Old Age Day by Day March 27, 2013

Yesterday was pretty dismal.  There was a mixup about my dental appointment, and, though I can't bear to repeat myself again, suffice to say I ended up weeping on the phone, and they got me in after insisting I couldn't be seen this week.  I've had it.  I've made an appointment in May with a new dentist, and whatever was wrong with this guy, I give up figuring it out, because I lost my confidence in him.  Actually, his technician is rude on the phone, and says too much, then he gets on and acts all nice.  It seems to be a good cop/bad cop kind of thing.  I just want to be treated couteously, and when something needs to be done quickly, have them make room for me.  Maybe that kind of care doesn't exist any more.  I notice all the dentists work only four days, and seem to not have a backup dentist for emergencies.  Anyway, I have a filling, which I hope lasts until May.

The roof is done!  They cleaned up well, but left a note on the front door saying they didn't put back all the heavy stuff outside because "they didn't remember where it belongs".  I was inside the house, but they didn't ring the doorbell to ask me.  How convenient.  The light stuff was moved back.  I can't lift these heavy pots, and when my husband comes home this evening, I don't even know if he and I can lift them together.  I'm going to try this excuse at home:  "Oh, I can't do the laundry because I don't remember where the washing machine is, oh, I can't vacuum, because I can't remember where I put it".

On a less dismal and cynical note, all is now quiet on the western front, and I again can hear the chirping of birds.  Peace reigns.

Old Age Day by Day March 26, 2013

I'm reading a terrific book about weather manipulation.  It's a thriller by this guy, Lilliefors,  who wrote "Viral".  I learned so much about genetic engineering of viruses and history of world governments work on such things.  Now I'm learning about how the weather can and is being manipulated, and the consequences of messing around with old mother nature.  Each book has the same two protagonists:  Charlie Mallory, who has worked with the CIA, and Jon Mallory, his younger brother, who is a journalist.  It's fun stuff, and so well written and informative.

I also bought a slew of magazines, my lifelong vice, to distract me from the fact I cannot eat solid food until my front tooth gets fixed.  Last night I had soup, and I couldn't even eat those little golfish kind of crackers with it.  I'm going to hope he fills this darn thing at 4 today.  Anything.  He can give me a black tooth or shiny gold, I have no vanity left. 

It's a beautiful, sunny day today, but did the workers come to finish the roof.  Of course not.  Why get done when you can string it out as long as possible?  They are waiting until later in the week when it rains.  What they mainly have to do is the gutters, but why put them in before the rains when you can do it after?  I think I've got the logic down, finally.

Oh, well, these are trivial problems.  I'm going to take a walk and get out the world.  I just can't eat.

Old Age Day by Day March 25m 2013

My husband is up at our cabin, so I watched the last two episodes of "Little Dorrit" and the last two parts of "Our Mutual Friend", two of my favorite Dickens' novels and terrific BBC productions from a few years ago.  Dickens' greatness is still amazing to me.  He tackles the poor, the invisible and also the rich and their venality.  He's comic, melodramatic, tender and touching.  His plots are intricate and among the best ever devised.  I cry, laugh, and sigh.  "Little Dorrit" has a theme about how the rich ride on the backs of the poor, and it's as true today as it was then.  "Our Mutual Friend", his greatest novel, is about capitalism itself, and how the addiction to money undermines our very humanity.  It also includes some characters not unlike the hedge fund criminals, and it explicates economic bubbles lucidly.  Money is a corrupter in his world and ours.  His sympathy for those in its clutches never waivers.  I grew up reading and rereading "Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations", seeing them as romantic and idealistic.  They are more than that, but they helped give me the foundations for a moral code I constructed for myself.  And reading Dickens inclined me toward the mysteries I read - especially ones where there is a social injustice being addressed.  Dickens is sublime in portraying the dark side and the light, the grace and the curse.  He embraces all parts of humanity with a clear eye, an eye with a tear in it.

Old Age Day by Day March 24, 2013

Well, my veneer on my tooth came off for the third time, and of course it was on the weekend, and I have to hope my dentist gets me in next week sooner than later.  I've had a lot of grief over this tooth, and I cannot chew right and am afraid of the rest of the tooth breaking off.  I had trouble sleeping last night worrying about it.  Is something wrong with this new dentist, or is it just being old and things falling apart?  Who knows?  I have another dentist's name if this guy is difficult this next time. 

