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| Long Beach harbor from our hotel room, December 31, 2012 |
My readers, all of them, must have thought the hurricane did us in. Why else haven't I written anything for this blog since November? Guess I've been busy. Christmas we spent here in L'ville, but in late December we flew to California. We had tickets to the Rose Bowl game. Featuring Wisconsin and Stanford--of course we were rooting for the Cards. They came through, our first thrill. Got to spend some time with my sister, walking the beaches of Laguna. South Pasadena, and then up to the Bay Area. Saw Holly and Mary in Palo Alto. I remember a charming Muni tram ride down to Dogpatch to eat breakfast at Just For You. We had a great breakfast in the Mission with Riley and Michelle, also got to see his apt.
Back home in February I started auditing two classes at Princeton. One was for all auditors, a class discussing various notable memoirs, from Nabokov to Mary McCarthy and Joan Didion. The other featured lectures on connections of Italian modern literature with gastronomy, from Svevo to Moravia. I got a little more out of the first class, since we could participate, whereas for the second one I was really just listening for nuggets here and there.
In March Bill and I took Amtrak to Boston. We had a great dinner with Vicki and Steve at the Atlantic Fish Company. Attended a lot of great readings and lectures at AWP (the reason we were there...). Dinner with Renato Rosaldo was another lovely evening. Quite a bit of snow. Right after I got home I gave a reading at the Princeton Public Library sponsored by the Delaware Valley Poets and U.S. 1 Poets Collective. My co-reader was Vasiliki Katsauru. I had been looking forward to this reading for several months, it was sort of my "Princeton debut." It seemed to go really well--I sold lots of books!
Easter weekend we spent with Karen and Fede and the girls. First Bill and I stayed in Lancaster, a
really interesting city with a small museum dedicated to the painter Charles Demuth and a fabulous farmers' market in a huge brick building. We met up with family in Hershey, then again in Gettysburg. The last day we took the CD-audio tour, starting and stopping at various points around the battlefield like Little Round Top and Devil's Den. Definitely a place we'd like to go back to.
April has been swimming by. We joined a gym (called Can Do) and there's a great pool there. Have also explored Pilates. Neither of us would call ourselves "in shape" yet. Tomorrow we're heading up to Guilford to attend the premiere of "Letter from Italy," an oratorio by Nan's sister, libretto by Nan. I just know it's going to be terrific, and it will be great to see folks.
So...what have I been thinking? Poems most recently about my family, they are starting to surface. I'd like to write more dramatic monologues about historical figures, maybe more about my ancestors, too. Lots of material, have to get organized so it can spill out.
We arrived in Gilmanton in early August, spent a few lovely evenings at a new place called The Landing, on Chris and Heather's property near our house, where they had cleared away vegetation at this fabulous view spot. On August 10 we all saw a lovely sunset. The next morning, Sunday, August 11, Heather had a massive heart attack and died. Our dear friend Heather. Only 63. Very hard to believe. The summer proceeded on, there was an anniversary party for Linda and Pat planned for that very evening--we all came to cheer them up but everyone was thinking of Heather. The weather was lovely for the service we held for her at Loon Pond the next weekend--even the loons showed up. We had a very nice visit with Bruce and Janet at Kittery Point on our way home.
