THIS 'N THAT

The snow was deep and messy, then it became slick sheets of ice, and now it's all melted. We had a lovely family Christmas and all went well.
Now it's time to plan for the New Year.
I want to make some lists.

MY TOP TEN FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME:
In no particular order right now.

*Moonstruck - Pop I love 'im
*Casablanca - In all the gin joints
*Dirty Dancing - Baby
*Pulp Fiction - All of it except the french girl
*Zorba the Greek - This french woman I love
*Gone With the Wind - Oh Rhett
*The Big Chill - Every minute of it
*The Shawshank Redemption - Same
*Sixteen Candles - She got her guy and Long Dong
*Sunset Boulevard - Norma's back


Others that could be on the list:
*What a Way to Go - Shirley McClain
*Lilies of the Field - A-a-men, A-men, A-men
*Risky Business - Just take those old records off the shelf
*White Christmas - We'll follow the old man, wherever he wants to go
*To Kill a Mockingbird - Atticus Finch and Scout and Jeb
*Harold and Maude - Ruth Gordon
*Miracle on 34th Street - Court room scene
*Never on Sunday - Ilya and Homer
*Romy and Michelle - Post it notes
*The Green Mile - It's got it all

HOLIDAY RANT

It's all snowy and cold outside today, two days before Christmas...


so I decided to finish wrapping the presents. I started by going to put away a roll of non-Christmas wrap in the wrapping box under the bed. It was really dusty under the bed, so I thought I'd swiffer it and vacuum off the swiffer, and just do a little vac job on our room so that I could wrap in a cleaner environment. Just then I heard the Freecycler who was coming to pick up a silicone potholder, come to the door. Well, this Freecycler offered to bring us homemade Toffee, so I headed to the door to get the toffee so it wouldn't freeze. On the way, I turned on the iron so that I could iron one of the gifts to make it especially pretty when the present was opened. I thought it would be nice to listen to some Christmas music while doing all these tasks, so I came into the office to get the iTunes fired up on the computer, because I never put the Christmas music on my iPod. So I sorted by Genre, and only 1 1/2 of my Christmas CDs was there. So I searched and sorted all kinds of different ways, and it turns out that last year, I had put all of my Christmas CDs on iTunes, but they were all labeled differently. I found each and every tune, and Get Infoed it into the correct catergories and with the correct labels. This took probably an hour, now that I look at the clock. Then I made a special Christmas playlist which I'm listening to now. It's really nice, too, and I figured out how to shuffle within the playlist. All of this only did me half good, though, because guess what, my iPod IS SYNCHED TO MY OLD COMPUTER!!! I'll have to repeat the whole process to come up with a playlist that I can use downstairs with my iPod on Christmas day. I went downstairs and got the toffee, and then put on my coat and boots to get the newspaper, stepped out the door, and that wonderful Freecycler had put the paper right outside the door for us. The toffee was incredible with toffee, pecans and chocolate. I went to the kitchen and ate my leftover Tiropita and a glass of milk for breakfast and read the front page of the Trib. Nothing New. SoS. Straightened up the kitchen, went to the living room and moved my chair out of the way of blocking the Christmas Tree

so that when I put the wrapped presents under the tree I could enjoy seeing the full length of the tree. Now I'll go and wrap those presents. Oh, except I can't because first I have to swiffer under the bed! And iron that gift and the ironing pile. Oh well, the Tiropita was good. And you wonder what I do all day. Oh, and what do I really only want to do today? Finish my red skirt that I made yesterday, custom tailored for me for Christmas and Valentine's day and lined, too. It turned out beautifully. And make a purse out of that felted Eileen sweater that I posted a photo of here months ago. The Christmas Carols are adding some festivity and confusion to the day, but I need them for distraction. I just remembered why I went into the living room that time when I moved the chair. To get the space heater because it's so cold up here. I have extension cords and take the heater around the house with me to try to ward off the cold. I probably have that thing where your extremities are always cold.

BOOKS & THOUGHTS

The Girls Who Went Away by Anne Fessler is "The hidden history of women who surrendered children for adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade". So here we have another little awful secretive part of history, perpetuated by people worried about what others will think. Story after story about pregnant young girls who were sent away by their parents to have their babies in secret, give those babies away, then come home and "forget this ever happened". Of course, they didn't forget, and the events affected their lives in many many negative ways. Thank God things have changed.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is pre-teen reading about a girl who is her own unique self. Narrated by a boy at school, it lets readers come to their own conclusions about the events in the book.

