Hello Brittany!

None of the Mallsters showed up today at the Willow Grove mall, former home of the grand Willow Grove Park amusement park where Philadelphians would take the trolley from hot Philadelphia to the amusement park in the early 1900s.

Also left over from those days is a huge boarding house in Willow Grove near the Upper Moreland library. Its huge front porch once housed families who poured out to Willow Grove much as we do now to the Jersey shore.

When I first moved here from Englewood Cliffs, NJ, where my folks lived, I found the amusement park in disarray. No longer Willow Grove Park, it had morphed into Six Guns Over Texas. It was boarded up. Its roller coaster rose lonely and riderless in the air. Stray dogs prowled the grounds. I began to trespass but was scared off by a barking dog and then a security guard.

I brought plenty of things to do at the mall. Novel re-writes, reading another chapter of Salinger's inconsistently good Nine Stories (sorry Jerry, just my opinion). Plopping my things on "our" mall table and waiting to catch sight of the absent Mallsters, I walked over to Clear.com to see what the very attractive lime-green display was all about.

That's how I met Brittany. Let's see. I took their brochure home. It's somewhere in my Vatican bag. I shlep this around w/me, a gift from my son on his honeymoon. His wife Nicole is now - what, Nicole? - 13 weeks pregnant.

I'm to be called "Bubby" if I live that long. That's what Scott's mom is called by her rock n roll grandson. (I happen to be listening to R E M right now. Don't say I don't rock!)

They think I'm all-knowing at New Directions. A newcomer emailed me to help her with her job hunt.

Last time I looked for a job was..... this morning. I called a local paper and asked if I could write for them. I'd never heard of it before - Times Publishing Newspapers - spoke to the advertising dude who covers Doylestown and New Hope. Great cities, we agreed. Told him my dad owned the legendary Now and Then Shop in New Hope. He was shocked. Used to frequent it at age 12. I told him that's where I met my husband. (Ex-husband. Dead ex-husband.)

I enjoyed shoveling the drive, light, airy, beautiful snow, and my sidewalk and 2 neighbors walks. Lemme go check and see if it's sticking. NOT YET!

So anyway this gal is looking for a job. She sent me her resume. They think I'm a miracle worker. I should only get my novel published. Then I'll be a miracle worker.

So I call a friend of mine, Sandy. SHE knows how to get jobs. She tells me. I take notes while I'm eating my lunch (chicken noodle soup with collard greens) and delicious purple grapes. I must've been Bacchus in a previous life.

I take notes and email my product back to Sandy, saying, Feel free to tear it to shreds. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm outa here. Gonna watch the great French film Jules et Jim by Truffaut. Hope Scott is awake.

PS - Private note to Roberto. Sorry, Rob, can't come to Sam's bar mitzvah. I'll send my regrets to Naomi. Absolutely beautiful invitation! It's the Saturday of our "Get Happy Seminar" at the Huntingdon Valley Library. Darn! I'll miss you. Maybe Marcy can come instead. Marce?