Sarah's 40th B'day Party - Finally! The Lights Are Back On!!!

 At 3 pm on Friday, Feb 7, I'm at Mom's, making my butternut squash soup with scallops when Donna calls.

If you wanna go to Sarah's b'day party, be here at 3:30. Angie is driving us.

I raced home and packed, being careful to bring all my meds and diabetes supplies.

You're asking me now... who's playing that great jazz piano? It's Kyoko Oyobe and her jazz quartet. Listen to it here.

Heeere's Sarah!

Met Kyoko and her husband, painter Justin Neely, at Sarah's 40th bday party, where the most common refrain was: Can you believe she's FORTY?

Justin Neely and his cool round eyeglasses. A good Q to ask people is How did u meet Sarah?

Sarah was on her way to a yoga class - perhaps she was teaching it - and she walked past the studio of Justin Neely and walked in. She loved his artwork and they've become friends.

Justin, I asked him. Dyou have a girlfriend?

I have a wife, he said from the kitchen, pointing across the narrow hall at a smiling Kyoko.

Here's Kyoko's FB photo. Check out her website here.

There were several Japanese women at the party and they conversed in Japanese, along with Justin, who knows the language.

Sarah had a couple of rules at the party. One was to remove your shoes. The other was: No women were to do any work. The men did all the cooking!

 Hey! What happened to their bodies? Did they vaporize?

Oh, that's right. Sarah asked everyone to leave their shoes in the hall. She had slippers for everyone to wear.

If you go upstairs to the next floor, the party continues up there. That was the Smoking Room. You could smoke anything you wanted - cough cough cough - and if you got drunk and passed out, you could sleep in one of the bedrooms.


The hookah was filled with flavored tobacco.

Although people were smoking pot - and were hallucinating from it - I wouldn't dare. I'd smoked when I was younger, but now - who knows? - maybe my bipolar would come back.

A very nice man I'll call Reginald told me he smokes pot and has lost all ambition. Yes, I said, I've heard it affects a person's motivation.

Reggy was orig'ly from British Guyana

WIKI - British Guiana (also spelled Guyana) was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, since 1966 known as the independent nation of Guyana. Its indigenous people are the Arawak-speaking Lucayan, part of the Taino people.

Ever heard the expression Don't drink the Kool-Aid? I haven't until at the party. Jim Jones and his followers drank the poisoned Kool-Aid.

Reggie said he was four when Jim Jones persuaded his 900-plus followers to move to Jonestown.

Speaking of death, and then I promise I'll change the subject - I'M SO GLAD MY NINE FOLLOWERS ARE STILL WITH US -

Martin Porter on the left told an extraordinary story. The party was breaking up at about three am.

Martin, who I'd met before and is in his 40s, is a pianist and leaned on a cane when he walked in. Oh no, I thought, I hope he doesn't have MS.

Listen to his rockin jazz here.

Will he be able to play again?

Martin was taking a Greyhound Bus from NYC to play in Cleveland. A bus I know very well since my mom used to take it to visit our relatives. Layover was in Breezewood PA.

Suddenly the bus crashes into a tractor-trailer.

FIVE PEOPLE DEAD, including the guy sitting next to him. Martin was in the hospital - broken rib - cut-up arm and leg. He's in good spirits.

The driver fell asleep at the wheel. Mon dieu!

They're awaiting a settlement.

I wanna point your attention away from the b'day cake, very rich, and to the cheese n quackers. One of the brands of Carr Quackers reminded me, as I savored the flavor, of the oatmeal cracks I'd eaten at the country home of Mark Patmore and his wife Vicki Mortimer.

What? Who's this?

Mark Padmore himself! Note to food lovers: The red pot cooked the lobsters, who were on Death Row in the fridge. There was also the most incredible Rib-eye Steak. Scott told me that the two best cheesesteak places in Philly - Geno's and Pat's - use rib-eye steaks.

Mark is currently singing at BAM, in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. It's a story by Melville. I saw the B&W movie ages ago with my dad.

Mark, 52, plays the guilt-haunted Captain Vere and received rave reviews from the NY Times.

