Up in the Air

Dan flew with Punchy to San Francisco after school today! He is going on a NY Times Magazine assignment--still exciting, even though he's done a few--so his flight and hotel is covered. We paid for Punchy's. She has off from school Thursday and Friday for annual NJ Teachers' Convention; we asked permission to let her miss Tuesday and Wednesday. They return Saturday morning.

Punch will accompany Dan on a couple of interviews, especially the one for which he is meeting the subjects and their family for a pizza dinner out one night.

They will stay one night with Dan's college friend and his wife at their house in Santa Cruz...visit with his friend, John, who has horses, which are Punchy's catnip....and see our niece, Anna, the tiny brunette I fell in love with when dating Dan. She is a talented artist who lives in SF and works for Shutterfly as a designer. [My Maine nieces, Leah, Mariah and Anna, were flower girls in our wedding, wearing hot-pink gowns that Moey's Aunt Ronnie sewed.]

The travelers should be touching down about 1:30 am Eastern time...I love San Francisco, haven't been back since I was in my twenties, on a girls' trip with Moey, Debbie and Annie. I have returned to California at least four times since [once as a chaperone for Seventeen Magazine music contest winners*], but not to San Francisco. Would like to see it again. Happy that they will.

TCOY

1. Walked 1 hour and 10 min in NYC.

$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET

• Duane Reade, large, tall bottle of water, $3.11.
• MetroCard refill for subway, $20.
• Drugstore on First Avenue, popped in for Kleenex, bought an 8-pack of pocket packs [$8] and a bottle of Caswell-Massey Sweet Almond Oil for body and bath, $32.25.
• Le Pain Quotidien, tall hot tea, with tip, $4. [I don't have to give a dollar tip. Will cut down to 50 cents if I remember to bring quarters.]
• Cafeteria lunch and small snack cup of mixed nuts, $8.01.
• Grand Central Market, with Dan and Punch away, stopped to get groceries. Pasta entree, quart Hudson Valley Fresh milk, pint Hudson Valley Fresh half and half, grilled artichokes, container shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, seeded baguette, $31.
• Hotel Chocolat Inc. on Lexington Ave. across from Grand Central, one 85-percent dark chocolate bar. Sorry to say, not my favorite. But Sis likes the milk chocolate from this British chocolatier and cocoa grower. With tax, $7.63.

TOTAL DAILY SPEND: $106.

ONGOING SPEND FOR MONTH AS OF NOV. 4: [including all November days now]: $236.33.

AVERAGE DAILY SPEND: $59.08.

Good night to you.

Remembering my California trips:

*1. Girls trip to SF, then we drove to LA. We saw the Redwoods, went to Carmel, and much more. The beauty of the drive along the coast: staggering.
2. Seventeen music contest chaperone, 1988. [Prize was trip to California, with busy itinerary.]

3. Drove across America with Dan in summer 1990, when he wrote 60-Second Novels en route.

4. Flew out to San Diego with Dan.

5. Flew out to California for work a few years ago and rented a car, drove to Santa Monica, Malibu, etc. after meeting clients.