The Metaphorical Magpie

New digs

2006-08-01T00:55:00.000-04:00

geranium boxes, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a new and improved blog was on the way. It has finally arrived. Please point your browsers to http://www.themetaphoricalmagpie.com/.

I'm very excited about the new design, courtesy of Sweets, and having my own domain name. I hope you'll take the time to join me there in the future.

A hearty thank you to all of you who stopped here at my blogspot site for the past two years. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of you taking time out of your days to peek into my nest.

XoXo
Madamoiselle Magpie

I'm just swell

2006-07-28T11:30:00.000-04:00

Or swollen really. According to my doctor. Poking his finger into my leg and booty, I was squealing. He sent me off to the hospital for an immediate ultrasound of my leg yesterday fearing I had a reoccurence of a clot. That test came out negative. I'm relieved about that. Who wants to spend a week in the hospital hooked up to an IV of Heparin followed by weeks of bed rest and months of blood thinnners? Been there done that. Evidently, I've got serveral kinds of inflammation going on. He mentioned bursitis and another kind I didn't catch the name of as he shooed me out the door to get the test done. I'm supposed to do a round of an anti inflammatory to clear things up. Of, course the pharmacy didn't have it in stock so I have to wait until after work tonight to pick it up. Last time I was at the chiropracter, I noticed a article posted on the bulletin board about artificial sweeteners being to blame for chronic inflammation, asthma and other conditions. Aspartame feels like poison to me so I don't eat it. But Splenda is another story. I carry my trusty little yellow packets with me everywhere I go. I'm considering giving it up. Although, if I do it while I'm on the medicine I won't know if that is the culprit. Sweets is in production this week for the magazine he art directs. So I had dinner alone and lounged around in the evening. When he came home, he worked on the map of Philadelphia he's designing for the next issue. I made a card. We're a funny pair. Both creative but totally on different planes. I'm at my desk like a little kid with my bucket of various scissors and glue sticks. He's at his rocking his Mac. It's so nice to be able to work in the same space together. The studio has become our favorite room in the house.

The body strikes back

2006-07-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

I've been dreaming of having some time off. Relaxation is so rare. We're working on a trip to California in the fall. I'm hoping for some girly day trips with the bad girl posse before then. Today, I find myself unexpectedly at home. In pain. For days, my lower back and hip have hurt. I tried a muscle relaxer and Aleve with minimal relief. Yesterday, I called to make an appointment for tomorrow morning. Last night, I was up from 3 to 7 am unable to sleep. There is pain radiating from the small of my back that wraps around my hip to my groin. My leg feels tender and inflamed. Even my foot hurts. While I was up, I was finally able to catch up on the last three episodes of the ER season. (Wow. that season finale really packed in the drama, huh?) I'm wiped out today. I feel best laying on my stomach. Not much I can really do from that vantage point. Hopefully, the doctor's office can squeeze me in this afternoon. The hypochondriac in me is raging full force. WebMD hints at Sciatica? Rheumatoid Arthritis? This isn't a new pain for me. When I thought about it this week, I can remember having flare ups like this on a monthly basis for the past five years. Once you have a pain, it's easy to accept it and carry it with you. Sweets is a few years younger than I am. He's almost always feeling good. I feel like an old lady with a trick hip, a blood clotting disorder and more. This week I realized I'm tired of being in pain. So, after three days of putting it off I called the doctor. And now my body is telling me, I've probably put myself off for too long.

Self portrait as ... hydrangea

2006-07-25T11:54:00.000-04:00

as hydrangea, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I had so many ideas for the Self Portrait Challenge this month. It's such a drag that time was so scarce. The day I shot this, I planned to do a self portrait as... Yulia Tymoshenko. Although, I'd hazard a guess that most people aren't as up on Ukranian politics as I have to be as a journalist. Yulia is one of those girl crushes I get every once in a while. During the rise of President Victor Yushchenko, Yulia was always at his side. Looking as if she stoicly bore the load, never faltering, as his looked grim and pale. Today, she's a force to be reckoned with as a paliament leader in Ukraine, disarming with her girlish hairstyle, pearls and peter pan collars. I love the juxtaposition of power and femininity.

Anyway, back to the point. i got my hair all braided up, grabbed my camera along with all my work things and ran out into the garden for a quick photo shoot before work. And suddenly, my shoot morphed into me being a hydrangea instead. One of my favorite flowers, I feel a kinship to them. Not tolerant of full sun, easily dehydrated, big blooms faceted with hundreds of subtly shaded petals. At this time of year, I will often veer from my path to admire a hydrangea in a yard or a park. There are four in my garden now and I hope to add more. A few weeks ago, a scheduling conflict prevented me from going to an open house at Heronswood at Fordhook Farms in Doylestown, PA. Luckily, you can shop online.With prices starting around $13 a plant, the value is excellent and the selection is incredible. If you have even a passing interest in hydrangeas, this site will have you all swoony and reaching for your charge card and spade.

As I write this, I am sipping coffee and nibbling on buttered cinnamon raisin toast while sitting out on the back deck. I can see two lacecap hydrangeas and monarch butterflies swirling around the yellow and purple buddleia bushes. Wish I could spend the whole day here just watching my garden grow. For an alternate version on my self portrait look here. For more from the Self Portrait Challenge gang here.

Won't you help me blow out the candles?

2006-07-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

storyland6, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday, my little Magpie.
Happy Birthday to you!

Today the Metaphorical Magpie celebrates its second birthday. My first post reported on the Siren Fest in Coney Island, my imaginings about Rhett Miller and italian ices. I went to this year's Siren Fest over the weekend.

This would be a good time to acknowledge some of the bloggers that inspired me at the beginning to start one of my own. In the beginning, there was Alex the Girl. I was quickly drawn into her world and fascinated as she posted entries that were poignant, rencanted and took them down and then did it again and again. Her European take on living in the US is always interesting. One of her most recent posts indicates she's taking a break for a while from blogging about her life and focusing on living it. An admirable pursuit, although I think she'll be back in one way another soon enough. Next came, Not Martha who taught me how to make glass magnets and gives me updates on the city I feel homesick for without ever living there, Seattle. When I first started blogging, I really didn't know what the site was going to become I thought it was going to be almost all about music. The Modern Age was just getting hot and her posts often got me aggravated. Especially when we'd been to the same shows. But I'm not about keeping up the Jones's or the scenesters that refer to themselves as "we" to sound more authoritative. So I've stuck to what I know -me -and what I like- lots of super duper nice things.

This year I joined Self Portrait Challenge which opened me up to a plethora of interesting and wonderful people. Many of them are listed in my links. The community I've found there and the blogs it leads me to continue to educate, nourish and delight me. Many thanks to those of you who stop by here and offer kind words or just take the time to pop in every once in a while to check in on me.

To celebrate my second anniversary online, I'll be launching a new and improved site. I splurged and purchased my very own domain name. Sweets has been toiling for months on a redesign. Some last minute technical difficulties are keeping us down. I had a bit of a pout fest last night when I realized all was not well. Hopefully the situation will sort itself out soon. Stay tuned for the launch.

Isn't the cake photo teriff? Believe it or not, it used to be right in my neighborhood. A theme park called Storyland Village once abutted my small neighborhood. Torn down before my time to make way for a Sears and now a Shop-Rite. More photos of Storyland are here at the Imaginary world site. There was similar park that my grandparents took me to as a child. I remember picnicing under a cake like that.

...but I don't wanna go to bed

2006-07-17T03:25:00.000-04:00

It's 3 am. I'm still wide awake and I have Mod Podge all over my fingers. The weekend has definitely made up for the ick and angst filled week. Friday night, I had some free time and ended up spending it at the grocery store. Which is really one of my favorite ways to relax. Really, it is. Did you know Jolly Time is making popcorn in marshmallow and carmel apple flavors? You can only know this stuff if you spend quality time cruising the aisles. We only needed toilet paper and baking soda. Somehow I forgot to pick up a box of baking soda. But I came home with lots of fun food. Fox's U-Bet black cherry syrup for homemade cherry cokes. The above mentioned popcorn. Mac n Cheese shaped like bugs. Ice cream cones by Joy conveniently big enough to hold a sundae. On Saturday the Bad Girl Posse (and the Good Boy) convened on Coney Island to see Siren Fest. It sprinkled rain the whole drive there and for the first few minutes we were there. Then it cleared up. Luckily it wasn't as hot as originally forecasted. We caught Tapes + Tapes, The Stills, Art Brut, and some of Scissor Sisters and Stars. I was more interested in people watching than the lineup. We split up at Nathan's to eat. Sweets and I went for hot dogs and fries. Cyndemouse and J-Po stood in the seafood line for the ENTIRE Art Brut set. Sweets and I waited in line, ate and walked around and the poor girls were still waiting. Note to Nathan's: "Get another cashier on the shrimp line. Thanks." We scored some Italian ice on the boardwalk before leaving. I mixed pistachio and spumoni. The pistachio was so good I wish I had gone just for that flavor. After the festival, we went over to Williamsburg to meet Talulah and the Divine Mr. M at Metropolitan. Then we headed home sleepily. I went to bed after 3 am last night, too. Struck with the urge to bake muffins on Sunday, I made good use of a pint of blueberries in the fridge. Sweets' mom carried a Pampered Chef stoneware muffin pan in her luggage all the way from Indiana for me when they visited last month. This was the first time I've had the chance to use it. I'm looking forward to getting it seasoned and using it alot more. During breakfast we worked on the crossword puzzle in New York magazine and read bits from the New York Times that I brought home earlier in the week. I got inspired by an article about getting rid of the grass in your front yard and planting an "edible estate" in its place. Basically, you rip out the grass and put in corn, watermelons, heirloom tomatoes or whatever gets you hungry. Our front yard is about 75 percent grass free already. We were talking just last week about redesigning so it's entirely perennial beds. Now, I'm going to think hard about tucking some veggies in there, too. The rest of the day, we spent driving around to county parks looking for... you guessed right..a wedding location. We visited four parks. And attempted another that we couldn't find the entrance for. One of them. Holmdel Park, has promise. It has a lake surrounded by weeping cherry and crabapple trees which should be in bloom in the time range we're looking to set the date. I've been really against an outdoor ceremony because of the chance of rain. This place got me excited enough to vow to buy an umbrella for every guest if it means we can have our ceremony under a canopy of cherry blossoms. We have a few more places to check out before we make the final decision. I'm hopeful we can find a spot and set the date by the end of the month. It was 96 degrees today. Driving around with the top down was super duper hot. Good thing we brought a thermos of iced tea. We had to take two tea breaks. And an ice cream stop. Then it was getting late so we grabbed dinner out. Sweets wanted fish and I was up for pizza. He had the perfect solution and steered toward 507 Main in Belmar. They have a pizza loaded with crabmeat and shrimp. We also ordered a calzone filled with pesto, shrimp and fresh mozzarella. Since I've been home, I've been working on a homemade item for a pretty bird swap with JEK. Which is why I have Mod Podge on my fingers. I also started to work on putting aside some things for the Paper Scraps swap I signed up for on Swap-Bot. I'd really like to host a swap of my own sometime soon. Until then there are plenty to keep me occupied or wishing I could play along. I've got my eye on the Bottle Swap. I may not be able to resist that one. Resisting sleep probably isn't the best plan either. So off I go to hug a dog or two and a super cute boy, too.

Worn out

2006-07-13T11:41:00.000-04:00

I've been so sleepy this week. On Monday morning, before I got out of bed, I croaked "I wish I had another day to chill out." Sweets smiled at me and said "that sounds familiar. You say that every Monday." It seems that I'm always rushing around and never have time to just relax. Have no plans or obligations. I've been feeling so envious of people with time to relax, create and enjoy themselves. Over the weekend, our neighborhood had a block party. The girl that lives across the street noted that she never seems me. It makes me sad that I don't get to spend much time at home. Work takes me out of the house for about twelve hours a day. When I get home, it's between 10 and 11 pm. Sweets has already been home for three hours and he wants to spend time with me. Of course, I do want to see him and talk about our day. It's just that I want some time to do stuff for myself, too. He gets to go to the movies, watch tv, read. I feel jipped. Carving out time for myself is my biggest struggle. On Saturday, I went to the green market in Union Square while I was in New York City. All the produce was exciting. I brought home bunches of rainbow chard, golden beets and garlic scapes. While at the market, I envisioned photographing all the produce the following morning. Then I'd cook up a delicious meal and photograph that, too. On Sunday, by the time we went to see a possible wedding location, had lunch, grocery shopped and worked in the yard, I was so pooped. We made watermelon margaritas thinking they would be refreshing. Sweets fell asleep and I ended up awake but exhausted and with a bellyache. No photo taking for me. Although, I did cook. I sauteed up some bacon with the garlic scapes and wilted the rainbow chard in the pan. The gold beets turned into a risotto. After Sweets woke up he grilled up some chicken breasts for me. There was enough leftovers to have several days of packed lunches. He's been experimenting with wraps in the evening. Best one so far had mango chutney, cheese and chicken. Today I tossed together some salads for our lunches. So, we've been eating pretty good this week. Which is not always the case. If I don't cook on the weekend, it' s not happening. I had the urge to bake the other night but it was late. How do I get more time? That is the question I need to find an answer for.

Haiku free-for-all results

2006-07-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

Entries were few this time around. I'm attributing that to the holiday week. Usually, more of my co-workers at the newspaper participate. Unfortunately, our state government was shut down for a few days over an impasse on the budget. That kept all of us extremely busy. Not the best environment for creativity. So without further ado... here are the results... in october crisp don't wear any underwear yet frost may persist Tiffany Laine De Mott Whether with ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard or salt, I like freedom fries. Michael Etz one day freedom will come home to roost inside the walls of my purple garden Amystery written in the fibonacci style. - Fancy! In the mightiest of temples the tiniest gnat flies unfettered Joel Pisetzner (also refered to as "The Editor" on this blog) The next two are both by me: Run up my freak flag I'll dance in the produce aisle Wave at onlookers Open to failure Bombing never looked so good Doing is enough The last three are all by Glenn Redus: Truths self-evident: blistered weenies on the grill lemonade, ice cream Most on July Fourth will have picnics, fireworks, sex. Me? I'll write headlines On July the Fourth our forefathers told the king to go fuck himself When I sent out the call for entries, one reply was hilarious. "I'd rather rub Haiku in my hair. No thanks." For those of you who are interested in or are new to haiku and want to know more a good site to cruise around is One Deep Breath. It gives you a weekly theme to work on. �

Just about sick of ice cream

2006-07-08T09:57:00.000-04:00

snacks, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I'm about to dash out the door, uncharacteristically early in the day. I've got a photo assignment to shoot in New York City. I took on a freelance job shooting ice cream. I've gained at least five pounds doing it. Tomorrow is my last shoot. I don't want to say too much about who the job is for yet. I want to make sure they like the photos ans they get used before I start talking. Crossing my fingers they'll be happy with what I submit.
After I'm done with the shoot, I get to spend some time with Talulah. Yeah! I'ts her birthday week. Not sure what we'll do besides put our heads together and giggle like mad.

Tomorrow Sweets and I are going to tour an old theater in our area as a possible wedding location.

Have a fun weekend.

A thought on my pillow

2006-07-07T01:28:00.000-04:00

lakecrescent, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I've extended the deadline for the haikus until Saturday. Won't you play along? Come on pretty, please. Impress me with your syllabic stylings.

My first for this round...

Open road, best friend
Stop: Listen to late night rain
Embrace this moment

I came across a new place to participate in poetry challenges today while running through blogs that participate in Self Portrait Challenge. The Poetry Thursday site posts a suggested theme on Mondays and you post a poem on your blog on Thursdays. Seems to be kismit, I came to the site on a Thursday through Amystery who participates in both Self Portrait Challenge and Poetry Thursday. Her SPC this week was beautiful. I've been running around for sixteen hours today either shooting photos for a freelance job, editing photos at work for tomorrow's newspaper, or uploading to and browsing Flickr beginning immediately after I came home. I need an isolation tank. And some cucumber slices for my baggy peepers.

... as beauty regime reject

2006-07-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

beauty regime reject, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I hang somewhere in the ether between the girlie girl and the tomboy. Constantly on the go, I don't have time to stop to check my face and fix my hair. Once I leave he house, that's it. And I rarely spend too long fussing in the mirror before I dash out the door.
Over the years, I've tried hot rollers to put in a curl, the press to take it out and most recently a diffuser to encourage my natural waves. I think I've bothered to blow dry twice this summer.
I've got a facial mask on here for the portrait. It's not really part of my routine. First, let me tell you what I don't do:
Wash the makeup off my face at night
Drink eight glasses of water a day
Get my beauty sleep
Brush my teeth three times a day
floss my teeth- ever
get my waxing down regularly enough
curl my lashes

I'm pretty low maintenance. Two or three times a week I'll shampoo. Lately, I've been using solid shampoos by Lush. Right now I'm using their Ultimate Shine shampoo bar but it's not as fragrant as some of the others like Seanick or Irresistible Bliss. Followed with whatever conditioner is on hand. Currently it's Paul Mitchell Color Protect Daily Conditioner. My face enjoys the tingles from Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser. Soap is one of the only things I am truly snobby about. I haven't used grocery store soap in eons. Usually there are two or three different bars in the dish because I get impatient and want to try something new. For a splurge, I like Claus Porto bars that are a whopping 12 oz each and last for a very long time. I've got my sights on trying out COPA soaps. When I run across their booth at a craft fair, I'll buy at least six bars and spend time stopping people to tell them how hard this soap rocks while the shopkeeper watches me incredulously. What can I say, I like their soap. Especially, the Heather Mint and Ginger Carrot.
I don't use toner or moisturizers except maybe in the dead of winter.
My makeup routine is fast. I used to spend lots more time on makeup. Now I have it down to the bare basics. A quick swipe of MAC Studio Fix foundation. Been using it for years. Last year, I tried Nars after being lured by seeing it in all the fashion mags. It was more expensive, didn't last as long and didn't work as well for me as the MAC. Then a dusting of MAC Gingerly powder blush. On cooler days than the ones we're in now, I swear by L'Oreal Double Extend Lash Extender & Magnifier Mascara . You can see a variety of MAC eyeshadows and a few random ones there on the tray behind me. I don't wear them often. The days of applying three colors, artfully blended are long gone. The past few months, I've been hooked on Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm. For a girl on the go, Sephora Jumbo lip pencils are perfect. And cheap at $5.
That's about it. It gets me out the door. Which I have to make a mad dash for right now.

Look for more of this month's theme: Self Portrait as ... at Self Portrait Challenge.

The Pace/Mac Gill Galley in New York City is currently running an exhibit called selportraitr: curating the Flickr.com community. If you can't make it to the gallery, that's okay. There is a nifty slideshow feature at the site. I've been leaving it on for a while as background on my laptop. I spotted an image by fellow Self Portrait Challenge member Kim from Something to Say.

Do you haiku?

2006-06-30T22:03:00.000-04:00

I haven't been talking much about poetry since April which was National Poetry Month. High time to correct that. After a smattering of interest in another round of the Sort-of-Seasonal Haiku Free-for-All, I've decided to host yet another seasonally appropriate haiku event. In honor of Independence Day, I suggest the theme Freedom. Interpret that however you see fit. To keep things simple we'll using the most common haiku rules. A haiku is Seventeen syllables written in three lines divided into 5-7-5. Punctuation is not necessary. Haikus are ridiculously easy to write and more addictive than soduku once you get started. Multiple entries welcome. Feel free to invite others to participate. Email me your submissions at metaphoricalmagpie(at)yahoo(dot)com or in the comments by Thurs. July 6. I'll collect and post them on Fri. July 7. There may even be a PRIZE for participants. Keeping the 5-7-5 alive, Your haiku hostess

jetty

2006-06-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

jetty, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

After what feels like a few months of not listening to anything but podcasts, Sweets picked up some new CDs. The Racounteurs is way better than I anticipated. Brendan Benson's touch is everywhere and I'm loving it. Sweets is listening to Under the Iron Sea by Keane but it's a bit too mellow for me.
We're both crazy about News and Tributes, the sophomore effort from The Futureheads. The song "Skip to the End" is perfect to drive around to with the breeze flapping your hair. "Decent Days and Nights (Shy Child Remix)" makes me want to get all fulla gin and dance til dawn. The song that has totally taken over Sweets's brain is "Back to the Sea." He's singing it to himself incessantly. Which is why I love this photo from last weekend. As I look at it, I hear him singing "I don't want to go back to tthe sea, whatevers pulling you isn't pulling me." Like a million times over. But in a good way. (Follow any of the links above to Amazon and you can hear snippets of the songs.)

A couple things coming up have me excited. Complacent Nation s throwing some intriguing parties this summer. This weekend is Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang described as "Two floors, 15,000sqft. and a labyrinth of secret corners and massive delights ...explore this outsized playground for the giddy and delirious... Featuring a free bar-b-que, live bands, fresh art, voyeur-video projections, stilt walkers, fireworks and two of the tightest sound-systems this side of the East River...Plus live voyeur photos and video projections by Berlin�s top vj artist Benno Klandt, cupcake and tea lounge." Sounds like my kind of party and it's only $10. Hmmm.
If we don't make that one, there is always the Siren Music Festival hosted by the Village Voice in Coney Island. Siren is the bomb diggity. It's free! Rub sunscreen on your ghostly pallor and elbows with the indie stars of tomorrow! You can ride that beastly Cyclone rollercoaster or the marvelous Wonder Wheel while simultaneously bopping your hipster head to on of the following acts:
SCISSOR SISTERS
SERENA MANEESH
MAN MAN
THE ROGERS SISTERS
DEADBOY & THE ELEPHANTMEN
PRIESTESS
SHE WANTS REVENGE
STARS
ART BRUT
TAPES 'N TAPES
THE STILLS
THE CRIBS
CELEBRATION
DIRTY ON PURPOSE

And if all that still isn't enough, head up to the boardwalk to salsa dance with complete strangers, nibble on corn cobs, shoot paintballs at freaks and have a drink at Ruby's.

Perspex princess: Self Portrait Challenge

2006-06-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

birthday girl2, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Determined to catch at least ONE week of this month's challenge, this is the result. If you know me well, you'll know that modern art irks me quite a bit. You will here me saying things like "that is just stupid" or "I don't get it." Call me literal but I don't want to read an explanatory treatise on a piece so I can understand it. I want to "get it" when I look at it. Sweets is a big fan of the modern and post-modern movements. Over the weekend, we spent some time looking at some of his favorite pieces by David Salle.
I didn't walk away from the talk liking the work but it got my wheels turning. Which is one of art's primary purposes.

For this image, I took the photo taken on my birthday earlier this month and encased myself in plastic. I did this out of my urge for self preservation. Here I am on the cusp of crows feet, gray hairs and child birth. Capture it. Another reason for the plastic is that we are living in this plastic environment. We are a plastic generation. We pump it into our boobs and lips to look more attractive. Goods are cheap, plastic made for pennies in awful conditions. And we like it because it's cheap and disposable and we're constantly filling our maws with more, more, more stuff whether we need it or not. I'm even wearing some of this stuff, draped in the fun bling that my friend, Janice, gave me to wear for the day.

I don't really want to preserve myself to protect my body from what nature has in store for it. And I'm certainly not going to inject in my body. But wearing a little plastic bling once a year... What's the harm?

Look For more from the Self Portrait Challenge tribe here.

Back with a blue vengeance

2006-06-26T12:16:00.000-04:00

blue typewriter, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Sorry I was incommunicado there for a wee bit. Everything was going at such a breakneck speed there for a while. Once the crush passed, I took a full weekend to relax. Evidently, relaxing is like riding a bike. You do remember how to do it no matter how long it's been since you last tried.

The flurry of activity around here was preparing the house for a visit by Sweets' parents and our engagement party. We were pretty much cleaning and prepping until moments before they arrived. Hopefully, they couldn't tell that when they walked into the guest suite. The ceiling fan cooled the air, fresh flowers greeted them from the bureau, new linens invited them to rest for a while. The room came out so nice, I'm tempted to move in there. (Better book a visit soon before I get it all messy.)

We had a really nice visit with the parents. Sweets took them on a tour of the Jersey Shore. Stops were made at some of our favorite restuarants: Barnacle Bill's in Rumson, Nagles in Ocean Grove, Cold Creme in Belmar for gelato, Strollo's for Italian ices. We all went into New York City one day. We took a driving tour up Central Park West and down 5th Ave. I pointed out the sights as we went along. "On your left the Dakota Building where John Lennon was shot, on your right the New York Public Library and Rockefeller Center, to the left Trump Towers." We parked near the Empire State Building so Sweet's dad could take a look at it. Then we introduced them to Korean cuisine for lunch in Little Korea. Next their first ride on a subway down to Union Square. We shopped around. I wanted his Mom to see one of my favorite stores, ABC Carpet and Home. Then we popped into City Bakery for cocoa, coffee and cookies.

I hope we were able to show them what our life here is all about and that we are lovingly preparing for our future together. It must be hard when a child moves far away. Hopefully, they'll be able to imagine what Sweets is up to better now that they got to see his favorite haunts and our home. We go back to Indiana to visit them for Thanksgiving.

The engagement party went swell. It was about 90 degrees out but other than that everyone enjoyed themselves. It was so nice for the families to meet now before the wedding next year. And especially nice to see some of my old, dear and farflung friends' faces. My mother was right about the cake. It was delish. Here's a photo of us cutting it.

After a week of hostessing, I was pooped. A rainy weekend was the perfect excuse to do a whole lot of not much. Saturday morning we picked up the dogs from the kennel. We all camped out on the couch. The dogs napped. We read and watched tv. Went out for ice cream and the late showing of Nacho Libre. Yesterday we shopped for thank you cards and then drove around the oceanfront looking for wedding locations. Making stops to frolic on the beach, take a somewhat outlaw tour of the Convention Hall on Asbury Park and eat more ice cream. Finished off the night with Woody Allen's Matchpoint on dvd.

Free time leads to craft time. I finally had the time to experiment with freezer stencils. It's so easy to do and they come out terrific. I'm working on a project for Cyndemouse's birthday and my Coloriffic swap partner. Then i might go bonkers and stencil everything I own.

