Birthday Reconnaissance

With her birthday coming up in a week, Eleanor decided to do a little research on where to go. She knew she wanted to check out some new beer pubs as well as a karaoke bar she found online. Her friend, Siobhan, a singer whose birthday is the same day as Eleanor's, suggested that a night of karaoke would be fun for all. Chauncey put on his favorite going out outfit and announced he was ready to try them all.

Beer flight and a pint

Chauncey and Eleanor mapped out a route from home to Koreatown designed to avoid Saturday night traffic. Unfortunately, they missed a key turn. Now it was up to Eleanor to navigate using an old Thomas guide. They had no modern technological devices. Chauncey remained unusually calm and they found their way to Beer Belly on Western and 6^th street. Beer Belly offers a small but welcoming space with walls made of different colored woods. The bartender invited them to sit down at a reserved table. He said the guests weren’t coming for another 45 minutes. Enough time for a pint before heading off to the next spot.

Karaoke possibility

 Eleanor had a flight of four beers, each from a different local brewery. The Hangar 24 Winter Warmer was her favorite. Chauncey went with a TAPS dopplebock but really liked the Ladyface Imperial Stout from Eleanor's flight. As he paid the bill, Chauncey chatted with the owners and said he would return soon. After that, he and Eleanor were off to check out the karaoke scene at The Brass Monkey, a few blocks away on Wilshire.

A middle-aged bouncer with few teeth asked to see their ID s at the door. After being convinced that they were over 21, he stamped their hands and showed them into what looked like a den with small round tables and a bar. The place was empty but the surly bartender assured them that it would be standing room only once the karaoke started at 8pm. It was 7:45. Eleanor and Chauncey joined 4 other customers at the bar, two of whom looked as though they were left over from the previous night. Chauncey asked the bartender if there were any beers on tap. The bartender scowled and said “no” and added that there wasn't much of a selection. Chauncey settled for a Heineken and Eleanor for a chardonnay. They left when the dj set up the microphone and explained the rules for all who wanted to sing. That’s when the 2-drink minimum kicked in.

Downtown ahead

From The Brass Monkey, they headed downtown on Wilshire to Little Bear, a pub which claimed to offer decent food with a wide selection of Belgium beer. Little Bear was on Industrial, a short street in the middle of a warehouse district. There were 3 other restaurants on the same street, all with people in them.

Do I smell food?

At Little Bear, Eleanor and Chauncey were treated to better-than-usual pub fare. They indulged in pork belly sliders, salad with bacon and a lemony vinaigrette and a cassoulet with sausage, tender pork bits and duck slices with white beans on the side. The Belgium waffles with strawberries and whipped cream were recommended by their cheerful waiter and were even better than at Syrup. The crowd was bubbling and the beer was refined.

Union Station

As Chauncey drove home, Eleanor looked out the window and saw Union Station lit up in violet and yellow. She said “I think I just had my birthday celebration.”   

On the Town

Last Saturday, Eleanor and Chauncey were treated to a night out in downtown LA by their friends, Veronica and Ben. Veronica is an artist and Ben is a journalist who writes about art, baseball and astrology. The evening began with dinner at Soi 7, a thai restaurant in what used to be a department store. It was an enormous space but not cavernous. Veronica had a sake cocktail and Eleanor a Belgium beer despite Chauncey’s recommendation that she have a thai beer. The fellows, as Chauncey calls them, had fancy ginger ale.

Night on the town

After a delicious meal, the foursome walked several blocks to a gallery in the Bradbury building for the opening of an 80’s photography show.  The photos were taken in LA and included several of Bob Marley in Watts and Henry Rollins when he was in Black Flag.

Veronica and Chauncey were cornered by a guy Veronica knows who had one tooth but said he had just eaten some ribs at Houston’s. He apologized for the barbeque stains on his face and shirt.

