Abbey's Road

Since we’ve started a new year, I’m going to try and get back to writing in my blog a little more regularly than I have been the last few months. Hopefully, this will also help get my brother, who doesn’t seem to have enough to do in life, off my back.

While staying at my parents in December I managed to take a few side trips to NYC and DC. In early December I drove down to northern Virginia to meet up with Ann (Butler) and Joe Potak. Ann is a good friend of mine from ND that I seem to track down every few years or so. The three of us had dinner and then hooked up with Chip Block, my college roommate, and his wife Bonnie. Bonnie and Joe went home early to watch their respective kids so poor Ann got stuck listening to Chip and I have a lively discussion about religion, in a bar no less. I guess that’s a sign we’re getting old. Since Ann & Joe had just moved into their house 3 days earlier I stayed with Chip and Bonnie for 2 nights. On Saturday I did my part for the community (despite the fact that I don’t live there) and helped Chip ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the local mall. On Sunday I decided to see what Chip’s Presbyterian church service was all about. It was quite interesting, and lively too, but don’t worry mom. I don’t think I’ll be converting anytime soon. So much for the wild college days. I topped off the weekend by meeting my cousin, Joanie Dailey, in DC for brunch before heading back home.

Chris (my friend from grade school who you might remember from my Yellowstone trip) and I took the train up to NYC the weekend before Christmas. He went to see his sister and I went to see a high school friend, Alison Sawdey. Alison was a bit under the weather (read “she was out late at a party the night before”) so we took it easy and did some window shopping down in Soho and Greenwich Village. We did go into the Prada store, which I found to be a unique experience. First of all, there’s no sign on the place at all so you have to “know” it’s there. I guess it adds to the mystique of Prada. I knew I was in the wrong store when there were no prices on the merchandise. I was relieved for Alison when they didn’t have the coat she liked in her size. I figured she could take an extra vacation this year with the money she saved! After we had about all the shopping we could handle, we met up with Chris and his sister, Mary Ellen, and found a great little dive bar – the Back Fence. OK, I’m probably being a bit generous when I say a “great” dive bar, but it sure had an interesting character. We found out, after going up to the bar ourselves, that our waitress was Brigid, who looked like the woman from “Throw Momma from the Train.” Only she had a quite a mouth on her. I can’t repeat most of what she said here, but we did find out she leads poetry readings every Sunday at 3PM. So the next time you’re in NYC you might want to look the place up and check her out. I’m dying to find out what her poetry is like. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t give us a sample reading. Later we found out that it’s Mike Schiavi’s brother’s favorite place. Apparently they have good music on Friday and Saturday nights, but who needs music when you’ve got Brigid to entertain you.

While in Wilmington I managed to catch up with some old high school friends – Dave Yemc, Mike Schiavi, Chris Sereduke, Rich Przywara and John Quinn. We were all amazed at how little we’ve changed over the years. Besides a few grey hairs (OK, more than a few) and a few pounds here or there, we all pretty much look the same, or at least we all thought so. Coming back home for the holidays the last few years has allowed me to reconnect with some of my old friends that I hadn’t seen all that much in the last 10 or 15 years, so I’m grateful for that.

I spent the final night of 2005 at my cousin Joanie’s in DC. She had a small group of us for an early dinner and then had a larger party later on. One of the dinner guests was an 81-year old French woman – I’ve always been a sucker for a foreign accent. She’s actually been in the US for about 60 years, and she’s worked as an actuary for the IRS for the last 30. Believe it or not she is still working. She was real interesting to talk to and she brought a mean rum cake with some Haitian rum to boot so I was sad to see her leave early in the evening. The interesting thing for me was that most of the guests were single. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a party that wasn’t mostly married couples or families. Not that I haven’t enjoyed seeing my married friends, but it was fun to meet some new people who were my age and single. They just have a different perspective. I also learned an interesting fact (at least my cousin and her friends claim it’s true) about DC – there are about 7 single women to every single male in the city. Maybe I should reconsider settling down out west.

Well, I hope you had fun over the holidays and I wish you a great and healthy New Year!