In the meantime the weather is crisp but sunny, and I'm about to take a walk to deliver flowers to a good friend, as today is her birthday.  I just helped my husband pack up for the cabin.  He and the dogs are off for three days.  I'd say it will be quiet here but for the fact that the roofers will be continuing their racket tomorrow.  I might as well have it quiet today while I can. 

Old Age Day by Day March 23, 2013

I had my Buddhist study group this morning.  I was telling about taking my granddaughters to an aquarium, and we carefully planned our day around seeing a live albatross in the afternoon.  We got there in time to see well, and my older granddaughter got to be the "assistant", and afterwards my younger went up to the lady in charge and talked about recycling.  We were in awe of the albatross, who was being fed fish from her trainer and sat elegantly on the cart they wheeled out.  She was huge and amazing.  Then a couple of hours later we were with an interpretive specialist looking at things like an otter fur, when she asked us what we'd seen and we began talking about the albatross.  She told us we were lucky, because often she balks at going on display, and she only comes out once or twice a week.  I realized then that I had taken the bird for granted, as if she were some Disney toy, and I now realized her agency, that she had feelings and some power and the trainer was respecting her needs.  I felt a rush of gratitude, because it had not been a given we would see her at two pm, after all, she was not at our beck and call, and we were fortunate that we saw her and she felt like seeing us.  My expectations had not included thinking of the animal or the efforts by trainers and others to protect her rather than entertain us.  She was not without will and we had not valued her effort at all.  But I do now.  Expectations can blind us to what is going on.  I was blessed that the specialist offered such an important lesson to me.

Old Age Day by Day March 22, 2013

I went my my friend and her mom to an art museum's spring flowers show, and it was spectacular.  The flowers make the art look dull and dead in comparison.  Some bouquets are architectural, some are echoing a particular painting's colors, some copy the shape and form of the painting and some express the feeling of the work.  The imagination these florists exhibit is amazing.  There must be at least a hundred or more bouquets, some huge, some tiny.  It was crowded, but worth the effort.  It was traffic laden to get there, the parking lot was full, but somehow we ended up with a space, and the crowds enormous, but it still feels like a treat - a party you so glad you attended.  My mind is filled still with images of strange orchids, white and lavender lilacs, tulips of amazing variety, roses, each one perfect, and every flower, succulent and branch or greenery under the sun.  Runniculas were everywhere, bright and hothouse looking, picking up the light in the rooms. 

The roofers are banging away, and the end may be in sight.  They'll finish Monday and then do the gutters.  Maybe.  I have, up until now, avoided having debris rain on my head, stepped over tarps and tools and rubble and managed to get in and out of my house without harm.  I can now read with the house shaking and a noise like and earthquake.  I am not yet coughing.  All is well in demolition land.

Old Age Day by Day March 20, 2013

Have you ever just felt off, for no reason and acted like an insensitive clod?  I did last night, and said and and did things I wish I hadn't.  I was unawake to my interactions.  We were with the kids, and it doesn't happen that often, and I just feel, in retrospect, that I said and did the wrong thing, and was untuned to them.  I'm not sure why.  I felt so happy meeting them all, and then I didn't act it.  Our daughter had been so sweet to pick us up, and then I made a couple of dumb jokes that were not sensitive to her, then I let her walk to her car and didn't offer her my umbrella.  I didn't pick up on our older son's needing some help about dropping off wine at our friend's house, and had not brought my phone so I could call her.  It turned out they were home, but we could see no lights.  So we had to lug the wine boxes up our stairs.  My husband made the kids pay for their meals, and I feel they'd helped us and we should have paid.  Maybe the rain shut down my brain. 

All I can do now is apologize, and try to be more aware next time.  I feel I'm losing my social skills, because so often I'm not with other people.  My antennae are broken. 

Today I see my granddaughter and we are going to a garden nursery we both like to visit.  I hope my mind and heart open back up and stay awake.  The rain is helping the plants, but so far, it has put me to sleep!

Old Age Day by Day March 19, 2013

My husband and I are betting on whether it rains today.  My paper says no, his yes.  We are a bit sore from working in the back yard yesterday.  We pulled out these rotting wooden planters by a wooden path to the studio, and planted what was left of the plants that the dogs has decimated in the front yard, where they can't get to them.  It looks better.  Now I need to get rid of this crocodile that my brother sent as a funny garden gift, and hope it does rain, so the ground can even out.  In the meantime, I'm going to tackle some sewing and putz around.  Tonight we are meeting the kids nearby for dinner.

