You know (or maybe you don't) that one of our very best, very closest friends moved to Paris in September?
He fell madly in love with a French lady and gave up everything: his home, his work, his car, his life - and went.
We met her several times and liked her very very much...but...there is a hole in our lives where he lived. And though he is not dead (thank god), he isn't here. And emailing or talking on the phone is not at all like having him at our table every Saturday night.
We are tremendously happy for him. For them.
How often does it happen that one finds the love of one's life?
But still.
That's why I was so touched by the google ad last night.
we miss him terribly
a perfect party
I traveled to the farthest reaches of the city limits.
I left the boys to celebrate with co-workers.
I was worried that I'd be the oldest, not hip, out of my element.
I approached warily.
I had a great time!
The setting was unique and fun.
The sound track was old and blue-sy.
Drop the peanut shells on the floor!
I kept hearing: I've heard so much about you.
It was one of those nights when the atmosphere and the music and the whiskey and the pizza and the conversation were perfect.
It didn't matter that I was the oldest. I was there and we had a great time.
a new computer
A raise, a small bonus and then, finally, an error in accounting resulting in a sizable sum coming back to me lead me to the New Computer. I had shrugged off the raise (tight! the budget here is tight!) had completely ignored the small bonus (Christmas! it'll pay for *some* of Christmas!) and then came the error. We had been functioning with a rather large percentage of my salary being deducted needlessly (the budget! still kind of tight, but now with just a breath in it!).
My dear G4 could no longer play video, weighed a ton and was, at six years old, probably on the verge of a collapse.
Not that I'm justifying.
Okay.
I am.
Middle took me to the Apple store. He bought it with his student discount. We got a black hard-shell case for it.
I hadn't thought of the features it might have. I had only imagined that my laptop would crash one day and K and I would have to scrape together what we could to purchase a new one. I imagined some of my data would be lost.
But, oh...the keyboard lights...and the screen is so clear...and it thinks quickly...and can play music at an audible level....
Oh my.
But there's no time for romance - K is working this weekend and I have laundry, food shopping, and cleaning to do.
If I have a minute, later, I will try to write about a party I went to last night. On the edge of the city. In the extreme cold. With whiskey and peanuts.
Show and Tell*
Hello!
It's the long-awaited return of Show and Tell: My Refrigerator.
If you' like to play along, post a photo of your fridge (which is, hopefully, as embarrassing as mine) and let Crazy Mom know.
She'll post links or photos or something (clearly, I am not remembering how this works) and we'll all point and stare and laugh.
Then (I think) someone nominates what they'd like the next Show and Tell to be and we move on to THAT.
So.
Here is my fridge:
Yes. It is like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yes, we bow down before it. No, it does not function terribly well and it is covered with fingerprints. That paper taped to the front is the publisher's obit notice for J.D. Salinger, who died last week.
I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.
Youngest has just finished Catcher In The Rye - all three boys read it and brought their own take to it, but it was Middle who was most touched by it. And it was Middle who prompted me to take that paper down from the fridge...he reminded me how very sad the book is.
But I've digressed, haven't I. You want to see INSIDE the fridge, don't you.
Such a mess.
Condiments on the top shelves, with a bottle of Bailey's I bought for Oldest. Gosh, I'm noticing so much DAIRY. And no wine? I must have taken this shot early in the morning!
Ah! There it is! Right next to the organic milk.
Have at it, folks.
I'm on my way over to see everyone else's.
*Oh! Look! The Fridge Fetish group has contacted me!
in which I recount a shopping trip for MFAOA and Uncle
Oh, to have a couple of hours alone at Anthropologie! a gift from someone dear to me...but first, I want to point out that it is counter-productive to compare photos of oneself to photos of headless mannequins from the Anthropologie website.
I went, on Sunday, to my local Anthro with my gift-card, wearing far too many accessories. (Don't bring a scarf and gloves and a cardi to a place where you plan on trying on lots of things!)
Here I am. Fully clothed. In too many clothes. And, YES. UGGS.
My goal: choose some items I would not normally purchase for myself. Forget about the I-need-a-better-brown-turtleneck theory and focus on some unique items. Anthro is, of course, the perfect place for that kind of shopping as everything they sell is unique...
Herewith, the hits...and the misses.
I've seen this terrible skirt in dozens of incarnations
You know it, it's the pencil skirt with the ruffle down the side. Yes, it does appear to be too large on me. No, I'm not telling you what size it was. It was stupid looking. I think I'm not tall enough to have a ruffle down my side.
I was very excited about this shirt-dress.
It is THE thing for Spring, according to the email I got. And, while I liked it well enough (it had some kind of crinoline thing going on underneath the top layer) I don't think it "did anything for me." Again, on someone taller I think it would have been a hit.
See me making that face? That face means the big black sweater dress is nothing to write home about.
Too tight. A return, greatly reduced, it was the only one of its kind.
The hits:
This top I like to call: someone threw-up some fabric on my shoulder! I have too many plain turtlenecks and this little number will add some interest when it's too warm for me to wear one of my three dozen scarves. (I'm exaggerating. I think.)
This marled (?) little wrap sweater, which I wore yesterday and sort of looked like a pregnant crewmember of The Starship Enterprise. Never mind - it's cute! And it has this wonderful label, so I could wear it inside-out!
Finally, this dress, described by a sales associate as A Yarn Dress:
I believe a deserve a medal of some sort for actually posting this photo of ME in this dress rather than, say, this one:
I mean, I look pregnant, washed out, saggy-necked, what am I doing with my hand? I could go on and on. Suffice to say, I bought this Yarn Dress and love it!
I wore it with a brown turtleneck underneath it and brown tights and my engineer boots and got compliments all day. And, the thing is, I would never have given it a second glance if I were spending my own money...it's pure luxury.
I need to experiment more with what I wear under it and also bought a cap sleeved tee for it on the advice of the aforementioned sales associate.
As for the rest of me - here's the hair I aspire to right now. I thought you should know.
My FAOA is working every single day to feel and be well and this post is, mostly, dedicated to her.
a real post is coming soon, I promise
In the meantime, I want to announce that my friend Crazy Mom and I will be playing Show And Tell on Friday.
The topic is: our refrigerators.
If you'd like to join us, take a photo of the inside of your fridge and post it.
Then tell Crazy Mom about it and she'll link to it. Then, go see everyone's fridge.
I did it in 2004 and I'll do it again this week.
Is the state of my refrigerator any better five years down the road?
Time will TELL. Hopefully, this year's photo won't spark an international controversy (which I can no longer explain as I deleted it from the comments but involved how massively wealthy I am in food and how I'd better be good to those starving...or some such).
watching The Usual Suspects
That's what I call the huge copier/printer just outside my office. Kayser Soze. It's evil. EVIL, I TELL YOU. Just when you think you can make a 40 or 50 or 300 page copy for your boss, this copier will decide to cross you.
Such a good movie.
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