Social butterfly

On a perfect day, there is no place more perfect than Manhattan. Today I had an event in the Hudson River Park, at the beautiful new Pier 41. The morning was relaxed, the sun was strong and warm, the river beautiful. Sailboats raced container ships, the fireboat passed by, streaming water in high-pressure salute. Swimmers pencil-dived off the pier into the chilly Hudson (part of the event, not a regular feature of river life). It was stunning.

Then, nasty work stuff, but when it was over the day was still unspeakably gorgeous. Despite the best efforts of the attorneys from Evil Incarnate to f up my week, I did not need my non-refundable one-way ticket from the Big Apple (Newark, actually) to the Salt City (Syracuse, don’t ya know). Unable to trade it on the street for a ticket to the playoffs, I found myself able to follow through on oft-cancelled plans to finally meet up with a very old friend, former colleague and even roommate. Despite having been around me at an extremely messy time of my life, she’s kept in touch through the years. So it was a delight to see her again at the Daily Orange reunion, though our time to talk there was limited. So tonight we finally got together for dinner, along with a delightful friend of hers, and had a perfectly civilized evening at an excellent restaurant in Greenwich Village, the Grange Hall. Fabulous Northeastern food, I had a salmon in a “Hudson Valley apple” sauce that was incredible, with sweet acorn squash on the side. Then we wandered along Bleecker to The Bitter End, where we were treated to another DO alum playing in a kick-ass fun band called The Mar-Tays. Swinging blues, I guess you would say, some old Leon Russell stuff and a blow-the-roof-off-the-dump cover of Elton’s “Border Song” (think “Holy Moses”). Really rocked, and the singer really had the depth for the material. Wild to be in a small, hot place listening to live music again — hardly ever get to do that in my life. Thank you, Smoking Ban, for making that enjoyable again.

So, a wonderful day. The Elton cover made me long for more, but I only had “Madman on the Water” on the iPod. So now I’m on to Eliza Gilkyson. A completely different thing, but can that woman sing.

Hannah has a habit of reading in the dark (one I understand and share, but it’s not good for her eyes). Yesterday morning when I went into her room, I dramatically poised my finger on the switch of her desklamp and asked her, “Hannah, what did Thomas Edison invent?”

With eyes open wide, in her sweetest dolly voice, she asked, “Butterflies?”