noonish?, Tuesday July 7, Carl Schurz park ....another beautiful day

Still I am blessed on this trip. The rainy season, late, hadn't arrived yet in Caracas while I was there, and in New York City it had been raining, raining up until I arrived. Oh, it has rained some: when we were on the pier with SA, once when I was walking to get SW, but it didn't last long and the summer heat ensured I dried off quickly. Mostly my vacation has been full of sun and in New York it is only warm, in the 80s. Utterly, utterly pleasant.

I love this park on the East Side. It has an octagonal-patterned walkway above the river, lots of grassy areas criss-crossed by paths, different levels of courtyard, garden and bridges. Now I sit on one of a curving line of benches overlooking the river near the uptown end of the park, all the benches to the right of me holding at least one person, all the benches to the left of me empty bar one. I can see two bridges, one a rust-coloured metal arch, the other held up by curving wire triangles. There are a couple of little cruising boats and the sound of a helicopter overhead.

Yesterday SW and I went to the Bloomingdale's on 57th and Lexington. He bought a punkish designer t-shirt, ogled an enormously expensive Ralph Lauren leather- sholdered black narrow turtleneck knit and failed to find shoes. Then we went to Queens, where I spent two and a half hours at Aunt K's apartment looking up buses and flights. I booked SW and I a trip to Philadelphia for Friday. We ate papusas - one filled with cheese and a Spanish herb, one filled with beans. We ate a corn tamale served with sour cream sauce. Everything was delicious. The papusas came with hot salsa and a bowl of cabbage, like coleslaw but without mayonnaise.

SW and I walked around Woodside for a half hour or so and then left to catch a gig at a jazz bar. Only SW must have gotten the dates wrong because the bands at the East Houston St venue were not jazzy. Nor were there many people there to see the bands. The walk across 4th St was not as beautiful as I remembered. Perhaps more tenenments have been lost. When I got to 10th street I couldn't remember which building was home to my old apartment and I saw a big rat in Tompkins Square Park.

I lamented the garbage in Venezuela but here there is not enough! I associate garbage with a crowded city of people, full of the lower, uncouth and/or rebellious classes. NYC's people now seem so controllable. Obeying rules, respecting each other. I think I want this, but it is very boring in New York. Why go there? Now I will tell people the only reason to come to Manhattan is because it is pretty. And to perve on cute boys.