Category: Life

Chartreuse

The pencil above is Berol Prismacolor PC 989 Chartreuse, the first pencil to retire from the set my father gave me in the early ’90s. I sharpened it for the final time last night, when I realized that the core would shatter if I did so again. It’s small, but not tiny: I could still use it if I wanted to, either with a pencil extender or a light grasp of my hand. But I have a small set of more modern Prismacolors from 2017 or so that includes the same color, so I removed the Chartreuse from that set and put this one in the tin in its stead. The newer one now sits in the old Berol box.

My favorite color is purple, a far cry from chartreuse, and I never thought such a bright lemony green would ever appeal to me, even back in the ’80s when it was everywhere along with the neon pinks, peaches, and purples that dressed a generation of teenagers.

But then Inigo the Nanday came into my life, where he was my constant companion for 21 years until it was his time to pass away last year. That the old pencil is the same shade as his feathers made retiring it that much more poignant, but I take comfort in knowing it will be safe in the tin, braced by a rolled-up tissue to keep it from sliding around and breaking the tip.

A bright green and black bird called a Nanday Conure.

One thing they don’t warn you about regarding your 50s is how many late goodbyes you start having. Things given to you many years ago by people who are now long gone wear out. The cards they sent you turn yellow and the stamps fall off. The classic, timeless items of clothing they gifted you for your birthday or a holiday start coming apart. Any rings they gave you get harder to slip over your knuckles, if they still fit at all. The glue in the bindings of the books they inherited and then passed down to you starts to crack. If you kept their perfume or aftershave, it turns acidic or loses its fragrance entirely. If you were born before cell phones and digital media, the photographs you have of those you lost fade and the tape recordings of their voices stretch and sound strange—if you even still have the audio equipment necessary to play them.

Some folks like to pick on younger generations because of all the pictures and videos they take with their phones, but as long as younger people still live in the moment and don’t create a hazard or rob themselves of the full experience just to get a good angle, I say good for them for capturing it. If they store everything correctly, they’ll always have something crisp and fresh to remember their loved ones by.

But listen, younger folks: Even if you have a ton of photos and videos, cherish the gifts people give you. Hang on to the little keepsakes you have of life milestones, either those you experience yourself or those of your loved ones, and preserve any inadvertent mementos you find in the bottom of a drawer that catapult you unexpectedly into a happy memory. Treasure the items that come to you from a place of affection, especially the small things you manage to take with you when you move from one home to the next. Those are things you can hold in your hand. Those are the things you can hold close to your heart, where the love that brought them to you still resides.

Adios, 2023!

Here we are, the last day of 2023 and the last day of Holidailies. I won’t rehash the year again because it was just too terrible, but instead will look forward to 2024. I hope to keep this blog going, but only a couple of times a week.

And now, my resolutions for 2024:

Attend every appointment of cardiac rehab. It will be three times a week for 12 weeks, an hour at a pop. If it snows, I will reschedule, rather than write it off.

Pursue, find, and settle into career fulfillment. (She said vaguely. But if you know, you know.)

Continue exercising after cardiac rehab. I walk a lot, anyway, but I mean on top of that. I doubt I will ever go back to cardio-kickboxing, but low-impact step aerobics would work, and we do have a few treadmills in my building that I can use during inclement weather. This won’t be a challenge. I like to dance my butt off. I like to move it move it. (Woman! Physically fit, physically fit, physically, physically, physically. Woman! Physically fit, physically fit, physically, physically, physically… You’re welcome.)

Drop 20 pounds. Yes, I know. Me and 100 million other Americans. But I kind of have to, for my heart’s sake. Plus, ya know, I just want to. I feel better thinner—lighter on my feet and healthier overall—and my clothes look better.

Resume my tarot practice. I’ve gotten away from it and I miss it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a separate blog or socials about that. I’m not sure I’ll ever read for people I don’t already know personally, but it might be fun to join a few groups online to exchange readings.

I think these are all reasonable goals. I would add journaling on paper to the list but I know myself well enough to know that aside from a tarot journal, I’m terrible at sticking to paper journals. I have so many of them, too. At this point, they may very well end up being decorative items for a bookcase, heh.

And with that, I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and safe 2024. Now let’s give 2023 the boot!

A Christmas ornament in the shape of a boot.

A South Shore Girl

I clicked the random Holidailies prompt, and it was perfect: “Do you still live in the place where you grew up? How far away are you now, and why?”

I live about a six-hour drive from where I grew up, which was on Long Island. (ON Long Island. Never say “IN Long Island.” You’ll reveal yourself as one who has never set foot there and anyone who has ever lived there or in New York City will correct you on the spot.) On Long Island you had the rich kids on the North Shore and the cool kids on the South Shore and I’m proud to say that while I wasn’t rich, or even all that cool, I’m from the South Shore.

Long Island is known for a lot of things. It’s where a lot of people who work in Manhattan live. The beaches are gorgeous. If you like guys who are into cars you can take your pick. Then there’s wine country, the Hamptons, and Montauk. If you head out to the South Fork you will pass the Big Duck, which was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer and used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs.

A building in the shape of a giant duck.
Image: Mike Peel

Here’s my Big Duck Christmas ornament, along with one of the ornaments from a set that used to be my parents’. I lived on Long Island for most of my 40s and got the Big Duck ornament when a friend came up to visit me and we went wine tasting.

Two Christmas ornaments, one in the shape of a duck, the other featuring a poinsettia.

No discussion of Long Island would be complete without mentioning the musicians who either hailed from there or decided to base themselves there, including Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, The Stray Cats, Steve Vai, Twisted Sister, Lou Reed, and Blue Oyster Cult.

In fact, LL Cool J was born in my hometown, Bay Shore. The town has several other claims to fame—it’s where you catch the ferry to Fire Island, it’s close to Robert Moses State Park and its beaches, it’s home to the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts (where I once saw Henry Rollins do spoken word)—but my favorite is that for nearly 100 years, the town was home to a huge Entenmann’s bakery.

Everyone loved Entenmann’s. There was nothing, but nothing, better than being there at just the right moment when the apple pies came off the line and were still warm in the box when you bought them. They would also have “dollar days” where you could get goodies that were getting close to their sell-by date or whose boxes were slightly wonky for only a buck. Entenmann’s cakes froze pretty well, so people would go in with shopping carts and go nuts with a twenty-dollar bill.

My favorite Entenmann’s cake was the chocolate with white icing with chocolate stripes and a single maraschino cherry on top. I think the chocolate might have been devil’s food, but then they introduced another goodie, a devil’s food cake with marshmallow icing and devil’s food crumbles on top. The banana cake was amazing, too. Then there were the chocolate glazed doughnuts with the chocolate crumbles on top that were also coated with powdered sugar just in case your pancreas  My parents always had an Entenmann’s coffee crumb cake on reserve in case company came over, so Sebastian Maniscalco’s comedy routine about that is spot on.

Living so close to the bakery made waiting for the school bus more bearable. On days when the wind was just right, our part of town would smell like a warm blueberry muffin in the morning.

Why am I in northern Virginia? I went to college at George Washington University in D.C., fell in love with the city, and decided to stay in the area. Barring eight years back on the Island in my 40s that I still haven’t decided if I regret, and one year in Hawaii that I don’t regret but probably should, I’ve been in the D.C. area ever since.

And now for the tree from my home state, New York. I love the ornament with the pizza slice. There really is no pizza like New York pizza. It’s the dough and the Mafia tomatoes in the sauce.

New York's state Christmas tree, 2023.
New York’s state Christmas tree, 2023. Click to embiggen.

P.S. Don’t touch the crumb cake. It’s for company.