blood – Mitchell's thoughts, photos, etc.

The Match is Set. Or is it?

Alana, Anat, and Marc were hanging out at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in St. George. Why did they choose to hang there? They loved Staten Island. They felt it was exotic.

Jay was on the incoming Newhouse boat. Christy A. was across the street from the terminal near Staten Island Borough Hall. She was relatively calm for herself. She had a couple of slices at the nearby pizza place. She quenched her thirst with water.

The boat docked, and the passengers got off. Some walked around to the section for the NYC-bound boats. Several headed to Empire Outlets, the bus stops, or the Staten Island Railway. It was a weekend. So, it was not running express. The fact that it was running at all is a shocker.

Christy was heading towards Empire Outlets. Jay was approaching the Old Navy outlet. His cousin was also approaching it. The good heroes split up. But were in sight of each other.

All of a sudden, glass was flying everywhere. Pieces of moldy bread were knocking it down. Some missed, and the glass hit people. Alana, Anat and Marc furiously texted each other. They wanted to wait before they jumped in. But didn’t want to see people get hurt.

Sadly, a piece of glass hit a little girl in the face. She started bleeding. She screamed. Her mother held her and started pressing herself against her to stop the bleeding. As she squeezed her child tighter, a piece of bread smacked her in the left eye. She fell.

The three had enough. Anat was standing on top of the roof of the Gap Outlet store. Dried fruit was deflecting the glass and bread. Alana raced out of the front door of the Guess outlet and began flooding the area with wine. From the Hagen Dazs store, pomegranates were flying. One nailed Christy A. in the head. Jay fell in a pool of wine. Christy tripped over a few raisins.

Apple seeds hit Jay in the eyes. Barley landed in his mouth. Apricots smacked Christy in the eyes. Some wound up in her nose. People were running to get away. Many jumped onto the departing Senator John J. Marchi boat. Pretty soon only the fighters were at Empire Outlets—those who didn’t get away sheltered in the stores. Anat jumped off the roof. As she landed, she kicked Jay in the head with her Timberlands. Marc pounced on Christy and poked her eyes with pomegranates. Alana kept the wine flowing.

Should They Have Called Me?

Do I Care?

About a week ago, the USA celebrated its 250th Anniversary. I remember the 200th. My dad and I watched the Tall Ships Parade by the South Street Seaport. I was very young. But have memories of it. Some of my soon-to-be summer camp friends were at Liberty Island, and a phrase that would become famous at camp was uttered for the first time.

I am sure in ’76 and this year, many went to BBQs and the beach and watched fireworks. I always enjoyed watching the fireworks. I was hardly allowed to light any. Once in a while, I snuck in a bottle rocket.

I wanted to watch this year’s fireworks. But I had my own fireworks. I spent it in the ER. I went in the early evening and was discharged shortly after midnight. I am fine. But did experience some discomfort for three or four days after I saw the doctor. He said all is well, told me what to watch for over the next few days, and to schedule a follow-up.

I actually had an appointment to see him in August for a routine follow-up. We kept that date. I jumped into an Uber, went home and saw Paul Simon at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. I am fine.

During the few days of discomfort, I stayed home. I only ventured outside once to go to the bank and get some vegetables and whatever other food I forgot to order from Fresh Direct. I did what I needed to do.

I am involved in many organizations and chair one of them. In the case of all of them, I am doing things for and with them both at their respective venues or online almost daily. I kept my online presence up. But that’s only posting to social media and maybe sending out an email or two. That’s for one org. The other all takes place at the venue.

I am fairly private with many things. Of course, my mom knew what was going on. She told my sister. I only told three or four people that I went to the ER. Some I told while I was there. Some of the next day. I even spoke to one of them while they were drawing blood. Well, maybe not at that exact time. But close enough. He had called me as I was walking to the hospital. I wound up butt-dialing him from the ER. We had a few good laughs about our crazy group and my situation.

As for the other place, not one person reached out while I was MIA. I contribute financially and do other things. In the old days, the leaders, one of whom passed away in 2020 and the other of whom moved in 2024, would have called to ask where I was. If I told them I was not feeling well, they would have sent over food and asked if I needed anyone to run to CVS to pick up medications. Those days are done.

