just got the...

word, will be working a full day at Friends on Monday, that means three days in a row, and also the reunion on Saturday. I am enthused...really looking forward to it.
Yesterday, had whole afternoon free, something that does not really happen much, and took the time to see the Friends baseball team in action. Game was at Randalls Island stadium (or one of them) and rather than take a very crowded bus at the corner of 124th and Second Avenue, decided to walk over TriBorough Bridge took the baseball field. Long and somewhat anxious walk, hoped I was going in the right direction, bridge for the most part was deserted, and arrived at a desolate part of the island, only found my way to the ball park because there were some workers around who could direct me. Once there, had to deal with the enormous cold (very cold for mid May) but stayed for the whole game. Students look different in their baseball uniforms, hard to recognize, but team won, which was good, also had a nice conversation with the sister of one of the Dwight (the other team) players.

Some notes on the area: the corner of 124th and Second; looks very ratty, can see the drug dealers, etc. probably lining the street years ago, still looks poverty driven, but in the middle of 124th between second and third is this large luxury housing building. Amazing! Who lives there, who would want to live there? The juxtaposition of this building to the rest of the block (mostly tenements) is startling. On the way back decided to walk south on third from 125th to 116th street. Again a strange contrast between the obvious poverty of people living in the area, at the same time on the third avenue corners between the nine blocks, there must be at least six new luxury buildings. Saw street people and also young people walking their dogs, or bringing back laundry to their new apartments. No bars or restaurants for the new comers on the streets that I walked on. Walked west on 116th  to the 6 train, took it to 96th street. I was anxious to watch the Yankee-KC game, and was hungry, I was looking for an Irish sports bar on Third near 94th that I had gone to a few times in 04, but found instead in its place an Irish bar far more upscale, and well put together. Bartender direct---not especially nice but not really brusque. Had a Caesar Salad (brought out very quickly, I might add) and a coke, watched the first two innings on a really nice screen at the bar. Thought about getting a light beer and staying for a while, but the bartender presented me with the check soon after he bussed my food, so figured I should go. Walked up third to 86th street, thought about stopping off and watching baseball game and basketball game that had just come on, but decided instead to stop at the Barnes and Nobles on 86th right off Lexington. This is an enormous store, really can get lost in it---managed to get downstairs to the starbucks place, had a coffee and a very rich cupcake. The latter was delicious but my stomach is still paying for it now. Read a bit of Middlemarch, now about half way through, have to push myself with that one, will not start another book until I have finished it, but at times, I have no desire to read it. Saw two books in Library near Lincoln Center that I would really like to read but let them go, because it is my "duty" to finish Middlemarch. Oh well, that is how it stands. After a bout an hour stay at B and N, walked up Madison to 79nth street, lots of older apartment buildings, very stately and removed, what if I had found a rent controlled apartment on that block in the late sixties and remained  Always reliving that possibility. Wonder how many elderly people living in those buildings actually came in when the rent was cheap, and are still paying low rent. Anyone? Ah well, such were my musings as I crossed the almost deserted "strip" of Madison Avenue between 85th and 79th street.
That is all for now, should report on next voyage soon....