Photos of the Day: Fragile Hope

 First REAL signs of spring: Friday morning at work.

SNOWDROPS!

Granted, it was about 70 degrees. In February. IN NEW YORK!

~ photos by iPhone

How I'm Spending My Christmas Vacation

 Merry Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed all the time with family and presents under your tree.

I'm taking this holiday break off from travel, sleeping in, 

doing laundry on Christmas morning, chilling, 

taking a few days off from even working from home, 

and spending it binging on vintage movies, 

Doctor Who marathons, talking to people via technology,

working on back-logged UFO crafting projects,

enjoying a stigma free Christmas dinner of pizza and beer,

and FINALLY moving furniture and trunks that 

haven't been moved in 10 years to change out a tv for a new tv. 

A tv that's been sitting on my floor since it came back from DC in AUGUST.

(EWWWW. My carpet is gross. 

Good thing I'm putting the trunks back in the exact same spots to hide it.)

 Kids, when you open time capsules from the past, you find old technology.

This is a metronome and an answering machine.

I'm keeping one and recyling the other.

Can you guess?

Enjoy YOUR break. 

I'm also spring cleaning since it's humid enough to turn the air-conditioning on.

In New York

ON CHRISTMAS WEEKEND.

Spring cleaning. In capris.

In air conditioning.

In Late DECEMBER.

What is this? 

Seattle?

2015 Classic Christmas Movie Binge:

White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney c. 1954
Thoughts:

• It's not Christmas until I watch this movie;
• I want Rosemary Clooney's dressmaker to come fit me;
• "What is Christmas with no snow?" As asked by Bing, Danny and Rosemary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH2KGboA35c&sns=tw … via YouTube;
• The mysteries of White Christmas: what happened to the General's kids that his granddaughter is living with him alone in VT w/a housekeeper?

The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant and David Niven c. 1947
Thoughts:

• One of my favorite things about this movie on VHS is the inclusion of the non-trailer. They try so hard not to spoil it.;
• "Nobody expects him to be normal. He's a bishop." Truer words were never spoken.  (Pastors' kids' humor!);
• "X sent in $15." "We had them down for $10,000." Honestly, this movie is REALLY a tale of frustrated fundraisers during a stymied capital campaign.;
• "Tell me about you." Classic relationship building technique. Though usually the solicitors are the ones crying in frustration.;
• "some horrid little brass plaque" Ha, this whole scene about naming rights, a wealthy donor, & a v. patient fundraiser ... strike a little too close to home;
• "Did you have a profitable afternoon?" "Not particularly. Did you?" Fundraisers' conversations everywhere, verbatim;
• Seriously. If Cary Grant was a solicitor for my capital campaign or other fundraising efforts, we would hit all our goals; 

Desk Set with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn c. 1957
Thoughts:

• "I have been forced to work in an atmosphere of hatred & suspicion." Ha! An angry rant of many public servants & frontline workers.; 
• The epic drunkenness and shenanigans of the company Christmas party is ... hic... Epic. Hic. Bon Voyage!  Wheee!!!;
• I love how this is basically about trained reference librarians vs IT engineers. Librarians for information literacy & authoritative sources for the win.;
• I have apartment envy for Ms. Watson's Upper East Side apartment just off 75th/Lex, esp. the built-ins for her books & her oven.;
• "Not Ms. Watson? "Well she runs it, but he's the boss." - library admin stereotypes that are hopefully changing; 
• "Maybe we're getting that air-conditioning finally." "Figures, it's November." - the librarian facility struggles endure;
• How many librarians (current, lapsed, future) watch this movie & get unrealistic impressions about office space, salaries for housing/clothes?;

Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck c. 1945
Thoughts:

• The "I'm tired" rant at the end of this is the best, esp Barbara Stanwyck's summation gestures. "In short... I'm tired!";
• "I am not in a flipping mood this morning." You tell them Elizabeth. You tell your boss to "flip" off.;
• Felix is probably my fav chef, with The Swedish Chef coming in a close second. Was Felix was the inspiration? Maybe;
• "Some people say yes. Some people say no." "What do you say?" "I am inclined to agree with them." I LOVE this conversational detour.; and
• MY Christmases in Connecticut certainly NEVER looked like this;

An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, c. 1957
Thoughts:

• What I really love the best about this movie, is that you don't even need to hear the dialogue, the non-verbal action is on point;
• "How do you get to Tomorrowland? (Tomorrowland). Close your eyes. Make a wish. And, you're there.";
• Oh no, Terry. Don't forget to look both ways before running across traffic. Something viewers shout every time we watch;
• "Everybody's doing it." "How nice for you. In your case, we'll make an exception." Quips. So many quips;
• Deborah Kerr's face when she flicks the champagne at the ladies at the bar is everything. I love the little gestures;
• and Cary Grant is just swooooony. So Swoooony;

