Shasta Daisies, 1996

A tiny daisy-covered birdhouse amidst the pothos in my window sill.

Each time I notice this bit of knick-knackery sitting on the sill, I miss my grandma. I found this itty bitty back in the mid 90s in my favorite local bookstore-- The Book Fair. Carolyn, the store's proprietor had a variety of these hand-painted bird houses for sale in her shop. She'd painted them herself and she'd lovingly pluck one from a shelf and display it to customers if they showed an interest. Each one had its own design and color pattern, size and style--its own personality. When I saw this one it just said--Grandma. Well, maybe not "grandma" in general, but Grandma Mickey, in particular.

After Grandma passed away a few years ago, my birdhouse gift returned to me and I was flooded with memories of all the good things I loved about my grandma and the passions we shared. She loved her birds and flower beds. Two things I've loved best through the lens of her life.

Now, Carolyn is gone too. I have a used edition of The Living Shakespeare (1949) complete with underlined quotations, that I purchased in her store--it turns out she did the underlining there too!

It's a simple thing, this daisy covered bird house, but it represents a lot. Whole people spring to mind, when it catches my eye. Some folks question the point of keepsakes, of the things we find hard to put away or weed out. Yet, this birdhouse, that book, offer reasons such things are worth keeping. They bring smiles, recognition, and remembrance.

Poehler hits it out of the Park.

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a Parks and Recreation department official in Pawnee, Indiana. In Season two's "Practice Date"episode (one I have watched again and again), Leslie is nervous about a first date with Officer Dave (Louis C.K.), a guy she really likes and so her friend Ann (Rahida Jones) goes on a practice date with her -- hi-jinks ensue. Poehler has some of the best lines ever in this episode. Preposterous and hilarious to the Nth degree.

A synopsis:
"Leslie and the staff watch in stunned amazement as City Councilman Bill Dexhart gives a humbling and humiliating public apology to his wife for engaging in sexual activity with a woman, a man and a perfect stranger. To excuse what he had done, Councilman Dexhart used the fact that it was his birthday to somewhat justify his night of debauchery.

“And to my wife, I apologize. All I can say is, I wasn’t just having sex. I was making love to a beautiful woman…and her boyfriend…and a third person whose name I never learned! Furthermore, it was wrong of me to say I was building houses for the underprivileged when I was actually having four-way sex in a cave in Brazil.”

When Mark wonders out loud why anyone in their right mind would want to be a politician since it would only invite an avalanche of scrutiny, the co-workers in the Parks and Recreation department challenge each other to find the most embarrassing dirt on the others."


While this is the official "recap" of the episode, the best bits are with Ann and Leslie.
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Leslie: I'm really nervous about this first date tomorrow. Do you have, like, a first date outfit I could borrow? Like, I don't know a pair of cargo pants?"

Ann: "Yeah, I wouldn't go with a cargo pant."

Leslie: "What about a sexy hat?"

Ann: "I don't know what that even is."

Leslie: "You're helping already."

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Leslie: "What if I get drunk and I talk about Darfur too much… or not enough? What if I don't bring up Darfur enough?"

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Leslie: "I just have a few more questions for you Ann. What if he shows up with another woman? What if one of my sleeves catches on fire and it spreads rapidly? What if instead of tic tacs I accidentally pop a couple of Ambien and I have to keep punching one of my legs to stay awake."

Ann: "Those are all insane hypotheticals and I promise you they won't happen."

Leslie: "They have happened. All of these have happened to me."

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Leslie: "Nope, there's more:

One time I accidentally drank an entire bottle of vinegar. I thought it was terrible wine.

Once I went out with a guy who wore 3-D glasses the entire evening.

Oh, one time I rode in a side-car on a guy's motorcycle and the side-car detached and went down a flight of stairs.

Another time I went to a really boring movie with a guy and while I was asleep, he tried to pull out one of my teeth. I literally woke up with his hand in my mouth. We went out a couple times after that, but then he got weird."

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On the practice date Leslie says "Let's begin our conversation." and pulls out a stack of notecards.

Ann: "What's on the notecards?"

Leslie: "They're possible topics of conversation."


Ann: "Whales, Parades, Electricity, and the rest are blank."

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And I could keep on going... it's just never ending... Okay, one last gem:

Leslie: "I have to go to the whizz palace, you know, Dave, the place where you, you know the toilet thing..... (she runs through the restaurant and then turns around and shouts) It's a bathroom. It's called a bathroom."

A New System

I have a four drawer filing cabinet bursting at its pressed wood seams. I am notorious for amassing vast amounts of paperwork, bills, statments, flyers, coupons, free magazines, handouts from conferences, notes from events and letting them pile up until company comes and then I whisk it all into a large box or bag and I promise myself I will sort it later and then 6-8 months go by and I hope to heaven there weren't any important things in there... I once found a savings bond, my birth certificate and a passport in one such pile.

