December 27, 2006

• Mayhem for Christmas

  I think my plea from my last post was misunderstood and that perhaps the universe heard smite me instead. Since this is the holidays, I’ll start with the enjoyable stuff first.

  Saturday In Chelsea

  First Stop Fashion Institute of Technology, a great little museum with some wonderful couture vintage clothes.
  Seventh Avenue at 27th Street
  

  Empire Diner on 210 Tenth Avenue at 22nd Street (an historical railcar built in 1946) Food was so so, atmosphere styling, staff ultra friendly and a pretty decent chocolate egg cream.
  

  Comme de Garcon winner of my favorite store front award
  

  Chelsea Art Museum
  556 West 22nd Street

  

  Where I experienced the Baby Love exhibition developed by Taiwanese artist, Shu Lea Cheang
  

  Yes, I rode the teacup. (How could you even ask that?!? Below Art Daily describes the show better than I ever could.

  Baby Love is a wifi mobile installation that consists of 6 large autonomously mobile teacups (67 inches in diameter) with 6 clone babies (each 28 inches tall). The teacups are modeled after spinning carnival rides, except that the soundtrack of love songs can be uploaded by public via the web at http://babylove.biz and directly to the teacups, where they are coded as ME (memory and emotion) data for the clone babies. When the museum visitor takes a teacup ride with the babies, the ME data is retrieved, jumbled and eventually crashes. Baby Love situates human and baby clone riders in a perpetual spin which fuses the familiar fairground iconography with contemporary “remix” pop culture. http://www.artdaily.com

  Loved the Voysey Inheritance
  A relevant story of how greed and status can render some morally vacant people. Written by Harley Granville Barker and adapted by David Mamet for Atlantic Theater Company, 336 W 20th St. I was sitting by myself so I offered to exchange my tickets with someone who wanted to be close to the woman sitting next to me. Turns out her seat was in the first row center of the stage. One of those do something nice kind of rewards.

  This was Off-Broadway but you would never know it from the looks of Derek McLane’s set
  

  Outside of the Cuba Cafe
  

  This robust and sensual place with festive decor is where I had some yummy shrimp Tapas and a superb hand mixed margarita.

  Christmas very much alive in the Big Apple.

  Later, I left Chelsea to meet my brother Bob and his wife Chris at the 72 foot tree by the skating rink at Rockerfeller Centre (this was the start of them spoiling me silly). It was the evening after a morning’s rain kind of night. 62 degrees, clear and clean. A spectacular walk through a labyrinth of lights.

  

  Trees from Macy’s, Bryant Park and Rockerfeller Centre
  

  We did the TOP OF THE ROCK™ thing, the newly opened observation deck on the 70th floor of 30 Rockerfeller Centre. View of the Empire State Building from on top of the NBC building, West 50th St.
  

  Then on to Bryant Park, 25 W 40th St, to meet my niece Suzanne. Once we hooked up there we headed to the Raw Oyster Bar, Grand Central Terminal, 89 E. 42nd St where we enjoyed… drum roll… yep oysters. Chris & Suzanne’s fried… mine raw. Food was great but what I really loved besides my family’s company was the frenetic ambience the place offered. Suz and Chris invited me back to Scarsdale but I decided to go home to be with my mom. After all, it would soon be Christmas eve.

  

  I took a taxi from the train station and arrived at my mom’s around 11 PM. That is when the chaos, fear and frustration began. This is the hard part.

  A Narcissist’s Day Off

  I was now pretty much exhausted and a bit tipsy from an additional two glasses of wine. My jammies were in my suitcase in my mom’s bedroom so I left the light off but opened her door. She was wrapped up with even her head covered when I heard her ask in the dark, “Carol, would you get me a blanket? I’m freezing.”

  Now this is an extremely overheated house. The kind of house that dries out your throat and gives you nose bleeds. The kind of house that only an 86 year old woman could live in. But I went into the living room and grabbed my blanket off the sofa and put it on her. She asked for more. I went into the closet and grabbed two more comforters and put them on top of her. Now she was wearing four blankets. But she started to shiver. She asked for socks. I put socks on her feet but she only got colder. “Please, Carol, please put socks on me I’m still freezing”, she said. “But mom I just did.” “Oh, why am I so cold?” she asked. “I don’t know, mom.” I laid in bed behind her and held on to her as her body started to shake uncontrollably. I put my hand on her head and she was hot. Mom, I must call an ambulance you are burning up. “No”, she said fervently her entire body now in convulsions. “I won’t go if you call! I’ll die in the ambulance.”

  My mom is one of the most intransigent people I have ever known. Not knowing for sure if I should call or not I jumped up and called my brother, Bob. He told me to give her a half hour. If things don’t get better then call emergency.

  It only got worse and it didn’t take a half hour. Her fever went higher. She started to regurgitate. Then she went delirious with garbled speech. I called emergency. Then I did something I hardly ever do, I kneeled and prayed. By the time the paramedics got there, which was rather quick, she was dead weight on her back in bed making only feral sounds.

  I could not find her keys and she certainly could not tell me so I rode with the policeman as she was driven in the ambulance to emergency. It was after midnight and the staff there were remarkable. I’ve said it before, staff in hospitals; nurses, doctors and paramedics are special people. Extraordinary, incredible really. The paramedics thought she suffered a stroke but I waited until 2:30 AM and the catscan showed nothing. So I went home.

  She spent Christmas in the hospital. But at least she had her family. Her grandsons brought her a small christmas tree with ornaments and we got her roses so her room doesn’t look so dreary. Chris, Suz and Bob came in with bags full of gifts filling the room with the wonderful warm energy they always do. She is still in the hospital. Doctors still don’t know what caused her illness but there is a positive note to this story. My brother has just been notified that our favorite place for assisted living may have a room opening within this month. This is great news. We love this place. It is so filled with light and activities. The most difficult hurdle is making sure she goes. She is stubborn so it is not beyond belief that she might fight us on this. A decision that could prove disastrous for her if she won’t agree. Although that has never stopped her before.

  Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.—Oscar Wilde

  • 7:35 am
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