Summer Days

Me, to middle-age woman as we watch our kids on some vomit-inducing ride: "It takes a certain age to enjoy these things."
Woman, after a thoughtful pause: "At least, a certain attitude."

Standing in line for "The Saw" ride.
Me: "You know, all I have to do is say 'pants' and any 12 year old is mortified."
Eitan:
Me: "Pants."
Eitan: "Dad!"

We leave Thorpe Park around 6:30PM, sun setting, day accomplished.

High Ride

At 46, I ride 'The Swarm'

Eitan and I spend the day at Thorpe Park, a real slice of Americana in Britain, where we are presented with 1950s pop songs ('Under The Boardwalk', Clickety Clack, Don't Talk Back' and 'Up On The Roof') along with the corn dogs and cotton candy and ice cream all of which the boy indulges in.

Thorpe Park also owns some of the fastest, tallest and scariest rides in the world. I find my heart racing as we line up for The Colossus, my first roller coaster since Cedar Point in '05 and second in 35 years (Eitan, happily: "Dad you are actually sweating!").  The adrenaline makes me nauseous yet I force myself onto "Stealth" which goes from 0 to 80 mph in 1.8 seconds before hurtling skyward, 460 feet.

I am a fraction from bailing but the joy on Eitan's face (and my potential humiliation) find me strapped into the goddamn thing, full speed ahead. Afterwards (11 seconds) I feel exhilaration - I did it! - and suddenly I am 12 all over again.

Under The Waterloo Bridge

Madeleine scores a music sheet

A favourite spot of mine is the open air second-hand book market tucked under the Waterloo Bridge on Queen's Walk - it is open daily, rain or shine - and one of the last of its kind in London or, at least, that I know of.

In 1997-98, I ran along the embankment as part of a 6-mile loop beginning in The City, past here, and it was all pretty dodgy : the Southbank Centre an unloved 1960s concrete monstrosity with rumour that Tony Blaire would demolish the complex and start all over.  Happily he never did and today the area vibes with bars, restaurants, locals, tourists, readers, hipsters, joggers and freakos who seek out the river and the arts.

Madeleine and I spot a suitcase on the Thames' shore.
Madeleine: "I wonder if there are a lot of chopped up bodies in there?"

Madeleine and I have a discussion about cows.
Madeleine, matter of factly: "I've eaten leather, you know."
Me:
Madeleine: "It tastes just like a beef burger. Literally"

Kids Home

National Theatre, Southbank Centre

The kids arrive in London safe and sound, if not a bit tired, and full of adventure to tell.  We meet them at Heathrow, 7AM, and I consider : this is what it will be like when they are in university.

To stay awake, Madeleine and I catch the train to Waterloo to walk about Southbank and have lunch (sushi, of course).  We end up at OXO tower for a drink and to observe the view.

Madeleine: "What would happen if you ate upside down?"
Me: "I don't know. It might not be very comfortable though."
Madeleine: "Would you throw up or something?"
Me: "Sounds like one for the Internet."
Madeleine: "Yeah."

Madeleine: "This is so much fun. We should spend more time together like this."
Me: "Madeleine it is my favourite thing. There is nothing else I would rather do."
Madeleine: "I haven't gone over to the dark side yet."

Madeleine: "Eitan's music playing is so annoying." [Dad's note: Eitan has an electric keyboard]
Me: "Can you hear him in your room?"
Madeleine: "Yes. Do you know what I am going to do?"
Me: "No, what?"
Madeleine: "I'm going to cover my walls with egg cartons. That way I won't hear a thing."
Me: "Good idea."

Eel Pie

Sonnet rambles

Since top of the summer, Sonnet and I sleep until 11AM then go for a walk alongside the Thames from Richmond to Teddington lock.  I water the plants, talking to my tomatoes, coaching them to turn red.

We stroll by the strange Eel Pie Island, an island in the Thames, which I have often wondered about. There is one private access for the 120 or so inhabitants; it was a communal hippie dippie in the '60s and known, then, as a major jazz and blues venue: visitor performers included David Bowie, The Yardbirds .. .The Who and the Rolling Stones. Even Pink Floyd.

Now Eel Pie Island is an oddity and home of the Richmond Yacht Club.