Monkey business

2006-06-15T10:40:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love super good surprise mail? Or monkeys? Who dares to say they don't care for monkeys? The masterminds over at Careerbuilder.com have this cool Monk-e-mail that is totally hilarious. You can dress a chimp up with various hairdos, outfits and accessories. Then you tell them what to say to your friends. I received one as a birhday greeting last night from my fabulous pal Benjamin who hails from Arkansas but is spreading Southern hospitality all across Thailand these days. Go play with a monkey. Send a message to all your friends. Or just send one to me at metaphoricalmagpie@yahoo.com Yesterday, birthday fun was had. J-Po presented me with a birthday girl tiara, rings and necklaces that might be for little girls normally. But that didn't stop us from sashaying all over proudly wearing the birthday bling. Our waiter at lunch didn't even bat an eye. Hmmm, I must try to work a tiara into my ensemble more often. We noshed. We dished. She gave me the cutest presents - a cherry pattern apron, tea towels and potholder with happy bluebirds and a sweater with embroidered birds. Plus a goodie bag. She spoiled me rotten. Our fun came to an end when she had to go to work. So I went off on my own. Had my ring fixed. The prong is back in place but the setting still has a scuff on it. In a way, I think that's best. I was so worried I was going to mess up my ring, I was constantly taking it on and off to do chores. Now that I've royally dinged it, I feel like it's really mine. Dinged a little but still shiny and happy. Then I spent some quality time browsing around Joann's Fabrics. I REALLY need to learn how to sew. That place is so inspiring. I got a few things for my swap partner in the brown and blue themed July Coloriffic Swap-o-rama and some supplies for me. A whole fistful of beads to play with. I also got some stencil brushes on clearance. I want to try those freezer paper stencils I've been drooling over on Little Birds and other blogs of craft.

Birthday girl lounging

2006-06-14T12:11:00.000-04:00

My birthday has arrived with far less fanfare than I usually put into it. We've been so into fixing up the house and having an engagement party. My birthday has fallen by the wayside. I told my family we can just lump it into the party on Sunday. Sweets gave me a darling card this morning and has two gifts that he is making me with his own little hands that aren't quite done because of all that we've been doing around here. The first item is a complete new redesign for the Metaphorical Magpie. I can't wait to show it off. Hopefully one day soo you'll stop by and see it looking all spiffy and new. The other present is really special, too. I collect handblown glass balls that I pick up along my travels. They used to be displayed in a kitchen window. When I redesigned the kitchen in 2004, I opted for a light fixture over the work station instead of the balls. So they've been boxed up. Sweets is building a box that matches the cabinets in our studio. The box will mount on the ceiling over the cabinet closest to the stairwell. The balls will hang right in the area you see as you look into the room from the landing. Another thing I can really look forward to enjoying for a very long time. We'll have the luxury of dinner together this evening. Working nights makes that a very rare occurrence. The phone started ringing early with birthday wishes this morning. ME woke me up to sing "Happy Birthday Ray-Ray" on his way to work. Then my sister and mom. There were ecards and emails. J-Po and I are heading out to a girly lunch in a little bit. We ran out of coffee yesterday. So I'm looking forward to a fancier than usual cuppa and a snack. A day goes by so fast! I need to get my engagement ring fixed today. The plan to do it on Saturday was dashed when I had to unexpectedly rent a truck to pick up the furniture. I hope to have some time to wander around a nursery looking for some annuals for the planters around the deck. Maybe browsing for some new beads and craft supplies. I'm just happy to have a day that I don't have to work or do anything else I don't want to do. Time is the best gift I can give myself. Although I did slip in a new purse and nighty into the cart at Target over the weekend as a little birthday gift to me. And I made a bookmark for myself. I've been making them and giving them away for months. Figured I deserved one for myself. It's got a fun Asian fish charm on the end. Gotta go get my birthday girl, groove on. Have a good one!

The final stretch

2006-06-12T11:44:00.000-04:00

I"m so worn out after this weekend, I want to go back to work to have a rest. On Saturday, I got up early in case the furniture was delivered or the Lenny, our contractor came by to finish installing the handrail upstairs. At 10:30 am I called Lenny. At 11:30 am I left Sweets at the house and went to the post office, bank, caterer and shopping for party plates. At 1 pm the manager of Habitat Humanity called to tell me they never deliver to where we live so they weren't coming. I damn near had a stroke right there in the dollar store. So I raced around trying to find a rental truck. It seems I found the most expensive place to do it. They charged $1.39 per mile plus the rental fee and insurance. We went 55 miles. Yikes. I went and rented the truck myself and then quickly after getting out of the road I realized I couldn't really see out the passenger window and the rear view on my side wouldn't adjust. A quick stop back at the house to hurry Lenny to finish up so Shawn could come with me and we were off. We had measured the couch at the store and the place we wanted to put it in the room upstairs. How we were going to get it up there hadn't come up. Luckily, as we pulled it out of the truck two of our lady neighbors were outside. They quickly came to our aid. Karen, our next door neighbor used to own a B&B so she has lots of experience getting big things into little spaces. With her guidance we managed to guide this monster into the t shaped hallway and up the stairs. After that, the six foot buffet was a piece of cake. To keep the momentum of finishing upstairs, we drove up to Ikea. Sitting in the restaurant, I could have taken a nap in my Swedish meatballs I was so worn out. But we pressed on for important shopping. I needed a desk. Sweets already has the Bjorkudden table so we decided to get a second one for me. We both need a chair and agreed we liked the Patrick swivel chair best but they were out of stock. Right now we're improvising with a cast off dining chair that was lurking in the basement. The Oppli tv stand caught our eye so we nabbed one. We also picked up a sweet little Lykta table lamp. We headed towards the checkout triumphant and then had to wait close to an hour to get out of there. Did I mention Ikea is having it's summer sale? UNfortunately nothing we bought was on sale. Grr.

Busy as a birdie?

2006-06-09T12:00:00.000-04:00

birdy couple, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Operating at warp speed here this week. The Self Portrait Challenge theme of Pop Art intrigued me but the only thing I had time to pop this week was the Aleve. We are STILL working on the house. Hopefully this weekend is the end of it. We have two new furniture pieces being delivered tomorrow by the Habitat for Humanity store. One super long 50's couch for the upstairs room which is shaping up nicely. A 60's modern buffet to fill in the gap in the living room left where the old bookshelves were. All this rearranging could be a full time job.

Work is super hectic now and will continue to be as we've taken on producing a sister paper from our office. Times in the newspaper biz are changing. Many papers are really hurting. We're not doing so bad but a bit of belt tightening is welcome in this climate.
Sweets parents arrive a week from tomorrow. I want to make a good impression. We've met before but this will be their first visit to our home. I want it to be a pleasurable and memorable visit.

To add to the complications, we are having what Sweets and I thought would be a small, intimate engagement party to introduce the two families and close friends. Next thing we know, we're being asked for registries and given lots of advice. Like we need coordinating tablecloths and paper goods, punch, catered food. I am not a newbie at entertaining. Somehow by terming this little shindig an "engagement party" a little primoridal light has gone off in everyone's head and the scene it lights includes centerpieces, punch, gift tables, finger foods. So it has gone abit astray from what we were envisioning but that's okay. We've quickly learned that even though we are told time and time again that getting married is about us. There really are lots of people putting in their two cents about what they think is ideal and proper. Sometimes you have to make other people happy, too.

My mother is now obsessed with cake. She's in charge of the cake for this party. Her idea of the perfect cake is not mine. As we were bickering, I realized she wants this to be special for me. Her idea of special may be slightly different than mine but what is truly special is that for what feels like the first time in my life she has taken an interest in me and wants to help me. So we went to a baker together and compromised. She lost on the fondant. I lost on the whipped cream. We compromised on weather appropriate buttercream. She won on the cake flavor. I won on the fillings. Together we chose the design. Round bottom layer, heart shaped top layer. I insisted on bluebirds of happiness as decorations. She chose yellow and lavender flowers.
We had breakfast afterwards and discussed catering. And disagreed on what to get. We'll have to give it some time. We're not used to getting along all the time. But we're trying.

Wanderlust or bust

2006-06-04T03:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes a girl gets so overwhelmed with working, working, working that she begins to yearn for a mini-break holiday as Bridget Jones would say. I've got no major vacations planned for this year and it's almost half over! We have looked into Austin City Limits or the Toronto Film Festival in September. I'm always up for a trip to the west coast, too. A few of my friends have had some amazing travels lately. I thought we could live vicariously through them for a moment. Seth is a photo editor that I work with at the paper. His girlfriend has been working in Taiwan for months. He got to go join her for a long visit last month. They have a cool website to prove it. The SPC crowd will love Seth and Pam's self portraits in the scrapbook section. I was going crazy over the bird market. The fish auction is all fancy schmancy with audio. Check out the fun they had. You're guaranteed to feel like you just had a mini-vacation. Ready for a trip to Japan? The photographer formally known as Dope, who now wishes to be known by his formal name, Brent Hirak, lived and worked in Japan for several years before enrolling in the graduate program at ASU. He's working furiously on finishing his last project Fallout, an exploration of his family. The series, Winter Passage, documents his latest trip back to Japan in January 2006. There are many more provacative images from Japan in his weekly Swellmilk series. Plus many self portraits for the SPC'ers to be inspired by. Perhaps Asia isn't your cup of tea? Another travelling couple, photographer, Michael Simon, and writer, Megan Lyles, have been travelling South America by bus for close to a year now and blogging about it almost daily. You can start reading from Day One on Megan's blog or catch up with the latest post. Or just go for the visuals on Michael's. I enjoy checking in on their progress periodically. Last time I checked, they were eating guinea pigs in Peru. Yikes.

Boo boos and bling bonk

2006-06-03T03:05:00.000-04:00

It's been raining like a mofo here on and off all week. Makes perfect sense to leave my umbrella in the car. When I left the office tonight it was coming down in sheets. I decided to make a mad dash for the parking garage. Next thing I knew I was flying through the air. Quickly making hard contact with the pavement and a puddle. My lunch container flew from my hand and landed about ten feet away. My purse next to me and laptop bag behind me. Both my knees were bashed up and bleeding. My left hand was all scraped up. That's bad enough but it gets worse. A big chunk of sequins are missing from the toe of one of my sparkly shoes. It gets worse. The first thing I checked before I even got up from the ground was my engagement ring. It was there. When I was driving home I realized it felt sharp. Stopped at a light, I realized a prong was missing. After further inspection I found it's actually rammed over into another prong. There are also some scratches on the band where it hit the cement. Platinum is evidently not impervious to pavement. Crappers. I feel like a complete dolt. The good news is that the diamond is intact. I'm so glad we took my sister's advice about six prongs. Falling down majestically at the office is one of my specialties. Last fall, I fell down a few stairs and launched myself into the business department, landing at the feet of an editor there. There's a scar on the knuckle of my middle finger from that one. This fall added a scrape on my left knee next to a scar that I've had since I fell off the step of Grams' shed when I was little. Did I mention I've fallen down the stairs at every school I've ever attended? At home, too. We're going to add a stop at the jewelers to our errands tomorrow. I am crossing my fingers that they say "oh, don't worry, honey, this kind of thing happens to girls all the time. We'll fix you up straight away." I wish. I wish. I wish.

Fun Facts about Moi: Self Portrait Challenge

2006-05-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

sun in my eyes, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Today's introduction for Self Portrait Challenge is random, free forrm and written in seven minutes. Ready?

I didn't drink coffee until I was 30. Now I have some just about every day. Cafe Dumonde in New Orleans converted me. I still haven't gotten to trying beer yet.

After about five minutes in the sun you can visibly see me getting sunburnt. If that happens, please remind me I haven't bothered to put on any sunblock.

My house is always messy. Piles of papers and magazines on the table. The most recently thrifted acquisitions by the door. I wish I was neat.

I swear I cannot swim. My mother swears she taught me how. I don't go in water without adult supervision unless it's the shower, a sprinkler or a hot tub.

I am a multi-tasker, always trying to do two things at once. Eat and read. Watch tv and read. Drive and eat.

I procrastinate. I tell myself I work much better under pressure. I like to refer to this as "running down the clock." I meet multiple deadlines every night at work. Personally, I tend to let them slide. That's why I've got to be brief today. My taxes on the house are overdue. (This is not the first time I've done this either, I'm afraid.)

I like to rock out in the car while driving. Recently it's been to Pearl Jam, The Beatles, Ben Kweller, and The Magic Numbers. That's when I don't have The Greenhornes CD in on repeat for days on end,

If I could eat only one type of cuisine every day til the end of time it would have to be Indian.

That's all I have time for. (Actually, I've gone over the allocated time limit I set. So predictable.) I'm off to see the disapproving tax department lady and then on to work. Wish I could keep going with this days off thing instead.

For a peek at more revelations during the last week of the introduction theme, visit Self Portrait Challenge. Next month's theme is Pop Art.

Poppies for Memorial Day

2006-05-29T12:16:00.000-04:00

my poppies, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

It's Memorial Day weekend here at the Jersey Shore. Which means the invasion by summer folk has begun. The parkway is jammed with traffic. The aisles of Target are clogged with kiddies in need of swimmies and super soakers. I always prefer Labor Day weekend when the weather is bliss and the "bennies" as we call them are packing up for home.

We're up to our eyeballs in work here this weekend. We started renovating the space upstairs exactly one year ago. Friday night and Saturday afternoon, we did the last of the painting. Work supplies had to come downstairs. Vacuuming was done. Everything was wiped down again to pick up errant dust. Last night, halfway up the staircase holding the tail end of a heavy table I just started beaming because we were FINALLY putting furniture up there. Sweets set up his Mac and speakers. The new floor was just crying out to be danced on so I shimmied to Brian Jonestown Massacre. We found spots on the shelves for our collection of vintage typewriters and cameras.
It's not totally complete yet but it's done enough to feel done and that feels good after working on it for a year. We'll still need curtains, a rug and a work table for my laptop and crafts. Oh, goodie. Now we get to shop!

I did take a break on Saturday night to go see Pearl Jam with Cyndemouse again. In Albany we had first row. Camden was second row but we ended up in the first row by the end of the night. The light was way better for pictures. I've got about 700 frames to sift through. Will post some soon.

We spent Sunday afternoon celebrating my oldest nephew's seventh birthday. It was the first kids party without Grams. This year there will be so many firsts of this kind and they all make me sniffly for a while. I miss her every day.

Today is the last day of the much coveted three day weekend. It proves to be action packed. Still more small things to paint, lawn to mow, deck furniture to wipe down, groceries shopped for. Later on we'll have some conviviality to celebrate the birthdays of JPo and her twin sis. We've all been claiming to be 29 for so long, I honestly couldn't tell you how old they are. Maybe we should just start counting how many mojitos we can put away.

Hope your summer season is starting with a bang and not as work filled as mine!

Foreword: Self Portrait Challenge

2006-05-23T12:09:00.000-04:00

book babe, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

The first thing I remember becoming passionate about in my life is books. I learned to read with ease and quickly surpassed my schoolmates. In the first grade, I found I could read the same passage at least three times over before the others finished for the first time. Reading isn't about speed, of course, but when you have a voracious appetite it certainly helps.
As a girl, my Nana and Grams fed my addiction to books. Buying me gorgeous illustrated copies of Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I had the whole collection of Little House on the Prarie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The series of shoe books, ballet shoes, theater shoes etc. I dabbled with the girl sleuths Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.
Around the fourth grade, I got a public library card and then there was no stopping me. Mrs, Dudas, the librarian, would special order books from the main branch for me or put aside new books that she thought I would enjoy. When I tried to check out The Good Earth that year she protested. My mother wrote her a note instructing her not to censor what I read. After that, I was free to roam the adult room and read everything they had by Pearl S. Buck. The first book I stayed up all night to read was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Can't count how many times that has happened since.
In high school, I walked around with a backpack full of books that were not for school. Had to have my Dostoyevsky on hand at all times! Besides the Dickens, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Melville I was assigned, my personal reading list grew and grew.
So has my book collection. I really try not to buy many books unless they are reference materials. I will read a novel in a day or two. So I favor the library, although my town's library is pretty woeful. Working at The Paper gives me the advantage of bringing home review copies. I find myself reading random things I bring home. Usually, I am reading two books at once.
Right now I'm in the middle of The Evil B.B. Chow and Other StoriesM by Steve Almond. The title story was wickedly funny. I'm closer to the beginning of Birdsong: A Natural History by Don Stap. It's sucking me into the world of ornithologists trying to understand how birds learn to sing. Very fascinating stuff.

For more introductions to other SPTers, check in with Self Portrait Challenge for this week's installment. Or browse the photos in the Flickr group.

Seek and enjoy

2006-05-19T11:16:00.000-04:00

I must admit to being addicted to my Webstat report. It tells me how many people stop by for a read, what countries they live in and what they were searching for. Since January 1st, there have been 270 search results. Today there was a awesome one. Some of the best keywords, in my opinion so far are as follows: 6. erotomania hypochondria 22. Stoli Greyhounds 30. \"asiatrash\" 36. sandra oh\'s nose job 41. rumson country day school rummage sale 52. journey to the magic - metaphorical 59. \"most romantic thing said to me\" 75. natalie portman pantyhose 83. rude gynecologist office 108. dirty bong water shot 112. \"to wear one earring\" 125. cupcake franchise 136. felicity huppert 140. rachel popping balloons 154. the poem about the person who instant messaged someone about thei... 168. picture of reese witherspoon in hospital with a patient 171. terri hatcher in pantyhose 179. terri hatcher / sheer dress 180. blue shift freedom typewriter key 186. gifts for tonsillectomy patients 201. \"vote for\'\' slogans 226. \"appreciating small things\" 231. flickr photos hot couples Many of these have made me giggle. And you wouldn't believe you many times people look for photos of celebrities in sheer dresses or pantyhose. Er, creepy yuck. My favorite by far is 47. jack black butt cheeks. Obviously, there is one other person in the universe that appreciates that fine, foxy dude Jack Black as much as I do. These links are for you my friend. I'll see you in the theater opening night for Nacho Libre. You can save any of the photos there as your desktop. Get some sneak peeks in the Confessional or download the podcast from the Apple Music Store. Pay special attention to the following episodes: Waxed Jack, The Package and Got Wrastlin' To Do. Oh hell, just watch them all.

Sticky situations

2006-05-18T11:43:00.000-04:00

I was all set to put up a morose post all about the multitude of things that have brought me to tears in the past week. There's at least five. Luckily for you, I got an inspiring newsletter from Threadless that distracted me. They are partnering with Blik in a design contest. (Must bug Sweets to enter!) I've seen Blik products in Budget Living and Martha Stewart Kids in the past. When I took the time to check out their site; I was way impressed. They make these awesome wall graphics that are removable. For $25 - $50 you can really pep up a room fast. Perfect for renters or those of us that have decorating A.D.D. Pictured above are: Top row left: Sweet 16. $40 for 16 multi-colored dots. Top row center: Bring me the Heads of hipsters in four packs in shades of gold and cocoa. $26. Top row right: Indulge your inner Austin Powers with a 10 pack of Paisley in shades of raspberry or mint. $45. Bottom row left: Don't Count on just using these numbers in the kid's room. Pack of 20 numbers for $45. Bottom row center: These darling Birds are only 1" wide and stick to glassware. Super duper bargain at $4.50 for 20 birds. Bottom row right: Express yourself with custom Prose. Here's a lil secret. Enter "THREADLESS" when you checkout online and get 15% off until June 1st. Another great, more permanent option for your walls can be had at Graham & Brown. The home and garden editor at the paper showed me a sample of their Transform window film recently. I am coveting the Charles Rennie Mackintosh design. They also have a Mondrian design and lots of frosted glass options for about $25 a roll. I quickly got sucked into their wallpapers. Now I'm trying to find a wall in the house to paper. It's hard to choose from all the lovely options. All are $30 a roll. Pictured here: Top row left: You can almost smell the heady bouquet of Flowering Rose designed by Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway. Top row center: Axium reminds me of dandelions. Top row right: Escape into a private grove of trees with Solitude. Bottom row left: This flock of Butterflies makes my heart flutter. Designed by Kate Larsen. Bottom row center: Pink Donkey also by Kate Larsen would be perfect in a powder room. Bottom row right: My black and white tiled bathroom wouldn't know what hit it if Flower Power moved in. Make your walls happy and stick something to them soon.

A taste of who I am: Self Portrait Challenge

2006-05-09T21:31:00.000-04:00

in the kitchen, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Here I am in my kitchen. Probably my favorite place in the house. I saved for several years to redecorate it. I think it's perfect. What really makes it perfect though, is that it is my refuge. As many kitchens in my past have been over the years. In a kitchen, my worries disappear like steam over a simmering soup. I have lots of cookbooks but most times I'll be inspired by an ingredient and go from there. In this photo, I am making a mango salsa for a group of friends. Earlier in the day, I went to the farm market to buy produce. Back home, I slipped on a vintage apron and got to work in a patch of sunlight. Wielding a chefs knife. The air perfumed with mango and cilantro. My fingers sticky.
My grandfather was a chef. I spent countless hours watching him in the kitchen. He let me stay if I was quiet and stayed out from under his feet. I followed his instructions and marveled at the way he tested meat for doneness with his bare hands. He never used measuring cups or spoons. Every morning he rose long before I woke and went to work baking everything from scratch, planning menus, running a kitchen crew, feeding fancy country club people. It all seemed so magical to me. I saw how people reacted to the food he cooked. Pushing back in their chairs, eyes closed, sighs escaping. I enjoy pleasing people in the same way. Whether it's a dinner party for six, a dish at a potluck or just a simple supper at home; I try to make the meal memorable.
When I'm cooking I think about who I'm preparing the meal for. I keep in mind my friends dietary needs and preferences. No dairy for Cyndemouse. No meat for Talulah. Extra well done for J-Po. I think that the pots I use today once belonged to my grandparents. I wonder who once wore my apron. My thoughts are quiet and of things and people I love.
In the kitchen, I feel competent. Confident. As if what I'm doing is worthwhile. I don't always feel those things. But in my refuge, I'm all those things and more.

Things to note:
This photo was taken by that darling man, Brent Hirak, while visiting in July 2004.

Self Portrait Tuesday has morphed into Self Portrait Challenge. Look for more self portraits at the website and the Flickr group. This month's theme is "Introduce Yourself." Won't you try it yourself?

Three is a magic number

2006-05-09T11:39:00.000-04:00

A three day weekend can be restorative. I actually slept all the way through last night. That hardly ever happens. Better than one long weekend? Two of them. I'll be going to Albany on Friday with Cyndemouse to see Pearl Jam. We'll knock around on Saturday before returning home. Sunday night, I'll be going to see Depeche Mode with Sweets and my sister. That's my kind of weekend. This last one was alot of work but very fulfilling. Sweets had a three day weekend, too but we had different days off. He put the floor down upstairs. Next step is molding. We are so close to being done up there. He also had time to put new grass seed in the backyard. We are diligently watering everyday. Someday soon the yard will be full of grass instead of dandelions, oniions and God knows what. I didn't have to watch my nephews yesterday after all. My brother-in-law ended up being home. So I had the day to myself. I watched Martha in bed with coffee and a bagel. Folded lots of laundry. Watered the lawn. Shopped for painting supplies, baby gifts and bird swap items. Cooked a yummy fish dinner. Watched Breakfast on Pluto. Slept like a log. Today is gray and I'd like to spend it watching the ER episodes piled up on the Tivo but a girl's gotta work. Until the next three day weekend...

Five Senses Friday- weekend edition

2006-05-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

I attempted Five Senses Friday on Friday but the day was too hectic to get it done. The whole week went at warp speed. So here's my list as of right now: Sight: - Dead sparrow that appeared in the driveway, moved to the walk and disappeared all very mysteriously - Toothless smile on my oldest nephew. He lost both his front teeth at once last week. - A visit to the gorgeous Post Office in Newark, NJ to post my color-iffic swap package - logging into etsy and seeing my grandmother's face on the main page. I recently custom ordered pendants of Grams as Mother's Day gifts for my mother and aunt from brag bags. We liked the way they came out, so she put a photo up to show what could be done with her work. Snag one for yourself today! I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival in the mail. - Our new bookshelves are full of books. Cyndemouse said it looks like the Housing Works store. That is a FINE compliment. Smell: - Sweets has started wearing the Vera Wang for Men fragrance that I got him for his birthday - An odd, funky odor in the house that only I can smell. - a co-workers's lunch that smelled of cabbage - hot smell in the house that turned out to be from me stupidly putting a nonstick pot of water on the stove to boil and forgetting about it while watching tv. Almost burnt the house down. - pleasant wood smell as Sweets cut wood floor planks for the room upstairs. He finished yesterday. Yeah! Taste: - beef empanadas from Clara the nice lunch truck lady - coconut chai from Premium Steap in Philadelphia - sharing a pitcher of magaritas with Cyndemouse and Sweets after a hard day's work - Chunky chocolate bar - Crunchy tuna sushi roll Touch: - shiny but rough new parking meter poles installed on the street I work on - Delicate pearl necklace that Elly-O gave to me on Friday. It was her mother's "pride and joy" but not Elly-O's taste. She thought I'd take good care of it. And I shall. It's marvelous. - fuzzy bud on my poppy plant - wonderful bits of fabric at the Philadelphia Sewing Collective Fabric Swap Meet. - super soft argyle cashmere sweater Cyndemouse snagged at a bag sale last week and passed on to me. Sound: - Newly thrifted stack of green bangles clinking on my right wrist - Ingesting Pearl Jam's new CD before going to see them in Albany next weekend - Singing along to Joni Mitchell's Blue album driving home last night with the sun roof open, wind whipping my hair - Quentin squealing when his paw got stepped on accidentally - Sweets squealing when he hammered his finger instead of the floor. Ouch. I'm taking tomorrow off to babysit three of my nephews so my sister can chaperone the oldest one on a class trip. Despite my request to pottytrain the twins before I spend a day with them, they were uncooperative. Soooo.... I'll be having an interesting and exhausting day tomorrow.

