Visit to K, a Bug

Went up to Saratoga last weekend to see Lady K. It was parents’ weekend–I’ll never do that again as there was no cheap place to stay. Granted, I LOVED the way expensive B and B that smelled like my grandmother’s house, even though their breakfast didn’t measure up to what they charge. Still, it would have been better to plow that money into credit cards.

But anyway, I had a lovely time. Lady K and I have very similar rhythms–we alternate introversion and extroversion. So we would party together for a couple of hours, then separate to go read/study, then rejoin etc.

Saratoga always haunts me, especially in the fall.

Trees were at their peak of colors. It was a blue sky weekend, brisk. I walked in the old neighborhoods where I walked in the early 70s. All different now–there is no more old campus. I felt the happy ghosts of young Chutes and H. all in love and silly and having fun. Bittersweet. I’m glad that they are still there, still having fun.

Saratoga has beautiful old houses, whether huge mansions or little blue collar houses lovingly spruced up. Many porches still remain. People were raking orange and red leaves into the gutters.

Friday night we ate with a friend of hers and her “cool parents.” They were indeed cool. The mother is a successful businesswoman–though you’d never know it, just a little friendly person my age–and the father is a stay at home dad and artist, suffering with MS. (He carries a cane). We were all shy at first, and then one thing led to another and soon the conversation was bouncing around. The girls are discouraged–they both belong to a campus organization that K. founded that tries to get the college to boycott things produced in sweatshops. The task of saving the world seemed so big to them. The 3 older folks, speaking from our knowledge of the 60s, the 70s, from thinking things could change everywhere to getting realistic, tried to encourage them. I said they were feeling the way Ben does when he has to clean his room–when you look at the whole thing it is totally overwhelming, but when he just cleans up, say, 5 square feet of floor space, the job gets started. That got a laugh, and then the other mother talked about getting the most sense of accomplishment from doing local things. Her husband talked about the Bush World we live in, intelligently, neither despairingly nor defensively.

Sat night we ate with her roommate and roommate’s mother. The woman looked very familiar, and then I discovered that she used to be a reader. We compared notes on which readings we had attended–both remembered the portapotty convention in King of Prussia that was taking place right next to the essay reading room.

K’s roommate was rather snotty to her mother, jumping down her throat, rolling her eyes, but her mother took it in stride. K. said her roommate is rather a tough cookie but she doesn’t mind. She just snarls back when necessary.

We had brunch in the renovated cafeteria, a subject on which Lady K. is scathing. She thinks the architecture is ok (though she agrees with me that it reminds one of a fancy new diner on route one near here), but she thinks it is inappropriate for a mere cafeteria, especially when the food is still mediocre, and they should have put money into education. You could tell this is a well endowed school–the cafeteria now has gas fireplaces, surrounded by comfy chairs, and interesting nooks and crannies, spaces divided by colors and odd things jutting out of ceilings and wall.

Then we went back to her place, where we talked about Chinese revolution for a while. “So the Red Guard has this manifesto about fighting for the revolution, destroying things and creating chaos. So where did they think they were living?? They were in Revolutionary China! The Revolution was all around them!” Then it was time for me to go. We stood up, and she said with a funny little look on her precious face “I’m so glad you came!” and we had a lovely hug.

Since then things have been peaceful. Supervisor is being nicer to me. Only fly in the ointment–NG is home with hand, foot, and mouth disease, and I, Dr. Joe told me this afternoon, have “a virus, on top of the allergy.” A. has been feeding me OJ.

We had a blackout tonight, of about an hour. A rare thing, such total blackness. (Wish the sky hadn’t been pink, though). I finished a book I’ve been reading with a flashlight. Enemy Women–I recommend it highly. Beautifully written, about southeastern MO in the last 2 years of the Civil War.