Indiscreet with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, c. 1957
Thoughts:

• I have serious apartment envy;
• "I'm too old for this sort of evening. I always was."~ Alfred, the stick-in-the-mud brother-in-law;
• "Shall I see you to your elevator?" Past the doorman, lobbymen, the elevator operator, & live-ins = no privacy; 

Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell, c. 1958

Thoughts:

• What is with these fake New York apartments, they set up such unrealistic expectations;
• "Nothing can ever really separate us." Mame to her nephew, Patrick. Yep. That's how we all feel;
• "I lived. I gotta find out what to do now!"  ~ Agnes Gooch;
• "idiotic, cockeyed nincompoopery" has to be brought back into conversation as an insult; and
• "Yes! Live! Life's a banquet..."

What Season Is It Anyway?

 This morning from the train...

 is it March?

 It feels like March.
 

Wasn't the WINTER Solstice yesterday?

Note:

 

December 23, 2015 NY metro area. 

11:30pm, 61 degrees + 100% humidity 

I had to turn the air-conditioning on. 

~ photos by iPhone

Stop and smell the peonies

 The peonies are finally in bloom again. Why is their season so fleeting?

Forget the roses. Stop and smell the peonies.

 ~photos by iTouch

Magnolia Snowfall

I was heading up the stairs at the office, when this vision came into my view. 

Colors!

No grey!

Not monochromatic!

I think ... can it be ... Spring?

Look at this lovely bed of pretty pretty petals!

Screw the allergies! I stuck my nose deep into these and inhaled, deeply.*

I wish this was smell-o-vision!

I can't even describe it.

Nostalgia for North Carolina is one of those feelings that is triggered by magnolias.

Pretty as a picture -- wait, it is!

I should have set up a blanket and just laid back and spent the rest of the week watching the petals rain down on me.

Magnolia bloom season is so fleeting. Laying in this "snow-fall" and piles of "flakes" would have totally been worth the time-out.

* achoooo!
My eyes!
They burn!

Dang green tree haze!
~photos by iTouch

May Flowers

Spring has finally sprung:

We finally have pink petals raining down through star-burst morning suns.

We can make our sun salutations through magnolia blossoms.

 

These are the only snowing trees that we like.

  If you don't have time to be outside, bring the cherry blossoms and blooms inside to you.

 

I think we're finally cautiously optimistic that it's not going to snow again.

 

Unfortunately, the spring breezes are spreading the misery of the green haze.

Achoo.

April Snow Showers, I need May Flowers

 I am not kidding.

 What you can't see in these photos?

Is that it is snowing through the sun rays!

Enough already.

It's LATE April.

Signs of Spring?

With apologies to The Sound of Music:

 

 Raindrops on snowdrops and whistles of song birds.

These are a few of my favorite things.

 Despite the almost every other day snow-storms, Mother Nature is trying ....

~photos by iTouch

Fields of Mist

Sometimes the ghosts of the forest and of the past are closer than you think.

The seasons March on.

~ photos by iTouch

It's the Spring Equinox? Really?

I can't wait to complain about sitting in the Hot Seat!

It's the Spring Equinox and the snow - 

large, flakey, perfectly pointed, perfectly crystalline pointed - 

snow is coating everything 

again.

Honestly? While it was beautiful? 

I'm just over it.

Go home winter. You are not welcome anymore!

~photos by iTouch

Poem of the Day: Surviving Winter

Surviving Winter
It was a dandelion March
Guiltless as a new born child
Boundless as the infinite sky
Yet unfathomnable as the wild;
It was a buttercup April
With depths sweeping and wide
With many a naked flower
Having no need to hide;
It was a daffodil May
As planters come - as planters go
It was pure Springtime
In a brilliantly lit show;
It was the Vic in Victory
The overcoming of the frost
The marrying of a new season
With no seedlings lost.

By Theodora Onken
April 8, 2013

"The overcoming of the frost"

That's the mode we are in right now .. 
Trying to overcome and wait for the buttercup April and the daffodil May. 

Spring has sprung - and is Leaf-ing me behind

Despite the advertising, it would still take more than an hour here to change my mood. 

Happy hour? Ha! It's time for:

Sometimes life is sweet, sometimes life is the pits.

Flowers and herbs as far as the eye can see. 

It was a Farmers Market Thursday in the concrete jungle. 

 I am full of impatiens for the spring.

Just pretend that this is as sage as I am.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Azaleas

When you turn away from seeing me
and go,
gently, without a word, I shall send you away.

From Mount Yak in Yongbyon,
azaleas
I shall gather an armful and scatter them on your way.

Step after step away
on those flowers placed
before you, press deep, step lightly, and go

When you turn away from seeing me
and go,
thought I die, no, not a single tear shall fall.

from Korean poet Kim Sowol’s classic collection, Azaleas, translated by David R. McCann








all photos via the iTouch