I will never, EVER get used to seeing Adam Ant and Duran Duran vinyl albums in antique shops. It nauseates me to see my youth tossed into plastic milk crates right next to the milk glass, art deco costume jewelry, and old, dusty pillbox hats. That said, coming across a “vintage” rotary dial phone–also from my youth–next to all of that same stuff last month didn’t really bother me. Go figure. Maybe it’s because I didn’t hang posters of rotary dial phones on my bedroom walls, and I certainly didn’t spend every waking moment swooning as I watched rotary dial phone videos on MTV. It occurred to me when I…
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Nearly Wordless Wednesday
Still trying for the perfect picture. Helps when you get off the moving sidewalk to spend a few minutes grabbing shots. I’ll get it someday.
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Beeeeeeep!
Thanks for calling. Melisa is not here at the moment; she’s busy dealing with the remnants of a day that started out wonderfully with a Dailey Method workout and a LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER webinar and slowly disintegrated into a seemingly endless grocery shopping trip during which she spent a king’s ransom to restock her pantry and refrigerator with food for the coming week plus Thanksgiving. Her eventual release from the checkout, after feeling judged by her fellow shoppers for how much she had in her cart, resulted in a longer-than-usual drive home due to construction and then an eventful transfer of groceries from the car to the kitchen, during…
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Monkey See, Monkey Draw
Every now and then, magic happens on Twitter. It’s more rare these days because just about everyone (myself included) is tweeting out lots of links and not always engaging as much as they (I) used to, but still, magic can happen. I have found that the best Twitter interactions for me are the ones that either stem from or lead to something that happens IRL (in real life). With that in mind, some examples of my favorite Twitter moments, in no particular order, are as follows: 1. The roadtrip known as Momo’s Meat Wagon played out in 2009 over Twitter with so many of our friends chiming in and having…
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Sunday Smatterings
I just made that title up. Well, I make up all of my titles, but typically I will think about it for hours and often will have a title in mind before I even sit down to type out the post. Anyway, this one just shot out of my brain and through my fingers, into my computer and onto the screen. And I hate it. But it stays. *** My feet are in Chicagoland again, at least temporarily, and I’m ready to dive into my regular work/workout/taking care of things around the house schedule. This weekend has been great for easing in: yesterday Jim and I did our workouts in…
- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, Friends, My Friends Have Mad Skillz, Something That Could Change Your Life, We Are An Awesome Couple
My Favorite Things: The New Jersey Edition (Yo!)
Yesterday was my last day in New Jersey and, because she’s real smart like that, Liz thought we should go out to breakfast and do a little more local sightseeing in the area rather than sit around at her house, crying because we had to say goodbye in the afternoon, which totally would have happened. During a lovely walk in Thompson Park—which is NOT named after Liz or her husband Garth (Not His Real Name); I checked!!–we talked about our week and I told her that I didn’t even have a favorite part; the entire visit was my favorite. That was only a little true. I have some favorites, but…
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Concrete Jungle
New York City’s Central Park is amazing. I have been there several times and there’s always something new to see. I was looking forward to walking around there on Wednesday afternoon, and as Liz and I moseyed through the winding paths I took tons of pictures. All of the scenery is impressive, really. I mean, check out this gorgeous view of The Mall, the main walkway that runs down the center of the Park on its southern end. The beauty that nature provides was only half of it. I am, for some reason, drawn to concrete ornamentation. Central Park is full of it and I created quite a collection of…
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Shells, Sea Glass And Colones
I told Liz that, while in New Jersey, I wanted to take a side trip down the shore to the Seaside Heights area, which was hit the hardest last year by Superstorm Sandy. She and I headed down there this morning and took a long stroll on the boardwalk. The businesses that are still intact on the boardwalk (there are lots of them!) are closed for the season and we were two of just a handful of people out there, not counting all of the construction workers who were fixing everything. As quiet as it was, I was able to imagine a bustling, noisy, funnel cake-smelling amusement area thanks to…
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Having Fun, Wish You Were Here!
I’m sure it’s not surprising to you that I’m having a blast in New Jersey. Yesterday I saw some amazing sights, including the recently built “World’s Tallest Sandcastle” (officially, even!) at Point Pleasant Beach. It BLEW ME AWAY. Liz and I are out the door again in a bit, heading to Manhattan to see our sweet friend Patty from Enjoying This Life. I can’t wait! But I need to get ready to go so I have to keep this short and sweet. Don’t think I’m leaving you without something to read, though. Go read my highly entertaining (it is!) post about how I got to return to one of the…
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Revisiting “My Dad’s Holiday Inn”: #ChangeYourView
My Dad retired last year after nearly forty years in the hospitality industry as a hotel manager. I spent lots of time in hotels as a kid. We lived in some of them temporarily, and when we weren’t living in them we were using the pools or eating in the restaurants. Dad managed Holiday Inns the most through my growing-up years, and I have tons of awesome memories from his time working for that chain. In fact, when it was time to make a cake for his retirement party I used the vintage Holiday Inn sign as inspiration. (It was pretty cool: you can see that cake HERE.) His first…