Amber & Tomorrow Will Be Pretty Much Like Today, Only Maybe A Little Snowier

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.

Amber & Winter Sharing

Despite my fashingles, the associated skin pain, and the now four-day headache, I ventured out today to get my penultimate CSA winter share.

And it was so totally worth it.  Carrots, beets, potatoes, onions, frying greens, apples of two varieties, on-cob popcorn (you remove it before you pop it, Jimmy), a butternut squash, eggs, frozen kale, frozen squash puree, frozen blueberries, frozen golden tomatoes and frozen roma tomatoes, and a cup of coffee from Sugar Café.

My fashingles are going to be so well fed.

Also, we are calling them fashingles now, thanks to Erl.

Amber & Peppy Penguins

I'm not the only one greeting the new year with optimism.

Amber & Happy Monkeys

I am still pretty sick, but I managed to venture out today and experienced the Snowpocalypse Aftermath first hand.  Mostly, it meant climbing some street corner snow banks, and trudging through slush.

To prepare for this dangerous adventure, I armed myself with three items of prime safety: my ridiculous big snow boots, my super soft hoody (no, really, have you felt how soft it is?) and a novelty-t.

This novelty t is from the Short-Haired Lady Coffee Place near Nick.  Nick goes there almost every day to work, but I like to go there because they have coffee.  And because I fit in good with my increasingly short hairstyle.  And now that I own this shirt, I like to go there even more because they support monkey happiness.

Close up:

Not all monkeys going into space were happy.  But this one sure is.  He must like coffee, too.  Or short-haired ladies.

Thank you for the nice shirt, Nick.

Amber & Remote Intel

Contributing photographer Peter sends this proof that buses are indeed not the way to traverse the city today.

Amber & Confirmation of Precipitation

I can confirm that it snowed here.

However, I cannot confirm these facts outlined by the old gray lady's website.

"The storm’s timing was diabolical — too late for a white Christmas, but just in time to disrupt the plans of thousands of people trying to get home after the holiday, return unwanted gifts or take advantage of post-holiday bargains at stores. Public schools were not in session, much to the dismay of many children."

Really?  Were the children in dismay?

It is diabolical of the storm to hit on the first day I am well enough to be out of bed.  I might be able to make it to the office to pick up my laptop if that didn't involve trudging through snow and fighting the wind.  You devil snow, you!

Amber & Blizzard

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.

 

Danger! Decorations!

Some days, you are glad to be in bed.

Amber & Something's Fishy

This time of year, I start to crave Fish House Punch.

We were friends for many years, FHP and I, and many holiday parties were well and festively spent together.  (Although there are stories out there about people who had too much of a good thing and then woke up with the Abominable Snowman stomping around their heads.)

Wikipedia tells us the root story of my favorite winter punch might just commemorate ladies being allowed into the Schuykill Fishing Club for the first time and that it was concocted to "please the ladies' palate but get them livelier than is their usual wont."  Exactly: being a lady I can say that it is indeed both palate-pleasing and lively-making.

Plus, every cocktail should have its own song.

There's a little place just out of town,
Where, if you go to lunch,
They'll make you forget your mother-in-law
With a drink called Fish-House Punch.

Amber & Signs and Their Meanings

This can only mean one thing.

It's time to pull out the purple puff coat.

And maybe one of those flags to help me cross the street.

Amber & Geography Lessons

I bet that when you think of what lies to the north of you, if you are in the U.S. (and Google Analytics tells us many of you are not-- Hello, one person in Thailand!), you think of Canada.  And then maybe your imagination stops there, reflecting on the value of the loonie and how they still read up there.  But, maybe you are forgetting that even further north than Canada is The Arctic!  And maybe they have great brunch places there.  On what's left of the ice.

Likewise, even farther north than where I live is Inwood.

(On that map, I am way way down below the bridge.  Sooo far south.)

That's right, people who think I live in the Bronx, there is a whole neighborhood above me, complete with another 40 or so blocks of Manhattan.  And an amazing brunch place.

And, somewhat ironically, maybe you learn about this brunch place from your friends who live downtown, because maybe it takes someone from Oklahoma to plan a trip to The Arctic.  For brunch.

And maybe it's an international expedition with a friend from Sweden, a place further north than even Inwood, but so far north that it's like you crossed the north pole and came out on the other side.

And maybe you liked your reuben so much that you will definitely go back sometime soon, but maybe not today because the weather conditions are too severe for an expedition to the north.

I mean, look at those menacing flurries.  And that Feels Like.

Amber & New Winter, New Hat

I love this hat I got with Amy Bee last year.

But with my new shorter hair, it is super itchy on my head.  To the point where, if you are in Boston and it is totally winter, you might still choose to go hatless to avoid the itching.

So, I got this new hat today.

Pretty nondescript and a little like the fuzzy "gorilla hat" I had back when that guy wrapped central park in orange fabric.

(I had such a nice time.  Jimmy, you rule.)

But...

SURPRISE!

There is a (faux) animal on the top of it.

I had planned to cut the animal off, but it's really grown on me.  But, if I change my mind, it will make a great cat enrichment device.

Hats and friends are indispensable in winter.

