I suspect folks who attended the Gotham Happy Hour on Friday might expect one of my musicals blog. Suspect they need to wait until the proverbial next year, to apply the well-used cliché. Instead, I prefer to hail and welcome a significant change in the fraternal Order Knights of Pythias.

Have you noticed it? Everyone has a heightened sense of anxiety. Lack of social interaction, polarizing politics, mutating viruses...it's no wonder.     We all have coping mechanisms and many are taking it out on their fellow humans by acting aggressively with little tolerance for their opinion or even consideration. I believe we are truly living in unique times.   How about everyone take a big breath (outside of course:) and stop cutting me off on the road! 

The best word to describe the afterglow generated by last week’s annual Holiday Party is the Yiddish word Kvell, which I jokingly described as a “Legal term” during the party, but is more accurately defined as “to be extraordinarily pleased; to be bursting with pride, as over one’s family.”So many operative/descriptive words:

We have to remember many, many dates. Birthdays, anniversaries, and others. I sometimes test myself with the birthdays of our seven grandchildren.There is a new date that must be stored in our memory bank: the date of your second Covid vaccination (or the single dose of Johnson). It’s the date that is needed, along with other information, to confirm and download the New York State Excelsior Pass - a convenient way to prove vaccination status.

My wife and I saw West Side Story (with only 1 other person in the theater) at a Monday matinee on a big screen with great sound, lounging on recliners.   

This is about masks.  I wear my mask on the LIRR and subway as I am supposed to.    The LIRR was crowded this morning.  Not shoulder to shoulder, but no excess of empty seats.  So, I sat down.   

I am extremely lucky to have a very close “office family,” which includes Gotham adoption attorney extraordinaire Faith Getz Rousso. We genuinely all enjoy one another’s company, help one another,  and look out for one another.   We do have a prankster in our midst. While I was a way on vacation in October an elaborate prank was concocted against me. After I returned from vacation and finally realized what was done, I had to laugh. I took the joke on me in the nature it was played; out of love and friendship.

Yesterday, the City (of New York) was to collect fallen leaves put out for collection in Paper Leaf Bags or open containers from residential.  Originally there were two dates for collection but the one for the weekend after Thanksgiving got nixed with little fanfare.  So I fulfilled my "obligation" to gather the leaves not yet bagged to put out for collection.  It was a lot and unfortunately the rain-dampened leaves prove heavier to heave into the collection trucks.