Hot summer!

Holy Cow is it hot and DRY! We have no rain and everything is wilting. Including me. But, as the so called conservatives tell us – there is no climate change. What are we leaving as a legacy for future generations?
Well, we continue to be busy and happy in our busy-ness. Went back to Tastebuds with friends last week and it was better than I remember AND we could have a decent conversation. Went to Inn at Phillips Mill with neighbors, Tom and Chris. Another good meal, but it was a bit noisy. For some reason there were a TON of people there. Got to keep down the restaurants to once or twice a week otherwise we will be sorry.
We went to Via Ponte with Ken and Bill. It turned out to be a bad choice. We’d been there with Przem and Jola but not on Trivia Night and thought it was just ok. It was loud and chaotic. I had to remind them to bring water. Brian’s appetizer was good and both of our entrees were good – not great but good, but the general incompetence was unacceptable. So it got a strike two and it’s off our radar screen.
Joined Sandi and Hank and Lori and Ashley at Harvey Cedars. The weather was DEEVINE and Lori made the BEST lemon chicken I have ever had.
I am moving forward on the book for LWW and am done with all but 2 of my chapters. Now time to farm out the rest. The Wiley book – I think – has been put to rest. Joan tried to get me to do some clinical vignettes, but I declined. They can pull them from Allan’s big book. I have been spending way too much time in my office in front of the computer.
I get to where I crave activity of some kind after a morning of writing and an afternoon on catching up on reading by the pool. Anything – even a walk in New Hope or Lahaska or a trip to B&N to check out the new book offerings. Wish Brian would play Scrabble with me! One of the few games I like, besides Super Quiz. That would be kinda fun on the deck. I need to find a Scrabble partner. Maybe Shannon when she gets here in August.
July 4 is upon us. Grace is having a Pagoda party tomorrow and we are having the Empty Nesters picnic on Sunday. The week after the 4th is beginning to fill up – I have my first Writers’ Group meeting on Tuesday in Philly, and the next week Alina is coming for 3 days.
We need it to cool down AND we need rain!

Whew!

