Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving. So There.

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part of Her New York, 
if only to say thank you.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION 

FROM SOCIAL TEES!!!

"This is Ziggy (formerly Petey). My son and I adopted Ziggy just before Super Storm Sandy. At only 4 months old and 35 pounds, he was found wondering the streets of Brooklyn. Now our baby is a healthy, happy, 85 pounds, and clearly very much at home. Thank you Social Tees for rescuing him from animal control. We love him so much and can't imagine life without him."

PLEASE SHARE TO HELP MORE RESCUE PETS FIND HOMES!!!! Adopt one, and YOU could be a future Social Tees Success Story. Learn more at socialteesnyc.org

CALLING ALL FOSTER FOLKS!

 

 Dykeman needs a foster home ASAP! 

He's three years old, 12 pounds, and very loving.  However, he'll do best in a home with low traffic and no kids. So he's PERFECT for someone who works at home, AND he is good with other animals! Of course, like every Social Tees foster animal, he's also up for adoption! Email samantha.socialtees@gmail.com if you can help!!

 WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!





Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, check out our FAQs here.

Get involved, volunteer, foster!  Adopt!!!

Social Tees  
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003
socialteesnyc.org

An Untitled Walk

There's a short story about three frogs on three lily pads.  One decides to leap off into the pond.  How many frogs are left on the lily pads? 

Three.

All that frog did was make a decision. 


It is the only thing to do these days, facing words on a page, crazy voices from deep inside, and the slow loss to illness of someone needed and loved. 

Just make a decision to step up, walk through, leap off.

The Secret Garden

An office somewhere in New York

Making work a corner of home where you can secretly remember your dreams.

Ode To The Office

The Not-On-TV Office: Episode Two - Work Is Where The Heart Is

The Not-On-TV Office

Back To Work

Sunday Memories: Traveling Through

12th Street and Second Avenue

From the gratitude of a warm home, shuddering at the memory of those early years when the boiler always broke during the coldest days of the year and wondering where the joy of leaping through snow disappeared to.  

Then remembering snow days when schools closed and streets were so impassable, we walked right down the middle of Madison Street to Gramma's house in Knickerbocker Village, never feeling the cold and delighting in ruling the city.

 **
 Related Posts:

Sunday Memories: Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Gloom of Night...Until Suddenly...

Sunday Memories: Over The Hills And Through The Woods To Grandmother's House We Go

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Makes A House A Home

There's a reason Friday's Child is now 

a part of Her New York, 

if only to say thank you.

The Goldie Report

 

 

This is Goldie.

When we are sick or tired or both, she sleeps near us.   

When we make the bed she plays with the flying sheets.

She keeps the pile of clean laundry warm.

She occasionally allows Jupiter to adore her.  

She occasionally adores him.

Sometimes in the middle of the night, she hops on top of us with a plastic ring from the gallon of milk, knowing one of us will wake up, be a total sucker, and play fetch with her.  

She greets us at the door.

She keeps us company when we face a blank screen, wondering what to write.

Adopting her brought more joy into our lives than we could have ever imagined.

WANT YOUR HOUSE 

TO BECOME A HOME?

Social Tees has wonderful puppies, dogs, kittens and cats up for adoption!

Gino is a 12-week-old beagle/walker hound mix, and UTTERLY adorable. He and his siblings arrived last weekend, and they need forever homes! Find more info on Social Tees's current adoptables at http://tinyurl.com/orwq9yt, and complete an application at socialteesnyc.org if you're ready to adopt. (Shout-out to Susan Shek for the amazing photograph!)

And if you are not ready to adopt, FOSTER!

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

 
Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, check out our FAQs here. 

Get involved, volunteer, foster!  Adopt!!!

Social Tees 325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003 socialteesnyc.org

View From A Bed

The Buddha Jutta painted

A rare afternoon in bed revealed the surprising ways enlightenment appears.

**
Related Posts:

When The Wall Welcomed The Woman

When All Else Fails...

Couch With A View

Many frames meet the eye from an immobilized perch on the couch. 

* Anti-Vietnam war poster left behind by roommates in the 1980s. 

* A Miro poster found on the street. 

* The cousin's exhibition poster smuggled out of the Soviet Union before glasnost.

* A computer offering a window to the outside world. 

* Channel Thirteen promising me that some of the things I found on the street might in fact be American treasures worth a couple of years in a nice nursing home.

It helps the time pass in between pain medication and plans to skip down the street like the bad mix of a baby goat and a little boy.

**
Related Posts:

Sometimes You Can Go Home Again

Sunday Memories:  You Say You Want A Revolution...

