1) Because why not begin the day with the Book of Revelation, Richard Strauss, and Lypsinka?
2) Yesterday I finally joined Opus Affair, but I can't complete my profile due to "Internal Server Error" or some such.
3) The simple beauty of a bowl of berries.
1) Mercy! Contributing to a teleconference that is taking place in a restaurant with bad acoustics is well nigh impossible. I earned my back porch cocktail today.
2) Concluding housework with The Dark Mirror, in which Olivia de Haviland plays good and evil twins accused of murder.
3) Insert Flirtation Here.
1) Again, I was so looking forward to sleeping in, but when my body decided on 6:29 AM, I just went with it. And the day has been full of productive domesticity and a column, so yay for all that.
1a) Also a one-hour eleven-minute phone conversation with a cousin.
2) Trying not to become obsessed with the small bowl of cider vinegar in the kitchen, placed there for the elimination of flies. At least it's an all-natural remedy, but still - faugh!
3) Having even one thing scheduled on a weekend day can impact my creativity. Because that one thing is omnipresent in my mind. Today it's a 4 PM teleconference for work.
BONUS: If I start laying out my clothes for Labor Day weekend now, packing on Wednesday night will be so much easier.
1) I wanted so much to sleep in this morning, but my body had other ideas.
2) There's nothing like busting your butt to get to a haircut on time only to have to wait 20 minutes because there's a wedding party of out-of-town straight guys in the way. #firstworldproblems
2a) But I'm happy with the results:
3) My spirit was refreshed by running into G***** D*M**** outside the Pastel Prison, one of the dancers I worked with a lot when I worked there. What a delight! Great to catch up after so long.
1) Rather pleased with my full canonicals today. "They are not long, the days of seersucker."
2) The dentist fitted in my crown late this afternoon. When they were singing "Crown Him with Many Crowns," this was NOT what I had in mind.
3) Riding home on the Ligne d'Orange, a somewhat agitated man was capering about the car, engaging with people in some sort of Arabic dialect punctuated with things like "Kiss me? You want to *** with me? I'll miss you," etc. Eventually I heard him say "Today I forgot my medication," and I thought "And no one knew!"
BONUS: I phoned Mother to find out if she was preparing for Hurricane Harvey, and we ended upon the phone for about 45 minutes.
1) Coffee in bed. Believe it or not, it was too chilly on the back porch.
2) Someone posted a photo of a fig on Flickr, and now I am thinking of climbing inside my grampa's enormous fig tree as a tiny boy, which had branches right at the ground. It's really something to be inside a tree.
2a) Grampa cut down that fig tree (!) to make more room to grow Vegetables of the Devil like eggplant, cabbage, and *shudder* okra. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the family missed it.
3) Full canonicals today, as I have two volunteer meetings. This'll probably be my last time to wear my seersucker suit this summer.
1) "And for God's sake Agnes, shave under your arms. You look like King Kong!"
2) Happy to have completed something I have been contemplating for a long time. Didn't take more than an hour, either.
3) The White Party is coming, and I am not ready.
1) Well, you can certainly tell it's Mercury retrograde! Fluid meetings, misunderstood meanings abound. Trying to maintain my equilibrium.
2) Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom.
3) In the words of the late Margo Channing, "Give Eve Harrington a job in your office!"
1) My air conditioning is broken, so last night was a big like sleeping in a hot box. Now enjoying the cool dark morning on the back porch with a coffee.
2) Something in the air is making the back of my throat itch and my nose run. #windsofchange
3) In my dream I was in the storage section of a house museum as blue-and-white china was being put into or out of storage, and being broken by carelessness. I had to get involved to protect the china. There was one very large piece that looked as though it was a ceiling medallion for a chandelier.
1) Toothache! Miserable toothache from lunch until just before dinner. Thank goodness for oil of cloves.
2) Bruxism has nothing to do with Bruxelles.
3) Such a wonderful day for thinking about the future.
1) Early morning tarot reading.
2) I'm glad I left all the eclipse photography to other people. Mine would not have turned out as amazingly as the many others i've seen.
3) Oddly, my current earworm is Doris Day's "That What Makes Paris Paree." Oddly.
1) OK, the eclipse is done. It was eclipsious. I'm ready to move on.
2) I swear I'm carbo-loading for a lethargathon.
3) Recognizing the lightness of my burdens, and sending out strong thoughts to those who are carrying the burden right now.
