vying for a record

Hello there. With just one more day to go in April, I realize I have been an unusually lazy blogger (for me) this month! I have been known to quote T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland this time of year, especially working in higher education: "April is the cruellest month." Of course Elliott was referring to something other than what we might be complaining about (the mostly wintery weather when everyone else seems to get spring - but a few days where we can taste spring - and the fact that it is really, really busy with student issues and events).

The New Yorker

I have been blogging here since December 2006. It started out slowly as a temporary project, but I quickly got the hang of it and generally speaking, when zooming through the archive list, I can see that my monthly post count is generally anywhere from 15 to 25 posts per month (with a couple of months where the posts count was in the 50s because I participated in an online poem-a-day for the month). My lowest post count of 8 posts in a month goes back to June 2007. With this morning's post, I am tying that low. That is a record of sorts. Maybe I will blog tomorrow and dig out.

I had all good intentions of spending some writing time earlier this week when Tom and Matt jaunted off to Florida to visit friends during the school spring break. I pretty much had Saturday through Wed. to myself and managed to occupy the time elsewhere . . . having my parents for a visit Sunday, cooking and baking, practicing my band music for an upcoming concert, binge-watching Doc Martin's last series on Acorn, and starting in on Grantchester, a fast new Amazon Prime "friend." While the boys enjoyed warm temperatures and sunshine, I have been here at home enjoying gray skies, temps in the 30s and 40s, and even one really soggy and rainy day. Work is work - no complaints. 

Anyway, off to the day. This post was mainly about getting the count for April up to 8 measly posts. It's not a new low, after all. 

ramblings

The bright sunshine reminds us that even on this Memorial Day Weekend of remembering sacrifice, loss, pain ... it is still a beautiful world. In true Nan fashion I made a to-do list for the weekend that is beyond humanly possible. On this list is to have a little fun. I hadn't been to yoga in two weeks, so yesterday morning was a real treat.We have plans for some socializing this evening as a motivator to keep getting work done.

I will be happy when the flowers purchased yesterday are planted. I ran out of spray paint after we wire-brushed and sanded the wrought iron deck table and chairs yesterday, so I have one chair and touch-ups to go. I hope we can find a match for the paint because the paint store where we purchased the paint is closed today. I don't like to leave projects unfinished. Argh.

The other usual weekend tasks won't do themselves, so I am getting off the computer, pouring one more cup of coffee, and off to this beautiful day I go! I hope you are having a nice weekend. 

be happy

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased." -- Katharine Hepburn

This New Yorker cartoon, found courtesy of Steve, made me laugh. While a bit facetious, there is truth in the suggestion that we must do what makes us happy. When it comes down to it, living an authentic and meaningful life outweighs a big salary any day. As someone who took a hefty pay cut in the last year or so to pursue work that has more meaning for me and affords me a better everyday life, I can honestly say that it isn't about the money, people. And it is important to have time for joy.

If you have a job that doesn't make you happy but truly can't afford to make a career change, it is noble to continue with work you don't enjoy to provide for yourself or your famiily -- but make darn sure you do your job in a way that gives you time for things you DO enjoy, and do not let the work change you and consume you as I was letting my old job do to me. Lesson learned - and would love to spare others of same.  My other quote related to this topic can be found HERE. So.much.wisdom.

bucky pony

Happy Weekend, all! This is WJPP doing some procrastination blogging to avoid household tasks and grocery shopping for a few moments.It isn't that I hate doing those things. It's just that I don't enjoy them so much. What I'd like to do is drink coffee and write and listen to music. Hmm. I think that is just what I am doing right now! Score!

As much as I enjoy the static quality of old favorite music, I am constantly seeking out new music too. It's that dynamic quality that keeps static quality in balance. This is a band that is new to me called Poor Moon, performing a song called Bucky Pony live in the WFUV studio. Two of the guys in Poor Moon are in Fleet Foxes and this is their side project. Enjoy.

laugh don't cry

This one made me laugh out loud. Thanks New Yorker cartoons!

small stones, tumbling, & excuses, excuses

I have not been spending much time here at Jade Page Press lately. The January mindful writing challenge has brought me daily to tiny river splash. Eight more days! I have also been having fun over at my tumblr. Any regular readers who are disappointed with the dearth of postings, feel free to visit either of these spots. For example, I am not sure why I posted a very cool Charles Bukowski poem set to a short film over on Tumblr just now, rather than here, but I did. Maybe I'll see you there? Cheers.

mesmerizing

Hat tip to Sabine, who explains that the music accompanying this neat video comes from "a group of Danish musicians, The Choir of Young Believers; the song is called Humble Talk. It's the theme song of a brilliant Danish/Swedish TV thriller (10 episodes) called 'The bridge' (Bron/Broen)."

the melt

the quality of the ice
on top of the pool cover
changes daily
from its newly exposed surface
after months of heavy snow topping
to today --
circular patterns of sparkles in the sun
with a freshly frozen puddle perimeter
reflecting the tree narrowly.
soon it will dull to snow cone and slush,
then it will reduce to water with leaves
and eventually,
in the warmth of new summer,
we will remove the tarp
to find the half-full pool
ready for new water.

