Morning T,

The end of warm October is upon us today.  So as I dress for a meet-up with Ricky, Asher,   Jonathan and Lisa in NYC, I’ll be taking along  my raspberry LL Bean winter jacket.  Good thing I attacked the closets the other day and moved in the warm clothes.  Yes, it’s your inspiration.

It wasn’t initially in the plans to head up to New Paltz for the first Saturday Seminar of the season yesterday, but Josh postponed his mom’s birthday brunch and hey, I jumped at the opportunity to be back in the bosom of my HVWP community.  So with an early morning plan I was up and out by 7:30 and in one solid hour I was parked and reconnecting with friends.

For the first workshop I sat across from two young pre-service teachers, excited to be surrounded by seasoned professionals and embarrassed by the holes in their education.  You would have been horrified to hear what they did not know about American history.  Jackie, Christine and I did our best to gently catch them up a bit.  But as always, once we shared our life experiences and dipped deeply into the student work our presenters shared, the workshop came alive and their observations were appreciated.

For the second workshop I was in the hands of a master teacher, Liz  who has been connected with our writing project since she was a grad student at SUNY and you would have loved her passion for inspiring her students in the study of the Holocaust.  She uses a technique called Blackout Poetry for the culminating exercise with her students for this important unit, a powerful way to have students take ownership.  There is nothing homogenous about their experience with her, believe me.

I was in no rush to get home yesterday. You were not waiting for me to share lunch and afternoon activity.   Instead I stayed for the Institute lunch and worked at bit with the our newest teacher consultants. I couldn’t stay the whole day but it was good to be there in the HVWP circle of great teachers and dear friends.

Christine is joining me on Wednesday for a matinee of  Steve Jobs, one of the new Fall movies.  I wish you could be here to join Tara and Scott  the new Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Hanks. It has your name all over it.  I’ll share it with you of course.

Okay, everything sounds good, right?  It was, that’s until I got back into my car, headed for home and I was ready to call you my cell phone and realized that you would not be answering me, no matter how many times I would let it ring  and I was back in my grieving mode for the ride back home and for the rest of the day.  Of course, it didn’t help that I was way too tired to take in an evening movie or even try dinner on my own at our Bone Fish.

Of course I didn’t merely sink into despair.  I read more of the new Girl in the Spider’s Web,  and I found an old stash from James- that’s a 15-year-old stash and enjoyed it bit without grabbing for a bowl of chips.  I watched a movie we saw together when it came back-ugh, too close to home.  I remember loving it with you but now that Blythe Danner and I were both widows, it was way too painful.  Yes, I did watch all of it.  I know, crazy.  The Mets game was on and they did win but honestly, I still don’t care about sports. Right, they’re a baseball team.

I loved the fact that neither of us cared about baseball.

I can’t hide it from you.  The silence in the house yesterday was deafening and  I need to get away today.  After my NYC adventure I’m headed for Rockland for a change of scenery.

Life’s just not as much fun without you.

Love you Tuv R,

Bonnie S.