Superstition at the End of the Year

Calendars go on sale at Borders and Barnes & Nobles right after Christmas, so it makes no sense to even look at them beforehand.  I don't want to fall in love with a wall calendar only to find it's been sold out.

After years of preferring Maxfield Parrish and other turn of the century commercial art calendars, I've found myself highly attracted to the better scenic calendars for the past few years.  Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society are usually winners, but this year I found a stunning calendar from the landscape photographer Art Wolfe.

The calendar has been safely tucked away under my desk.  Despite my impatience to pour through the images, I'm restraining myself.  It's very bad luck to open and hang next year's calendar before the old year has ended.  When I leave the office tonight, I'll put the calendar on my chair, and it will be the first thing I do come Monday morning.

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All My Internet Meme Names. For Your Amusement

Ellen Kushner's done the hard work, gathering all of the memes into a single post. I'm just glomming on to her inventiveness. But, because I am a bit paranoid, I'm not fully following all the rules - that gives away too much information.

1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names)
Rosalie Marshall

2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Emmanuel Harry

3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name)
Ch'Lita

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Argent Owl

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you live)
Joyce Huntington

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add "THE" to the beginning)
The Golden Kir

7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Li'yl

8. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):
Heath Bar Crunch Tollhouse

9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet's name, current street name)
Lacking Commack

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Taffy Maytime

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Poor Liza

Somehow, I get the feeling that Anthony Lahr of the New Yorker really doesn't care too much for Liza Minelli:

"[i]n her performance, there is vitality but no joy, technique but no truth. If you stand for that, you’ll stand for anything."

But, you may ask, why am I blogging about this.  I am no fan of Ms. Minelli, nor do I care much for musical theater.  I simply thought this picture was so completely and totally whacked, that I couldn't help but comment:

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Rituals

It's the end of a lovely Christmas day, and all of the rituals have been observed.

1 - Got up before dawn, checked emails, readusted the umpteen pillows and the covers; pulled the curtains shut and slept until nearly noon.

2 - Went to the movies.  Mel and I saw Doubt.  Excellent, excellent film.

3 - Mel, Dad and I went for Chinese food.  The food at China Garden was surprisingly fine tonight.

4 - Lit the Channukah candles.

Went back to bed.

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Dawn is a feeling...

Today is December 23, and it's 6:40 am. The lower eastern sky is just turning. The moon's still overhead, a small and thin sliver. Today is one of those rare winter mornings when there are no clouds on the horizon, so you can just about feel the sky lightening with each heartbeat.

It's also 14 degrees F outside (-10 degrees C).

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The Perfect Pair of Pants

I'm both extremely delighted and thoroughly ticked off.  I finally found the perfect pair of pants.

In my closet.

I bought them about 2 years ago and never wore them.  They were a purchase mistake - I picked a few pair of black pants off of the sale rack at a store, thinking they were all the same style.  When I got home and and hung them up, I realized that one pair was a different cut. 

Tried them on, they were a bit snug, shall we say? 

I hung them in the back of the closet, hoping to get into them.  Eventually.  And that, shall we say, was that.

This morning, I went to get dressed, and realized that I didn't have a pair of pants I wanted to wear.  The only clean ones were too big in the waistband and I couldn't walk around all day pulling them up like a little kid.  More in desperation than any real expectation that I'd find anything in the back of the closet, I pushed aside a bunch of summer clothes and spyed a pair of black pants.  As soon as I took them off the hanger, I remembered that these were way too tight for self-respect or comfort, but since I've lost a few pounds, I had a slight hope that they'd fit. 

And they did.  Perfectly.

So, why am I pissed?  I can't buy another pair of them.  These are at least two years old, and on deep clearence when I bought them - the price was $9.97, marked Final Sale/No Returns.

Oh well, sometimes I can't win for losing.

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Just a brief interruption...

Your Colors Say You Are Caring

When you are at peace, you are:
Deeply stable
When you are moved to act, you are:
Giving and warm
When you are inspired, you are:
Spontaneous and adventurous
When your life is perfectly balanced, you are:
Totally in the moment
Your life's purpose is:
To live a passionate life

The Ultimate Color Test

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Ten Things I Love About My Sister Hali ... In No Particular Order

1.  It is pretty easy for Hali and I to piss each other off.  And just as quickly, forget about the whole thing.

2.  Hali may be older than me, but she's not a "big sister".  More like that really cool, slightly older friend who you always envied.

3.  Hali is amazingly easy to talk to - she doesn't dispense advice, she just listens.

4.  Hali's a great teacher.  If she knows how to do something, she can show you how to do it.

5.  Hali has great hair.  Okay - I know that seems shallow, but from someone who's losing it, it's a pretty big thing.

6.  When Hali makes a mistake (not that often), she will eventually admit it.  Not right away, and not without a little reluctance.  But eventually, she'll tell you that she was wrong.  Eventually.