When Does A House Become A Home?*

Sunday Memories: Beneath Your Surface

Blog With A View

Sunday Memories Encore: The Ice Man Cometh

Sunday Memories Encore: The Ice Man Cometh

Originally posted April 8, 2012, ice, once again, is called for as the other knee heals.

Florence's ice trays circa 1960-something

It's quite hard to find ice trays like these anymore.

I had already broken the plastic ones I had. So when the new tenants moved into Florence's new refrigerator and kitchen, I moved these out.

Of all the smattering of items I took from Florence's, these hid unexpected memories.

With so few treats allowed except on Friday nights, ice was as treasured as candy. And with the suspicion of doctors and the fear of hospitals, it was also as important as aspirin.

With such promises of refreshment and restoration, those trays were not to be trifled with.

The trays' handle would be pulled back like a slingshot and if all went well, the ice would crackle and break into cubes. This never happened. Tap water and a couple to many bangs of the tray on the stove loosened the frozen water enough to be enjoyed like ice cream during the summer or placed in a bowl of soup too hot to eat.

If the trays were being deployed for medical emergencies, such as a broken arm or spinal meningitis, the ice bag, the kind you'd see in comic strips like Andy Capp, would be brought out with full and firm belief that once filled from the trays, all maladies would vanish. On the rare occasions they didn't, a surrender would be hurriedly made in a taxi rushing to the emergency room, usually right before it was too late.

Now, refrigerators make ice and preemptive doctor visits make more sense.

And ice bags, needed for healing body parts, come so equipped, they make my old ice trays look like pencil and paper compared to a NASA computer.

The cat thinks the machine is the vacuum cleaner's baby, and thus the spawn of the devil. It is ravenous for ice, which has the Mariner running so frequently to the bodega for ice at all hours of the day and night, that the minute he rushes in the guys automatically ring up two bags of already made, perfectly cubed ice.

Memories may be made from time spent healing, but none will be found in cubes of such perfection. So when this is all over, those trays will be filled again with stories from Her New York.

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Needs A Hero , a Heroine or Three

There's a reason Friday's Child is now 
a part of Her New York, 
if only to say thank you.

Social Tees is calling all Heros and Heroines to help them rescue 25 puppies and dogs from a high-kill center in Tennessee.  They hope to bring these delicious ones to NYC this Saturday.

However, they can't pull this off unless there's a foster home for each puppy and dog.  So, if you can foster or you're ready to adopt,  email Dimitra.socialtees@gmail.com asap!

WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, check out our FAQs here. 

Get involved, volunteer, foster!  Adopt!!!

Social Tees 325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003 socialteesnyc.org

Admiring The Moon Over The Capital

The journey from Kamakura to Kyoto takes twelve days. If you travel for eleven but stop with only one day remaining, how can you admire the moon over the capital?

- A letter written in February 1280 by the Buddhist monk, Nicherin Daishonin encouraging a devotee, Niike Saemon-no-jo to continue on in faith.

Carola spent years at this desk, in this room, at her computer, Jupiter often sleeping nearby in the blue chair. Many works came out of that space.  Then one day a new story began.

"I started feeling my way into this book so long ago, I can't even remember when it was, but I think it was 2000.  I put it aside for a while, then came back, and so on," she said.

For us, 'and so on' was the the jangling of keys and the quiet walk sometimes heard on the way to this room. It was greetings rushing by, or a brief break over tea or coffee.  It was a glimpse through the crack of the door of a journey being taken.

Then, one day, 'and so on' became an announcement in Publisher's Marketplace:

Carola Dibbell's THE ONLY ONES, an edgy, intimate, and haunting portrait of a unique mother-daughter relationship in a post-pandemic world, is set for publication in March 2015, by Two Dollar Radio.

Her debut novel is scheduled to come out a month before her 70th birthday.

The moon over the capital looks so beautiful.  How, then, could any of us, following her footsteps, stop on the eleventh day?

**

Related Posts:

Last Of The Native New Yorkers

Big Leaps And Little Steps In The March To Commitment

Sunday Memories: The Days Of Frostbite

"Draw!" Dana Commanded and Art Burst Onto The Wall

Starting the new years right, a visit to Dana was in order. 

She had been doing some house cleaning.  Tucked away in the corner of a top shelf of a closet needed for other things was wallpaper.

Not just any wallpaper, but the paper that had lived on the walls of the bathroom in their home on Grand Street. That had been their home before they moved to Coop City and before Dana moved back to Grand Street and George went into hospice.  

It was from a home when her kids were still kids and aging wasn't something to worry about.

Our bathroom down the street in our Grand Street apartment was plain, functional and not to be dawdled in.  But this bathroom, happily snuck into during passover sedars and various gatherings, offered a story book adventure into baths and faucets and something more wonderful than perfunctory teeth brushing. 

