this led to that

Holy cats! 2009 is the year for anniversaries and 40 is the number:

Sesame Street
Monty Python
the Internet
Abbey Road, The Beatles
Woodstock
Walking on the Moon-Apollo 11 on the Moon

This year is also the 40th Anniversary of when the Norman Rockwell Museum opened, and that is a good segue into where I found myself yesterday; hanging out with TSO's family. TSO's Mom, Dad and two sisters A & A were here for the weekend, staying with us at the Farm.

Thanks to the Museum pass program--library shout out!--TSO's family of 5 and I were able to get into the Norman Rockwell Museum for free. I was ambiguous as to whether or not I wanted to go the museum, as I have been many times, but wound up going because TSO forgot the free tickets on the coffee table. As always, I was pleased with the quiet solitude I can find for myself in a museum, and also found the new exhibit to be of some interest ("Behind the Camera," an exhibit documenting Rockwell's use of photography to aid in his art process). I was also reminded of how I always enjoy the rotation of Rockwell's pieces throughout the collection--I feel like I have never seen everything they have to offer.

The rest of the day was nice. We made it to church (though not to one of my liking--I find all the Catholic churches around here to be dismal reminders of what I can only imagine the Pre-Vatican 2 Catholic church was like--since the church TSO and I like is too far away). Dinner from a fabulous pizza place in town was followed by Apples to Apples--which if you've never played I think you are missing out--and then sitting in front of a fire getting sleepy.

It really was a lovely weekend, which only just ended a couple of hours ago after we said goodbye to TSO's family and then hosted a Farm-wide Open House Tea for anyone who felt like stopping by, then a dinner with friends Mummy Dearest, Hubby and Big and Little Fish, M and her two girls M & S and Farmer MacDonald. It was such a fun, albeit busy weekend, which leaves me sighing that last content sigh before what I can only imagine will be a harried week of prepping for the Farm's huge Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving at the Farm is a huge production. We are expecting at least 150 people, truly a day that as a Kitchen is our chance to both showcase what we do and shine; but there is so much work to be done before we get to that bite of Thanksgiving pie and wind down before the rest of the holidays sneak up on us. I am looking forward to a visit of my cousin Jessi from NYC, so I can return the favor and host her. She showed me a slice of NYC and now Thanksgiving will be my chance to serve up a slice of country life and Farm pie.

i heart art

I mentioned Starry Night in my last blog--I saw it at MOMA while I was in NYC! See, I have proof. I also saw all these other glorious pieces of art. This has to be one of the best museums I have ever been to. I heart MOMA!

the starry sky

RugbyGirl, TSO and I got up at 4am this morning to see this. I only saw 5 shooting stars, but there is something so cool and surreal about getting up that early, crawling back into a still warm bed, sleeping for another hour and then going to work. Well, surreal and exhausting.

I love looking at the sky. I also love this Starry Night.

these are my thoughts...not yours

I used to listen to a radio station back home in the Detroit area where one of the DJs always signed off of the news portions of the morning broadcast with, "these are my thoughts, and not yours." In that same vein, I would like to share a few random thoughts today, which read a little like Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy:

• Sarah Palin's book...really? I have friends who are talented writers who will probably never be published, but Sarah Palin manages to get a book out there. Wow. Sometimes I am so amazingly disgusted with our culture.
• I want want want to go see a fun movie, and I think it might be this one. Anyone want to go with me?
• I used to think (and maybe still do a little) that adulthood was marked by a few milestoness, but I feel like in little pieces it is sneaking up on us. A few indicators I am noticing in myself and other friends: not being angry with someone, but rather being dissapointed (I swear that was something that my parents would say and always made me feel worse than someone being mad at me); people who used to joke about work things now taking their jobs and themselves much more seriously--this particularly comes after promotion; gray hairs and wrinkles (I swear when the day I go really gray is the day I get out a brown sharpie and get to work.)
• I still have my circa 1987 Mrs.--though I now refer to her as "Ms."--Potato Head that I let the kids play with when they come over. My old edition came with a yellow purse, green shoes, green (matching the shoes) glasses and body parts; nowadays you can get anything from a Star Wars to a Transformers Potato Head. Who would have ever thought that a toy whose storage compartment resides in its ass would be such a success...?
• A paler Ken...and the Barbie looks just like every other Barbie--disgusting and anatomically incorrectly perfect. I used to pull the heads off my sisters Barbies or put them in a makeshift pool which I made with a huge plastic 70s orange Tupperware bowl of my Moms. The real object of letting Barbie "swim," was to hold her underwater and watch her head drain. Looking back now I realize that there may have been moments where my parents could have thought that I was a serial killer in the making.

