July 6, 1995

THREE prosperous-looking women stepped into the new Annie Laurie Aitken Galleries of English Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the other day, and one gasped. "Look what they've done to my room!" she said. But the censure gave way to a smile as she crept closer to inspect one room's elaborately stuccoed walls. Once the dining room of a 1740's country house in Oxfordshire, the spacious chamber was for 41 years a frigid chalk white. Now it is painted a rich mottled yellow that recalls egg yolks whisked into milk. Sunny, warm and appealing, the shade is symbolic of the newly optimistic attitude of the Aitken Galleries.

AFTER a 22-year marriage that ended in divorce, Cynthia Stech says she has finally figured out how to manage love. She has a romantic interest, he has moved into her house in Kalamazoo, Mich., and that is probably how things are going to stay.

Proposals to build thousands of housing units and millions of square feet of commercial, office and industrial space in a 32-square-mile tract in the New Jersey Meadowlands made significant progress yesterday when five government agencies agreed on a draft environmental impact statement to guide development of the area over the next 20 years. The plans call for a cleanup of 27 landfills, with the $900 million cost divided among developers and various public agencies.

It was twilight in front of Durfee Hall at Yale University, home for 13 days to the Louisiana delegation to the Special Olympics, and the 103 mentally retarded athletes were winding down after a long day of competing and cheering for each other. The men's team handball squad had just lost in the final seconds to Tennessee 17-16, while the women's softball team, whose coaches had not expected to win a game, trounced Washington 13-4. And so the handball players were subdued, retreating to their beds to stare at books, listen to music and sleep. But the softball players could not stop giggling. "The angels watching over us were willing to help out," Sonya Green said.

An Atlantic City woman who was charged in April with endangering the welfare of a child and forging signatures to secure a job as a lifeguard is in trouble again. Nicyce A. Smith was arrested yesterday and charged with forging a doctor's signature so that she could work at the Greenbriar Health Care Facility. The deception was uncovered in a week and she was dismissed, the authorities said. The earlier charges are pending.