New Year's Day

My New Year’s Day included a nice brunch with my friend Paula and her friend, Andrea, followed by an evening at home. I tried to watch Sherlock but was bored on impact. Then, when the widow entered the story and was revealed to be the tiresome blonde of past seasons, I switched off.

My dear and long-time friend, Leslie’s New Year’s Day began with a crash at 6:30 am. Her mother succumbed to her battles and passed away. It made for an intense day; I was highly aware of my good fortune all the time.

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Today began at 3:30 am. I went to bed early, so an early rise was inevitable, but 3;30 is ridiculous. The highlight of my morning was reading Ethan Kuperberg’s Existential Riddles on the Shouts and Murmrs page of the Dec. 14^th, New Yorker. They are hilarious.

At daybreak, I was ready to go. Today sees the return of the Farmers’ Winter Market. I am out of Mutsu apples and that cannot go on.

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Tonight, I go to Costin’s and Marina’s for dinner. He is going to tell me if he is joining me at any of my cooking classes at the Dirty Apron cooking school. I hope he does.

Costin is about thirty years old. I am almost seventy and yet I am very fond of him. I hired him to be on ongoing consultant in the management of my aquarium through the store where I get my fish and I was nervous about having a stranger come into my home. But my affection for Costin was immediate.

He told me he was an actor and has a serious illness so we two things in common. He is European born and raised; I feel kinship with his passionate Latin soul. He is an irresistible mélange of confidence and humility, and he loves food.

At first I felt odd our friendship moved outside the boundaries of his professional services. I don’t think he did. He has, as is said, “an old soul” I think, that contributes to the success of our developing friendship. With each thing we do, it gets better, so I really hope he takes some classes with me.

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And so on ….

Clever teachers are using Lego bricks to teach math.