In the New York is a big city, but not really category:
Yesterday, I went down to the Village (more on that later) and when I took the subway back to Times Square, I happened to be walking by the rehearsal studios on 42nd Street where I often work and where Don is working now, when I looked up and saw Ramin Karimloo, who, until recently, played Gleb in Anastasia. We hugged each other and did some catching up and it was a lovely chance meeting – the kind that happens more often than you might imagine.
Then I got a text from Don (it was lunch time) and we arranged to meet in front of the rehearsal studios. As I saw him coming my way, I also spotted another actor I have worked with, Michael Potts. Michael was in the production of Our Town that I coached a few years back in Chautauqua. He’s such a gifted actor and one of the funniest people I’ve ever worked with. Anyway, I introduced him to Don and we chatted a bit. Michael is currently rehearsing The Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington. (Don shared an elevator with Denzel the other day.)
Then I went upstairs with Don to the break room and we shared his lunch and chatted with some of the cast of Margaritaville. After he headed back to rehearsal, I went downstairs in the elevator and as I got out in the lobby, I heard: “Claudia, I was just thinking about you and there you are!” It was one of my former students from Boston University, Annie Meeks. Unbelievable! We haven’t seen each other in over 25 years! She told me that she was reading my Instagram feed in a restaurant two doors down and she thought to herself, “Wouldn’t it be neat if I ran into Claudia while she was in NYC?” And then she ran into me about 5 minutes later! And I was only there by chance.
Amazing day. We’re going to have lunch next time I’m in town.
I also worked with Christy and a couple of other actors in Anastasia, which is always delightful.
My reason for going down to the Village was to finally see this bookstore, Three Lives and Co.
I wasn’t disappointed. It’s absolutely charming, a little gem. It’s the kind of place where books are everywhere, with beautiful wood bookcases and counters and worn wood floors, and where there are conversations about books going on all the time.
I was smitten.
I fell in love and I’ll be back. Of course, I bought three books, which I need like a hole in the head, but I couldn’t resist.
Today, I’m headed back home, though I’d love to stay a bit longer. However, the temps and wind chills are going to be low today and tonight and for most of the next week, so I have to be home to do the drips from the faucet and make sure everything is okay.
Happy Friday.
I’m coming to the big city in April. So “Three Lives” is on my to-do list. :-) I love book stores. Yesterday I went to my favourite in Weinfelden and bought three books.
You’ll love it, Regula.
I enjoy your posts very much. I especially loved your post today. Those chance meetings are so fun. All seem part of synchronicity I believe. Sometimes we feel so by ourselves and alone, and then suddenly we are in a community!
Good luck going home. I hope all is well! Becky
Thank you so much, Becky!
how nice that you and those friends bumped into each other in the city and that you bought some books at that cute “you’ve got mail” shop. glad you and don get time together. :)
hope the trip home is uneventful and you don’t have any troubles with ice, etc., just lots of time to read those new books!
kathy in iowa
Ice on the driveway when I got home! I salted it and it’s better today.
What an amazing day with old friends. I love the book shop and especially that old worn wood floor. It just brings back such memories for me. Shops with old worn wooden floors, a bygone age almost but not quite thank goodness.
That floor is so lovely, isn’t it?
Love this post, Claudia. Your pictures had me feeling like I was in NYC, just for a bit. That bookstore is a treasure. Good for you for splurging on some new books!
Books are good for the soul, Karen!
I love your posts of New York. It’s been nearly 30 years since I was last there.
Was Don ever on “Frasier?” I was watching an episode this morning and there was a patient in a therapy group that looked like a young Don.
Yes, he was – he was on it a couple of times playing that character in the therapy group. He’s worked with Kelsey Grammar onstage, as well.
What an amazing book store! I could just go in there and stay for hours. So lovely to see friends and co-workers in NY. Safe travels and stay warm. It’s colder today and so I’m staying in I believe. I’m healing well and getting a little antsy. That’s a good sign isn’t it?
It’s a very good sign! So glad to hear this, my friend.
Grea post. I’ve never been to New York, but it looks very much like Toronto in many ways.
Like Toronto, but with an energy and pace that I’ve never seen in any other city.
Love all the “meetings” and that has happened to me several times in my life-like in very unexpected places like Mexico—thinking (or talking) about someone and then running into them within a half hour or so. Mind altering! lol
I have not been to The Village in years. Love that little book store. xo Diana
Running into someone in Mexico! How wonderful!
What fun to see so many friends in the space of a couple of days! I hope to visit NYC, and Chicago, within the next couple of years…totally influenced by your blog! I’ll have to save up though, as my upcoming month in Europe will be a total splurge.
And how wonderful that trip will be, Wendy!
You had quite the day with all your friendly run-ins. And that bookstore…straight out of a famous movie set. It’s cold here too…but at least the sun is shining. Hope everything is well at home! ;)
Sun is shining here as well, but it’s really, really cold!
Oh that bookstore is a marvel. I could get lost in that place. I have plenty of books that I have not read yet, but what is the fun of going into a bookstore if you are not going to purchase some books? Claudia glad you had a good time and got to meet some of your friends. Have a safe trip home.
Marilyn
Exactly! I had to buy some books! Thanks, Marilyn.