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe - Tom Wolfe writes and writes and writes each excruciating detail, and gets into his characters' heads, and does a lot of editorializing as a writer. This is a story about a small town girl thrust into the big world of a major university, and more than that, it makes a big deal about college behavior that hasn't changed in 30 or 40 years. Since the beginning of time there have been pretty small town girls, confident wealthy and sorority girls, fraternity boys who drink, and athletes who are not the most academically proficient. Where has this guy been? Still, there were a few times when I couldn't put this one down. Go figure.

Talk To Me - A great little movie about a Washington DC disc jockey in the 1960s who took that city by storm, and became its voice during times of turmoil. Don Cheadle rarely disappoints, and in this movie, he is Petey Greene. Really good.

I've been thinking about what's next for my blog, and for me in the next year. New topics. New doings. New something!

VACATION AND MY VACATION READS

We've just returned from a little road trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. We left on an overcast Saturday morning with CarBunny watching over us as we drove. Here's the intersection of Lake and Locust as it looked that morning. Some people go to AAA and get maps and triptics and all sorts of paper when they go on a trip. Which is what we did until a few years ago when I participated in a market study about Rand McNally Road Atlases. That's when I realized that all we need is our trusty little road atlas and nothing else. Well, maybe the GPS and a few notes on the locations of some of the outlet malls. For a longer trip, such as the one to California, it's nice to have the large Road Atlas because it gives close up detail about the major cities. We hadn't even cleared the city limits of Chicago before Peter fell asleep and Steve wanted to wake him up to tell him that Steve had spotted the first car he was going to buy for Peter when he got his driver's license: Pretty sweet, huh?

We always take along the car pillows, covered in the appropriate fabric for a road trip. At the first stop for cheap gas in Indiana, just over the border, I found a new candy for my lemon loving son.

Two days of driving, and we were in Palm Beach Gardens. Perfect sunny 75 degree weather. Worth the drive. I went on a short beach walk under the pretense of going to the Publix for pumpkin egg nog, whole milk, couscous and some other supplies not commonly stored in my aunt's pantry. Gotta love a beach walk in Juno Beach. There were surfers which is something we don't have on our beach, and which gives a new depth of enjoyment to the walk.
The next afternoon we went to a late lunch at Brio, and I had my favorite which I really think had pesto and sundried tomatoes on it last time, but no matter, it's always delicious: See, I can micro-blog! I suppose I could have taken the photo before I took a bite, but sorry, I was starving.

OK, lets get this show on the road. Then we went to Naples, where all my photos are of the family, but I can dig up a photo of our clams at Steamers from last year if anyone wants to see them. Mmmmm. They are just like the fried clams that Howard Johnsons used to serve in the 60s and 70s. Oh, and in both places, we bought Publix Chocolate Triple Threat Premium Ice Cream. Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with fudge ribbons and little fudge cups. Put some warm marshmallow topping on that and you're good to go. Yes, I gained 5 pounds on this trip. The last highlight was when Steve took my car down to "O MILES TO E" which meant that we supposedly couldn't drive one more mile without running out of gas. He'd taken it to 3 miles to E a couple of trips ago, but it turns out that at "O MILES TO E" there are still at least 10-12 miles left based on about 30 MPG. Good to know, but I wouldn't want to test it in cold weather. Take a look, and this will end our little blog journey, or journal, or whatever.

The Invisible Wall - by Harry Bernstein is about Harry's family when they lived in England in the early part of the 20th century. The invisible wall ran down the middle of the street in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. The Jewish families lived on one side of the street, and the Christian families lived on the other side of the street. Harry tells such great stories. They stay with you for a long time. He also wrote another book that I've reviewed called The Dream. Who needs the cover of the book.?...There's Harry himself. He's a nonagenarian writer.

Then We Came to the End - by Joshua Ferris ~ Here's a different kind of a read. First of all, it's written in the 5th person which we loved. He writes about life in an advertising office in Chicago and we grow to like and know each of his characters as if they were someone we work with and know in that way that you know people you work with. I didn't want this one to end, but of course, then we came to the end. There is a special dynamic that occurs in offices, and we now have a small regret that we never experienced life in an advertising office. Mad Men is as close as we've gotten. And we actually worked in small offices at University of Michigan, at the Sales Manufacturing Association, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and at Kahn Realty. We've worked in large offices at Ford Motor Company and on Temp Jobs. We'd define small offices as those with two administration people such as receptionists and secretaries, and large offices as those with many secretaries, many floors and maybe even a few receptionists. Yeah, this is a good one. If you decide not to listen to us, and not read this book, then at least go to this website about the book for a laugh. Skip the Intro. We liked the video best.