I'm reading a book my friend suggested:  For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.  It's pretty interesting and is dense with information about Japan, the tsunami, eology and Buddhism.  I can't help feeling tht it echoes the writing of Haruki Murakami, but I shouldn't let that bother me, as I adore his writing.  It's definitely worth reading, and I'm curious how I'll feel at the end.  I'm not in love with it yet.

Old Age Day by Day March 18, 2013

Last night, we watched "Amistad", Spielburg's movie about the anti-slavery case in 1839.  It's a great movie.  Then I had a dream this morning about Christopher Plummer having his daughter Michelle Williams in chains.  That's either very kinky or just plain trivializing.  Oh well, I never said my mind was a temple of purity.  I really love the cast in "Amistad".  Djumou Honsu deserved the best actor Oscar, and Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConnehy, Morgan Freeman, others deserved supporting Oscars.  It also has my fave, Chitel Edjefor, as the translator, and he's great.  Nobody does history films better than Spielburg.  Lincoln is coming out next week, and I think Munich is a great film.  I was telling my husband about Robert Redford's "Conspiracy", about the round up of a group associated with John Wilkes Booth, and the story of the mother of one of them who was hanged, though her son hid, and when he was found was not hanged.  A powerful tale of lynch mob mentality, and people who get caught up as symbols and forgotten as the human beings they are.  That movie got no real press, I think because it made viewers so uncomfortable.

Yesterday I went shopping with my younger daughter, and we had fun.  I love looking at the colors.  At my age, most clothes are not for me, which actually makes shopping so much more pleasant.  It's like a visual treat with no pressure to buy.  I was thrilled with all the yellow clothing, and convinced my daughter to get her shirt in that hue.  I also love all the orange.  I'd never wear either color with my coloring, but my mom's yellow suit still stands out in my mind.  With her blond hair, brown eyes and ruddy coloring, she looked so great.  I saved that suit until an infestation of moths from our neighbors hit us and ate up all my mom's wool clothes.  But I still think of it as the most wonderful item she ever owned, and more beautiful than anything I've ever had.  I guess if I had to pick one of my outfits, I used to have a purple suede fringed cowboy jacket when I lived in Colorado.  I loved that thing.  I gave it to my older daughter and I think it disintegrated eventually.  I still have a vintage coat in teal-green wool with black velvet strips on the back.  I call it my Kim Kovak coat, it's swingy with tight sleeves.  I wear it with a black velvet sheath dress, and feel elegant indeed.  It gets worn about once every three or four years. 

Old Age Day by Day March 16, 2013

Another glorious day.  We want to see an art show, so we'll be inside part of it, but oh, well.  I made falafel last night for the first time, and it was delicious.  I bore myself so thoroughly with my cooking, so that little effort to come up with something new is appreciated, by me.  Hey, if you can't appreciate yourself, who will?  I talked briefly to my granddaughter on the phone last night.  She was too excited by the board game I'd sent her to want to speak with me.  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.  Anyway, I was pleased by her enthusiasm.  I sent Uncle Wiggly and also a game involving robin's eggs.  She's at a great age for board games now, though still needing someone to read her the rules and play it through with her a couple of times.  In my era, without computers etc, board games were a major part of our leisure time, and we had games set up for days on end.  I still have a ton up at the cabin, where there is no TV, DVD player, computer hookup or any other way to isolate yourself.  We play Boggle, Scrabble, Bananas, Monopoly, Clue and card games like Spit and Hearts and Gin Rummy.  I look forward to it. 

With just my husband and I board games aren't much fun, but we do play Scrabble.  He loves Suduku, which is solitary.  Sometimes I do crosswords, but I prefer those with another person.  So games are a treat these days.