Oh, what a lovely OLD bookstore. My favorite kind. Books stacked everywhere, and lots of wood [usually oak] and that very special “papery” book smell hits you the moment you walk in the door. Even more points if the wood floors are a little skewed or uneven. Then it’s usually REALLY old. The kind you need to bring your own coffee to, of course, but where you could still stay all day and just browse and read and be soothed. Thomas Jefferson got it right when he said “I cannot live without books…” Have fun today, and a quick safe trip home – and of course a great weekend. Lots of good movies scheduled for those of us for which football is not the Center of the Universe. Peace.
#Resist
#ProtectMueller
I agree with Thomas Jefferson!
I have no interest in the Super Bowl, so I, like you will be watching some movies.
oh I love these pictures!
and the little bookstore made me think what I pictured while reading
84 Charring Cross Road. that wonderful love story that is so unusual and touching.
and your running into Annie Meeks when she was just thinking of you is called
synchronicity by my friend Rummy in Pune India. it is always happening to him he says!
I love synchronicity. When it occurs, it’s so wondrous.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, your life is ‘way more interesting than mine, Claudia; was fun to hear about your day with the chance meetings and, gosh, I haven’t been in a great little bookstore like that in years; just the best.
I’ve had a lengthy phone conversation this afternoon with my friend who lost her longtime home in the Ventura wildfire on Dec 5. She’s finally out of her glorified hotel room with the kitchenette (in another city) and, as of yesterday, in a compact-but-adequate rental home in the area near where she once lived, so it’s a lot of chaos of moving in (cleaning; shelf paper, etc.) but certainly not like she’s got a huge amount of possessions to unpack since all was lost to the fire. Still, it’s more adjustment to make – – but the cool thing is how great her homeowners’ insurance company is working with her, completely furnishing the house with rental furniture she picked from a list, which is I guess arriving tomorrow. (So weird to live like this, ongoing; with none of your own personal stuff.)
She’s likely not going to rebuild (has been her thought from the beginning, not to) because on the practical/financial side of it, it will take too long (hundreds and hundreds of people are all needing to rebuild at the same time; not enough contractors and workers to go around after the vast, destructive fire), and her insurance money will run out on the temporary housing after 2 years (and rents are very high here; she’s not going to want to continue this rent at her own expense beyond that; it’s $2,600/month; for a zero-lot-line home, there’s not even a yard, just a postage-stamp grassy walkway for the dog; it’s a nice/average ‘planned’ neighborhood of about 200 houses (hers has three small bedrooms), like 30 years old, but nothing fancy; again, that’s just how high the rents are in SoCalif; it’s completely outrageous).
You see, it seems it could take as much as 4 years to finally get in a finished, rebuilt house with the way things seem to be going, so she’s going to have to instead just sell her burned-out lot once it’s cleared of debris and take the proceeds from the land sale (and insurance money for the lost house) to buy an existing smaller house somewhere. I hear no complaints from her – clearly, first and foremost, she’s just glad to be alive – but, gosh, she had this gorgeous/big, beautifully-maintained hillside home with no mortgage payment and 360-degree ocean views where she’d lived since she was age 25 and where she could have continued to live very comfortably for many years yet – – but all that’s gone now and she’ll be okay but it’s definitely at age 67 not going to be (in the distance), either a house or life that she’d had before. Same thing for my old buddy from high school, Patrick, who has lost his home to the fire, too; he wants desperately to rebuild but it’s not going to time out right. Fortunately, homeowners’ insurance buys you some time to figure all this out, but none of these fire victims can relax because their futures are so unknown. And, in the meantime, they’re still responsible for their burned-out lots where their homes once stood, which are a liability. (If we DO get rain, the hillside properties can erode very quickly.)
An incredibly-uplifting thing happened for these two friends, though. Pat was helped by a go-fund-me page. And this other gal-pal of mine, who’s been divorced for over 30 years (amicable, yet not in any kind of real contact at all with her ex-husband), received a substantial monetary gift from her ex-husband. Apparently he was so concerned as to what’s happened to her and was sad about the home they’d once shared when they were so much younger and happy together. So he came thru, out of the blue. I mean, he REALLY stepped up, out of nowhere thru other friends (he lives out of the area), and I am just so filled with love for him right now, that he did this for her; God Bless him. He’d been my friend, too – I’d sensed/hoped he’d at least call her. But he did more than that and, you know, I knew he had it in him, he’s just too good of a guy and memories count for a lot. My heart felt lighter today than it has for a long time after hearing of all this; he just went up about 50 notches with me and if I ever see him again, I’m giving him a big, big bear hug for his big, big heart. Anyway, these are just two of the feel-better, personal stories I’ve read about or heard about over the past couple of months, reaffirming that there are some wonderfully-good people out there in the world.
Still coughing my head off and I’m disgusted with the hot weather, forecasted to be in the 80s for as far as they’ll ‘guess’ for the next ten days. We’re in fact NOT getting our rain when we’re supposed to, which is just going to increase serious drought. Feb 2 at 87 degrees is just ridiculous. Oh sure, some people like it and it feels so beachy and resort-like but, no, this is not a favorable development.
Two beautiful stories there, which give us a sense of hope and confirmation of the essential goodness of people. xo
Indeed. Thanks for letting me share.
Loved this post. All those ‘chance’
meetings really touch our hearts.
That charming bookstore reminds me of the one in the movie, ‘You’ve Got Mail ‘. No wonder you bought more books.
It reminds me of that bookstore as well. I fell in love with it.