The Toni Harp inauguration was too crowded. A polite crowded, but crowded nonetheless. We left early, with0ut even making it into the auditorium. Who even needs the post- ceremony reception when you’ve been up late the previous night eating cheesy snacks and watching 42nd Street?

Mabel and I wandered downtown instead. We finally found a CR1616 watch battery I’d been hunting for days. Also bought a can of silly string, and had a brief string battle on York street.

Most everything downtown was closed. Claire’s was open, with Claire herself working behind the counter. We told her that her place was one of the few open.

“Well, the chains are, aren’t they?”

” yes. We were at Walgreen’s.”

Oh. She meant Panera, and Starbucks.

“We don’t even notice those places, Claire. They’re invisible to us.”

Nothing like a Claire’s Mexican spiced cocoa on a wintry New Haven Wednesday.

Happy 2014.