Dec 28 2008
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“ Raw cake batter is my defeation!
— Milia Harris
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Have you ever come across a song or a poem or a film that you kind of liked maybe 5 or 7 or 9 years ago?
But suddenly, when you experience it again, at present, it’s apparent that you could have been a different (better) person if only you had been a better listener?
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Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo
I would wish to wake up beside the one I love, inside the new world that is to come, which is the world that represents a reason why I should continue to (try to) live just a little bit better than the rest.
And you?
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Milia is the reason for the season.
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Creepy Moustaches
No one enjoys being disappointed. However, disappointment is good for learning. What my recent holiday disappointment taught me was:
1. John and I should not travel separately during times when we wish to be an impenetrable front.
2. The best way to cope with frustration is to remain calm. Shouting gets you no where. Things do not always work out the way we want them to, but things could always be worse. (It does, however, feel nice to kick someone’s suitcase from time to time.)
No one enjoys visiting Rockford, IL. However, vists to Rkfd are good for learning. What my recent visit to Rkfd taught me was:
1. Regardless of the landscape, it is easy enough to pretend that Rkfd consists of the inside of my mother’s and sister’s houses. In other words, it’s okay to occasionally go home. People I love live there.
2. What was good enough as a kid is not always good enough as an adult — but it is very difficult to gain that perspective if you never leave.
3. Sometimes small talk is a relief.
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It’s Saturday morning. I’m eating oatmeal and catching up with the rest of the world. It’s impossible to say how the cats were when we were gone, but now that we’re back, they seem calm and in close proximity to my lap.
The old radiators are gurgling and boiling with cozy intent, and I’m very pleased to be starting my day in Brooklyn, NY.
Ah, sidewalks! Vegan/raw/vegetarian restaurants! Ah, public transportation! Farmers Markets! Parks! The (occasional) evolved thinker!
We’re going to catch a film today. I’ll tell you about it later.
Dec 18 2008
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But wait! Before I sign off for a week or so, I want to show you something.
Do you know who this is, in the photo above? It is Kit Kittredge, American Girl.
Unfortunately, I was at the American Girl store in Manhattan today.
Fortunately, I went in the early morning, just after they opened, before the masses and mobs of kiddies made their way in. On my way out, I saw Kit.
Be still, my heart. The doll-loving little girl I used to be burst from my chest — like a gremlin. I love this doll. I wish I had a reason to buy a doll.
I would like to wear her outfit.
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and look where she gets to sit to do her homework!
Dec 17 2008
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What does it mean ...
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+ when the weather forecast predicts 9 inches of accumulated snowfall in illinois on the exact day that i am going to travel there?
+ when i spend the most dollars buying two gifts for two people whom i do not love, when i’m sort of cancelling christmas for the ones i love the most? (sorry your presents are so cheap, little children of my heart.)
+ when i am dangerously sleepy almost all of the time yet refuse to sleep past 6 a.m. each morning?
+ when my 10 year old niece decides she will make me a special dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread — and i am crappy enough to tell her i do not eat those foods (but which is not a lie)?
+ when i eat the spirit of the good natured harry & david knucklehead who tells me to disregard the information on their website because “it is a lie”? (okay — that one makes complete and total sense)
++ i think what i am trying to say is that i am tired and moody, and i’ll meet you back here some time after christmas.
happy holidays, reader.
wishing you sea turtle nightlights, i-cats, flip minos, and luck. (luck to those upon whom the misfortune of seeing me, in rockford and in denver, will fall. rrraaawwwwwrrrrr …)
Dec 14 2008
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A quiet trail of light or Van Sant-Penn is a winning combination, no?
We saw Milk yesterday. I would say, “Yes, you should see it, too.”
Dec 13 2008
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Cafetière
After dinner tonight, we stopped by WF to pick up soy milk and sweetener. Just minutes prior, I’d vocalized my desire to quit coffee. After all, I always try (despite much failure) to be as healthy as possible, and I really do need to clean things up in order to create a nice environment for future Baby John.
Much to my dismay (and delight), we ended up bringing this home:
Oh, hell.
Perhaps 2009 will be better for breaking bad habits.
Dec 11 2008
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In other news, today I had a vacation day. I visited Bliss again, for the most fantastic massage of my lifetime. If you ever end up at Bliss SoHo, ask for Jesse A., okay? I’m just sayin’ …
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Another Poem of Gifts
For the fake flower makers of Peoria
For the stillness in pilots and race-car drivers
For the sparrows roving in raucous clusters
from one tree to another
For the old man drawing sea turtles
to save them from extinction
only hours before his own death
For the men who stand up to their waists
in the cold water off the beach all weekend
not fishing for anything
below a sky streaked with clouds
For all the cows being transported to their death
For the man who sleeps on the street
outside the bed store on Madison Avenue
For the snow that falls into his ear
For the ghost in my car
For the mother picking her young son’s nose on the bus
For the angel in the swivel chair
For the angels inside of people
For the ink of the octopus
For the orphaned boy who smiled
when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up
and exclaimed, “a clown”
For the beautiful names of stars: Delta Pavonis,
Alpha Centauri, Beta Cygni
For the hundred-year-old-woman
threading a needle in a shaft of sunlight
For the butterfly trapped in the subway
For the dust of pig dander
For the symmetry of a flower
For my blind neighbor hailing a cab
in the heavy afternoon traffic
For the stones that are kings
For the birds that are gods
For the flag that is a towel
for the wind to dry its hands on
-MALENA MÖRLING