(Insert bebop style scat singing here)

On the equinox, a cold day with heavy clouds that blew aside periodically so the sun could remind us it was still there, we listened to music outdoors, bundled into hats and coats. Mark even got his photo in the newspaper* (he's a small face among a cluster of small faces, and I am half a white hat to his left). I turned away from the music to photograph our long shadows on the dead, gold lawn behind us.

What else has been going on, according to my "notes," follows below:

Mark, on daylight saving time: "So it's 6:15 but we're pretending it's 7:15?"

I've been forgetting my dreams lately, but last night dreamt a menstrual products company called "Bulletproof Femininity."

An elderly Hannaford employee to me, a shivering 56-year-old woman in the parking lot: "Since I met you I’ve turned my life around! You — your aura — you’ve got a million dollar smile!"

A radiology tech to me on the phone: "Our breasts aren't twins — they're sisters."**

Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen worker, after we placed our drive-through order: "I appreciate you."

An unclaimed belt, abandoned in a bin at Logan Airport security. Why did this seem so poignant? 

Lines I liked:

“I like a little sand in my oyster.” — Joan Acocella

"If there is anything I’d enjoy before I die, it’d be not having to see your fucking horrible bastard face wandering around my garden." — Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera, just before having her leg amputated

"Calm is a form of resistance." — John Berger

“It is a moral failure to miss the profound beauty of the world.” — Lauren Groff

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." — 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich

"Quel est ton tourment?"*** — Simone Weil

*DM me for a link

**All is well in the mammary department

***"What are you going through?"

Take omens from the flight of birds

Hello, it's 2023! 2022 wasn't my favorite! But it brought many sweet and beautiful things, as well as some crappy ones. What a lovely holiday celebration we had with the whole family in North Carolina, with (mostly) lucky travel and very lucky health and some of my most favorite humans (and dogs) all in one place together.

Items from the year so far:

• A game I play sometimes is Floater or Fruit Fly? (It's January, so it's usually a floater.)
• I met someone this week who...how to put this...if I learned they were a serial killer, it wouldn't totally surprise me? 
• I've been doing Adriene's 30 days of yoga every day this year*
• I'm ridiculously delighted with the etymology of inauguration!! 

Okay, on to the important stuff, the internets archaeology:

Why is no one talking about Libby's black jumpsuit?

Best bolster.

In other words, what to do with a whistlepig?

TIL

I can't stop thinking about Fishtopher.

#même

*hellloooo, it's January 5

Road Trip

Mark and Gus and I drove fourteen* hours south of here, and there we found spring! We spent a deluxe long weekend with David, Ellen, Stella, Ben, and their good dog Miles. The day we arrived, it was actually hot, hot enough to wipe Gus The Furry out after short walks, hot enough to make us strip off our jackets and scarves and remember what it feels like to sweat a little bit, hot enough for David to present us with the first iced coffee of the year on their sweet front porch. There is a huge pink cherry tree in their back yard, and as you drive along the highway, there are pink and purple and floaty white blossoms mixed in with the pines.

Our host.

I got to spend a whole day with Ben, taking walks and eating snacks and visiting a coffee shop and a comic book store.

Blue skies, grass, trees, Ben.

Ellen and David treated us to live music, too--Sylvan Esso outdoors under a starry sky on a night that felt like August in Maine, and The Mountain Goats--both hometown bands, and great shows.

We ate amazing food, including food truck crêpes outdoors on Easter, tapas with David and Ellen at Glass Half Full before The Mountain Goats, biscuits with eggplant "bacon" and incredible donuts at Rise, more donuts (also incredible) at Monuts, handmade chocolate at Videri, homemade Indian food at Vimala's, and so much more.

We came home knowing it wouldn't actually feel like spring yet, but still it was surreal to drive northeast watching the landscape get increasingly brown and gray, patches of snow start to show through the trees, to get out of the car at a rest area and remember suddenly what it's like to feel freezing (and this happened in Baltimore, not to mention Massachusetts).

