Snowy Interlude

We had a slight aberration in the weather pattern yesterday. We are in fall, the temperature is above freezing, the leaves are still on the trees, some haven't even turned yet and there was a snowstorm! Crazy. So of course I dragged the anesthetist on a walk upstate today to view the "winter wonderland." Pretty spectacular seeing the snow against the fall colors.

Traveling

This is my last stop. St Petersburg. Oh how incredible! Off to the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and Tsarkoye Selo, home of the former imperial family. I have waited my whole life to come here. It is a true gift. Thank you work!

Traveling

In Moscow! Home of Rachmaninov's vespers, potatoes and babushka dolls.

Traveling

Leaving Paris today for Stockholm! Never been there. Apparently it's on a series of islands and is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We're staying at the Hotel Skeppsholmen.

Traveling

Leaving tonight for a week in Paris - work, not play!

Happy Weekend!

Happy, happy weekend! Hope you're all doing marvelous things. The anesthetist is whisking me away to the Connecticut River tonight for my birthday. We're staying in a gorgeous old inn at the mouth of the river in Essex. It's going to be 25 degrees with autumn colors! Apparently we are taking a steam train ride along the river, kayaking, "Antiquing" as they call it here and gulping in large doses of fresh air! Yippee! Will share pics when I get back.

Change of Season Meltdown

I had a major meltdown last week. You know the one; contents of bag thrown onto the floor, clothes flying, door banging, heavy footfall, screeching banshee etc. It was my first for a long time and certainly the first in front of the Anesthetist. I don't think he knew what hit him.  He sat on the couch in the dark staring at a wall until I had calmed down.

It all started because I couldn't find my keys - the product of being totally disorganized due to 11 hour work days, constantly traipsing between my house and his, never being in the city because of travel and really just because of a general feeling of exhaustion and hopelessness.

So this weekend, I decided to take my life back into my own hands. I cancelled a gorgeous country weekend away with the grey-haired wonder and decided to "get stuff done." I think the anesthetist was genuinely relieved to not have Medusa sitting next to him in the car for 7 hours. So was I. It meant that time was filled instead with a massage, yoga, reading, admin, fall wardrobe shopping and a catch up on all things wonderful about the start of fall in this city!

Fall is the best time to be in New York. Not only is the weather (usually) perfect, but the city comes to life with a gazillion cultural treats. After voraciously reading the NY Times this weekend, here are my top picks so far if you are going to be here:

• Italian conceptual artist and joker Maurizio Cattelan is about to take over the Guggenheim. There was a great piece in the New York Times on Sunday you can hopefully read HERE.
• Beer heiress Daphne Guinness gets a solo exhibition focusing on her extraordinary wardrobe at the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum
• Harpers Bazaar celebrates 10 years of high-impact fashion photography at the ICP
• Frank Langella (of Frost/ Nixon fame) hits Broadway in Man and Boy
• The incredibly sublime White Light Festival at Lincoln Centre has a second airing in November. I wrote a piece here about one of the concerts last year.
• It's opera season again! This year The Met's program includes the usual faves like Aida, Barber of Seville and La Boheme,  plus Wagner's Ring cycle. There's nothing like frocking up to attend one of the world's most venerable institutions.
• Woody Allan and Ethan Cohen have written one act plays as part of a Broadway program called Relatively Speaking, directed by John Turturro.
• And of course, everyone is talking about the De Kooning retrospective at MoMa. 

So get those culture boots on and start preparing to wait in long lines!

image: Steven Klein