Old Age Day by Day March 15, 2013

I was just looking over a wedding album sent to me.  Such beautiful, joyful pictures.  They were married far away, but the photos bring me there, sharing the moment with them.  It's pretty amazing technology.  I just woke up from a nap.  I was so tired this afternoon, and I'd had an argument with a friend yesterday, and we tried to clarify things on the phone last night, and it was exhausting.  It will be okay in the long run, but it was draining.  It's a long time friendship so I'm hanging in there, and each time we misunderstand each other I learn a bit more about how we do and don't relate.  We are very different people, united by shared passions.  Our differences often get in our way.  By next week I'll be ready to take a walk again.  But honestly, I will be guarded, and there will be a list in my head of where not to go in subject matter and response.  She's fragile and I have more power than I want when I'm with her.  I need to hold back, and sponteniety is not wise.  But if my object is non-harming, then I must adjust for whomever I'm with, and be alert.  I need to remember that.

Old Age Day by Day March 14, 2013

I've survived the noise and general tear down of the roof pretty well so far.  I know I'm going to appreciate the quiet afterward.  Today I'm taking a walk with a friend then seeing the documentary "The Gatekeepers" with another friend.  Yesterday my friend and granddaughter and I went to an animal shelter where my friend works and looked at dogs and cats.  There were a lot of puppies, and we each had our favorite.  I liked one with rabbit ears and dusty brown fur that was part corgi part mystery.  There were two dogs who hadn't been taken and had been there months:  a hyperactive shepherd mix and a boxer/pit bull mix.  The poor shepherd was going to need a lot of training, though he had a beautiful coat.  He was leaping up on the door constantly.  The boxer mix was sweet and mellow, but the pit bull part scares people off.  There were many goofy small dogs, and a couple of huge cats and then lots of cats ignoring us all.  I bought new collars and bandanas for my dogs.  And we all three struggled with wanting to take every animal home.  At least it is a no kill shelter and they have great places and lots of volunteers.  We saw one couple adopting a pup that had lost one of their two dogs the day before and went right out to replace her.  They brought their dog with them, and found one that looked like a sibling.  Very cute, mellow dogs with curly tails.  We were happy about that.  Then we went out for ice cream and discussed the dogs. 

Old Age Day by Day March 12, 2013

I got up extra early today because our house is being reroofed.  But they didn't show up until 9 am.  The place is already a mess, but in two weeks it should be back to normal.  The dogs have something to watch now, so I'm sure they're gratified.  We'll see how noisy it is.  I'm going out to lunch with a friend, so that should help.  I may need more mysteries to get through this. 

Last night I watched a movie I like and my husband doesn't, since he is away.  "The International" with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts.  It has no romance, but is a tightly plotted thriller that has a really scary message about banks, a message that they are brokering arms deals and other ways of gaining power, none of which have to do with lending money to ordinary people.  The film is exaggerated, but it's a warning that should be heeded.  It's a thinking person's thriller.

I spoke for a long time with my childhood friend yesterday.  Now that we are both retired, we have more time to connect, and it's been really nice.  We're on different coasts, so the old fashioned phone call suits both of us.  I learn more about my long ago self from her, and see the threads from teenage years that follow me today.  Useful information.

Old Age Day by Day March 11, 2013

I did not sleep well last night.  This darned daylight savings thing!  I didn't even try until 10:45 pm, but still did not feel sleepy one bit, and I tossed and turned all night.  Last night on PBS I saw an inspiring documentary about two 9/11 widows who decided to raise money to help war widows in Afganistan.  It was touching and brave of them, and the lives of Afgani women are so hard, that I wondered why I didn't get off my duff and do something for others.  Most of my life I have volunteered and helped, and it's time to do something.  I'm priviledged to have time and resources.  I need to get in gear again.

I need to get back into safehouse work or at least tutor in a school or something.  I'm going to figure something out this week.

Old Age Day by Day March 10, 2013

Spring forward.  Or more likely, crawl forward, losing an hour's sleep and totally getting disoriented.   Why, why do they do this?  It makes no sense.  I already should have walked the dogs and I have to call my daughter in an hour and I'm not dressed yet.  It's a subtle kind of torture, but it works.  Luckily, since it is sunny and warm, I'll focus on the spring part, and hopefully forget about hurling forward.

We watched an interesting PBS show last night on Apache women firefighters in Arizona.  The women were strong and confident and courageous.  It was a story well worth telling that I had never heard about before.  Talk about taking care of the land, these ladies make sure their nest is safe.  They don't hand over their power to officials, they know who loves her momma best.  I felt inspired.  I feel that way about the land around our cabin.  It is a treasure that is worth preserving, with 100 plus trees and abundant wildlife, including bears, coyotes, bobcats, deer and the birds.  So many beautiful birds.  It's their habitat too, and it is irreplaceble. 