I can hear the scissors cutting

Guess I won't be finding that dream library job anytime soon...? From the Patriot Ledger:

Librarians Rally outside State House to protest cuts

By Erik Potter, Enterprise Correspondent

Posted Nov 05, 2009

"Last week, Gov. Deval Patrick cut $277 million from government offices under his control. Nearly $800,000 of that reduction came from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The cuts were part of an effort to close a $600 million revenue shortfall during the first three months of the state’s fiscal year.

Patrick is also targeting the library board for cuts next year, asking it and other state departments for a 17 percent cut in funding for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins in July."

For the whole article, click here.

losing history

Our beloved R passed away this morning, just 4 mos. shy of her 100th birthday.

I heard the news from my roomie Rugby Girl and have felt so melancholy since. I am not sad for R. I am glad that she is finally going to be able to rest. I feel a loss for our Community, since she has been part of it for over 80 years, but really my sadness is selfish. It is funny how the death of someone can take us back into the pain and sadness of the death of another. I am always surprised at how my Dad's death (just over 2 year ago) can still invoke such anguish for me. I lay here in front of our fireplace missing my Dad and thinking about all the things we miss out on without him. And I think too of our feisty R and what Community will look like without her. Death is a funny thing.

I turn again to this, a favorite poem, I've used on my blog before. It really speas to something so sincere in my mind.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
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 for ever: 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 wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

~W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

leaving the city that never sleeps

This morning-- spilling into the afternoon--was like a Simon and Garfunkel song; I sat on a train, on this rainy day, and watched as New York City slid away from me. I reentered the outlying cities, looking out over sleepy little cities and towns, traveling over waterways on little bridges made to rock our train back and forth, lulling me to sleep. Everything about leaving the City was unlike how I’d entered it.

This morning we woke up early so we could go have a breakfast in the West Village (Manhattan) where my cousin works. It was one of those wonderful successes; trying out a restaurant that my cousin passes every day en route to work, one which she had often wondered about. The restaurant is Grey Dog and a better breakfast place in town I can’t imagine I’d find. Everything about the restaurant was great, from the décor (random pictures and signs, snowboards—many things featuring dogs); to the tables themselves, which had hand painted maps of various areas around the U.S. on them—ours was of the Napa Valley, CA area; to the food and AMAZING coffee! My breakfast was about $15, but that included a huge portion of eggs and these fabulous homefries, with a side plate absolutely stacked with bacon and two thick slices of their rye bread. Everything was great, and the coffee was strong and flavorful and dark and mysterious without a hint of bitterness (now why can’t I find a man like that?)

After the meal my cousin pointed me in the right direction, back to the Subway with directions on how to get back to Grand Central Station where I would get my Metro North Train. Maybe it was because I was full from breakfast, or maybe it was because I was tired after an entire day spent walking around Manhattan, but I had found a calm and felt at peace with the city. The city was no longer intimidating, and I even fancied that I understood the Subway signs and sprawling lettered and color-lined maps. Maybe that is why NYC is so amazing: because after even just a little time in the City it can really start to grow on you; maybe even make you wish for the ability to reach so many things so quickly. And maybe part of the magic for me is that I can also leave it, but it’s not too far away for those return visits.