Well, this weekend I am embarking on a clean-out-the-cabinet mission. I have my handy-dandy shredder and a new system. The plan is to organize bills and statements, not by company but by chronology. This may bite me in the ass later but it will sure help me store things more reasonably now, and it will certainly help me know when it's safe to purge some records.

Is there a reason I need full service records and every old registration card for two cars I no longer own? One of which NO ONE owns since it's gone to the that great car-yard in the sky. Surely I need to keep my employee handbooks and all pay stubs for part-time jobs that ended as recently as 2002 and 2005? And I'm sure electric bill records dating 2001 are essential considering they are three addresses back. Why do I keep this junk, faithfully filing it every 6-8 months or so? Hmmm...

I realize 7 years back is a good rule for some things (but what things?) and only if I itemize on my taxes, right? Which I don't, so is it okay to keep two years back on everything and call it good? I hope so, cause that is my new folder system. I am excited by the thrill of the shredder. The happy organized plan staring back at me. Now, to start sifting and avoid tossing anything valuable.

What's in YOUR bag?

I am like a pack-mule climbing up and down three flights of stairs each day... lugging bag after bag. Generally one is a purse --but it's the size of a "bag."

One bag is usually full of student folders and no less than four books (two I'm reading and two more "just in case" and generally at least one or two professional reference materials, as well.)

And yesterday, I even lugged some workout clothes for our "Wellness Wednesdays" since I've committed to offering up my classroom once a week for some working out at 3:30. Woo hoo!

The best bag, though, was my "tech bag." I quite unintentionally had in this bag the following items:
a school Macbook
a school ipod touch
a school canon elph camera,
my sony camera
a school Flip camera
my creative zen mp3 player
my Asus eee netbook
a portable pink mouse
my red mouse pad
a full size school mouse
and an assortments of power cords and earbuds

--oh and I nearly forgot a portable CD player for those cds I've not had time to add to my MP3 player (which also happen to be the ones I want to listen to).

Good lord, I was a mugger's wet dream. Wow. Needless to say, I'll be taking more care in the future to not be such a liability to our school! (mugger, is that a word? There's not a lot of purse grabbing theft in my neck of the woods...)

Wordless Wednesday -- Peanut Style

Coming Soon... The 82nd Academy Awards

Can't wait for the Oscars... Check out the official site. Should be fun with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting. Though I will say, I think it's a bit silly that there are TEN nominated films in the best picture category--were there any films that DIDN'T get nominated for best picture? Oh well. I always enjoy the Academy Awards but I have to admit I've not seen enough of the films or of the films I've seen I've not loved them enough to feel passionately about any of them. As I write this, I have a copy of The Hurt Locker and Bright Star waiting to be watched so maybe I'll soon be eating my words. Happy Movie Month, friends!

A List of the Nominated Films
(minus the shorts which I rarely get to see)
(films I've seen are listed in green)

Ajami
Avatar
The Blind Side
Bright Star
Burva VJ
Coco Before Chanel
Coraline
The Cove
Crazy Heart
District 9
An Education
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Food, Inc.
The Hurt Locker
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Il Divo
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
In the Loop
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Julie & Julia
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
The Milk of Sorrow
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Nine
Paris 36
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
A Serious Man
Sherlock Holmes
A Single Man
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Un Prophete
Up
Up in the Air
Which Way Home
The White Ribbon

82nd Academy Awards Printable Ballot

Bookish Blogs

Picture Book Report is a new blog featuring artists who are setting out to illustrate beloved books. I am so excited to see what emerges. So far the following artists and books have been introduced and they've produced a book plate for their title and explained why they chose the books they chose.

Contributors:
Andrea Kalfas -- Tarzan of the Apes
Daniel Krall -- Robin Hood
Israel Sanchez -- Where the Red Fern Grows
Jeremy Sorese -- A Wrinkle in Time
John Martz -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Julia Sonmi Heglund -- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Lizzy Stewart -- Ella Minnow Pea
Meg Hunt -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
PMurphy -- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
S.britt -- The Bremen Town Musicians
Sam Bosma -- The Hobbit
Will Bryant -- Peter Pan and Wendy
Kali Ciesemier -- still to be named
Laura Park -- still to be named
Phil McAndrew -- still to be named

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I freakin' LOVE this blog--Coverspy. A team of publishing nerds hit the subways, streets, parks & bars to find out what New Yorkers are reading now.

Their posts consist of the cover art to each book spied in a day and a brief description of who was reading it and where. For example:

Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem (M, 28, beanie, blond w beard, sitting in corner 2-seat, Lethem F train car) http://bit.ly/8zHG4g

Both of these blogs are inspirational to me. I would love to be able to illustrate a favorite book. I am not sure which one I would choose. Maybe Pippi Longstocking. And I would like to become a team of one and start noting every book I see being read around town just for fun. I so love that idea.