Music, baseball caps, clapping.

WQXR said Richard Goode was offering a free piano recital at 5.00 p.m. today at Town Hall, so after the Sunday housework was done -- laundry, mopping, cooking -- I got dressed and ran for the train. Soheila called as I was high-tailing it to the PATH and asked where I was going and with whom. I told her concert with nobody, because it was spur of the moment.

I got there early, so I had time to go to the Mets Clubhouse around the corner to buy myself a size-S baseball cap. I wore it straight out of the shop, because it was chilly and I needed something to cover my head. I thought it looked cute, as well as being highly appropriate since the Mets beat the Braves 6-3 this afternoon.

The cap is bright blue with NYM embroidered in shocking orange in the front. When I got to the recital hall, I debated whether or not to keep it on because, by that time, I was smitten with myself looking so hot. So I kept wearing it. I told myself that I was a girl, and girls are not obliged to remove hats when indoors, unlike guys (but when the pianist took the stage, I took it off -- I decided it was disrespectful).

Goode was good. The programme was similar to the one he gave in London in February: an homage to Chopin, with a lead-in by Bach, Chopin's (sort-of) idol, with a bit of Debussy and Beethoven for contrast. The Beethoven he chose was the Moonlight Sonata, which has the peculiar effect of putting me to sleep. Not because it's boring, but because it's hypnotic. It's even more hypnotic when you're hearing it live; I feel as if the pianist is stroking my hair. At one point, I forced my eyes open and saw that several members of the audience were also dozing off.

Some observations: When he first began playing Bach's Four Sinfonias, the grey-haired couple to my left glanced at each other and chuckled. Guess the music had special meaning for them. When he played his final piece -- Chopin's Polonaise Op. 44 -- the French couple sitting on the aisle in the row ahead of me shot each other a disparaging look. I guess they weren't impressed. When it was over, the rest of the room burst into a raucous applause with some people giving him a standing ovation, but the French couple did not clap. Then he played an encore -- some sort of nocturne I didn't recognize, but which I thought was sweet and moving. And then the French couple did clap.

I clapped at everything. I was there to enjoy the crowd, the music and New York, which I don't do enough of. I had a nice time; I'll miss it when I'm gone.