Swap a doodle doo

2006-05-02T11:58:00.000-04:00

may swap 1, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

May is my third month participating in the Color-iffic Swap-o-Rama. My partner this month was a bit elusive. She didn't fill out her likes/dislikes in the forums. So I had to dig around. She blogs and posts photos to Flickr. Although her blog posts are pretty infrequent (not that I can say I do more) and she doesn't post photos of herself and her family. I had a hard time trying to connect to her. Last month, I felt like I really got to know Gabriela/loca_bandoca. And she doesn't even blog in English!
Due to this feeling of disconnect, I was down to the wire on making a handcrafted item. My parter doesn't read much so one of my beaded ribbon bookmarks is out. Magnets seemed too small of a gift. I considered a tote bag or one of my photos framed. Then I got the idea of doing a tray decorated with childrens illustrations. I quickly realized there wasn't enough time to paint and seal the several coats needed. I was all out of sorts. Luckily, I went to four rummage sales last week. Out of the seemingly unconnected finds, I pieced together the perfect idea. I know my partner likes tropical music and children's books. I put a piece of tropical yellow material around the cardboard insert of a lucite frame. A wonderful book of stories published in 1966 has wonderful illustrations. I chose one that featured bits of orange, held my breath and tore the page out of the book. That has hard to do. Then I just cut it out. Put the frame on the table upside down and positioned the cut out facedown inside the frame. Then carefully insert the fabric covered insert. On the back, I taped down the fabric edges but it looked messy. So, I cut out a portion of the story the illustration came from and glued it to the fabric, covering all the fabric edges.
In just a few hours, I made something that should appeal to her tastes. I really hope she likes it.
Since I started swapping just a few short months ago; I've learned a few things. Shipping can be really expensive . High enough to make me not want to play. That's not fun. So I am trying to keep in mind the size and weight of items as I gather them. On Sunday I was at a rummage sale and picked out a small rectangular hinged tin. As I walked around the room, all my small items went in. I was amazed at how much I stuffed in there. A new group, Pack It Up Small, will focus on themed packages that can fit into a small Global Priority Flat-rate Envelope. Shipping is only $5.25. I'm still not ready to shrink down to an envelope, so I'm going to sit this first swap of theirs out and see what the others swappers send.

Color-iffic is using the Swap-Bot site to administer the swap. (Don't be confused by the bootleg US only swap there. The real deal is private. Join the Flickr group first to participate.) Swap-Bot takes away all the hard work of matching up and notifying parters by doing it automatically. Lots of other open swaps are listed there. I wanted to join the Kitchen In A Box swap but it's end date collided with Color-iffic and I just didn't have the time. I couldn't resist the Pretty Birdsswap. I collect birdie items, so I couldn't say no. It's been hard shopping for this swap because I want everything for myself! This swap doesn't require a handmade item but I may include some anyway.
Another site that I came across recently is Swap Thing. It's like ebay for swapping or bartering. They charge a transaction fee of $1.00 which is reasonable.

Now it's time to swap my blogger hat for my editor hat and get to the office.

Five Senses Friday

2006-04-28T20:53:00.000-04:00

dogwood, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I was cranky mostly this week. Not sure why. Lots of little things compiling into a big load of ugh. For three days, my attempt to post were cut off short. There is just not enough time in the day for me. I feel so envious of some of the other bloggers I read. I imagine them at home with their kiddies, baking goodies, stiching up softies. My me time is non-existent and that makes me crankiest. Making my usual reading stop in at Little Birds, one of the blogs that make me wish for a more craft/child/freetime filled life, her post Five Senses Friday caught my attention. Suddenly, I was able to focus on little things from the past few days that were positive. Reading Little Birds always makes me feel like there is a better way to be living- more creatively, slowly, simply. I appreciate that immensely. Here's my Five Senses Friday List: Sight:
- Quentin basking in the sun on the deck this morning
- The hostas leaves beginning to unfurl - Stumbling online to a possible wedding location, a pavilion surrounded by a field of live peacocks at a zoo
- All of our dvds alphabetized and put away (finally) in the media cabinet built especially for them

Smell:
- Demeter Pineapple pick me up spray on my wrists
- Newspaper ink on my fingers
- Lilacs wafting over from the neighbor's bush
- My deoderant doing a so-so job
- That hotdogs cooking at a dusty rummage sale in a church basement smell

Taste:
- Coffee on Sweets lips when I kissed him goodbye
- Honey bunches of Oats for breakfast
- Pork stew over brown rice for dinner(I concocted the recipe and it was sooo good)
- Dunkin Donuts hazelnut coffee
- Curry chicken takeout

Touch:
- Skipping a rummage sale to snuggle longer with Sweets (that is LOVE)
- Bleeding heart blossoms on my fingertips
- Splinter in my foot
- Washing my face in the sink
_ bookjackets of newest vintage cookbook and craft book scores

Sound:
- "Sugar Never Tasted So Good"- The White Stripes
- "Love is a Battlefield"- Pat Benatar
- My engagement ring clicking against my mouse
- Overhearing my nephews on the phone while chatting with my sister
- Gasp I made when I learned a co-worker's 35 year old wife collapsed at home and died

Dried off and ready for the dust

2006-04-24T11:30:00.000-04:00

This weekend was great. Although a bit wet. I got to a slow and cranky start on Saturday morning. After spending one full weekend painting upstairs, I didn't want a repeat. I grumbled. Drank a whole pot of coffee by myself. We needed a few supplies, so Sweets ran to the hardware store. I put on the Magic Numbers and by the time he came back I was smiling and grooving to the music. Later we switched to the whole Belle and Sebastian catalog. We ended up with completely painted bookshelves and the doors for the cabinets. Two of the three media cabinets have one coat of paint. Tonight we'll give the bookshelves a coat of polyurethane. I've painted furniture with and without it. I've found the topcoat really is worth the extra step. The tops of my dressers and nightstands are all funky because I left it off. Don't want that to happen to the shelves. It dried out just enough on Sunday afternoon that I was able to tuck a few plants into the garden. A few of the items I got in my plant shipment turned out to be not so hot. I'll have to call customer service again. After all the work, we still managed to find time for some fun. Saturday night we watched Memoirs for a Geisha. It was okay. The book was so wonderful that I was not so impressed with the adaptation. The cinematography was bseautiful, yes, but I can rattle off a long list of Chinese movies I'd prefer to watch. Cyndemouse invited us over for dinner last night. Before dinner we stopped to look at the work she's been doing at her rental property. It's so cute I wish I could move in! The yard there is so gorgeous right now. It's full of forsythias, azaleas, daffodils. A red maple greets you by the front door. A white dogwood beckons you from the bedroom window. Soon the irises will awake and wisteria will cascade from the impossible heights its climbed over the years. After I drooled over the brand new bathroom fixtures and garden. We headed next door to her place for dinner. She made tomato sauce earlier in the day. We all pitched in preparing a rustic Italian meal of a salad, pasta with sauce, turkey sausage, bread. Everything always tastes better when it comes from the Mouse's kitchen. We had sorbet for dessert. Cynde will be my maid of honor for the wedding. She is way more on the ball about it than I am. As we cooked she went over a new list of possible locations. Before we left she gave me an engagement present of pretty pink folders, stationary, an address book and notebook to keep organized. Plus the cutest set of his and hers cups. We set a date to have a little party in June. Sweets parents will be here to visit. We want to have something for the families to meet and mingle. We still haven't set a date. In fact, we haven't looked an any locations yet. As soon as those shelves are done. I'm turning my full attention to bridezilla type affairs. This week will be full of early mornings. Rummage sale season explodes to a start this week. I'm going to cram in two church sales on Thursday and one on Friday before work. Saturday is the Whale of a Sale in Rumson which is a school gymnasium crammed with goodies. Sunday is my favorite temple sale. I can't wait to have the dust up my nose, elbow to elbow with the other rummagers tossing the tables, filling my bag with surprises of all kinds.

what a week

2006-04-21T11:32:00.000-04:00

This week has kicked my butt. Last weekend we spent about 15 hours working on prepping and painting our new bookshelves and media cabinets. I was so tired and sore from the work, I had to go back to work on Monday to relax. Except I didn't really. Sweets had his birthday on Wednesday. So there was sneaking around before work to buy presents and wrap them. Tuesday was an early morning alarm to go to the doctor because I'm still feeling a wee bit dizzy. Thursday I was up even earlier. Out of the house by 8 am to work and then to an awards dinner afterwards. I didn't get home until 11 pm. Soooo tired. Overtired. I went right to bed last night and then after what seemed like five minutes the dogs were fussing around me in the bed. My tummy was upset from eating banquet hall food. I got aggravated and retreated to the kitchen with my laptop until 2:30 am. I caught up on one of my fave bloggers Craftapalooza, read the entire blog of my May Coloriffic Swap-o-rama partner and explored the Whiplash competition at Whip Up. Wow. All three are full of amazing creations. Which makes me wish I had more time to whip something up here to participate in the competition. I can't wait to get the studio upstairs sorted out. Having a new space to work in is going to be very inspirational for both of us. Sweets is very low key about his birthday. I like to celebrate mine for about a month! We started the night before with a fancy cake aglow with sparklers. I was at the ready to make him the breakfast of his choice on his birthday. He decided to wait until the weekend for bacon etc and asked for apple turnovers and coffee. As we had our breakfast, he opened his presents and we talked. I got him some surprise gifts. New swim trunks, a cover and tool caddy for his Weber grill and some Vera Wang for men cologne. His sunglasses broke recently and he asked for a new pair. I got him Ray Ban Wayfarers which are classic Hollywood. He looks awfully cute in them. Still waiting to see him in the swimmies. This weekend is going to be rainy. I was hoping to take Sweets to Branch Brook Park in Newark for a picnic under the cherry blossoms. My new shipment of plants needs to be tucked into the garden. Shelves still need more paint. This weekend is shaping up to be just as busy as last week.

Self Portait Tuesday: Fooling around

2006-04-18T11:48:00.000-04:00

spt 4-18, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

About a year ago, we went to my oldest nephew's 6th birthday party. The little girl he is sweet on was there plus lots of little boys from his class. We played pin the tail on the donkey. Whacked a pinata. Played on the tire swing.
My sister and I never had birthday parties. I remember one year I got in big trouble because I went to school and told kids I was having one even though I wasn't. In fact, we weren't even going to be home. I don't know why I lied exactly. I guess I just wanted to have what I thought other kids had at home that I was somehow lacking.
My nephews have parties and fun and none of the worries I had when I was little. Through their discoveries and celebrations, I am reclaiming bits and pieces of a childhood I never experienced.
Who would think something as simple as being pushed on a tire swing is so much fun? Sweets was pushing me here and taking my photo. It was a good day.
Swinging can be so freeing. You use your own might to propel yourself into the air and for that brief moment when your feet are kicking the sun, you feel like you may never have to come down.

Try to remember you can always get back up there. You just have to push.

goodies in the mailbag

2006-04-18T11:33:00.000-04:00

mailbag, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Pretty great stuff arrived in the mail this week. A weird handwritten letter mysteriously arrived from a stranger. I didn't think people really go through obituaries anymore to sell them bibles and such. This letter started off with condolences for my "beloved grandmother" and then went on to quote from the bible, encourage me to contact my local Jehovah's Wtinesses for council or to even write back to the Mrs. Russell who penned it. Very, very odd indeed.
Another surprise item was an engagement card from Sweets parents. It's our first!
I won the bird cards on eBay for 99 cents. Cyndemouse gave me a framed collection of them for Christmas a few years back. These cards were put out in several collections so now I'm into collecting them all.

The plant is a Kamatanishiki tree peony from van Bourgondien. It arrived with the rest of my order containing another tree peony called Seidei which is pink,an oriental poppy, liatris bulbs, two varieties of phlox, delphiniums,lupines and lilies. I need to get digging over the next few days.
The hand creme sample came with the plant order.

Gabriela in Portugal or loca-bandoca received the April swap package I sent her. She wrote to tell me she really loved it. That made me feel so good.
My March swap is still out in the ether. I really hope it arrives at its destination soon. And I'm anxiously awaiting my April swap package from my mystery partner.

Getting good mail is soooo much better than boring old bills and supermarket flyers.

poetic potpourri

2006-04-14T19:26:00.000-04:00

Earlier in the week a federal judge ruled an Arizona ninth grader should be allowed to recite a poem in a state competition. His school tried to prevent him from reciting the poem again after he did so at his school earlier in the month. The poem, "The More Loving One" by W.H. Auden uses the words "hell" and "damn" which the school considers to be obscene. Read the poem and judge for yourself. I personally think it's a lovely choice for a high school student. I was running around clutching volumes of Plath and Sexton at that point in my life. People should be happy the young man isn't angst ridden yet. Speaking of the angst ridden, The Poetry Foundation has an interesting articleDesire to Burn: Did Kurt Cobain die because he misread a poem?. It looks at a Alicia Ostriker poem that he copied out into his journals " and made a companion drawing. The story's author, Tim Appelo, asserts that Cobain's interpretation of Ostriker's "A Young Woman, a Tree" was not what she intended to convey. An interesting read if you are interested in Cobain or poetry at all. Here at "The Paper" lots of fanfare has recently been lavished on our very own in-house poet, David Tucker. The New York Times sent over a photographer to make his portrait. Heck, even I got into the action by showing his photo at the end of one of my daily photo slideshows and announcing I'd written a haiku as the caption. Tucker writes poems Enough to fill a whole book! In fine bookshops now The usually staid crowd of editors went wild, I tell ya. According to Tucker, I may have a future of my own on the poetry reading circuit. He already does. You can listen to a podcast of a reading he did this week in New York City. Or take a peek at "And This Just In" which appears in his new book, Late for Work:Poems . Like the haiku says, you can find it at your favorite place to buy books right now. Looking to find a poetry event near you? C'mon humor me. Nod,yes. Try the poetry map at Poetry.org from the Academy of American Poets. Pop in your state and it will hook you up with local readings, poets from your state and lots more. I just found out Alicia Ostriker, the poet that influenced Kurt Cobain is a New Jersey native. She joins other notables like Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Pinksy and William Carlos Williams.

The universe threw me a bone

2006-04-14T11:14:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty cranky this week. Inflicted by a woman's indelicate condition, everything bad that happened was amplified. Things that bugged me include my purse strap breaking. Paying $19 to mail my April Color-iffic Swap-o-rama package to Europe and knowing the package I sent parcel post for March still hasn't reached its destination. Being woefully understaffed at work. There have been late nights of reading wedding magazines that make me feel overwhelmed by the choices, the planning and the costs. We've been working for almost a year on our new office studio space upstairs. Last week the contractor started the custom bookshelves, media cabinets and banister. It's taking so much longer than I anticipated which means it's costing way more, too. Spending big chunks of money REALLY makes me cranky. Although, when this room is done I am going to be ecstatic and it will be worth every penny, every drop of sweat and the countless evenings and weekends Sweets and I spent up there working on it. The last thing that buggged me was that I thought I had a reservation all set up for a bed and breakfast in the Catskills next weekend to celebrate Sweets birthday. The innkeeper ended up dissing me and gave the room to someone who wanted to book it longer. Even though I had called her first. That totally set me off. I called Sweets and said this week is totally sucking. I think it's about time the universe sent me a happy suprise. Last night it arrived. I got the news I won a first place picture editing award from the National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism 2006. Last year, was a tremendous year for me. I knew I did great work editing coverage of the tsunami, the hurricanes, the Pope, Iraq and more. The award I won was for Newspaper Natural Disaster, Special Section. The section was for tsunami coverage.It includes photographs by our staff photographer ( Pulitzer Prize winner) Matt Rainey and wire services. You can see the section in pdf form here. Or view the complete list of winners. I am totally humbled by the amazing company I am keeping with some of the best photo editors in the country. When the universe gives you a gift, she makes sure it's a damned good one. Thanks, U. P.S.: Another thing to be happy about is this is the 100th post for The Metaphorical Magpie. P.S.S.: My friend and fellow editor, Elly-O is baking me congratulatory choclate chip cookies today. Winning tastes good!

Self Portrait Tuesday: Foolish Thoughts

2006-04-11T11:29:00.000-04:00

spt 4-11, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Even when I am sleeping,
my mind wants to stay activated
Wringing the same thoughts over
and over like a washerwoman.

What foolishness.
Put those thoughts through
the rinse cycle and hang them
out to dry.

I wasn't planning on posting a SPT this week. Holly Rhea's Friday Faves commentary rubbed me the wrong way. This is meant to be a positive experience for the participants. I'm a photo editor by profession and would never speak to professional photographers that way. Certainly not this group. Maybe that too is a foolish thought, to take her scolding so seriously.
This morning, as I spent a few quiet minutes in bed alone with the dogs, the idea for this photo popped into my head. So I decided to forget my indignation and make a photo. Sweets had gone out to Home Depot for some supplies for the bookshelf project upstairs. By the time he returned, I had boldy braved the creepy attic storage space to find my stickers and was double stick taping a third eye to my forehead in front of the bathroom mirror. He paused outside the door, asked "What are you DOING?" shook his head "you are freaking me out?"
I consider the mission of acting a fool for this month's SPT theme accomplished after his reaction.

I also spontaneously wrote a little poem at the beginning to continue my celebration of National Poetry Month.

Please enjoy some of the other SPT tomfoolery at the SPT blog and the flickr group.

Where is the wow?

2006-04-11T00:19:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night, Sweets and I had in our possession a pair of highly coveted tickets to The Raconteurs show at Irving Plaza. Rolling Stone magazine reported the show sold out in sixty seconds. I got our tickets several minutes afterward, so I'm not sure how accurate that is. I'm scheduled to work until 9 pm, so we didn't get to Irving Plaza until almost 10 pm. We missed the Muldoons, the next best thing since France gave us Jordy ( I still have his debut cd). We also lost out on the chance of getting a spot where we could actually see anything. We tried the balcony first. It was packed. Some rude queen threw me shade saying I was pushing in front of him when I wasn't. Across the way in the VIP area I spotted Jim Jarmusch's shock of hair. We went back downstairs. If we stood on the last few steps, we could actually see something - or David Cross as he ambled by- but then we got moved along by staff. We settled in the bar area way in the back. If you turned your head just so and swayed to the right, you could just about see Jack White. It was hard to concentrate on the show. People were talking all around us. Daniel Kessler from Interpol and a friend were standing right in front of us, so I noticed all the times guys stopped to tell him they just finished recording their records and that there were better drinks upstairs etc etc. About half way through the show, I caught myself wondering what happened. I was buzzing all week knowing I was getting to go to this show and now that I was here, I wasn't connecting with the band. The audience seemed quieter than I thought they would be. Were we all bloggers? Feverishly taking mental notes, surreptitiously snapping photos, celebrity spotting and turning witty phrases over in our minds instead of latching onto the music and letting it carry us away? I had hyped this show up so much in my mind, it could never live up to my expectations. The first time I saw the White Stripes, I thought about it for days. Brendan Benson opened and he hooked me right away with his lyrics. I love all three bands whose members make up The Raconteurs. This new band is something entirely different. It didn't wow me. Maybe the band is a "grow-er not a show-er" as my friend Chris Pearson would say. When the record drops maybe I'll be wowed. The weekend before, we went to see The Flaming Lips at Webster Hall. I'd never seen them before but have heard their show is great. That's a total understatment. They opened the show with text flashing on a screen behind the band that read "Tonight the world begins again ... it will be glorious...spectacular and fantastical...Tonight your life will change ... and you will say...Fuck Yeah!" And we did. As hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling, confetti and streamers shot into the crowd from the stage, audience members dressed as aliens and Santa Claus had a laser light battle on stage and the rest of us joined together in a mondo karaoke rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." That show was like the best New Year's Eve party you could ever imagine. That's a tough act to follow. Sweets had possession of the camera for this show. See his photos here. Another thing that did not wow me in the last week was my salon visit. Last time I got a really good cut and it was expensive at $95. A week later I went back for color. Somehow I walked out with a deep red. I liked it alot but it lightened up since then to something more cinnamon. I made an appointment with a different stylist this time to try to save some money. She is one of those stylist that looks at you disapprovingly clucking that "you REALLY need a shaping." Come on lady, my grandmother was dying I didn't have time to lounge around the hair salon. She wouldn't cut my bangs short the way I like them and styled them to the side so I didn't even know how long they are until I blowdried it myself. Ugh. I told the colorist I am getting married and want to start working back to my natural color with a brown color. She told me to that wasn't a good idea and to leave it up to her. It's, geex, I don't even know what color to call it now. Copper maybe? Then they charged me more than they had quoted me on the phone. So, here I am with my unfabulous hair that set me back close to $200. I used to have the best stylist ever. Cut and color for $60! And then she disappeared. I'm considering hiring a P.I. to find her. Can't cost more than this last styling.

Viva la verses

2006-04-08T19:11:00.000-04:00

April is National Poetry Month. I'm going to to post poems throughout the month as my way of celebrating. I hope you enjoy the poems and find a way to bring a little more poetry into your life - this month and onward. Today, I focus on Rainer Maria Rilke. I fell in love with Rilke's poetry while still in high school. I bought The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke when it came out in 1989 and still have the same well worn copy today. Although, I almost gave it away to Peter Murphy at a concert. I threw it up on stage, convinced he had to read the Dunio Elegies. By the end of the show, he collapsed and was removed by the stage hands. As the crowds cleared, I called one of them over and asked he return my book. I knew its fate was the trash if Murphy didn't take it. I'm glad I kept it. It's sat on my nightstand over the years, ready for me to leaf through in the midst of countless sleepless nights. My first year of college, I had a handwritten copy of this poem taped to the wall next to my bed. I still find it wonderful. {I am, O Anxious One. Don't you hear my voice} I am, O Anxious One. Don't you hear my voice surging forth with all my earthly feeling? They yearn so high that they have sprouted wings and whitely fly in circels around your face. My soul, dressed in silence, rises up and stands alone before you: can't you see? Don't you know that my prayer is growing ripe upon your vision, as upon a tree?
If you are the dreamer, I am what you dream. But when you want to wake, I am your wish, and I grow strong with all magnificence and turn myself into a star's vast silence above the strange and distant city, Time.

This piece below may not be a poem but it may make you want to attempt to write one. Or revisit some of the ones you may have written in the past. I know I have some that make me cring looking back on them now.
For the Sake of a Single Poem (Rainer Maria Rilke) "... Ah, poems amount to so little when you write them too early in your life. You ought to wait and gather sense and sweetness for a whole lifetime, and a long one if possible, and then, at the very end, you might perhaps be able to write ten good lines. For poems are not, as people think, simply emotions (one has emotions early enough)--they are experiences. For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and Things, you must understand animals, must feel how birds fly, and know the gesture which small flowers make when they open in the morning. You must be able to think back to streets in unknown neighbourhoods, to unexpected encounters, and to partings you had long seen coming; to days of childhood whose mystery is still unexplained, to parents whom you had to hurt when they brought in a joy and you didn't pick it up (it was a joy meant for somebody else--); to childhood illnesses that began so strangely with so many profound and difficult transformations, to days in quiet, restrained rooms and to mornings by the sea, to the sea itself, to seas, to nights of travel that rushed along overhead and went flying with all the stars,--and it is still not enough to be able to think of all that. You must have memories of many nights of love, each one different from all the others, memories of women screaming in labor, and of light, pale, sleeping girls who have just given birth and are closing again. But you must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and scattered noises. And it is not yet enough to have memories. You must be able to forget them when they are many, and you must have the immense patience to wait until they return. For the memories themselves are not important. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves-- only then can it happen that in some very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them."

Rilke is well known for Letters to a Young Poet. You can read them here. His advice to this young man will often feel it is directed toward you personally, whatever your artistic pursuit may be. All the translations here or that I link to are by Stephen Mitchell. I urge you to seek out his translations if you look for your own volumes of Rilke. They are the best. For more on National Poetry Month, visit the Poetry Foundation for daily podcasts and more.

I used to be Snow White ... but I drifted

2006-04-05T19:41:00.000-04:00

When I was a little girl, there were two female figures I adored. Mae West and Miss Piggy. Watching old black and white movies on PBS on Sunday afternoons, I was mesmerized by Mae West's wisecracking swagger. Even if I didn't get all the jokes. Over the years, I've mastered the double entendre. But Mae's best lines will live on forever. Yesterday, Universal released a five movie DVD collection of her work, Mae West: The Glamour Collection (Go West Young Man/ Goin' To Town/ I'm No Angel/ My Little Chickadee/ Night After Night). Excellent! Even better, it's only $18. Best of all, I have a $15 gift certificate to Amazon. Glamour Collections for Carole Lombard and Marlene Dietrich were also released. A New York Times article called these collections "one of the year's better bargains." Some of Mae West's most fantabulous quotations: "A hard man is good to find."
"Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly."
"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."
"Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for."
"Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you."
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
"I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond."
"I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported."
"It is better to be looked over than overlooked."
"It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it."
"To err is human, but it feels divine."
"When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better."
Thanks to Brain Quotes for the quotations.
I found out that she's buried in Brooklyn. Maybe I should do a little roadtrip to pay her some respect at her grave. Some funny things came up at the office today. My pal, Lucius, posed this question: "Does it make you feel better or words if your ex has a new partner that is not as good looking as you?" Hmmm. Good one. Discuss.
Then it came up that today is the anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. After I went on my annual rant about how I am sooooo sure Courtney Love killed him and then went on a heroin binge and has never been caught and this is will prove to be true just mark my words..... the youngest member of our department chimed in. "By the time Cobain died, I was Nirvana-ed out." That really made me freak. I mean the guy was 13 at the time. He was barely a teenager let alone hip to what teen spirit smells like. It's days like these that make me feel I am really getting old. I remember the day Cobain died. I was in the middle of painting the apartment above mine to get a rent reduction. The gas bill had been super high so I found a way to get some extra cash. I was up there painting and listening to the radio. When they made the announcement, I felt so terrible. Here was a guy who was depressed. I identified with that. Cobain had made it. He was living the rock n roll dream. He had fame and fortune. Yet it wasn't enough to make that terrible eating pain in his stomach go away. Success had failed to cure his problems and that made me sad. My magpie was caught today by another magpie, the Magpie Outfit, a iPod case that is sturdy, functional and super cute. I'm not one to dress up my dogs (except for a sweater) let alone my iPod but these may make me change my tune. They come in six designs ranging from juicy oranges, pink roses and multi-colored sunflowers. At $24.95, they are priced the same as all the boring options out there, so go ahead and bling it up. Only snag is they are only available for the Nano model right now. The genius behind all this is Maggie Stephens, a crafty gal from Austin, TX. You can find more of her creations, including felt and button flower brooches and pins at her Magpie shop. Birds of a feather have to stick together!

