One special person…
“I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life”
Rita Rudner
Happy Anniversary to my one special person…
A Tree-less Christmas
It’s a tree-less Christmas this year. We do not have a tree.
Due to the Northern California fires and the drought, fresh trees are very expensive. And because they’ve traveled a great distance –they all looked pretty beat up. We’re still reluctant to go the artificial tree route, so we decided to rethink Christmas decorations this year.
First, we put lights on big wreath and hung it in our front window, thereby maintaining some street cred on our city block.
Then I gathered my collection of pine cones from our Sierra hiking trips and created a little Christmas tableau in what we grandly call the library, but, in actuality is just a small and cozy reading nook.
Thought you might like to see some photos.
I pricked my poor fingers jimmying all the little lights into the pine cones, until I had them just right. Then, I dug out my favorite vintage Christmas and Scandinavian cards and hung them.
Interspersed with some birch bark candles and cute singing robins. Well, it feels like Christmas in our cozy little house.
It turned out quite pretty, if I do say so myself…and I gaze upon it happily each evening, as it’s just across from my reading chair.
Enjoy your own holiday decorations~~ tree or no tree.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
I write this through bleary eyes. I stayed up way too late the last two nights, watching the entire first season of a wonderful new series on Amazon TV.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
I knew nothing about it other than it was set in 1950’s New York City.
Count me in — love the 50’s, adore NYC.
Well, turns out I stumbled onto a real treat – some of the best television around.
Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan from House of Cards), is a cheery 1958 New York City woman who has everything she’s ever wanted–the perfect husband, two kids, and an elegant Upper West Side apartment perfect for hosting Yom Kippur dinner — until her life implodes. Her husband leaves her for his secretary, but what hurts Midge more than the affair, is that his chosen secretary is extraordinarily dim-witted – the ultimate betrayal.
While trying to put her life back together, Midge cultivates her natural gift for making people laugh (the series opens with her giving her own funny speech at her wedding).
Ms.Brosnahan sparkles in the pilot’s early scenes, as the very image of a perfect housewife; tirelessly making brisket, doing calisthenics to keep her bridal figure, and in a wonderful scene — getting up before the alarm to fix her hair and makeup, then crawling back to bed so her husband sees her all pretty – when he wakes up.
Until her husband leaves — then the real Midge begins to emerge, no longer hiding behind the happy homemaker, or the pre-dawn lipstick — she is snarky, funny and whip-smart.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is about her struggle to break into the world of standup comedy (obviously all-male) , while now living with her parents and holding down a job in a department store.
She makes friends with the legendary Lenny Bruce and finds an acidic, but endearing, manager. Throughout it all, Midge remains exuberant – and that’s the best thing about this series — Midge’s delightful combination of Upper East Side privilege stirred up with a bit of street smart and a raunchily funny sense of humor.
Her first stand-up act is accidental and performed while drunk on kosher wine — and is one of the best monologues I ever watched — both brutally honest and ferociously funny.
Midge’s confessional comedy style is a homage to the early women comics, such as Joan Rivers, who first broke into the male dominated stand-up comedy circuit.
There’s a great cast of wonderful characters. Her father is played by Tony Shalob, there’s her prickly manager (again some wonderful dialogue there), and even Jane Lynch has a wonderful cameo role.
I’ll stop now, you’ll just have to watch for yourself.
The show was written and created by Amy Sherman-Palladino who also created the Gilmore Girls series — which I never watched, but now may have to do so, if the writing and dialogue are as stellar as Mrs. Maisel.
So, if you have Amazon TV – I highly recommend this show, but no need to binge watch as I did– you can watch it one episode at a time -but only if you’re made of stronger stuff and, unlike me, able to turn it off.
NPR did a quick segment on the series Here
Fair warning: There is profanity and some very dirty (but very funny) jokes – oh get over yourselves – Just watch it.
A Diverse Trip – Part Two
Second Stop: Tehachapi, California
“Uhh, hey look we’re not in Palm Springs anymore…”
Yes, we were greeted by a herd of elk, this guy, obviously in charge. We watched as Bubba here and his harem of at least seven females passed through.
Where is Tehachapi? Well, the nearest big city is Bakersfield, California. It’s up in the hills and home to many fascinating things ~ at least for one of us.
The largest wind farm facility in California, which we toured on the first day…
Strangely beautiful, these windmills are everywhere on the hills and those are black tailed deer in the last photo.
Day Two: we waited for a train — then another train — and then another train. Why? Well, who knew? But Tehachapi is the home of the world famous Tehachapi Railroad Loop.
Let me try and explain…
without nodding off…
Apparently an engineering marvel, and built back in the 1800’s this loop allows freight trains to travel a circuitous route, in which the track passes over itself, a design which lessens the angle of the grade. (OK I stole that from Wikipedia – did you think I could even try to remember such interesting facts?)
We climb up a hill to watch for a train to go through this loop, but once up there Husband finally reveals that the trains come every 15 minutes (more or less). So I pulled out my trusty book, found some warm sun and a picnic table and we waited for the train (but no that was trains) — to loop through a series of tunnels and hard turns so you see the train wind back on itself. Husband took a massive amount of photos, these are the best.
