Happy New Year from Kaldenberg Place

Back home, and back to school.

As anyone who is even peripherally involved with kids knows, THIS is the start of the new year, not that other, more famous day in dreary January. I think it's even more ripe for resolutions that stick.

A few of mine:
work by 8, sleep by 10
do these things every day: walk, knit, read,write, practice bass
which leads to : leave some mess to be cleaned up some other time
These are lofty goals for me, but I will try.

First day started out early, and smoothly, until a last-minute meltdown by, well...might have been me. They looked adorable, and way too old to be my little girls. By the time I let them drop my hand and go into their respective schools, they had smiles on, if nervous ones. Leaving my 12 year old at the steps of what once was the big bad high school of my very own youth was a far more bittersweet moment than even the one at the bus stop, first day of kindergarten(way back when).


Which left me home with a three year old, looking for fun. She found it in the form of watercoloring a good portion of the kitchen floor, basement door, birthday invite, stools from Ikea, and...herself. Which led to an unscheduled early morning bath and the much cleaner, albeit mom-intensive activity of pulling up/off and scrubbing clean the 5 carrots and 12 grape tomatoes that the deer left us. The price one pays for 20 minutes online.

So this afternoon the afterschool masses will converge on Tarrytown, flooding the streets with backpacks and Lollipop allowances and texting pre-teens...mine among them. I will try to stay out of their way but can't wait to get downtown myself to see how much progress has been made on the exciting new ventures on Main Street. When we left for Maine there were: new windows at David Starkey's soon- to- open restaurant, Sweet Grass Grill; a great new wood door on the soon-to-be Lubins & Links going in the former Pretty Funny space; and an amazing job had been done to renovate and restore the original beauty of the space now occupied by Tappan Z Gallery. Maybe now that we have another gallery in town, people will start to flock here for the art. Could happen!

So, Happy New Year to all you kids and parents and teachers and adMinistrators and on and on...
Signing off for now from perhaps the new Chelsea (or is it the new Williamsburg?); thanks for reading.
tt