Self Portrait Tuesday: Fool for Love

2006-04-04T11:10:00.000-04:00

the kiss, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I would describe myself as a practical person. Some people who know me only professionally probably think I am some sort of hard, crass,unfeeling bee-otch because that's what I've gotta do sometimes.
What those people would never guess is I'm a fool for love.
I cry at weddings. Romantic comedies are a secret vice. The kind that star Meg Ryan and make me all hiccuppy and sticky with tears by the end of the film give me the most satisfaction. They kept me hanging on. One of my favorite Rhett Miller lyrics goes "I believe in love but it don't believe in me." For a long time, that felt particularly, poignantly true to me.
And then I met Sweets. And love started believing in me, too. And it was a glorious, spectacular thing.
Last week, he suggested we go walk on the boardwalk for some exercise. He'd been suggesting it for days and I couldn't go because of the vertigo. On Monday, I was ready.
He let me choose which town we'd go for a walk. I decided Bradley Beach would be best because it has paver stones instead of a boardwalk and that would be better if I was still unsteady on my feet. As soon as we got to there, I asked if he wanted to go on the beach and he said maybe later. We walked south towards Avon, turned back and continued north past our starting point. It was a little chilly. My pants had no pockets. Sweets hands were pushed down into his. I asked to put my hand in his pocket. He wouldn't let me. Said there was no room. We came to the point where his old apartment was. I joked that he had given up oceanfront property to come live with me. Was he sure he made the right decision? Then I squeezed his arm and told him that apartment was where everything started for us. He asked if I wanted to go down to the beach. I said no. My ears were chilly and I wanted to go back. Just for a few minutes he pleaded. As soon as we hit the beach, I remembered the first night time we were there together. It was a freezing January night. After being out for cocktails with a group, we all tumbled back to his apartment for more fun, But first we ventured out on the beach. It had snowed earlier in the week. A crunchy crust covered the sand. It was slippery. My boots kept breaking through the crust. By now I had an immense crush on Sweets. All I wanted at that moment was for him to hold my hand as we crossed that surreal landscape. He didn't.
As we walked to the shore last week, I told him that story. We walked on and made small talk. I remember talking about how I felt like my crafting skills are inferior compared to the other members of color-iffic swap-o-rama. I turned to head back towards home. Sweets stopped me. Said he wasn't ready to go back yet and pulled me in for a hug. He stepped back and said in a strange voice, "Can I ask you a question?"And then he was falling to his knees, the air rushing around us, as he asked if I would marry him. Stunned, I said "Of course". Then thinking about it, thought I'd better say "YES" too. He went into the pocket he had denied me entry to earlier and fished out a ring box.
Grams gave me her engagement diamond over the summer and told us to use it when we were ready. She'd been ribbing us in her last few months about wanting to see us married. Giving advice on the setting. Sweets paid attention to everything she said. He choose a gorgeous solitare platinum six prong setting to hold this precious reminder of my Grams.

I don't really know when we're going to have the wedding. Or where. Or what it will be like.

What I DO know is that I am crazy in love with this man. And he loves me right back. What more do you need to know?

Be sure to explore more SPT April foolishness today at Self Portrait Tuesday or the Flicker group. Quote of the Day: "Don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem, baby girl." - Lauryn Hill Soundtrack of the Day: "I Never" by Rilo Kiley. you can stream the album "More Adventurous" on the site.
Take a peek at the ring here.

Ruckus over The Raconteurs

2006-03-30T11:48:00.000-05:00

This morning, I'm listening to one of my all time favorite raconteurs, John Wesley Harding's debut album It Happened One Night. Wes's song "July 13th 1985" tells an anecdote about watching Live Aid on tv, being so addled by coke that he missed Spandau Ballet and U2 perform and then donates the 10 pound note that he used to snort the coke to Live Aid. In Wes' words, he's "fucking brilliant." I chose to listen to this particular record purposely as I logged onto Ticketmaster to attempt securing tickets for The Raconteurs first North American appearance next week at Irving Plaza. There's been quite a little scuffle over at The Modern Age over this show. Laura put out a little post earlier in the week indicating she was aware of something secret going on. Well, no duh, if you're smart enough to get on your favorite bands and record companies newsletters you will know about the secret stuff. I agree with Laura that you shouldn't talk too loud about the really cool stuff - until you've got your own ticket in your shaking little hand. I don't want the scoop out there and then have to buy tickets from some smug enterprising jerk who doesn't give a crap about the music. I planned on picking up four tickets. I frantically called JPO to tell her to start trying for tickets when I found out there was a two ticket maximum. And then for eight minutes I couldn't get anything. Just as I was going to quit, grab my bags and head to work defeated, I got in. Whoohoo! Now, I skip off in my sparkly shoes singing "Steady As She Goes." Check back soon for another "sparkly" revelation.

vertigo: Weebles wobble but they don't fall down

2006-03-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

Thursday just plain stunk. As soon as the door clicked when Sweets went to work, my office called telling me to get a move on and get in there fast. A busload of tourists drove off a cliff in Chile. That affects me how? They were almost all from New Jersey, of course. It doesn't matter where news happens, there is invariably someone from New Jersey involved. That means, we at the paper go into warp speed covering the story. After nine hours in the office, I felt totally scuzzy for reprimanding reporters that aren't trying hard enough (in my opinion) to get photos for the story. I can be quite a vulture when I have to be and it does make me feel gross. I came home, took a bubble bath, felt better and went to bed. On Friday morning, I woke up in a good mood, swung my legs over the edge of the bed, sat up and everything started spinning. I got up and tried walking it off. I ran into the doorjam. As I walked down the hall, I listed to the left like a drunk. Scared, we decided I'd better get to the doctor. When I bent over to put my shoes on, I toppled over into a laundry basket. That was pretty comical. We ended up in the emergency room all day. My primary care physician gave up his practice because his malpractice insurance costs were getting too high and went to work for the hospital. I've had "get a new doctor" on my to-do list for about five months. I put a call into another doctor I know who was very kind but couldn't see me on short notice. He suggested a walk in clinic. Sweets bundled me up, helped me walk out to the car and we were off. The first stop was a bust. Where I remembered a clinic in our town, a bank now stands. So we went south to a clinic in Wall Twp. We got there at 12:07pm. They told us there were closed for lunch for an hour. So we went to the emergency room next. I was briefly examined and gave blood and urine. They gave me an EKG. Which made me wish I had the forethought to shave my legs earlier in the week! An IV of medicine to help with the nausea. A pill to help with the vertigo. Next I was wheeled down the hall for a CT scan of my head. Freaked out by this, I silently swore to myself that if I had a big, honking brain tumor I would insist that only Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Sheppard would be good enough to do the surgery.Luckily, that wasn't neccessary. Despite being a dizzy broad (temporarily), nothing is wrong with the old noggin. The diagnosis was pretty simple: Labyrinthinitis or an inner ear imbalance. It usually clears up in a few days or weeks at most. Basic bedrest keeping the head stationary helps. I climbed straight into bed at 7pm on Friday and didn't get back out until noon on Saturday. I still didn't have my sea legs, so I had to sit home instead of doing all the fun and neccessary things I had on the day's agenda. Sweets had to go to the office for a while to design some pages since he spent all day Friday in the hospital with me. Cyndemouse had done some thrifting earlier in the day, so she stopped by with her loot and some goodies from Del Ponte's Bakery. vintage patterns were her big score of the day. She gave me a apron pattern that is very basic so I can take my first step towards sewing something. We brainstormed my next project for the April color-iffic swap-o-rama. The outcome will hopefully be a cool totebag with purple and green elephant iron-ons and some other embellishments. Once I'm less woozy, I can go over to the craft store to get my supplies. After five doses of the medicine that stops vertigo, I am beginning to feel better today. When I got up this morning my head wasn't spinning. I still feel a little unsteady on my feet, so I'm staying inside with my training wheels on. Maybe this whole episode is my body's way of telling me I am off kilter and need to deal with it. I'm trying to go slow, which is hard for me, and to listen to what my body needs. While puttering around in the kitchen this afternoon, playing "let's make something to eat with whatever is laying around" I got the idea of making a spring themed cd complilation. Blossom Dearie planted the seed with "A Fine Spring Morning." Now I'm off to mine my cd cabinet for other springy tunes and to the stir the pot of "everything left over goes into the pot" chicken soup simmering on the center burner of the new stove.

Spring has sprung, whether I'm ready or not

2006-03-21T11:35:00.000-05:00

No Self Portrait Tuesday this week. I hope to be back in the swing next week. I miss it. I returned to work yesterday, tired but ready. My head was clearer than it has been in a long time. Many people wanted to stop by my desk to pay their condolences. It was the first time I've used the past tense in refering to Grams. I was ready though. There were many others there that sent me kind words in the mail that I am trying to talk to individually throughout this week. Most of my formal thank yous were written out on Sunday. Sweets' parents sent a houseplant arrangement. My Aunt Ladaire took that home with here to sit amongst her other pampered plants. A beautiful floral arrangement came from ME and his girlfriend. That was tremendously thoughful of him. It was not the first time over the past 15+ years that he was there for me in a time of need. He is not only my longest held friend but one of the truest. JPO and her twin sis took the day off from work so they could attend the services, repast and then come back to the house with us to attend to me personally. JPO broke in our new stove with her world famous hot chocolate with a smidge of amaretto to raise my spirits. It's like a liquid hug. So very good but no comparision to having your friends rally around you when you are down. Cyndemouse was away in Austin for SXSW, so she called me to talk just about everyday and sent us a giant goodie basket from Delicious Orchards. Grams and I spent countless hours pushing wobbly carts amongst the produce aisles there. Stealing grapes to snack on, pondering the perfectly enormous strawberries, jostling in line for cheese samples. It's one of our favorite local haunts and Cyn raised some fun memories for me with her choice. Besides, she thinks I should eat more fruit. One of my co-workers, who I'll refer to as The Lion, made a generous donation to his local community center in Grams' name. That touched me immensely. We have one of those classic love-hate relationships in the newsroom. As much as I complain about his old fashioned ways and he about me being a whippersnapper, or shiksa-snapper as I've coined it; I think we are both pretty sweet on each other. Really there was so much more over the week. Talullah checking in on my from Brooklyn several times even though she was on major deadline. Benjamin wrote from Thailand and Tiffany from Seattle. My friend, Jen, from work drove over an hour to come to the service. Plus all the notes and calls from so many more. I am honored to be surrounded by such good hearted people and to call them my friends. It only seems fitting, that my return to work fell on the first day of spring. As I begin to find a new routine, I feel like the flowers out front in my garden. Lazily, they are yawning, begging for a few more days to snooze before they raise their heads and shoulders from the bed to face the sun, squinting. On the 1 & 2: "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"- The White Stripes, What's for lunch: Leftover shrimp and grits (yum), Time left before work and my hair is still wet- 0 minutes.

Coming up for air

2006-03-15T18:40:00.000-05:00

After a brief struggle with cancer, my beloved Grams, died on Monday morning at my sister's home surrounded by three generations of her family. Legally blind and survivor of two strokes and a pair of heart attack; she was a testment to tenacity. The cancer that had long gone undetected was the final straw. Those of you who spent anytime with my Grams knew she was a character. Funny and fiesty, generous of spirit. Often a guest at my parties, she had everyone laughing. Sometimes she had little gifts for my friends. She always made our rag tag bunch feel welcome. She had a story for everything. Tales of growing up in Brooklyn, going to dances, riding the CycIone. I especially loved the story about how she met my grandfather in Central Park during World War II. He liked the wiggle in her walk, whistled at her and called her over. Always a flirt, she went to him and they stayed together for 51 years. She taught me everything I know about generosity, unconditional love and how to flirt. She's instilled in me a love for big bands, old movies, and potato chips with onion dip. I'm going to miss her like hell. A memorial visitation service service will be held Friday. There is alot to do to prepare for the memorial. I can't believe how fast the past few days have gone by. I'm working on a slideshow of photos of her. A good portion of yesterday was spent copying old photos. I am so glad I bought that macro lens and never bothered to use before. I still have to upload and prep them. An outfit had to be prepared. I've decided to wear something I already have. Trying on dresses doesn't interest me right now. I've got some fancy grey pants with black flocking that I'll pair with a black tank and silk three quarter length jacket. I wore this to a rehearsal dinner last year and it looked good. Today disappeared on me somehow. I took my first shower since Sunday and made sure it was very hot and very long. Sweets came home for lunch. We had waffles and talked about the future. On my own again for the past four hours, I've managed to do two loads of laundry, reorganize the candy jar, run the dishwasher, sweep out the kitchen, hall and bath, rehang a birdfeeder that a squirrel must have knocked down, put away the set of pots from my Grams' house that have been sitting on my kitchen chairs for the past two months, got my thank you card supply in order to send to all the people sending me kind thoughts right now, made an appointment with my accountant to prepare my taxes and placed an order for plants. Wow. That's actually alot of stuff. While doing all this I listened to the soundtrack for Hedwig and the Angry Inch and some Teena Marie. The duet "Fire and Desire" with Rick James in one of my favorites, so I played it twice, singing both parts. Loudly. After taking a little email/blog break there is plenty more to do. The rest of the house needs attention. Family and friends will be here over the weekend. I don't want them to know I'm a total slob. My email held one gem today. V2 Records sent out the word The Raconteurs first video "Steady, As She Goes,"for is out. Watch it here. There are also some free downloads on the V2 site for songs by Josh Ritter and other stuff like Blanche and Brendan Benson videos. The Raconteurs have a website that looks lke it was designed in DOS and appears to be not operating except for a clock. Hmm. Perhaps Jack White is raging against technology again. Their Myspace profile is a tad more flushed out. I'm seriously excited about this band. It's like putting all your favorite flavors together. The Neopolitan ice cream of rock, if you will. There is the strawberry sweetness of pop rocker, Brendan Benson, the complex chocolately rhythm section of Lil' Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler and the exotic vanilla note provided by Jack White. I'd like some now, please.

rainy morning relaxation

2006-03-12T11:27:00.000-05:00

It's raining here this morning. The sun's rays never managed to penetrate the bedroom early this morning and that is the only chance it was going to have today. Sweets and the dogs are cocooned in the darkness. That gives me time to relax a bit on my own. First things first, I made myself a mondo cuppa coffee. A package arrived from Portugal with my Coloriffic Swap-o-Rama green swap on Friday. I photographed the wonderful goodies as best as I could in the avaiable light from the kitchen window. Seperate post to come on the swap. The poor little birds looks so bedraggled at the bird feeder this morning. I put out some nice soft bread heels under the shelter of the back door overhang. Next thing I know a pesky squirrel was munching away. Guess he got tired of rocking the big feeder to rob it of it's seeds. Hopefully before Sweets wakes up I'll manage to post the photos I shot last weekend at the New Pornographers and Belle & Sebastian show in Philadelphia. We have never been there before and found a really good spot to watch the show. I love having my secret spots at venues. Yesterday we went to see Dr. Staci, our chiropracter in the morning. She said my shoulders feel like concrete. Was that supposed to be a compliment? Afterwards, I drove Cyndemouse to the airport shuttle. She's on her way to SXSW in Austin. Lucky duck! We've been talking about going for years. One of her friend s just bought a big old house outside of the city to fix it up as a bed and breakfast. With that kind of hospitality at her disposal, the trip had to happen. I couldn't go this year with Grams being sick but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. Sweets and I spent the late afternoon visiting with Grams. She started taking morphine on Friday so she's pretty out of it. We just sat with her quietly, holding her hand. On Thursday, I just broke down and said all the things that I needed to tell her while she appeared to sleep. After a while, I composed myself and started to tell her about the blue jays making a terrible racket at the feeder that morning. She opened her eyes and said, "Oh, you're here" in a surprised tone. I have a sneaking suspicious she heard everything I said and just wanted to keep things light. She's avoided any heavy conversations with my sister, too. How much is there to say, really? I told her I loved her everyday. She knows it. No need to keep waking her up jabbering on. Later in the evening we went on a little shopping expedition and bought a new stove. Ours has been on the fritz for months. The oven works fine but the range doesn't light when you want it to. It's like range roulette. Sometimes it lights but mostly it doesn't. If I do get it on, I leave the gas burning and run to the stove for ingredients. We started doing research last month and found a Kenmore model we liked with five burners. It's coming on Tuesday. I'm very excited to get cooking.

2006-03-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I woke up in a terrible mood. I shuffled around the kitchen making the coffee, grumpily called for Sweets to help make our lunches and got dressed silently. I came back into the kitchen and announced I felt dejected. Dejected is actually quite a heavy feeling. I knew why I felt dejected. The reason is indeed heavy. I just didn't want to look it in the eye yesterday morning. You see, my Grams, my beloved little Muchkin of a grandmother is ill. The kind of ill that doesn't get better. It seems like it was the day before yesterday that a doctor told us we should take her home with us to begin hospice care. That she had two weeks left. Yesterday marked two weeks. I can't bear it. Every day she is weaker and quieter, eating less and less. One day soon she will be gone. That's a hard thing to grapple with. I have tried to be the strong one while the rest of my family takes turns to cry. My head needs to be screwed on straight at the newspaper. I made a pretty big error last week. My boss was not impressed with me. Over the weekend, we were in the grocery store and Sweets stopped me saying I looked lost. Did I need a nap? The past few days I feel like I'm reeling out like a fishing line. I do feel lost. I'd better start sprinkling some bread crumbs behind me, so I can find my way back out of this dark forest I've entered.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Time to drive

2006-03-07T02:07:00.000-05:00

spt 3.7.2006, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

When I first read Time was the March theme for Self Portrait Tuesday, I had no idea what I was to do. I looked at the sites Kath suggested for inspiration. I wasn't inspired. Alot of them were of men who take a daily photo of themselves. It just seems so narcissistic. So I kept thinking.
I read a bunch of blogs every week. Lots of amazing, talented women who seem to have an endless supply of time on their hands to accomplish everything. I feel like I have no time to myself. In the morning, I have one hour alone after Sweets leaves before I embark on my hour commute. Then I work for 8 or 9 hours and commute again.
I drive 100 miles a day round trip. I'll spend about 500 hours a year commuting. Seems like time wasted.
This week I started to really keep track.
Every three rows in this grid equal one day's commute and includes at least one shot of me.
Day 1: Wed. March 1st
Row 1: My keys. Volkswagen Golf had 19K when I bought it in August 2005. It's a tad over 32K this week. Start time 12:05 pm at 32,152k. My street sign through the sun roof. Coffee stop. I chose English Toffee.
Row 2: Trying to take photos at 80 mph is harder than I thought. Sometimes I get in a funeral line by mistake this time I was along side one. I listened to the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC 93.9 FM. The segment was on a new book about getting fired. I laughed. There's my lead foot. Exit sign. I take Route 21 now.
Row 3: Buzzing into the parking deck with my id card. That's my office across the street (self portrait in the window). Self portrait before driving home. I look tired. I usually call home to let Sweets know I'm leaving and we chat while I drive. Driving at night.
Day 2: March 2nd
Row 4: Forecast said snow. More like frozen rain. Droplets on the sunroof. Bagel for breakfast on the go and lunch for the office later. My sophisticated ipod holder(listening to Rhett Miller). The speed limit I never adhere to.
Row 5: Self Portrait. Visibility very low so this is the only shot from the drive. View from the parking deck at night. Books I picked up from our intellectual recycling bin. Gas stop. It's full service in NJ which is good because I hate the way gas smells. I usually have to fill up twice a week. Costs about $50 total these days.
Row 6: My favorite shot of the series is of a exit sign and car lights. Pit stop at the grocery store. I was craving ice cream and chose mint chocolate chip to snack on while I put together my Color-iffic Swap-o-rama package. Arrival time at home 11:00 pm. My dogs are the first thing I see when I get home. They are more interested in the ice cream than me here.
Day 3: March 3rd
Row 7: Once in a blue moon we leave at the same time, so here's our farewell smooch. My laptop bag and Color-iffic Swap-o-rama package in the back seat. I stopped at the post office before heading to work. My favorite coffee mug. I bought it in 2002 at a giftshop on the Olympic Penninsula. I love to think about Washington State. That's me in the rear view mirror. Excellent clouds.
Row 8: I'm a lefty. For six years I've driven by this park and wondered about it. Today, I took a detour and found the entrance. I said hello to the swans. Left my footprint in the snow. Wiggles is a go-go place. The name amuses me.
Row 9: A nice church in town. Notice I am overdue for my oil change in the sticker. Damn! A cool old building. Stopped at a light, I glanced out the window and saw this baby carriage sitting there. In the parking garage. The paper I worked on the night before. It's my job to choose the photos on the front page.

This SPT turned out to be more challenging than I anticipated. Photographing while driving was hard and yes, possibly dangerous. Making thoughtfully composed shots was out of the question and some of the accidents were delightful.
I started to pay more attention to what was around me. Noticing the stripes in my pants vs the checks of my coat, the clouds, the scenery. I chose to mix things up and take different routes. Best of all the detour to the park. I was only there for a minutes but breaking the monotony of my routine was priceless.

Idle away some of your time with the rest of the SPT crew at Self Portrait Tuesday or the Flicker group.

Ode to Oscar

2006-03-06T18:41:00.000-05:00

I was so exhausted last night, my Oscars commentary was available couchside only. I'm embarrassed to say I actually nodded off there for a while and missed the Original Score category. Michelle Williams was my favorite at the Golden Globes and she delivered once again. She exudes old Hollywood glamour with a new Hollywood sensibility. Of all the yellow gowns at the show, hers was the best. I love the floating neckline. The cinch at the waist and gathering at the hips creates a great hourglass figure for a post-baby starlet. Heath Ledger was cute fussing over her hair on the red carpet, too. No matching flower for him this time. Vera Wang's artfully constructed number was triumphant on Keira Knightley. Bonus points for the rad '60's Bulgari necklace. Jack Nicholson must have enjoyed the view sitting next to her during the ceremony. I was initially very positive about Felicity (You got robbed, girl!) Huffman in Zac Posen's plunging onyx number until I saw how short it fell in the front. Amy Adams was nautical and nice. When choosing a gown, my first rule of thumb would be to avoid anything strapless that requires constantly tugging at one's ta-tas. Not a good look. At least do the fluffing BEFORE exiting the limo, ladies. Geesh. Salma Hayek knows her breast can be unruly, so she wisely gave them some extra support. I'm not sure what Charlize Theron was going for last night but it wasn't quite right. The hair was ucky and that poofy bow on her shoulder did not tie her look together. Reese Witherspoon looked decidedly better than she did at the Globes and that's all that "matters." I don't know why Sandra Bullock's dress has pockets or if she had a baby kangaroo stashed in there but she sure spent enough time swishing her hands around in the folds of her dress to freak me out. I love Dolly Parton to pieces, I do, so I'm awfully frightened she is going the Amanda LePore route with the collagen/ Her plump lips didn't look quite ... symmetrical. Men are often overlooked on the red carpet but the polls were buzzing over George Clooney. He's a yawn fest to me. I preferred Ludacris' velvet tux and Terrence Howard's diamond brooch. That was a first, I think. Larry McMurtry kept it real in a tux on top and jeans on the bottom. The foppish bowties on Nick Park and Steve Box, creators of Wallace and Grommit were fun. The matching bowties they produced to dress their Oscars were sublime. And a shoutout to Morgan Freeman for rocking a cravat. My favorite acceptance speech was Best Foreign Film Tsosti's, director, Gavin Hood's passionate affirmation of Africa. For more fashion flogging, check out the always amusing musings of Bunnyshop on The Oscar Fashion Round Up, Barely, Because It Sucked and her daily missives on all things fashionable.

2006-03-01T20:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Rhett Miller dropped his sophmore solo album,

The Believer

. I happily listened to the new tracks on his website during the day. When I got home, Sweets had already downloaded the album and slipped it onto my ipod before I left the house today. I still have to familiarize myself with the new Belle and Sebastian record before we see them play on Saturday. Time to cram it in. Having an ipod has revitalized my commute. I used to bring a dozen cds out to the car and leave them for months until I couldn't stand listening to them anymore. Now I've got a modest portion of my music on the pod. In the past week or so I've been listening to: Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution Grace- Jeff Buckley Nebraska- Bruce Springsteen Rainy Day Music- The Jayhawks Satellite Rides- Old 97's The Ultimate Collection- Patsy Cline The Magic Numbers-The Magic Numbers

Self Portrait Tuesday: Hardest Button to Button

2006-02-28T00:23:00.000-05:00

hardest button to button, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I missed last week's SPT. Secretly, I was pleased that I skirted doing the hard work this month's theme entails. I owe it to myself and the other SPTers who are putting it on the line to tell it like it is this week.

These are my skinny jeans. At size 12, they might not seem very skinny to some of you gals out there but they have become skinny to me. Lately, there's been alot of family stuff going and lately the jeans don't fit.
When I'm stressed I eat. Nothing in particular. Whatever is handy. I just eat and eat and eat and hope I'll eventually feel better. Right now, I feel like I'm full up to the top of my throat. And yet, I keep thinking about going out to the kitchen to have some of the salt and pepper chips with bacon horseradish dip that are out there waiting for me. Beckoning me. This morning I ate a glazed donut and I knew it was gross and bad and counter productive and I didn't give a shit. I put it my mouth and I swallowed it.
There have been times in my life that I know I've half purposely turned myself into the stay-puff-marshmallow lady. If you're softer, the hard things will just bounce off you, right? I know that's not true. Really, I do.
One argument I used to like to use was that I wanted to find a guy that appreciated me for my wit and smarts not my body. Except that the bigger, I got the more unlovable I felt. One time an ex-boyfriend told me he'd marry me if I'd just lost 25 lbs. We eventually broke up. I put on thirty. It took a year of Weight Watchers to lose it. Then I gained 22 lbs back. I got my act together and lost almost all of that 22 on my own. I bought these jeans as a treat to myself to celebrate the accomplishment.
Now look at me.

