I'm Just Visiting This Planet

Yes, it's true my birthday was January 25th. For my 60th Anne and I had a 60-60 party-we held it in early January, sort of between our two birthdays (Anne's birthday is November 2). But 61, now that's another whole story. Lunch at Crabtree's Kittle House in Chappaqua, dinner at the Ocean House in Croton - two of my favorite Westchester restaurants. Can you tell that I basically am eating my way through my - gulp - seventh decade!?! Well, the end of my 61st year, the beginning of my 62nd, consider the alternative. I can't get "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64" out of my mind. I never thought I'd be 64, and here I am 61. I never thought I'd die, I just thought I wouldn't get old-how's that for cognitive dissonance! Happy birthday fellow Aquarians!

How's that for a pretentious post title! But I am really enjoying being home, which is a rare event lately, and I'm getting so much out of Jennifer Louden's virtual retreat and tomorrow the new America begins. Now if I could just take all of this with me and move into my "regular" life with the calm, confidence and contentment that I've received from four days on virtual retreat (even though Friday was more of a "crash" day). And being somewhat snowed in is great-I don't feel like I have to do anything, go anywhere or even shower until our book group meeting tonight.

almost. An ice storm, with a delayed opening, which is almost as good. When I was a lowly professor, I didn't go back until the week before school started. Now that I'm an exalted dean, I get to go back on January 5th. Lucky me. And I never realized how well I used the time between the semesters. My offices (all four-home, New York, White Plains and Pleasantville) could use some attention, my checkbook hasn't been balanced in months, I'm behind on my reading, I'm only getting to the gym once a week-I could go on but it would sound like I'm complaining. So here's an unusual New Year's resolution-find a work/life balance! I realize now that for me there is no such thing-I'm either working too much or I'm not working at all. And I like it that way. And that's what I really like about being a college professor-intense periods of work, intense periods of play. Happy 2009 everyone! Enjoy the snow day!

We're in Vermont, at Smuggler's Notch Resort, having a fabulous Thanksgiving vacation. And it would have been more fabulous if my Uncle John hadn't died on Thanksgiving morning. We'll be driving home tomorrow anyway which is a good thing because the funeral is on Tuesday, with viewings on Sunday and Monday. I loved my Uncle John. He was my mother's younger (and only!) brother. He's the one in the wheel chair in the picture I posted when Aunt Mary died. When he was younger they called him Brother to distinguish him from my grandfather, I guess, who was also John. [Note: I learned at Uncle John's funeral that he was actually John Henry Devine, Jr. ] He and Aunt Carol took us to the park once while they were dating-who would want to take their nieces on a date! He came to my PhD graduation ceremony in 1995. That's 13 years ago-he was in better health, as was Ruth. The five of us went out for lunch afterwards. Jerry's gone now, and so is John. I...

We're heading off to Vermont in about 2 hours-it's 6:30 AM here in Ossining, New York. I'm ready for a nice quiet vacation. It's snowing in Jeffersonville, VT at Smuggler's Notch. We've packed our snowshoes and travel Scrabble, so we're ready for it all! Plus a few mysteries and David Allen's three CD set for how to conduct a Weekly Review (shout out to Meggin , thanks!) That should keep me busy and out of trouble. Happy Thanksgiving, one and all. In spite of the global meltdown we have so much to be thankful for. I'm taking Brother David's book, Gratefulness The Heart of Prayer to remind me.

So last Saturday night we attended an "Outstanding in the Field" dinner. It was FABULOUS! And all because we saw a piece about the artist, Jim Deneven on CBS Sunday Morning way back in January. Turns out that many of those who attended the fabulous feast at the Grieg Farm in Red Hook watched the exact same piece. I know because I asked lots of people how they found out about the dinner. Here's a picture of Jim Deneven (above, left) and Norman Grieg (above, right) during a "tour" of the farm. And here we all are drinking Hudson Valley champagne and eating Gigi Market "skizzas" under a tree on the farm. You can't see it but off to the right there's a table that served as a bar. The evening was special-so special that I even ate chicken (for the first time in over 20 years!) from Northwind Farm in Tivoli New York. It was listed on the menu as " poussin " - I looked this up in Wikipedia and learned that most of us would call thi...

In the immortal words of Gilda Radner, "It's always something" and boy was she right! Anne's mom was rushed to the hospital Sunday evening and on Monday we were sure we were going to have to decide whether surgery would be required (and would she survive the surgery?) or would we "wait and see" while the poor woman was in extreme pain. After a long night of anti-biotics and an IV drip her massive infection was controlled, and by Wednesday she was asking for things again-a radio, Fixident, when can I go home? You've got to say this for Ruth-she's a feisty lady! And boy am I glad that this latest emergency ended so well. We're heading to the city to visit her at St. Luke's and we're hoping she'll be home by Tuesday. Gilda was right-it is always something! [Note: she was home by Monday and back in the hospital-this time the VA-on Tuesday, where she is as I write this on September 20.]