Too Little Time on My Hands

Dr. Barry would be happy about me, finally. His Protestant work ethic (morphed into a native Flushing, Queens Jew) thinks I have too much time on my hands - that I'm slothful. He's right, but not for the past 2 weeks. I've been busy! Too busy to write in the blog!

Let's see ... what's transpired. Last weekend D1 and I took her English friend Esther to NYC. We had a blast! We saw "In the Heights," a musical we all loved, and the next night the girls saw "Shrek the Musical" while I saw my favorite TV actor James Gandolfini in "God of Carnage." My play was a funnier "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," but I found it ponderous after the first hour. I mean --people arguing --even about weighty issues? Enough after about 60 minutes!

The girls shopped and we met my partner's daughter Tracy and her fiance Jon for coffee. I met Tracy when she was 8, and now has a Master's in Education and teaches in the City. Jon's a Wall Street lawyer. They're so full of life and happiness --it was great to spend the mile and 1/2 we walked with them. They showed us Bernie Madoff's building, and then Jon lamented how expensive it is to live in the City. They have a 750 swaure foot place they pay $3500 per month to live in. I have a feeling that marriage and children will send them to another city.

We also visited the Guggenheim, although much of the building was closed for the installation of a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. The truth is --I like the IDEA of visiting art museums more than actually visiting, so 3 floors instead of 8 was a plus for me. Esther --an Art History major in England, loved the place.

On the way to LaGuardia, we stopped to see Aunt Anne and cousin Steve. It was terrific! Anne is 95 and sharp as a tack --she actually corrected my arithmetic about a date. She showed D1 and I pictures of HER grandmother --D1's Great, great grandmother! D1 loved it! Anne and Steve were headed to dinner for Mother's Day, so we headed for LGA and home.

When I got back to work, my partner and I had a long inspection at the house where our clients' father died. We brought in 2 engineers and an investigator. The inspection went great, and then 2 days later, we got the bill for the little foray: $15,000! As my partner said --that part of our business makes us ill...

The previous week, we settled a case for a family from Haiti. I never want to see myself as racist, so I'll just say that Haiti is a country that shares an island with the Dominican Republic. The family, let's just say, has become difficult.

I guess it's only reasonable to expect tsuris from work. After all, work pays the bills, and isn't supposed to be all good, right? It makes me think of a great, simplistic expression I got on one of those sappy emails --the types I usually delete without reading: "Life isn't fair, but sometimes it can be really, really good."

More later...