now the reckoning....

kind of a grim way of describing this long weekend. Not that there were not some good things that happened. Somehow this year particularly the weekend and where it sits---right before my work at school starts and the sessions kick in---was long and arduous.
 Let's review:
 Friday night--went to Standings my favorite baseball bar, watched both New York team games, had a nice time with bartender Aaron and acquaintances. Then stopped by next door to "Burp Castle" (yes, that is its name) a quiet bar where my friend Erin works. Had a nice conversation with her--the bar was quiet and she seemed eager to fill me in on what was happening to her. Left feeling kind of up.
 Saturday: Awoke feeling bloated__oh I forget to mention that I had two beers (a lot for me) and two slices of the Friday free pizza at Standings--that was really too much for my stomach. All my plans to travel in Brooklyn were stopped by my lethargy---instead just hung around the apartment and read a little---finally at around 3 went out for a walk---passed by one of the many bars on Amsterdam Avenue and looked in to get the Yankee-A's baseball score---the bartender saw me, was welcoming and though I had some difficulty asking for it--said I could watch the ball game and just sip on a coke. Great news! She was really nice---so I watched the game until its conclusion (Yanks won on a home run late) and "hung" at the bar. I appreciated what the bartender had done--the coke was $3.00, and I gave her a $3.00 tip to demonstrate how grateful I was for her inviting me in. Then back to the apartment-finally summoned what little energy I had to walk down to Lincoln Center to see the free movie of The Daughter of the Regiment showing on the big screen in the plaza. Stayed for a while, then got bored--went home.
  Sunday: More energy ---went out to Bushwick in the late morning to Cobra Club where, surprise, surprise, the tv was working again. Olivia, my bartender friend put on the Yankee-A game which I watched for two hours, then I headed over to Molasses, the small used book store run by Matt and his wife Maggie. Had a nice conversation with Maggie while she nursed her two month old baby Tuli---then headed to Bed-Stuy and my walk south on Patchen Avenue from Broadway to Fulton Street. Great walk, not too many people on the street---still wonder how the Bed Stuy that I travel in freely at present was the Bed Stuy that white people were told to avoid for most of my adult life. As I traveled I longed to find some neighborhood person who could tell me the story of his or her block for the past 50 years. But it did not happen. At Fulton, took the subway back to the Gotham Market and hung out there and at the Fiction Center until tiredness set in. But the Met movies were showing Luisa Miller, one of my favorite operas  so I stopped, as tired as I was at the Center and watched the first act of this opera. Lots of ideas and feelings about it---i first heard it in 68 when Mr. Bing's Met did a new production of it with Caballe and Tucker. I was a very different person then. When I got back to the apartment I was really tired---fell asleep, I think, easily.
  Monday---the longest day--another trip to Brooklyn, this time to flyer for BAN at the West Indian day parade. But the rain put an end to the flyering---it did not stop me from taking another long and wonderful walk--this time north on Kingston Avenue (very heavily policed for the parade) passed Fulton (the Crown Heights-Bed Stuy border), Then took the Halsey street bus back to the Gotham Market.
 Must stop now---my time on the computer is ending (this rarely happens) but will continue soon.