1) Caught the Downeaster Friday evening up to Wells to visit a friend in his beach bungalow for the weekend. Imagine my surprise at finding an acquaintance across the aisle! Instead of surfing using the train’s molasses-slow wifi, I ended up having a great person-to-person catch-up over drinks.
1a) One of my indulgences is to travel in the club car on the train. They don’t make club cars with mahogany and mohair velvet any more, but it can be that way in my mind.
2) My host met me at Wells Station in a drenching rain, immediately putting a large covered dish of jambalaya in my lap as we drove first to the supermarket and then home.
3) A mellow late dinner of jambalaya and effervescent rosé and good conversation.
4) I was bedded down in the Hawaii Room, so named for its works of art, as well as the starfish doll on the bed, which made a great hat.
5) A sluggish start to a gray Saturday kicked into high gear when we decided to go to the Greenery for breakfast. We sat at a high top and were waited on by a very humorous woman younger than we were. Bacon, brie, and tomato omelette = savory heaven. To my surprise, the Greeney was much in favor with families of small children.
6) After that, footloose and fancy free on an overcast day, we decided to walk about the Wells Beach area. Old and new beach homes, one with a tent and round tables set up in front of it. A day of washed-out neutrals: white, silver gray, sand gray, pearl gray, the bleached gold of weathered shingles, gold, cream, you name it. I’d love to decorate a room in all those colors and have one red thing in it.
7) Some of the homes had very amusing names, e.g. All-En, Hatetoquitit, etc.
8) After lots of walking, a return home for jambalaya lunch and (for me) a NAP. Not that it did me much good.
9) Then - the SUN! Surprise! Rather than haul our stuff all the way to the beach and wrestle with parking and such, we toted our towels over to the clubhouse and reclined by the pool with our books. Why yes, we WERE in the younger 20% of people there . . .
10) Into Ogunquit Proper for an early evening, starting with bird-dogging around restaurants to look at their menus, and then a first round upstairs at the Front Porch. We were starting the evening early, but even so, the piano was already mobbed with the usual suspects to be found around the piano in any piano bar, roaring along with whatever the (excellent) pianist was playing.
10a) After about 15 minutes a cute young waiter (just enough eyebrow tweezing to know it’s been done) took our orders, and after what seemed like another 20 minutes, we got our drinks. FP seems short-staffed this season, which my host explained probably had to do with people having to leave before the end of the season to return to school.
11) Then off to Brix and Brine for dinner under a gigantic umbrella, perfect for that sunny evening. For heaven’s sake, if you choose to dine here, order the crab tots as soon as you sit down, and then order some more when you finish them! My steak frites was perhaps not as hot as I’d’ve wished it, but no complaints. I just loved the vibe of this restaurant. I was just about to say “Pretentious enough that families won’t go, but unpretentious enough to be enjoyed," but then I remembered a sweet little girl not more than 2 who was so very sweet because I don’t recall her making a peep.
12) Immediately after dinner we stepped into a little art gallery, and what a delight to see on a table a book about the artist Charles Woodbury that was co-authored by a friend of mine.
13) We then walked on to the beach, beautiful in the dusk, one saiilboat in the distance, lots of deep opalescent pastels in contrast to all the neutrals of the morning. I got my feet in the cold water and really felt I’d arrived.
14) Heading back toward town, we browsed through a couple of those Gorgeous Little Things stores you find in resort towns, and then got some ice cream at Abbott’s. Just one poor teenage girl behind the counter, scooping for a line that NEVER ended while we were there. I tipped her well, but her tip jar was already VERY full.
15) Back at home, my host flipped on a movie I’d never seen, Apartment Zero. That is one messed-up movie! I was almost sure that Almodovar had directed it. Colin First and an actor named Hart Bochner with a face to make you crumble.
16) Sunday started with even more sun, a fruit cup, coffee, and our arrival at Ogunquit Beach by 9:37 AM, just before high tide. I wouldn’t call our set-up elaborate, but my host brought a large folding beach chair and a beach tent with tent pegs and pockets that fill with sand to weight it down. Ingenious! Whereas I had forgotten my beach blanket at the house (almost my entire backpack). I didn't see any inflatable palm trees this trip, or small generators to power blenders to make smoothies for passersby, but Ogunquit is where I've seen such shenanigans before.
17) Of the day, I can only say that the sun baked out any mental energy I had. I tried to write, I’d brought nothing to read . . . and eventually all I did was walk, swim, and nap. But what’s wrong with that?!
18) In fact, so much had my brain dribbled out my ears that when I went to get lunch at the concession, I forgot shoes - oops! - and had to go back to get them before I could place an order.