I said it on The Book of Faces, and I'll say it again: this is what April 10th, also known as February 69th, looks like in beautiful Portland, Maine.

Ahh, home. I brought a miserable cold/cough home with me, the cough tubercular-sounding enough that Mark dropped me off at the Urgent Care place as soon as we pulled into town yesterday. They did not cure me of this stupid cough (they prescribed some useless medicine, in fact, I say after a sleepless night of croupy coughing), but I did get to have my very first chest X-ray, which didn't reveal anything fishy. And so I cough.







*my lucky number

my heart is returned to sister winter

hello. i am sick, and that is my excuse for the dearth of dogs around here. i selected two dogs for today, in an attempt to make up for the past few dog-free days. first, nurse minnow, guarding the sickbed.

and second, the long-suffering miles, who after being rescued from the dog spa was apparently forced to wear the handmade hello kitty crown and cape that stella received for christmas from her uncle mark. what a good sport.

 

give it to someone special

although this dog-of-the-day* will be vacationing at a north carolina dog spa over the holiday, i will get to see his buddy stella the day after tomorrow!



*miles, redux. as i mentioned, i am running out of dogs!

collecting little kisses that are due me

this dog-of-the-day comes to you from christmas in carolina 2010. that's jonah, enjoying some quiet time with minnow, who is enjoying some quiet time with a tennis ball.

i am in that weird holiday stage of feeling like there are a million things to do, but not being sure where to start, exactly. i am organizing and baking and hoping that's what i should be doing.*

several days ago i purchased some boxes for mailing things at walgreens, and i had the following exchange.

cashier: oh! mailing some last minute packages?
me: no. no, it's december twelfth. it's only december twelfth.
her: oh.

i think i came across as kind of mean, which was not my intention. but i'd been thinking i was way ahead of the game. which, really, i was.



*i am working too, but i must admit i jump up from my work with great frequency to rustle around in the basement, or make a cup of tea, or mix up a batch of cookies.

please have snow and mistletoe

your december fifth dog-of-the-day is none other than...

miles! buddy miles is minnow's north carolina cousin.* he is a sweet, soulful dog. one time i blew gently on his nose and made him pee. i guess i was expressing my dominance over him without realizing it. he has since forgiven me.



*photo stolen from my brother.

so much depends upon*

home! after a wonderful week in north carolina with the sweeties. here's one sweetie, david and ellen's long-suffering oldest child, miles. i like this picture because he looks so happy and silly. and look at his racoon-ish paws.

the newest sweetie, little ben. i want to call him "small baby," or "this baby," the way zoë's hindi teacher, rita, referred to her own baby. as in, "here, you take this baby."

my stella, who only paused briefly in front of the butterfly house sign before running to the dinosaur exhibit when we visited the fabulous museum of life and science. check out her jazz hands!

i always love to go to caffe driade when i'm in chapel hill -- they have such good coffee (they know exactly how to make an iced americano, for example, with perfect espresso shots), and this time we got to interact with the scary CHAI GUY, who yells at you if you order chai, to make sure you know that they don't serve the kind that comes from a box, and that if that's the kind you want, you're stupid. i identified him because of this interaction:

david: i'd like a latte, please, but not in a bowl.
chai guy: oh, you don't want it in a bowl. well, what do you want it in, then?
david: oh, whatever -- a glass, or a to-go cup.
chai guy: well, i'm not very good at making decisions. so...
david: a glass, i guess.
chai guy: okay. you want a latte. in a glass.

so then, after you've recovered from something like that, you get to sit outside on their beautiful woodsy patio, surrounded by twittering birds, by which i mean actual birds, making bird sounds. all the birds in north carolina are loud and bright.

one night, david and ellen's friend joyce had a party at her house in durham. she has a vast backyard full of perennials and vegetables and chickens. below, joyce and baby oliver. below that, gratuitous photos of various chickens.