The kids ready themselves for their solo trans-Atlantic flight from Denver. Stan drives them over the Rockies, God bless.

Surrey Hills

Spooky church

Sonnet and I ramble in the Surrey Hills designated as an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty by the UK government.  And it is.

On the top of a tall hill we stop at a church graveyard with stones dating to the 18th century.  Sonnet thinks a lovely place to be married; me, it looks like the perfect setting for "Night Of The Living Dead" or some other such horror movie.  I see zombies crawling from their graves seeking human flesh. Would not come here after nightfall. Strangely, our footpath the only way here - in and out.

Rusty Returns

Jail break

I pick up Rusty from the kennel and the dog is ready to get the hell out of there.  He jumps all over me, begging : "home, home, home, home .. . "

A poem posted nearby Smith College as part of Northampton's "June is Poetry Month" Celebration:

Prayer to Artichoke
by Gail Thomas

Strange one, I bless
the day I found you spread
open, plucked and pulled
between my teeth.  Lead
me to your tangy core.
Oh, keep me
wanting more.

On The Range

Meanwhile back in London

The report from Colorado positive. Eitan and Madeleine solo with Stan, enjoying football camp on the mesa, and generally being (i) spoiled and (ii) bored (Eitan). Madeleine relieved to know that Eric and Nelson (the turtles) are doing well. Sadly Stig the goldfish goes belly up (some tears from our intrepid pet owner) .  Madeleine finishes 'The Diary of Anne Frank' and 'Lord of the Flies'; Eitan reads 'Lonesome Dove' (Eitan to Sonnet: "Mom, what's a whore?" Sonnet to me: "Nice one, Jeff")

Me: "Are you two getting along?"
Madeleine, Eitan: "No. Maybe."
Madeleine: "Eitan came in to my room to steal my stuff."
Eitan: "You said I could have those things . .. "
Madeleine: "Did not. And besides, it was while I was sleeping."
Me: "Good to see you kids enjoying yourself."
Eitan, Madeleine:
Me: "No doubt about it."
Eitan: "Yep."

Smooth

Following a quick review of the Internets to find a window cleaner better than Windex (because, you know, Windex is kind of boring), I create a concoction: 2 gallons of hot water, half-cup of ammonia, handful of dishwasher detergent, and Rain-X which otherwise keeps the car windows de fogged. The reagents act favourably, actually bubbling and popping. I try not to breathe it.

From there, it is up the 32 foot ladder to catch the 2nd story fenestras and the conservatory, that requires, well, walking on the conservatory which always freaks Sonnet out and takes me back to the stupid things I did in college.

I live yet, following a half-days work, my cleaning mixture leaves dots and streaks and I have to re do it using Windex and newspaper.

Going Solo

Coming un done ?

As I am alone since Tuesday, even without the dog, I do what most of us would do in these circumstances : watch the complete series of Deadwood and drink beer.

Since cooking out of the question, I am unintentionally on a weird macro diet: yogurt and berries for breakfast. Maybe something for lunch. And dinner a large green salad that doesn't require the burner. Breakfast of champions.

La Veta

From the Minnis ranch.

Photo by Marcus as I blog from . ..my . office . I mean WTH ?  I will be leaving soon to watch Law & Order and drink some red wine.  Not so bad I guess.

The Globe

Jasper in Prague

1993, when the rest of us still stunned, post college, Jasper went to Prague and co founded The Globe, which now celebrates its 20th anniversary. This was a bad ass thing to do.

The Globe modelled after Moe's and Cody's Books and other similar Berkeley institutions, thx to Jasper, and became the meeting point for ex pats and Czechs alike who, during communism and the early 1990s, could not browse nor sit and read in a bookstore as books were shelved behind a counter. The Globe changed all that, offering coffee to boot.

In the early days, The Globe attracted readings from Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Alan Levy, Ivan Klíma, Zdeněk Urbánek, Amy Tam, Richard Ford, P.J. O'Roarke, Arnošt Lustig, Jáchym Topol and Allen Ginsberg.  I recall President Clinton cancelling a visit last-minute when in Prague, 1994.

It is unclear if Aneta knows about The Globe but her generation lives on the net.

Out West

Martine & Bill's horse ranch, La Veta, CO

Harvard Yard

Steps, Memorial Church

Harvard has the honour of rejecting me twice. As if.

