My latest test results were normal. I don’t know how I can have a daily ague plus low-grade fever, sick, dizzy headache with shaky balance in the mornings, a now-and then sore throat, random day-long pain that shifts around, extreme fatigue, and it hangs on and on and my doctor has no suggestions.

My gtf, Nadine, gave me a referral to an allergist and I have an appointment next week. There is a possibility that I have a mold or other kind of sinus infection that doesn’t show up in the blood.

On idle matters, I bought Granny Smith apples last week. I hope I get to make the recipe from Fredo before they go bad. I have not had the energy to do it.

And tonight on CSI New York with Gary Sinise, the story was about a bunch of college kids who had to perform a lot of scavenger hunt type tasks involving cemeteries to get into a fraternity. The pledge master happens onto a cemetery scam – it’s late at night and people are moving bodies – and he is killed to shut him up. One of the tasks is that two of the pledges have to find a third, who the pledge master had put into a crypt. With him dead, no one knows where the kid is. They do find him and I was tickled to see they used the Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue in lower Manhattan, built in 1831 – it is a block north of my former loft. There is a wrought iron gate and an alley tucked between two tenements. The alley leads to the open space of the cemetery, surrounded by New York, low-end apartment buildings. You can walk past the gate without ever noticing what lies beyond. There are underground catacombs linking it to a Catholic church a very long cross-town block away on First Avenue. There was a major city-planned renovation of the area in the late 60s and it foundered precisely because of the existence of this cemetery. I was pleased to get a look beyond the gate since I had never been in it. Manhattan has got to be one of the most intriguing places on the planet (along with old cities of Europe, of course).

The neighborhood of my loft was selected several times for movie locations. A movie with Jan Sterling (remember her?) was shot on 2nd Street around the corner from my loft. I would leave for work in the mornings and thread my way through the equipment on my way to the Broadway-Lafayette subway station. I’d put on my sunglasses and announce to Jay that I was sure the director would shout “Wait! Stop that girl!” and a star would be born.

xx, Teal