Here Are

some more great things I did with my mother!

Debby and Alex and I met my cousin Moses down on Wall Street, and learned about the plot of land on the corner that J.P. Morgan bought for ridiculous amounts of money and then built a little one story building on, and about why that is the height of WASPiness.

Then we went out to Brooklyn, saw some pretty buildings I had seen before but forgotten about, went and hung out at Moses's* apartment with his two adorable cats, chatted about many exciting things, ate at an Afro-Caribbean place (yum), and returned home!

Here is another thing we did: Looked all over for a radio for several days. This is so true! Nobody carries plain old radios anymore! All the radios nowadays have GPS and flashlights and recording devices and sirens and goodness knows what else! Probably they can make spaghetti! Also, they cost like a hundred dollars. Debby thought it was very important that I have a radio, so after several days of futile keeping-our-eyes-out, we looked up a Radio Shack on Queens Blvd. and went there and bought their last radio, which was fancy and $40 and a floor model, which they refused to give us a discount on for being a floor model, which, what? Who doesn't give discounts for floor models? Wth? Anyway, then we walked half a block back towards my house and went into one of those stores that sells everything and found an $8 radio that was mostly just a radio and bought it and went to return the Radio Shack radio, and my mother ended up on the phone to the regional manager or something, because it turned out to be so difficult to return, even though the guy who sold it to us recognized us from five minutes before.

During this process, I mostly sat and watched Transformers 2, which was showing in the store, and god, what a terrible movie that movie is.

Here is another thing we did! It was in between that place that let us eat from the lunch menu and seeing Everyday Rapture! We walked out to the Hudson River and looked at the USS Whatever, with all the planes and missiles and stuff, which was terrifying, and sat near a dog run and watched the dogs and chatted and talked on the phone to Moses to arrange hanging out with him the next day. Notice how out of order this synopsis is! I like to think it enhances the drama, in some kind of vague, exciting postmodern way. Or maybe it dismantles the drama, and that is the point! Fragments and prisms and shards, oh my!**

Also, Debby brought my beautiful purple sweater that she had been knitting for me, and she finished it and I tried it on and it was beautiful. Also, we skyped with my sister for an hour and a half, which was super fun, because I like my sister. She is great! Now everybody should take a minute and think about how great my sister is. She is so great!

Also, Tom cooked something delicious, involving, I think, if I remember correctly, toasted bread with some kind of confited meat and emulsion sauce and lettuce and mushrooms cooked in that amazing French way he cooks them where he just puts in a little water and butter and puts parchment paper on top and suddenly they are the best thing you have ever tasted. I forget what it is called in French. Also, chocolate chip cookies, which I have still not gotten from him to give the recipe to my mom. Also I have to give her the recipe for zourgas, which are these serious chocolate cupcake-shaped flourless delicious things Tom invented and Alex named.

Also, we met my first cousin twice removed Doris, who is 98 and sharp as a tack and also funny! We chatted for a couple hours about politics and family and finances and the poor care she's getting at the rehab place she is at and movies and probably other stuff but I can't remember. It was great. I am to visit when she gets back home, sometime soon. I will give her a call after I get back from camp, probably. After we hung out with Doris, we got lunch at a diner (I had acceptable-but-not-great eggs benedict, and I forget what Debby had) and then proceeded to the airtrain to JFK, where I waved good-bye!

*Usually it is correct to leave off the possessive "s" after the apostrophe when dealing with words that end in "s." However, with certain Greco-Roman and Biblical names, it is appropriate to include the "s." Or at least that's what Strunk and White say. I don't know why. And actually, this guy hates The Elements of Style a lot, for very convincing reasons. (You won't have to read very far on that blog, probably, before coming across a take-down of that little manual - there are plenty to be found!) But I still like using that last "s" according to their somewhat arbitrary prescriptions.

**Can you tell that I have a serious love-hate relationship with postmodernism? Don't even get me started.