The Reservoir

Sunset in Battery Park overlooking the Hudson.
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Nighttime view from the 5th floor fire escape at 211 Centre Street.
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Celebrated my 32nd birthday with friends over dinner at Dylan Prime.

When you’ve run out of land . . . import some.
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A much needed vacation to decompress after the long push leading up to the bar exam. Lots of sun, beach and rest. We stayed in Manteo at the Booth House and after a little confusion over the reservation the first night, the house cleared out and we had a week to ourselves. Mike and Mel joined us from Anchorage for several days. Good food, a little sunburn and the salt water was exactly what the doctor ordered. We even saw dolphins just beyond the break where we swam.

Just a few photos.

The first day of the Bar Exam is finished and in another 5 or 6 hours, the second day will be as well. Its been a long haul and to say mildly stressful would be an understatement.
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I recently purchased a Red Oxalis (aka Shamrock or Woodsorrel) to add to the collection of beautiful weeds I have around the house. Large deep purple shamrock leaves with delicate pink blooms – both of which close every evening and reopen fully in the morning.
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I’ve been playing fantasy baseball in The Sporting News Basic Baseball league for a couple of years now – an obsessive, but not altogether unhealthy diversion. The league is a stock market model league with a fixed starting salary. Buy low, sell high and increase your buying power for better players. There is no limit to the number of managers that can own a given player and standing is based on total points earned. It’s mildly embarrassing due to the amount of time I spend pouring through baseball stats and results. Regardless, the first fantasy season just ended here at All Star Break and out of 355,000 competitors worldwide, I managed to finish in a tie for 20th. That topples my previous best of 41st (2003 Season 1), which I thought I’d probably never beat. Take that Team Tribeca, Kansas City Lowballers and M&M Boys of the Bronx!

A few more photos of the lovely event.

My Hoya plant is finally blooming. I’m pretty sure the exact plant I have is the Hoya carnosa latifolia.

The story of my plant starts in Kew Royal Botanical Gardens just outside of London many years ago. The grandfather of college roommate of mine, Nicholas de Monchaux, once clipped a cutting of this plant while visiting the gardens and snuck it out under his bowler hat. I’m not quite clear whether the plant followed Nick’s mother to Australia or not, but my understanding is that a contentious dispute over possession of the heirloom ensued after the grandfather’s passing. Regardless, after many years, the plant came to live at the de Monchaux house in Cambridge, MA. I never had the chance to visit the house, but I did see pictures, and the plant was an integral centerpiece of the soaring 20 ft ceiling. Well, with Nick and his twin, Thomas, safely in college the de Monchaux’s accepted a 2-year sabatical in Geneva, Switzerland and decided to sell the house in Cambridge. The Hoya stayed with the house, but Nick took a cutting as they moved out and brought it to our apartment in New Haven for me to root.

At graduation, I gave Nick the plant, but kept a cutting for myself. It never flourished and the single stalk spent many perilous years in the dark, harsh climate of Canal Street. After moving to our sun-drenched apartment last year, the Hoya has simply taken off and 11 years after starting with that first cutting, it’s now blooming constantly – for the last month it’s had at least one and as many as four open bloom pods at any given time.

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The second wedding in a month and another pair of our close friends, Spencer and Kristi, embrace the married life. Spencer and I met in 1996 at Two Twelve of all places. Somewhere along the way, Spencer convinced me to join a dart team with him and I had the pleasure of watching Kristi capture his attention and the rest is now history.

More photos of wedding day.

I travelled to Virginia to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of Dwight and Vada Swartz (my mother’s parents). 60 years of marriage for both sets of grandparents. That’s not something that happens very often anymore – my friends getting married now will have to be particularly blessed with health and longevity to see their 60th.

The family also then got a sneak preview of the Bowman house being reconstructed at the Fontier Museum in Stanton, Virginia. The house was originally built in 1752 in Edinburg, VA by George Bowman (my grandmother’s great-great-great-grandfather).

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One of my closest friends said his wedding vows Sunday evening in Tribeca. Dan and I were freshman year roommates on Old Campus in Welsh Hall, Entryway C. We then went on to be roommates for an astounding 12 years – from BookWorld to High St in New Haven, and then Normandy Court to Canal St in the City. After Dan met Aliki, the only question was when, not if, they would be married. I had the great honor of signing the Ketubah and thanks to a stiff breeze on a sweltering afternoon, I had the unexpected privilege of holding the huppah (chuppah) and the best seat in the house for the ceremony.

A few more photos of the event.

Nearly finished with her third year at Brooklyn Law School, Doxia was offered and accepted a position with Alter Mantel, a small but powerful commercial real estate firm in Manhattan. Congratulations!

A wonderful vacation to Venezia with Doxia.