So, while I get ready to prune my perennial herbs and put them back on our fire escape to see if they come back, and contemplate how to secure a set of windowboxes on my stone sills so they don't fall and kill someone, I am also pursuing a more fulfilling means of satisfying my gardening urges this year (and one that is not technically against my lease, like those above). I am joining a community garden.

To those not in the New York area who are unfamiliar with community gardens, here's how they work in this city. Most were originally founded by residents who cleaned up vacant lots in the 70s and 80s (when the city was bankrupt and crime-ridden) in an effort to bring something positive to their neighborhoods. After a bunch got torn down in favor of development within the last decade due to real estate booming here, now many if not all of the ones that are left are part of land trusts and, in theory, protected non-profit entities (because amazingly enough the city actually recognizes that gardens are of worth to the community).

The one I am joining was founded in the late 80s and still has an active membership of I think something like 50 or 60 members. The first step in becoming a member is attending a monthly garden meeting, which I did this Wednesday. I got to find out all about the bureaucracy involved in this city and also about how the garden is run (with officers and committee leaders) and the various projects that are done throughout the year to maintain a sustainable asset and have fun doing it. And, as an added bonus, there was homemade "compost cake" (complete with cookie crumb dirt and gummy worms) for a committee leader's birthday.

My next step is to go to a work day and orientation. After that, I pay my dues, get a key, and begin my work as a member. I'll help with events, community projects, work days, and maybe even get my own individual plot (there's a wait list, but it's short). I'm really excited not only to get to garden when I don't have a yard, but also to get to know people in my neighborhood (some of the people have been working in the garden since it was founded) and begin to feel like I am really a part of the community instead of just a resident. |

The first week of spring here in NY it won't get above the mid 40s. It is sunny, which is a marked improvement over Cleveland. Still, I have to say that March is when I miss NC the most. |

My aunt died last night. It was not sudden or unexpected (she had cancer), and we were not close (I think it was 10-15 years since we last saw each other). She was my father's oldest sister, and the first blood relative in my parents' generation who has died. Which is, I think, the reason that this has affected me more than I expected.

I had thought about my parents aging before, and thought of the fact that my grandmother was not much older than my mom is now when she died. But somehow having my father's sister die really brings home the prospect of mortality and that, unless some unforeseen illness or accident befalls me, I will one day be the last surviving member of my immediate family. Which is a really scary thought. No one wants to be alone, and though I have a husband and one day plan to have children, I don't like to think about being without my parents and my brother.

I really don't have any deeper insights into this other than death is scary. I do see a peace in it despite being an atheist, and I know it is inevitable. But none of that stops the pain of thinking about losing the people who matter in your life. |

Happy Birthday to Michaelangelo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rob Reiner, Ed McMahon, Alan Greenspan, Shaq... and me.

It's a low-key penultimate Monday birthday this year. I had been planning to go to the Whitney Biennial yesterday and then dinner at Candle 79 and homemade cupcakes today. But - yesterday I slept in and didn't feel like doing any of this so we ordered Chinese delivery and then went into Manhattan to go to City Bakery and try their famous chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate (as well as getting to witness their amazing back-of-house like efficiency with the huge lines around the counter) and then walked 18 blocks to Best Buy to get a new TV.(Audrey broke ours a few weeks ago. It no longer had a power button. We've been having to turn on the light switch (controls the outlet) then press the volume button up and back down and then the channel button up and down to get it to work.) Then we watched the Oscars and went to bed.

Today I'm at work, then home where Patrick will be cooking me a squash risotto with bulgur instead of arborio and then we are opting out of homemade sweets (there's always too many left over and I'm trying to eat less sweets and junk food) and going back to the Chocolate Room to try the cake I didn't get last time. And I have learned my lesson and will stay away from the cloyingly sweet dessert wine. And sometime in there I will open the overgenerous mound of presents from mom and Patrick. |

|