Haven’t posted much lately. I guess our project to fill time productively and happily is working a bit too well!
May saw us going on a Natural Habitat trip to Bryce Canyon, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park. Bryce was magical. Go on my facebook page to see absolutely stunning photos of the red hoo-doos. The national park service, however, has a long way to go before they learn how to evaluate the food service to which they farm out contracts. The food, wine and service was pretty mediocre. The north rim was disappointing in that I thought that there would be something different that we hadn’t seen at the south rim. Alas, it is the same but with fewer people. Majestic but the same views. The lodge was better than that at Bryce though. Zion was absolutely stunning as well. One can say that Bryce is lacy and dainty, but Zion is massive and Baroque. The vistas were amazing and the National Park service is doing a great job of controlling the tourists. We stayed outside the park. The accommodations were pretty darn good and where we ate was excellent for being stuck out in the middle of nowhere in Utah! The people on the trip were interesting and intelligent. I like this about NH trips. The travelers are a real cut above and the ratio is 10 travelers to one guide. Perfect. We thoroughly enjoyed the folks, except for one quasi handicapped lady who had no business on a trip that clearly advertizes that one has to hike – up and down steep hills in high altitudes – 5 -10 miles a day. She complained at the end that she hadn’t gotten her money’s worth. HELLLLO – if you can’t walk well from here to the end of the block, you ain’t gonna be able to hike down Bryce and back up. Go on a bus tour.
All in all though a wonderful trip with Natural Habitat. We truly bonded with most of the group and the guides were fantastic, arranging campfires with marshmallows and ghost stories, as well as wine and cheese at the bank of a river in Zion.
It was a good time to get outta town because I finally got to testify in the suicide case. It’s only been 2006 since the suit was filed! We lost. Hopelessly out-lawyered. It was such a good plaintiff case, yet the solo practitioners were so in over their heads that they put on a poor case. The defense lawyers were not all that great either in my opinion, but they were sharper than the ones who hired me. That’s it. No more solo practitioners. They simply do not have the resources to put on a good case the way that big firms do.
Interesting about that case. The judge was a guy who I went to high school with. He was voted cutest, best looking and all that good stuff. He was. He is not now. Has not aged well at all and he had no earthly idea who I was. Ah time. The great equalizer.
We visited the twins and their parents for the twins second birthday. They got matching tricycles and we got very cute photos! It was beastly hot in North Carolina! Come to think of it, it is beastly hot here.
Came back to a deposition in a case that I have had since 2004. So much for quick justice. I had been deposed by this jerk before and he didn’t get the answers he wanted, I guess, so he petitioned the judge in Illinois to re-depose. He stupidly wasted his time going over stuff that he’d gone over before and didn’t seem to “get it” that I was not going to answer questions the way that he wanted me to. What a tiresome attorney. Either very arrogant or unwilling to change his tactics because they’d worked for him in the past, I guess. Everyone wound up screaming at each other. The court reporter told me it was the worst dep she had ever been in. Me too. Gosh I hope the darn thing settles. I really don’t want to go to court with this jerk cross examining me.
Since we’ve been back, I put the final touches on the Wiley book and that one is in production now. I also met with my Lippincott team and we are in the process of updating that text, which will be in its 8th edition. Last too. I have no more texts in me and with retirement looming there are so many more interesting things I want to do.
I joined a writers group in Philly. We meet 2 x a month to share ideas and to critique each other’s work. It is time for me to tell the story of my parents. I’ve been encouraged to do that by so many folks, I have finally decided to take the plunge. Trouble is that I am a great academic writer, but no experience in anything else but that. I am hoping that the writers will help me break some bad habits!
We were at the opera last week to see Orpheus and Eurydice. Very good performance. Trouble is that we had to change our tickets to accommodate another show and had to take evening instead of matinee. Not being evening/night owls it was hard to stay awake on the way home. BORING old coots that we are.
We also saw Avenue Q with Ashley. It was her Xmas present and we had a blast. It was a very, very cute show. Some great lines. We took her out to the Yardley Inn for dinner afterward. Always a consistently good place to eat in Bucks County.
Ted and Mary came over to celebrate his birthday and our 41st anniversary. The Tulmans and Simpsons came over to celebrate Lorraine and Allan’s second grandson. Sandy and Hank came over to barbeque and swim. Grace had a birthday party for “the girls” to celebrate her 60th. Needless to say, she put on a great luncheon -- champagne, great food and party favors.
We’ve been busy with our two book clubs and empty nester’s group. The book clubs have really made us stretch our brains. Both of them are so different. The Doylestown bunch is younger. I think we are the oldest – surprisingly they listen to our “wisdom” and feedback. Don’t know whether they are being polite or what. The New Hope library bunch are older. We pool our aged collective wisdom. They are truly a well read and exceedingly well informed group. We don’t agree on everything, but it is fun to debate in a civil way respecting others’ points of view and having them respect yours – with grace.
Empty nesters is a fluffy group. No intellectual stretching there, but we have fun doing things. We meet to do interesting activities a couple of times a month. Robin finds the most off-beat things to do. What I really like about this group of friends is that they are all so positive and they keep us UP! We laugh a lot and have resolved to stay happy and stimulate our endorphins. I have decided that life is way too short to be down and to deal with negative and sour people who drain your enthusiasm. This bunch feeds your enthusiasm. Robin has the coolest way of turning everything into a positive. I noticed that we did have some downers who thought that this was a support group and they didn’t last long. No one wanted to hear them kvetch about life. They’re gone.
Tara is visiting with Alina and a friend from prep school this weekend. I haven’t seen Mihee in 8 years. It will be great to see her again. She wants to see the tile works in Doylestown. So this will be my10 trip there. Every time someone new comes to visit, they have to see the tile works. Sigh. It’s only for a couple of hours.
Here’s to a great summer. Next week we have a museum of art class; July 4 weekend is full of barbeques and activities and Brian made reservations to see The Adams Family in Manhattan in late July. Between all of this AND keeping up with the extended family in Poland who knows where the time goes? But it is FILLED! Whew!

