Month: August 2015

Every year I go to war with mosquitos. A mosquito or two will feed on me throughout the night, and as the bite starts to itch I wake up. I end up waking up over and over and over. It’s no sleep for me during the mosquito season which is in the fall based on my posts. I’ve done everything I can to block every single crack around my windows, but they still get in. No repellent I’m willing to use works.

For this reason, the company Kite is my new best friend. I read this very great article about them in the Times and now I anxiously await their product. They’re so nice, too. I emailed them to ask if they were going to come out with a version for pets, and I felt a little sheepish asking, since they are trying to eliminate a problem to save lives. But they answered!

“We cannot definitively say whether or not there will be a pet option (proprietary information), but we do anticipate (not having done any testing whatsoever) that there will be some carry over effect from Kite Patch that will benefit the pets.”

A sign at a park we visited after kayaking on Friday. Go to hell mosquitos.

I went kayaking yesterday with my friend Kevin on the mighty Nissequogue River. Okay, not so mighty. Pretty sedate. I didn’t want to bring my camera because I’m clumsy and I knew my camera would invariably go straight into the river. I used to own a pair of diamond stud earrings, for instance. Where are they? I know not. Dropped them and lost them. Note to everyone who knows me, except you probably already know: never buy me anything expensive.

So I only took a couple of pictures of the starting point of our trip, then I put my camera in the car. But it was a lovely trip. Plus, I’m only the tiniest tiniest bit sore today, so I feel strong and robust and INVINCIBLE.

Update: My friend Kevin sent me a shot he took out on the river! I added it below, it’s the third one down.

So many people I know have new books this year! The most recent is Married Sex: A Love Story by Jesse Kornbluth. From Kirkus Reviews: “Some readers will love this book for the sex . . . others will be more attracted to the Big Apple wisecracking. . . . If you like your sexy books soft-core, highbrow, and bi-curious, here’s a hot couple hours for you.” Congratulations, Jesse!

Samantha Power, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, was at the same Lincoln Center concert I was at the other night. We figured she was there because my friend Steven noticed that her husband Cass Sunstein was tweeting about the concert. Turns out, she was right to our right. That’s Sunstein to her right in the black jacket.

I came in 2nd place in the NYC Parks & Recreation Lap Swim Contest!! Woohoo! Yay me!! I am the greatest swimmer of all time! Okay, in NYC now … at my pool, greatest of the women, who are swimming at night, and among the four who were really trying, and I’m 2nd. But 2nd!!

Then, what should come in the mail but a present from Citizen Reader, who read my post about the new Shirley Jackson collection Let Me Tell You, and she went out and bought it for me!! Could she be more generous??? Thank you so so so so much!! I love it. Life is good with new Shirley Jackson essays and stories in it, and people like Citizen Reader.

I always say New York City is a great city to be poor in (as long as you have the miraculous luck of having an affordable apartment, which I have). Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited was performed last night as part of Lincoln Center’s annual FREE summer festival Out of Doors. It was fabulous, and you can actually watch the whole thing here. Thank you Steven Levy for emailing me to go to this!!

From left to right that’s Sara Watkins, Shawn Colvin, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Ted Leo, and Pokey LaFarge. There were many more musicians not pictured, all great, I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but also there was David Garza, Sean Watkins, and Al Kooper joined them and told stories about recording the album. Thank you all for such a wonderful summer night of music.