Still, I enjoy walking about campus and watching the summer students mingle with the tourists snapping photos of the Law Library or the John Harvard statue or the squirrels and pigeons (always the Japanese). Eric and I observe at least four family units : middle age slightly fat and maybe balding Dad, perfectly quaffed hair mom, and tall athletic children. Boy, girl every time.

Harvard founded in 1636 and the oldest college in the United States, followed by William & Mary 60 years later (Madeleine and Eitan's schools founded in 1594 and 1557, says I, gleefully). The endowment over $30bn, which is a lot of dough in one place.  It is the most aspirational place I know.

Charles River

From the Boston Univ bridge

Eric and I stroll across Boston to visit Simona and receive a tour of Boston's Children Hospital where Simona works. Field trip, dude !

In 2012, for the 23rd year in a row, U.S. News & World Report rated Boston Children's one of the nation's top hospitals specializing in pediatric care. Children's ranked in the top three of all paediatric specialty categories and number one in heart & heart surgery, neurology & neurosurgery, urology, nephrology and orthopedics.

Simona owns the place, too, greeting staff and candy-stripers with cheerful 'hello's'; pointing out the surgical and recovery and play rooms .. describing all the time her work and the research she is doing. The hospital and children lucky to have her.

A Day At The Office

Working emacs

Eric: "I write code. I write math books."

Eric has a physics degree from Cornell, which he received with the lowest GPA possible, only outdone by Chas, who did worse and failed to graduate.  Post college, Eric found substitute teaching in Houston unacceptable therefore he (and Chas) drove to California to find their fortune. Following a night sleeping in a ditch surrounded by beehives, they returned to the Eastern Seaboard. Shortly, Eric was encouraged to apply for a grading job at Harvard maths.  Within a couple days, he was teaching two sections of Quantitative Reasoning 10.  The rest, they say, is history.

Some DNA

The Shakespeares find a blush of boys (and girls) and we periodically see them running across the reception grounds, top speed, in hot pursuit of each other.  Eventually they cool off in front of a movie before it starts all over again.  Here I capture their attention for 30 seconds to take a photograph. And then they are gone.  

I half wonder if Eitan and Madeleine will try booze at the reception - every kid about this age has some wedding or bar mitzvah story where they get intentionally or accidentally plastered - but Eitan aghast when I suggest a small glass of Champagne.  

This morning Sonnet and I separate at Logan Airport where she is on to Colorado with the kids and me to London, via a welcome extension with Eric and Simona.

Rana Ties The Knot

Sedgwick House, Stockbridge, MA

On a glorious afternoon, in a charming western Massachusetts town, Rana and John say their vows and share their joy in to the late evening hour.

John from an old New England family dating back to the 17th Century.  He is a journalist and writer, whose office now the third floor of their Park Slope townhouse overlooking the treeline and one block from Prospect Park.

Rana's story, "Is Your City Next? Lessons from Detroit's Fight to Survive" covers Time Magazine this week.

I dance with a wonderful assortment of financiers, writers, economists, teachers, poets and stargazers, as well it should be.

Red Trousers

A pose

Madeleine: "I don't understand the Royal Family. Does it go to the King or the Queen or someone else?"
Sonnet: "After Queen Elizabeth II, the next in line is Prince Charles. Then William and now George."
Madeleine: "What about Harry?"
Sonnet: "Harry is the second child and so stepped over."
Madeleine: "That is so unfair. .."
Me: "It's probably a good thing."
Madeleine: "Dad, even a Prince should be allowed to party."

Sugar

Dana in Black

On a perfect evening we join Rana and John and their families and friends for the rehearsal dinner in Gr Barrington, MA.

The kids stuff their face with breakfast donuts at the hotel. Me: "Is that really what you are having for breakfast?"
Madeleine: "Oh, it is sooo good. The breakfast here is so much better than the last place."
Me:  "Why do you guys like donuts so much?"
Eitan: "Sugar."
Me: "Doesn't it make you sluggish?"
Eitan: "Yeah, so?"
Me: "Are you addicted to sugar?"
Eitan: "Yes."
Me: "How about you Madeleine?"
Madeleine: "Yeah. Every kid is."
Me:
Madeleine: "There's no life without sugar."