I will fit into those jeans again.

Tonight I will not eat those chips.

Treating myself like crap isn't going to make this situation any better. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

I've got to find a new way to cope.

More SPT's at the blog and the flickr group.

Things worth getting excited for

2006-02-18T01:11:00.000-05:00

Clockwise from left: Greys Anatomy Season One DVD. I missed the beginning episode where Meredith and McDreamy lock lips and hips. Now I need not wonder. This image for Nacho Libre is my new screeensaver. Jack Black wears tights. Jack Black flexs butt cheeks. Jack Black wears Mexican wrestling mask. Really, need I say more? Except maybe that it's written by Mike White. Which equals righteousness. In theaters June 2. Midwestern charmer, Jason Bitner, of the Found Magazine crew just happened upon a side stash of thousands of vintage studio portraits when he ordered a slice of pie at a diner. The result is his new photo book La Porte, Indiana. If you love all things from the Found family as much as I do, then you'll go out and find yourself a copy. Available March 1. Sweets has "The Life Pursuit" by Belle and Sebastian in heavy rotation this week. We've got tickets to the show at the Electric Factory in Philly. With The New Pornograhers. March 4. Bump and grinders the World Famous Pontani Sisters bring their revue, Burlesque-a-Pades in Loveland, to Asbury Lanes February 18. While travelling last week, I was mesmerized by this tale of two Chinese women.Snow Flower and the Secret Flower by Lisa See reminded me of my girlhood fascination with all things Chinese after reading everything my public library had in stock by Pearl S. Buck. In paperback February 21.Read an excerpt . A girl can't help salivating over sale items that are STILL too rich for my blood at Anthropologie. Like these 3 inch teal velvet peeptoes called Timeless Heels. I call them terrific. Center: I recently got caught up in a new Flickr group, Coloriffic Swap-o-rama. Created by Jek in the Box, the principle is simple. Collect cool items of a specific color, add a homemade item, pack it all up and ship it to another group member somewhere in the world. This is the beginning of my green themed March swap which will soon become my first internationally shipped package. Even cooler, I'll be getting one, too from another color crazy swapper. I knew Flickr is addictive but this colorific thang is my official new crack.

Self Portrait Tuesday: pondering popping

2006-02-14T11:37:00.000-05:00

pondering popping, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Most women have trouble coming up with a list of things they love about themselves. It seems vain. Conceited. But ask us what we don't like, you'd better sit down cause you'll be here for a while. Why is that?
I had to skip posting an SPT last week because my Grams had a stroke and was in the hospital. This month's theme "All of Me" is a difficult one and I've been thinking about it alot.
Mostly about the things I find as faults of course.
Then I walked into the house on Friday night and my viewpoint shifted. I had to go out of town for a few days to conduct a newspaper photography contest that I chair. Sweets told me he was making me a Valentine's surprise. I was eager to return.
When I got to the house, the front door was slightly ajar. The living room lit by candlelight. Flowers and a card waited on the coffee table. I glanced up and saw a sea of red balloons bobbing against the ceiling. I heard myself giggle.
I found Sweets peering around the kitchen doorway, watching me find his surprise. Then he told me each balloon has a slip of paper inside with something he loves about me written on it. If I want to read them. They need to be popped.
Wow-sa.
There are about fifty balloons. Over the course of the weekend and the past few days, I've slowly released the messages. I still have about twenty left for today.
The sayings range from funny to sweet to naughty.
I'll share some of my favorites so far:

I love when you wink and smile at me when you're talking on the phone with someone else.

I love your carefree and inventive style.

I love how hard working and responsible you are. It's a definite turn on.

I love how you giggle like Marge Simpson sometimes.

I love how your eyes reflect in zero to infinity my love for you.

I love that you have loves- birds, Rilke, flickr and oh, so much more...

I love waking up to your smell.

I love it when you make me coffee in the morning.

I love how that curve on your lower back sums up in one swoop how unbelievably sexy you are.

I love how much you get along with my family.

I love your way with words.

I love your kisses, especially because they are all mine.

Before I met Sweets, I had been single for too long, failed at dating too often. I came to the conclusion that I was unlovable. He's changed all that. You can't be in an environment where you are covered with kisses and compliments, good words and good deeds, everyday without it starting to rub off on you.

I'm ready to say " I AM LOVABLE." It's about time I start making a list all of my one.

Right after I finish popping those balloons....

Happy Valentine's Day ladies and lads. Take some time to open your heart today to more SPT's at the blog and the flickr group.

xoxo

Self Portrait Tuesday: Working Press

2006-01-31T12:02:00.000-05:00

voguing, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Most people leave an annual portrait behind them in their school years. As a member of the working press, a photo is now required on press passes. It didn't used to be like that. Since I don't like being photographed, these portraits make me all itchy and sweaty. The photo above is obviously an outtake from the 2005 pass. My friend, Saed, is behind the camera. We've spent many hours together in the studio setting up for shoots. I'll patiently stand as he fusses with lights in preparation of shooting real fashion models, actors or sometimes just food. I'm comfortable with him and sometimes he gets a good photo of me. Which he invariably deletes because I'm just his test shot. This is one of those shots that he would have deleted but I snagged it first.
This year, Jerry, shot my portrait. He was patient. Giving me good directions like "give me a positive expression" or "just a little teeth." Afterwards, he told me I looked nervous and it was hard to select a good frame. He submitted four. I chose this one. It has a "positive expression" but my face isn't doing all those things that make me look goofy. When I smile big, my left eye closes up and my smile is crooked.That stuff is endearing on a kid. Not a grown person trying to look professional.
The whole point of having this pass, is to identify yourself to law enforcement or subjects while covering news. I'm rarely in the field since I'm an editor. I've found that if you identify yourself as press, people don't ask to see your id anyway.
I never intended to be a journalist. I thought I was going to be a novelist or a poet. As a kid, my nose was always in a book. In high school, I was the editor of the school newspaper and literary magazine. In 1989, my newspaper advisor gave me a tip about an after school job at the local daily paper. I've been in newspapers ever since learning the ropes, doing different jobs, working at different papers. About six years ago, I got fed up with the paper I was at and thought I was done with newspapers. So I quit. Filmmaking interested me. I had the notion to learn how to make documentary filsm. Then I got an offer to help build a brand new photography department and I couldn't resist the challenge.

It seems that I have ink in my veins. It doesn't matter much what medium I use. Words, photos, video. Telling stories is the fundamental thing. When you can tell the truth about a person or a topic in a way that is humanizing and dignified, you've done a good job. When that story moves people to action to right a wrong, lend a hand, make a difference, you've done a great job.

The dining wishlist

2006-01-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

momofuku, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Working at a newspaper can be a cool for various reasons. A new one presented itself last week when Rocco DiSpirito stopped by to whip up some lunch in the food department's test kitchen. He's promoting his new book Rocco's Five Minute Flavor : Fabulous Meals with 5 Ingredients in 5 Minutes". He came in well before my shift started, soI didn't actually get to see him cook. But I did get to sample the food. Now, it was a few hours after it was prepared, so maybe I should be kinder. This book is marketed to the home cook, with quick, kid friendly recipes. I sampled a sausage dish with green beans and beets. It was okay. I thought there would be more dimensional flavor. The other dish he prepared was a pretzelized chicken with a cheddar horseradish sauce. By the time I got to it, the chicken wasn't crunchy. The sauce came from a jar and it tasted like it. The photographer that shot him in the kitchen shared his dish with me and shushed me as I commented on the food. Obviously, he was won over more by a personal experience with Rocco. The food didn't bowl me over. Check out the article for what our food writer thought about his visit to our kitchen.

A recent meal that did wow me was a lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar. The Bad Girl Posse stopped in during CMJ week. We were thoroughly impressed. JPo and I both had the dish pictured above. This meal is bliss in a bowl. If you are a fan of bacon or pork, you HAVE to try their Berkshire pork. It's awesome. Next time, I'll try the ramen noodles they are best known for. I'm a sucker for grits, so I tried this dish first. I was happy to see Momofuku squeak in at number 101 on Adam Platt's 101 Best Restaurants in New York magazine a few weeks ago.
Since then, I've been poring over the list. I've got my own list of restaurants I want to try. I've pressed my nose the the glass at Platt's #99 Chikalicious on several occasions. The tiny bar fills up fast and always is sold out by the time we stop by. Next time we feel like skipping dinner and just having dessert, we'll call ahead for a reservation. I'm intrigued by the buzz about #90 Prune. Sweets is a dairy junky, so we should indulge in a visit to #63 Artisinal Fromagerie and Bistro run by the "cheese nerds" and Martha Stewart's of the moment fromagers. Platt says #53's Mas (Farmhouse) "seems to send a certain type of discerning female diner into paroxysms of delight." Need I say more?
I've been longing for a special occasion to merit a trip to #42 Spice Market. Sweets surprised me and made a reservation for this Saturday, our one year anniversary. Which is a pretty special occasion! If I had to choose one cuisine I can not live without it would be Indian. Devi, #28, sounds like a big step up from my usual 6th St haunts.

Self Portrait Tuesday: I was four once

2006-01-24T23:44:00.000-05:00

i_was_four_once, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

It was nice to find this slide of me looking so happy. I don't remember this day at all. The slide was processed in March 1977, a few months before my fifth birthday. My sister was born in February 1977, so it's quite possible I may look so pleased with myself because I'm a new big sister. I was really into the idea of being a big sister. I longed for a baby brother. My mother told me if she had a boy it would be a Timothy baby and it was a girl it would be a Carey baby. When she told me we had a Carey, I told her to take it back for the Timothy baby. Hey, a girl's shop and exchange instinct starts young. After pouting over my mother's no return policy, I warmed up to my sister back then and we've been tight ever since.
This picture makes me happy.Look at me! I wish I remembered the happy times more vividly than the crummy ones. This photo jogs tiny happy memories. Like standing on the radiator under the window in the background, pretending it was a balcony and I was Juliet calling out for Romeo, played by my cousin, Larry. The living room furniture was orange velvet. The tables were dark wood and ornately carved. My father called it "Spanish bordello" style. I still put my hair in pigtails with the same style of colored ball ponytail holders. I wish I still had those tiny bow earrings. When I got my ears pierced, I jumped so the holes weren't even. I had to wear one earring for a few weeks while the botched hole healed up. I loved that. I ran around pretending I was a pirate. Then I got the ear done properly and was given these bows. When I sleep, I put my hand under my chin like this. One of my top comfort foods is a peanut butter and banana sandwich with a glass of chocolate milk. I definitely remember Elvis dying a few months after this was taken. I wonder if I liked those sandwiches because he did.

Pass the time with other takes on Self Portrait Tuesday.

self portrait tuesday

2006-01-17T11:16:00.000-05:00

yos7, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

In the autumn of 2004, I did something I had never done before and frankly may never do again. I went on a 10 day vacation by myself. I rode cable cars, ate in restaurants, had a drink with a stranger. All the time trying to decipher what it was that I was feeling. The last few days of the trip were spent with my dearest, longest running friend ME. We both were feeling bad about relationships that had recently imploded. What could be a better fix than catching up with an old friend. I'd already spent a weekend at a conference in San Jose and a week in San Francisco alone, so a change of scenery was in order. So we hopped in his car and drove up to Yosemite National Park.
I was unprepared really. For the cold. For the hiking. For the sheer magnitude of the nature we found ourselves precariously enveloped in. Sometimes you have to do something that scares you. Alone. Find your precipice, walk out to the end and look down into the crevass. It puts things in perspective.
We are all such teeny tiny flakes in the universe. Taking yourself seriously and flouncing around really has no benefit. I have to remind myself of that all the time. Last week I was in full flouncing mode over family drama. Looking at this picture reminds me that it's not all about me. So I should just inhale, relax and take in the scenery.

Dip into the archives for more about why I went and what happened while I was there. More photos from the trip in my Flickr California set.

And make sure you cruise around the rest of the gang at Self Portrait Tuesday.

The Golden Globes report

2006-01-16T21:21:00.000-05:00

Ah, it's another award show season. The Tivo has been set so I can enjoy the Golden Globes show, sans commercials once I get home from work. at the office, I do have the luxury of seeing all the celebrity arrival photos stream over the wire, pretty much in real time. Some stars are faring better than others as they try to navigate the treacherous waters of dressing themselves for major appearances. Star should neither look too bridal: Kate Beckinsale or too British: Gwyneth Paltrow. Michelle Williams looks radiant in a frothy purple concoction. It feels really now to me. Heath's coordinating flower was sweet. Debi Mazur is always totally retro glam goodness. Sandra Oh's gown made me "Ahh." The ladies of Wisteria Lane came out in full force. Felicity Huffman came as a Greek goddess and Terri Hatcher as a lizard. Marcia Cross looks like a supremed tangerine (Someone fetch a plate for her "segments"). Nicollette Sheridan looked glamourous but she accessorized with Michael Bolton. Eva Longoria walked away looking most bootylicious. You have to see the back of the dress to fully appreciate it. Katherine Heigl should think twice about prints in the future. This dress made her look hippier than she is. Anne Hathaway looks old beyond her years. I wouldn't mind banning bows after seeing Cynthia Nixon and Jenny McCarthy. Charlize Theron looks like "sheer energy will keep her dancing" this evening like the jingle in those old pantyhose commercials. Reese Witherspoon looks like she put her dress on inside out. I'm not sure what she was trying to achieve but oh my, it's quite unfortunate. Perhaps not quite as bad as Alanis Morissette. Ugh-ly. I expected a tad more effort from Sarah Jessica Parker but she looks great in basic black. As does Mandy Moore and Natalie Portman. Swooniest fella has to be Terrence Howard. Um, I think I need to go have a cool drink now.

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-01-10T11:39:00.000-05:00

spt, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I took a bunch of photos yesterday for this week's self portrait and ended up going with the first frame I shot. That says something for going with your first instinct.
Last week, I wrote briefly about my father. Then I found myself standing in front of the only photo I have that he took of me as a girl. I didn't really have a relationship with him from about the age of 13 until he died. But when I was little, before the divorce and all the grown up business complicated my world and gave me tummyaches everyday,I was Daddy's little girl.
He was handsome. Dark hair, light eyes. An ease about him. Charming. He would tease me over and over and I'd never tire of it. He'd ask "Guess what?" I'd answer "What?" looking up expectantly. "Chicken butt" he'd crow and we'd both collapse in the giggles.
He liked to shoot slides. Maybe he's the reason why I got into photography.This photo was taken on the side of our house. Those roses aren't there anymore but my mother lives there now with her third husband.
After my dad died unexpectedly, my step-mother,Terri, contacted me about details that involved me and my sister. She came to New York to cheer a friend in the marathon and we spent the day together. We became good friends. I've gone to visit her and her family in Florida several times in the last few years. On my first trip there, Terri gave me this photo and told me that my Dad kept it in his study. There are boxes of slides in the closet of me that she said I could have when I was ready. On that visit, she didn't look ready to give up anything of his. I wonder if we're both ready now to open those boxes?

Take some time to explore other SPT's from around the world at Self Portrait Tuesday

Banana bread heals all wounds

2006-01-09T21:09:00.000-05:00

The weekend soothed all the boo boos of the week. I baked the banana bread recipe in the new issue Everyday Food. I can't find the recipe online to link to. Could be because it's reader's recipe. It was dense and moist. we had it for breakfast on Sunday with fresh pineapple and coffee. That totally made up for the mashed potatoes that someone ended up the consistency of paste. I know I overcooked them while dismantling the Christmas tree, so they may have been waterlogged. Harumph. We made do with open faced meatloaf sandwiches for dinner sans the mashed spuds. Sweets valiantly offered to eat them but I wouldn't let him. We did pretty mundane stuff this weekend but it is satisfying to tick things off the to-do list. The dogs needed their nails clipped. I had Maggie weighed and was thrilled to find she's down to 11.5 lbs from 13. She's been on new organic food for a few months and it's made a world of difference in her coat, her weight and her energy level. A few intense hours were spent drawing and erasing and drawing and erasing again and again on plans for built in shelves in the attic space we've been renovating since May. We took a trip to Lowe's and found some cool materials to use. I really want to get this room done so I finally have a designated desk with a lamp and an outlet. That would be lovely. I got up a bit early today and it was nice not to rush. I filled the bird feeders, read a few pages from my Audobon book, fixed myself and shot some self portraits for tomorrow's post.

Tomorrow has to be nicer

2006-01-06T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today I felt like one of those cartoon characters that walks around with a big brooding storm cloud over their heads. For starters, I screwed up the coffee trying to rush us out the house. On the way to work, I went to Grams' to bring her meals for the week. She'd barely touched what I brought last time. Even the little olives I tried to bribe her into eating were sadly floating in their juices in the fridge. She is slipping away before me. Last week she went to the doctor and she weighed 78 lbs. This is bad. Very, very bad. Since I'm in charge of her food shopping and preparation, I feel somehow responsible. I try so hard to make her things she'll like that are low sodium, too. I do spaghetti sauce from scratch. Sweets makes her pancakes on the weekend. Nothing seems to work. She says she is eating but her idea of a portion is a joke. On Christmas, she ate three bites of ham, a stuffed mushroom, a quarter of a sweet potato and a few shrimp. This afternoon, I convinced her to eat some cottage cheese and mandarin orange slices for a snack and waited there for her to eat before going to work. We're at the point now, where the family are all exhausted and unsure what more we can do for her. Fiercely independent, she wants to remain in her apartment. The reality is she is legally blind and a bag of bones. If she falls... I fought for months against the murmurs of a nursing home but now I give in. My sister started making some calls. I've been so upset over the past weeks and today I realized it's as if I am mourning for her already. I've been fussing and clucking over her for more than seven years. i won't know what to do with myself when that stops. So I've been dramatic, pushing my sister to tears and being short on the phone with her this afternoon. I need to get over this and focus on what she needs now and for however long we get to keep her. At works, things got worse. When I arrived in the lobby, I overheard one of the reporters talking to a woman whose daughter was murdered last night. Shortly after, her brought me a studio portrait of the girl and her killer to scan. The girl's name was Sugar and she was about my age. I deal with bad stuff alot in my job. i look at really horrible things and filter them down to what gets printed. Images can be haunting. Far worse though, is brushing the people whose lives are involved in the tragedies we cover. That makes things personal and harder to get the job in front of you done. I'll never forget taking a call from a woman who wanted to see all the photos taken of the accident scene her son died in. Her boy was ejected from the car, lying half inside and half out. She said she'd feel better if she saw it, so she could understand what happend. I didn't give her the pictures. My father died in a car accident. The newspaperman in me was a tick proud that he made page one news but the photos didn't help me understand what happened that night, who he was or what we'd be missing out on in the future. And the final downer of the day was the deadline for the celebrity dead pool some of us participate in at the office. Last year, I came in last place. Trying a new strategy this year, I did my research. While I put together my selections, I found many of them are younger than Grams and that made me feel slightly strangled. Every year, I track notable deaths for the paper's year end passings coverage. And I'm also tracking those that look not so hot for inclusion in the pool. My selections for 2006 1 Jack La Lanne - fitness guru 2 Tammy Faye Messner- former wife of televangelist Jim Bakker 3 Don Knotts - actor 4 Martin Landau - actor 5 Gerald Ford - 38th president if the United States 6 Mickey Rooney - actor 7 Dick Clark "America's oldest teenager," host of American Bandstand 8 Aaron Spelling TV producer Charlies Angels, Beverly Hills 90120 9 Nancy Reagan - former first lady 10 Diego Maradona - retired Argentinian soccer star 11 Les Paul - jazz guitarist/inventor of solid body electic guitar 12 Bob Barker Price is Right host 13 Ariel Sharon - Israeli Prime Minister 14 Andrea Yates- drowned her children in bathtub, conviction overturned in 2005 15 Olivia de Havilland- actress 16 Kirk Douglas, actor 17 Meinhardt Raabe, the �Coroner Munchkin� in The Wizard of Oz 18 Roger Moore - AKA �Bond. James Bond�, actor 19 Courtney Love - singer/actress/junkie 20 Jerry Lewis - actor/comedien/ fundraiser 21 Marcel Marceau - legendary French mime 22 Bob Guccione - Penthouse magazine founder 23 Brooke Astor- New York City philanthropist and socialite 24 Augusto Pinochet - former dictator of Chile 25 Charlton Heston - actor, gun advocate Luckily, there have been a few bright spots. Sweets ordered new postage stamps and they arrived. A pair of blue love birds on a yellow background. They are terribly cute. Just like us. Kath over at the Self Portrait Tuesday posted my photo with a selection from other newcomers on the blog. That made me feel really good. Being part of this community is going to be a good thing. And finally, Sweets posted his top ten film list which will also appear in the next issue of Jetty magazine which he art directs.

New Year, new endeavor: Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-01-03T23:09:00.000-05:00

roxy forever, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I discovered Little Birds in the last few months and have been marveling at her world full of her childrens drawings, crafts and thrift shopping. Secret sounding associations to groups like Tie One On and Self Portrait Tuesdays intrigued me. Today, the first Tuesday of a new year, I found myself led into Self Portrait Tuesdays or SPT. I spontaneously decided to join their Flickr group and start posting weekly self portraits to my blog.
Self portraiture is one of my secret vices. I am convinced I am highly unphotogenic unless I am manning the camera. I often assert that as a professional photo editor, I know better than most if the camera is unkind to someone. Yet, if I am in control, I am often pleased with the results. I'm looking forward to being challenged by this group to think about my identity in new ways and to use my new Canon d20 that I am still getting acquainted with. The theme for January is Personal History.
I chose this image for a few reasons. The first being it is the oldest self portrait I have up on Flickr and at the same time the most recent I posted from some recently digitized negatives. A bit of kismit there perhaps. I titled the image "Roxy Forever" when I took it. Taking part in history, making a mark however small, is something I think about often. I like thinking that a part of me will go on forever. It's more of a finger on my mortality over narcissism, I think. This photo is a moment in my past where I was trying to become history in a personal way. I wonder if this new endeavor will continue that pursuit.

I'm not good at making or rather keeping New Year's resolutions. But the list maker in me cannot resist. One thing I thought of was trying to work on my body image in 2006. When I photograph myself, it is always the head and shoulders. My first reaction to photos other people take of me is to think I look chubby. I want to be able to say "So what! That's me and boy am I cute." My weight has gone up and down. My body seems to like to hover right around where I'm at now. Now, if I can only convince my head to like it as well.

Other things I hope the new year holds for me:
time to create crafty things
as much time with my Grams as possible
more regular blog posts
take myself less seriously
make some good photos
learn how to discipline Quentin Badass
bake more
lots of kisses under a fort made of blankets

fheads3

2005-12-30T19:03:00.000-05:00

fheads3, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

It's that time of year. My roundup of what I did this year to entertain myself. It's been quite a fun year.

The Concerts.....
1/15: The Features @ Northstar (Philadelphia, PA) - Razorlight cancelled
1/19: Detroit Cobras @ Asbury Lanes (Asbury Park, NJ)
1/21: Thee Shams @ Asbury Lanes
3/6: VHS or Beta, Ambulance Ltd, Robbers on High Street @ Northstar
4/9: Psychedelic Furs, The Shore @ The Trocadero (Philadelphia, PA)
5/18: Mondo Diao, The Sights @ Bowery Ballroom (NYC)
5/19: Glenn Tilbrook @ Ocean County Library (Toms River, NJ)
5/21: The Doves, Mercury Rev @ Theater of the Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
5/31: The Raveonettes, Autolux @ Maxwells (Hoboken, NJ)
6/4: Ryan Adams @ Starland Ballroom (Sayreville, NJ)
6/8: Pixies @ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/8: Pixies, The Bellrays @ Scene Pavilion
(Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/9: Brazilian Girls @ House of Blues (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/9: The Futureheads @ The Grog Shop (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/10: Spoon @ Beachland (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/10: Roosevelt @ House of Blues (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
6/11: Helio Sequence, Rogue Wave @ Beachland (Cleveland, OH) CMJ Rockfest show
7/31: Duran Duran @ PNC Arts Center (Holmdel, NJ)
8/2: Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Maxwells
9/15: Cloud Cult @ 169 Bar (NYC) CMJ Music Marathon show
9/16: Walking Songs: A benefit for Housing Works with Bright Eyes, Jesse Harris, Jesse Malin, John Wesley Harding, Kate Jacobs, Lene Lovich, Bob Neuwirth, Mike Viola, Richard Julian, Jeff Klein and Clare Burson @ Housing Works Used Book Cafe (NYC) CMJ Music Marathon show
9/23: The Greenhornes, Willowz, Ribeye Brothers @ Asbury Lanes

Photos of many of these shows are in my Rockumentary Set on Flickr.

My favorite show of the year was Glenn Tilbrook. Perhaps an odd choice, I know. What more can you ask for than a cool spring evening, a fleecy jacket, a lawn chair, your gal pals and Glenn Tilbrook so close to you he's practically sitting in your lap, singing any Squeeze song the crowd yells out to him? Laid back and fun.
Cyndemouse and I, the rabid rock n rollers that we are, journeyed to Cleveland for the first CMJ event held in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Turnout for the festival was dismal but we had a good time nonetheless. One of the highlights of the trip was going to the rock poster show at the Hall of Fame and meeting the artists. The ledgendary Mark Arminski offered to give us a tour of Detroit when he finally get there because he was so impressed with our knowledge of the city that rocks the hardest. He told us, "you need the right person to show you around so you see the right things. Call me and I'll do it." Awesome!
We also kept bumping into Joe Parlett, a talented designer with Little Jacket. He's got mad, contemporary style that we hope to see for a long while. His style is softer, more delicate and smart. Mouse snapped up a copy of their posters for Spoon and Rouge Wave .
Spoon was my favorite show at CMJ Rockfest followed by the Futureheads. Brazilian Girls got on my nerves. I was ecstatic to see The Greenhornes at my home base, Asbury Lanes after begging Mel for almost a year to book them. They came right at the time their association with The White Stripes was getting lots of attention. Sweets liked the Raveonettes show quite a bit but I found it disappointing compared to others I'd seen in the past. Before the show, Sharon quietly watched Autolux's set taking ladylike sips of white wine. On stage, she seemed fucked up and out of it. The set didn't quite hit that 'great love sound' for me. Another disappointing show was the Brian Jonestown Massacre. I was so psyched to see them for the first time. The band went on really late and were tired after partying the night before. Some jackass kept heckling Anton and he kept threatening to have him thrown out and asking the guy to show himself etc. making comments like "I thought NJ was tough and all you can do is say fuck you to my back?" The show never gained any momentum as they took long breaks, Anton got off the stage once and started talking to people in the crowd, kept calling out for the bar to deliver him "two Stoli Greyhounds - doubles" and endlessly tuning his guitar. He fussed and fussed, telling us "It's destroyed. But she loves to be destroyed ... for me." I think that probably says quite alot about him. Despite the debacle, I still think he's a genius.

