Waiting to Get There. Usually on the A/C/E in Chelsea, New York City.

 OK so I did march right into the men's bathroom and mentioned this to Bruce while we were texting about important other things and thus I was distracted:

We drove up to Garnet Hill Lodge Friday night and woke up to this view:  View from our room at Garnet Hill Lodge Of course I immediately connected the dots to Casper David Friedrich . I know, I'm quick like this: Right?! Striking similarities except i was not wearing a green velvet traveling suit. Or standing upon a rock. We used to go skiing *a lot.* Like every weekend. For years. So lately, at the beginning of every trip when it's been maybe a year since the last time I had skis on my feet... I have this moment where my head is, LETS DO IT! And my body is thinking, hmmm, it's been awhile.... maybe be sensible about this, old lady. Thus, there's decisions that are surprisingly difficult: hmmm, which way to go? I remember being up at Garnet Hill with my brother and Tom years ago and going up and down Skull Buster. Up and down, over and over. Hooting and giggling and let me tell you why: Until this trip, I woulda swore Skull Buster was called "Skull Crusher." I...

So this whole conversation started maybe years ago, during the pandemic early days when Tom and I took an art appreciation class from Great Courses . We loved this class. I learned all about the Romantics and that might be when Casper David Friedrich first came up in one of my conversations with Bruce. He loves this one painting: the main favorite painting Bruce loves by Casper David Friedrich - a Romantic. It is pretty great, yeah. I have been texted this painting a minimum of eight times by Bruce because it is surprisingly relevant in a wide variety of text strings. So natch, as soon as the Met catalog came in the mail, I was on it like white on rice. I texted Bruce immediately. WHAT?! CASPER DAVID FRIEDRICH is at the MET! I said, OMG we have to make a plan right now! Maybe opening day? Bruce was like OMG absolutely not. Because: opening day was on a Saturday and last time Bruce and I went to the Met on a Saturday, there was a line snaking down 5th Avenue past the entrance to the par...

 In the morning, at the crack of 11:15, I got my life together and hustled downtown to meet up with 3/4 of the book club. Danielle's oldest friend Jess had planned a city-wide scavenger hunt as a birthday surprise. At first I thought it was a normal scavenger hunt where everybody hunted around the city for clues laid by some professional party planner.  No, this was not that. We were not to be the hunters... but the hunted. Yeah, so Jess told the lot of us that we needed to come up with a location for Danielle to find us at, and then a clue to get her there. She said the clue didn't have to rhyme.  I immediately hooked up with the rest of the bookclub and suggested we work as a team because this felt like a series of tasks requiring skills I do not possess. We broke down the labor as follows: Audrey put our clue on this adorable card: Can you even imagine a cuter clue? Casey set up the location. She had cupcakes and candles and a trail of cute poofy flowers leading Daniel...