David is the best super in new york city and lucky me, he happens to be mine. This week, he turned a closet in my foyer into a book shelf. Flawless. He underestimates his worth. I told him I'll pay him twice what he asked for. He said - I'll take it . I told him he's gotta know his worth. People pay for both his time and his talent. I paid him yesterday morning and included a good tip. I said - let's do more soon. He said - yeah. Break something."
Posts
I was going to write about how stupid it was that all these friends sent a friend of ours prayers for his daughter to come thru brain surgery - like God has to have a dozen more "likes" to see to it that she comes thru alive. But instead, I'll note how beautiful the sun plops on my table as I finish a painting of the oldest house on Fire Island and listen to Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings.
David Sedaris was asked if he could go back and repeat a moment - what would it be. He described a Fall afternoon when he was in his early 20s and he brought his sisters record player out into the backyard and raked leaves while listening to Phoebe Snows first album. Mine would be a Thanksgiving at Pattys house - probably '77 or '78. As usual, her parents weren't home and Don is with us and he's very relaxed and reading a newspaper in the den. I think it felt so special to me because it was a merging of my pleasant past in her home - summers listening to music with my friends and talking about what our futures were going to be - and having D there - my life here, now, brand new and vivid.
O life ... 50 years on - dead Don Kelly still devilishly plays with us
hi patty t ime to get something ancient off my chest. years and years ago - it seems like everything is that now - Don asked me if you could stay at my place while you were in town and I said nay. At the time, I was in a deep depression - something I appear to have outgrown in old age - thank goodness. But I always felt bad about squashing that request. I could hardly get out of bed and act like a semi-normal creature. was not proper company. I was a beastly ghost or a ghostly beast. both are bad. Paul I must admit I have no recollection of asking Don for a place to stay! When we moved upstate I came back on occasion for work but always stayed with friends in the neighborhood . Please don’t feel bad!
excerpt from My Abuela and the Bully He's got a brand new Spalding Supreme Top Flite 100 in his hands. I've never seen one in person. Just in magazines. It costs twenty bucks. He shoots more words at me than ever before and uses a quiet Confession voice. I never knew he had a suit. Good morning, Paul. This is for you. I know you don't do layups good. I'm gonna teach you everything I know. You'll be junior varsity with me next year. I have to go to the vets now with my worrywart mom. She thinks Wolgangs (their Doberman) got scarpotic mange. I give him a wha look. You know, scabies . I'll catch up with later. Have a very nice day and I hope you have a lot of fun.
Family
weekend with family. pool, laughs, new admissions and discoveries. a sister tells of our father when she was seven. They set out for the bakery. She sits in the front seat and grows impatient with him and our mom talking at his window. She puts her foot on the gas pedal. Dad becomes enraged. She jumps out of the car and hides behind bushes near the chimney. She is forever changed.
3 of my besties are currently making me nuts and I hope they stop it soon. but they won't. they will continue to be who they are and do the things they do and think the way they think. as will I. why do we say foolish, hurtful things? why do we stay stuck in things that shaped us such a long time ago - when we were ripe to take in things, whether they were right or wrong or true or not. It's wrong to think time will change things. Time changes nothing. It holds things that never ever leave us.