Eleanor wandered over to a wide window sill and sat down near the wall. She began looking at what the gallery goers were wearing. About half were wearing jeans, Eleanor and Chauncey included. The tall Asian man next to Eleanor wore jeans with a white collared shirt, untucked, and black loafers. He told Eleanor he was an architect. He pointed out the owner of the gallery who was an Asian man in his late 30s. He wore white khakis, a checked green and black button-down shirt with black blazer. His shoes were black with several buckles.

Gallery Goer

Eleanor noticed two women in their fifties who appeared to be friends. Both had bobbed hair. One kept hers white while the other dyed hers brown. They each wore skirts with black leggings and black clunky shoes. The woman with brown hair wore a bronze-colored crocheted skirt. The woman with white hair wore a loose skirt with large brown circles. Very seventies. The best outfit was worn by an Asian woman in her late twenties.  One leg of the woman’s black pants, which came to the knee, was tight around her leg. The other pant leg was loose like a gaucho pant. Eleanor figured the woman was a designer trying to make a statement.

On the way back to the parking lot, Ben suggested a stop at Syrup for dessert. The place was packed with twenty-somethings eating Belgium waffles and playing Jenga. They were on to something. 

Eleanor and Chauncey returned home wanting more of everything.

Art School

Art Studio 

One of the things Eleanor dreamed of doing when she left her job was spending more time in her art studio. For years, Eleanor had been making collages and drawing. Most recently she had been drawing roses. She had a lot of roses in her yard and picked them to put in vases. One day she began drawing them and found it addicting, trying to get the shapes she drew to match what she saw in front of her.

But collage had been a part of her since she was a child. Eleanor remembered sitting under a buffet table at the age of 6 or 7 and cutting out paper dolls. Families of them. Fathers, mothers, children. It occurred to Eleanor when she became a therapist, that young Eleanor was trying to put together a family because her own was falling apart.

Harlequin

Eleanor created a studio in her garage almost 15 years ago. She spent once or twice a week in the studio making collages out of paper, magazine cutouts, original stencils and spray paint. She was drawn to making figures which could hang from the rafters in the garage and dance in the breeze. One of her favorite pieces was a Harlequin figure, which was originally called Pierrot until Chauncey pointed out that Pierrot usually dressed in white.

Muses waiting at the door

Now that Eleanor was not employed, she devoted some time each day to doing art and was finding it hard to keep going when the voices in her head suggested that what she was making was not really any good and looked quite amateur. Chauncey, a lifelong writer, told Eleanor it was important to just keep showing up and ignore the voices. Trent, an experienced painter and art teacher, told Eleanor to leave the critics at the door and keep doing what she liked to do. He added that there was nothing like a trip to the art store for more supplies to call forth the muse and handed Eleanor a bag full of assorted colors of spray paint.

Trent's comment reminded Eleanor of the time her friend Nate took her to an art store in Taos where he was supposed to be writing poetry but ended up making hundreds of incredible postcard-sized collages during his residency there. Nate and Eleanor combed the store looking for nontoxic liquid and a special tool to transfer photos and words from the advertising pages to paper for collages, a technique Nate had perfected. 

Belle Bottoms

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states that it takes 10,000 hours to master one’s craft. Eleanor wondered how many more hours she had before she could call herself a master with scissors and glue.

Twenty-Something

When Eleanor went into the garage this morning, she noticed Lila’s friend’s bike was leaning up against the wall. She saw that his car was gone. Eleanor figured that Lila’s friend was not up to the task of putting his bike back on his car after an evening of pub hopping with Lila and her cousin last night. All three were in their twenties and, at the moment, approaching life in similar ways.

Lila, 21, was taking time off after two years of college to be a nanny. She declared she was happy to have her own business and to be earning money. Lila’s friend, David, 23, was attending the local community college. Following high school, he went to college in Washington for a year or two, became disenchanted and left to spend six months in Argentina. Lila’s cousin, Emma, 23, graduated from college in Montreal last Spring and was, as she put it, “trying to get her life together,” working as a bartender and traveling when she could.

Friends gathered in the living room of the railroad flat.

Eleanor began thinking about how she and Chauncey had spent their twenties. They graduated from college in Los Angeles and moved to New York City with several other friends. Most of their friends were actors trying hard to get their Equity cards so they could audition for paying roles. Chauncey and Eleanor went the graduate school route. It just seemed a whole lot easier than actually figuring out what to do with the rest of your life.

