Jewelry

As much as I enjoy to take pictures I also love to create jewelry. This holiday season I've created a variety of earrings. You can see more by clicking to the right on the link to my flickr account.

Happy Holidays!

One of My Favorite Doors in NYC

Next time you're at the Metropolitan Museum of Art walk over to 52 E. 81st Street and see this door.

This made me laugh....

I really think they meant to name their company: Lower Cost Inc. What do you think?

Little Helicopter

The simply beauty of nature will forever touch me. This dragonfly paused at Turtle Pond in Central Park a couple of weeks ago. Blue is so rare in nature that I was captivated.

Bass Art

A few weeks ago I attended the Barrow/Commerce Neighborhood Fair in NYC. This gentleman was playing in a band. I love this angle. The curve of the bass, the wrinkles around his eyes - - I can only imagine the smile that is probably on his face.

NYC Green Market

The Green Market at Union Square in New York City is beautiful. The simple colors that nature produces are amazing!

Take your time when you are there to see the vibrant colors. Go early to listen to the chatter of the chefs bartering for the best prices. Savor the art the nature has produced – taste it for the first time.

Tears of Nature

This is my favorite face in New York City...

The weather has created a tearline down her face. When was the last time that you noticed the beautiful sculpture that exists on the brownstones in NYC? The art that exists in our every day life should be noticed. Take the time to breathe in the simple art that surrounds you.

The Miniature Earth

What if the world's population were reduce to 100...

The Miniature Earth

As your shopping this holiday season please consider making a donation to a nonprofit organization as a gift to friend or family member.

Happy Holidays!

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

I wanted to take this opportunity to say Congratulations, Nicole!

November was National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo encourages people to participate by writing a 175-page (50,000 word) novel. The only thing that matters is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. So, your inner critic should stay home.

My friend, Nicole, has participated since 2004. I'm so impressed that she dedicates herself to 'getting it on the page'. I look forward to standing in line at Barnes & Noble to purchase her book Bridges when she publishes it.

Kisses and congratulations!

Color

Sony BRAVIA has done it again. Remember the commercial with the bouncing balls well this time they've used paint:

70,000 litres of paint
358 single bottle bombs
33 sextuple air cluster bombs
22 Triple hung cluster bombs
268 mortars
33 Triple Mortars
22 Double mortars
358 meters of weld
330 meters of steel pipe
57 km of copper wire

Check out the recent advertisement that they made in Glasgow, Scotland. Don't forget to view the Behind the Scenes when you are done so you can see how they did it.

Totally Fun!

Angels Here On Earth

My Grandfather passed away on Friday. He had a wonderful life and I believe that he is in a happier place free of pain now. While admitted to hospice he was in the company of angels.

My Mom shared stories of his last day here. The hospice nurses were the most gentle and compassionate people that she has ever witnessed. Bless you. My Mom also told me about Scooter. I've always believed that some animals have special powers, that they can sense things before we humans can and that they are blessings because of their unconditional love that they share.

Scooter is a cat who lives in the hospice ward. He has a 'sixth sense' according to the nurses - he knows who's going to pass and he keeps them company until they do. Even if the patient doesn't like cats Scooter finds a corner of the room and stays. Maybe Scooter does it to comfort the person who is dying, to relax them so they are comfortable, maybe to relax the family who is there to say goodbye or maybe he eases their pain. Scooter stayed with my grandfather - on his bed - until he passed away. There is a part of me who likes to think that he was there to greet him, to show him the way, to help him say goodbye and to comfort him.

I like the thought that there are angels here on earth - people and animals who comfort those of us in time of need, who are gentle and kind and who provide unconditional love. Thanks to Scooter, the hospice nurses, my family and to my friends, my family away from home, you're my angels.

I encourage everyone to enjoy an Eskimo Pie - a vanilla ice cream bar with chocolate coating - toast my Grandfather. One of my favorite memories is when my Grandfather would sneak up behind me and take a huge bit out of my Eskimo Pie. He'd smile really big, widen his eyes, lick his lips and laugh. Kisses, Gramps, I'll miss you.

Reality check - I come first...

I've recently reintroduced myself to me. Let me explain...

