Social Saturday

Jon and I took a break from our monotonous moving schedule and spent the day with family and friends.

In the morning, we went to a Bar-Mitzvah at an Orthodox temple, where the women sat two stories above the men. That was the first time I attended a service like this. Much to my annoyance there was no ladies room up there on the third floor where the ladies were sitting. Our synogogue was conservative when I was growing up. Everyone prayed together and the bathrooms were on the same level.

The Bar-Mitzvah boy read his portion well and gave a lovely speech. The affair afterwards was at the Regency hotel on Park Avenue. The food was scrumptious but the affair was chaotic and crowded with people talking everywhere and children running around. It was possibly the most hectic Bar-Mitzvah I've been to. But it was great fun. We saw a lot our family which is very important.

Then in the afternoon we celebrated with our good friend on the occasion of her birthday. This party was at another hotel - the Algonquin - on 44th St between 5th & 6th avenues. I had two fabulous martinis and participated in several amazing conversations. It felt like a real good old-fashioned New York literary party. I remember attending one of those in the early 90's. What I mean by this is that most of the guests were writers and the discussions were superbly intelligent and challenging and friendly and all those other good things that make getting to know people interesting.

I was pretty wiped out when we got home last night. And it was absolutely fabulous not to think about moving once the whole day.

My parents are coming today. They have a car and I'm hoping that in three trips we'll be able to move our remaining boxes and our clothing. Maybe even our computers.

Tomorrow, ideally, Jon and his friends will only be moving our furniture.