I have loaded the pictures on my webshots. See them by clicking here.
My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. Meredith is sleeping, Margaret is in search for a Dr Pepper. Lots of luck Margaret. When I was here in 1969, Dr Pepper was my soda of choice. Noone in NYC had ever heard of Dr Pepper. The clerks thought we were crazy seeking medical help at a neighborhood grocery. I am looking forward to my flight home. Through Margaret's connections she had our buddy pass status changed to paying customer status and I am flying first class back to Texas. I think I am going to get my drink on while in flight. Had Margaret not done this, I probably would have missed seeing Meredith's play. The flight was filling fast, and Margaret made a few calls and made the necessary changes. She is my hero.
The play as mentioned before was very good. Meredith gave an outstanding performance. Part of the set included pictures of Meredith when she was young. Included in those pictures were some of me, Danny, Jennifer, her dad, both grandmas, some of her childhood friends and various other people. The story was about four girls who had been molested as children by a neighborhood teen boy. The boy's (now a man) mother died and he was returning to the hood to take care of matters pertaining to her. It was a very good play and I understand they are going to try to enter it in some festivals.
We have also had some wonderful meals here. Margaret and I dined at a restaurant called Mozarts while we waited for Meredith to meet us. It was reasonably priced and the food was delicious. We had some very good wine there. I had a Chilian wine called Montgras. Margaret had a wine from Washington State. On Saturday, Meredith needed to retrieve her things that were used in the play. Margaret and I shopped for a bit while she did this. Then we met Meredith at a manicure/pedicure shop called Bloomie Nails. Margaret and Meredith had their nails done while I waited and people watched. That evening we dined at a restaurant called Paul and Jimmys. Another wonderful meal was had. We had brunched at The Tavern on the Green in Central Park and were not that impressed with the fare or the service. For dinner I wanted a place that was not touristy. Paul and Jimmy's filled that bill perfectly. I had a very good Margarita (may have been the best I have ever had.) We finished the evening by meeting some of Meredith's friends in Hoboken. Another wonderful day was had by all. Yesterday, Fanula, an Irish friend of Meredith's picked us up and we had brunch at a local breakfast cafe. This cafe was a bit different because the first section on the menu listed many cocktails. We ate breakfast and then went back to Meredith's to get Sheeba and went on a long picture taking walk. The day was beautiful, we had a very lovely time. Boulevard East has a magnificent view of the Manhattan skyline. There are some beautiful homes that offer a perfect view of the skyline.
When I get home, I will post the pictures of this weekend on my webshots and provide a link to them.
Margaret and I made our ways to NYC last night for the final performance of 9th Street Water. Meredith and the other actors who performed were excellent. I am being becckoned to speed things up...I will finish this report later.
Communication Workers of America has called a strike against SBC for failure to negotiate a fair contract for its members. It is a four day strike that begins tonight at midnight and ends Tuesday at midnight. I have picketing duty tomorrow at the Glendale Central Office in Fort Worth tomorrow morning from 8 to 11. If this wake-up call does not move SBC to be realistic on our negotiations, a strike for the duration will be called. I hope it does not come to that. In 1983 we were on strike for three weeks. My circumstances are a bit different now than they were then, but I do not relish a long strike.
My thoughts have strayed to Meredith all night long. Tonight was the opening of the show 9th Street Water that has ruled Meredith's life for the past few weeks. The show began at 8PM EDT. As I write this it is 10:40 EDT. Is the show over? I do not know. I do know that Meredith's role was well performed. I can't wait to see it.
On another note; I will have a full house tonight. Patty and Matthew return from their trip to Las Vegas. They should land at about midnight. They will stay the night and depart for Wichita Falls tomorrow. Mother is here and Patrick is spending the night on his way to Austin to await the arrival of his second grandchild. This is fun. Life is good.
I was hoping to get back here and report on the rest of the weekend. Margaret has beaten me to the punchline though. I will be correcting mistakes in the previous entry. I had to get up at 3AM to be at work by 4AM on Monday. That is why I cut the story short and planned on finishing it today...Before we went home for dinner on Saturday night, I called mom to see if we would have time to go and get a few bottles of wine. She said yes, thankfully the potatoes had not been started to boil yet. We made a discovery at the liquor store. Wichita Falls has its very own vineyard and winery. We were able to purchase cab and merlot. We sampled the cab and found it to be delightful. We were on a time schedule. Matthew's choir performance was to begin at 7:30PM and we did not want to be late. However, we also wanted to buy additional bottles of wine. So, we left mother's house at 7PM and stopped at the liquor store again. The clerks at the store remembered us. Between the four of us we purchased an additional 9 bottles of wine. Felicia informed the store as she departed it that we were in a hurry to get to the Baptist Church. Matthew's concert was at the Lamar Baptist Church. The choir performed The Creation by Joseph Haydn. There were three soloists, a soprano, tenor and bass. They and the choir were wonderful. I thought as I watched and listened that Leah and Cynthia would really have enjoyed the performance. Afterward we met Patty and Matthew, Dr Mike, some of the other choir members at Applebees for a little post party. It was the eve of Matthew's birthday, so we informed our waitor and he and several other wait people sang happy birthday and presented him with a slice of cake. Mother's garage door broke on Saturday. So, overnight the carport had four vehicles under and outside it, Matthew's, Felicia's, the neighbor's van, and my car. Sunday morning we woke up and Felicia discovered that three of the cars had been egged. My car was spared. We had loads of fun. We spoke of regular visits to Wichita Falls. I hope we follow through in this.
My weekend began Thursday evening when I picked up Margaret from DFW airport. We went to Mac's Bar & Grill for dinner. We had a lovely meal and spent Thursday night at my house. We got up Friday morning lolled around the house for a bit Friday morning. I packed and we loaded the car and headed to Wichita Falls to visit mother. We made one detour to the additional 30% off sale merchandise at Dillards. We spent about 2 hours there and found some really fine bargains. Theresa called while we were shopping and said that we might want to wait to begin our journey to WF because of the stormy weather between FW and WF. Instead of following her advice, Margaret and I concluded our shopping and began our drive North. We experienced some heavy rain for a very short time, but made it to mother's house about 2 hours later. When we arrived, we made dinner plans for The Texas Roadhouse. Mother, Matthew, Patty Hardesty Margaret and I had a really nice time there. We informed our waiter of the upcoming birthday of Matthew and they brought a stool with a saddle mounted on it for Matthew to sit upon and it was announced to the restaurant that he was having a birthday. Saturday morning we got up and Kathleen, Felicia, Margaret and I went to Lucy Park for a bit of a run. It was very chilly, but we had a really nice time there. Margaret took several pictures with her digital camera and has promised to send some of them to me so I can post them on my webshots. Afterwards, we went to Sally's to get hair color and Kathleen, Felicia and I colored our hairs. We went back to the sale at Dillards and Margaret and Felicia made some purchases. Mother told us that dinner was to be at 5pm promptly and I did not want to miss it because she was making one of my favorite dishes, german sausage and sauerkraut. It was yummy.