so it turned out that the nodule is cancerous, and beginning yesterday, I am taking cancer pills, no infusion, which means I don't have to visit the center on 86 street, and can drink cold drinks. But after three influxes of two pills each, feel a little drowsy---not sure if that is the cause or not.
Overall, though, feeling pretty good. Nice long weekend--on my own, but basically enjoyed it. On Monday afternoon, while reading in Riverside Park, near the apartment, ran into Teddy G, and old friend, a former playwright, and member of Artists in Action, a group that I was part of that was formed to campaign for Walter Mondale, during the 1984 election. You know what happened then, but it was a good group, made up of many of the young New York actors and actresses at that time. No names, now, maybe later, anyway, Teddy and I chatted for about an hour---compared notes, spoke of the current elections, went through the list of old friends---where are they now---you know, the whole thing, and I found myself enjoying the conversation very much. Will I see him again this summer---possibly, he has a summer house in Stockbridge, and is leaving for it soon. But we may have time.
First trip to Lincoln Center Library yesterday---its first day of reopening. Wow! Glad to have it back--its nicely cooled, and I can spend hours there, reading plays or books analyzing Shakespeare's plays, or whatever. Also, there is a nice outdoor reading space that was created for Lincoln Center's re-opening right behind the libaray that was not there before. Too hot to read yesterday---but might be a nice place to read in the future. The library was not very crowded---a kind of a ghost like energy filled the place, those people like myself who returned seemed like phantoms---have been going there since it opened in late 65, it where my ex wife and I began our first date in late August of 66. Funny how that just came to mind; I was carrying a recording of Cosi Fan Tutti when I met her. But I did not really "learn" the opera until a year later--my "Mozart immersion" spring and summer of 1967. That was also a summer of isolation, per se---but isolation for a twenty three and a half young man, is different then isolation for this person whom I am now. Lots of reading then, too---The Fixer, by Malmud, When She Was Good, Philip Roth's only non Jewish novel, and 36 children, by Herb Kohl, about his experiences teaching fourth grade for a year in Spanish Harlem. Feeling a sense of "strangeness", I kind of "how did I get here" questioning, going through me at that time. An apartment very much like the one I have now--a studio---only located on Irving Place--and very inexpensive.
Sometimes as I walk the streets of my neighborhood---the upper west side namely the seventies, I ask myself, "when I spent time on these streets in the sixties, could I have imagined what the neighborhood would turn out to be?" The upper west side at that that time was "gritty"---considered by many "dangerous"---attractive to only certain kinds of youn- people---actors, teachers, social workers---that was all---a twenty something in any other profession would have chosen to live on the upper east side---considered safer--friendlier---definitely a place for people with high ambitions. No dealing with brownstones that had become rooming houses that held addicts, or crazies, or prostitution. This was a tough world, and while I would not say one navigated it at one's own risk---there were plenty of safe streets and aveneues--you had to be careful. Now the side streets are placid, the brownstones all safely residential, the welfare hotels (yes, there were many of them) turned into stylish apartment houses---younger people (like my radiologist oncologist) see the area as a place of wealth. But it evolved, as did my generation, and tbe chaos no longer exists,
Just finished an interesting memoir by Julie Metz called Eve and Eva about her mother---a true "New Yorker" and woman of the world, who was born in Austria, and experienced two years of isolation before she and her Jewish family could emigrate to New York. The Anschluss---brutal. They were lucky to get out. Very well written---not sure what I will read next---another trip to the library soon.
All for now...next time...?
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