WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO

I have a day, here, during which I can potentially make a lot of progress on my stuff. I'm in my office again, looking at that same pile of Christmas linens on the printer, thinking that the green and gold doilies are really going to go. And with that, I just pulled them out from the bottom of the pile and am putting them near the stairs to go down to the sale pile. Complete with my mom's scribbled note on the back that says "from Toula + Spiro". I don't think I can cull anything else from this pile right now, so I'll make a point to put it back to the top of the closet.... today. I'm sitting here still in my nightgown, making typing mistakes constantly because my hands are freezing.

I've just spent the past 90 minutes seeing if I could update to Lion (I think I can although the guy at the Apple store said I need 2 gigabytes of RAM, but online it indicates it's more of an either/or situation, and I have the either/or, but not the AND of it. Then I tried to create the multiple desktops, which I think I did, but if you're on one of the other desktops, you can't get to your original desktop easily. I may actually have alternate desktops going now, though.

Then I decided I had to pass along a beautiful vintage Dutch Doll with Wooden Shoes that has been in my sewing room for over a year. She was given to me by a lovely and kind man, Xavier, to whom I sold some Hat Boxes last year. After weeks of phone calls, he wasn't able to come to get them, so one day when I was on the south side, I delivered the boxes to him. I was a bit apprehensive about delivering to a complete stranger, but didn't have a bad feeling, really, so agreed to meet him in the lobby of his building. It was a beautiful turn of the century building with an even more beautiful large lobby, where huge parties could be thrown and I could imagine people from an earlier time arriving in their carriages and finery to rendezvous in that lobby. ANYWAY, when Xavier came down to meet me, along with an envelope of money, he gave me a box. A gift, he said. To be opened when I got home. Something that had been in his family for years, and that he wanted me to have. Upon arriving home, I opened my present, and it was this lovely vintage Dutch Doll and there was a note from Xavier wanting me to have the doll. My apprehension about meeting a stranger from Craigslist once again not only unnecessary, but rewarded with the chance meeting of a kind human being.

There I was again....making progress in dispersing the extra things (hat boxes) and then through only kindness, receiving something new to take care of. It's finally time, though, and with this blog post, I am going to let the Dutch Doll go. I've looked her over carefully and done some research, and she is valued at $45.00 if she is Celluloid, and maybe $65+ if she is Bisque. All I know for sure is that she originally sold for fl 7.50 which is what is marked in pencil on the bottom of one of her shoes. I knew that Holland's currency used to be the florin, so I researched that but cannot come up with any kind of original price in a current market since Holland now uses the Euro. I am going to be a brave soul, and take a picture of her with my iPad since my camera is broken, and then I am going to connect my iPad to my computer and hope that just the pictures transfer and that the computer doesn't automatically do a complete sync. Which messes up the desktop on the iPad and seems to play havoc with iPhoto, not to mention duplicate photos in both places. Who knows what will happen with all these new desktops, too.

If you're still reading this, I applaud your patience with me. I've just spent 20 minutes writing this post, and Peter just came home and is taking his shower, so now I might not get the hot water in my shower that I so desperately need in order to warm my hands so that I can do something besides sit at the kitchen counter reading the paper with the space heater warming me up. Pictures to come. Oh, and I didn't even mention that the reason for all the fuss and bother (but I know that you knew this) about the doll is so that I can put her for sale on Craigslist for $40.00, and then give the money to Xavier.

THE ART OF FIELDING

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - There is nothing like having great books to read during vacation times. The Art of Fielding is about baseball, but even more about college, and even more about relationships, and even more about stages in our life that are crossroads. The thing about these crossroads, especially as one grows older, is that you don't necessarily know that you are at a crossroads in the moment. It's only later that you realize the reason for your tough times. Chad Harbach worked on his novel for nine years, and he got it right. I won't be forgetting Henry Scrimshander and Mike Schwartz for a long time. And I won't forget this baseball story for a long time. Baseball stories are a genre onto themselves, and if you've ever indulged in the stories of Ring Lardner, or read the early biographies of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and the like, then this modern day story will satisfy you with its timeless feel.