The summer theater company.

One summer, though, Eleanor was persuaded to join some of these friends in Vermont to be in a summer theater company. She had to call up her uncle and ask for an advance on a small inheritance from her mother who had stipulated that Eleanor could not have the money until she turned 25. Eleanor was 22 at the time. Chauncey stayed in the city to work and write a novel, though he was a frequent visitor in Vermont.

The view from the kitchen in the railroad flat.

One-year old Prudence and eight-year old Daphne in Vermont.

As she thought about being in her twenties, Eleanor was struck by how much she and Chauncey moved around. During their seven years in the city, they lived in two apartments in Manhattan, one of which was a railroad flat in the West Village with a bathtub in the kitchen, and one in Park Slope. Then they spent ten months in Vermont where Chauncey was a bartender and Eleanor a freelance editor. By this time, in their late twenties, they were married and had their first child. Still, they drove across country with their one-year-old daughter and eight-year-old Samoyed to return to Los Angeles where Chauncey’s family lived and where many of their actor friends had landed.

Eleanor was 30 by the time she had decided on a career path. Chauncey was 31 or 32. Eleanor smiled as she closed the garage door and saw the bike waiting patiently for its rider to return. 

Pilgrimage-Part Three

Eleanor and Chauncey climbed into their rented yellow camaro with some difficulty. The seats were low as were Eleanor and Chauncey's spirits having said goodbye to Fiona and Nate.

Once they hit the first roundabout on Cape Cod, Eleanor and Chauncey snapped out of the doldrums and focused on arriving at their next destination without getting lost. They were headed for Waquoit, a town near Falmouth, to stay with Eleanor's aunt and her husband. Once, many years ago, it took Eleanor and Chauncey two hours to walk home from a beach allegedly only a half hour from Eleanor's aunt's house. In desperation, they ended up calling Eleanor's aunt from a pay phone to be picked up at a nearby pizza joint. Chauncey, who prides himself on being geographically savvy, was mortified.

The window faced the marsh.

Miraculously, Eleanor and Chauncey pulled into the driveway exactly when they said they would and were greeted with congratulatory hugs from Eleanor's aunt and her husband. Chauncey held his head high. There were lobsters for dinner and key lime pie for dessert. Eleanor and Chauncey slept well that night in their room with a window facing  the marsh.

They went to the Clam Man to pick out swordfish.

The next day, Eleanor and Chauncey accompanied Eleanor's aunt and her husband to The Clam Man to pick out some fresh swordfish for dinner. Eleanor's cousins were coming, and Eleanor's aunt and husband had planned a feast for the occasion.

Mr. Clam Man was outfitted with a red apron and had an authentic Cape Cod accent to boot. Going to the fish market remained one of Eleanor's favorite outings with her aunt. It meant that guests were coming and there was bound to be some fun.

The meal that evening will be remembered by Eleanor and Chauncey as one of the best they ever had. The appetizers were stuffed quohogs, which Eleanor's aunt had spent several hours preparing. The swordfish was accompanied by a light anchovy sauce whipped up by Eleanor's aunt's husband. There were lots of compliments on the food all around and toasts to the hosts. Eleanor and Chauncey experienced a familiar pull towards the East Coast.

After visits with some more family and friends, Eleanor and Chauncey returned the yellow camaro and boarded the plane home to Los Angeles. As usual, it was hard to leave. They wished one day to have homes on both sides of the country and the luxury to travel between them whenever they wanted.

Pilgrimage-Part Two

Eleanor and Chauncey boarded the train for Old Saybrook at 125th Street in Harlem. The train was crowded and there were no seats together. Their suitcases became a burden. For a moment, both Eleanor and Chauncey were frozen, incapable of moving along the aisle. Another couple pushed past them and somehow found two seats next to each other at the end of the car. After Stamford, more seats became available, and Eleanor and Chauncey sat down.

