Aging Gracefully?

I officially feel old. I didn't really think it would happen this soon but it has. Maybe it's the fact that I work a shift or two at a health club with co-workers who are still in high school. In fact, I'm sure that's what propelled my thoughts in the direction of exactly what a dinosaur I've become.

It was innocent enough. I had been relaxing on a Saturday afternoon when the movie "War Games" came on tv. You know, the one with Matthew Broderick who accidentally starts a nuclear war because he hacked into NORAD's computer system. Anyway in the movie the main character needs to find some information so he heads on down to the public library. He, of course, heads straight for the card catalog. What's a card catalog? Oh, you know those tiny drawers containing an index card with the title and location of every book in the library. There are three cards for each book so that you can find it by title, author or subject. That's right you just stand there for hours flipping through the cards and writing down the numbers until you find the books that you need. My 17 year old co-worker had no idea what I was talking about. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Here are a few other reasons I'm feeling old. I realize there may be people who are older but this is really the first time I've felt it.

1. For high school graduation my grandparents gave me a portable typewriter.
2. I can clearly remember making calls on a rotary phone, including dialing "0" for the operator.
3. When I watched cartoons on Saturday morning you had to get up and turn two dials on the tv and adjust the rabbit ears.
4. My first car ever was a 1979 Toyota Corolla (btw it was old when I had it).
5. I think people are starting to notice that the lighter color of hair on my head is not in fact the effects of sunshine bleaching it out.
6. I can tell you the name of the first song ever played on MTV, back when they used to show music videos all day long. (Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles)
7. I can obviously fully explain the workings of a library card catalog.
8. I was once a Merrie Miss.
9. My political views were shaped during the end of the cold war and the Reagan years.
10. I have never sent a text message.

City of Love

Which is it really? Paris? Venice? Provo? I think maybe the place doesn't matter at all. I think you always retain a fondness for a place if it has memories of a shared time with someone close to you. Still, I've never been to Paris, at least not anywhere outside the Orly airport. I'm sure one day I'll get there but until then, it will have to just be a dream. Here's one of my favorite passages about Paris from a book I like:

"I can't believe it. Max Stravinsky in Paris. Picasso. Pâté. The opera. Ballet. The crème de la crème. The city that gleams. That romantic, extravagantic city of dreams. Oh pluperfect Paris, just give me a chance and I'll toast your beauty, oh Paris of France." - Maira Kalman from "Ooh la la, Max in Paris".

A Kiss is just a kiss...

Sometimes people don't want to just be in love, they want to be in love in a movie. I suppose that's why movie kissing is not always like the real thing. It's for the camera. One of my favorite movies is Cinema Paradiso and if you enjoy kissing in the movies or watching the kissing that is happening onscreen you might enjoy the last three minutes of the aforementioned movie.

caution: some images may be graphic ;)

Life is like a box of chocolates...

Having spent some time in Europe you would think that I'm a snob about chocolate. Well not so much as it turns out. I happen to suffer from a cruel and not so common sensitivity to cocoa, so I try not to eat it very much. Even so, it's so delicious that I think it's worth the risk from time to time. My favorite chocolate of all time is a nice hazelnut truffle from a nice French or Belgian chocolatier. But I also enjoy a bag of peanut M&M's from time to time. Since I can't have too much chocolate I always try to make it worthwhile. And when I can't have it I must say that Jelly Belly makes a very nice chocolate pudding flavored jelly bean.

What's your poison?

A Dozen Red Roses

What girl wouldn't want a dozen long stemmed roses?

Well, me. Roses are nice but very formal. I'm not really a formal girl. My grandfather always gave my grandmother red carnations on their anniversary.

I have always loved daisies. Sometimes tulips are nice as well. So if you want to buy me flowers, daisies are the top choice.

Cut flowers are lovely but I love flowers best when they are growing outside. I especially love fields of poppies or flowering trees.

Lilacs have always been a favorite of mine but when I'm dead I'd like to be buried under a beautiful flowering pink dogwood.

What flowers are your favorite?

Love Poetry

Here are two of my favorites, not sappy-puppy-love kind of poems but grown-up-reality-bites-sometimes kind of poems.


Sonnet 130
by W. Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.



Funeral Blues
by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

I Love a Great Movie (about love)

I happen to love movies, all kinds. When it comes to movies about love they usually fall into two groups, happy and sad. I like both kinds. My mother, however, only likes the kind where everyone gets what they want and it's happy. One of her favorites is An Affair to Remember. I like Cary Grant and all but it's not really one of my favorites. I love Out of Africa which requires a box of tissues nearby.

So what are the best Valentine's Movies? Are they the best love stories? I don't know but I'll tell you a few of my favorite love stories that come in film version.

1. Sense and Sensibility
2. French Kiss
3. Shadowlands
4. Remains of the Day
5. Much Ado About Nothing
6. Sleepless in Seattle