Tag Archives: northfield

May 9, 2011

i get back up on the saddle and ride. . .

By arlynnpresser

i have had to take a few days away from this new year’s resolution to meet every one of my facebook friends.*  i returned from philadelphia a little bruised and fragile.  i hid in the third floor bedroom, watched a lot of hulu.com, ate really bad pasta (i’m an impatient cook and so my spaghetti is quite al dente).

i figured the rest of the world could get along just fine without me.

and not to say that it can’t.

around two a.m. this morning i awoke to a piercing pain just under my sternum.  i sat up for hours, drifting between nightmare and consciousness.  when it was light, i did a little diagnostic work–a half hour on the stairmaster and eight minutes of hard rowing didn’t cause me to collapse.  so it is dimly possible i didn’t have heart trouble.   but i think i hit some sort of bottom.

which is exactly the time when a gal should see terry dason.  terry is the executive director of the winnetka-northfield chamber of commerce which is a lot of words to express that she is the greatest cheerleader for the two villages.

and she is also able to be my cheerleader.  she taught me something about judging people but also about maybe not judging myself so harshly.  i don’t need to sentence myself to twenty to life on the third floor.

*monday, may 9 is the 129th day of the year.  i had 324 friends as of december 31 and 335 by january one.  i will visit at least those 335–but that doesn’t mean i have forgotten my new friends.  i have already visited 117.

i need to start planning the california excursion and the manifest destiny tour of oregon, idaho, vancouver, and washington.  if anybody has any suggestions about hotels, airlines, trains, etc., i’m all ears!

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March 4, 2011

i am outwitted by f2fb #62 and the unbearable darkness of cool

By arlynnpresser

it is exactly the sort of thing that facebook is intended for:  i was having dinner with a friend from law school i hadn’t seen in, yes, dare i say it?, twenty five years!  there was a lot of life to catch up on.  he lives in san francisco, is married, has twins who are eight years old, and a law practice that seems to make him happy.  all lawyers are desperately unhappy, i was one and can say this with confidence, but he seemed pretty cool with it all.

and i had my life to tell him about:  the rumanian prince, that bungled heist in monte carlo,  clothes i loaned lady gaga.

and then i realized there could be no pictures, no video.

not because he’s famous and his bodyguards would have to kill me.  not because he’s debiliatated in some way that wouldn’t make for a good blog.  but because it was so damn dark.

the violet hour is in a building that looks from the outside like a boarded up warehouse.  the cab driver who deposited me at its steps was so nervous he first walked in, cased the place and came out to escort me into the restaurant.  and i use the term restaurant lightly because it seemed to me to be just a lot of rooms with black curtains and candles (fire department alert!).   drinks were made with droppers and food was an artistic endeavor.  but i got to see michael lieberman, f2fb #62.  or at least someone who claimed he was michael.

but i couldn’t take a picture because everything i tried turned out the same:  black.  somehow i think michael picked the place for that very reason.

so instead of unloading on his shocking gossip, i’ll pass along this–i’ll be signing books at the book stall this evening at six o’clock. on elm street in winnetka. can’t miss the place. hope to see you there!

i’ll be there tonight.  i hope you can make it.  there’s sure to be lights!

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January 25, 2011

face to facebook challenge–i’m going to win ten thousand dollars!

By arlynnpresser

i’m having a wonderful time meeting friends from my facebook profile.  janie rah rah gibson has the most impossibly glamorous profile picture EVER!!!  and she met me at a luncheon today where i tried to palm off northfield and winnetka history books on unsuspecting diners.  after the luncheon, she and i talked about how i’m going to win ten thousand dollars finding a bride for an actuarial sweetpea:

janie was impossibly  chic, in a vintage sweater dress she stole from her mother’s closet.  i hadn’t realized it was through children’s theater that janie met my two sons.  we talked about friendship . . . 

janie explained something i had never understood:  that when two galpals announce they are engaged or married to each other, it’s sometimes a signal that they are not attached.  also, that there’s a hierarchy of relationships:  going out, really going out, announcing it on facebook, and then i guess there’s marriage after that. . . . i’ve never changed my relationship status and don’t think i would unless it were legal in all fifty states.  as for it’s complicated, that apparently is what you say when you’re about to break up. . .

her mother has an interesting idea about how friendship works.  i thought about this.  there are friends i don’t see for months at a time but i know it’s tight and there’s no apologies for absences.  i know there are friends who are every day and it don’t matter.  i have some friends that are from when i was in high school, some from when i was raising my children, and some i’ve only recently met.

i really like janie’s perspective, except i also think i want to lose forty pounds and steal clothes from her mother’s closet.  also, i’m going to find a bride for tom.  i want that ten thousand dollars!

a special thanks to kaveh, madeleine, connie, chief lustig, janie, charlie, gina, kevin, sean, libby, bill and paddy!

next up:  i open a bottle of champagne with a sabre under the instruction of a sommelier-ette!

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