As I was Googling for Ring Lardner's name, I learned that there is a generation of baseball books out there that are now considered the "classics". I remember reading
Ball Four, but nothing about it, because it wasn't in the same league, and I read some of Peter's baseball mystery biographies when he was younger, but they weren't the same, either. There is something about the early part of the 20th century that was magical and strong and the writers and movies romanticized it. In the future, gritty reality took precedence over romanticizing, and things have never been the same since. Until you read a modern novel like The Art of Fielding. It's got just the right mix of fictional reality and romance.

So, what else have I accomplished in these post Christmas days? Well......I organized my wrapping paper container which was a mess, and I started bringing some stuff downstairs to the living room where all garage sale items will be staged for the next few months. I am so determined to get rid of the stuff we don't use. With the internet, it can almost always be found again, because someone else saved it. But I will have been there and done that, or in the case of everyone else's stuff that I keep getting, they will have been there and done that, and it's not MY memory, so out it will go.
The important things are the pictures and certain ephemera. The other stuff and paper is preventing me from moving forward in a myriad of ways and I'm sick of it. I guess I've learned that hanging on to the past doesn't keep me young. Time marches on, so it's either hang back or move forward. I'm choosing move forward.
I think.

Why the uncertainty? Because here, for example is the pile of Christmas linens stuff. The "here" in question being on top of my printer. There is a set of green and gold, edged in gold doilies from my mother's cousin Toula, in Greece. Toula made those for us years ago, and whenever I pull them out, I think of Toula, and how much I love her, and how wonderful she has been to me all the times I've traveled to the village and seen her and stayed with her. Now, when Toula came here, it was just before September 11, 2001, and she was out east for some reason, and when the planes hit, she freaked and cut her trip short and went back to Greece as soon as she could. And never even called me. So now I have mixed feelings and emotions about the doilies, because it would have been so nice and fun to have Toula come and stay with us. But she didn't even call. I never liked them (the doilies) until some years ago when I realized that they were great to pull out at Christmas. This year I didn't though. I wonder if I could let the largest of the three doilies go, and keep the two smaller. There is also a really pretty quilted christmas fabric pillow cover I made with three grosgrain ribbon ties. And some extra fabric yardage of Christmas fabric that I'm always going to make into something. Christmas aprons, Christmas bread cloths, Christmas pillow cases. So then I try to back into it: What is the most important thing in this pile? It's the wide felt banner that Peter made in Sunday School when he was little, and that I didn't hang this year. The Christmas fingertip towels are important two. I love putting those out. Actually I love the whole thing. And I do have space designated for this stuff at the top of the closet in the sunroom. Help! Will I get rid of the extraneous or keep it? Will it make me happy or frustrated when I pull it down from the upper reaches next year? Will it make me happy or frustrated if I ever have a granddaughter to sew with, and it's right here for us, ready to sew? Just so you know, the pile is already 1/3 down, because I haven't detailed the things that I did cull and that are in the sale pile already.
I can say that I don't really NEED this stuff. I'm so glad my camera broke, or you'd be looking at a picture of the pile. And there's something else: If I sell the doilies from Toula, will I miss them? I'm pretty determined to go all silver and white for Christmas from now on, not gold. And I always prefer red to green. OK, I just let 4 homemade fabric tapestry coasters go. So that's good. And I'm also letting go a fairly large piece of freecycle-obtained red fabric that I edge-serged in white and used for something at some point. It's nice under a creche or other display, but out it goes! And the piece of red watered-silk cotton, although it would make a great apron or pillow cover....out! Let some other sewer make the apron. The quilted pillowcase cover. This is tough. I can't do it. It always made me feel cozy. I can just see me in my old age, living in Florida, leaning back on the pillow I covered for Christmas and remembering it. I don't think I'll be able to get rid of Toula's doilies unless I can put a picture of them here. There is one large oval one, which I don't even see in the pile, and two small placemat sized ovals. She cut the ovals out of ecru tiny tiny needlepoint cloth, then needle pointed all the green areas. the areas that were left plain are edged in bright gold metallic thread. Then she folded under the edges and hemmed them by hand, then she stitched on the lacy gold trim. What to do. What to do. I think I'll table this for now and take Peter to the mall to exchange the Nike Frees I got him for Christmas that were too small. Maybe then I'll come home and figure the picture thing out. I can always take the picture with my iPad, although I risk losing all the info on it when I hook it up to the computer. Then I have to re-sync.

