heart day

i was in the greeting card section of the store looking for valentines, and a man and woman came up and stood, one on each side of me, and started going through the cards, much like i was. suddenly the guy says “i found yours!” and a few minutes later the woman says “and i found yours!” so they stepped behind me, exchanged their cards, read them aloud, and gushed over the sentiments. then they kissed and put the cards back in the rack. i looked at them and said “that’s sweet! aren’t you buying those for each other?” and the woman says, “no, we do this every valentine’s day. we find the perfect cards for each other, trade them and read them, but we don’t buy them. we’ve been been doing it for 41 years, and look,” she says, “we saved over eight dollars just this year alone!” romantic and smart!! happy heart day to you and your valentine!

shoes x 4

it's no secret that i hate to shop, and especially for clothes. so time-consuming, and such a waste of energy when i wear the same things day after day after day. i recently spotted these shoes online, and bought the orange pair so i didn't have to drive to the mall to shop. they were inexpensive, they looked comfortable - and it turns out, they were! so i bought another pair - and then another - and yet another. i think i'm finished now, although they do have a nice white pair that would look good for summer...

selfies and shrinkage

i don't take conventional selfies. it just seems too narcissistic. also, i can never get a good picture no matter how hard i try - perhaps i'm too narcissistic! this shot is the closest thing to a selfie that i will take.

there's no place for a full length mirror in the house so i often take a self-timed photo to see how i look in new clothes or outfits that i haven't worn in a while. it sure saves asking "does this make me look fat?" when i can easily answer that question affirmatively for myself in private and in only ten seconds. 

today's "selfie" was to check the length of new jeans. they are the "short" length of the brand that i have always needed to wear and, before i put them on, they got the usual treatment for shrinkage - hot water washing and high temperature drying. but, for the first time ever, they clearly did not shrink enough. i will repeat the process again - and again if necessary - but i truly wonder if the shrinkage may be on my part and is not the fault of the pants. 

makes scents to me

a long time ago, i read that smell is a most powerful conduit in terms of memory-making - that a scent can quickly transport you back to a place, an event, or a person in your past. to that end, even though i don't wear it regularly anymore, i try to wear a spritz of my favorite perfume when i'm around the little girl. i always have. i want her to remember me.

yesterday, all my efforts paid off. while having tea with the girl, she related this story: earlier in the day, she had taken a walk through their quiet village with the little girl. at one point, the little girl stopped, sniffed the air, and said it smelled like - me! me!! eventually the girl too smelled the sweet scent, but could not identify it.

now, there was no one around, least of all me, so it wasn't the perfume. clearly, in the dead of winter, it could not be emanating from anything green and growing. woodsmoke? - i thought? i certainly hope not. i pondered this for hours before i finally came up with a feasible answer to this conundrum. i bet the smell was coming from a dryer vent behind some house. i bet the little girl thinks i smell like dryer sheets.

christmas birds of a feather

over the weekend, the little girl was here, helping to decorate the christmas tree. although there are many, many ornaments to choose from, she chose every single one that her mother had made in school or admired years ago as a child. this christmas, the tree borders on tacky, but i like it.

as i was rearranging a few tonight (to make room for the ornaments i like!) i noticed these three red birds, neatly arranged on the bottom branches. i called the little girl to ask about it. she told me yes, she put them together on purpose, because she thought it looked nice. kind of like a flock, she said.

i'm not moving a thing.

catch-up

playing catch-up tonight with blog posts from this month. photos uploaded here, notes made there, but nothing cohesive until i took the time to pull it all together tonight. i have one more post in process, one that's important to me and from june, actually. i've worked hard on half of it - i hope i can get the rest done as well. perhaps this is a new way to blog for me...catch (up) as catch can...

palm sunday

i go to mass and i get my palms for this year, flat and fresh and clean smelling. when i was a kid, i always thought palm-sunday-palms came from jerusalem since they symbolize jesus' procession into that city. at an older age, i figured jerusalem would be out of palms pretty quickly if they supplied fronds to all the catholic churches in the world so i decided they just came from the middle east somewhere. in my adult life, i just didn't question where they came from. but now, i know! on a tulip-buying trip to my local florist thursday, i found her standing at a counter covered in palm leaves, cleaning them with a white washcloth. palms come from the florist?? i asked in disbelief.  no, she said, palms come from mexico. and of course, it makes perfect sense.

dark, drizzly

it sure has been a long time since i've had to work on a sunday afternoon. i am selfishly thankful it's at least a rainy one. what i'd rather be doing on such a dreary november day: taking a nap, watching a movie, reading by the woodstove, making soup...
but i rationalize it's as good day as any to be sitting at the computer trying to organize my thoughts and write cohesively. so i turn on my mantle lights, put on my quiet playlist, make a cup of tea, and get back to work.

the big O-6.

for months, the little girl's been talking about advancing to the next age on her birthday, the fraction after her present age getting smaller and smaller by day. i've been looking at cards, trying to find a good one, a readable one, but mostly, one that references "6"! by this age, though, it seems both hallmark and america greeting have added a gender piece - the "girl" cards are pink and cursive, with fairies and princesses, while the "boy" cards are bold and blue and emblazoned with fast cars and superheroes. take out the boy reference and this is the best card i can find: the sentiment is long but decodable, the card folds in on top of itself many times, and it references six about seven times! so i doctor the card, covering boy with a trimmed yellow post-it note and writing girl. i know she'll notice, but i hope she won't mind. and i left the accompanying blue envelope in the rack and took a pink one from behind a fairy card.

