Le Film Noir

Spent Saturday and Sunday evenings at the Castro Theater in San Francisco at the

Film Noir Festival. It gets better every year.

Made even better by the fact that I'm usually there with my son and daughter-in-law, J & K. I don't even care that much about which particular movie we go to see. The gorgeous Castro Theater is packed with SF film fans, some of them dressed in vintage finery.


Festival host Eddie Muller interviewed Angie Dickinson between the films on Saturday night. His knowledge of her films and questions were spot on and she was feisty, funny and still beautiful at 81 years.


Noir City Film Festival runs through this weekend. If you are in the Bay Area you should check it out.

More soon.

Noir kisses for now.

N2

Départ et Arrivée

I took the airport shuttle from Sonoma County Airport at 0945 Wednesday, left SF airport at 1450 flew through Frankfurt to Toulouse and arrived in the village of Soreze at 1900 (GMT, that's +9 hrs to CA time) on Thursday night. It was a very long day and one of the more grueling Lufthansa flights that I have taken to date.

I usually fly SF=>Munich=>Toulouse, but I thought I'd try this route through Frakfurt because it got me into Toulouse in the afternoon rather than at 8:50 pm -- too late to get the Arc en Ciel (Rainbow) bus to Revel (the town next to Soreze) where the car would be waiting for me.

I am here to report that Frankfurt is a much less organized/user friendly airport than Munich. And the plane SF=>Frankfurt is a Boeing 747, a world of difference from the Airbus Industrie A340, which has more leg room, individual, seat back video screens, 7 bathrooms downstairs at the back of the plane in Economy. The A340 has been designed in such a way that sitting in the cattle section is bearable.

The leg room on the Boeing 747 was crippling. I was in the window seat of a three combo. Next to me was a ! 97 year-old ! Turkish lady, in hijab with raisin eyes, and on the aisle her ~80 year-old son. Very nice people, but she did/could not move out of her seat during the whole 10.5 hour flight. And the three of seats in front of us were tilted back. Every time I had to get out to go to the bathroom it was a laughable contortion exercise.

Son and mother were both very decent about it, helpful even. By the end of the flight we were compatriots. But my knees were locking up. I don't think that has ever happened before. And, in my full time work period, I flew a Lot.

Speaking of good design, the snack on the commuter flight Frankfurt=>Toulouse was a model of thoughtful packaging. It was pasta salad with a mini sausage patty on top and a packet of good saltines. The two edibles and the eating implement all came stacked in what was essentially a drinking cup divided into compartments. The plastic fork, actually a spork, as you can see in the close-up, was tucked up into the "Be Invited" Lufthansa snack lid. Once you got it out of its wrapping you just snapped the handle flat and were ready to eat. The pasta salad and saltines were actually a decent, homestyle-German-type of snack.

When I arrived in my little house here, there were some supplies for breakfast waiting for me on the table. Monique had been over to turn on the heat and she left a note inviting me over for a bowl of soup and a warm up by their wood stove.

What would I do without the friends on either end of this journey?!

I woke up at 6 am quite jetlagged this morning, turned on the gas fireplace to warm the bathroom and drew a deep, hot bath in which to soak my travel weary knees, ankles and bones.


When I went around the corner at 11 to get milk from the Utile for my tea, I was surprised by the little Friday market. The vendors used to only come to our small village (Pop. 2500 including the outlying areas) in the summer, but it seems they have hung on through the winter this year. I was able to get farm fresh eggs (only 1.50€ for 6 here), spinach, green onions and a little cœur de chèvre (goat cheese) with which to make an omelet for my dinner tonight.

It is the heart in the journey that makes it all worthwhile.

Bisous from Soreze,

N2

Bookin' with the Grand Boy

I did get to see the Grand Boy last week and here's the proof:

It was a quick trip, down and back in a day, but the Boy, the Daughter and I had some relaxation time together around the flat. I got to hold that boy and walk him and give him what he needed and soothe him to sleep. There is something so heart healing about being able to make just the moves needed to get another to let go of their pent up tension and just fall out of their body for a bit, relax completely.

Even better to go on holding them while they sleep...
But the Daughter has just started putting him in his cradle for sleeping (finally making use of those hand made baby bumpers =o), so I put him down for a nap...a couple of times...

Only to have him pop back awake and want to play some more... And who could resist, right?!

It looked like a long nap was not in the cards, so we decided to walk down to our favorite local, independent book store, Green Apple Books, on Clement Street here in San Francisco.

Green Apple has been in the same location since before the Daughter was born. I remember being introduced to it in 1971 by girlfriends who lived in an apartment just a couple of doors down from the bookstore. Green Apple has a great selection of old and new books and my friend Cindy had just bought all of her Christmas presents for kid friends there -- old Yellow, Blue and Pink Fairy Books for the girls and Hardy Boys mysteries for the boys. I went in to check it out and I have been going back ever since.

The store has wonderful nooks and crannies on three levels and, over time, they have added space and annexed two store fronts a couple of doors down. They recently moved their children's book section, my long term favorite area of the store, up to the mezzanine and spread it out a bit.

The Daughter, the Boy and I spent a good hour and a half reading through old and new books. Well, the Boy actually really got to sleeping when he was in the BabyBjörn carrier, within the first block from home, and he slept and slept, soothed by the sound of the pages of children's books turning at the store.




There are chairs and stools scattered about in the stacks so that, when you get into reading a book you find, you can sit down and enjoy for awhile. Just as we were getting ready to buy a couple of books and leave, the Boy woke up and wanted a snack. Easily accomodated by his mom on one of those handy chairs with reading material nearby.