When the decree came for Dana to move the family to Coop City, she ordered everyone to go into the bathroom with pens and paint and markers and crayons and have a ball on the walls that had been kept so pristine.


Everybody came - neighbors, friends, kids, adults - and they scrawled and painted and drew and wrote and before long the declaration, "I want to be an Oscar Meyer Weiner" along with a devastating femme fatale filled the wall.

There was no way Dana could leave it behind. The wall was carefully stripped and and the paper rolled up and packed away.  And then as one move flowed into another, it came along, tucked away with posters and old paintings.

Unrolling the strips the Boy Next Door and I stared, maybe for the first time in forty-five years, at one of our first story picture books which just had happened to be on a wall.

**

When All Else Fails...

Unconditional Love. Unconditional Everything

Sunday Memories:  Guest Artist Dana - "If I Bring Forth What Is Inside Me, What I Bring Forth Will Save Me."

Stories From The Crossing

Sunday Memories: Guest Artist- Dana: The Gift That Kept On Giving

Sunday Memories: Two! Two! Two Memories In One!

Sunday Memories: The Boy Next Door

Sunday Memories of Guest Artist Ben Kushner: Dementia’s Ah-Hah Moments

Before it was "Fame" and before it became LaGuardia, Ben and I went to Performing Arts High School together.  His mom, Eleanor, now 91, was born at 2083 Clinton Avenue in the Bronx (near Morris Heights).  He shares his journey with Eleanor in Her New York.

**
My sister, her sons and her husband came to visit Mom at the very lovely assisted living facility where she now resides. 

My nephew, Ziad, brought his girlfriend Cassie. Mom had met her once before, but it was late in the day and sundowning was kicking in.

Introductions were made once or twice. Mom understood who everyone was and that Cassie and Ziad were together. Mom turned to me privately and asked if they were serious.

The visit was very short and soon it was time for dinner. My sister and family got ready to leave. There were farewells and more re-introductions.

Finally, I was left alone with Mom. I was getting ready to escort her to the dining room when she asked me, "What's her name? Your girlfriend’s name?"

I said, "That's Cassie. She's Ziad's girlfriend."

She pondered that for a moment. Then, "What's YOUR girlfriend's name?"

"I don't have a girlfriend; I have Adam."

Adam is my partner of 38 years. He and Eleanor have always had a wonderful relationship. Her first question to me always is, “How’s Adam? What’s he working on?”

Only this time she paused.

She looked at me and then smiled, "Oh, you're one of THOSE".

"No, Mom, we're TWO of those"

My Mom had forgotten that I was gay.


**
Related Posts:

The Visit To The Hospital: Part One

Sunday Memories: Lost in The Dangling Conversation, A Childhood Joy Found

Getting Lost In The Dangling Conversation

Sunday Memories - Lost In the Dangling Conversation* - Florence as a Memory 

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Warm! Because, baby, it's cold out there!

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.


SOCIAL TEES SUCCESS STORY

Ever seen The Neverending Story? This kid's got a Falcor of her own. 

Barkley (formerly Max), big snow white fur giant-angel, was rescued earlier this year from a nasty situation in Tennessee. He was emaciated, ragged, covered in ticks, and not too happy when he was first taken in. 

The long trip up to NYC disoriented him a little, but a super dog lover and good friend of Social Tees took one for the team and stepped up to foster him... and the family fell IN LOVE!!!! Especially the daughter who went gaga over this big guy. Now he's her fairytale story time buddy and they all live happily ever after in Brooklyn. 

WANT TO HAVE YOUR OWN TRUE LOVE? 

 

 Toto!!! Back from his own trip to OZ and now looking for a forever home.

Powder, 5-years old, sweet as all get out.  

 

Triscit and Cheezit - two  little terrier mix pups described as "professional cuddlers".

And there are always kittens!!!

Get involved, volunteer, foster!  Adopt!!!

Social Tees 325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003 socialteesnyc.org

Big Leaps And Little Steps In The March To Committment

Carola and Goldie

Everyone came to be witnesses of the paperwork that really makes a relationship.  

With everything signed, Goldie safely out of Jupiter's reach, a story I didn't know was told. 

It seemed, once upon a time, Herman Katz, New York City Clerk, refused to allow women who wore pants to City Hall to get married.  

Carola and Bob had friends in the NYCLU who, knowing that Herman Katz had this policy, and knowing that Carola and Bob were planning a wedding, and perhaps even knowing what they were planning on wearing to that wedding, asked them to be plaintiffs in a test case that would force Mr. Katz to be polite when faced with a woman in slacks, i.e., not be a moron.   So Carola and Bob signed affidavits and the lawyers took care of everything. 

