Montclair = clear mountain

I've always liked this and now I picture it every time I see the name of our street -- Montclair -- which means "clear mountain" in French!


I have wondered and wondered about the origin of the name of our new street: Montclair. Most of the other streets in this addition have an English connection: Queen's Way, Sussex, Wimblton (yes, I know that is spelled incorrectly!) There's Rock Creek Drive, but that's self-explanatory....there must be a creek! However, when my friend Leslie was here, she reminded me that Montclair in French is "clear mountain." So now, every time I see the name on a street sign, I have this flash of a David Hockney painting that I like, of beautiful Mount Fuji.

I am looking at the beautiful white peonies on our dining room table, like a painting. Leslie bought them for us at the Farmer's Market Saturday.

It was a total joy to have Leslie here. She's is my oldest friend from high school. Through her, I met Jeannette and a whole gang of other friends who became our high school crowd, always hanging out at our house or her house. Barry, her husband, was speaking at a conference on China Saturday and so they both came down. Barry stayed with the other conference people, and Leslie stayed here.

Friday night, we drank a bottle of wine, sharing cheese and crackers and grapes on our back porch.

Saturday, we went out for breakfast, wandered around the Farmer's Market, and walked around campus -- down memory lane! (We shared an apartment with our friend Linda Sladek our sophomore year -- down on South Henderson.)

Leslie showed us a short film done by their son Spencer, who is in film school at NYU. It was called "Squirrel TV" or something like that -- and was really clever and funny. We put it on a CD so I can send it to Amalia.

At the same time while I have these nice reflections, I am also aching. Amalia's boyfriend Mike broke up with her last night, and she is aching, and so I am aching.

She is the most beautiful, kind, fun, smart, wonderful woman, and I hope that soon she runs across some man who will love her as she deserves....I don't think she'll try "jdate.com" again anytime soon, because she's feeling a little burned by this experience!

Megan, who has to be the best friend in the known universe, took a long walk with Amalia last night and I think they were planning to do another one tonight. Plus drink some wine. And maybe curse men in general.

If only I could afford to have her fly home for a few days...but in these situations, even a mom and dad might not be able to really help. A heartbreak just has to have time to heal.

But I so admire her strength and .... she's just such a trooper!

My neck and shoulders are aching, and I think I will go to bed. I didn't feel well at work this afternoon, and I think it was just the culmination of that achiness -- gave me a headache! Plus, I was at a very interesting and long meeting at Beth Shalom last night, then on the way home learned of Amalia's breakup on the phone. So, I didn't sleep well.

Perhaps some wine will help me, too, tonight.