having fun

We continue on our project to make our end of life years richer and fuller. We finished up our course on cubism, which we both enjoyed but I think that Brian will definitely have to take a survey course in art history. Both of us will at the community college when I turn 65 next year. BCC has a program for seniors where you can audit what you want for free after age 65. Because I did all of that enrichment activity to keep myself sane by taking all of those art history, literature and so forth courses during my "lost years" in Midland, Texas, I was able to put more of what the professor said in the context of what else was going on in the art world during that time. It is interesting to bring together economy, politics, architecture, music and see how they intersect in the Zeitgeist of the times.
One Sunday we went to a B&B event in Flemington where they paired chocolate and wine. Oh my gosh were the chocolates wonderful. So were the wines, but I didn't really think that the vitner and the chocolatier did a great job of pairing. Some of the pairings were a bit jarring and some actually worked well. But we met a bunch of folks who were really, really pleasant, and the hosts were fantastically friendly people.
That same week we went to the Kantha exhibit and lecture at the Museum of Art. These members only tours and lectures are so informative. I would never be able to see or know the meaning and significance of some of the works that we have seen without them. The Kanthas were exquisite and so very detailed. That same day we were off to the Wilma to see Language Games, a new play. The Wilma is funny. The plays we have attended there are either fabulous or we have walked out at intermission. They are always thought provoking and edgy new works. This one was great and particularly interesting for an immigrant. It concerned a young man who is an ethnic Arab, whose father emigrated to the U.S. when the young man was age 3 years so that his family could have a better life. His son becomes an interrogator/torturer in what we are to understand to be Guantanamo. His father is arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity and brought to the prison and comes face to face with his son to be interrogated. What a powerful play. We stayed for the discussion, which we thought would be at a higher level. We were surprised at the concrete interpretations of this spectacular play. No one seemed to "get" the central theme of dialectic -- things turning into their opposite. E.g. Egyptian father's expectations of a better opportunity for his son by immigrating, and his son becoming an interrogator/torturer for the U.S. The African American psychiatrist turning into his opposite and the formerly oppressed becoming the oppressor. This plus the subthemes of destroying an identity by destroying a people's language and others makes this a powerful play for the thoughtful.
The next evening we saw Graham Greene's Travels With My Aunt, which was a superb performance and the theatre was packed for this oldie but goodie. My only complaint is that it was in the Walnut Street Theatre's smaller venue and the chairs are uncomfortable and too close to each other. Coupled with the fact that all I could get was evening tickets and we usually go to matinees because we get sleepy driving home, and there was an accident on 95, I was cranky by the time we arrived back in New Hope.
We drove down to visit Shannon, Jon and the twins in N.C. and saw Daryl, Dina, Amy and Mark as well. A very fun visit. We really like Jon's family a lot. They are always so gracious and inclusive. The little girls are no longer babies! How time flies. Both of them are talking much and so different from each other. Sophie is a thoughtful little scholar who loves her "Bacz" and Jacqueline is most definitely her Dziadzio's little girlie girl.
One of our book clubs had its meeting about Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Blach. We were the only members of the club to not like this over-rated pabulum. I panned it on Goodreads but found that we were in a minority there as well.
The pool work got done this week. Glad to have those workmen out of our hair. The gardens are exploding and the property is gorgeous. It is always at its best in the spring I think.
We've been running from one activity to another as this blog attests. We took in Alice in Wonderland and thought it was far superior to Avatar. We ate Chinese afterward which was mediocre despite the 30 minute wait to get in at 5 pm on a Thursday. Last night we met our empty nesters at Bobby Simones, a local restaurant, and ended the week with a bang.
Next week I have to testify at a trial, which kind of ruins my whole week being on call. But Brian has errands and has to go to the audiologist, so I guess I may as well work.
The university becomes more and more of a pain in the rear. The dean asked me to spearhead multidisciplinary grand rounds at the medical school on April 29. I have 5 people: a psychiatrist, an epidemiologist, a physical therapist, a biochemist, and myself. Since January only the shrink -- buddy Andy Levitas -- has come through with any content or work with me on this. Just my ambition in life - to play nursemaid to a bunch of people with their doctorates making sure they get their stuff done. Like herding cats.
Then the office of ethics and compliance is running after faculty for us to take mandatory courses and answer intrusive questions. Like "do you do any volunteer activity?" I told them it was none of their business what I did in my spare time and Andy told them to shove their ethics course ...
A man after my own heart!
Every time I turn around there is another mandatory diversity, cultural sensitivity, HIPPA, organ donation course that they want you to take. Then our brilliant dean for grad studies came up with the idea of having all faculty teaching in graduate courses to send her a report of what courses they taught, the # of the course, the section, the names of the students, and their grades for the semester. Hmm. I was under the impression that the registrar's office does this. So yet another mindless piece of work for the faculty -- and then they bitch that people are not producing scholarship. Go figure. ONLY TWO SEMESTERS TO GO!!!
It continues to be very quiet without our kitties. It is so strange to come home and find it empty. We really miss them, but won't get another pet until we stop traveling. We have some big trips planned in the next several years.
I am having a heck of a good time corresponding with the extended family in Poland and the U.K. Especially fun is discussing issues with the younger generation. They are so darn cute!

