Come on, you know me better than that! I came home early today so I could stop by Grand Central Market and get some fresh mint–yes, indeed, I am going to show these sisters what a DERBY PARTY is like. We’re going to have a prize for the best hat, incentives for Win / Place / Show, and a booby prize for the last horse. I’m even passing up a last chance to go to the opera to put this on. (By the way, I saw Rigoletto the other night; there was only one free ticket and there was only one person willing to go by herself!)
On my last weekend in New York I want to visit Strawberry Fields in Central Park, where Yoko Ono put in a memorial garden for John Lennon (who was assassinated across the street at the Dakota Apartment Building). While I’m close I’ll visit the Ramble, a good bird-watching place in the park, they say. And Riverside Park down on the Hudson River (just a couple of blocks from us) is also beckoning. It’s been a tiring week, and New York has been a little tense after the death of Bin Laden. Lots of police and National Guard in the subway, armed with assault rifles. It will be good to have a little time with nature, such as it is in NYC. Even Central Park, as big as it is, is basically just a zoo for plants–not any real woods or meadows. You’re always aware of the “corral” of buildings.
But this week had two high points; I literally almost ran into Sister JoAnn Mark, former Academic Dean at Brescia. She was attending a couple of days of the CSD. She says HI to all her friends. She told Catherine Ferguson that her time at Brescia were the best 14 years of her life. And the other high point? The Empire State Building was 80 years old last Sunday. Happy Birthday, ESB! and Happy Derby Day, all you Kentuckians…