Hmmm she says

What is it about ironing, vacuuming, shoveling snow, cutting the grass or sweeping that is so therapeutic for me? Certainly doing the laundry, washing the dishes, or any other chore of that nature does not have a similar calming effect on my thoughts. Nor satisfaction when they are completed like the first list gives me.

Notes in my mind

I’m always writing letters to people.

The problem is that those notes of affection, thank you, hello never reach the intended recipients because pen does not meet paper. And sadly in this day of instant communications, those letters do not flow from my mind to my hands despite the egregious amount of time I spend in front of all those dancing pixels. Each of those colored dots could represent a single moment in time I’ve sent a letter to someone. But they don’t. They don’t represent fact but rather only a wish or intent on my part.

When I was younger, I penned notes in my mind to my mother. Thankfully, several times I put my thoughts to flowers I would bring to the customer service desk at Marshall’s were she could be found daily in a blur of activity. There was also one glorious, breezy, balmy day of mid 70′s sunshine that I happened upon with my then-husband James at Pemaquid Point lighthouse in Maine where I was able to dial her from the lone pay phone located at the gate house to share the perfectness of the day with her. She was a hard worker who, in my heart I believed, did not get to witness enough carefree perfect days of bliss. And so I tried to share mine with her; I regrettably did not do so often enough.

With her passing suddenly/unexpectedly I became acutely aware of opportunities both taken and missed. I tried for too short a time to tell the people that touched my life what they meant to me. And now six years later I do not know if I included everyone that I needed to tell. I have had several new people come and go, or come and stay, and do not know if I have told them how much they mean to me or that they touched my life. I do know I’m back to writing notes in my mind. Many are to my daughter M or my man J and to my sisters L & C.

Too much time has passed. Time to put pen to paper, stamp to envelope.

Update on ‘A good cycle finally’

 

We made it to Seattle and more importantly to the hat store in University District mentioned in the Seattle Times that I mentioned in my previous post.

I did try a few hats on. It just wasn’t my day. But I was relieved to hear the saleswoman chime in and agree with my lament that I did not have a “Hat Head”. Actually, she wasn’t agreeing with me but with my sentiment that not everyone has a head made for hats. No, wait, that’s not right either. She understood why I would say that based upon her own experience. She then proceeded to tell me that it was typically the hat on the shelf that she’d least likely be attracted to that would end up fitting her perfectly. And so I tried a few more on. But it wasn’t meant to be for me and a hat that day.

My man, on the other hand, did find a summer hat. Not one, but two hats. It looked so perfect for what he was wearing that he wore one out of the store and had the remaining one bagged. We had not gotten even a block from the store when we were passed by a tall gentleman, himself wearing a stylish cap, who said “Did you just get that hat today?”. Upon the reply of “Why yes I did” the gentleman pointed and told my man that he looked sharp or something similar to that sentiment. It brought a smile to both of us. I love Seattle and the people here!

A good cycle finally

Fashion is cyclical. Sometimes that’s not a positive occurrence. But every once in a long while, it’s a good thing. This time it’s hats. This article in the Seattle Times gives me hope.

My man found his perfect fedora this past winter. By accident really. It happened to be on a table next to the register at a men’s store where he was purchasing a great cord jacket. The store really did not carry hats at all. It did have one or two winter knit hats and gloves. And one style of leather gloves. But that was all it had in the hat/gloves inventory. This was indeed a lucky find.

We’ll be in Seattle shortly and now I see the hat shop mentioned in the article has a storefront there as well! Not only do they have a storefront, but they have hats for women too. I don’t believe I have a what I term a “Hat Head”; a head suitable for wearing hats. I also don’t believe I have a “Glass Face”; a face suitable for wearing glasses. But given the selection of hats I see on the website, I may just have to try some on to verify my belief regarding the lack of a “Hat Head”. The style-gene also passed me by in our family so even if I found a hat, I would not know what to wear it with. Interestingly, my daughter definitely has the style-gene. I should say thankfully, not interestingly. She has a cadet style hat that she wears that looks absolutely adorable on her. I’ll have to show this store when she visits Seattle this summer. I may have to live my love of hats vicariously through her and my man.

Following a quote…

 

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

~Author Unknown

Random #1

♦ it’s Random #1 because there was already a base Random. Although could that previous post really been titled Random #0?

♦ J says I was most likely a guy in another life. Lucky for him I’m a girl in this one! Interestingly, I’ve wondered the same thing. I get annoyed with how marketers see females. I like watches..but more the men’s (except for the size) than the women’s. Why do men have one shirt style with 10+ colors to choose from while women have one shirt with maybe 3 colors? Where is the equivalent of Men’s Warehouse for women?

