i made a point of scheduling an unrestricted lunch date with my dad since it's become apparent to me that we have a lot of catching up to do, a lot of unfinished business. We aired misunderstandings dating back five years and more, re-established our rapport, spoke frankly, and parted with renewed commitment to actively remain in touch and work on a grown-up, no, an adult relationship. He's most concerned that he's saddled me, all of us, with his own demons and that they hamstring handicap us, haunting phantoms though they be. True enough, but I'm exorcising them ... slowly ... as I bring them up (capitalize i in retrospect). I encourag his optimism, scoff at his pessimism, emerge strangely reassured and whole again.

x

The weaning process begins as we meet Brenda and Steve, friends from the bay area, at La Colombe d'Or, a faded french country style restaurant comfortable and deliciously past its prime, This will be the free-est night out of their Jersey with his mother holiday vacation, and we all enjoy the liberty, the feeling of being on liberty, at liberty that newyork evokes.

my roots here i am reminded are deep and mirabile dictu we appear to have as many or more friends in newyork as than we do in sf berkeley and oakland.