(By Nan P. ©2009)

photo meme

There have been variations on a photo meme going around, and most have to do with finding the fifth file folder in your My Photos folder, and pointing to the fifth photo, and then posting it (with or without an explanation.) This post is a sort of new variation on the meme. When I located the fifth photo folder, it turned out to be Belize 2007. There are a lot of photos from that album already posted to this blog. The fifth photo within that folder was one of the three of us at the Belize airport upon landing -- after a very long day of travel -- and it isn't the best picture of me. So while it is in the album for posterity, I decided . . . nope, not posting it.

What I decided to do, instead, was close my eyes, move the mouse around and around, and land on a photo folder. Whatever it was, I would pick out a few of my favorites from that folder, and create a blog post. So, here it is. I landed on our trip to Disney and Seaworld back in 2005. I will be the first to admit that Disney is not my first pick for a vacation spot. It wasn't then, and I don't think it ever will be. But in 2005 when we had a 7 year-old child who was excited to go, and friends with two little boys ages 6 and 8 who were going, it really was a good vacation. (When you have just one child, activities that involve other children become very important. We were lucky to be able to travel with friends that we really enjoy, and whose children are like brothers to Matt.)

So here are a few of my favorites from this folder. The first is Matt reading the pool rules to see if he could do some jumps. Apparently he could, and I was able to snap this jump, mid-air. Disney is full of treats at every turn. I had told Matt he could have one treat at the parade. He looked at every booth before asking, "Mom, can I have some of that meat?" Cracked me up. Our little carnivore. Who could say no to that? A giant turkey leg it was. The last photo is Matt with Daniel and Philip at Seaworld. Matt had just finished 2nd grade. Now he is heading toward the finish line of 5th grade. Time flies.

Those of you with a blog or Facebook, consider yourself tagged, if you are so inclined. It certainly was fun perusing the photo folders from the past several years while I procrastinated and avoided other household chores.

(Remember, to enlarge a photo, just click on it.)

the best laid plans

We had a great Valentine's Day plan lined up this year. Yes, had. Sushi and the symphony. Doesn't that sound nice? Well, it would have been. Might have been.

Here's the story. The Syracuse Symphony Box Office was nice enough to exchange our tickets for a January performance just after our trip to Belize (I was sick), for the concert this evening, February 14th. The new date would bring us Ravel's Bolero and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and I was very excited to hear both. We had plans to go out for sushi before the concert and had lined up a sitter that Matt really likes. (I think he kind of fancied the idea of spending Valentine's Day evening with her in a strange fifth-grader way.) It was all set.

Then this past Tuesday night, we learned that Matt's travel basketball team would have a tournament in Syracuse -- with games Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday morning. After thinking of various ways around missing the concert, we decided that we would miss the concert and put the tournament first. I cancelled the sitter, and called the SSO Box Office once again. I apologetically explained to the customer service rep that I was the worst patron the Symphony had, and that we just found out that our son's travel team had a game, and would it be possible to one last time exchange our tickets for an April concert (surely basketball will be over by then) in Cortland (not as nice a venue, and no proximity to good sushi, but still, good acoustics). They were so nice about it. No problem. Done.

Then, what did we learn on Thursday night at Matt's practice? It turns out that only the 6th grade travel team would go to the Syracuse tournament this weekend. The coaches had learned that the 5th graders would have had to play 6th grade teams, and they didn't think that being outmatched would be a very good experience for the guys. So, they decided that they wouldn't have the 5th grade team participate after all. Tom asked if I wanted to try to get the tickets back. I said absolutely not. I couldn't call again, but perhaps we could call the sitter back to see if she was still free and we'd go to Ithaca for dinner. It turns out that the sitter had just made other plans, and the thought of trying to find a Valentine's Day sitter with less than 2 days notice seemed a bit futile. I also thought that the good restaurants that we like would be fully reserved. So we turned to Plan B.

We will, of course, still have some fun. I suggested to Tom that instead, why don't the three of us go somewhere for dinner and just scrap any formal plans, and we'll go out to dinner some other time. He was fine with that, and Matt was pleased as punch. So tonight we are going out to the Chinese Buffet (Matt's favorite), and I am reminded that really, every day is Valentine's Day.

Right now I should be busily working on my coursework so that we can go out to dinner this evening and take a quick trip to Rome tomorrow afternoon for calling hours (my great aunt Theresa just passed away at the age of 98!) and a birthday celebration for niece Elena (who just turned 7). I have a lot to do, so I'd better get off the Internet and show some discipline. Have a very nice day to all my Blog-Valentines out there.


P.S. The photo of Bittersweets is from Despair.com. They are pretty funny.

mini waterfall -- haiku unpacked

mini waterfall
flowing from the gutter's mouth
and over the rocks


Haiku. They just come to me sometimes. I don't usually analyze how it is the words arrive in my brain. Though I rarely do it, if I sit back to analyze, it is usually easy to unpack the compressed impression of the senses. Sometimes it is visual or audible or olfactory. Sometimes it is a combination of sensory impressions.