Back at home we even got in some Dad time.

It was a good visit but, as ever, not quite long enough.

Until next time.

x0

N2

Developing a Sense of Humor

Got some Grand Boy time last Sunday. Now that was a Mother's Day gift! from the New Mother/Dear Daughter to me.

Good Friend George was out from Brooklyn for the weekend and he spent the morning getting some hands on time with our now six week old Boy.

My how fast they do grow, non?!

George had been helping out the day before, trying to give the New Parents a few moments of rest to themselves, but the little Corn Tiger started crying for his mom after only about five minutes and would not stop.

Sort of like this, only he's just starting to think about it here.

On Mother's Day George was telling me the story as I was holding the baby and the Corn Tiger started chortling and talking at me (as you can see here).

As if to say "Yeah, Nana, I was really giving George a hard time. Hee Hee."

Well, it did give us all a chuckle.

What with breakfast, laughter, a walk around the neighborhood, a movie+dinner date, a quick jaunt to the airport with George, I'd say it was a mighty fine day for this mother in the city.

Sending love.

x0

N2

First Days

My first days with the Grand Boy, he'd only been on the outside two days is this photo.

We had beautiful Spring days for his arrival in SF.

The Dear Daughter bundled him into the baby wrap and we took him and

the Brooklyn Brown Dog out to Golden Gate Park for a walk in the redwood dell.

We met Dad in the rose garden for a little face time in the sunshine

and a game of Happy Family.

The DD even let me hold him a few times. Sweet!!!!

Love for now.

More soon.

x0

N2

Before and After

I spent Monday midday in Golden Gate Park with the very pregnant Dear Daughter enjoying one of those magic San Francisco Spring days, walking the Brooklyn Brown Dog, sitting on the grass in the sun. We went home for her nap and then I drove her to a favorite produce store to stock up on groceries. We stopped in at the Thai restaurant next door and had some spicy green papaya salad, vegetarian coconut soup, sticky rice and Thai ice teas.

It coulda been the spicy salad or the fact that she was 3 days past her due date... Tuesday AM at about 1230 the labor pains began and continued through the night and into the day. The new Mom and Dad checked in to the birthing center around 5 PM and Bébé Boy was born at 10:45 PM, Tuesday, March 23, weighing in at a healthy 8lbs 11oz.

He was "born in the caul", meaning with the amniotic sac still intact around his body, which has traditionally been considered a good omen and sign of good luck. We, of course, are already sure that he is extraordinary.

He was back home in SF with the happy parents by 3 am this morning and slept until 8:00 am or so, another good sign we think.

He hasn't chosen his name yet. I get to meet him tomorrow. Maybe he will whisper it in my ear.

Love to you and thanks for holding watch with me.

x0 N2

Baby Bumpers

I have been standing for these last weeks on one of life's ridges, with one foot resting on the side of the passing of life and the other on that of the life that is coming. Martha has left us and the new bébé will arrive around Mar 24 we are predicting, though the full moon is not until the 30th, and we mothers know how Our Lady the Full Moon can influence a baby's progress into our world.

My dear friend LC and I started work on our gift of bumpers for the baby's cradle as soon as I got back from the trip to Missouri. I picked up the flannel, batting and thread at the fabric store here in town and spent the afternoon up at LC's. I did the measuring and cutting, she sewed the seams, I laid in the batting.

The flannel was cushy soft to touch, yellow soft of color and a comfort to work with. It has a print of tiny elephants, octopuses, whales, cats, teddy bears, suns, moons - all smiling - alphabet letters and many other things which I think will be fun for bébé to look at while lying abed.

Our little yellow flannel baby bumpers took another day of work hand tying over tea by LC and I. Then I spent the evening blind hemming the ends and sewing on grosgrain ribbon ties while watching a charming old Greer Garson movie. My friend and neighbor Ren came over to help me finish up with the ribbon ties and hemming while we listened to Raahhdio Brasil.

These small rituals of shaping and sewing soft cloth for the coming bébé helped start the soothing of the ragged edges of loss.

Last Sunday, D&A threw a party to draw together friends and family for a bébé welcoming party. It was held at the apartment in San Francisco where they are living and where both D and her brother were born - right there in the front bedroom.

It was a life affirming gathering of D & A's family and friends, of people from three generations and many stages in their lives and mine.

A dear friend of D's is also expecting and her baby is due in May. Those little ones are already in touch, communicating with each other belly to belly.

Love and baby bumps to all of you!

x0x0 N2

Traveling Comforts

Kathleen of Hill Country Mysteries said something in her comment yesterday about "travel comforts" and that got me to thinking about the people, places and things that have been comforting as I travel through San Francisco on my way home. Here's the beginnings of that list:

Farley's coffee shop, the day sunny enough to sit outside, the sight of two grown men sharing a tea party with a little girl in pink,

drinking their coffee out of her pink plastic cups.

My beauteous daughter bursting with life.

My son and his lifelong friend exercising their creative juices making beer.

The SF magic sunny midwinter day spent walking from the Ferry Building to North Beach to the new sights in the alleys of China Town guided by my daughter-in-law.

...gathering for family dinner at an old Italian restaurant in the avenues... ...having a welcoming space to land in the Dogpatch neighborhood... ...spending quiet time with my sisters in Walnut Creek, sorting through Martha Dear's cards and pictures... ...tea with a new friend from France at her flat on Church Street... ...dinner and music in the Mission with a friend of 35+ years... These are just some of the comforts of this time betwixt and between. Wishing you safe travels large and small. x0x0 N2