My job has been very stressful lately. I've been involved in a project that was supposed to end a month ago - well, that didn't happen. It has been very difficult and stressful. I, of course throw myself into a project and in doing so basically I now find myself drowning. The project still isn't done, it isn't my fault, accept that I don't have patience anymore and I'm exhausted.

I've decided that I need to embrace where I am. I need to accept that the project isn't done, that it is ok that I don't have patience, that it will take much more time than anticipated and that I deserve to take some time and focus on me in the meantime.

So last weekend I took Friday and Monday off. Friday I spent the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art specificaly at the Cézanne to Picasso exhibit. Monday I spent sleeping and fighting a Fibro-flare. This weekend I'm still fighting the Fibro-flare which I think peaked on Friday so I've been laying low this weekend; watching movies, sleeping, hanging out with friends for coffee.

The past week has made me realized that I haven't been taking the best care of me during this project. Priority Lori . . stay tuned.

The Largest Limo in Manhattan

I took the bus last night home from work - about 5 avenues and 50 blocks. (Now, all of from back home city blocks in NYC are longer than the average small town Wisconsin city block.) I usually take the bus so this wasn't out of the norm. When I was still about 35 blocks from my stop close to home I realized that I was the only passenger on the bus. This is odd, never happens...this is a bus that is double long bus (I'm sure there's a name for this but I don't know what it is.)

At 30 blocks away from my stop the bus switched drivers. This normally happens quite often during my ride home. I was on the phone during this time.

At 20 blocks away from my stop I realized that the driver wasn't picking anyone up. I ended my call and moved closer to the driver and asked told him that I felt like I was in the largest limo in Manhattan. He said I was because the only stop he was making was mine.

The icing on the cake was that for those next 20 blocks we hit all the green lights. Now if there only would have been champagne involved that would have been fabulous!

National Singles Week

So, there's a whole week set aside to celebrate being single. Who knew? National Singles Week.

At first I thought that this sounded ridiculous - there's a holiday to celebrate being single?!?
Come on - - I don't need a reason to celebrate being single. I do that whenever I go out to dinner with friends, go to a movie alone, out dinner alone... who am I kidding, if I had total control over the situation I wouldn't be single. It sucks. I love my independence but the 'lonely' is miserable.

But, if you read the article from ABC News that I linked to the title above you'll read that there are many options for us single people to aide us in finding love and thus not being single any longer...my favorite - www.democraticsingles.net. Oh, there is a site for those of you that want to date republicans but I'm not sure why anyone would consciously date a republican. (giggle - the liberal me showing my colors, sorry)

Ahhh, back to National Singles Week.

Congratulations to all my single friends - celebrate your singleness. Kisses and love to you - anyone want to go grab a drink and check out the other singles in NYC? Census says that 50% of the people living in NYC are single. I wonder where they all are?

New York in Autumn

The Union Square Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning during September and October is my favorite place to hang out. I take a cup of coffee and usually buy a muffin from a vendor and then I walk and watch. I love the colors that the Autumn harvest brings to the market. The food just pops because the colors are so vibrant. Going early and watching the restaurant people pick up their orders is fun but for me I prefer the late morning 10:30ish time. You get a nice mix of regulars and then others who just stopped by to take a look. The more crowded the more fun to watch.

I strongly recommend the crab cakes from the fish guy (PE & DD Seafood) – but it means you must get there by 10:30 or they’ll be gone.

Walking in Central Park through The Ramble makes me feel like I’m back home in Wisconsin hiking. I can escape the city a little – I highly recommend it!

I love Autumn - - hmmm I think I’ll need to plan to travel to Paris and Southern France next year at this time.

A little sunshine on Saturday

I traveled to Brooklyn on Saturday (and those of you in NYC know that the weekend subway schedule is always an adventure especially from the Upper East Side to Park Slope) to visit a friend who is feeling a little down.

As I left my apartment I decided to pick up some flowers - I chose sunflowers because they are her favorite. The clerk wrapped the stems and I was off. As I walked down the street to the station people looked and smiled as I passed them.

In the station a man was playing an accordian and it was kid central on the platform so he as playing children's toons. The children were dancing and having fun - one little girl walked up to me and said, "Pretty flowers, they make me smile."

