SUMMER RECAP
The summer was both lovely and busy. Celia and I left Beijing during the first week of June, flew Beijing to Seoul, Seoul to JFK, then we rented a car and drove to my mother’s outside of Philly. We spent time with her, recovering from our jet lag, and working on her new apartment. Then we went up to NY to send Celia off to her Brooklyn high-school prom and for me to catch up with my friends.
June to July I mostly spent helping my mother recover from her surgery – a much bigger process than we had expected – but she made great progress and we finally busted her out of the care facility and got her to the beach.
Meanwhile we were busy getting her new apartment ready for her to move in: picking out light fixtures, paint colors, flooring, etc. and negotiating the sale of her house. My brothers had been champs at working to empty the house of things she wouldn’t be bringing with her to the apartment.
Celia got an apartment and a job canvasing in Brooklyn on gun control issues.
Morton and Dan arrived to the US a couple weeks after Celia and I and headed to the beach so Morton could look for a job before coming to visit my mother. He got some shifts at his dream job – working at Hartland Golf on Long Beach Island, and got a second job at the deli in Barnegat Light. They both were great!
Mid July I snuck away for a few days to Upstate NY with Anita to check out some of the Upstate Art Fair and the show my friend Manju put on – which was so lovely! We had a wonderful time staying at Manju’s home.
Before heading back to the beach I spent some time catching up with Celia – going to the Brooklyn Museum. She wanted to see the Picasso show there – which was disappointing – but the African Fashion show there was fabulous. We went out to eat and made a few purchases at the Brooklyn Pop-up show outside the museum. All around a lovely day.
Dan and Morton did the third rendition of their mini-golf marathon – playing every course on the island, biking from one to the other, in one day. Thankfully this year the wind agreed – pushing them in the correct direction up the island! I joined them for the last course. The perfect amount of mini-golf in one day for me!
Just after that, at the beginning of August, Dan had to head back to Beijing (damn school to run!).
Morton stayed to work for a couple more weeks before he too had to return to Beijing. I was a bit nervous, taking Morton to the airport to make the trip back by himself. My biggest fear was he’d fall asleep at the gate and miss his plane – which left JFK at 1:40 in the morning! But we spoke on the phone until close to his departure time. 14 hours to Tokyo, transfer with four hour lay-over there before his flight to Beijing, navigating immigration, to where Dan picked him. Pretty grown-up!
Judd and I played in the local beach tennis club tournament.(How do I have no pictures??!!) Judd made a sweep – winning the men’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles with me. It was so nice to hang out and play with him this summer! The women’s singles got cancelled as there were only two of us who signed up. My doubles partner Nancy and I came in second in the women’s doubles after Nancy had heart defibs and we had to force her to quit. But we had super fun playing together.
Order of things is starting to get confused in my head but end of August brought many wonderful days of catching up with people. My friend Courtenay and her cute dog came to see Judd and I at the beach. I probably hadn’t seen her in …40 years? It was super fun to catch up. I snuck in a couple art making nights, art viewing trips and meals, and wandering the city with friends. It was all too brief but also wonderful getting to spend time with all my friends and family who I miss so much while in China.
While I was in Brooklyn, Celia was taking a trip with her cousin Zach and his girlfriend up to Montreal, stopping at Niagra Falls. Sounds like they had a blast.
I finished what I’d call my “Official Summer” going up to Boston, spending a few lovely days with Elon, Anna and Celia and then moving Celia into college (tear).
After moving Celia in, I quickly jumped on a train down to Philly to meet packers at my mother’s the next day. The next month was a blur. Tons of last minute packing and working to completely empty the house. Anita came down and was a major help hanging and positioning all the art work, and lifting our spirits as my mother and I were getting pretty tired – physically and emotionally. Judd, Finn, and Aaron came through as we tried to get everything moved in to the new apartment, cleared out of the old house, and help my mother get her bearings. And then Aaron drove me up to Brooklyn to have a really wonderful goodbye dinner with some friends and then bring me to the airport to begin the long trip back to Beijing, Dan, Morton and Milo (our cat).