At Sarah's request, Mark sang a Schubert lieder. Dach Nicherach Bloyenschtermen DahnenAbberichter, a name I just made up. It was quite beautiful.

 Bravo bravo! In the mil of the back row is Rob and his wife Marcie. She's a fashion designer. In the flowered pants on the left is Medori, from Japan and then Sri Lanka. She's Reid Andersen, the bassist's GF.

Before they began, I said, Sarah, where's your aunt Donna?

I could NOT believe she was gonna miss this performance, but she did.

Rob had just completed a series of chin-ups and is holding onto the bar. Then Sarah did a few. Have you ever done em, Dear Reader? Fortunately I couldn't reach the bar so I could watch myself ... do nothing.

Jimmy Sutcliffe, the guy that gave me a subscription to the New Yorker, which has expired, Jimmy! It's expired, Jimmy, yoo hoo!

Jimmy was the DJ and played a selection of dance tunes that were so frigging loud I couldn't have a decent conversation with anyone. Probly cuz I'm old. Let's see, if Sarah is forty and I gave birth to her at age 28, that must make me...... YOU Do the Math. And read Ethan's blog Do the Math Here.  

Justin Neely designed some of the graphics.

This guy accompanied Mark on the piano, which is in the room behind him. Now, upstairs in Reggy's apartment, that very room is... the laundry room!

Sarah, who's on the left? Hiroko, the jazz pianist, is on the right.

Heather Pastor Moran, Sarah's childhood friend, came up from DC, for the party. Heather will spend the nite at Kirina's on the left.

 I wore some digs I bot in Paris. A blouse, which I just took outa the wash, for spilling something on it - I poured the entire contents of the liquid laundry detergent onto the blouse, rubbed it in, and turned on the machine, with close I'd been saving from BEFORE THE ICE STORM when my power went out for FOUR DAYS.

American Bandstand in Brooklyn. Straight back is Jennifer, in the afro. She's a patent attorney and works really long hours. Her first love is writing. Angie Cordoba, the most important person in the crowd, b/c she drove us from Donna's house in Hatboro, PA, to Sarah's, stands near DJ husband Jimmy Sutcliffe. What great people!!!

 Kitty Raymond in pink dress. She and Sarah met at Telluride, a summer program for smart students held at Cornell University. Possibly. Heather reminded me that her late wonderful mother, Barb, drove me up to visit Sarah. I'll have to search my brain later on to see if I remember this.

Hello all you lovelies! This is something Heather's Uncle Ronnie would say in his emails. Heather and I last saw each other at his funeral. Yes, yes, there's a blog post about it.

Everyone was so friendly!

 Boy did she surprise us when she came out in this mask. Wouldn't it be awful if it never comes off?

I slept on the living room sofa which is really comfortable. Told Sarah I was gonna read




The search for the Kommandant of Auschwitz.

"How festive!" said Sarah.

For breakfast, Sarah made a huge pot of Grits with the leftover Lobster.

Bye-bye my darling Sarah Lynn Deming! Forty plus one day.

It took 25 minutes to dig out of our parking space, which was directly across the street from Say's apartment.

Sarah helped us push out of the parking space. A guest had made this earrings for her.

Finally, on our way home. Angie's driving. Jimmy's in shotgun.

Look at the b'ful Brooklyn Bridge.

We played word games which helped pass the time.

NAMES that started with various letters. How many can you name in a minute?

They dropped us off at Donna's where I sailed home.... hoping and hoping the electricity would be on.

It was not.

Scott and I went out for dinner to Angelo's in Southampton, where I had delicious eggplant rotolini, my new fave.



PECO was making its way down Cowbell... and they were at the other end also working. There was a patch in the middle with no electric.

You knew the electricity would go on later that nite.

But, I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, so I left for my sister Donna's, to her condo which will be razed in May, and she'll move in with me, until she buys a new home.

We watched the SOCHI Olympics from her bed and loved the snowboarding.



Sage Kotsenburg. Donna and I both commented 'S is for Sage.'