The 6 train was crowded but everyone around me kept looking at the sunflowers and smiling. It was as if the flowers were a little ray of sunshine. I transferred to the R train and happily it was pretty empty. I took a seat in an empty part of the train. An elderly gentleman with a suitcase moved to sit near me. He kept looking at the flowers and final engaged me in conversation. He complimented me on the flowers said they were beautiful and then he thanked me. I told him that he was welcome but I wasn't sure for what. He chuckled and explained that he had a terrible morning. The flowers not only made him smile but they also brightened his day and inspired him - once he got home he was going go back out and buy some flowers for himself.

It reminded me that happiness can be found in the simplest things.

After the gentleman left a woman sat across from me - hipster - funky red and blonde hair eclectically dressed - she had a sketch pad and as we rode in silence I noticed that she sketched the flowers. At this point the R train got more and more crowded and I started to watch people. Everyone who noticed the flowers smiled.

In this busy busy city and how annoying the subway can be at times - hot, crowded, smelly - I enjoyed my ride to Brooklyn Saturday morning. The flowers brightened so many lives. And when I arrived to greet my friend I thought she was going to cry - they are her favorite flowers. It had been a long time since someone had given her sunflowers and even though she had had a terrible week I'm happy to say that they too brightened her day.

what to do what to do

What do you do when a project at work is totally so overwhelming that it keeps you up at night? My brain isn't turning off enough to allow me to go sleep? Hmmm, this has been my life for the past few weeks now and I have some coping mechanisms that I'd like to share with you:

vodka
good wine
chocolate
sleep (whenever you can get it even you're late for work)
extend the deadline of the project
and more vodka

The most important things to remember are that you can look exhasted (it's NYC most people look tired), you can work tired (just drink coffee), drink to sedate (it's sad but it works) and more vodka or chocolate depending on the time of day is always the best answer.

Ahhhh, stress!

Streaming Music

I love to stream music while at work. My excuse - ipod does not allow me to transfer the music from it. I can only add music to my ipod from a computer not the other way around. So, I can't transfer my favorite music from my home computer to my work computer without burning a cd and bringing it in.

So, I've recently discovered this great site called www.pandora.com. Pandora is site that the Music Genome Project started. I like it because I can create different stations based on my mood. Songs stay in the station by you voting on whether or not you like it. Songs are also suggested by Pandora based on the type of music and other similarities. So, I can have one station with the music my brother would listen to (read previous post - My Recent Music Addiction) and many others based on other preferences.

The other cool thing is that I can go home at the end of the day, go online and pick my station from Pandora to listen to.

Check it out!

Recent Discoveries Living in NYC

During the past few days I've discovered a few things:

I can participate in a focus group, watch a few movie trailers, provide my opinion, spend an hour of my time and get paid $50. Yahoo!

I can go out to eat and the bill will sometimes provide me with the tip calculation; i.e. 18% = $ or 20% = $. I'm not sure how to take this - if I should be offended - if I should be thankful for the assistance. It makes me question if the general public knows how to do math? And, what happened to tipping 15%?

A woman can wear a fanny pack, carry a purse and a larger purse and look absolutely ridiculous. Note to self that no matter how old I get I will never ever participate in this fashion statement.

The icey guy/girl will happily always be located on the corner of 122nd and Adam Clayton Powell in the afternoon if the sun is shining. Yum!

I love NYC.

Being Center of the Universe...

...well, at least my Universe.

I was congratulated today for being the center of the universe again. (Long story about why, so you'll just have to understand that it was a very appropriate statement.) I giggled.

I do have a way of demanding attention - always have. All of my family and friends who are reading this and have known me most of my life will completely agree. I was the child that made all the noise - talked incessantly. Whether I demanded attention in a positive or a negative way I didn't care as long as you were paying attention to me that was all that mattered. Psychologically speaking I'll blame my Mom & Dad - I was the first born and the first grandchild on my Mom's side of the family. I got all the attention - once my brother came into the picture - I had to demand it. He was soooo cute and quiet - unbelievably quiet. He didn't speak until he was three. He didn't have to - I did it for him. hee hee

I would hope that I've grown out of it - at least a little. I certainly am aware that there are things that are much bigger than me in this world. But, I will admit that I do still like to be the center of my universe.

Thanks Michael for reminding me that I was back in control - at least for the moment. Kisses.