Summer
Currently on plane heading back to Beijing. Sitting in a middle seat between two people I don’t know. Morton in row behind me. Boarded around 3am in the morning. Can’t sleep without leaning against a wall or someone I know – so about 1/3 of the flight through and I’m the only one awake in my section of the plane. My back is killing and I’m very cranky. . . .
Thought I’d work on my summer update.
The summer was mostly a lovely blur of spending too brief times with people I love and playing tennis at the beach. After we flew into JFK late night in late June, we checked into an airport hotel. Dan got up very early to catch the first ferry out to The Pines on Fire Island to catch up to his college roommates get together.
A couple hours later Morton and I headed into Brooklyn to drop our bags at Anita’s and meet up with friends. Anita and I went into Lower Manhattan and met Jeanhee for a lovely breakfast and short stroll – checking out Anish Kapoor’s newish New York Bean Sculpture
Afterwards Celia and I strolled around Lower Manhattan stopping to grab what was breakfast for her and lunch for me.
We checked out the Andy Goldsworthy Garden of Stones installation on the roof of the Jewish Museum – which I hadn’t seen since it had been recently installed in 2003. It has grown so much and is amazing – these trees growing out of boulders.
After dropping Celia at work, I met up with Anita at the Joan Jonas exhibit at MOMA before heading to Susan’s for Art Luck – which is always a highlight. Susan made us a lovely meal and we made some silly collaborative collages.
The next morning I took the train down to my mother’s. I helped her pack and the next day she, Bev and I headed to the Jersey shore. Dan and Morton met us there the following day.
I spent the next few weeks there playing tennis and relishing the company. Judd came every weekend – which was so great (although sadly not documented). I am already missing him. Finn and Morton got jobs there for the summer – Finn at a coffee shop and Morton both at a deli and at Hartland Minigolf. Wonderful friends passed through (also mostly undocumented): Dave, Val and Danny came for the Fourth, Luke and Jeanhee soon after, Samantha and Jonathan, Rohan and family, my brother Elon and his friend John, Celia passed through a couple times, Al and Gwen, the Mundheims, the Cohen, Dan’s brother and nephew ….it was wonderful.
Bev and Mom at the top of the Dunes
Dan spent a week or so and then headed down to DC for a work conference and to meet up with some good friends.
Later in July Anita and I took a few days to check out the Upstate (NY) Art Fair. We had such a great time. We saw some great art and checked out some really cute towns.
The first night be stayed at our friend Manju’s house to check out her show for the second year. Again — it was really fabulous – definitely one of the best shows in Upstate Art Fair. And it was again so lovely to spend a night with Manju and Stephen, enjoying their company, their unbelievably lovely home and eating great food with them.
Another trip highlight was getting up to Kinderhook – which was such a nice town and seeing the Nina Chanel Abney show at Jack Shainman’s The School – an old school he has turned into a gallery/museum. The show was fantastic – as was the food at the two cute cafes we went to.
We rushed back to NYC for me to meet up with Dan’s family reunion in Manhattan. Was too quick – but so lovely to catch up with his family – some of whom I hadn’t seen in many years. Dan organized a lovely sail up the Hudson on our friends’ Sarah and Sven’s boat and a second sailboat.
We returned to the beach for Dan’s final week. His brother and nephew, in from Japan, joined us down there for a few days. On Dan’s final evening Dan, his brother Dave and I participated in the Barnegat Light Mile Ocean Swim race. The ocean was unusually calm – which was lovely. And it was amazing to see the hundreds of swimmers setting off in the ocean. Dan headed back to NYC that evening to catch his 2:30am flight back to Beijing.
Morton and I stayed a couple more weeks – which went too fast.
My brother Aaron came down for our last week with Tanja, Brigita, and Brigita’s friend. And Judd’s daughter Grey stayed that week to hang with the girls. It was so nice to be with them.
Morton did his annual LBI mini golf marathon on one of the last days: biking the 18 mile island, stopping to play all of the 11 mini golf course on the island. I joined him for the first two and last two courses.
Morton and I drove my mother home and spent one night with her. It was very painful to say goodbye. The next day we headed back to NY crashing at Anita’s for one night, trying to get as much Celia time as possible and getting in dinner with Jeanhee and kids, finally ordering a new back door, and ending our time with a lovely dinner in the back driveway with Chris, Steve, Anita, Celia, and Morton. It was a perfect send off. Now if I could only sleep! – I think I have about 9 1/2 more hours!
