When, on Monday morning you check the weather as you are leaving the house to make sure you are wearing enough socks and you see this...
...you are not then surprised when you step outside and see this.
It is pretty and grounding and good for your soul and Robert-Frosty, and you enjoy it. (You come, too!) And then by the end of the day it is over.
But then, the next day when you wake up and bundle up (two pairs of socks, Expedition Weight long johns, a thermal shirt under cashmere and fingerless gloves) and step outside into this...
...you are a little surprised. It's less of a "wintery mix" and more of a full-on snow storm.
And then you check the weather again, and find this.
I love that the NWS releases are in all caps. It conveys a sense of URGENCY and also vaguely suggests an old teletype machine. Highlights:
* HAZARDS... HEAVY SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS... 8 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW.
Huh. Even an unreliable weather app is right, although perhaps understated, twice a week.
I wish the weather app had little icons showing you which level of Capilene to wear.
So, I am sick. I was so sick on Christmas Eve, my mom and dad had to drive me back because I couldn't have taken the train. While I am here, stuck in bed, under my cozy new comforter (another thanks to mom and dad) eating coconut balls (thanks to Auntie Carol) and surrounded by cats (thanks to Woody, Tiggy, Ginger and Pickles), this is what is happening outside.
So far, it looks like it will be a year full of possibilities. Lots of opportunity to define the year and organize my priorities. One might even call it a blank slate.
This photo cannot convey the very wet Armageddon happening outside my window. I might hide under my desk. (Jimmy says I have been hanging out with Pickles too much.)
I mean, sweetums, did you have to put the paw on the edge of the donut like you were posing for your holiday portrait at Bradlee's? And do your eyes have to be so big and surprised-looking? And what about those crazy eyebrow whiskers?
So, I was just in D.C. overnight for biznusses. And I stayed at the lovely Quincy hotel, mostly because it was cheap and also right around the corner from where the biznusses were conducted. (And because my old apartment at the Argonne has probably been rented.) There were several notable things about the Quincy which I will proceed to note hereforth.
1. The couch in my room was totally the larger L version of my home couch. Same fabric, same feet shape, same velcro attachments for the pillows.
Same, same, same-- except less cat fur. And no sheet covering it to protect it from cats or little decorator pillows or Ginger.
2. There was a very strange music thing happening, both in that they chose to blast all of the songs from my "HS Memories" playlist in the lobby (see sidebar), but also because, very randomly, there was a Billy Squier album cover on the wall on my floor near the elevator.
True, they never played any Billy Squier in the lobby, but there he was, gazing at me while I waited for the elevator. This prompted Kevin to say, "This must be a hotel for young people." And that made me laugh uproariously since that album came out before some of my younger friends were born.
3. There was a giant mirror against the wall. (Even bigger than yours, CRD.) It made me realize that I really need a full length mirror if I am going to avoid making outfit mistakes like that one time I wore the balloon top out in public. Or, maybe just forgetfully not make outfit choices at all.
Is there such a thing as fate? Are some matches are meant to be? E.g., My skirt + the couch pillows? Me + The Quincy? This must be a hotel for me.
Billy Squier doesn't want me to embed his video as my conclusion, but it's here. But, we also heard this song in the lobby, and it made me touch my heart in nostalgia and emotion. And a voice inside my head said, "Don't look back-- you can never look back."
This playing thing is hard work. There have been some minor successes, though. For example, the new game we call Chair Mouse. To play, the kitty sits on the folding chair and I move Flatty McMousington around, in between the slats of the seat, through the back and peeking around the sides.
Pickles actually is the key Chair Mouse player, but he absolutely refused to do be enticed on camera. Of course, we had just played for about forty minutes before I got the idea to film. So, he might have been a little pooped. Ginger stepped up as a wonderful understudy.
Figure A:
The chair, as it turns out, is key to the efficacy of the game in soothing kitty anxiety. Played, for example, on a kitty resting place, and it actually may increase kitty anxieties.
Little did I know that their first move would be into journalism. The political gets personal. Or something like that. (You know, because I am such a serious journalist?)
(Jimmy also points out that the behavior where you look into the viewfinder after each shot is called "chimping.")
I sure like to make the same jokes over and over. And over and over. Long after they stop being funny.
Like the one where someone is coughing and I say, "Do you need the Heimlich? If so, make the international sign for 'I'm choking.'" Ha! Hilarity. If that was funny the first time, imagine how funny it is after you've been my friend for ten years!
About as funny as choking?
And then, there's the one where I see someone in a sports shirt, with the player name on the back, and I pretend to think it is the player. I got to use that one last night.
"Wait, Cabrera is up at bat next? He better hurry up to the plate rather than just sitting here in front of us drinking beer!' Ha!
Let me assure you, though, Tennessee vendor, that although these treats are about the tastiest thing I have ever eaten-- milk chocolate, pecans, caramel and marshmallow? genius-- they will not be a factor in my decision to recommend we do business with you. Or, really, not the only factor. But, you may as well keep 'em coming because you can never be sure.
