A Purposeful Slow Day

I’ve been on the road for four days. Today was specifically planned to be my low day in terms of how many people I was visiting. I purposely planned to spend today with my friend Suzanne, her husband Steve and two of her kids, Grace and Jack, who are as close to me as family can be.  
Yesterday when Suzanne asked me what we should do for dinner tonight I said I should cook. What good is it to have me as a friend if I don’t cook for you. Not that Suzanne needs help with cooking since she herself is a great cook. But Grace is about to embark on moving into her own apartment and has a grown up job, so she wanted to learn a little cooking. 

With the dinner plans made Suzanne suggested that she, Grace and I go to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. So my down day really became my down day. Not that our tour and the historical exhibits were not just about one of the best done museums I have ever been too, just that having lived through that day live it was very sad to see it all again in person.

After the tour the weight of the whole thing caused us to need to sit on one of the benches in the museum and recover. I asked Grace, who was just in first grade at the time the planes hit the towers, to recollect what she remembered from the day since she lived here in NYC. She told me it was picture day and all her classmates were getting picked up from school throughout the day so by the time the photographer came to her class the were just four girls left and they still took the picture. She said she has never seen the picture, but I would love to see it. I wonder what her teacher looked like since she certainly knew what was going on downtown. It was the one day in my life that changed the world.

Despite the planned down day, and the sobering visit to the memorial it was also a fun day. We cooked a good dinner, teaching Grace how to make red wine vinegar chicken. Then before and after dinner Jack, Suzanne, Steve and I played bridge. There was a marked improvement in our playing from one night to the next. If it weren’t for Steve having to go to bed to prepare for a 5:30 golf tournament we still would be playing.
The Worden/Farley family are such good hosts that they make you never want to leave and I really don’t want to, but I also want to see the next friend on the trail. I guess it is best to leave while everybody wants you to stay. I would hate it if I heard someone say, “When is Dana leaving?”