18a) That was when I saw the four people with inflatable sharks.
19) After all that intense sun, we left shortly after 3ish for an early cocktail at Maine Street. Practically deserted when we got there, wonderful to stretch out on the upper deck banquettes with their pillows! Some interesting looks: a slim young man in what appeared to be a hopi coat over white cycling shorts and wooden clogs with blue fleece uppers, a bearish dude in blue linen with a large round pendant that looked like a carved bagel, and one man, no longer young, wearing a black and green thong, tattoos, and nothing else.
19a) The tattoo on his back, a tall cross on a bed of skulls surmounted by two vultures . . . well, I’m afraid of what it might mean, but it certainly made a statement.
20) Back at home, I cleaned my carcass and packed up, sad to be returning already.
21) Dinner at nearby Tulsi North, a superb Indian restaurant with a light, deft touch for spices. What could be better than chicken tikka masala with garlic naan? Om nom nom.
22) My host deposited me at the train station a bit early, so I was able to call Mother and catch up on a variety of topics that ranged from the personal to the political to the church.
23) Typing this up in the club car speeding through the dark, grateful and happy for a respite out of town.
1) Me, after a budget meeting this morning, before I start my interim director duties on Monday.
2) My outgoing boss, tenaciously conscientious to the end, is ploughing through a phenomenal amount of detail work before she checks out for good at 5:00 PM. I admire her.
2a) Oh my God, she just brought over a calendar with important dates for processes on it. *tears*
3) Just before 5 PM I'll be fleeing for the Downeaster (or should I say Downeastah?) to spend the weekend in Ogunquit. Even though I'll be in Provincetown for Labor Day, this is really the end of summer, 'cause gurrrrlllll, Monday will be Back to School!
1) Really nice to have three young alumni friends over for dinner last night, and to get out not just the "good stuff" but also the old yearbooks.
2) One of my guests eats a vegan diet, but I was able to come up with something delicious and accommodating:
Waldorf Salad
(made with vegan mayonnaise)
Rotini Pasta with tomato sauce
Insalata verde molto semplice
Raspberry sorbet with fresh blueberries
2a) Four bowls, 12 plates, 12 glasses, 17 pieces of silver, plus one serving bowl, two pots, and a variety of kitchen utensils.
3) The one thing was that my central air conditioning seems no longer to be working. The outdoor unit was clearly working overtime, but I was more than breaking a sweat indoors. The unit indoors showed signs of condensation. Amateur diagnosis is that (and this will not surprise you), something is not working inside. Time to call the repairman.
3a) First I break a tooth, and now this. Plus the general cleanout of my office right now which is seeing me through out an unprecedented amount of stuff. I feel like I'm preparing for battle.
1) Four and one-half hours of sleep. I've essentially been awake since just after 3 AM. Early morning parlor breakfast, news, housekeeping before a dental appointment.
2) As it often does, the pace quickens in the last half of August. It's kind of like the week before returning to school as a child. Only instead of a trip to S**** for new clothes and that sort of thing, it seems to be an increased number of meetings and a sense of clearing the decks for battle.
3) Blesséd, blesséd coffee.
At Ivy Plus back in June.
Now it can be told:
1) With my boss leaving at the end of the week to return to graduate school, I've been asked to be interim leader of the team until her replacement is hired. Job searches can take much or little time, but I'm hoping a new person can be in place by December.
2) In the meanwhile I'll be exploring managerial life, including budgeting and a regular schedule of meetings and newer, uniquely engaging facets of volunteer management, all while continuing to support five reunion classes and the other parts of my own job.
3) "Brace yourself, Millicent!"
1) Awake since 4 AM, up since 5 AM, dentist appointment at 8 AM.
2) That's Boston for you. One moment you're sitting in the Bornheimer Room of the Athenaeum when a party of ladies and gentlemen in Victorian costumes pop in to look at the pictures, the next you're walking past a late-night basketball game outside English High School.
3) Dinner at C***** N***** with a seldom-seen friend: bacon-wrapped shrimp, surf and turf with a slab of au gratin potatoes and a gesture of spinach, and wonderful conversation.
1) Fourteen years ago today I became a homeowner. I have unwittingly been celebrating by some attempts at housekeeping today, but am now officially celebrating with a gin and tonic on my back porch.
2) On my way home from the food co-op, I passed an overturned shopping cart. The words PRODLY STOLEN were written on on that folding plastic panel in the basket thingie, with a U on the line above between the O and the D. Says so much. . .
3) Vegenaise.