Old Age Day by Day March 9, 2013

Knock on wood - I think the flu is over.  I'm going to continue to take it easy, because I do not want this thing back, but I feel pretty good.  Today I might venture out on my own.  Yesterday I saw Zero Dark Thirty with my husband, as he was curious about what I'd think about it.  What I think is this:  it's a well crafted action film, without a lot of editorializing.  I closed my eyes through the torture, but maybe we should all see that this is what our country was (is?) doing.  Jessica Chastain is excellent, but I think Jennifer Lawrence or Emmanelle Riva had better performances.  Chastain is too beautiful, and it is distracting.  her hair is too gorgeous, and I didn't entirely buy her as her character.  I was so enthralled by looking at her that I was taken out of the film.  I stick by Lincoln, Life of Pi, the Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild being better movies, and the later being the most radically innovative.  Argo won because it's a fairy tale and self reflective for Hollywood.

But what do I know?

Old Age Day by Day March 8, 2013

I had my veneer fall out again while I was eating dinner last night, so off I went in the dark to the dentist, and it got glued again.  But neither of us expects it to last.  Next step is a composite filling, then a crown.  After having a fever all day, last night I slept better, atop three pillows, and other than a coughing fit upon waking, I've been feeling better so far today.  As long as I lie in bed quietly and only eat through a straw, perhaps crises can be averted.  However, it is sunny today, and I am itching to get out.  How long can I voluntarily incarcerate myself?  Hummmm.

I feel like at least getting a bouquet of spring flowers and looking at bunnies and chicks.  I really, really like spring.  But I have a lot to atone for.  When I was a kid, my parents several times got us baby chicks or ducks, dyed green and blue in some cases.  Then, as they got bigger, they told us they took them to a "farm" and one time, at our insistence, drove us to see thousands of white ducks on a hillside.  I recognized mine immediately.  Wilber looked healthy and happy, and winked at me.  Yes, I have an abnormal faith in humanity.  And you can convince me of almost anything.  My brother was more skeptical.  But you know boys, always about mayhem and plots.  Full of paranoia.  I listened to my parents.

I of course have never perpetrated such a hoax on my children.  We did have bunnies and ducks, and they came realistically with predators who ate them, on our acre in Colorado.  Luckily, we saved the last two bunnies, and when we moved, they went to a farm with children, or so my neighbor next door said.  Hummm.

Old Age Day by Day March 7, 2013

I had a really bad night, with pain in my nostrils and some coughing.  The kind of night that makes you so happy it's over and morning and you can stand upright.  This is quite a cold or flu.  I'm dying to get out, but if I did I'd bring plague upon the world.  I'm bored, and headachy, and cannot figure out how to distract myself.  My whole head needs to be drained, flushed out and screwed on again in a way that is lighter and more comfortable.  In the meantime I will watch the clock, until this virus decides it is through with me. 

I'm worried about friends who are sick and I don't like being unable to help, except to send cards or call.  This is that time in spring when resistance gives in to bugs and aches and in my friend's daughter-in-law's case, pregnancy.  The body rules, and it doesn't give a damn about what we want or expect.  If it falls apart, we must heed the warning, slow down and allow healing.  We're never in control of our fate, but when we're sick, it's a whole heck of a lot more obvious.

Old Age Day by Day March 6, 2013

This is a pretty bad cold.  But I slept well last night.  So hopefully I can get back to getting out and seeing people next week.  In the meantime, I'm reading, watching two DVDs a day and dozing.  Last night it rained, which is much needed.  It doesn't look like it will rain today though.  My brain is kind of foggy with the cold, and I hope I don't get a cough.  I also hope to avoid the dentist today.  Dentists and colds don't go together very well.  I just want the veneer on my tooth to stay glued on.  I'm reading a serious book now by Chris Hedges, a journalist and passionate critic of Washington and our policies in the world.  He's brutally honest and hard to take, but the truth of what he's saying is selfevident.  I may have to go back to something lighter.

I'm bored but not dumb enough to think I should be doing anything but resting.  Ugh!

