DATE WITH A TUNA MELT

I don't get my full coffee time. My escape into the New York Times is cut short by JD.

JD zooms into my apartment after a morning of yoga in the village.

I'm at the kitchen counter swallowing food.

JD slides his backside down a closet door and sits on his heels. JD, flushed and grinning, is full of young heedlessness.

"I want to see the expression you made when you saw your bed."

(JD made my bed last weekend. He made it taught. I slept on top of the covers. I couldn't get under them. JD wants me to recreate my expression of grateful awe).

"I looked like this" and I make a nonsensical expression of confusion and disgust.

"Sheets and blankets aren't working for me. I need to get a light goose down quilt. Something that I can maneuver easily. Once my legs are under the covers, I'm stuck. I barely move."

"Ikea!" JD says. "They have feather quilts at Ikea! You should talk to Ross (his wife). She's all into the goose-down quilt thing. Ross will point you in the right direction."

The moments of my life leap from the funny to the depressing. You have to have your (face on) when your with me.

________

"Now that I'm here, tell me what to do" JD says.

"Well, I haven't put away the laundry from last week."

_____________________

The day runs away.

There is nothing to be done but accept the help when it's offered. I've become a cheesy opportunist.

"Before you go, can you pick that up? Can you take out the trash? Collect the mugs, the newspapers, the dirty laundry, clean the kitchen, make the bed, pat the cat." - (the cat needs attention).

I sit, tired and achy, and direct JD with the laundry and think...

JD is 15 years older than me. I've counted on that. He looks great. So will I.

I have always had more time than he did. He's been good for advice. Now, I don't know who or where I am (in life) when I am with JD.

This is true also with my friend Nat. Nat and I did summer stock together.

Nat is ten years older than me. Nat until recently had a nasty smoking habit.

I've often thought, "poor Nat and his terrible smoking, what will become of him."

Earlier in the morning I called him.

The bowels of the Sunday Times fell apart all over my front hallway. I didn't want to slip on them.

"I need you for five minutes".

Nat arrives moments later and we chat. Me- unshaven, greasy hair - skinny and bare on my new Ikea bar stool. Nat thick and vibrant and full of small news.

The plays he will see this week. The auditions coming up. News about the Playhouse where we both worked.

_______________

My apartment complex is my whole world.

The familiar voice of Bruce across the hall -(producing his first Broadway play).

Young Lisa (who told me she was nearly diagnosed with MS - "they had it wrong, thank go-d" -and her miniature dog Pogie.

The South American couple next door. (They do cancer research and told me they would look into research for my disease - we never spoke about it again - sadly, there is nothing substantial to report and they don't want to tell me what I already know). They have a new baby!

And of course Spiro my doorman, who always thanks ME when I hand him my walker or ask for help.

The life guard Lewis, handsome, kind and dim. He lives with his grandmother in East Harlem. Lewis helps me out of the pool.

My world is this building.

___________________

I sit with Nat and my coffee. We speak like actors on our fifteen minute break.

Nat tells me he saw the Miller play last night, "A View from the Bridge".

"Oh, I want to see that!!"

"Leiv Schreiber is great... and Scarlet Johanson was very good!"

I tell Nat my Scarlett Johanson story.

"I call Scarlett Johanson, "Date With A Tuna-melt" because, years ago, I waited to see her speak at a talk-back for "Girl with a Pearl Earring". The theatre was packed waiting for her arrival. We all waited a half hour. She got to the mic, spoke for five minutes and then she said,

'Sorry, gotta go, I've got a date with a tuna melt." So I call her, Date with a Tuna-melt".

Nat finds this hilarious. He says he'll have to tell this one to his wife.

He leaves. I sip my coffee for a minute, and then JD arrives. I don't get my full coffee time.