The Books....
Fat Girl by Judith Morris
Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney
Lucious Lemon by Heather Swain
Callgirl Confessions of an Ivy League Lady of Pleasure by Jeannette Angel
The Strange Fruit of Peter Paddington by Brian Francis
Cabaret by Lily Prior
Ship Sooner by Mary Sullivan
Misfortune by Wesley Stace
The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas by Davy Rothbart
Around the World in Eighty Dates by Jennifer Cox
The Heartbreak Lounge by Wallace Stroby
Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa by Tracy McArdle
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan

I discussed quite a few of these in my "The summer's almost over, read a book already, Slacker" Reading List .
I wanted to read Everything is Illuminated before seeing the movie. It took me so long to get through the book (I renewed it three times at the library) I missed the film in theaters. I thought it was really fantastic though and highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to the dvd of the film. The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, however took me a few days to blaze through since it was intended as a Christmas gift for Cyndemouse. Once I started thumbing through it, I couldn't put it down. Bet you won't be able to either.

The Movies....

Movies seen in the theater
2/13: Tarnation
2/22: Hitch
3/7: Million Dollar Baby
3/31: The Aviator
4/1: Sin City
4/2: Ballad of Jack and Rose
4/8: Fever Pitch
4/30: Nightwatch (Tribeca Film Festival)
5/6: Kingdom of Heaven
5/17: Crash
6/3: Cinderella Man *
6/16: Batman Begins
Rize
My Summer of Love
7/15 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7/27: Hustle and Flow *
8/14: Broken Flowers *
8/22: The 40 Year Old Virgin *
8/27: Aristocrats
9/10: The Constant Gardener *
9/17: Elizabethtown (CMJ Film Festival) *
9/30: Mutual Appreciation (Woodstock Film Festival)
9/30: Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (Woodstock Film Festival)
10/1: Nine Lives (Woodstock Film Festival)
10/2: Transamerica (Woodstock Film Festival) *
10/8: In Her Shoes
10/23: The Squid and the Whale *
10/29: The Weather Man
11/1:Good Night, and Good Luck
11/6: Capote *
11/23: Walk the Line *
11/29: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang *
12/11: Syriana
12/14: King Kong
12/18: Brokeback Mountain *

Those with an asterick above are members of My Darling Dozen Films of 2005. Squid and the Whale takes the top honors.

Other 2005 releases via Netflix: Mad Hot Ballroom, Murderball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Happy Endings, Ma Mere, Palindromes, Rock School, Old Boy, Kung Fu Hustle, Grizzly Man

Others notably seen for the first time:
Liked these alot: Word Wars, Spanglish, In the Heat of the Night, Casino, A Very Long Engagement, La Vie Promise, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In Cold Blood, The Dreamers, Body Heat, The Muse

Not impressed with: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Wings of Desire. The Brown Bunny, Garden State, Donnie Darko, The Birds

Seen these before and still love them: His Girl Friday, Orpheus

Special mention for In Her Shoes. People looking for the text of the ee cummings poem Cameron Diaz recites at the end have been popping into the Magpie for months now. I hope they become return readers.

Hoping you all had loads of fun of your own in 2005. I'm already plotting my hijinks for the new year.

2005-12-29T01:05:00.000-05:00

I really can't say enough about how awesome Christmas weekend was. On Christmas Eve, we did some last minute shopping and wrapping. Then we headed down to Point Pleasant. Cyndemouse and I have made it our tradition to do a Italian feast of the seven fishes for the past five years or so. This year, Sweets got to partake of our tradition along with his first helping of squid tentacles, smelts and cannoli along with all the other tasty offerings. After dinner, we stopped in at our friends' house and caught up, played with their grandson and relaxed. We stayed out so late, on Christmas morning we didn't get up until after 11 am. Sweets and I decided to modify both of our family gift opening traditions and open all of our gifts on Christmas morning. When we sat down to start he asked me to go get the camera and I knew he was going to be happy when he opened the camera I got him. But i played it cool and refered to it as "this little thing" when I handed him the box. He was equally as crafty. Wrapping small boxes in larger ones and surprising me with an ipod which wasn't on my list but I was secretly desiring. The inscription had me in tears, so I'm glad he saved that box for the end. I wouldn't want to look sleepy and snuffly in my Christmas morning photos. He also gave me the idog, which I knew I wanted before I was ever convinced about the ipod. Between Sweets, my family and his family, I received more than I've ever experienced. Whew. Somehow it's embarrassing to have so much. I plan on fully appreciating all my gifts. I'll think of Sweets parents when I make a roast in my new roasting pan, my sister while watching birds at the new window feeder. Sweets will leave a mark all over. Snuggly pjs, an apron from Anthropologie, an Audobon guide, a Lowepro camera backpack. I haven't even mentioned all the booty distributed in the Bad Girl Posse gift exchange. We had dinner with my family and had fun watching the boys vaporize the wrapping paper to get to the gifts. Then it was off to Talulah's for Christmas Bad Girl Style. Again, staying out past 2 am. By Monday I was exhausted from working overtime all week prior to the holiday and staying out late visiting with friends all weekend. I'm just starting to recover. And have time to examine my new goodies. In all seriousness, I told Sweets the week before Christmas that I'd be happy if all the boxes under the tree were filled with shredded paper and for decoration only. Because really, I want for nothing. Love was the one thing I was after. He checked that off my list long ago.

2005-12-26T11:33:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks were a colorful blur of activity, like when you adjust a kaleidescope and all the colors are shifting and falling onto one another and they suddenly become sharp and beautiful images. Blur. Click. Choosing a 7 ft Fraser Fir (Sweets first live tree) and bringing it home to lovingly decorate. I'm mad for ornaments. Unpacking the boxes and cooing over them is something I look forward to all year. It was so much fun to watch Sweets choose his favorites. As I watched my fella climb up to afix a huge blue jay treetopper, I remembered for a fleeting moment how sad I was last year to not have someone to love. Then he turned to me and opened his arms and I fell into them along with a flurry of kisses. Blur. Click. Wearing an apron in the kitchen, baking biscotti and decadent Rocky Road Ledge bars from Martha's Holiday Cookies issue. Humming along to Christmas music. I adjusted my peppermint bark recipe this year and it came out better than ever. I switched to Wilton white candy melts instead of working with white chocolate chips as in the past and added peppermint extract to both the white and dark layer. Everything came out delish. Blur. Click. Shopping excursions with Cyndemouse. We tooled around downtown Point Pleasant and power shopped at Kohl's together. Taking breaks for tea and chat. Blur. Click. Filling the mantle with cards, taking the time to think about each person that sent one or telling Sweets an anecdote about those that he hasn't yet met. Or pointing out ones that came addressed to us both. I used to be a fan of writing a personal note to each card receipient. Now I get my cards done faster, if I keep the greeting shorter. I find most people just sign them. But some are old fashioned and keep writing little notes with their holiday tidings. My favorite personal greeting this year was from Tess. "Wishing you the most precious gifts- peace, love, joy and hope - now and always." That one line put the holiday season in perspective for me. This year, I received ALL those gifts. So, I am a lucky girl, indeed.

2005-12-07T11:23:00.000-05:00

Twenty five years ago, I walked out of Woodrow Wilson elementary school in my beloved pink jacket trimmed in fake shearling ( I got that jacket the year before in the" Christmas that Almost Wasn't". But that's a different story for a different day.) and was surprised that my mother had come to pick me up from school. I pulled open the door of her black, boxy Honda Prelude and was further surprised to see her crying. Sobbing really. Q: "Mommy, What's wrong?" A: "Jonn Lennon is dead!!!!!" On that cold December day, I was eight years old. I didn't know anyone that had died yet. I know my mother didn't cry like that when she was divorcing my father a few years earlier. This display of emotion was so raw. I think in a way, that is the day that my childhood started to slip away. I realized that bad things happen for no good reason. Sometimes to people that are loved so much, even strangers feel their loss. After my parents got divorced, I never felt like I had my mother's full attention. We moved in with my grandparents in their rambling ranch on Locust Avenue. Mom was never there. She was working or partying with her friends.They giggle and called her car the Honda Qualude. I remember she missed my sister's birthday to go to a Styx concert. She loved music so much. She would sit me down and force me to listen to records, quizzing me about what instrument just came in on a Genesis track. She taught me how to sing in harmony with Emmy Lou Harrris. We had loads of records. Beatles and the Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Springsteen, Genesis, Joni Mitchell, Phoebe Snow, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Tom Petty, Leon Redbone, Randy Newman. Hundreds of records. Her dream of being a concert pianist were sidelined when she had me at seventeen and through the years she often made me feel like she regretted my existence. My relationship with mother has been strained over the years but things have improved. As I've grown up and so has she. As a child, I didn't understand the hold music had over her. I remember her staying up late, headphones on, singing to herself. Loudly. Her voice thick with emotion and too much beer. I began to hate her music. Then I got a little older and found music of my own. Music that became my salvation. I began to understand that music is one of the things that joins us together beyond our shared DNA. And that comforts me. This was really supposed to be about the impact of Lennon and The Beatles on my life. But I digressed.Sometimes one memory triggers a whole string of others. Let's close with my memories of listening to hours on end of programming on WNEW, singing along, my pigtails swinging. As a little girl, I loved "I Want to Hold Your Hand, "Octopus's Garden," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and When I'm Sixty-Four." I may have pulled away from much of my mother's music as my tastes developed but I never stopped loving The Beatles. My favorite Beatles song right now is "In My Life." It speaks to where I am now. I heard it on the radio a few months ago and it moved me to tears it was so appropriate to what I was going through at the time and having trouble articulating. Thank goodness, John Lennon said it first. In My Life There are places I remember All my life, though some have changed, Some forever, not for better, Some have gone and some remain. All these places had their moments, With lovers and friends I still can recall, Some are dead and some are living, In my life I've loved them all. But of all these friends and lovers, There is no one compared with you, And these mem'ries lose their meaning When I think of love as something new. Though I know I�ll never lose affection For people and things that went before, I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life I love you more. Though I know I'll never lose affection For people and things that went before, I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life I love you more. In my life I love you more.

2005-12-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

Sleep does not come easy to me. More often than not, I find myself lying awake in the dark, sandwiched between Sweets at my back, Quentin curled up at belly and Maggie down deep near my feet. My mind races, not so much turning over the previous day's events but usually looking forward to the next day. When I've been looking at particularly gruesome photos, my brain conjures up a slideshow of ugly images that I cannot stop. Due to all this mental activity, I rarely dream. Last night, Maggie was projectile vomiting every three hours. I had to keep getting up to clean up and comfort her. In between these episodes, I had a troublesome dream. I was in the backyard looking at the flower beds Sweets and I put in this summer. They were covered in a fluffy, weblike substance. I grabbed a broom and started pushing the web off the plants with the handle. The end turned over a wasp's nest. An angry mob flew up and went straight for my face, raining stings on my right cheek, chest and shoulder. I woke up with my face hurting. According to DreamMoods.com "To see a wasp in you dream, signifies angry thoughts and feelings. To dream that you are stung by a wasp, symbolizes growing envy and hatred towards you. To dream that you kill a wasp, signifies your fearlessness to ward off your enemies and maintain your ethics and rights.� Hmm. I'm not sure why anyone would be hating on me except maybe for being part of one of those unbelievably happy couples that I know used to make me roll my eyes back in my bitter spinster days. So much cool stuff has been happening lately. Here's some highlights: * Sweets and I went to a Poloroid Scavenger Hunt in the city hosted by one of my co-workers. We were put on seperate teams and set loose in Tribeca and the West Village. Each team had a list of things to look for and a few hours to do it before reconvening at a pub. The day was perfect. Not too cold. I felt like I was on the Apprentice imagining I was the project manager. When one of the team members kept taking off on his own, I started to understand how hard being on the show must be. Our team didn�t win. But we'll be back next year to kick some butt. We did have a great time stopping dog walkers in Tribeca looking for Poop Alley, convincing a family to pose with us on a blue bench, having shots at lunch time at the Whitehorse Tavern while grilling the super friendly bartender about the neighborhood. * Later that day we met up with Talulah and some of her new friends at Chocolat Michel Cluizel in the ABC Carpet and Home store. Grab a seat at the bar and treat yourself to a lucious hot chocolate, dessert or the main attraction... chocolate bonbons. We ordered coffee and the $7 for six bonbon sampler ( a real bargain since they are $2 each al a carte). The selection is dizzying. As you stroll around the chocolate case, pointing out your selections a girl plates them up and delivers them to your seat at the bar. So good! * I took a few days off last week to hang out with Cyndemouse. We did some serious stuff like painting ceilings, ate at our favorite Indian buffet, shopped around. The best part was making our own wreaths. We bundled up and went out into her yard armed with pruners and a big sack. We came back to the house with trimmings from assorted varieties of pine, cedar and holly trees as well as huge pinecones and sprays of red berries. Back inside, we spread out the materials and within an hour, we each had a beautiful wreath and swag to add some holiday curb appeal to our houses. Sweets got some ribbon and made bows himself to jazz them. When the snow started to fall last night, they looked fantastic. Even more so because they are homemade.

2005-11-14T11:48:00.000-05:00

So, I walk out of the ladies room at the gynecologist's office this week after "emptying my bladder" (as the office ladies put it) prior to my annual exam. One of the women that works there is waiting for me anxiously as I emerged. "Do you remember me?" she asked. Proud of my recall for people's name, I say of course and say her name, which is unusual enough to not forget. But she didn't mean that. She wanted to know if I remembered her from high school (I didn't). And if I'm going to attend the reunion next month (I'm not). Honestly, just thinking abou seeing people from high school makes me nervous. I didn't fit in then. And I still don't to some degree, I'm sure. Why would I want to put my life, and my weight gain, on display for a bunch of people that I didn't like 15 years ago? It's not that I'm unhappy with my life. Far from it. I just don't want to be put up for scrutiny and comparison. Recently while shopping, I ran into a guy that I went to school with. He refused to help me if I couldn't tell him his full name. I remembered his first but not the last. My recollection of him is hazy. Kind of the smart, loner type that I often sat near in classes arranged alphabetically. He seems to remember quite alot about me. According to him, I was great at solving equations. I don't recall that myself. Anyway, he's become quite a pest and whenever Sweets and I shop where this guy works he always finds a reason to "help" us. He's loud and a show off, flexing his masculinity and bossing people around. Last time we ran into him he was very rude and blurted out that he wanted to know how old Sweets is. That he'd been wondering for some time. Jeez Louise! Can't we just go to the store without this kind of crap. This is one of the perils of choosing to live in the town you grew up in. Sometimes you can't shake the people who think they own a little piece of you because they knew you when.

yum

2005-11-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

yum, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

On Wednesday, The New York Times had an article in The Arts section about a radio station on the web just for pets.
The story begins "Remember, be kind to your mailman," said Jane Harris, a disc jockey. Then she softened her voice until it was a little insinuating: "He only wants to deliver the mail."
Ah, this reminded me immediately of Quentin B. (the B is for Badass) who has always hated the mailman, no matter where we've lived. So I decided what the heck and tuned into DogCatRadio.Com. First song we heard was "Everytime You Go Away" by Paul Young. As I fondly remembered loving watching him run and dive, sliding across the stage in the '80's, Maggie cocked her head, pricked up her ears and went over to the door looking forlorn. Sweets had just left moments before. Then she went to her leash and nosed it. Really. I'm not making this up. Next song, Paul Simon croons"If you'll be my bodyguard..." Quentin sat on the couch next to me, ears erect, his tail stroking my back. Hey, these pet radio people may be on to something. In between songs, dogs bark and my pooches turn their heads. Magggie too a break for Paul Simon but came sauntering back in for "Foxy Lady."
My only complaint is as a Mac user, I'm forced to use Windows Media Player which doesn't give you any song information. Of course, the site's main demographic couldn't read them anyway.

2005-10-27T11:43:00.000-04:00

Movies.com has really funny movie reviews by The Muppets Statler & Waldorf. Worth watching just for the "balconism" which is a new phrase they make up like "runderwear" which is the practice of women running around screaming wearing just their skivvies in scary movies. Yesterday, I took advantage of a 2-1 dollar for dollar match while renewing my membership to WNYC New York Public Radio during the fund drive. That means they get three times the money they would normally. They have some great gifts. i chose The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman . This book weighs 4 pounds and collects recipes from 44 countries. Make a pledge today. Or at least, tune in and hear for yourself why I love public radio.

2005-10-19T18:30:00.000-04:00

I have been harboring a girl crush on Isabelle Huppert for many years. Thinking that I was probably her only American fan. Far from it, I'm sure. She's well loved internationally. Brit Miss Foxie runs a live journal community dedicated to Huppert where the devoted can express their "fangirlness" to their little hearts' content. I was happy to hear Isabelle interviewed by Leonard Lopate once again on WNYC this week (audio) and thoroughly thrilled to learn MOMA is planning a 26 film retrospective, PS 1 is doing a photo show and Huppert is making her first stab at theater in NYC with 4.48 Psychose at BAM. Did someone officially decree October as Isabelle Huppert month or what? So completely fantastic. The already in progress retrospective at MOMA includes her latest film Gabrielle, her breakout role in The Lacemaker, Violette Nozi�re for which she snagged a Best Actress award at Cannes, Rosebud her first English role, and Amateur which is the movie that got me hooked. My work schedule makes getting to most of these films pretty impossible. Maybe I can catch one of the Sunday showings . I've asked for Halloween off, so maybe I could see Heavens Gate which Huppert will be introducing. That would rock. I have been slowly going through what Netflix has available but the choices are pretty meager there considering she's been in 70 films. The exhibit, Woman of Many Faces: Isabelle Huppert, at P.S. 1 opens on Oct 23 with over 100 photos and video portraits. If you want to see Huppert perform live, catch 4.48 Psychose at BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music. Performed in French with English subtitles.

quiet moment

2005-10-10T22:23:00.000-04:00

quiet moment, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- ee cummings

We went to see a rainy Saturday matinee of "In Her Shoes" this weekend. I have long forgotten this cummings poem but hearing it read aloud in the film brought tears to my eyes. I understand it much more at this point in my life than when I first read it in my teens. Cummings weird punctuation and lack of capitalization used to bug the hell out of me. Now, I'm more relaxed and open to taking in the words and the sentiment, over the delivery.

2005-10-07T11:53:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've posted. Coverage of the hurricane season has kept me busy. And I've been trying to take a few long weekends. On a recent Monday, I was home sitting on the couch and thought, "i feel weird. What is this feeling? i don't quite recognize it. OH! I think I feel relaxed." Then I got freaked out and felt like I had to do something. But it was nice to recognize the feeling for a fleeting moment. It came back this past weekend, when Sweets and I went to the Catskills for a romantic mini break holiday. We stayed in a fantastic inn The Phoenica Belle and saw some movies at the Woodstock Film Festival. The best film we saw was Transamerica. Felicity Huffman shines as Bree, a preoperative transsexual that embarks on a personal journey as well as a road trip in the week preceding her operation. I think I hear some Oscar nominations.... We also saw Mutual Appreciation, Nine Lives and Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. I promise, I'll be back to posting more regularly soon. Until then, amuse yourself with the new EP, East Grand Blues by The Greenhornes. It's been rocking my world like I'm in the "Shelter of Your Arms."

detrius

2005-08-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

detrius, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

New Orleans is completely underwater. A city I took for granted and even turned my nose up as not my cup of tea, is under siege by nature. And I find myself rallying for it. When I visited a few years ago, I felt there was something sinister about it. All those shuttered windows made me wonder what I was not supposed to see. Conversely, the cries from balconies to "show us your tits" made me bow my head and scamper away, muttering "You'd want your beads back if I did." It's a city with big appetites and big secrets.
Last night, I couldn't sleep (what else is new). I thought about the cemeteries in the Garden District. Have the coffins broken free of their crypts? I imagined the waiters at Clover Grill, eyes red, sniffling, listening to disco on the jukebox as the mop the muck away from the counter stools. Did the window at the Quarter Cafe, that Tennessee Williams loved to perch in, blow out? Are beignets bobbing down a river of cafe au lait where Cafe DuMonde should be?
I looked at close to a thousand pictures of destruction last night but none of these places were shown. Looters grabbed armfuls of clothes, boxes of shoes piled high at stores along Canal Street. People wheeled carts away from Walmart full of bicycles and boxes. If I were to nip an item or two it would be more from one of those marvelouslly girly boutiques on Royal. But I'd probably be more inclined to help clean up.

This hurricane made me think about how we all take things for granted. We expect our home to be where we left it when we leave in the morning. We have so many possessions we don't even know what we've got let alone what is precious to us.

Over the weekend I was upset because Sweets shrank one of my favorite sweaters. Navigating the world of cashmere, merino, silks and satins is new to him and there have been a few casualties. I sulked for a while and then realized, here I have this fella who will not only wash, fold but even IRON my clothes and I'm complaining something got shrunk? Geez, give the boy a squeeze not a scowl!

Because in the end, that sweater is just one of the hundreds that will pass through my life. But he's the only man that has loved me precisely the way I've always wanted. And that... my friends, is precious.

2005-08-24T11:27:00.000-04:00

"It is possible to live in peace."- Gandhi It's just not expected anymore. Every so often, I check in at Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About , a site by British author, Mil Millington who is an enterprising chap who's published a novel of the same name in at least 7 languages by this point, including German, his girlfriend Margret's native tongue. Reading about their epic disfunction is enough to make anyone feel better about their relationship. But it makes me feel weird. Here's the thing... Sweets and I don't argue. Not once. Really. I've not raised my voice or called him by his full name in admonishing tones, stamped my feet or slammed a door. If you know me and my temper, you should find this peculiar. We just... get along. Society isn't prepared for this and it makes me feel like a weirdo. Sometimes, I think I should just pick a fight so we can get it over with and not be completely overcome with shock the day it happens. Sweets says it may never happen. See that's why I really love him. He puts his optimism in my pessimism.

2005-08-16T11:15:00.000-04:00

This weekend was HOOOOOOT. So hot, the AC in the house wasn't cooperating and we watched in horror as the temperature steadily rose into the 80's. I had to take desperate measures and donned a bathing suit as my only means of modesty. Saturday, I spent most of the afternoon laying on the bed, under the fan, in my bathing suit posting photos to Flickr. I've been pretty hooked on the site. While I was recovering from my tonsillectomy I basically stayed logged on all day watching the photos flow in. Sort of like work really, except there are never any gross suicide bombing photos on Flickr like at work, which I incidentally looked at one yesterday just as I was biting into a bacon cheeseburger deluxe at my desk. It kind of put me off my lunch. Anyway, back to Flickr. I'm totally addicted. I used to blog here much more frequently but now I'm posting photos over there and checking out new people and groups. Here's a few of my favorites: Best love affair: Lanky Canadian and total geek chic heartthrob,notext, is totally cookoo for cocoa puffs over Rissa or less_like_math, a Southwestern, single mom that is cute as a button and has a penchant for self portraits and new DIY hairdos. I totally heart these two and watch their story unfold an image at a time with sucked in breath and my fingers crossed for their future. For surreal, Fruedian fantiasies I look at Dr Joanne. Moody Tsogy from Finland shoots beautiful and lonely landscapes and intimate portraits. From the tropical heat of Guam, chotda serves up photos of refreshing treats from her kitchen and other things that she eats. Food for your eyes. I've been joining groups. First ones to show off my concert photography and more each day that showcase cupcakes, vintage finds, road trips, flowers, chihuahua lovers, happy couples.... Like I said, I'm addicted. Besides working on photos, I spent most of my time ingesting mango margaritas, gin and tonics and hard apple cider. I whipped up quesadillas with thinly sliced garlicy pork chops, pepper jack, cilantro and mango salsa. We went to a matinee to see Broken Flowers. So far, Crash was my favorite movie of the year but this one slyly stole the show. Ona hot afternoon this hit the spot like visiting a gelateria. Each character was rich and intense and in a small portion like a dollop of gelato goodness. Bill Murray has one of his best moments in this film as his life catches up to him. So,so good. Get your butt to the movies right away. I'm also giving the nod to Hustle and Flow. Terrence Howard is my new crush of the hour. He's sort of like the new Mark Ruffalo in my book. You seen him in something and think, hey, that guy is good, why isn't he in anything else and then bang he's everywhere. I'm dreaming of a biopic on Duke Ellington starring Howard.

