A few lovely things for today, when I’m snuggling up under the covers and dreaming of Christmas in Mazatlan. Wake me up when December ends.
A few lovely things for today, when I’m snuggling up under the covers and dreaming of Christmas in Mazatlan. Wake me up when December ends.
We flew into NYC at 5:30 am last Friday. After a few hours of creeping around trying to figure out where we were supposed to be going, we found our hotel in Midtown, dropped off our bags, and set out to explore the city. The very first place we stopped was Central Park.
It was a gorgeous day, apparently it had been cold for weeks before we got there, so the park was full of people running, walking and playing hockey. It was amazing to see the huge, beautiful park surrounded on all sides by towering skyscrapers. We climbed up on top of one of the big boulders and just sat there people watching and sunning ourselves like lizards.
One of the things I liked most about New York was how easy it was to get around everywhere, either on the subway or just walking. We walked about 10 miles a day every day we were in the city. If I lived there, I would have legs of steel.
We visited Central Park several times on our trip, and just spent hours walking through and looking at all of the sites, including the Belvedere castle which I thought was in my imagination since we walked all over the park and couldn’t find it, but we eventually made it there on our last stroll.
There were lots of great things about our time in New York, but those first few hours in Central Park were definitely one of my favourite things. It reminded me so much of spring time in Canada, when you finally feel the sun on your face after months of bitter cold, and even though there is still snow on the ground you can finally feel the end in site. Everything smells fresh and clean, and you just want to go play outside.
Last Friday at work I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and had a tiny panic attack at how crazy and straw-like my hair was looking.
I tend to go months without noticing or caring, and then one day a quick glance reveals how dire the situation really is and I need to get my hair done IMMEDIATELY and if I can’t find someone to do it, I’ll buy a box of black dye and get out my office scissors and do it myself.
Luckily I was able to get an appointment for the following day, and decided to go a bit darker again, as I’d had pretty light ombre for awhile. I also got my eyebrows done professionally for the first time in my life, it was pretty wonderful, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back.
I know my sisters will be excited as both of them have been known to drop helpful hints about my lopsided brows.
One of my favourite things about the salon, The Dollhouse in Brentwood, is the decor, it’s so whimsical and colourful, I always feel like Alice in Wonderland.
A few weeks ago I was struck by inspiration, and as usual, a burning need to get started at that exact moment. I decided my house was boring and needed something really special, and that I would like to be surrounded by beautiful words at all times. I decided to pick my favourite piece of writing and transcribe it and paint it onto the awkward stair wall in my kitchen.
This was a bit of a predicament because I wanted to get started as soon as I had the idea, but also I couldn’t decide which quote or poem to use. I thought about just choosing one quote, but then I pictured myself writing that out over and over 400 times and decided against it.
After flipping through a few of my favourite books and bugging some friends for inspiration, I decided on one of my favourite poems, I Have Loved Hours at Sea by Sara Teasdale, and set to work. Coincidentally (or completely on purpose, if it’s not him reading this) the boy was at work so I was determined to finish it before he got home so I could surprise him. And so that he wouldn’t be able to stop me from doing it. But mostly so I could surprise him.
I realized quickly that one poem wasn’t going to be enough, since I was less than half way down the skinniest part of the wall and was almost finished, so I picked another poem to add.
It quickly became apparent that that wasn’t going to be enough either, so I added in my favourite Neruda Sonnet, one that was read at our wedding. In the end, I also added in my favourite Alice in Wonderland quote, and finally made it to the end.
It only took me about 2 hours to get all of the writing on the wall, so I figured I was well on track to finish before the boy got home from work. It turns out, painting takes a lot more time than just scribbling with pencil, who knew?
I finally finished painting almost a month later, although after the first weekend of almost 6 hours of working on it, I took about two weeks off to regain my will to live.
Derek walked in on that first day and found me on the floor tired, stiff and covered in pencil lead and paint.He took one look at the wall, one look at my bedraggled, exhausted face and proclaimed “I love it! And I love you! Let’s go take a nap.” He is nice, I like him.
It was definitely worth all of the work it took to finish, it makes me happy every time I look at it, and makes me feel like this is really my house. I am basically Harold and the Purple Crayon, but older and a girl.
It’s definitely not perfect, I generally have serial killer handwriting at the best of times, but nobody will ever be able to think it is a stencil, or that I didn’t put my own blood, sweat and tears into it. It’s kind of amazing to be able to just randomly draw all over the walls whenever you feel like it without worrying about getting in trouble with anyone. Sometimes being a grown up is a pretty great.
Quotes, or things that I’ve heard recently that are lovely and stuck in my head:
I don’t know what has shocked me more, that you are gone, that I am still here, that there is music after the end.
-David Baker
Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”
– Lewis Carroll
loveliness. 