They lost.  As a  courtesy the NYCLU arranged to have a judge marry them "in chambers" on December 20th, 1974.   

"I may actually have worn a skirt for that--I don't remember," Carola said.   

On December 21 they had their own ceremony in Carola's parents' living room.  Two couples, whose marriages they respected, read from the Book of Common Prayer questions (do you, so and so, take you, so and so).  She and Bob, however, rewrote the language to suit their politics.  

They also donned their merry apparel to suited their hearts and souls and fabulous style (at least for 1974).

"We both wore velvet pantsuits--he got his at Ohrbach's, but I had such a hard time finding one that worked for me that I had to have one made-to-order.  We then had a totally home-made buffet with a wonderful cake my mother made and a dance tape that Bob and I made." 

It's forty years later.  And of course, now everyone can be who they are and be with who they love and wear whatever they want at City Hall.  At least from watching the wonderful parade of everything, everyone did.

 

And there at Window Two, Miss Divina took $35, showed off her own wedding and engagement ring, and handed over a certificate that allows lots of different kinds of couples wearing lots of different things to be legally visible in the State of New York.

 
That certificate said the Mariner could not get evicted if I were to die, we could make medical decisions for one another if need be and most importantly we could visit each other in jail.   That certificate also said that, as two adults, we were agreeing to take on the other's life and be careful with it.   

There was nothing that said who had to wear pants.

**
Related Posts:

Last Of The Native New Yorkers

Sunday Memories: Forgetting The Past

Sunday Memories: In The Happy Cacophony Of A Visit...

Burning Down The House

Tales From A Hard Day's Night: Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?

Tales From A Hard Day's Night: Darkest Before The Dawn

Jewish Geography

It Happens When It Happens...

A Rerun During A Bad Cold: Being Sick

Originally posted May 1, 2011

Juggling a soup bowl or a cup of tea, Florence would point her finger at me and say, "Well, you know it's all your fault."

After that statement of fact, the rest of the day would be spent curled with a pile of my favorite books and the radio tuned to the New York City radio station that broadcast children shows for all the sick kids stuck at home. On special days, I even got to spend the day in my parents' bed. Naps would sneak up on me and when the radio was tuned to WABC AM, music like 'These Boots Are Made For Walking' would transform my dreams to music videos before video had even been invented.

These days, books and a mini-tv and the cat keep me company as I drift in and out of naps. Every once in a while I tell myself "Well, you know it's all your fault."

Sunday Memories: First Loves

The kiss and the hope for a kiss

After a kiss or the hope for a kiss, if you are lucky, a door swings opens onto a world only dreamed of before.   

She of the kiss opened the door to freedom.  Freedom to finally step into all of me, with light and shadow and image and expression that didn't require an argument or proof.  Just a picture singing thousands of dreams.

And she, who made so many of us hope for a kiss, stepped onto a stage and opened the door to my soul. A soul that could do no wrong making a fool of myself on stage and bursting my heart onto a page.

**
Related Posts:

Desperate Archives: An exhibition based on 20 years of Split Britches archival materials

Ruff: the critically acclaimed solo performance by Peggy Shaw, directed and co-written by Lois Weaver

Sunday Memories: The Hand That Fed

Returning To An Old Embrace We Suddenly Gathered

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving And Ready To Start The New Year Right!

There's a reason Friday's Child is now a part 

of Her New York, if only to say thank you.

The Best Way To Fulfill New Years Resolutions!

Adopt a Puppy!!!

Love!  They will always love you!!

Weight Loss! All that walking will be the best gym ever!

Better friends!!!  Loyalty like never before! AND no judging.  You ALWAYS look good to them.

Need To Check It Out First?

FOSTER!!!

Social Tees needs short-term foster homes for this little munchkin and 8 of his friends starting NOW!  All pups are sweet, fully vetted and in dire need of saving! Make a difference and help save these guys! Email: dimitra.socialtees@gmail.com

 WHAT'S FOSTERING, YOU WONDER?!

Fostering lasts a few weeks, and Social Tees can provide supplies if you need them.  Fostering is SUPER important because it's much healthier for our animals to be in homes than in cages, and it expands our shelter virtually.

AND for every cat and dog that is placed in a foster home, Social Tees can pull another out of the kill shelter. So if you are an animal-lover with commitment issues, FOSTER!!!

For more info on fostering, check out our FAQs here.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED!???

VOLUNTEERS AND DONATIONS ARE NEEDED!



Social Tees
325 East 5th Street, NY, NY 10003
socialteesnyc.org

Untitled Prayer

New Years Day in New York City.