2005-08-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

The other night, a colleague, who I usually mentally refer to as The Man in Black, because he is always dressed in utilitarian shades of midnight, asked me to do him a favor and give him a lift. As we chatted in the car, I realized I was missing out on a great opportunity. A few months ago, I attended his book signing over at Antic Hay Books in Asbury Park. After having him inscribe the book for me, I brought it home and put it in my pile of books that need to be read, which is quite high considering I usually bring home two or three a week from the office's book review reject pile. Not that the pile contains bad books, we just don't keep everything sent in obviously. It's not often you get a private sitting with a real live author to discuss their work and I'd blown it. The Chicago Tribune says "Wallace Stroby writes descriptive prose as shiny and sharp as a surgical instrument." I decided it was time for me to crack the book and see just how sharp it is. Five chapters in and I am hooked. I've always assumed that crime fiction isn't really my bag. Although I do love crime tv, movies and in my line of wor, the actual news coverage crimes. This book has me thinking differently about this genre. Tersely written chapters are jammed with description and realistic dialogue. Definitely a page turner. So I am putting out my first official "The summer's almost over, read a book already, Slacker" Reading List to tout the book. These are all books I've read this year and think you'll like, too. I tried to pick something for everyone. The Heartbreak Lounge by Wallace Stroby. The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington by Brian Francis. A touching and funny tale of an overweight thirteen year old boy whose obsesses over his newly emerging nipples and the cute boys at school. A wise cracking teenaged hag backs him up. Ship Sooner by Mary Sullivan. A girl's coming of age novel that is fabulously descriptive and takes unexpected turns. Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney. A trio of Australian sisters that were child stars are now grown, fueding and thrown back together by their clever grandmama who reminds me of Auntie Mame and had me cackling at her antics. Funnny and sad, perfect weight for the beach or wiling away an afternoon in the shade. Misfortuneby Wesley Stace The merry minstrel known as John Wesley Harding, penned this under his real name and put all his training at Oxford to good use in this intriguing Dickensanian tale of a boy raised as a girl and his squabbling fantastically rich English family. Very Masterpiece Theatre but with naughty bits. It's a mystery, a love story, a tale of finding one's own path however odd. It's a must read. Especially if you are a self respecting fan of Wes's music. Fat Girl by Judith Morris. A biographical story that will have you wriggling in your bathing suit this summer thinking about your own relationship with food as Morris lasbasts herself over hers. The first book I read of the year, I'm still thinking about it. The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas by Davy Rothbart. A slim volume of stories by the creator of Found Magazine. Tales from the road mostly of love and loss. The tears are hot, the kisses long, the tales are tall and the book is a winner. Look for a local stop of Davy's tour backing the book. Around the World in Eighty Datesby Jennifer Cox. I thought this apropos reading for travel so I read it on my summer vacation. British travel afficianado, Cox, asks her friends to help her find her soulmate and is willing to travel the world to find him. She meets a slew of men. Some dates howlingly funny others sorta pathetic.

2005-07-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Metaphorical Magpie. Maybe I should crack open a bottle of the bubbly that's always in the fridge for special occasions. Or kick back a shot of tequila. Over the course of a year, alot happens and at the same time not much occurs as well. I've been thinking about what's transpired in the past year in somewhat quantifiable measurements. For example, in the last year I've seen 88 bands in 9 different cities at 19 venues. Despite my modest posting record, I've had a smattering of interest in my blog. Which I have to say, makes me happy. I'm endlessly amused by the data from my tracker, Webstat. People from the United States, Canada, Great Britain (UK), Japan,�Singapore, Denmark, Sweden, Malaysia, Netherlands, Australia,�Israel, Turkey, Spain, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Guam, Italy,�India,�Mexico, Thailand�and Philippines have stopped by. Mac users account for 53% of my readers. I was surprised to find the most searched for topic that subsequently led people into my site was the phrase "cherohonkee" from the book Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic by Robert Lanham. Other literary mentions include authors Dorothy Parker, Jennifer Paddock and Wesley Stace whose books I love and Heather Swain who wrote Luscious Lemon, a volume I found rather sour. Bands like Poem Adept, Shout Out Louds, Orphins, Mascott, Soledad Brothers,Holly Golightly and Rhett Miller got hits along with the soundtracks for Napoleon Dynamite and Hotel Rawanda. Lloyd Dobler and I Heart Nerds t-shirts were sought after. The foodies came in search of Buttercup Bakery cupcake franchise info, italian ices, Crystal Light, dirty bong water mixed drinks, crumb buns and recipes for recovering tonsillectomy patients. Best of all were the weird searches, some of them I'm still unsure why they arrived at Magpie at all. Some of the weirdest ... �snoopy snowcone instructions online feel good fashion old navy commercial mowing the lawn is blowing ... When was taxidermied animals first prepared? Disembodied Head in Music video "thermometer beeped" and in my butt she put a tube down my pee hole Here's to year number 2.

2005-07-13T11:44:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day I feel more like my old self. Perhaps even better than my old self considering I've been feeling like dreck for months and months if I add the tonsils to the ulcer. It seems that all my parts have piped down and are working in unprecedented unison. I think I slept last night. Most nights, I'm really not sure. I feel like I'm awake more than I'm asleep. Well rested, I can turn an eye to what I've missed since I've been ill. Like White Stripes tickets with Brendan Benson opening at Keyspan Park. Drats. Scratch that. Double Drats.

2005-06-29T13:12:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday I had a tonsillectomy. After three varieties of antibiotics didn't kill the infection in my tonsils, two months of being sick and one consultation with an ear, nose and throat doctor that informed me "You have two options- don't do anything and suffer or have them taken out. Antibiotics don't work. Anybody who tells you anything else is bullshit." Appreciative of a straight shooter and tired of feeling rather lackluster I scheduled surgery. I checked out a few message boards by tonsillectomy patients. What they had to say scared the crap out of me. My friend Tanya warned her C-section was easier. One of the ladies Sweets works with advised "The pain is unbearable and constant but then you wake up one morning and it's gone." On the day of the surgery I had that horrible feeling I get when someone tries to get me to ride a rollercoaster - except, in this case, I have to actually face my fear and do the scary thing. I was disappointed I couldn't check out the operating room properly since the nurse made me leave my eyeglasses with Sweets. I hopped up on the bed and before the surgeon even came in I was out. Next thing I remember was waking up sore and with an upset tummy. And then Sweets was next to me and that made me feel better just to have my pinky touching his hand. Evidently, the plan is to get you sitting up and drinking water asap. But my stomach wasn't cooperating. Finally, I got a few sips in and they were satisfied enough to send me home. I was so out it, I literally couldn't even get my pants on alone. Since I've been home, it's been up and down. The pain isn't as terrible as I was envisioning but it can be a drag. It's day 7 now and my tongue is still numb on the right side. I can't open my mouth very wide. It does hurt when I swallow but mostly in the back of the mouth, not all the way down like when I have a sore throat. When it gets bad, my jaw hurts, my gums feel swollen, I can hardly open my mouth or talk. Then, it's time for my new friend. Codeine. I didn't like it at first. It tastes yucky and made me stomach upset. I've been trying to be moderate and only take it every 8-12 hours. This morning, I practically pushed Sweets out the door so I could go slurp it up. And then... ah... so mellow. It's like having one strong cocktail buzz lasts a long while. Usually, I get sorta sleepy. Sometimes I really zonk out. My sister refilled my prescription today for me. As she handed it over, she gave me THE LOOK and said she thinks it's time I switch to liquid Tylenol before I get hooked. Now she tells me. When I have a whole bottle sitting on the counter! She's most definitely right. I'll start knocking off tomorrow. I promise. As for food. Ha! I have had no coffee, no tea, alcohol, dairy or bread. The horror of it. My diet the past week has consisted of the following: When I wake up I grab a Lick a Color Popsicle, throughout the day I might have Cream of Wheat, oatmeal or instant grits-all at room temperature, Jell-O, Fla Vor Ice, Luigi's italian ice swirls in strawberry banana and blue razberry lemonade, Motts strawberry banana applesauce, freshly squeezed carrot,apple,celery juice, egg salad and for a real treat the last two days I've had spaghetti cut into 1/4 pieces served again at room temperature. Plus more water than I've probably ever drank in my life. Unexpectedly resulting in three pound weight loss. Not sure how long that will last since I spend copious chunks of my newly found free time thinking about food. In the bath, I yearned for crisp fries smothered with a lucious brown gravy. A grilled cheddar on sourdough with hierloom tomatoes. Curries, chocolate cakes, fish tacos, juicy burgers. Mmm. Watching the Food Network probably is not helping matters. Since I rarely watch tv, it's like I'm seeing shows for the first time. I'm soothed by Paula's Home Cooking and her Southern hospitality, irritated by Rachel Ray's wild gesturing during 30 Minute Meals although I do dig her kitchen. I wish I could see some Jamie Oliver. Where'd his show go? An episode of Recipe for Success on the Brooklyn Bakery Baked made me realize my dream of opening a place someday needs to be tempered with a large dollop of reality. When I'm tired of Food, I do a little HGTV. I've caught Debbie Travers Painted House which is not as obnoxious as some of other decorating shows out there. And of course, Oprah is a must when you're at home sick. As I may have mentioned in the past, living with Sweets is sort of like living in your own private video store. He pulled out a stack about two feet tall of films he thought I might like that I haven't seen before. So far I've watched Body Heat, Collateral, American Pie and Closer. For a laugh, I've posted a photo on Flickr of my recovery.

2005-06-13T13:19:00.000-04:00

"am i in destiny, am i in my kitchen? you're the book dammit. you are the morning. don't deny yourself with this duty-woman!" - Jack White (The profound... and preposterous all in one wrapper) from the intro to Get Behind Me Satan. Right now, I'm sipping a french roast, gathering my thoughts, preparing to garden, recuperating from travel, itching to srart shooting with my new Canon 20D that I so generously presented to myself as an early birthday gift. I'll have a full report soon on the CMJ Music Fest at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the city of Cleveland. Until then, it's off to the roses, humming softly to myself "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)."

2005-06-04T18:50:00.000-04:00

My birthday looms and my thoughts turn to highly impractical and possibly exorbitantly expensive items (but hey, who cares, I'm not buying) that would make me gush like a jelly donut if bestowed upon me in a beribboned box. Not that I am a)trying to drum up gifts or b) really expect to receive any of these things but sometimes it is nice to window, er, website shop. Now, if I was an expresso drinker, which I am not ... I would have to have these expresso cups and saucers designed by Joep van Lieshout for Illy which depict the four systems of the human body involved in drinking coffee. Along with my caffeine, I'll need a Pink Sprink donut from the SewDorky donut shop. Since it's inedible, it won�t make me fat but will bring me lots of joy as I poke the icing and fondle the beaded sprinkles. A good read with a nosh is always a plus. I'd like a copy of Rock Snob's Dictionary by David Kamp & Steven Daly. Since I'm a magazine junkie, I could always use a few new subscriptions to clutter the coffee table. Right now, I'm enamored with Domino and Everyday Food. If I have to dash off, I can slip my reading material into a Copacetic parakeet tote bag that makes my bird lovin' heart take flight. Oh, what the heck, toss a cardinal and cassette button in the bag for good luck. To keep a watchful eye on my birds, how about a Kit-Kat clock? I've always wanted one and it will be historically accurate in my home built in the 30's. I just know my mango salsa will look smashing in Nigella Lawson's mixing bowls in a lovely robin�s egg blue and a amoeba like shape that hugs the body as you stir. Her bread box is pretty stellar as well, with a wooden top that doubles as a cutting board. A girl needs some pampering every once in a while. My first wish would be a refill on one of my favorite scents, Radiance, blended by Hove Parfumeur in New Orleans. Cyndemouse and I stumbled into the Royal St. shop on a rainy afternoon. After swooning, I bought several small vials of a variety of scents. Radiance, a glorious Bulgarian rose attar, is my favorite. I truly do glow when I wear it. A trio of Philosophy bubble bath named The Birthday Cake seems awesomely appropriate. Now where do we stick the candles?

2005-05-16T01:48:00.000-04:00

The new Ryan Adams website is a site to behold, filled with birds, blossoms and bears. Taking an afternoon ride in Sweets' convertible to pick up tickets to his only NYC area performance at Starland Ballroom (huh?) was a highlight of the weekend. The show will most likely be the last I hit before heading to Rockfest. Hipsters without cars are likely to be wearing a hangdog face about this show's location. It really isn't in a very convenient spot. Even with a car. Last week I found out the reason why I've been so run down the past few weeks. Evidently, some creepy crawlies had hunkered down in my tonsils and started to make themselves at home. A few days of antibiotics, my appetite is back, my throat doesn't have that odd tickle and I'm waking up at a reasonable hour and ready to rock. Except on Thursday cause I got a bit tore up at the MisShapes party at Hiro. Once I start dancing and drinking gin it is impossible to get me to go home.Talulah, the Divine Mr. M, Sweets and I all hit the dance floor to Madonna, the Caesars, Rolling Stones, Dee Lite, The Strokes and more gems. I didn't fully recover until Saturday. Note to self: You aren't 19 anymore, lass. The weekend was mostly work at the house. Big changes are in the works here at the house. We're making over the second floor into a workspace. A closet is getting bashed to bits and replaced with twelve running feet of shelves. The floor is getting a Pergo facelift. Insulation will be injected in the walls. The climate controlled. All this means is I had to put my head down and go through all the odds and ends that have ended up there. Three big trash bags went to the curb. Boxes were made for garage and ebay selling. The contents of my craft cabinet had to be sorted through and returned to their rightful places since most of it had migrated to the craft table resulting in a workspace too cluttered to work. Almost all of the furniture up there will be replaced. We're looking for a big L shaped desk for Sweets and I to share and a daybed for extra guests. It's so much fun to sort through paint chips and look for desks and chairs. It makes all the hard work well worth it. Other than sorting through old copies of Martha Stewart Living, House and Garden, old correspondence etc, I took breaks to watch Desperate Housewives and Greys Anatomy on tv tonight at the Phantom of the Opera on dvd (most regrettably) last night. And I ate alot. It felt like I was hungry every few hours. Sweets made all the food this weekend- breakfasts of waffles, eggs, bacon and grits, pasta for dinner, running out for a late night pizza which we never do. I felt a flash of what it would like to be preggers, constantly wanting some odd food and Sweets producing it out of thin air. This upcoming week will be busy: 5/16-5/17: Early to rise for contractor. 5/18: Mondo Diao bringing their sweet, sweet, Swedish salvation to our shore. With the Sights, possibly Detroit's cutest band. Lemme think about that to be certain and I'll get back to you for sure. At Bowery Ballroom. Then to the Cheeky Bastard after party at Hiro Ballroom. Andy Rourke of The Smiths will be on the 1 and 2. NICE! 5/20: New York Press Photographers Dinner. Sometimes, editors are allowed to leave the building AND wear cocktail dresses at the same time. Haven't really worked out the shoes and it's doubtful I'll have time to hunt down new ones. Damn. Shoe shopping mission unaccomplished. 5/21: The New York Burlesque Festival at Hiro Ballroom. I feel like Hiro is becoming my second home this month. 5/22: The Doves and Mercury Rev at the Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia.

2005-05-11T02:19:00.000-04:00

Before, May gets totally out of hand, I think I should recap April because it was action packed. 4/2: The Pope dies. As a journalist, this catapulted me into a month long saga of intense coverage culminating in two special sections. This has to be in the top five news events of my career. 4/5: "We" ie, the staff of the newspaper that I work for, won a Pulitzer prize for breaking news. This is the second Pulitzer for us in five years. This year we were nominated for three and bagged one. Believe me, one Pulitzer makes a paper VERY happy. Drank champagne at my desk throughout the afternoon. That rocked! 4/9: Jaunt to Philadelphia for Psychedelic Furs show. Bought Doves tickets. 4/10: Who in their right mind would give up an oceanfront apartment just as the weather starts to get nice? Kooky, Sweets, that's who. We'd been spending all of our time here so we packed his Blockbuster store sized collection of dvds, shoved the couch out the door and he officially moved into the house. When his grandmama learned of the news she said she�d pray for me. Oh, to be young, in love and sinners. My Grams on the other hand thinks Sweets and our newly found bliss to be the bomb. 4/14: The giant hole in my backyard revealing the gross septic tank finally gets fixed. Now I can stop worrying the dogs will fall into a vat of poo and concentrate on the fear they will be eviscerated by the groundhogs invading the yard. 4/19: Sweets had a birthday. I scampered around for days gathering gifts and paper without him knowing. One morning, I pretended to be exhausted and stayed in bed when he left for work and then made the mad dash for the shops. When he woke up on his birthday, I gave him a tshirt and a hip zippered sweater. He seemed satisfied. LIke that was it! Then I gave him a cd compilation I made for him like it was an afterthought. While he dressed I put a box with an ipod in it out on the table in the living room and waited until he found it. He was so excited he ALMOST forgot to give me a kiss. I took the day off as comp time from working on the Pope story. While enjoying a cup of coffee and a crumb bun and reading the paper at Freedman�s Bakery in Belmar, I heard a new pope was elected. On a normal day, I would have scrapped my comp day and gone to work. But since it was Sweets� big day, I decided to stay home unless I was called. The phone didn�t ring so I whipped up a yummy dinner instead. It was nice to be home at night like a normal person. 4/21: NJPA awards dinner. Another year as chairman of the photo contest behind me, I can now breathe easy until the next entries start rolling in. Sweets surprised me by being there, too. He won a design award for his paper. 4/23: Second pope section is published. Some of my best editing ever. 4/29 -5/1: Tribeca Film Festival. Although this trip seemed doomed from the start, Sweets and I took our first mini break holiday. I found a really cool underground guest house in Williamsburg run by Argentinians. We hooked up with Talulah for a much needed Indian dinner and popped into various bars on the Lower East Side. When it got late, we went over to Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel. It looks like the House of Blue Leaves from Kill Bill or one of those period Asian films I love so much. From a dark wood vaulted ceiling, huge paper lanterns swung, pehaps in sync with the girls on swings up on stage. (Girls on swings is kinda very 1989 but I guess I�m just old for remembering these things). While T-La chatted up the adorable boy she�s working over there, Sweets and I danced. The next day, a pilgrimage to the Apple store was made. Tiger�s stripes were inspected. Ipod accessories were weighed carefully. Then we shared a plate of penne vodka and decided to take a nap since it was rainy. Refreshed, we went to the theater to see the midnight show of Nightwatch, a Russian film touted as similar to Lord of the Rings. I liked it but Sweets didn�t. I can be much easier to amuse when it comes to movies.

raveonettes2

2005-05-04T11:57:00.000-04:00

raveonettes2, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

Tickets to The Raveonettes secured!
Loving the new release Pretty in Black.

2005-04-27T20:45:00.000-04:00

The past few days, I've found myself in the unfamiliar state of having no appetite. Not that I have to be hungry to eat. I eat, therefore I am. It would be impossible for me to say no to something tasty if the offer arises. Yet, the last few days, due to my cold, I really could care less about food. It'll pass. Before the cold set in, I've been cooking quite a bit lately. I've discovered the scent of green bananas by Santos, through her gorgeous photos on Flickr. Her images make my eyes happy and my tummy rumble. And the relatively new Saucy Magazine dishes up ample servings of news, recipes and musing on all things food. I picked up the April issue of Everyday Food this month and ended up trying several of the recipes. For Sweets' birthday, I turned out the Apricot-Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Horseradish Mashed Potatoes. The recipes were quick and easy. Dinner was on the table in less than an hour. Best of all, Sweets was ever so pleased with the meal. Grams gobbled up the dinners I dropped off to her, too. Later in the week, I whipped up polenta stuffed red peppers and paprika chickpea snacks. My only complaint was the chickpeas didn't stay very crunchy. Other than that, everything was easy to prepare. I'm thinking of subscribing. I don't have as much time to cook these days as I'd like. It's hard to be inspired and pressed for time. Last night when I got home from work, Sweets was still slaving away on a special section at his office. So, I decided to surprise him with cupcakes when he came home. Good ol' Duncan Hines did have something to do with it. In a flash, I turned out a dozen and a half Red Velvet cupcakes. Half were iced with cream cheese frosting. The others with pink, strawberry flavored marshmallow Fluff. Garnished with some pink and red candy corn left over from Valentine's Day. Mmm Mmm Good! Music I've been cooking to.... Ryan Adams: Love is Hell Part 1, The Dears: No Cities Left, and Angie Stone: Black Diamond

2005-04-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

An unexpected spring cold has knocked me on my butt. A sore throat on Monday morning bloomed into a full fledged achy, drippy, fevery mess by the evening. Sweets ran out to get me some medicine. I don't know if the day version has some sort of uppers in it but I slept a total of two hours on Monday night. Just laying awake, sniffling, thinking about Hotel Rawanda which we watched before bed. Great film but probably not the best material to take in before trying to sleep. Although, Sweets woke up on Tuesday claiming he had slept like a baby and then remarked that I was really hot. Used to waking to such platitudes from my beloved, I smiled until he said, no, you're really hot. Like as in temperature. He was right. I groaned as the thermometer beeped as it pushed up point by point. At 101, I knew I needed a rest day or I'd be in bad shape. I always feel bad about staying home when I can't get anything productive done. But I wasn't in any shape to do much. In fact, I was so lazy that when I could only find one of the socks I had pulled off in the night, I only put that one sock on and stayed that way for eight hours. I made a cup of tea and ate a brownie because the pan sitting on the stove next to the kettle. Back in bed, I listened to some KEXP from Seattle. Digging around in their in studio performance archive, I found Ambulance Ltd covering "I'll Be Your Mirror" by the Velvet Underground and a next song. That soothed me. Dipping into my books to be read pile, I passed over Misfortune by Wesley Stace (better know as singer/songwriter John Wesley Harding) for now, no strength to hold the darned thing and Why Birds Sing: A Journey Through the Mystery of Bird Song by David Rothenberg because that would make my brain work too hard. Instead, I picked up Luscious Lemon by Heather Swain a high calorie chick lit confection inline with a Lifetime for Women movie. Granted, I was in the mood for something light. It turned out to deal with some heavy submect matter and I commend the author for tackling it. I'm just sort of dismayed that houses liked Downtown Press are putting out these formulaic tomes and women are snapping them up. Basic plot: Power career girl has it all, questions what she has, loses something important to her, finds new direction and is even happier. I find it interesting that as a whole, women appear to be having breakdowns by the time we're 30. I certainly have felt some pangs in the last few years myself. Career is great but it that it? Does that define me? Can't I have it all? Can I handle it all? I just can't handle these books condensing my emotions, putting cutesy art on the cover and selling them back to me.

2005-04-13T19:15:00.000-04:00

The preliminary lineup for The CMJ/Rock Hall Music Fest came out today: Pixies, Digable Planets, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks,Futureheads, High Speed Kings, Misfits,Powerman 5000, Keoki, Frankie Bones, Spoon, The Clientele, Red Wanting Blue, Mushroomhead, Mindless Self Indulgence,Chuck Prophet, From First to Last, Emanuel, Halifax, H is Legend, A.P. showcase, Nashville Pussy, Paybacks, Lucky Artist Booking Showcase featuring: El Pus, Whole Wheat Bread, Streetlight Manifesto, June and special guests Gym Class Heroes. More to come, I'm sure. Looking forward to catching The Futureheads to see what the fuss is about and seeing the Pixies again. I distinctly remember flouncing about the first time I saw them in 1990, willing them to hurry up and get off the stage so I could see The Cure. Never seen the Misfits or Nashville Pussy and the Paybacks are always a good time. I am wondering if this lineup is really worth my traipsing halfway across the country for but the plane tickets are bought, the hotel is booked. So Cyndemouse and I are off to see the middle part of the country. After many years of vacationing on the edges in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, New Orleans, Boston and Florida, 2005 is looking like a journey to the center of the country with stops in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago and possibly Detroit. I should probably get off my duff and write some travel pieces this year. THe more travel packages I sell, the more I could travel. Also looking forward to the 5th annual Siren Fest which is slated for July 16. Lineup should be available in a few weeks. I ran fifteen blocks down South Street in Philly on Saturday to the Theater of the Living Arts box office to secure a pair of tickets to The Doves and Mercury Rev on May 21. Got shut out for the Bowery Ballroom show and I was NOT letting that happen again. Big sigh of relief. I'm psyched about Mercury Rev and getting more into The Doves as The Last Broadcast finds a prominent position in the disc changer alongside Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective by Brian Jonestown Massacre which I am convinced I am eating a hole into the disc that is proportionate to the ulcer boring into my stomach. We planned a trifecta of reasons to go to Philly, buy those tickets at the box office to avoid the ridiculous Ticketmaster handling charges, get haircuts at Le Bomb Chele and see the Psychedelic Furs play the Trocadero. Haircuts did not happen due to our waiting until the morning to make the appointments which has always worked in the past. Machele's scissors must be snipping at the speed of light over there. Next time we'll plan ahead. A quick dinner at Panang had steam coming out of poor Sweets' ears. Cyndemouse and I sort of hazed him into the Chinatown experience with a wallop of Malaysian spice. Afterwards, an attempt to find soothing ice cream in a Chinese neighborhood was futile so we headed over to the Troc. Missed the opener and caught the second act, The Shore. Sweets and I weren't into it but Cyndemouse drew comparisons to Richard Ashcroft and happily cornered the drummer after the show to dish about it. All these reunion shows lately have me leary and I wasn't sure if we were headed toward disappointment. The crowd was a mix of older people who looked as if they don't get out as much anymore. A pair of women wearing ponchos and heels off to our left were like in tears of joy hopping up and down screaming along to Pretty in Pink. Richard Butler looked well preserved and exceptional limber in a la-la-la-la kind of way to the Mouse who he seemed to share long flirtatious glances with throughout the set. They ran through almost all their great songs shifting back and forth from the sneering Talk Talk Talk era to the introspective Midnight to Midnight phase. I was happy. I didn't jump and down and scream like a girl- too much but it was great to see one of my favorite bands live, even if it's a good 25 years later than I would have liked. 1979 would have been such a hot year for shows. Too bad I was... yeah, like, I'm going to admit to how old I really am.

peek

2005-03-22T13:43:00.000-05:00

peek, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

For those of you thinking that the Magpie has been lazily feathering her nest at home and not up to any shenanigans, you are wrong. I've taken wing to several locales in the last few weeks hunting for more baubles to tuck into the box of found treasures that I so willingly share with y'all.
In light of lifestyle maven, Martha Stewart's return to the Omnimedia offices recently, I offer you some of my own "good things" for consideration.

Cyndemouse and I were enthusiastic about seeing The Gates in Central Park ala Christo and Jean Claude. We picked a gorgeous day to make the trip and piled into the car along with Sweets. The park was jammed with spectators out for a look at the saffron swirling overhead and then happily lost in other pursuits, dog petting, pretzel eating, hand holding, photo taking, people watching. We took a nice turn around the park. As I pulled out my camera, I asked Sweets, "I wonder how many bad photos have been taken in the park in the last few weeks?" Then I proceeded to take some of dubious quality myself. When I uploaded to Flickr, I was amazed to see I was joining about six thousand other images of the art piece. I took some time to poke around and found some that were quite nice. I took the first official self portrait of Sweets and Me that day. We're quite the cute couple; if I do say so myself.

