insulted.

I also got Little Luce a good bike link chain as she bike rides all around Manhattan. It’s covered in neon yellow so she can find her bike if she’s accidentally out at night. She discovered for herself that the East Side is just too damn big. I used to love bike riding at her age but the only place to do it in was Central Park, in Manhattan. I didn’t realize that the park had steep hills.

The Upper West Side only has a few Avenues. When I lived off Fifth, it would take me 12 minutes to cross the park and I would be on Central Park West. If i went via Central Park South, it would take me eleven minutes to get to the old Gulf & Western building, then Paramount, now Trump Hotel with Jean George and Nougatine. I worked in it when it was the Paramount building. I go to the two restaurants I mentioned for those times we don’t want take out and want something special. The rooms are very light. It doesn’t feel like Paris or even Tribeca but the West Side near Central Park South and the Time Warner Mall which is one of the few malls that I actually enjoy. While I can picture the Coliseum, the Mall is much nicer

I’m not ready to leave. The new city is beginning to hold me hostage. Many of the quality of life changes did make going out more bearable and nothing is dark and dingy. Cafe Luxemburg has incredible lobster rolls, and I do give a lot for a good one. Even the lobster salad at Citeralla has gotten better. Yes, food plays a big role in my Manhattan.

When I told my twelve year old niece that the Ralph’s 21 year old daughter Katie is a very luxe handbag and shoe store, all she said was “the discount. The discount.” Jacqueline got all “A”s on her report card, and she goes to one of the top public schools in America, though my sister and I have serious reservations about that as we went there and it was touted “best,” and we didn’t find it so.

I’m bursting with pride and happiness, though. Somebody in our family is comfortable in that middle school.

My sister bought my parents house, in part to go through all my father’s papers–he kept everything. When we thought that he was steady dating our mother he was getting letters from four girls and answering them.

My father’s family would rent a cheap hotel in the Catskills and manage it all summer. He was a waiter. Families would come out for two to four weeks. He was young, handsome I think, a college student, and a very good catch.

Knowing my father I think he thought that they wanted to be friends, and obviously our mother came out the winner. I know that he was so shy he would make his best friend, Norm the lawyer, call her. I might just be seeing what I want to see.

My sister’s all, “I can’t believe daddy had all these girls,” upset for my mother but I think it just added to the romance.

I can see my mother gathering her wits and knocking them all out of the competition.

EW left a comment saying that Murdoch, apparently pulled the plug on Regan and OJ. Now Thanksgiving can really begin. Oh yes, it really was.

Maybe the American people are beginning to wake up.

It’s always been known that the city doesn’t get its fair share of state aid for school. Took a man named Robert Jackson who I have interviewed and respect, and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity to win a law suit.

I am in a really good mood because the Regan project was pulled. It was unconscionable. I must take to my bed as I’m emotionally drained.

I really am a very social person though not warm and cuddly. I have to remember that in the past two year I underwent seven oral surgeries, seven rounds of antiobitics, seven bouts of healing. It took its toll and I’m just beginning to be me again.

I really feel about Regan as I felt about the Democratic taking both houses. Yes, I love it. It’s the next morning and I jumped out of bed basically because the drilling began at 7:30, and am still feeling the way I felt yesterday though with a dire headache.

It’s a building rule that nobody can move in or out on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, nor can there be construction. I would assume that the rule holds true for building construction.

Though in our building, as in life, rules are made to be broken.