Friday

I really don't want to dwell on this subject but I have to make a note on my observation.

This past Wednesday I attended as already mentioned the bereavement gathering at the hospital. I also said that there was an unusually large turnout of people.

Now comes my observation and this is an opinion based on statistics is not a cold hearted comment.

Going to this place in the past year I came to observe that it seems that is a more difficult for a grownup to overcome the grief caused by the loss of a parent than the loss of a spouse.

I hear people describe the loss of a spouse in a much more calmer way than the others describe the loss of a parent. And I find this extremely curious.

Without exception surviving family members say that they are lost in the world without their mother or father while people who lost their life partners never say those words.

Unfortunately the rule of life is that parents go before their children and as tragical as it is that is the way it usually is. Now I am not fighting for equal time but I just don't understand these people who sit around this table and keep saying that they are now lost in the world, they lost their best friends and so on and so on.

And in the meanwhile the ones who lost their spouses or life partners are much more self controlled. I understand that a parent can never be replaced and a life partner can not be replaced either but the ones who lost their life partners always have the possibility to start a new life and get to know happiness once again.

This was my analysis of the situation as I observed it. Like I said at the beginning I will not dwell on this any longer.

Que sera, sera!

Thursday

I love to eat stuff that I don't know where they are coming from. More accurately food that are described in a language that I do not understand but the food looks sympathetic and tasty. If I find that its origin is kind of unsavory, well I chalk it up for experience.

Knowingly I would not eat sheep balls, snakes, rooster balls, dogs, cats and maybe a few other and similar type of foods. However, I ate ostrich, turtle soup, snails (escargot), frogs' legs, calve brain, raw fish (sushi) and raw beef (steak tartare).

There is a Russian supermarket not far from where I live and today we went there to do a little shopping. The beauty of the store is that there are a lot of things there I did not understand. Like their cold cuts and prepared cold salads.

I bought cold cuts there before and without really knowing what they were I have to admit they all tasted great. The same applied to the salads. There were Russian, Ukrainian, Kazan salads and beside looking pretty appetizing they also taste great.

When ordering cold cuts it is hard to stop because of the multitude of varieties and one's desire to be adventurous. The prices are good so I just keep going and keep ordering.

There is another thing I find Russians like a lot and it is sweets. In this store there is a display of chocolates of such a magnitude that I have never seen anything like it. Chocolates, truffles, chocolate covered cherries filled with liquor. They are all packaged in beautiful boxes and look great even to a non-chocolate lover like me. Most of the chocolates are Russian or Polish or some other Baltic country made but equally taste very good.

Make a long story short we came home with six shopping full of foods after a casual "just stop to look" few minutes.

Wednesday

I am seriously thinking about enrolling in a university and study psychology on the highest level. It seems that I have a knack to give advise to people and the advise I give is appreciated.

What is the reason, you ask?

Today I went to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for the monthly bereavement session which today had an unusually large turnout. We normally have about ten people at these sessions, today we had twenty one. It is sad because all these people are hit by their personal tragedies of losing a loved one.

To some people the loss is fairly recent to some it happened quite a while ago. But the common thread is that they all are hurting and everybody is trying to deal with their losses.

To some it is a parent to some it is a child to some it is a close friend and to some of us it is a spouse. Each one of us deal differently with the loss but the commonality is that everybody want to be able to deal with it.

Now I am the voice of calm reason at this gathering. I was hurting more than anybody can imagine at the beginning but slowly I came to terms with what happened. I had no choice but to accept it. Life went on and either I went with it or would have been left behind.

I chose the first, I went with life. I met a fantastic lady and started a beautiful relationship. I tell others that they should not despair, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Don't give up hope, don't get depressed because time is a great healer.

This does not mean that they should give up their memories but people should not give their life over to the memories. There are so many beautiful things out there that we all deserve to take some of it.

And, lo and behold more than one said to me once the session was over that they really liked what I was saying and they would try to remember it.

Too bad I can't charge for my good advice.

Tuesday

Today I Tuesday and so far this is the best day of the week. Well it is easy because the week so far is only two days old, but still the day was just great.

