Musings
-
Under the Table
No, not drinking someone under the table. Napping under the table. When I was a kid, I loved to nap. I still love to nap. Now, my favorite napping place is on my sofa with my cozy napping blanket, or maybe on my bed. But when I was a kid, I loved to nap under things. Especially under tables. It felt so cozy, like a little cave, and if there were a party going on, I could hear the adults laughing and talking, and just soak it up until I dozed off. I know, I’m weird. I once fell asleep under a piano on a river boat*, and didn’t wake…
-
Phobia
(absolutely perfect graphic found here) I don’t have a lot of phobias, I don’t think. I’m not excited about the idea of hanging out in an extremely crowded place with a lot of pushy strangers, but I can handle it. I don’t love finding a spider struggling to get out of my shower, but I can handle it. I’m not thrilled with Ferris wheels, but I wouldn’t say I have a fear of heights. I’ve been to the top of the Empire State Building, and it didn’t freak me out in the least. One fear I do have, however, is sleeping on a ground floor with the window open. You…
-
Giving Tuesday
The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, the day when retailers hope to move from being in the red to being in the black. It has also become a day when shoppers go forth, hoping to find great deals, either for their Christmas and Hanukkah shopping, or perhaps for themselves. There is also Small Business Saturday, when shoppers are encouraged to frequent small, locally owned businesses, rather than the big box stores that are so popular on Black Friday. Yesterday was Cyber Monday, when shoppers go online and shop while they’re supposed to be working. A person can supposedly get really good deals on this particular Monday, though I find…
-
Grandma Weekend
This is my Grandma and my cousin’s daughter, Julia, last year Thanksgiving Day was a lovely day of fun, family, and wonderful food, as it should be. It also brought the disquieting news that my Grandma, my mom’s mom, had fallen pretty hard and broken her wrist, and was in the hospital. Blech. So Friday I drove to Stockton to see her, to verify with my own eyes that she was OK, to try to find out what was going on. The news was not good. And sitting in a hospital is rarely fun. You wait and wait and wait all day for someone to come and tell you what…
-
Rereading ‘Gone With The Wind’
The story of Scarlett O’Hara and the ruin of the south is so tied in with the film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel, “Gone With The Wind“, that if you’ve seen the film, it’s difficult to separate the two in your mind. I first read “Gone With the Wind” in the 8th grade, and the love triangle between Scarlett, Ashley, and Rhett absorbed me completely. I’ve read the book so many times since that I can open it at any page and know what’s going on, just by reading one sentence. It’s one of those books. I was thinking about it recently, however, and I realized that I’ve only read…
-
Cotogna
photo mix found on the Contogna website Yesterday found me taking BART into the City to meet my dear friend MAS for luncheon, at a lovely restaurant that I hadn’t tried before, Cotogna. Turns out, they are the sister restaurant to Quince, which inhabits the space once occupied by Myth, a restaurant that Ted and I happened upon one night several years ago. It was the kind of lunch that Ladies of Leisure enjoy…we had appetizers, potato gnocchi with castelmagno cheese, wine (I had wine, MAS had sparkling water), veggies, and a delicious apple-quince crostata with vanilla ice cream (seen in the picture there). We lingered for well over 3…
-
Pomegranate Love
I adore pomegranates, but truth be told, I seldom buy them. They’re expensive, $2.50 or more each, and they’re a lot of work. While I’m at the store I might think, “Sure, I’ll de-seed it, and we can snack on the seeds, or I can put them in a salad, or whatever…” But then, the expensive fruit ends up just sitting there, not getting eaten, because none of us obtain the wherewithal to deal with them. Until now. On Saturday, Ted and I went into San Francisco in search of some specific walnuts to make a walnut pie for Thanksgiving (Franquette, which are rumored to have the best walnut flavor)…
-
Time Off
I have this week off from work. My company doesn’t allow us to accrue a lot of time (120 hours), and yet I’ve been there over 11 years, so I accrue quickly. When an opportunity comes up to take a few days off, especially if I can time it with a break for Maya, and holidays, I’m happy to do it. I have another week off for Christmas. So this week, I’m trying to think of what to do with myself. Ted has to work several days at least. He’s working as an independent contractor right now, which means, when he doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid. Blech. Maya has…
-
Wordless Wednesday
-
Veterans Day
Take a moment to thank all of the Veterans this Veterans’ Day, for their patriotism and service. There is a sad, lovely poem written during the First World War, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and surgeon, after he witnessed the death of a friend. Lieutenant Colonel McCrae died of pneumonia during the war, in 1918. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now…
-
Heartsick
I’m a volunteer driver for our local Meals on Wheels, which means that one day a week, I take a long lunch (thanks to my kind company, that agree that I’m adult and if I can get my work done, they don’t mind me doing this…in fact, they encourage it), drive to the Senior Center, pick up 16 meals, and drive them to senior citizens who are on fixed budgets and are unable to get out and shop for themselves, or are unable to cook, or both. They are in varying degrees of need, but I don’t think anyone goes on Meals-on-Wheels unless they are needing some assistance. I started…
-
Cindy Sherman
This last Monday was the final day of the Cindy Sherman exhibit at the SFMOMA. I’ve been wanting to go for a few months now, but finally we hit a day that worked for all of us. If you’re not familiar with Cindy Sherman, she is an artist who explores identity through photography. She does the makeup, lighting, modeling, clothing, background, all of it. She is the photographer and the subject. The earliest works on display were from the 1970s, and the most current were very recent. I really liked the exhibit. I liked how DIFFERENT all of these identities were, and yet how you could tell so much about…
-
The Netflix Dress
When I was in High School, the Homecoming dance was Friday night, after the game. We were all super casual, (except of course for the Homecoming Royalty), and we danced in the gym and had a great time. Fast forward to the year 2012, and the Homecoming game is still on Friday (LL 24, D 8…Maya goes to LL, so this is a good thing), but the dance is on Saturday, and the kids get MUCH more dressed up. Not prom formal, but certainly the girls wear what I would call a cocktail dress. The boys wear jeans and polo type shirts, mostly. I wonder if the guys ever do…
-
Saturday in San Francisco
Here’s Ted, looking handsome and showing off the beauty that is San Francisco in October. Seriously, if you ever decide to come to SF, come in October. It’s the best weather of the year. Yesterday we went in to San Francisco for a few hours. SF was hopping, with people coming in to see the Blue Angels put on their admittedly fun show of money wasting bravado, the Giants were playing the Reds (go Giants! (stupid Reds won, drats!)), and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park. Ted has a gig coming up, directing and editing a show for a local TV station, Fresh From the Farmers’ Market, which…
-
A Recommendation…
(picture found here) Ted’s doing a radio/video show called American Liberal, on TRadioV.com, and at the end of the show, they (he and his co-host) give a recommendation…sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s an album, sometimes it’s a life thing. This last episode, Ted recommended an overnight getaway. I agree wholeheartedly. Maya went to Los Angeles (Orange, actually) last week, and Ted and I had 4 days together in between her leaving and coming back. She had fun with her cousin, went to look at some colleges, went to the beach and looked at the Stars on the Hollywood walk of fame. While she was gone, Ted and I did…