♦ Love roaming around a hardware store or Lowe’s/Home Depot. Especially the power tool section. Despite being very respectful (ok…fearful) of any item with a blade. May have something to do with that butter knife listed in Random…and the childhood dreams of being chased by…yeah…let’s not dig that one up.

♦ I’m in awe of the people featured in TedTalks. Very inspiring!

♦ I graduated in 1984 but I prefer 70′s music. I have no idea what music came out in the late 80′s or the entire 90′s decade. I must have been sleeping.

♦ I reread what I write and tend to be mortified. Sometimes what I’ve written doesn’t seem entirely coherent. Much like my handwriting, the words I put to paper reflect a disjointedness in my thought process.

♦ And with rereading this post…the use of the word “girl” doesn’t sit right with me. The pairs man/woman, boy/girl, male/female go well but what is the second half of the guy/___ pair???

Every once in a while I come upon something that entices my mind

It’s encouraging when I find something that engrosses my thoughts and sends it in a million different directions. I find that there is so much mindless mind-candy out in the world wide web that it is a bit disheartening, a tad discouraging. And then, blissfully, I find an article like this one on universal data formats on Slate.com that led me to this video on Journalism in the Age of Data. Hope is reborn that the web is not filled only with fluff. This is the type of stuff I don’t mind feeding my brain.

I recognize that graphics and video can enhance one’s understanding of a topic that is presented, however, I often eschew clicking on reports only presented via video and definitely favor text-based articles. But I do appreciate when an article is enhanced or supported by a graphical representation.

While the video is focused on its use in Journalism, the tools being used can be extended to a number of different areas. And it is heartening that interfaces are being developed to allow a person with data and interest to load their data and have it represented in a visually-pleasing manner. Many people have read paragraphs of statistical data only to fall asleep mid-way through or at the very least, lose interest. The common statistical graphs we grew up with are dry and static. Those graphs don’t allow a person to turn it around like they would a cube, looking from different directions, or at different components. This new era of Data Visualization may make statistics sexy for the rest of us! I wish I was 10-20 years younger so I would have time to watch where this is headed…

Sisters mine

As I headed home Wednesday after dropping my sister off at the airport for her return flight home, I realized how the time spent with her and our other sister always leaves me energized. It’s as if the parts, for a brief time, have become whole.

When the three of us are together we seem to fall in sync. I’m blessed to have them in my life. We each have our own struggles and some of them seem to intersect/meld where our genes or thought processes apparently rule. The same can be said of our strengths. Different, complementary, yet occasionally coming together in sameness. I believe the strengths that we share are attributable directly to our mother. And the ones that are different resulted from our own life stories, honed over time and heartache. Yet despite this individual shaping, when we share time together, everything just fits so comfortably.

I am blessed….

Random

-Crissy Doll
-Dawn Dolls
-playing Witch
-’Stop roughhousing or someone’s going to get hurt’
-pipe tobacco/model glue/roadrunner
-Penelope Pitstop/Magilla Gorilla/Underdog/Felix the Cat/Mighty Mouse
-learning Pinochle
-porch roof – oh look – mom’s home
-missing eyelashes on my doll
-Vincent Price movies
-Night of the Living Dead/UPAC theater (what was its name then?)
-Lightening bugs
-Butter knife
-’shopping’ at mom’s…anyone need socks?
-driving lessons with Pop
-dusting knick knacks with Nanny
-Christmas tree going up on Christmas Eve
-waiting on the stairs in the morning til the lights were plugged in
-shopping at mom’s work “You must be Kathy’s daughter”

Always having enough, never feeling want, always feeling loved

Where has the art of wearing a hat gone?

I grew up living in the fantasy world of the movies from the 40′s shown on Saturday morning TV. Fred and Ginger. Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn. Gene Tierney. Carole Landis. James Cagney. Spencer Tracy. The list goes on.

They all colored my world in black and white and shades of gray. Smartly dressed. Hats. Gloves. Wraps. Heels. Furs. Suits.

But it’s the hats that tumble around in my memory of those movies. Every hat was perfect for every person wearing one. Very stylish. Enviable.

But now there are few hats to be found on anyone. No a baseball cap (lid? really? I think lids are for containers) does not qualify as a true hat in my book. And not necessarily very stylish if you aren’t walking out on the baseball field or a golf course. And do not get me started on wearing it backwards or sidewards (remove it from your head entirely please).

Even if you look at photographs, those lovely b & w photos, from that era. The hats in those photos all look wonderful no matter who was wearing them.

You see the hats for sale at Macy’s but how often do you actually see a woman wearing one of those? I try them on but sadly I don’t have a head nor face nor the personality to carry off wearing a lovely hat.

And the men. Please please please winter is here! Bless our eyes with a fedora and a wool coat. It’s a lost art. We don’t need to break out in to ‘spontaneous’ song or a tap routine. It would just be lovely to see a little style and class from another memory of long ago.