A few days ago, I was back. One of the leaders said, “Where were you?” I said I wasn’t feeling well. They said everyone was concerned because you weren’t here. I said, well, you could have called, texted, LinkedIn, Snapped, Facebooked, etc. With a laugh, he said, nah. Not us. The next day, I was back. Several people asked the same question. I went through the same situation I did the night before and received the same response.

Should they have reached out? I don’t know. Within their clique, they reach out to each other 24/7. Does it make a difference to me that no one had the decency to check in? Not at all. I didn’t expect it. And I am strong enough to know it’s not a slight. It’s life.

Anat Relaxes

Anat was seated on the couch in her Upper East Side penthouse, thinking about giving birth. She knows she’s a little older than most pregnant moms. That didn’t scare her. She was thinking about her grandmother. Whether the baby was a boy or a girl, it would be named in her grandma’s memory. Once again, she thought about how her grandmother got her hooked on dried fruit. Especially raisins. She remembered when she returned to Stanford after the funeral, and a platter of it was waiting in her room from her grandma. Obviously, it was sent before she had that awful fall. Anat was dreaming about when she rubbed the fruit all over herself. But she also thought back to her younger years.

She remembered eating dates with her grandmother on Rosh Hashanah. Her grandmother came to the US from Israel a few years before her daughter and son-in-law, Anat’s parents did. Grandma quickly assimilated. Her kids did not. She wasn’t surprised. Anat remembered when her grandmother asked her to eat the dates and say a blessing. She did and ate some raisins, too. She loved raisins. On another note, Marc had a friend who was into raisins. But for different reasons. He also had a friend who was into reasons. That’s another story.

Back to Anat. She munched on raisins all the time as a little girl. One day, she almost choked on them. She coughed it out and was fine. She was a little scared. She had some water. She heard her parents fighting in their bedroom. They were loud as usual. She went to her front stoop and sat. She was feeling better. She saw a few little girls skipping. She wanted to be friends with them. But they shut her out. She started breathing heavily, and her throat felt weird. She fell down the steps off the stoop. No one saw her. She skinned her knees. She got up and, opened her hands, and reopened her eyes which closed when she fell. She felt her hands feeling thick and weird. They were red and bleeding. She went to the hose to wash her bloodied hands and knees. She cried when the water was turned off. She decided she would go into the kitchen to clean up. As she walked up the steps, she opened her hand on the doorknob and noticed her hand was discolored, probably from the fall. She shut her eyes and squeezed her hands. When she opened them, raisins and dates flew out. She was confused. She went into her kitchen and washed her hands.

Over the next few weeks, the dried fruit continued to appear. Anat learned how to shoot them as projectiles.

Jay’s New Woman

Jay was tired of being beaten by Alana, Anat and Marc. To add a bigger insult, his kid, Jerry, was now beating him up. Jerry is only in first grade at the Dwight School. Jay knew Diane was cleaning herself up and wanted nothing to do with him.

Jay decided to go to church one day. Diane was heading back to shul. She was taking everything slow. Jay liked some new woman—a goth chic. Anat and Alana are as goth as it gets. Marc floats between that and his Brooks Brothers, Lacoste, and Ralph Lauren classic prep look. Musically, the superheroes are all on the same beat. Jay’s a metalhead. We know Anat went to Stanford and loved Mike Mussina.

Jay and Kari, his new chic, were fighting. The two of them are cut out for each other. Both are super dumb. The two were getting high on the beach. Someone told them to leave. Jay wanted to be tough in front of Kari. He fired glass at the guy who wanted him to get away. Jay was laughing as he was beating this poor man down. Kari was laughing so hard. Her fat belly shook. Her piercings were shaking.

The man was in a lot of pain. Jay wouldn’t let up. All of a sudden, Jay was drenched in merlot and Chenin blanc. Alana was running on the boardwalk and heard the man’s screams. She looked over towards the ocean and saw what was happening. Alana was angry. She hates it when people break up runs. She worked hard at staying in her perfect shape.

Jay shot glass at Alana. Kari was goading her guy on. She thought he was cool. Kari was so stoned she had no idea what he was doing. She saw Alana run down to the beach and tried to trip her. Big mistake. Alana belted her with figs. She fell on her fat butt.

Meanwhile, Jay was ready to fire broken glass at Alana’s face. He wanted to see her black lipstick and eyeliner turn red and blood flow all over her Joy Divions top and shorts. Glass exploded from Jay’s fingers. Alana saw it coming, shot Malbec at it, and knocked it back into Jay. Guess who turned blood red?