Gratitude..

                                          Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
                                     It turns what we have into enough, and more.
                 It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
            It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,and creates a vision for tomorrow.
                                                                - Melody Beatti

            As I sat on the bus after work on Friday, I started into a mini-panic attack.  What am I doing? Why am I running to NYC every weekend? Am I crazy?  I listened to my Nephew's sermon, and dozed, and got to NYC an hour late due to ugly traffic around a gruesome traffic accident. On the taxi drive “home”, I started breathing easier passing familiar, now beloved, landmarks.

Getting to the apartment, I found nothing interesting to eat, so I decided to pop out into the neighborhood.  I went over to Luke’s Grill on 3^rd Avenue, between 78^th and 79^th Streets, typical, small, hometown type pub, offering comfort food.  Perfect.  Until a very drunk Lady arrived and screamed her profanity laden thoughts on everything from politics to NYC.  Guess who she sat next to?  I calmly entertained her, for which the bartender poured me a glass of wine.



        Saturday I got up and headed up to Harlem to the George Bruce Branch of the New York Public Library for a free two hour Microsoft Excel class.  I earned from a lovely Lady exactly what I wanted to, how to set up a simple budget worksheet for myself.  From there I headed to the Bushwick area of Brooklyn for an art installation.

Morgan Street Subway stop in Bushwick from Ilona Gutcher

          Making Nothing Happen: The Strange Poetics of Barry Duncan, Master Palindromist (and his friends).  From the flyer: “The very first gallery exhibition of Barry Duncan, the world’s greatest palindromist will be producing in real time a master work of artistic/poetic reversibility in situ…Using the adage of W.H. Auden that “poetry makes nothing happen”, we will treat the gallery space as a beehive  of poetic activity..the gallery will try and make visible the act of poetic process through art.  Emmy award winning Michael Rossi will be documenting this event on film for his forthcoming film on Duncan, The Master Paindromist, (see the trailer for this at www.rossifilms.com). “

       Very interesting afternoon, and I got to explore a bit of New York City that I had never been to.  Bushwick may be one of the final frontiers of gentrification in New York.  One word comes to my mind, gritty.  If you’re a fan of street art, graffiti, I’d recommended getting there to see it, as it is interesting, and everywhere.

       On the way home, I popped into Grand Central Station’s Holiday Market as a dear friend is working there for the season.  She’s helping her Friend with Tuff Kookooshka, a children’s clothing line totally made in the USA, Massachusetts actually, including Polartec fleece from Malden Mills in Lawrence! (www.tuffcookie.com).

    On the way home I popped into my neighborhood favorite, Agate and Valencia, and picked up dinner.  A nice surprise awaited at home, Kristi, so we shared my bounty before she headed off to work.  Stayed in and happily created my first excel spreadsheet, and relaxed.

      Sunday, I was up and out early, and finally had a nice long walk along the East River.  I had volunteered through Volunteer Match (a great site I found while web-surfing, and they do not require any orientation).  I went to the Linda and Jerome Spitzer Home on 61st Street to help prepare a Thanksgiving Feast for Seniors.  I confused the Doorman and myself upon arrival when asking for the apartment of Mr and Mrs Spitzer.  They do not live there, it’s the building name!  It’s an apartment complex for low-income Seniors.  I always wondered how Seniors could afford Manhattan.  Now I know, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (www.metcouncil.org) is one organization that tries to keep them from being displaced.  They have a few buildings around Manhattan, and its Burroughs.

       I spent a lovely morning preparing vegetables with a varied, and great group of Ladies.  Stefanie, a young woman who graduated from UMass Amherst with my Daughter (and remembers Kristi’s roommate from a class taken together as she loved Tamar’s name!), is the Volunteer Department Manager of the Met Council.  Monita, was our chef du jour who just left Martha Stewart’s Magazine as the recipe tester, to be on her own as a Culinary Freelancer!  Monita’s Sister, Niece, and French-born Friend rounded out our group of workers.  I would love, and hope, to meet and work with these Ladies again someday.

       On the bus ride home, I noticed my Friend, Lisa, had texted.  She had the day off from the Holiday Market.  So, She, Kristi, and I explored yet another neighborhood restaurant, Quatorze, on 79^th Street between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues, very quant, and nice,  if a bit on the pricier side.

       Again, Kristi headed off to work.  Lisa and I decided to have a drink at of my favorite “new” places, Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlysle Hotel.  Being an artist, I knew Lisa would love the murals from the Madeline series.  A truly lovely couple of hours before heading home on the late bus.

        I am reassured as to why I’m heading to NYC most weekends.  As Barry, the Palindromist, asked me at his show, does coming down exhaust, or energize me?  Definitely, energize, and heal.  Thank God!

(As always, if you or anyone you know needs guidance or infromation while traveling to Manhattan, please go to my website: www.wildberrytraveling.com  Thanks!)