I will not bore anybody by describing how hard it was to tear myself away from my G.F.'s loving arms at 6:30 in the morning but what a man has to do, a man has to do.

And this man had to get up, get dressed and drive 140 miles into the mountains to get in a day of good skiing. And good skiing it was.

It was clear and crispy cold. The temperature was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit and that is about -15 degrees Celsius. No matter how we look at it it is cold. But what made it bearable was that there was no wind.

I don't know if it was because of last week was a holiday week or the cold but the place was empty. No people, no kids. I came down on some slopes without seeing anybody. The snow was very well maintained and it was dry, good skiable snow.

I skied a lot and had a great time.

The drive home was very pleasant even though it took three hours. But when I got home my G.F. was waiting for me with a fantastic dinner. Dinner was Hungarian bean soup with pig knuckles. It was just great.

Since she was a professional athlete she knows all the muscles in the body. So, after dinner she gave me a massage that speaks several languages.

I just hope the rest of the week will be equally good or better.

Monday

Today is Monday and I didn't do much all day. Well, I went to the gym, my new gym and had a serious workout. Unfortunately I only go once a week but I should really go a few times. But with my busy social schedule I just have no time.

The rest of the day was quality time spent with my girlfriend.

Something else.

There are a million totally useless space needing things on the Internet and unfortunately people are using many of them. But there is something that I think is the greatest and the best entertaining web site and the good thing about it that it is free.

It is You Tube. I find YouTube a fantastic addition to the Internet world.

There is no music or movies or any other entertaining related or sometime weird subject that one can not find on YouTube. As I several times already noted I am Hungarian and I do like Hungarian music also Hungarian movies. By going to YouTube I can easily find anything my heart desires.

This afternoon we found a well known Hungarian singer who "entertained" us for about an hour by singing popular and old Hungarian songs. The only movies one can not find that are protected by the copyright laws but there are enough others to satisfy one's needs.

I just figured I'll mention this not for advertising YouTube but just because I like it.

Sunday

Tonight is the everboring Academy Award and because of that there is really nothing worth watching on the TV. Bunch of Hollywood people sitting in a large auditorium in borrowed dresses and loaned jewelry sucking up to each other in the hope of landing their next juicy roles.

Clapping like seals on command and pretending to like their colleagues and looking happy when the other person wins the award. This about the only place where they can really show what good actors they are in one take for the viewing public who really believe what they see.

Something else.

Yesterday there was a considerable snowstorm in New York and because of that we decided to stay indoors even though we planned to do some supermarket shopping. I must say the time was spent very pleasantly and I didn't mind staying home at all.

Today, Sunday it was about three o'clock by the time we left the house to catch up with the shopping chores. Getting such a late start made the day kind of short but again I didn't care at all.

Come on, we are all adults and we spend our time as pleasantly as we wish. Right?

Saturday

Yesterday I received an e-mail from the airline we are scheduled to fly to Europe in May that there was a schedule change. I immediately got nervous because I was afraid the flight might be cancelled and I put so much energy into finding it.

But fortunately no. All they advised us of that our flight is leaving 20 minutes later than it was originally listed. Since we have no connecting flight it does not matter at all. But it still made me curious.

At New York's Kennedy Airport it is not unusual for a departing plane to sit and wait on the tarmac for thirty to forty minutes. Now what does that do to the schedule? Twenty minutes seem like such a short time that it does not even merit a note much less a schedule change. Besides on such a long flight like a transatlantic one it is very easy to make up the time loss and arrive at the originally scheduled time.

I don't see why they even bother. Maybe it is the Norwegian punctuality (if there is such a thing).

Something else.

Today I bought two more tickets to the opera. This time we are planning to see Aida in the middle of April. Getting into the Metropolitan Opera's price structure it is interesting to see how they are changing the prices of the seats between different calendar times. I don't understand the reasoning behind it but since there is nothing anybody can do we just have to accept it. Still couldn't find any discounts and that irks me.

I never saw Aida in the Met. I did see it in Budapest but I heard it was always a spectacular production. Now at least I'll have a chance to see it first hand. I think Placido Domingo is conducting at least that's how I read it. I guess he is getting to be too old to sing.

Good for him, at least he is still working!