Old Age Day by Day March 5, 2013

I didn't feel good on Sunday and that night it was as if a faucet turned on.  My nose was runny, my sinuses hurt and I had a full fledged flu or cold.  I canceled everything and tried to rest.  My thoughtful husband brought lunch home and as I was eating I broke a tooth.  So then I was pleading with my dentist and finally got in and discovered it was a veneer that I didn't know I had on my front tooth.  Luckily, my husband had saved it, it was all in one piece and the dentist was able to glue it back on.  So much for a calm day.  This morning I have to go in again, because of my mouth guard.  This resting thing is not so easy to do.  I slept better last night but am sneezing again now and the faucet has begun.  So much for this week.  Maybe next week I'll feel better.

Old Age Day by Day March 4, 2013

I was reading in the newspaper this morning that Joyce Carol Oates is here for a year and teaching at Cal.  She is on sabbatical from Princeton.  I've always enjoyed her work, and once did a week workshop with her in New York.  I was surprised to find she has remarried, to a neuroscientist she met after her longtime husband Raymond Smith died.  Several years ago I read her account of being a widow, and her grief was of a magnatude of Joan Didion's writing on the deaths of her husband and then daughter.  Things change, new beginnings happen even to us oldies.  I feel really happy for her.  She is quite the survivor.  I guess she's working on a gothic tale right now, which is not my favorite work of hers.  But I love some of her novels and I think her short stories are where you find her greatness.  She often illuminatess the lives of people nobody "sees" - the underclass, and uneducated, the ignored and badly parented.  She's very Dickensonian that way.

If she has public readings, I'm going to try to attend one.  It's been many years since I've seen her, but she's a compelling presence.

Old Age Day by Day March 3, 2013

I've been listening to my smoke detector beeping for a week here in my study.  I'm too lazy to go search for a battery.  It's like listening to be baby chick crying for help.  Eventually I'll give in and fix it.  I read a whole mystery yesterday, it was so gripping.  It's this writer Erin Kelly, and she's psycological, and dead on as well as passionate about class and disadvantaged people.  You feel there is a purpose to all this drama, and it awakens questions about what the reader would do or maybe even has done, or almost done.  The reader does not get away with being outside looking in.  This one, "The Burning Air" manages to make us sympathetic to the "good" guys and "bad" guys, in fact, by the end, you can't much tell the difference.

We're off to have brunch to celebrate our daughter-in-law's birthday a bit belatedly.  We haven't seen them in a while so that will be nice.

Old Age Day by Day March 2, 2013

March is coming in like a lamb, maybe it will go out like a lion.  Lots of hysteria about drought is brewing, but who knows?  The weather is crazy, so the parameters of rain could be screwed up as well.

Some of my friends and I saw Handel's "Samson" last night.  It was well done, though the tenor wasn't in full voice.  It was not staged, but still powerful.  I liked the lyrics and the music is sublime.  It was long, and walking from the car there and back was a contrast in generations.  College kids, ambulances, shouting, globs of people and us old ladies merrily winding our way around the huddled masses.  None of us are normally near campus at night, so we forget there is a lively world a mile away from us. 

Poor Delilah, like Eve she gets a bad rap for a simple little haircut.  Why can't the boys in the Bible take responsibility for their actions?  Though there is no true story, if there was I bet it would be a teeny bit more complicated.  Who was pressuring Delilah?  What threats was she under? 

At least Handel makes them more in love and tormented with longing.  And the Philistines being the chorus is delightful, as, near the end, their singing becomes cries and catastrophe and death.  Oops, there goes the chorus again, oops there goes...

Old Age Day by Day March 1, 2013

Well, the March Hare is here and so are budget cuts and drought and all the dramas of the news.  Our male dog had diarrhea all night long, and we were up a bunch, and giving him Immodium.  We'll see how he fares today.  He has been on a tear of eating peppers, puzzle pieces and plants.  I don't know what has gotten into him.

I'm off to the Elephant sale this morning, not really searching for anything in particular.  Last year I returned with a pewter butter dish and a sleeping beauty costume for my granddaughter.  I just love to look, and, though it gets overwhelming, there are treasures to be found.  I'm going with the same friend I went with last year, and we have fun.  Like antique road show, there are some crazy pieces of furniture, lamps and dishes, and very strange jewelry.  We usually try on some clothes as well.  I avoid the books, because I have so many already, but love to look at the glasses, though I have nowhere to put them.  I also check out the embroidered tablecloths, for which I have a weakness.

Then this evening four of us friends are going to a Handel performance, and so I'm busy, busy today.  I hope I stay alert, after the little sleep I got last night.