After the unusual event of getting some fresh air, we were all famished and proceeded over to Liberta Pizzeria for what I believe to be a Sicilian slice that is as close to perfect as it can get. This is not your ordinary ton of brick slice, my friend. This slice is a light fluffy affair with a satisfying crisp bottom so it crunches slightly when you dig in. Topped with carmelized onions, breadcrumbs and a modest amount of cheese, the flavors meld together perfectly. We happily munched away in silent appreciation with only the heater under the granite table sizzling for sound effect.

Then we meandered downtown, screeching to a halt in front of Buttercup Bake Shop to satisfy a deep seated desire for cupcakes. Cyndemouse was suffering from a cold and fading fast, so we piled back into the Roxymobile and headed for home to sample our stash of pint sized perfection. Between the three of us, we scored red velvet, Lady Baltimore and Devil Dog varieties. Sitting around the kitchen table, all we ceased talking and began murmuring mmmms. Buttercup offers franchise opportunities for $30K. Hmm, not too high of a price in my opinion for that Lady Baltimore recipe.

Next stop for the Magpie.... Princeton. Mr. and Mrs. Please Please came to stay with me for the weekend while the Mr. attended a Democracy for America conference at Monmouth University to learn organizing techniques. That left the Mrs in my hands for entertainment. She hit it off with Sweets, both being of the Midwestern persuasion. They chattered about butter burgers which is basically a burger served with a mandatory pat of butter. I decided to take them for a spin over to Princeton. It's been a while since I've been to Princeton Record Exchange and that is simply no good. I'm sort of a snake when it comes to music purchasing, I'll buy a pretty big chunk, digest it for a while and then bite off another piece. I always score something cool in the $1.99 department.
We also stopped in at Micawber Books a fine bookseller that mixes used and new books in a great space. I picked up a 1933 edition of a Dorothy Parker book, After Such Pleasures for a mere four sheckles. Score.
I've also been chilling in Vermont and swilling in Philly, but that has to be a new post because my biggest fan, Talulah is about to go insane if I don't post SOMETHING. So this one is for you girl!

2005-02-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Please let me interrupt this broadcast to give a shout to the people at Flickr that make technology so easy, even I, the girl who can't get anything electronic to work properly, have mastered posting photos to my blog. I really, really, really think this is the best thing since oozy sugared jelly donuts. Brace yourselves, I may start to go completely photo posting mad. Although, that would mean I'd have to edit my images in a much more timely fashion than I have been lately. I still haven't sifted through anything I've shot since New Year's Eve. As I do, some will pop up on Flickr. I promise to only post more relevant shots here. The past few weeks have passed by easily, in a soft focus, slow motion, long take accompanied by a dreamy soundtrack. I have been unapologetically basking in the warmth of having an honest to goodness, pinch me to make sure this is really happening to me boyfriend. My friend, Daddy-O, popped in on me unexpectedly to catch up. We chatted for a while about this and that, jazz and punk, his recent divorce and then he abruptly changed the subject. "Did you meet someone?" he asked, cocking his curls to one side. I nod my head vigorously, yes, yes, yes and blush. "I can tell. You're all lit up," he reached out and pats my head fatherly like I am his little girl all grown up. Things have gotten to be a bit on the "All Sweets, All the Time" angle but I'm certainly not complaining. Some day soon we'll have to emerge from the fort made from comforters, sunlight burning our blinking green eyes, for more than sips of juice and sandwiches before hastily retreating back to our lair. In the meantime, I'm quite content to having my social calendar a bit bare. Who knew being a homebody could be so much fun? When we do come up for air, there are some shows that I've got my eye on. And a few that I unfortunately missed out on tickets. Is every show at the Bowery Ballroom sold out? Geez. Tonight's show with The Futureheads (who I have been dying to see after reading Miss Modernage's squishy, gushing about them) and The Shout Out Louds (who I found delightful at a CMJ show at Mercury Lounge in Oct.) Alas, Luna and Ambulance Ltd with VHS or Beta are also sold out. I may have to take the trek to Philly to catch Ambulance LTD at Northstar Bar . The show I caught over the summer was one of the best of the year to me, so I'd like to see them once more before their appearance at Coachella blows them up completely. The inclusion of one of their songs in the film PS was probably the best part of the film. That rated higher than seeing Topher Grace peeling the clothes off his scrawny body. I am musing over dashing off to the Metrotimes Blowout Festival in Detroit, SXSW in Austin, Coachella in CA and Bumbershoot in Seattle this year. Cyndemouse and I have confirmed a trip to Cleveland in June for the CMJ fueled shows at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. So many bands, so little time. Sigh.

San Francisco, North Beach

2005-02-21T20:23:00.000-05:00

San Francisco, North Beach, originally uploaded by roxydynamite.

I've been missing San Francisco over the past few days. I thought Seattle was my favorite American city but now I'm not so sure.

2005-02-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

The longer I blog; the more caught up I get in reading other people's blog. Which makes it tougher to find time to update my own but alot of fun for me nonetheless. I usually check out Not Martha pretty frequently to see what Megan has been cooking or knitting up. She had a link to All Cupcakes, All The Time . Which has set me off on a cupcake craze ever since. Visions of cupcakes are dancing in my head. Realizing this kick was not half baked, Sweets (that's the new boyfriend) presented me with an artfully wrapped copy of Hey There, Cupcake!: 35 Yummy Fun Cupcake Recipes for All Occasions . Now, I have to decide which recipe to try first. Ah, decisions, decisions. Not wanting to neglect my true love, the donut, I visited Portland,OR's Voodoo Doughnut site today. Their site isn't much to look at but their donuts made me swoon when I had the chance to pop in last year. I'm not the only person that joneses for the Voodoo, where �the magic is in the hole.� Another fanatic is making a documentary about them. How cool is that? And I also found a fellow magpie out there on the left coast, The Chattering Magpie . She likes Voodoo Doughnuts and gin beverages, too. So we are birds of a feather.

2005-02-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

My imagination is a blessing and a curse. It can take me to faraway lands and allow me to hold long conversations with whomever I wish. It also has helped me foster a series of relationships with imaginary boyfriends over the years. Now, I don't mean men that don't actually exist. THAT would be mentally ill. My imaginary beaus are one's that I do know and usually spend some degree of time with in real life. I just tend to fixate on them. Mulling over every conversation we've had. Deciphering every friendly pat on the shoulder. Swooning over every peck on the cheek. Lately, my imaginary boyfriends have been failing me. The last one just wasn't cutting it. It was with much reluctance, I had to break it off with him. He just wasn't giving me what I needed. I was in a word: despondent. Cyndemouse sensed my angst and declared a new imaginary boyfriend must be located asap. But alas, there were none to be found. Around this time, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not starring that French cutie-patootie, Audrey Tatou, arrived from Netflix. The film was disturbing. Suddenly, I felt like I had gone from having a playful imagination to a disease- erotomania. (Um, this is where my hypochondria kicks in.) I looked erotomania up in my new dictionary. Erotomaniacs believe the object of their affections are in love with them, too. I've certainly never believed that. My deal is, I have to try to convince him to love me. If I just try hard enough.... pay the nicest compliment, cook the best meal, learn the most about his interests, then he'll have to realize I'm the girl he can't live without. "How's that working for you?" you might ask. It's not. It never has. Even if I stretch back across the years and all the objects of my affection; it never has. Not the first one that I got my head cracked open for over in the third grade. Or the longest running one who has fermented into more of my closest man friend and gold standard for the man who actually will claim my heart. And most certainly not the most recent who apparently finds me useful but not of interest for much more. Amongst all my angst over a lack of a quality imaginary boyfriend, I accidentally started fostering a real relationship. Talulah got a great new art director position and left her job. At her going away party, I finally got to meet one of her co-workers that I'd heard enough about to make me curious. After that, we'd see each other every few weeks in a group and I suddenly found myself trying to come up with more frequent reasons to see him and continue our conversations. I tried to figure out a nonchalant way to get him alone. All my plots were foiled. Finally, I got my chance and it just sorted itself out to the point we've become kind of inseperable. Last week, my Mom dropped me off at the train station as I headed out for a business trip. Seemingly like Shiva, she managed the steering wheel, cell phone, a can of Coke and a cigarette, still having a free hand to run through her shock of spiky hair. As I pulled my bags out of the backseat, she asked if I'd need to be picked up when I returned a few days later. Magpie: "No, I don't think so. My new boyfriend is going to meet me." Slyly peeps out of the corner of her eye waiting for the response. Mama Bird: Mouth drops open enough to detect the flash of her tongue ring. Incredulously says, "You mean one that's not imaginary?" Three days later and after eleven hours in transit, I stepped off the train. There he was in the distance, pacing like Rilke's panther, holding the best bouquet of flowers a girl could ever want. When I walked up he broke this stellar smile and took my hand. Magpie: "Look, Ma. This one is for real."

2005-02-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

If I had a free day this week, say Thursday, I would slip into the city and stimulate my sensory organs with a smattering of delights. First stop, pocketing some artisinal chocolates from the confectionary wizard, Jacques Torres or Mr.Chocolate as he likes to call himself. Torres just opened a new shop, Chocolate Haven, on Hudson St. After loading my pockets with sweets, I'd merrily skip down to Chinatown to revel in the remains of the Lunar New Year's celebrations. Afterwards, some eye candy in the form of a matinee at the Film Forum would be in order. In the Realms of the Unreal, a film about outsider artist Henry Darger looks absolutely fascinating. Darger, a brilliant nutjobber, spent his childhood in an asylum and his adult life slogging away as a janitor and his spare time, which he must have had skads of creating a vivid world of frolicking little girls that all have penises for some reason. Seeing certainly would be believing in this case. Then maybe a stop for some sustenance. I'm torn between an Indian feast or a stop at Rice for some black thai rice and something scrumptious lavished on top. If I'm lucky, I'll score the window seat like the last time I dined there with Benjalady, Talullah and JPo. Next stop, a reading by Sam Lipsyte from his new book, Home Land, which left me howling. Sam Lipsyte will be speaking on Thursday, February 10th at 7pm at Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers, 218 Bedford Avenue,Williamsburg, Brooklyn amongst other places soon. Read an excerpt here . Ah, what a fabulous day I would have. I feel refreshed just imagining it...

2005-01-26T01:56:00.000-05:00

Isn't getting snowed in fun? Saturday morning I ventured out into the flaky world to pick Quentin up from the vet. He had to have a icky lump removed from his neck. Now he looks like Frankenstein with a two inch incision sprouting whiskery sutures. He's been wearing a bandana that Raz left behind this summer. After we got home from the vet, I got settled for a weekend of, well not much. I slept whenever I wanted. Cooked myself a fab dinner of whole wheat pasta with a lemony crab and edamame sauce. Sipped hot cocoa. Ate half a box of Girl Scout cookies (bad, bad, bad). Read some of my favorite blogs. Had a little spa time with a strawberry facial. Watched a few movies. When the satellite went out, I thanked my lucky stars for that Netflix delivery on Friday. I'm kind of on a Mark Ruffalo kick right now, so I had my choice of We Don't Live Here Anymore and 13 Going on 30. Neither knocked my socks off. Unexpectedly, I was really impressed with A Home at the End of the World. A few friends panned it. I thought it was a really wonderful little film about the complexities of love. If you've ever been in love with two people at once, or with someone of the same sex, or a person that loves someone or something else more than you than you'll appreciate this film. I started a new compilation mix called, I Donated My Heart to Science in honor of Valentine's Day. It should run the gamut of love. Right now, I'm way over one disc's worth. I haven't decided if I want to edit it down to one or expand it to two. Lemme know if you want a copy. I liked the title so much, I entered it as a possible slogan for a t-shirt at OMG Clothing, a partner of Threadless, which makes kick ass t-shirts. I gave some to the bad girls for Christmas. At OMG, you can vote for slogans you'd like to see on a shirt. I entered a few and this one is by far my standout. Make up some slogans of your own. Or just shop. You won't be able to resist picking up a few shirts. Besides the dreaded shoveling, the snow was delightful. I love the way the air turns dry and crisp. There were so many birds at the feeders I lost count. I ran for my bird book to identify new visitors- a downy woodpecker and European starlings. Once everything is covered with snow, the neighborhood looks like a magical storybook village. A mulberry tree bough reached down over the fence for an introduction. "Pleased to meet you, sir," I curtsied and gently took it's end in my glove. As I turned away, I could have sworn I heard him whisper, "Charmed, I'm sure."

2005-01-20T01:43:00.000-05:00

Somewhere, I lost a few weeks. Maybe they are stuck between the sofa cushions with the loose change and dog fur that usually reside there. The Editor dogs me to be honest here on my blog and I hate to disappoint him. I could skirt the truth and say I've been busy (which is always true). Or haven't had anything to say (which is never true). The truest summation would be that I've been sad. The kind of sad that makes you unable to get out of bed until fifteen minutes before it's time to leave for work. The kind of sad that makes you too lazy to wash your hair. The kind of sad that makes you ponder quite seriously if there is something fundamentally flawed about you that makes you completely unlovable. And this notion, this makes you really sad. This is the type of sadness that will leave you crying when a sappy Alicia Keyes song is in the soundtrack of one of your favorite crime tv programs. Or you could get weepy during a segment on public radio. It doesn't seem to take much to turn on the tears. What brought this sadness on? I'm not sure. Too much natural disaster lately? We've had tsunamis in Asia, avalanches at ski resorts, mudslides in California. Mortality seems to scoff at us lately. I feel small in it's wake. And alone. Instead of dwelling on all the bad things there are to think about, I've been working on a list of things that make me happy. The ones that pull me back into normalcy. Birds. I've set up several bird feeders in the yard. The largest feeder hangs on the back fence and was a hit right away. A cardinal couple stops by as well as 6 blue jays, several pigeons and loads of sparrows. Just starting to get some action at the ones closer to the house. A suet feeder is popular with chickadees and a tufted titmouse. A feeder filled with cracked corn and raisins hanging from the kitchen window by suction cups has had limited success with blue jays. Watching the birds in the morning before work is worth getting up earlier for. Growing plants. I'm not much for house plants. I prefer to garden outdoors. But a few potted amaryllis and a primrose have brought some much needed green inside. I'm thinking of starting some seeds for spring. Rest. Miraculously in bed before 1 am twice this week. My sleep schedule of 3 am to 11 am isn't satisfying. I hope to get up earlier and get some things accomplished. Although, I know if I don't have an appointment, I won't get up. This week, I have two days scheduled. Next week, I've got one doctor penciled in so far. Cooking. I had Grams over for brunch on Sunday. We normally go out to a restaurant on the weekend. She eats like a bird and won't take any leftovers home. I made her blueberry and apply blintzes. We sang along to Glenn Miller songs while I cooked. After that I packed up her week's worth of meals. She's been raving about my meatloaf. Shh, don't tell her it was turkey. Music. Tonight I dragged myself over to Asbury Lanes to see the Little Killers and Detroit Cobras. My stomach hurt and it was a crummy drive home through snow. My feet were cold after standing in the snow cleaning off the car in my not so sensible stilletto boots. When I got settled at the club, I felt good, no really good. If I could divide my time between dancing and photographing at great live shows, I'd be a happy girl. Laughter. I randomly acquired a CD, The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman. I listened to it while putting the curtains back up in the kitchen after FINALLY finishing up the paint job in there. I damn near choked to death on a mouthful of cherry lemonade laughing so hard at his act. He does shows in NYC on a regular basis. I'm going to try to catch him live soon. Giving. There has been so much talk of donations towards tsunami relief in the past week it's been overwhelming. I learned of two completely unrelated programs in the same week that are dear to my heart. Both hook underpriveledged kids up with cameras and photograpy training. This gives kids a sense of empowerment and teaches them about documenting their lives. Please consider them for yourselves. The first is Kids with Cameras. This program in international. Have a soft spot for kids in India after seeing the film, Born into Brothels? Then send a sum to get some film in their hands and a sparkle in their eyes. The second program, The Luci S. Houston Photography Project, is based in San Jose, CA. Luci S. Williams Houston was murdered in November 2001. Her husband, Ray Houston, was convicted of her murder in 2003. She worked at the Kansas City Star, KS and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, OH before joining the staff at the San Jose Mercury News in 1993. HOW YOU CAN HELP: The project relies on donor generosity to serve underprivileged students at KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Heartwood Academy in the Mayfair Neighborhood of East San Jose. This is a middle school serving 78 fifth grade students. 100% of students are of color and 75% receive Free/Reduced Lunch. Over two-thirds of students are designated English Language Learners. A donation of $20 equips one student with two disposable cameras and a frame to display their work at a gallery show. Please address checks to KIPP FOUNDATION including KIPP Heartwood Academy in the memo line and mail your contribution to: The Luci S. Houston Photography Project KIPP Heartwood Academy 2050 Kammerer Avenue San Jose, CA 95116

2005-01-07T02:21:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve was spectacular. Or, I made a spectacle of myself, One of the two occured depending on who you ask. My original plan was to stay local and head over to the punk rock prom at Asbury Lanes. But other members of the bad girl posse had different ideas. The Crashin'In party in Brooklyn caught their fancy. Since my only requirements for a good time are a)dancing b) gin, I acquiesced. Especially after hearing Mommy and Daddy were playing. Lord knows I love me some Daddy. Sorry, Vivian. I promise to look but not touch. The change in plans was late in the day, so I stayed with the outfit I chose for my punk rock prom- a graphic print 80's dress with pointy shoulder pads, fishnets and furry ankle boots (vintage, of course, darlings.) We got to the club just in time to watch the open bar close up shop. Nonplussed, we stocked up on cocktails and caught Mommy and Daddy's set. Mommy did the countdown to the new year. Shortly after, this, oh my god, tall (giantish), dark (ravishing) handsome (rakishly so) man walked up to me, said "Happy New Year, sexy" and proceeded to give me the best kiss of 2005 thus far. Brooklyn is always good to me. He told me to find him later and we'd kiss some more. After hours of dancing, I ran into him again. Pointing him out to the girls as my future husband, he got down on one knee in front of me. Then rose and told me he was in the middle to talking to some chicks across the room. Last sighting was by Talullah. He left with a blonde. I was busy chatting up another lad that needed rescuing from a potential DWI, you know Dialing While Intoxicated. The poor boy literally had his finger on the button, dialing his ex when I asked him if that was what he was doing, He laughed, put the phone down and had fun with us for the rest of the night. See, bad girls can be good samaritans. The dancing and ginning were abundant. Although, I remember everything that happened, there are a few things I should have had one more drink to forget. I'm kidding. I'm not at the drink to forget level yet. I just started drinking shots last year. Other than that, I'm beat this week. Work, work, work is all I do. I gave my self a good talking to at the beginning of the year, explaining the need for relaxation and rejunvenation and home renovation. But then I get sidetracked by all that work, Funny how being some sort of "holic" runs in my family and I end up with the workaholic variety. It's like being the unfrilly, unsexy variety of plant that has gorgeous kin. Like a plain white tulip next to a scarlet parrot variety.

2004-12-31T01:45:00.000-05:00

My holiday spirit came in and out like trying to get a fix on a college radio station on a lonely stretch of highway. I tried, really did to be in the holiday spirit but it still vacillated wildly. Here are some highs and lows. They all bleed together for me, so I'm not going to indicate which were good or bad. You can be the judge. I had Netflix send me White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life. Tears were shed, of course. I resolutely refused to put up a tree this year if I didn't have a handsome lad to affix the star on top. Not able to completely forgo a tree, I opted for a tabletop silver tinsel tree that bore a small portion of my bird ornament collection and a set of wooden character ornaments depicting Cinderella, the prince, etc, my clip-on frog prince lurked on a back branch and tiny vintage balls rounded out the mix. I got more cards than I sent out this year. Found a stocking belonging to The Musician in the attic. What is the appropriate method of disposing an ex-boyfriend's Christmas stocking anyway? I've held onto it for five years. I guess he's not coming back for it... or me. Met Dirty, Rotten Santa and his elf Mr. Money. They were highly entertaining. Cyndemouse may be featured in their next video production. Kind of like a Santa Fetishists Gone Wild vibe. Look for it in 2005. My mother gave me an ice cream maker. This is ironic now that dairy is banished from my diet. But it does settle the score finally, for not buying me that Snoopy Snowcone Machine when she had the chance to like any respectable, upstanding mother who loved her child. Well, almost settles the score anyway. The family continued it's recent (ridiculous) tradition of serving appetizers and dessert without a sit down meal. Hearing this, Cyndemouse's family took pity on me, as they have many a year now, and invited me over for leftovers at their house. My compliments and gratitude to the chef! My sister decided grown up gifts were cancelled this year at her house. The kissing ball was hung in my house but the closest I got was a peck on the cheek. I won a gift basket in the company 50-50. When a scheduling snag at the office interfered with my Christmas Eve plans, my friend and hero, Lucius, came to the office on his day off for a few hours, so I could leave on time. Jon Solomon's 17th annual 24 hour Christmas Eve broadcast was fantastic as always. Four fellas from four different states called to wish me a happy holiday. A neighbor left a beautiful, live wreath at my door as a gift. There were more cute guys at the Asbury Lanes X-Mas party than I could shake my tail feather at. Should have brought my own mistletoe. Buying wrapping paper on clearance after the holiday, actually made feel more holiday cheer than much of the weeks before. Now I'm prepared for an awesome Christmas next year. To continue with my lists..... The Reading Material 2004 Flim-Flam Man A True Family History - Jennifer Vogel Maggie Sweet - Judith Minthorn Stacy Did You Get the Vibe? -Kelly James-Enger Chuck Close Prints Process and Collaboration - Terrie Sultan A Secret Word - Jennifer Paddock Success at Life. How to Catch and Live Your Dream -Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters- Elisabeth Robinson Advanced Cinematherapy. The Girl's Guide to Finding Happiness One Movie at a Time - Nansy Peske and Beverly West Found The Best Lost, Tossed and Forgotten Items from Around the World Davy Rothbart Cobain- The editors of Rolling Stone A Convergence of Birds. Original Fiction and Poetry inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell- edited by Jonathan Safran Foer Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic - Robert Lanham Timoleon Vieto Come Home- Dan Rhodes The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother - James McBride The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting Personal - Cameron Tuttle Home Land - Sam Lipsyte Subscriptions to New York, Budget Tavel, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Budget Living, Bust and various single copies of Oprah, Lucky, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar

2004-12-23T18:57:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to squeeze an update in but I've just been so dang busy. Despite, the seeminly endless pile of presents to wrap during this joyous holiday season, Christmas seems to be taking up a smidge of my time. The rest is divided between work, socializing and doctors. Work about 70 percent, socializing about 20 percent and the doctors about 10 percent. As most industries slow down at this time of year, this is one of the busiest times for mine. I'm working frantically on a year end section. Tonight I realized that all the photos I remembered vividly from the year, the ones I consider the "best" were all of really horrible things. Mothers crying over their dead children, beheadings, suicide bombings, the Americans strung up on the Fallujah bridge. These are the images that haunted me all year. Now, should I unleash them on our gentle readers? Some will find themselves in the section but they will be surrounded by other more tame images of politicos, hurricanes, Olympians, sextuplets and who knows what else I have up my sleeve. On the socializing front, I made optimum use of a three day weekend. Cyndemouse and I attended two fabulous holiday soirees. The first stop, Mouse's cousin, who has a lovely home, interesting friends, a gourmet spread and parties that almost always dissolve into sing-a-longs around the piano. We were introduced to an older gentleman, 71, successful business man. He told us that he likes his work day to start around 9:30 am, end by 4 pm and always to include a nice lunch and a nap. I pressed him for his secret to success. He wouldn't really tell me. But he did let me in on another secret. He said, apropos of nothing, "Do you know what I really like to do? Smoke weed. I have a pipe." Well, right on with your right on, Gramps. No wonder why he's got the munchies and needs a nap. After much merriment, a few flutes of champagne and failing miserably at getting business secrets, we headed back out into the icy night towards party number two. This shindig was hosted by one of my co-workers. She of the impeccable style, effortless decorating, bottomless glass. The guests at this party were younger, mostly journalist types and the people who love them. I met a dog trainer who gave me a great deal of advice on handling Quentin Badass' laundry list of behavioral problems, including his penchant for munching on my laundry if given an opportunity. Evidently, my dear boy lacks deference. He's supposed to not make a move unless I say so. In our house, everything is totally opposite and set up for the convenience of the dogs. I didn't snuggle down into my bed until after 5 am. But I was back up early because ME was unexpectedly in town on business, so we had lunch before he had to catch his flight. We grabbed a bite at La Hacienda in Bradley Beach. Our conversation leaned towards the esoteric things that we seem to gravitate to like Islamic tile, Flemish art, the band Wire, Russian authors, travelling to far flung locations and some normal stuff like dating because we are more than just cerebral. The good news of the week is I don't have a gallstone. Ever have an ultrasound? It's odd being able to see inside your own body. I would think with the state of technology today, you could see things in color but it's only black and white. So the pictures of say, your kidney, look oddly like something from the surface of Mars. Diagnosis at this point is gastritis, inflammation of the stomach. Sort of precursor of an ulcer. The doctor's edict of a bland diet devoid of dairy definitely is a downer. There was this cheese plate at one party that I normally would have sampled but I stayed away. Although, this is only after experimenting earlier in the week by eating some dairy at a office party and becoming disasterously sick afterwards. I can't ever follow instructions. I have to get burned before I learn my lesson. I had to order fish tacos at lunch to avoid cheese. On Monday night, I made pad thai and left out the chilis. It was tasty but not hot. How boring. Today I tried to get a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts. They don't have soy milk or non-dairy creamer. All of a sudden, I'm one of those difficult people ordering at a restaurant asking for substitutions. Ack. And it will continue on like this for at least another month. After that hopefully, I'll stop feeling bad after everything I eat and I can go back to my old tricks. if the symptoms return, it's off to a gastroenterologist. You know what that means. He'll want to put some tube down my throat or worse to get a closer look at my tummy. stockings hung by the chimney with care: 3 (0ne for me, Quentin and Maggie) ..... presents wrapped thus far: 35... left to wrap: about 15.... Christmas cards received: 21