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We [Sparkly Hand] Michael
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Notes on Some Things
1. Yesterday, Eric and I decided to venture out to the High Line, which I thought wouldn’t be too crazy an idea because of the planned bad weather. But apparently people read weather.com, or, I guess, look out their windows, so everybody beat us there. With their children. So instead we walked through Chelsea Market, hoping to find my favorite blood orange deliciousness juice at Buon’ Italia, but came out empty-handed and frustrated again by the sheer number of heads and arms and legs in that place. So, we walked up to 17th Street and looked up like sad puppies at the High Line people above, and walked away thinking that a park that took ten years to build should not also take ten years to visit. We might get to walk up there without a crowd by December. Maybe. And frankly, no park is worth any kind of wait to get in, let alone a supposed hour long one (according to Ms. Employee of the Park). She said it was roughly the same at all the entrances. So yes, my frustration with my beloved city is growing. The world of New York is simply too crowded to do anything. “Nobody goes there no more; it’s too crowded.”
2. I just watched a dad squeeze a game of frisbee with his son onto a tiny plot of Union Square pavers at the edge of the farmer’s market with a million frowning commuters wandering into their throwing space. It makes me sad that city kids don’t get to run and play with room to breathe. I must be getting old.
3. I fantasize about moving all the time now. To a place with grass (the kind of thing that used to terrify me – that we would have a thing to mow) and an extra room for an office/ studio. Then again, how would I exist without NYC shopping? Yesterday, I was lucky enough to have found my perfect long summer dress. One that doesn’t make my hips look like hippos. It’s cute and colorful and comfortable. Just one C away from being just like a diamond.
4. It’s been a busy week, only ten hours in. And a busy last week. And I really like to be busy, but I’ve found these past few weeks to be slightly more annoying than buzz-inducing as usual. Working on getting it together today so this busy week is less of a [literal] headache and more fun.
5. I want the Iran thing to work out. Is that a broad enough statement for you? (Don’t want to get political here.)
6. One time, I was going to be a baker. With a cute little online storefront to start me off. My little home-based baking business. It was all so pristine. I took immaculate, sparkling photos of my confections and had my poor husband create for me another beautiful website, complete with credit card processing. I would finally be an entrepreneur. Until I realized I didn’t like to bake. And certainly not enough to do it twelve hours a day to turn barely more than minimum wage. Thus was the end of that one time.
7. I am in awe of all the food bloggers out there who make beautiful food and beautiful photos that accurately show how beautiful the food is. On Wednesday I attempted to document the preparation of my grandmother’s famous potato croquettes, and since I couldn’t choose between priorities – making good food or cleaning my hands sufficiently enough to take good photos – I defaulted to the delicious and the photos look like crap. Anyway, bravo to all who make it look easy; in this department, I need to be a one trick pony.
8. I just saw an incredibly beautiful family being sweet to each other and it made me smile like the Cheshire cat (except I hate cats). The dad stopped to kiss the mom out of nowhere (and they weren’t Brangelina-type hot, so that kiss spelled l-o-v-e) and then boys both wanted out of the stroller for a hug from dad, which was happily obliged and turned into a hug from mom, too. Also, I like them because they pulled over to do all this sweetness, instead of blocking the sidewalk like assholes.
9. I’ve come to accept the fact that I just can’t wear skirts. Sure, I can wear them. They look fine, I like them, and they’re pretty. But for me, a skirt has an expiration date. And that is roughly three hours after I put it on.
10. I hate the kind of weather where you’re cold if you’re sitting still, but really could use those short sleeves if you’re walking at a decent clip. Brrr.
11. Heavy rain is so transfixing. I like to imagine that it was the maryjane of the caveman era. And now I have to put on a suitably-warm-something to head out in it.
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Spring Awakening
My favorite kind of air is fresh. What, yours too? Shocking.
So you can see how I was really loving last week’s 50 degree days. A little reprieve from playing bear these past four months.
Yes, we always get a little spring tease in the middle of the chill, but there were nearly FOUR consecutive days of heavenly weather that had me half-convinced it would play nice until August.
It was especially heavenly because my windows were open, which makes breathing more about pleasure than subsistence. And breathing, in addition to being essential, typically increases my productivity here at the office, so, you know, Good All Around.
But now, apparently, we’re back in purgatory, where the air smells like a hundred year old heating system.
And the only comfort I can find is that this year Eric is on board with the whole time for summer campaign I always start in February.
Where usually he would be staunchly in favor of six more weeks of winter, the absence of good winter weather (by which I mean snowball-grade snow) has him pining for shorts and sandals just as much as I am.
(Okay, probably not sandals.)
Hey Weather, I have a ten spot in my pocket that’s yours for another round of spring.
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Cool Ranch Doritos
Sunday night brought a familiar sense of sudden dread.
I had been sick all day with a fever, not able to go outside and enjoy one of the last free days in the summer heat humidity. And since I wasn’t out having fun, a familiar notion of waste was gnawing at me, spending an entire day on the couch:
Jessica, did you do the dishes? I know you didn’t finish your budget work. What about the bills? And all that mail on your desk? The refrigerator is both empty and dirty. And just think of the light switches – the very dirty light switches which you did not clean.
It was especially bad since there was nothing left in the Tivo but the Olympics. (Wasn’t it nice when USA Basketball linked arms and stepped onto the platform together? Yes, yes it was.)
Eric was kind enough to play caretaker and stopped working to watch the latest Netflix arrival, Ratatouille, with me, which was awesome, both of Eric and of Brad Bird. But as the credits rolled, it was 6:45, and suddenly the sun was sinking. The sick kid-on-the-couch in me was wailing: But It’s Still Summer…
I’ve been looking forward to fall for weeks now, bemoaning the 80+ temperatures and wet heat shoved on us by M. Nature. A week ago, I was more than ready to embrace the early sunset. But in this last week before Labor Day, I’m reliving all those childhood summers when I’d start to panic about school being inflicted upon me yet again. New pencils and pens and notebooks and folders were just the pretty trappings of prison.
Seeing now that it was wise of my parents to start scheduling our annual Jersey shore trips in this last week, when I’d only have a day to notice that fall was moving in and my freedom moving out, now I’m looking for something to distract me. In all my post-school years, I’ve never felt the dread quite so accutely.
Even though it’s business as usual here in the adult world, it feels like there’s a nasty change to come. More work. More seriousness. More stuff that must get done. Mo’ money, mo’ problems. (Just that last part, actually.)
It’s funny to try to shoo away the feelings of a nine year old all these years later. Even though I won’t be reporting in to the new (and soon-to-be-found-awesome) third-grade teacher, Mrs. Duemesi (who ate Cool Ranch Doritos on her pizza!) those feelings are just as real now as they were then:
Please don’t make me go.
Even though I want corduroys and sweaters and knitting to be appropriate again; even though I want a crisp fall breeze and auburn leaves on the ground; even though I haven’t actually been on summer vacation and I don’t have to go back to school, I vehemently feel the cry of summer can’t be over already.
Anyone up for a trip to the beach?
