3.30.07

3.30.07

Olana. The home of Frederic Church where Sara works is a fantastic example of passionate building. It’s not a sprawling estate but rather filled with details belying the painter’s love of countries (India, Mexico, Morocco) motifs, colors, textures, angles, light and perspective. The main house is being renovated, paint and stencils restored on walls and ceilings, floors and heating systems redone. But the love of home and hearth is evident in the rich woods and amber colored glass and while his art is missing, I can see in the landscapes from the various windows his inspiration in the Hudson Valley. It’s a joy to see the fruits of Sara’s labors in both her family and her work life and I head on south to NYC on the train.

Arriving early at the apartment of my best friend from grammar school, I walk down Hudson Street and stop by the house I grew up in. It faces St. Luke’s School and I smile remembering many years there. How different to now imagine it from the perspective of being a mother sending her kids across the street while she worked in her 3rd floor library and could look out the window to watch us during recess, playing in the yard, swinging and scampering. I then stop into school, wander the grounds and for some reason am drawn to an open door that allows me to visit the basement and the auditorium. The stage door entrance is open and I sneak a peak into backstage and remember my one and only performance as the Queen of Sheba, whose single line was “My, the grasshoppers are particularly succulent this year.” I wore my mother’s fur coat to represent my royal wealth and the line brought down the house. I later learn that Kate Winslet’s children now attend the school and wonder if they will find their passion on the stage as well.

Liz and her wonderful, youngest daughter Caroline, arrive at her apartment down the street and it’s a delight to see her smiling face after 10 years. She’s changed not a bit, perhaps more gray, but still that friend of yore, with whom secrets, bags of potato chips and an ill-fated attempt at hiking the Apalachian Trail were shared so many years ago. Her daughter’s going to get her prom dress at Saks and I am transported back to our graduation day, when granny gowns and Frye boots were the style, not the tailored, sophisticated gown she chooses. A wonderful dinner at Monster Sushi followed by more catching up on her career, now retired from teaching Latin at Yale to teaching same at a charter school nearby her home in Woodstock CT. Her older girls are in college and alight home now and then to tend to horses and check in.

Sleep comes late but welcome.