death in family

So, sad news -- but perhaps not. Yesterday Brian's father died suddenly while on a trip to the Grand Canyon with his wife, Jill. One minute he was looking at it and the next he had simply died. She was pretty distraught when she called Brian last night. Of course, he being the only rationale and empathic member out of a toxic crew of 6, he was asked to call all of them to pass on the news. Being the kind person that he is, he did, although it was not a whole lot of fun. Glad that is over and I really feel for Jill to have to go back and undoubtedly be treated abominably by the wicked stepdaughters. I cringe for her.
So, how do I feel about all of this? I am glad that my father-in-law did not suffer. If one does not depart this life in one's sleep, one should depart as suddenly and painlessly as Jack did. I really feel bad for Brian on many levels. He loved his father and his father loved him in his own strange way. He will mourn his passing and miss having him in his life.

Katyn -- the gift that keeps giving

Yesterday we awoke to find that Poland's leadership was decimated in a tragic plane crash on the way to a memorial commemorating the victims of the Katyn forest murders. Being a bit paranoid on the issue of Russia, I defaulted to my position that they must have had something to do with it. Sabatoge. Of course that is a bit crazy. But I think that we need to spread the word about what Katyn was and why it is important. So I highly recommend learning about this nasty piece of history. University of Illinois professor, Allen Paul, has a great book out on the topic. He has recently updated it. Also, the film, Katyn is exceedingly powerful. Katyn is now available with English subtitles. It is a film by Andrzej Wajda, one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, who shows generations of his countrymen – (and the rest of the world) what they were told not to think about. With its mournful score, muted cinematography and restrained performances, this is a work of sober commemoration. Hopefully it brings some small measure of rest to the 22,000 innocents who were slaughtered by the Soviets for no other reason than to purge Poland of its intelligentsia. It is a story of personal legends, of unknown soldiers and civilians. Wajda unravels their various narrative strands, like a desperately ripped flag, a national tragedy doesn’t cease, it haunts.
The collective, spiritual crisis of post war Poles is sharpened by the introduction of documentary footage, juxtaposed with children looking for a Christmas tree during the Occupation then an open-air screening of propaganda films absolving Russia of the Katyn massacre. Wajda confronts historical evidence and personal recall. When a widow tells a collaborator, “You may think differently but you do the same. What difference does it make that you think differently?” it powerfully communicates real life complexity.

