Today I did a brief bike ride along the industrial waterfront of Long Island City and Greenpoint and through back streets almost devoid of vehicular traffic. One of them--named Rust Street--parallels railroad tracks that cut through silent factories and cling to the banks of Newtown Creek, which has been called the most polluted body of water in the United States.
Actually, I had a specific reason for riding that way: On my way back, I stopped at Russo's bakery in Maspeth, which has--to my tastes, anyway--the best sfogliatelle you can get without taking the next flight to Rome. I wanted to pick up a small box of the miniature ones and bring them to the barbecue at Millie's house. Alas, they had only a couple of the larger ones left: not enough to fill a small pastry dish. Instead, I bought one and ate it right then and there. I also purchased a small cheesecake topped with fresh fruit (strawberries, grapes and slices of apple and cantaloupe) drizzled with a light glaze. Everyone loved it; I thought it was the best cheesecake I'd eaten in a long time.
Millie's friend Catherine came to the barbecue. I like her very much, but I wouldn't call her a friend simply because I see her only at Millie's barbecues and lunches and dinners. On the other hand, she and Millie have known each other since they were five years old. I don't have a friend like that; I met Bruce, my longest-standing friend, during my senior year at Rutgers. Then we fell out of touch for a couple of years and bumped into each other near Cooper Union late one summer afternoon. That was in 1984: I remember that because it was during the first year since my childhood that I was living in New York. I also recall that I was leaving work, which at that time was at the old American Youth Hostels headquarters on Spring Street.
Honestly, there are only a couple of non-family members whom I can remember from my early childhood. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have remained friends with a childhood friend. I suppose that in one way, at least, it would have been like other longtime relationships: Knowing that person for so long could have been the very reason why such a person would have remained friends with me--or for wanting nothing to do with me--after I "came out."
Millie and her husband John knew me for less than a year before I started to live full-time as Justine. Sometimes I think it's the reason why they accepted my change as readily as they did: After all, they couldn't feel the same sense of loss that some members of my family and other people who knew me for a long time might have felt. Plus, almost immediately upon meeting me, Millie decided that she liked me, and she tends not to change her mind about that.
She reminded me that very soon, a year will have passed since my surgery. Already! And tomorrow I'm going for another bike ride. Destination and itinerary are to be determined.
Showing posts with label Catherine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catherine. Show all posts
30 May 2010
04 April 2010
Easter And New Beginnings
Today was even more beautiful, and a bit warmer, than yesterday. I was tempted to go on another bike ride. However, I am still not at the point of riding on consecutive days--or, at least, riding on the day after taking a ride of more than two hours or so.
It's not that I felt tired. Rather, today I've felt a bit sore around my new organs, as I did after the ride I took a couple of weeks ago. Today I didn't feel quite as sore and, in fact, as I'm writing, I don't feel it at all. Still, I don't want to take any chances. I don't want this girl to be interrupted!
Actually, I took a very short ride to Astoria Park, where young people as well as families who were just coming from church basked in the sun. The study in contrasts was interesting: the young hipsters or wannabes, who included a young woman whose arms were covered with tatoos, alongside little girls and their mothers in frilly pastel dresses and little boys who wore smaller versions of their fathers' suits.
Later in the afternoon I went to Millie's house for dinner. Her daughter, Lisa, has a new boyfriend. (It's kind of strange to call someone someone's boyfriend or girlfriend when he or she is old enough to have kids who have boyfriends and girlfriends. Neither Lisa nor the boyfriend have kids, though.) Actually, they've been together for a few months, but this is the first time I've seen him at a family function. Stephanie, Millie's other daughter, was also there with her kids. One of them is certainly old enough to have a boyfriend or girlfriend but doesn't seem interested. She's very smart and attractive, so her lack of interest isn't a way of pre-empting a lack of interest from others. I think that she realizes, on some level, that most of the boys around her age that she sees every day are not on her level of awareness and are therefore not worth her time.
It's hard for me to believe that when I first met her, she was just starting the third grade and her brother wasn't even in school yet. It's odd--and a little sad--to see a friend's kid grow up in ways that I didn't have the opportunity to see in my nephews and nieces grow.
Speaking of people whom you've seen growing: Millie's friend, Cahterine, was also there. She and Millie have known each other since they were four years old! They have never lived more than a neighborhood or two apart from each other, and it's hard to imagine that they ever would.
Most years, they've celebrated Easter together. And that they did today as well. Just as they probably won't live in different cities, let alone states or countries, it's hard to see that they would ever spend Easter away from each other.
Sometimes I wish my life would have permitted me the opportunity to have such long-term friendships, just as I also wish, sometimes, that I could have lived my whole life as female. However, it seems that Easter is about rebirths or other new beginnings. Sometimes they're scary because they're new and I judge myself for, in essence, starting my life in middle age. On the other hand, new beginnings are also exhilarating. And that is what this season is about, or at least symbolizes.
It's not that I felt tired. Rather, today I've felt a bit sore around my new organs, as I did after the ride I took a couple of weeks ago. Today I didn't feel quite as sore and, in fact, as I'm writing, I don't feel it at all. Still, I don't want to take any chances. I don't want this girl to be interrupted!
Actually, I took a very short ride to Astoria Park, where young people as well as families who were just coming from church basked in the sun. The study in contrasts was interesting: the young hipsters or wannabes, who included a young woman whose arms were covered with tatoos, alongside little girls and their mothers in frilly pastel dresses and little boys who wore smaller versions of their fathers' suits.
Later in the afternoon I went to Millie's house for dinner. Her daughter, Lisa, has a new boyfriend. (It's kind of strange to call someone someone's boyfriend or girlfriend when he or she is old enough to have kids who have boyfriends and girlfriends. Neither Lisa nor the boyfriend have kids, though.) Actually, they've been together for a few months, but this is the first time I've seen him at a family function. Stephanie, Millie's other daughter, was also there with her kids. One of them is certainly old enough to have a boyfriend or girlfriend but doesn't seem interested. She's very smart and attractive, so her lack of interest isn't a way of pre-empting a lack of interest from others. I think that she realizes, on some level, that most of the boys around her age that she sees every day are not on her level of awareness and are therefore not worth her time.
It's hard for me to believe that when I first met her, she was just starting the third grade and her brother wasn't even in school yet. It's odd--and a little sad--to see a friend's kid grow up in ways that I didn't have the opportunity to see in my nephews and nieces grow.
Speaking of people whom you've seen growing: Millie's friend, Cahterine, was also there. She and Millie have known each other since they were four years old! They have never lived more than a neighborhood or two apart from each other, and it's hard to imagine that they ever would.
Most years, they've celebrated Easter together. And that they did today as well. Just as they probably won't live in different cities, let alone states or countries, it's hard to see that they would ever spend Easter away from each other.
Sometimes I wish my life would have permitted me the opportunity to have such long-term friendships, just as I also wish, sometimes, that I could have lived my whole life as female. However, it seems that Easter is about rebirths or other new beginnings. Sometimes they're scary because they're new and I judge myself for, in essence, starting my life in middle age. On the other hand, new beginnings are also exhilarating. And that is what this season is about, or at least symbolizes.
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