Well...................Nevermind......

I feel like a Lilly Tomlin character, but I can't remember which one.. was it the switchboard operator? Anyway..
there is a purse within my purse.
that was where the wallet was sposed to be
I looked there
the man who cuts my hair looked there
it was empty except for my glasses
On Saturday morning I found my passport and was about to leave for the bank
the purse within the purse was lying there and I took my glasses out
.....
there is a secret compartment inside the purse. A pocket behind the pocket.
you know what was there
as soon as I saw the pocket I knew what was there

Yep
but my cards still don't work, once cancelled they can't be uncancelled
but my money DOES work
and I am willing to wait quietly til my card appear

and I never did put out the contract on that man, so he is safe
sigh
nevermind

And then, it was gone

This is what your brain looks like when your wallet gets lifted out of your purse. In retrospect, I know when and where it happened. Retrospect is great but it doesn't make you feel any better. I had taken my MetroCard out to get into the subway...and put it back... On my way down on the escalator there was a man very intent on passing me on the single person escalator, and he did pass me while bumping into me about 3 times.

I had a wad of cash because I was going to get my hair cut and they only take cash....don't ask, don't tell or something like that. When I went to pay, there was no wallet, and since I knew I had it earlier, I knew it was G - O - N- E. Dammit!!

SO there is a drill.

• Call the bank and AmEx and discover that you won't have any cards for 3 to 7 days.
• Cancel the credit cards
• Cancel the debit card
• Try to remember the number of the one blank check and give up.
• Realize that you are currently on 56th street, you live on 181st street and you have exactly $0 and 0 cents.
• Count blocks....25 short blocks to a mile
• 181 - 56 = 125
• 25 short blocks to a mile - give or take - means a 5 mile hike.
• You are not the Yarn Harlot. You KNOW that you aren't doing 5 miles in those shoes even if there isn't any snow on the ground.
• Realize that you also owe your hairdresser the astronomical sum that was in the late lamented wallet to pay for the haircut.
• And then there are the tips.
• Call the bank again. They suggest you go to a branch and see if they will, out of the goodness of their hearts, give you some of your money since you can't prove who you are.
• Go out and hunt up a bank.
• Beg
• Give them a business card to prove who you are.
• It happens to be a MOO card with a picture of the GWB on it. Tell them that is where you live.
• Remember your mother's maiden name, your office phone number - since you don't exactly have an office this is an exercise in creativity - and the town you were born in.
• Assure them that you don't think that it is anywhere in your purse.
• Offer to let THEM look in your purse for it.
• Sign your name so they can compare it to the one on the screen.
• They reluctantly agree to let you have some of your money.
• For some reason, be overcome with humility and don't ask for very much money
• Return and pay for the haircut and tip
• Walk outside and kick yourself because you now have $10 and you have to spend $2 of that on the MTA.
• Also in your wallet, your MetroCard with $32 left on it.
• Realize how much humility sucks
• Get a $2 MetroCard and go home.
• Remember that your wallet contained --
• Your ZipCar card
• Your insurance card
• Your Driver's License
• Your Spring Studio Session card
• Your NYPublic Library card

Realize that there is probably a bunch of other stuff in there that you can't remember. Think briefly about the Motor Vehicle Bureau. Sigh.

Think about trying to convince a local bank tomorrow that you are who you say you are with your expired Passport (don't ask.. there was that big crush last year and I just couldn't cope) so you can get a little more of your own money.

Drink a beer.

Sigh a lot.

And know that you know what that guy looked like, so he better be looking out for me.

I did windows

I played with windows today. Not THAT kind, this kind





























It was SUCH a grey day in NY. Yet another one. There has only been, it seems to me, one sunny day in a month. All I can do sometimes is put one foot in front of the other and slog on .... the alternative is to stand still... isn't it?????? Sometimes standing still is appealing. Today lying on the couch being fed peeled grapes was appealing. Alas, Sienna, Romeo and Clementine do not have a single opposable thumb among them, so peeling is probably out of the question. Damn!

They might manage the feeding part though.

We can all just get along...

The weather improved today, and Sienna and I went to the dog park. Take a good look, because soon she is getting sheared and the fuzzy girl will look a lot like a small greyhound...

But right now, I just love her hair, though bathing her is a REAL chore and I haven't done it in a while. Notice how well her back feet blend into the pebbles.















Anyway, after I threw the ball about 40 times, and she was just waiting for "more more more more ball ball ball", this fellow arrived.



That is what I love about New York dog parks, where else would you meet 120 pounds of lap dog..



He is a real sweetie, but also a ball hound, so the ball went in my pocket. This is him hoping that it will fall out somehow..... no such luck baby. Those eyes are staring a hole in my pocket.





The woman in the orange actually came in with the two Shih-Tzus, but since I was not about to give up the ball, he is attempting to convince her that scratching him is her goal in life.





He has succeeded, but the two little guys were a bit jealous.
They tried to convince him to move on, but this was just too funny...


If at first you don't succeed, try again.



Most NY dogs who are used to dog parks will interact with any other well behaved dog, but these guys certainly did demonstrate good dog behavior. Cesar Millan would be proud.

I am really going to miss Polaroid film

This is an emulsion lift on top of an image transfer, both my photos from ages ago. I shot a lot of slides and used them to make image transfers. I never did many emulsion transfers but I always did love this one. I'm going to miss that film a LOT.

I've been rummaging

in my file folders, trying to organize my life from the outside in, since going the other way doesn't seem to be getting me where I want to go. SO ... I found these. They were taken in upstate New York, Binghamton to be exact, where I was born and sort of grew up. The town has several old carousels and I used to ride on this one just about every day except when it was closed in the dead of winter. It was between my home and my school when I was in my early teens, and it was just something we did as we passed through the park.

It feels a little like the going round and round I have been doing in my head trying to decide what to do about working and arting and living and a lot of other things lately, so, for your entertainment .... The Carousel. The man in the last picture is my Dad. I took him there not long before he died, and we rode it several times.

Looking for the Hudson

At the top of Manhattan, in 1776, the Americans built a fort. They lost it the same year. They built it in the summer, they won the Battle of Harlem Heights and sent the British out of Manhattan, and they lost it on November 16th 1776. Fort Washington ... though I suppose the British didn't call it that while they held it.

The Americans weren't staying in the Fort, or at least the big guys weren't. They were not far away at the Morris Jumel Mansion, though I don't suppose it was a Mansion then (or now). When the Americans moved out, the British moved in and stayed there til they gave up New York.









The Americans finally got the Fort back on November 25, 1783, along with the rest of New York, though it wasn't much to get back and it was a long way from the Fort to the southern tip of Manhattan where the rest of the city was located.





President Washington gave a dinner party at the Mansion in July 1790. At the table that night were three future Presidents of the United States: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams.

Sometimes History is interesting all by itself. To know that in those days, you could see all the way to the Harbor , the Hudson River, the Harlem River and the Bronx from right here.

Now, you can't see the River, or much else, from up here. You have to go further up, to the Cloisters to see all the way down the river from up high.... but that's a trip for another day.

I wonder what all those guys talked about on that July night in 1790....