Health Care and Irrationality

Abraham Verghese says it better than I ever could: http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2009/08/irrational-belief-breaks-down-the-rational-mind/23198/

Recent visit & activity

Well FINALLY the new book is done and is out to Wiley for copy editing. Allan Tasman tells me that it is the easiest project he has ever done with anyone. Perhaps that is because I had no ego tied up in it and I did the majority of the work. Victim of my own competence. So, we will see now how it sells.
Shannon and Jon and twins were here during the third week in March. Tara and Mike came up for a day during that time and it was so very cute to see the babies playing. Sophie and Alina hit it off right away. Jacqueline was a bit more demure, but she soon joined in on the fun. Photos on my facebook page. So, Brian and I are reading up a storm. I am in the home slide of a biography of Madame Chiang Kai Shek. What an extraordinary and despicable woman she was. As for Chiang, he was just as bad as Mao.
What I am learning is that the U.S. wasted countless taxpayer dollars arming him and he simply hoarded the weapons. Mao couldn't help but win because Chiang was so pusillanimous and Mao actually had an ideology that he could sell. What did Chiang have? Militaristic nationalism, corruption, and opium. Arrgghh. We had McCarthy hearings over all of this. A pox on both the communists and the Chiang Kai Shek crowd!
Life continues apace and well. We are thrilled about health care reform passing, although we would like to have had a public option. But policy is incremental and the GOP and their tea party lunatic fringe have been so obstructionistic, that we were lucky to get what we got.
I am sort of disappointed in the press in that they simply don't hammer home the realities of what is going on with health care and the fact that we have such a dismal track record when compared to the rest of the world. Just look at our infant mortality rate! It is disgraceful for the so called "best" health care system in the world. They don't talk nearly enough about the other health indicators. They also don't bother to point out to the nay sayers who talk about the waits in Canada and other public option countries that we have to wait here as well. People with HMOs have to wait -- I did for 48 hours before I had an MRI because the morons wouldn't approve it for my back pain. AND if one has no health insurance you wait forever. And die. At any rate there is so much for the press to argue. Perhaps they don't because the GOP-tea partiers simply do not listen and refuse to engage in any discourse that makes their position untenable. I found it interesting today that the NY Times pointed out that the tea partiers were > 80% Republican, many were out of work AND ON GOVERNMENT subsidies. But they want smaller government. Go figure.
So we saw Antony and Cleopatra this past weekend and then met the Tulmans for Thai food. The opera was interesting, but I don't need to see this one again. Far too much recitative, the tenor was weak, the soprano was the size of Precious (the movie) although she had a great voice, and the staging was really odd. It just did not work for me. Back to the more classic operas.
We attended our last lectures on cubism at the Museum of Art and they have left Brian hungry for more.
He will have to take an Art History course. I think he may have missed some foundational concepts since he had not ever taken art history and I had. Next year when I turn 65 and no more UMDNJ (bye-bye!) we will be able to audit courses at Bucks County Community College for free under their seniors program.
His new bee in bonnet is that he wants us to take Spanish to get ready for our trip to South America.
We had Alina for an overnight. What a joy it is to have her with us! When she runs through the meadow after Brian yelling "Dzia Dzio!" it is very touching. Her fun thing to do is to help him chase the Canada geese away. They are the bane of our existence during mating season.
Today we are meeting our Doylestown group for a class on pairing chocolate and wine. There goes the diet again, and next week we have two plays (how did THAT happen?) and another museum lecture on Indian art.
Ken and Bill are planning a belated birthday dinner for me and we are headed out to North Carolina to visit the twins, Shannon and Jon after that. Whew. Having fun is exhilarating and tiring.
I was friended on facebook by one of my neices who lives in Warsaw. What a cutie. Facebook can be both inane and a lot of fun. I think that it works well if one ignores and does not friend the purveyors of inanity. It is great when linked with goodreads. And I have learned a lot from my Polish groups that I have friended. Most of it has to do with what I have to learn and read before next year's trip to Poland and the family reunion.