I celebrated Earth Day this morning by petting the cats (who, after all, are part of the wonders of Earth) and reading this article in The New York Times non-paper edition. It chronicles something I have only experienced on an airplane: the newly hatched oeuvre of animal reality shows. The author draws this questionable, although likely tongue-cheeked, conclusion:
Sure, you could argue that we humans have abused nature far more than nature has abused us. You could also argue that these portentous nature shows are merely playing on the secret desire we all have to feel that there is still some danger, some life-or-death excitement, left in this sterilized, seat-belted, stay-on-marked-trails world.
But while you’re making these arguments, a bear may be breaking into your garage, your neighbor’s pet boa is probably making its way into your closet, and a flatworm could be laying eggs in your blood vessels. So sure, on Earth Day, all hail nature for its beauty and wonder. But remember that, as that volcano in Iceland reminds us, it’s also violent, and hungry. Very hungry.
Here without delay, I fulfill my own wish, providing one image for each category of show he discusses.
1. ANIMALS ARE ADORABLE.
Really, I could have gone with just about anything from the heroes over at Cuteoverload.com where they document this category, one ridonkulus animal at a time.
They eat in restaurants and sometimes get served the wrong dish. Only they can't spell. Oh wait, that is just like us. (Maybe we were better spellers before LOLcats? Chicken or the egg?)
4. ANIMALS WANT TO KILL AND OFTEN EAT US.
Yo, nobody should dance with the bear. DANGER ZONE!
Even though Jesse Burgers are no more, there are lots of great things about living in what some Southern friends call "Canada," although I prefer to think of it as just "upstate Manhattan." Namely, rents are what passes for reasonable, I have THREE closets (one just for coats), and there are amazing Dominican pastries. But, one big downside is how long it takes to get anywhere thanks to the wholly unpredictable A train. Of course, a little known fact is that about five minutes is added on to every commute for hallwalks.
Tiggy has passed the mantle of hallwalks on to her baby brother, and no departure from the house can be accomplished without first allowing Ginger to rub his face on every available surface on the stairs between our apartment and the roof.
He makes a mad dash up to the top of the steps to sniff the door to the roof, eat any dead spiders or flies he can find, and rub his cheek and tail on every available surface.
And then he plops down and plays "Vertigo Lookout" from the very highest point.
That usually lasts for a few minutes and then he decides he has had enough excitement and makes his "squee" noise and runs down the steps and back into the safety of our home.
Usually, Pickles and Tiggy are just inside the door, curious but happy to let Ginger explore on their behalf. Woody is completely disinterested in hallwalks these days. Sunshine is so much more enticing.
So, next time I come late to a function, just know that five of the tardy minutes were spent chaperoning important expeditions into the Great Unknown Hallway. In Canada.
Can you tell that I am wearing a shirt sold as a pajama top today?
It's not like I am wearing it with my pajama pants or anything, although I might if I still had those nice kitty ones. (The Hello Kitty ones are too warm for the spring.) And I totally dressed it up for public wear with sparkle eyes.
Woody was pretty sick last night with asthma. We had multiple attacks and inhaler dosings, followed by some puking from upset tummy. This morning, he seemed tired (shocking! a sleepy cat!) and just wanted to lie in the sun. Pickles had other plans for him.
Maybe because he was so tired, or still a little under the weather, Woody just tolerated his baby brother's snuggles.
He wasn't thrilled, and the purring was all one-curly-sided. But, it's progress, right? They're both awake this time.
Yesterday after yoga and over a plate of green and creamy huevos rancheros, Diana described the experience of finding a hat that she hadn't realized she had lost in a train station. She turned and lo! There was something that she loved and nearly lost forever, returning to her. The experience was, as Diana described it, wholly unheimliche, like seeing a part of you separated from yourself.
Diana found the hand of fate in the story, that fate was punishing her for having been careless and making bad decisions by giving her this near-loss experience. I don't think that's how it works really, but I'm glad fate was lenient and only issued a warning rather than a full time out. And, I was glad Diana happened to look the right way, or else her head would have been cold.
On the long, long (long, long) A ride home, I was thinking about finding things you didn't know you had lost and the importance of being alert to whatever crosses your path when my new bestie, Joe Pug, described a different encounter: of having faith in finding what is missing and the relief of recognizing when you do find it. "Before we met, I knew we'd meet," Joe sang.
And, I was glad for everything that has happened to me up to that moment. I was glad for working at MTI to meet Hillary who introduced me to Jeff who gave me the gifts of CRD and Amy Bee, and I was glad for liking the Pixies so that I would have something to talk about with Kevin so that down the road I could meet Diana, and I was glad for Jimmy's lousy roommate in 3rd Avenue North so that he moved into the Brittany and years and years later we could take a bus to a mall in Madisonwisconsin where I would live and meet Nick.
I certainly didn't know I was going to meet any of the people who are so special to me, but I certainly hoped it on some level. People are like a box of pieces from an infinite number of different puzzles. We never fit together quite perfectly, but some fit together really well and the patterns we form are abstract and complicated and beautiful and something quite different from what we were on our own.
And that made me think of this song.
And somewhere in the middle lies the truth. You might not even know that you want to find what you're missing, but sometimes you get exactly what you need if you're looking in the right direction.
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