Ships in the Night

Well, that was a busy  stretch (and one not quite done).  Scopwife and I continue to settle into NYC, a process that is, I think, almost complete. 

Since my last entry, I’ve finished setting up the new law firm, had a couple of visitors to NYC, traveled to Miami and back for a too-short trip, saw extended relatives, cultivated facial hair, vetted clients, did much legal research, got sick (not related to any of the forgoing), got well, and am looking forward to seeing the Firecracker, whom I have not seen in, gosh, I don’t know when.  A decade, I expect.   If I have seen her more recently, I’m sure it was in the context of a hello-as-Scoplaw-zips-through-on-the-way-to-somewhere.  Memory memory.

Riposte came up to visit us recently.  We walked about the city, had brunch, went to the Neue Gallery (http://www.neuegalerie.org/), but alas, did not have time for lunch at Café Fledermaus.  In keeping with our impromptu Austrian/Germanic  theme, we also took in Gounod's "Faust" at the Met; specifically the Des McAnuff's “Faust-as-atomic-scientist” production.  It was a good effort, but the opera ultimately was undercut by its plot/rendering.  There’s not a lot of contemporary resonance to be found in trying to evoke the horrors of pre-marital sex/pregnancy, and the more modern casting of Faust as an atomic scientist prevents the viewer from thinking of this as a period piece (and thus importing the now desiccated mores of an earlier age).   What could have been brilliant was actually something of a lose/lose situation. 

Just last night (my first night not coughing/dripping in awhile) we went back to see Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment,” which was a much better production, despite the horrendous costuming of the leads and the at-best marionette-like presence of Lawrence Brownlee.  Brownlee was actually quite good when he didn’t have to pay attention to what was happening on stage.  Unfortunately, an opera is more than 30 seconds worth of notes, as much as a poem is more than one great image.  But even with such, it’s worth seeing. 

Well.

I’m off to do another round of NYC food shopping.   Prices here are, as is so much else about the city, needlessly exaggerated.  When I got to Miami, I met up with some other people who had also just arrived.  We decided to get quick sandwiches for dinner – Dear God!  Did you know it’s possible to make a tuna salad sandwich for less than $10!  After living a mere three months in the city, such a notion shocks me to the core.

While it was something of a working trip, I didn’t get to see The Mayor, who had taken his family north on the exact days I was to be in Miami.  Or so he claims. . . hmmm.

Also, while I was in Miami, I took the motorcycle out.  Someone kept honking to me (I think) on US1.  Hello!  I had/have absolutely no idea who you are - that was a placating wave.   Feel free to say hello in a medium that carries more identity that repeatedly honking from a backlit car across a busy intersection. 

Apparently I now give off “attorney vibe.”  I was correctly identified as such despite my jeans and tshirt ensemble when I visited a local public law library.  Actually two people pegged me; the librarian and another attorney, who was suited up.  The attorney was quite funny; he asked a librarian something and finished with “as long as you’re not busy helping this other attorney.”   When I raised an eyebrow at him, he waved at my books and notes on the table and said, “Obviously you’re not a student,” as if that was the only other choice.  In a funny way though, he was right.   I was hunting through vaguely related issues to make sure I hadn’t missed something obvious and/or an unfavorable interpretation of a strongly analogous statute.   I’m not sure how to explain it visually, but what I was doing really couldn’t have been anything else.   Or perhaps it was that I didn’t attempt to conceal my notes?   Anyway,  I found it very amusing.  So I asked him what he was working on (generally) as we were the only two left in the library.  His response – “I have a trial in front of Judge X in two weeks.”  I made the same non committal grunt everyone seems to make when they hear that name.  His response – “Sigh.  Exactly.”   Which explains the basic law outline that he was compiling.