April 11 - Friday in Williamsburg - moon in cancer

I went over to Annie's place. In her back garden, the weeping pear tree that she'd rescued from a sale at Home Depot last year was doing great. Lush new leaves fresh for spring out of hibernation.
"It had one leaf when I got it, " she said.
I also admired her haircut.
That afternoon, she'd tried a nice place in the neighbourhood. Her regular hairdresser wasn't there. This is always a worry for a gal. In fact, she'd come home and had to have a nap before we met the gang. Some new transplant had said, "you're not one of these people who's been in the neighbourhood for ages, are you?"
"Yes," she said, "I am."
Ouch.
She'd been hurt. She'd fallen asleep and had bad dreams.
She made us a cup of coffee.
It wasn't that she felt old but that where she lived was changing so fast - next block there's a multi-storey building going up and the pounding pounding can drive her to distraction.
Luckily for us, her distraction is art and she also likes Japanese food. I knew this evening I'd be in for a treat.
Someone called from the street.
That would be Chris Lee.
"That's a man who grew up without cel phones. I remember having a date shout my name from the street a few times because I was drying my hair and my neighbours threw quarters at him." I hoped she felt better about being in the neighbourhood a while. On our way out, Annie picked up her umbrella. It is supposed to rain all weekend, I'd heard.
Talking about dates - turned out the gal we were going to meet up with, Annie's friend, went to high school with her. She'd know her from way back and the friend was at the Abbey with her new date.
I didn't know her and said I'd wait outside with Chris Lee.
But Chris Lee followed Annie in the bar.
A familiar looking man was smoking a cigarette.
In the olden days you could smoke indoors.
I nearly said, "remember when you could smoke..." but I didn't want to sound like an old hipster.
"Would you like something for the weekend?" I asked him, instead.
"Alright." he said, gamely.
He asked me where I was from in England and said he was dating a girl from London. He even said her name. Karen C. Turned out I knew her from when I worked at the Royal College of Art. I looked up to Karen C who was a girl doing illustration. Fabulous illustration, actually. I asked how she was doing and he told me that she would be picking strawberries this summer. I said how wonderful because I can't imagine being in an office indoors in the summertime. He brightened up. We were on the same frequency it seemed.
He said this was his last night with his photographs on the wall inside.
He finished his cigarette, and I went in for a tour.
They were beautiful photographs. Light-full. In colours. Rich and light at the same time. Maybe randomly composed but as lovely as looking out of a window into the Summertime sun. A leaf, a shadow, simple things - transformed. Floated the Abbey into the countryside.
He let me look on my own while he called a few shots on the pool table.
His opponent was swaying rather.
I saw Annie and C and her Date and off we went.
Turned out the Date grew up on the next block to my apartment, back in the day, when you could walk to school and play pick up baseball.

Gallery Hopping:
Highlights: (tk)
Bozu - the resteraunt
Grand Street

OTTOMAN LOUNGE the music
Fabulous Phast Phreddie was spinning 1,2,3 it's so easy, and other lovely songs older than me.
You should see the walls at the Ottoman lounge. Just fabulous.
The music played on. There was a flash of lightning and a bit of that straight down rain. Wet and soaking if you are out in it.
Thank goodness for Annie's umbrella.