My home "office" is a small corner in my bedroom. I have a compact desk upon which my computer sits, directly in front of a window facing my neighbor's house. I enjoy the natural light, though I find that I rarely look through the window to view the outside. When the weather is so severe that my attention is drawn away from my "inside focus" to the outside world, like today, I will glance out to observe what is going on outside the coziness of the house. The large and steady raindrops are pouring down in a visible sheet, at a slight angle. I can hear the sharp tapping of drops on the roof top and windows, and the soft thudding of the water into the earth. My neighbor's American flag is dripping and slightly moving in the imperceptible wind. Its beautiful colors are the only illuminations I can see in the dark day. The vertical rain gutter on the corner of the house, situated above some rocks at the opening of the gutter on the ground directs a forceful flow of rainwater over the rocks, bubbling just like a mini waterfall.

sunday evening chuckle

This is one of the cartoons I have had on my fridge for years. The clipping is yellowed and wrinkled, and yet it still gives me a laugh. I found it on-line, and it seemed appropriate for some Sunday evening procrastination blogging.

gnossiennes no. 1 - erik satie

Erik Satie's music is deeply beautiful, ethereal, gentle, and evocative. As I am sitting here today trying to gather the energy to continue to work on a paper, I decided to surf my YouTube favorites for some inspiration. I figured that a bit of procrastination blogging usually gets me into a work frame of mind. I wanted to post some music, and I actually thought it would be something upbeat from Dire Straits or from Mark Knopfler's solo work. Then I drifted toward Satie, and here we are. Enjoy some "drift" for yourself!

wordle - the beauty of words

The visual presentation of language in word clouds can be very interesting. Thanks to my friend Anita, I recently discovered the Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds site. If you have some time to explore this site and have some fun, you will find that you can paste in text (anything from a campaign speech, to a favorite song, to a poem) and you can generate word clouds! Then, if that weren't enough, you can randomize or edit the cloud to see different layouts, colors, and fonts. The first word cloud I tried was for Desiderata, above, one of my favorite pieces. Then, for some fun, I created one using the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's, The Circle Game, below. You will notice that how this works is that the program counts the frequency of each word, removes common English words, and then randomly presents the cloud (either vertically, horizontally, or no particular orientation) visually weighting those words that appear in the text based upon their frequency. How cool is this? I can see that word clouds will have a place on this blog now and then. Enjoy!

september's pin oak

september's pin oak

preparing for winter's wind --

strong leaves are ready

gold fish, 1911

Henri Matisse is one of my favorite artists. I have a print of this painting in my home and on the wall in my office. Some days at work when I have a "Calgon, take me away" moment, I stare into this print and escape into relaxation breathing. I love the brilliant colors, the lines, the context and perspective, and of course, the geraniums. I picture myself on a screened in porch in the moist humidity of the plants watching the goldfish swim contentedly in their bowl. (Ahhhhh [exhale]).

keep it simple

Van Morrison. Need I say more? This guy is brilliant. Then and now. He has a new album entitled, Keep It Simple, now on my wish list after hearing the NPR song of the day, "School of Hard Knocks." Check it out HERE.

I've been listening to Van Morrison since the 1970s when I heard Into the Mystic and then Dweller on the Threshold, among many others. What brown-eyed girl, me included, didn't feel he was singing about her? Other greats: Full Force Gale, Jackie Wilson Said, and that one about cleaning windows. And I can't forget Matthew's favorite, Moondance.

Van for Nan: a prolific artist, with albums spanning five decades - thus far.

indexed

I found this great blog, and I am really enjoying it. It is called "Indexed," by Jessica Hagy, and it is basically posted index card images with some very clever ven diagrams, graphs, and other math/spatial representations of life concepts, relationships, philosophy, and humor drawn on. I recommend you check it out some time. Oh that clever blogger!

the incomparable Lynda Barry

Most of the time I am a pretty productive and attention-to-task person. However, I do have a bit of the procrastinator in me from time to time. I am going to a national conference later in the week where I will give a presentation on a work topic. I want to be well-prepared, and I have my PowerPoint nearly done at this point. I have to finish up a few slides and prepare some handouts. And, I *have* to get this all done by 4 p.m. today, because I simply will not have a moment to work on this before it's "go time." Did I mention that my conference is in Florida? That makes it something to anticipate with happiness. (I will try to blog from there like I did last year.)

So what am I doing searching the Internet for Lynda Barry comics, starring Marlys? You guessed it. A bit of procrastinating will get me into gear for some productivity soon. This has worked like a charm for me for years and years. You can ask my college roommates.

Lynda Barry's comics are some of my favorites. I subscribe to The Funny Times, a monthly newspaper full of excellent, quirky comic strips and humorous feature articles. It has a creative, wacky, and definitely left bend. I thought you might find a sample intriguing enough to go looking for yourself when you need to do some procrastinating of your own. Introducing, Marlys!