They were greeted in Old Saybrook by their friend Nate. He apologized for forgetting to buy beer. Eleanor suggested they could stop on the way to Nate and Fiona's house. Nate reminded Eleanor that blue laws still existed in Connecticut which meant that alcohol was not sold on Sundays. He distracted them with stories about Old Lyme residents as views of Long Island Sound appeared out the window.

Two offspring nibble at apples.

Nate and Fiona live with their 10 year old daughter Naomi in a house filled with art. There are colorful ceramic objects from China, paintings of all kinds, large framed kimonos, and cool collages by Nate. Outside, the house is protected from the street by hedges and trees growing as they want. Every evening as Naomi did her homework in the kitchen, Eleanor watched a mother deer and her two offspring nibble at apples fallen on the ground.

They stared at the water.

Fiona was determined to show Chauncey and Eleanor her favorite natural places starting with Harkness Memorial Park in Waterford. She was inspired by the fact that the owners of the land had donated it to the public. She wished for her own family's land on a point south of Harkness to be made into a park but suspected there would be resistance from her siblings and cousins. A strong wind threatened to cut the walk short, but Fiona persisted, and they found themselves seeking shelter in a duck blind near a pond. All complaints about the wind ceased as they stared at the water.

As a departing gift, Chauncey and Eleanor were treated to massages by Fiona's friend, Trish, who came to the house on a rainy Wednesday with table, towels, hot stones and soothing music. Towards the end of the massage, she asked Eleanor if she minded hearing about the spirits who were in the room with her. Eleanor said she did not. Trish told Eleanor that there were many children in the room who were joyous and happy. She said they wanted Eleanor to keep saying what she had to say. Eleanor asked if that meant she should keep writing. Trish said she didn't know.

The next day, after a trip to Pelham-Grayson for some healing stones, Chauncey and Eleanor climbed into their rented yellow Camaro and headed off for the Cape to stay with Eleanor's relatives. Eleanor felt sad saying goodbye to Nate, Fiona and Naomi and wished she could stay a little longer. There was still so much to talk about.

They climbed into their rented Camaro.

Pilgrimage-Part One

Not long ago, Eleanor and Chauncey embarked on a journey to the East Coast. It was their first trip back in four years. They often referred to their trips East as a pilgrimage because the people and places they visited were sacred to them. 

Helen and Amanda on the High Line.

The first stop was New York City, Eleanor’s birthplace as well as the birthplace of Eleanor and Chauncey’s eldest daughter Prudence. Eleanor and Chauncey stayed with their friends Helen and Amanda in their apartment facing the top of Central Park in Harlem. Helen and Amanda landed in New York three years ago after a year in Istanbul but were not convinced it was their final destination. Amanda complained she had not yet fallen in love with the city. She acknowledged that the bagels from the Koreans on Broadway were the best she'd ever had. Helen and Amanda agreed they were lucky to have a view of the park and an elevator in their building.

Eleanor and Chauncey's first apartment.

Helen and Amanda treated Eleanor and Chauncey to a spectacular version of New York starting with a walk on the High Line which took them from 34^th Street near the Hudson River down to the meatpacking district in the West Village. At the crossroads of Washington Street and West 11^th, Eleanor and Chauncey stood in front of the building they lived in before they were married. They reminisced about taking baths in the tub in the kitchen and carting groceries up four flights of stairs, now carpeted. 

The Empire State Building was visible through the trees.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent having lunch in Battery Park City with Amanda’s 93-year-old mother who almost blew away on a walk to the Irish Hunger Memorial. She returned home while Eleanor, Chauncey, Helen and Amanda continued the tour of the memorial and meandered northwards along the Hudson River. There were benches for staring out at the river on one side and a green field on the other. The Empire State Building was visible through the trees. 

Off to the Connecticut shore.

The morning before they left for the Connecticut shore, Eleanor and Chauncey ate fresh bagels with Helen and Amanda at a park next to St. John the Divine. They looked at the Peace Fountain and discussed the meaning of the statue of St. Michael. Each of them expressed gratitude for the time they spent together exploring nature in New York City.