Amber & Necking

If there's one piece of advice about wellness that you take from me (and I understand your hesitancy to do so), it's to keep your neck warm.

Ways of doing that include, wearing cowl necks.  With the neck uncowled.

And, wearing the awesome weird fuzzy Fraggle scarf my mom and dad gave me for Christmas last year.

Here is a close up.

Another way would be to have the heat on in the office, but I can't seem to control that.

Amber & So Much Has Happened

If you noticed, I have not been blogging lately.  Soooo much has been happening that it has been hard to find time to blog.

For example, I got this new hair...

But then I didn't like that hair and so I got this other new hair that has a tendency to Alfalfa.

I am also, in that photo, wearing a new and very strange ruffle sweater that I got on a special Outlet Mall Weekend Edition of Awesome Club with these boys in a rental vehicle that we could have removed the seats and camped in.

On that trip, I also got this new jacket which matches my tights that I already owned.

Oh!  And there were all these doilies in the office, mysteriously one Monday.  Kevin thought I brought them in.

Oh!  And then there was the week where I bent to get the soap in the shower and stood up and scraped a giant raspberry into my back.  And then, I stubbed my toe in the office.

Although from hair, we can tell that was before.  Probably around the same time I got these great wall flowers in San Francisco.

Oh!  And I painted my nails!

And alot of stuff happened with the cats, but they can't send their Skype BFF photos, so we don't really have the same level of documentation of their activities.

It sure is lucky I am back to blogging so I can do something with these photos daily rather than save them scattered all over my desktop.

Amber & Sunny, Sunny Tuesday

It's a pretty miraculous sunny, mild, fresh spring day here, today.  I know it's early March, and there could be another snowstorm next week just to remind us that winter still reigns.  But, today is today, and it is good.

Even in the office.

You know what else is good?  You, dear reader.  Spring warms my heart and reminds me to love you all the more.

Smooch.  Even if you came here to spy on my friend.

Or if you associate me with migraines.

Amber & Winter Wins

Winter, my friend, you win.  You have kicked my butt.

Your best move was giving us all that slush during the day yesterday and then cleverly covering it with a blanket of fluff.  I sure didn't know the danger that lay beneath--until I hit the stairs!

I took this photo so that I could show all of my conference-mates who are staying in the hotel upstairs what it looks like upstate.  And to explain my ridiculous boots, but, by now we're down to like $4 per usage.  Amortization.

Thanks, winter, for being wintery.

Amber & Liz Lemon = Me

Really?  Really?



FYI: I'm on Scramble level 96 on my iPhone.

Amber & The Tragedy of Winter

I like winter.  At least when it's cold I can bundle up; there's not much you can do during the hottest days of summer and not get arrested, really.  And I like puff coats, and boots, and wool socks, and hand-knit scarves.  It's a good fashion season for me, maybe because it's so covering.

Plus, if you live in New York, as I do, there's not much use in wasting energy hating the seasons.  They come.  And, they go.  Sunrise, sunset.

But, it sure is hard on my hair.

It's mostly a bummer because my hair is just starting to get flippy again, and I know CRD will never get to see it as long as the weather necessitates wearing a hat.  CRD loves flippy almost as much as he loves girl detectives.

Did you ever notice how unsymmetrical my eyes are?  I sure just did.

Amber & Jimmy Boots

Once in a discussion about Love, Loss, and What I Wore, the pictorial autobiography of Ilene Beckerman tuned turned Broadway play by Nora and Delia Ephron, I denied having strong memories associated with Outfits.  This was, in fact, a bald-faced lie.

Case in point: these boots.

I got these boots once with James.  We were having dinner at Kelly & Ping in SoHo on a cold night, maybe way back in 1998?  There was some big space of time which we were trying to fill between dinner and I think a movie, although the evening's plans are a bit muddled in my memory.  (But, maybe some one will say something that rhymes and I can amend this post.)  It was freezing out and ridiculously windy, but it had been pretty mild that morning and I wasn't appropriately attired.  We went to Patagonia and I bought a long john top and bottom set which I put on in the store, right over the shirt and tights I was already wearing.  Then, we went into Fluevog just to look around and waste some more time, although James's feet don't like Fluevogs.

And I saw these boots on sale for $99.  I had to borrow cash from James to buy them, and, although I liked them at the time, a big part of the decision was based on being able to wear them out of the store into the cold.

And it's been a match made in heaven ever since.  I love these boots.  They are comfy; they are warm.  They survived Madison, Wisconsin.  They survived the giant puddle on the corner of 168th.  They are cute enough to wear with skirts, but have that brilliant big metal zipper on the side to give them a certain motorcycle toughness.  Like this:

Amber & Sealizer

Remember the Squirrelizer?  (And my much cheaper version?)

Well, marine mammals make memes, too.

Hee hee.  I love a happy sea lion.

P.S. Nick found this on Reddit while he was "working."  It's the number one thing over there right now.

Amber & The New Year

2010 is taking some getting used to, but I will get back in the blogging swing soon.

One thing for sure about 2010: I do not plan to be awake before Feels Like 3°.  In fact, maybe I will sleep through all < 0° temperatures in the new year.

Maybe.