It’s been an eventful past few days. The action began on Thursday when I went to the doctor to have my four sets of stitches removed. (Yes, it hurt, but really only the first set - though that hurt enough for all four, I think.)

Friday, thankfully, was less painful, as I went to the Metropolitan Opera to attend that evening’s performance of Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lacouvreur – an opera based on the life of a famed 18th Century actress who carried on a long affair with the Count of Saxony (apparently a rather extraordinary fellow in his own right) and who died under mysterious circumstances at a fairly young age. Cilea wasn’t a great composer like Verdi or Puccini, so while this isn’t a great work, it certainly is a good one and I enjoyed it. I do have a ticket to see one by Puccini this week.

Despite getting home around one in the morning Friday night, Saturday was a full day, beginning with a trip to the dentist. Next was a trip to Manhattan, which began with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today’s the final day for a special exhibition regarding art and love in the Italian Renaissance, and I wanted to see it before it closed. It included some famous artworks from European collections which I’d only seen in books, so it was definitely worth the trip.

Just as much a reason for visiting the museum was the opportunity to have lunch there with Stephen Haynes, who was visiting New York for a few days. It had been several years since I’d had a chance to meet with him, so it was good to see him again and talk about photography and other things. I hope we can do it again.

After lunching with Stephen and seeing the exhibition, I headed downtown to do some photographic stuff: I saw the photos on display that will be auctioned at the Swann Galleries this week, stopped off at the Staley-Wise Gallery to see the current show of Mary Ellen Mark photos and then picked up some photo supplies at K&M Camera in Tribeca.

Yesterday, on the other hand, was spent at home and I got a lot done. I developed nine rolls of film, filed a dozen other rolls, bought airline tickets for my next big trip and still had time to watch a movie and two episodes of The Honeymooners. I often get upset with myself for wasting time doing unimportant stuff (like surfing the web), but yesterday showed just how much one can get done by sticking to the plan.

So far today I’ve developed six rolls and may be able to do another three before it’s over. If I can do that, it’ll take me into September of last year, and the 40 rolls I still have to develop from my trip to the Community Zoe get-together in California. That’s a major task, but if I stick to the plan, it will get done. It’ll be just a matter of time and effort.