HERE COMES TROUBLE * HALL PASS

Here Comes Trouble Stories From My Life by Michael Moore - The thing about Michael Moore is that in anticipation, I never want to see a documentary, even an award winning angry, funny, sad one, and Michael has sort of a monotone, and although he's interesting, he isn't appealing in the regular sense. He is appealing in the other sense, though, whatever that is, and so just because there is no anticipation, never seems to mean that I won't like, or even enjoy, (as in the case of Here Comes Trouble), his work. With that, I'll add that this is a great book, full of interesting self-aggrandizing yet self-deprecating stories. It's funny, it's maddening, and its even sad. And it's all true. Michael Moore is always always questioning, and he always did. It's what makes him so good. He's not afraid to ask the questions that others don't want to ask, or don't want to be asked. As a person who questions but often doesn't speak up, I thank him for staying with it, and I'm happy for him that he's become so successful.

Hall Pass - My raunchy-comedy-movie-loving-15 year old son said "I can save you some time there. I saw Hall Pass, it's not that good, just erase it and don't bother watching". I'm so happy that I didn't listen to him. This is a really funny movie for those of us who are past the teen years. Owen Wilson always adds something sweet to a movie no matter how extreme, and this one hits that note along with lots of laughs. Owen's 40 ish married-with-children character and his married friend are always ogling women and being juvenile, obnoxious and embarrassing to their wives. So Owen's wife gives him a "Hall Pass". She'll take the children and get out of town, and he can have a week to not be married and do whatever he wants. If you want to laugh at a mindless comedy and don't mind some off color stuff, this nutty movie is for you.

THE SITTER * EVERYTHING MUST GO

It's the first Saturday of Winter Break which is what they call Christmas Vacation nowadays. My list is extremely daunting, and yet doable if I just get to it and don't look at the clock and see that it's already past 1:30, and that it's going to be dark in 2 hours. I'm loving movies, though. Last night I took Peter and a couple of his friends to see the latest R-rated inappropriate offering for teenagers younger than the R rating.

The Sitter - Jonah Hill stars as a college graduate with no job or prospects, who agrees to babysit for three kids so that his single mom can be fixed up with a guy. I want to see clever and funny and not too raunchy, and I thought this was a funny movie with a sweet component, not quite deserving of its R rating. I didn't get bored or fall asleep, and I laughed a lot, so yeah, take the teens and go see The Sitter during break. By the way, the boys didn't mind it, but they didn't rave about it. They don't need it to be sweet. They want to see and hear more gratuitous this and that, more violence, and more pushing of the envelope. I'll quote Cat Stevens on that..."They're still young, that's their fault, there's so much they have to go through".

Everything Must Go - Will Farrell. This is an interesting little study about a guy who has a really bad day, and then comes home to find all his stuff on the front lawn of his house and the locks changed. All of the performances are stellar, and the story is tight, and gives you just what you need to know when you need to know it. It doesn't move fast, and I fell asleep a couple of times, but then woke up and finished it out. It's for those nights when you just want to watch a good movie and not have to work too hard at it. I like how Will Farrell can be the nutty over the top guy in his comedies, and then show heart and restraint in a movie like Everything Must Go. There is probably a lot of meat here for a movie club or analysis, but I'll leave that to the clubs and analyzers. I liked it.

