Above: Part of the Great Lawn
When I walked upon this playground, adjacent to the Great Lawn, I was overcome with nostalgia. I had to get in one of the swings and swing! It all came back to me...the leaning back in the swing and pulling on the chains and pumping your feet. When I slowed down, I dragged my feet in the ruts in the dirt like a million little kids before me. It was the most fun thing I did all day!
I kept walking north into the park and came out at the southern end of the reservoir. This is a view of 5th Avenue, looking northeast. The dark building on the left is one of the main buildings at Mt. Sinai where T did his fellowship training. 
At 72nd Street and Central Park West is the Dakota, the apartment building in Rosemary's Baby and, more famously, the building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived when John was shot back in 1980 at the side of the building. As a memorial, this mosaic was built right inside the park at 72nd Street, almost in front of the Dakota. I noticed that people like to have their picture taken while they smile and give the peace sign. Groovy.
OK, now don't think bad of me, but this lady was walking in front of me this afternoon and I was so struck by her choices, that I had to snap a picture. She strolled along, wearing a sweet print dress, with white sandals, a white beaded purse, a charm bracelet, a white ribbon in her hair, and Uncle Sam tattooed on her left arm. The tattoo you see on her right leg has a matching one on her left leg. Interesting choices....
H came home today with both paintings she's worked on. Her class will get a new model and pose this Monday. As she walked along 57th Street carrying the paintings, a doorman asked her if those were paintings she was carrying. She said, yes, and he asked if he could see them. He complimented her but thought the feet were a strange choice of subjects. He said, "I don't think I've ever seen a painting of feet before....But they're good!"
I went up to Lexington and 93rd this afternoon and browsed for an hour or so in Kitchen Arts and Letters, a bookstore that carries only cookbooks! It was great. I walked out with Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples. Then I strolled along Madison in the 90's and 80's, our old neighborhood from 24 years ago. H and I had dinner with a Baylor friend, Emma, who is in NYC training at JP Morgan. We went to Bar Americain, one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. Great food and good conversation. I was struck by the description of what the JP Morgan women wear contrasted to what the students at the Art Students League wear. H had told me about one guy who is a native American with really long black hair, who has quite a few tats, and who, every day, wears a spiked dog collar and no shirt. Quite the contrast to JP Morgan.
Here are a few things I've noticed this week:
1. The most photographed place in the city I have seen is the brass plaque on 5th Avenue denoting Playboy Enterprises. I have not walked by when there wasn't someone posing for a camera.
2. A really bad idea for walking around the city in 95 degree heat is the long "maxi" dress. Equally bad is walking around in 5 inch heels.
3. The longest line I've seen (other than the one in the park for Shakespeare in the Park tickets...people actually camp out for these) is the one to get in Abercrombie and Fitch on Fifth Avenue. EVERY time I walk by, there is a line of kids. No joke. I do not get it.
4. The most animosity in the city is between the cab drivers and the bicycle "taxi" drivers. I try to stay away from them, which is hard, because there must be 5000 bicycle taxi drivers. At any time only about 1/50 of them is in use. The rest are lined up along the curb pestering folks as they walk by.
Now, I'm tired. And so...to bed.
I am loving your blog!!!!
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