I meant to post about king cakes last year. And I meant to post about my housefloat. But I was two weeks late with the first post and then never posted again in 2021.
Like many of us, I was fighting to keep my equilibrium, to stay employed, and to process my grief. Grief about our collective inability to think about others in the middle of a pandemic and grief over losing my father in early January.
Hopefully, I’ll do better this year.
I haven’t written anything about my anniversary of this space in a couple of years (July 2014 to be exact) but a conversation yesterday made me think that I might want to write something up this year.
I was sitting around with a friend who has started and killed a bunch of different blogs since I’ve known her (6 or 7 years?). Her blogs tend to be tightly focused on food, cocktails, fashion, dating, technology, what have you. She has many varied interests, but I think trying to keep her writing to one area is what caused each one to eventually die.
I know mine is a bit all over the map, but welcome to my brain. My art posts are consistent but art is a constant source of joy in my life. I was looking back at some of my poetry posts and maybe I should pick up one of the 3 books of poetry on my bedside table.
My life is very different from when I started, both easier and harder. And maybe I share a bit less than I used to. But July continues to be a weirdly self-reflective month for me…which is how this whole thing got started.
I changed my template last week. Which is of no consequence to anyone but me, but I suddenly realize that the *simple* template I picked in 2011…I know…was looking very busy so I chose something else. So just a month shy of my 5th anniversary of this particular ramble on the internet…something new.
Happy Birthday to me! Yep, I was born on the 11th day of Christmas so this month’s theme is cake! If you’re my birthday twin, HB2U! If not, then a very merry unbirthday to you.
Floor Cake by Claes Odenburg (1962)
I kind of want to collapse on this piece of cake, except that it’s made of “Synthetic polymer paint and latex on canvas filled with foam rubber and cardboard boxes” so that doesn’t sound so comfy
look it in the face the bad spirits can’t abide being looked at in the face and the good spirits will look you right back
I just found this draft and it’s just a fragment of a quote from the Benjamin January book series, maybe the 7th volume. For whatever reason this really resonated with me, this is my methodology when walking down city streets by myself. If a passerby won’t look me in the eye, then I’m wary.
I woke up from a dream early this morning and thought I should post that to my blog. And then rolled over and fell asleep. The only thing I remember about the dream now? That I wanted to post it and I think it involved the bike I had when I was 10 that was a hand-me-down from family friends.
The bike was bright green and I talked my Mom into buying me a purple glitter banana seat for it. And I know I had a flag on the back that whipped in the wind when you pedaled fast.
Wonder what that dream was and why I thought I should post about it?
Happy 3rd anniversary to my blog. Traditional gift is leather and modern is crystal. So clearly I should buy this belt buckle in celebration, right?
Yesterday, I listened to throwback American top 40 the 70’s on WTIX New Orleans and Barry Manilow’s I Write the Songs comes on… Funny I can remember an entire conversation with the girl across the street when this song was first out.
She was in love with Barry Manilow and I sort of already knew that was foolish but I didn’t really have the words to explain why. Of course, there’s the whole celebrity crush level of impossibility, but i think I knew he wasn’t interested in girls. But I don’t know that I knew the word gay (was it in common use in 1976). And if I knew the word homosexual, I don’t think I would have used it because it included the letters S-E-X.
So instead I said something about him having a big nose and I remember being embarrassed but that’s what I came up with instead of saying what I really thought. Mostly I’m not even sure if the neighbor girl would have known what gay was. Her life was much more sheltered than mine.
And here I am 35+ years later and I’m embarrassed all over again for my child-self but not because of the gay-thing. Instead it was because I ended up having to defend my position of big nose equals unattractive. Funny the things you remember.
Last one….until maybe next November
26. for contractors who come out quickly & restore your heat
27. for my cousin on her birthday.
28. for mirlitons
29. for a cup of hot tea on a cold day…or a glass of iced tea on hot day…either one works.
30. for all you who are reading this!
Oops. I just realized that this never published on Monday…so here ya go on Thanksgiving and all. Read while rolling around on the floor with an achy tummy from all the foods.
Look more things that I’m thankful for.
19. for knowing when to let go and let the professionals take over
20. for my own mostly good health
21. for cake
22. for good meals with good friends.
23. for unexpected windfalls (possibly redundant)
24. for my crazy moderately sized nieces (can’t call the almost 10 year old little any more)
25. for walking in the French Quarter in the rain…even in November
Blathering 504 