But wait, there’s more, he exclaimed as he returned (I had retreated back to the warm car after the third train passing) — there’s a railroad museum in town. I tried to hide my excitement as we drove down the hill. Luckily there was a quilt shop just across the street, so someone missed the fascinating museum.
Day Three: we had a lovely hike up into the hills where we saw more deer and lots of blue sky. Then relaxed in our cabin with books and adult beverages.
Day Four: Husband Bucket List check off
Because of the winds (remember the wind farm? -how could you forget?) there’s an airport offering glider plane rides and lessons. Husband was very excited, he has always wanted to do this. So, with my subdued agreement, he booked himself a beginners lesson.
A glider is a flimsy lightweight plane which has no engine and is pulled up into the stratosphere by a pilot plane (with engine) and then released to careen wildly soar gently back to earth.
I took photos from terra firma while chewing off my chapstick.
Yes the glider is so light they can easily push it onto the runway. (Here’s me applying more chapstick.)
Husband drifted back to earth eventually, the winds were so good they stayed up longer than usual, enjoying the gliding. I was offered a trip up there, but declined.
Now, lest you think I was cheated on these two weeks – that these were Husband focused adventures – well my time is coming up next year with a trip to Europe. And it involves concerts, royal palaces, and even horses…so stay tuned.
Plus how could I not melt at this happy Husband – priceless
Page Habit
I’ve been hearing about special interest book subscription services ~~ where you sign up, pay a monthly subscription fee, and receive a surprise book box each month. Much like a book of the month club, except you don’t choose the book, the service does.
Hmmm, I thought — Just the perfect monthly fix for this book addict lover.
Surprise, Surprise… I signed up for such a service, namely PageHabit and have received two deliveries. Such delight, to get a box in the mail without knowing what’s inside (except that’s it sure be a book of some sort).
I can’t contain my excitement when the box arrives on my doorstep…
(even better when Husband is out and I can sneak it in the house without the ritual – hey here’s a package for you, what did you get – say whaaa more books – really?).*
My first sign up was for Mystery and once opened, there’s all sorts of nifty book nerd lover surprises. (Click to make larger)
In the first photo you see a few tchotchkes — a fox coaster, a patch relating to time travel (the book’s subject) and a pin. There’s a letter from the author of the book — but best of all (third photo) the book itself is annotated with lots and lots of post-its with the author’s reflections and insights as you read along.
Now really, how cool is that?
PageHabit lets you switch genres at the click of a button, so for October, I switched to Literary Fiction, and that box revealed two (!) books and the following fun stuff.
The second photo shows the swag this month — a library card pillow case (I know who knew?) a Halloween key chain, a cool bookmark, and (another?) fox coaster.
Again, there’s a letter from the author and here’s a close-up of one of the author annotations in the book.
Also, each month, there is also a little booklet, containing a short story commissioned by PageHabit just for that mailing. I’m keeping them in my bag for when I’m stuck in some long line or waiting in the car outside Home Depot (it happens fairly regularly for some reason).
But the best rationalization bit is, that with every mailing, PageHabit partners with a different organization around the world and supports their efforts in spreading literacy throughout their community. These donations help support building schools, public libraries, and community centers to ensure that every child has access to books.
You can match your PageHabit subscription to your favorite genre, there’s also Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, Science Fiction, and many more.
So far, PageHabit has done itself proud – no duplicates to my book warehouse library.
I’ve got my eye on Historical Fiction for January… and the beat goes on…
The subscription is sort of expensive, so I may move to a quarterly subscription but for the near future, I’ll raid my piggy bank.
Brown packages, surprise books, fun swag, and author notes – –
Priceless.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
* I’m being mean, Husband is actually very tolerant of my book habit collecting and never grumbles ~~ too much.
Buried in Books
This is the week of the Friends of the SFPL Big Book Sale and I’ve been busy. Lots of fun, lots of work.
Here are some photos of the wonderful bookish madness. Click on these photos to appreciate the full enormity of this sale. A massive amount of work is required by volunteers, corporate sponsored volunteers, and staff to pull off this – the largest used book sale on the West Coast.
Each year, the Friends ask for table sponsors in order to raise money for the sale, so this year Book Barmy took part. Here’s the sign and the table — Graphic Novels and Comics — a most popular table indeed.
I must admit after awhile, working at the Big Sale gets pretty overwhelming, so many books ~~ etc. For a break, I sign up for extra shifts at my regular haunt, the permanent Readers Bookstore in a separate building at Fort Mason.
While back at the store, I got to meet the delightful Scott from Furrowed Middlebrow blog, photographic evidence here…my bad hair day notwithstanding.
Go to Scott’s blog, it’s fascinating, as he specializes in British Women writers from the mid-20th century. Even more impressive, he started his own imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books, published by Dean Street Press. This series of books had been long forgotten and unpublished until Scott got them reissued. ~~~ Those covers, sigh, I want every title…
The Big Book Sale goes on through Sunday, so if you’re in the area, stop by – info HERE.Or any time of the year come by the permanent Readers Bookstores – info HERE
Thus endeth my shameless promotion of the Friends of the SFPL, the Big Book Sale, and the Readers Bookstores.
My enthusiasm knows no shame.
In other news, we’re off to Lake Tahoe for a week. I’ve plucked a few popular thrillers from my toppling pile of publisher’s ARCs taunting me and causing great guilt.
Back next week.
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