win-win situation

i love t-ball. it's such a civilized game. everybody plays. everybody's at bat until they hit. everyone runs the bases and comes home. players take turns pitching and catching and everyone has a turn in those positions. the coaches are patient and encouraging. the crowd roots for both teams. there's no score. and when the game is over and it's time to go home, each team gives a cheer to their opponents before players high-five each other.  no better team sport than that!

picking crab

picking crab is certainly not what i thought it would be. it's not choosing a crab - it's picking the meat out of the shell. i've picked lobster a lot and thought it couldn't be all that different. but i was wrong.

first of all, the implements are different. no nutcracker for this job - the tools of the trade are beach rocks and vices and hammers! these crab shells were so much harder than even the hardest shell lobster. the meat was in the same place - in the legs, the claws, and the bodies. but crabs are so much smaller than lobsters, and the amount of meat you have to work for is minuscule in comparison to the amount you get from a lobster. and it takes so long! the shells are the same hue as the meat so it's easy to get small hard remnants mixed in with the collected meat. crunch!

before we even began the task, i watched this video of a woman from downeast maine who was skilled at picking crab. she made it look so easy and painless! but it was very difficult and no fun. the small amount of meat, as tasty as it was, was not worth the aggravation.

i think if folks from small northern maine fishing villages ever go to hell, picking crab is what they must have to do for eternity. in my humble opinion.

pea soup persuasion

the weekend after easter, the holiday dinner leftovers are gone, and all that's left are scrappy ham remnants and the bone. time for pea soup in my biggest pot. the girl's hubby will want some, and goodness knows i do. we wait for this all year! but, with my mother gone and my sole pea soup colleague having moved on, i know i am making much too much for just the two of us.

the girl arrives and brings the little girl. since she lately admits to liking peas, we are hopeful that this is the year the little girl will join the pea soup club. to set the example, i devour a small bowl in her presence, smacking my lips while i extol its creamy goodness. when i offer some, she says she wants only a "no-thank-you-taste" on the smallest spoon i have. i suggest she close her eyes, afraid the green color may scare her off. she does, but at the last moment, she pulls away - and i have lost.

i send the girl home with a heaping container of the soup. i'm hopeful the little girl's father will have more success with her than i did. if not, there's always the freezer - or all the more pea soup for him and for me.

shrove tuesday

pancakes for shrove tuesday dinner. overindulgence, i suppose, 

but i was neither in the mood nor in the area for mardi gras.

sitting out

a late night tonight at work and i arrived home well after dark. the evening was starlit and cold, the still, brisk sort of cold that permeates lungs, clears the mind, and eases the soul. so instead of making dinner, instead of checking email and voicemail, instead of starting homework or housework or coursework, i stayed outside. i sat outside, in the night. and for a good long time.

ringing out the old...

ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

the flying cloud, the frosty light;

the year is dying in the night;

ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

ring out the old, ring in the new,

ring, happy bells, across the snow:

the year is going, let him go;

ring out the false, ring in the true.

ring out the grief that saps the mind,

for those that here we see no more,

ring out the feud of rich and poor,

ring in redress to all mankind.

ring out a slowly dying cause,

and ancient forms of party strife;

ring in the nobler modes of life,

with sweeter manners, purer laws.

ring out the want, the care, the sin,

the faithless coldness of the times;

ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,

but ring the fuller minstrel in.

ring out false pride in place and blood,

the civic slander and the spite;

ring in the love of truth and right,

ring in the common love of good.

ring out old shapes of foul disease,

ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

ring out the thousand wars of old,

ring in the thousand years of peace.

ring in the valiant man and free,

the larger heart the kindlier hand;

ring out the darkness of the land,

ring in the Christ that is to be.

alfred, lord tennyson, 1850.

ice storm

the second best place to be during a surprise ice storm is behind a sander. the first best place to be during such a storm is home, which is where i now am and am happy to be.

t-day prep

i start in august, i really do. all the cleaning and organizing needs to be done by thanksgiving, so that i can enjoy all the things i love about this holiday. i try to plan ahead, even bake ahead, but i am never quite where i want to be this, the week of thanksgiving. curtains hang in the windows, covering them, waiting for me to hang new hooks to pull them back. windows are washed inside and out - but not the bedroom ones. i have a cabinet yet to paint and then fill with the contents of the old cabinet, which are piled haphazardly in, of all places, the guest room. to add to the stress, i am in week four of a six week online course.

in the end, all i can do is laugh, pin back the curtains with twine, close the bedroom doors, and get my homework done. i'm so excited that thanksgiving's coming.

ticket to ride

brilliant sunshine after a week of rain, driving home earlyish on a friday afternoon, singing along to twenty-nine of the beatles greatest hits on the ipod. what could be better?

recycling

i know how important it is to recycle, even when you're off on vacation. but is it ethical to transport recyclable items across state lines??? i'd been turning that around in my mind today... but fortunately the attendants at my transfer station did not care. as i was driving away, it occurred to me they probably thought i drank all those beverages myself!

summer's day

still i am finishing up work. but today was too beautiful a day to do anything but be outside in the sunshine with the little girl. some of the day's discoveries: an earthworm on the biggest rock in the path, a lone butterfly wing, and some rogue lettuce sprouting in the grass far, far from the garden. 

 and the perfect afternoon for  a swing in the shade.