PERSONAL NEWS # 178
Thursday evening, April 1st, I attended the monthly TGTSNBN meetup. We met in the back room of the Stone Creek Lounge and watched the amusing, though abit long, “A Very Potter Musical”.

Friday thru Sunday, April 2nd-4th, I visited my family in upstate NY and very much enjoyed the lovely, warm, sunny weather.

Tuesday evening, April 6th, I attended the LOST meetup at the Irish Rogue pub. I hung out with Deborah, Elena, Sarah, Jax, Jenni, Shannon, Erik and Greg.

Wednesday, April 7th, after work I had a chiropractor appt, and at 8:45pm I jumped on the NydoPeace CCR team conference call. We welcomed a new member [ie: Chris Archer] to the team and discussed plans for the Mother’s Day campaign, plus the upcoming Brooklyn Peace Fair in mid-May.

Thursday evening, April 8th, I attended a panel discussion at the NY Society for Ethical Culture regarding “A World without Nuclear Weapons”. The guest speakers were Daniel Ellsberg, Jonathan Schell and Kennette Benedict, along with Phil Donahue as the moderator. This was a free event though donations were welcome. I also ran into Mary Geissman and Alice Slater at the event, which was hosted by Peace Action Fund of NYS and The Nation Institute. Great evening and very informative, and one can watch it on YouTube … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdfSH95cF8w

Friday evening, April 9th, I attended Friday Nite Knits in Kensington section of Brooklyn.

On Saturday, April 10th, I had to work at the office from 10am to 3pm, as it was nearing the end of “Tax Season”. From there I headed up to West 55th Street in the hopes of catching some of the Tartan Day parade on 6th Avenue. I missed it, but was able to catch the “aftermath” of the festivities. Men in kilts ... hell yeah! I took advantage of the sunny weather and strolled along the city blocks down to Grand Central Station to pick up train tix to CT for visit with Katherine on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, April 11th, I headed up to CT to take my good friend Katherine out to lunch at Red Lobster for a belated b-day lunch. This is our 20th anniversary in regards to this tradition. Afterwards we went clothes shopping at Dressbarn in Trumbull, and stopped by a Dunkin Donut for some liquid refreshment. We spent the rest of the afternoon into early evening lounging on the back deck her house with her hubby Maurice and their grandson Shane.

Monday evening, April 12th, after work ended at 7pm I rushed over to City Harvest office on 8th Avenue to volunteer with “Skip Lunch” campaign. Ran into Daniel and he informed me that City Harvest volunteers will be needed at the Union Square farmer’s market starting on April 19th.

Tuesday evening, April 13th, I attended the LOST meetup at the Irish Rogue pub. I mostly hung out with Deborah, Kelli, Greg and Erik.

Wednesday evening, April 14th, I attended Deborah’s birthday party, along with several other members of TGTSNBN, at Trattoria Spaghetto on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village. Really good food and Jennifer created owl cupcakes for dessert. Those in attendance were Linda, Deanna, Jenna, Elena, Jennifer, Margaret, Michelle, Alex, Irvin, Deborah and I. Lots of fun and Deborah received gifts from everyone, including the two pair of bead style earrings I created.

Thursday evening, April 15th, after shopping at Keyfood, I enjoyed a lengthy phone conversation with Josee in Canada. She’s been living in her new digs for two weeks, and it sounds really nice, plus has a balcony.

On Friday evening, April 16th, I enjoyed phone conversations with Gail and Art. The latter I’d been briefly conversing with via email on OKCupid.

My busy Saturday, April 17th, started out with checking out the farmers market in my hood and taking care of several errands. One of which was grocery shopping at The Garden. I really enjoy shopping at several different health food stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan. One never knows what types of goodies one will find for a Vegan. I then headed into Manhattan to attend the reading of a new play by my friend Kristina Latour called “Temping”, which was held at The Metropolitan Room on West 22nd Street. The play was very entertaining with a good cast, plus parts of it reminded me of when I worked at Koll Management in the mid-1990s. It was one of the few jobs, over the years, where I was very unhappy and stressed. [The office manager and VP were such incompetent fools.] Anyhow, that is where I met Kristina, who was temping, back in 1997 and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. Afterwards I checked out the busy farmers market in Union Square and then some shopping at Dressbarn. Very productive, enjoyable day................

On Sunday afternoon, April 18th, I joined several other TGTSNBN members for the monthly Quidditch up at Riverside Park. Weather was abit cloudy and breezy, and it felt so good when the sun did make an appearance. Centaurs won two games and Dementors won one game. The games were played with enthusiasm, good saves by the keepers and much excitement when the snitch was caught. Since last year I’ve assisted with keeping score of the games, and occasionally take pix with a player’s digital camera. Afterwards, about 12 of us strolled to Broadway to have a leisurely, tasty brunch at TOAST. Also, enjoyed a brief phone conversation with Art later that evening.

[Duchess Note: Stay tuned for some digital pix of hood tour and springtime in NYC.]