“First the bees left the hive. Then I washed my hair. Those were the two exciting events of my day.”
— Greta Garbo in Camille (1936)
My week was more exciting that Greta Garbo’s day in the country, but like hers, it was punctuated with specific events that left an impression:
1) Now we all know my home could be described as Polly’s in Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate: “. . . her household arrangements were casual to the verge of chaos.” Since 2003 I’ve had some beautiful Oriental rugs that belonged to my grandmother, but I have not stewarded them as well as they deserve. Wednesday the Nice Men from the Rug Company came to collect them for cleaning, which involved a lot of furniture moving. Until they are returned a month or so from now, I’ll be getting reacquainted with my wood floors.
2) Wednesday night I saw the BLO’s new production of I Pagliacci, which I had never seen staged before. I especially sought this out because they chose to stage it very differently; instead of pairing it with Cavalleria Rusticana in a theatre, as is typical, they converted an ice rink into a circus tent set in a fairground. You spent an hour-ish in the fairgrounds playing games of chance and watching acrobats and clowns do their stuff (and talking over the community chorus singing church music, the only off-topic element of the evening), and then entered the big top. A one-ring circus in a tent of blue and orange stripes, the orchestra was squashed into a pie shape behind the round stage. At the beginning I was startled by two things: a) the opera was sung in English and I was expecting Italian, and b) the costumes were all modern dress. After reflection though, the decisions were entirely right - and the evening was riveting.
3) Thursday evening I attended the HistoryMaker Awards, now at the St. Botolph Club. An evening to see old friends and make new ones - and to reflect on the future in an atmosphere of the past.
4) Friday I met a Friend of Noted Opinion for lunch in Back Bay - mighty good talk, mighty good talk! Afterward we passed the time shopping, and I was surprised to find myself picking up a sweater and house shoes for the coming winter. For all my love of Bold, Uncompromising Color, one of my very favorite colors is pale grey, and these new things absolutely delighted me.
5) The impending close of Doyle’s . . . I ignore it, but I can’t escape it. Yesterday I noticed that the October placemat pretty much acknowledges that they won’t make it to November.