7.  Hali's a bigger gear head than me.  Didn't think it was possible, but she is.  Maybe it comes from working with tools all day long.

8.  Hali will deal with all the medical issues.  I'm too squeamish and short-tempered. 

9.  Hali once thought that the Moody Blues was an acid rock band.

10.  Hali has extraodinary self-discipline.  She went without chocolate for a year.

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Ten Things I Love About My Sister Meladee ... In No Particular Order

1. I'm 43, Hali's 45 and Mel's 52, and she has never stopped being the best big sister, ever.

2. Mel always answers the phone saying "Yellow!" Not, "hi," "hello," or "what's up," but "Yellow!" complete with initial cap and exclamation point.

3. When I was 7, Mel saved me from drowning. The swimming instructor at summer camp pushed me into the deep end to make me swim, Meladee saw me flailing and jumped into the pool and rescued me.

4. Nearly all of my musical tastes were strongly influenced by the hours I sat listening to records with Mel and performing nearly Talmudic exegesis on the lyrics.

5. When I was 11, Mel took me and Hali to see Tommy at the Syosset UA 150. I wanted to sit through it again, but Hali didn't. So we went to Ransom Beach in Bayville and swam in Long Island Sound in our dungarees. Oddly enough, Mom wasn't pissed when we got home, soaking wet and covered in sand.

6. No matter how crappy things get, Mel always finds something humorous to say. Not happy-funny, but bitingly-funny. Think Dennis Leary, only more sarcastic.


7. After spending so many years ignoring politics, she's become the real political junkie of the family.


8. Mel is more stubborn than the collective living population of Capra Hircus.


9. Mel attributes her paranoia to Romper Room. No kidding.

10. Mel can be a real bitch, and proud of it. But she's never a bitch to me.

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Ten Things I Love About My Mom ... In No Particular Order

Mom's been gone more than six years, but she's still with me every single day. Some of the items on this list are culled from the eulogy I wrote in 2002 - and they are as true today as they were then.

1. There wasn't a single creative impulse that she didn't foster in me and my sisters.

2. Just because I made something didn't mean it was wonderful. Criticism hurts when you're 15 years old, but when you're older, you realize just how much love has been tempered into that criticism.

3. Mom believed that we could be anything we wanted. There was nothing we couldn't do just because we were girls. Ambition was never undercut by sexism.

4. Mom would have been a fabulous lawyer – she had the two characteristics that every good lawyer needs – the ability to argue and the unshakable belief that she was always right.

5. Mom would start waterfights. In the house.

6. If Mom couldn’t be a lawyer, she should have been an interrogator for the CIA. I have never met anyone who could get someone’s life story (including all the gory details and deep dark secrets) quicker. I think if Mom had ever made it to Stonehenge, she’d have those standing stones talking nonstop.

7. It was nearly impossible to keep the truth from Mom. One way or another, Mom’s radar sensed a lie, a prevarication or a simple omission of fact, and somehow, we’d end up ‘fessing up.

8. Mom loved all three of her daughters beyond measure, yet she was never, ever blind to their faults. And she never shied away from letting us know that!

9. Mom would have voted for Obama. Even though she was a registered Republican. Sarah Palin was just too big an insult.

10. Mom was never an old lady, and no matter how sick she was she never lost her sense of self. Almost to the very end, she was as vibrant and active as if she was perfectly healthy.

Mom, I still miss you.

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Ten Things I Love About My Dad ... In No Particular Order

1. I am the youngest of three girls, and probably the girliest of them all, but my dad never wanted a boy.


2. My dad thinks I am the smartest person in the world (although he probably thinks the same thing about both my sisters too).


3. My dad ends every telephone call with "I love you."


4. My dad has never voted for a Republican, and was extremely proud to vote for Barack Obama.


5. My dad thinks there is nothing I can't do, just because I am a woman. In fact, I think that my dad thinks I am smarter and more capable BECAUSE I am a woman.


6. My dad is 82 years old, and sometimes drives me crazy because he doesn't know how to act his age.


7. My dad is always looking out for me.


8. My dad isn't a grumpy old man, yet.


9. My dad is a good person - honest, compassionate, patient, and open-minded. I'd want to know him even if he wasn't my dad.


10. My dad is, well, my dad. He has helped make me the person that I am.

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Ten Things...A Series of Lists

A preface to the forthcoming posts...

I think lists are a cheap and easy way to fill up space.  I also think they are effective when they aren't reguritating the work of others.  I've never done lists here on Verbosity, and I don't plan on making it a habit, but the season has gotten to me a little bit and I am feeling the need to put the love out there.

So, without further delay, I bring you Ten Things I Love ...

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