you know what i like about where david and ellen live? there are so many places to sit outside while you eat or drink coffee. we did that many times last week, including parker and otis in durham. here are ellen and ben sitting on the porch.

many more photos here. and here's my advice, re: train travel. if you have the extra time, DO IT. just bring good snacks and your dad's ipad. sometimes i had a seat mate, but at other times i had the whole thing to myself. talk about leg room.

so, back to wearing sweaters for a while, but i apparently missed an entire week of rain, so things are green and kind of glowing here, through the fog. and on friday, my baby boy turns fifteen.

*red wheelbarrow, white chickens, et al.

carolina

i'm in north carolina visiting my sweetie stella kate and her new baby brother ben.* rumor has it that i'm missing some cold, gray, damp weather back home in maine, which is nice, but the nicest thing is waking up every morning to this smiling face, hearing her sweet voice say, "IZZIE!" she's a sunshiney girl, for sure. and her baby brother's pretty cute too - below, ben with his superhero mom.

i'm here to "help," although there have been plenty of moments i've drawn a complete blank on all things baby-and-child. what DO you do when both kids are screaming simultaneously (that only happened once)? etc. it was a long time ago that i slung isaac over my shoulder while sitting on the floor playing with zoe and her lion king guys. anyway, i'm doing my best to be helpful, but mostly it's just fun to hang out with these two and their amazing parents.

*i traveled here on a train, which was awesome. dad loaned me his ipad, i packed exactly the right snacks, my seat was incredibly comfortable, the view was lovely, and the hours flew by.

we are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous*

scenes from christmas in carolina 2010. there are many more photos over here!

*nathaniel hawthorne, in a letter to his sister, referring specifically to his marriage. the entire quote is: "we are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point."

offspring

i guess i'm feeling pretty sentimental about these two.

what i did over christmas vacation, by liz

i drove eight hundred miles (and back) with my family in our little car to have christmas with my parents, my brothers, my sisters-in-law, my nieces and nephew, and my grandfather at my brother david's house in north carolina. we had new all-season tires on our car, yay!

my view of my boys in the back seat:
























we checked into a motel room in edison, new jersey, to wait out the so-called blizzard of 2009. my parents stayed in the room next door, and we feasted on indian food (and later, pizza), watched the september issue together, took naps and showers, and read books while the snow fell. bean and i also worked on our felty package decorations.
























bean making a felt pompom:
























we spent nearly twenty-four hours in edison before clearing the snow off our cars and hitting the road again. here is boo's eye view from the back seat:
























after we arrived in chapel hill, i baked and baked and baked.
























david and ellen's house is such a lovely place to bake and cook. you can be standing in the kitchen all day, and still participate in the activities going on in the rest of the house. for example, stella's ongoing project, clipping and unclipping a dog leash. here she is, demonstrating her clipping skills for my grandfather, ribby:
























we made a few expeditions to the grocery store, which is hilariously named harris teeter. here is boo, gathering his favorites:
























santa came. gifts were opened, toys played with. here are some pretty forest animals under the tree:



















i made something for my mom, and i am so proud of the outcome that this will probably not be the only time i mention (brag about) it. i embroidered a portrait of her beloved lulu:
























we gave my bruddies matching slippers!





















a few days after christmas, some of us managed to sneak off for a little tea party at guglhupf, a fantastic german bakery in durham.



















boo, m, and j enjoying coffee and treats:



















and, finally, my little cake freak:
























there was much, much more -- indoor ice skating, m and me grabbing a quiet afternoon latte at cup a joe, cousins playing and reading and laughing together, many 500 piece puzzles assembled, lots of simply gazing at stella as she told jokes and played with toys and petted dogs, eating delicious food, singing along to good music, catching up with my brothers... can you see why i miss christmas so much? my family is the best, most fun, generous, silly, wonderful bunch of people i know.

december 30

i miss christmas.