It was another good day today.  We met Jackie for Brunch at one of our favorite places – Artisanal.  Down the street, pleasant space and the food is excellent.  We went there for the first time the day we moved into the apartment with Gene and Liz and family.  Since then, it is the “go to” restaurant for us.

Then, at 2pm, we met Sheila between the Lions at the NY Public Library to take a look at an exhibit called Charles Dickens: The Key to Character.  It was a small exhibit, but really nice to see.  As we walked in, Sheila had given me some homework about which character I remembered most from Dickens and why.  Hands down – Miss Havisham.  Mostly because my English teacher, Miss Wighardt reminded me of her (she was probably in her early 30’s and unmarried, and I thought that was ancient, but I was younger then), and there was something about the wedding cake and rats eating away at it that captured my imagination when I read Great Expectations.  I am actually not sure if the rats were my own fancy, or were actually in the book, but either way, that was what I pictured – it was the time of Ben and Willard after all.

Afterwards, we went to Bryant Park and sat for a few minutes, and then it started getting a little chilly, so we headed back down Fifth Avenue and home.  Had some coffee, and then an afternoon nap for David, and I began cooking.  Made a lovely dinner of Chicken Marsala, Mushroom Risotto and Gorgonzola stuffed Tomatoes.  After dinner, I returned to Rosetta Stone to work on my Mandarin.  It has been quite a while, so I went back to the beginning, rather than try to pick up where I left off.  Never hurts to reinforce what you have already studied, right? Followed by Downton Abbey, more of the Audiobook and as luck would have it, object number 33 in our march through history – THE Rosetta Stone.

Finally, David again told me at dinner that he should play a more central role in my blog.   I am not sure how much more central he could be.  I think he would like me to talk more about what other folks we interact with say about how great he is doing.  For instance, the swim instructor who is working with David in the pool is very impressed with his progress in just the two sessions, which is true.  He also was very good at getting his ideas across with Jackie at brunch and walked to the table and just generally has a great disposition in spite of everything.