UNDER THEIR THUMB HOW A NICE BOY FROM BROOKLYN GOT MIXED UP WITH THE ROLLING STONES (AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT)

Under Their Thumb by Bill German - This was such a great book. Bill German was a 16 year old high school student when he started a magazine about the Rolling Stones called Beggar's Banquet. It was a labor of love, and although he never got rich from his 17 year, 102 issue project, he became an insider to the band while maintaining his distance as a journalist. He's a great writer (which his subscribers already knew), and this is a great story. He worked in both worlds. The one before the commercialization and corporatization of American life, and the one after, where everything went haywire and became more about money than passion. Or maybe it's that the people with the passion for money were able to turn things to their advantage in a big way, and the Americans and now the world followed. I'm not saying that money isn't good, but the gap between the haves and have nots gets wider and wider and wider. Anyway, the Rolling Stones was my first concert, at Cobo Arena in Detroit, and around here somewhere is my ticket stub. $7.50. Except the concert was sold out, and I had to buy my ticket from a scalper who was a friend of my Uncle Peter's and owner of the bar across the street from where I worked in the summers at Michigan Bell. The bar was the Lindell AC and it had good hamburgers, when a good hamburger was just a great burger in a dark and somewhat mysterious place with a little atmosphere. So Uncle Peter made the call to his buddy, the owner, and I went over there on my lunch hour, and Jimmy Butsicaris took me upstairs to his office and pulled out some tickets from a drawer, and we chose two tickets that were like on the third base line if you were at Tiger Stadium, except this was Cobo Arena. I was of course not allowed to go to a rock concert, but I was going to go to that show no matter what. Here I was making my own money and everything, but my parents wouldn't drive me, and I couldn't use their cars to go, and I wouldn't be allowed to take the bus at night, and besides, they wouldn't drive me to the bus stop on Michigan Avenue for it either. So I got one of my Junior Achievement friends from Detroit, from another high school, Donna W something ski (it was a polish name) (I just remembered! Donna Wysocki!) (I'm going to look her up on Facebook!) said that she would go, and that her brother would drive us. So I bought the tickets ($35.00 each) from Jimmy Butsicaris, and her brother drove us, and Donna and I went to the concert. It was a good show and noisy and wild, and one of the blues guys played with them, and they were kind of far away, and it wasn't fun so much as an experience, and I was so happy I went, and still am. And my favorite albums are still my Hot Rocks albums Big Hits and Fazed Cookies. The early one with the white cover, and the next one with the black cover. I'm going to go look up Donna now.

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE * THE DESCENDANTS

The Descendants - This movie had great reviews, so when after a busy few weeks it was still playing at the theater, I finally got to go see it yesterday. It was a decent movie, good story, George Clooney is a father facing some major life changes and decisions. It's nice to watch and keeps your interest.....but.....I think you can wait until it comes out on DVD. On the other hand, there was a movie I missed at the theater that I rented the other night, and it was really good:

Crazy, Stupid, Love - Steve Carrell plays a similar dad role, and he gets some life changing news at the beginning of the movie. Ryan Gosling plays a guy who hangs out at the bar. This movie is charming and funny and watchable. I wish I could watch a movie like this every night. Especially if Ryan Gosling is in it!

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - During all the time I wasn't reading this since it was first recommended to me, I wondered....what is the Goon Squad? What if I don't like it when so many did? What if the Goon Squad is scary and unpleasant? Do I really want to read about it? It turns out that the Goon Squad visits all of us no matter what we do, and although it can be scary and unpleasant, it's OK. These stories are about a woman named Sasha, a man named Benny Salazar, and a man named Lou, and the things that happened to them during memorable and not so memorable parts of their lives, as told by people who know them. At first I could put it down, but then I couldn't. I love a good book ending, and A Visit From the Goon Squad has a good ending. I like that it's a New York story, a San Francisco story and and L.A. story. There is a lot of ground covered here. I'd put it next on your list.

PARIS PORTRAITS

Paris Portraits by Harriet Lane Levy - I wonder if Woody Allen read these stories and was inspired to make Midnight in Paris. Harriet Lane Levy was born in San Francisco in 1867 and lived in Paris in the early part of the 20th Century as part of the Parisian avant-garde. Harriet's world very much revolved around the Stein family. Her straightforward style is illuminating and uncompromising, yet not unkind. The lines are here, and you don't have to read between them to get more than a surface knowledge of what was happening. These newly published stories and accompanying photographs are simply magical, because you feel like you were there. If you haven't seen Midnight in Paris, read this first, then see the movie. And at some point, I'll go to the source and read Gertrude Stein herself, now that I see I've been skirting around her for quite a long while.