Wouldn't It Be Nice If This Was A Real Thing?

"It doesn't matter who hurt you, or broke you down. 

What matters is who made you smile again."

~Unknown

Wouldn't it be nice if this was a thing? A bear gets up, gets dressed in her best dress and heads out for a walk in late autumn. She knows it will be one of her last afternoon walks because winter is coming, a season just as treacherous as summer, but for different reasons, and she knows she should get all the air and exercise she can, before it's no longer feasible. But alas... it's not. We all know it's a nice person, probably, inside a bear costume, making the public want to eat at the Black Bear Diner in Auburn. Which is nice and all, but I have to ask just once more, wouldn't it be nice if it was just a bear, out for a walk?

I like that world much better than the one I am living in now.

 It would make more sense too!

 

Miss Bear did make me smile, so maybe sometime, when I am traveling through Auburn again, I will stop in at the Black Bear diner and stop for a bite. I know I will always think of Miss Bear when I am in Auburn from now on, so, why not? This was a smile worth remembering!

Leaf Of The Day

November 28th 2016

 Mood: Quiet

~Me 

Black Bear Diner
13378 Lincoln Highway
Auburn, Ca  

Days In Heaven

"In Heaven it is always autumn"

~John Donne

Heaven definitely has autumn! Always autumn? Of that I am not so sure. I would think we would have all the seasons, if we had one. But maybe we get the best parts of all the seasons, you know? Summers would never be so hot that you couldn't think straight. Autumn would be all the colors that ever were! Colors that you had never seen before, all hanging off the branches of trees until time to give you a soft, warm, spider free blanket, on a cool, but not cold autumn day. 

Winter would have snowflakes that look soft, and cold on the autumn leaves, but they never get muddy and dirty, but they shine with diamond iridescence under the full autumn moon, so even nighttime can play along. Then spring comes, and behind each warm day are blossoms and leaves with just a hint of autumn remaining so that it all comes together at once.

 No day ever gets too hot, nor too cold, just beautiful with color everywhere! And there are of course cats. All the cats I have loved, running through the leaves, chasing butterflies for the purpose of play, just a game of catch and release. And there are vivid memories so that even in Heaven we can remember when we have had a perfect autumn day! 

Leaf Of The Day

November 20th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me :) 

Reading Wicked...

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it."

-William Styron, interview, Writer's At Work, 1958

The play "Wicked" is once again in San Francisco, at the Orpheum theater, and I would love to see it, but with the two furloughed days being taken out of Alan's check twice a month, it means that we are losing about $400 monthly. It's really not a good time to spend money on the theater, which is sad not just for us, but for the performers who are facing this recession right along with the rest of us. But just for the sake of argument, I took a look at the schedule to see if maybe we could go in a few months, and it turns out that if we went in June, a couple days before my birthday, to a matinee, it would be about $200 for two tickets, plus a convenience fee! We might be able to swing it, if we plan, but it doesn't seem like it is the most practical thing to do with our money, given the present circumstance.

Sigh.

Governor Schwarzenegger is planning on keeping the furlough days on the schedule until June of 2010! That's going to be hard on everyone. It will have the ripple effect of 238,000 state workers having even less to spend, but it's this or face the layoff notices of some 20,000 state employees. Alan has been in his job long enough that it is unlikely that he would be one of those facing a pink slip, but we know folks it could happen to, so everyone is just holding their breath and hoping for the best. Whatever that is. One thing is for sure, no one we know is spending money on trips to movies, let alone trips to broadway shows.

Sigh.

Oh well, I might not be able to see the play "Wicked" but I can read the book... right? I was just mentioning the other day it had been about 2 years since I had visited my favorite little book store, so I decided to drop in there and pick it up. I have always identified with the characters from the Wizard of Oz, particularly Dorothy, so why not jump back into the fantasy, this time as told from a different perspective, so I bought "Wicked, The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West" by Gregory Maguire, the book on which the play "Wicked" is based.

My reading usually consists of biographies, and non-fiction, the last book I read was Valerie Plame Wilson's book, Fair Game, I also enjoy reading mysteries, especially Mary Higgins Clark, and on occasion I read books with a humorous take on things such as "Bridget Jones' Diary" but fantasy isn't really a genre I have been too interested in. I read "The Hobbit" series when I was in high school, but that's been about it, well except for a few books by Alice Hoffman. "Practical Magic" remains on my desk as one of my favorite books of all time, but I think it will be having a little company with the book I am reading right now... I can't put it down.

"Wicked..." is a dark read. I will just say that. It turns out that the wicked witch of the west, and I, have a lot in common. I won't say what exactly, but I can identify... we'll leave it at that. What I will say is that she is a strong woman, who doesn't sit around waiting to be led... she makes decisions. She knows who she is, and makes no apologies. I admire that. :) I am about 2/3 of the way through, and I bought it a little over a week ago. I can't wait to buy more books in the series, because I want to find out what comes next. I always knew there just had to be more to the story. This book has been out for quite a while, and because of my reading snobbery I am only just now discovering it. MY BAD. Take it from me, if there is a genre of book you have been avoiding for whatever reason, take a step out of the norm and buy a book you might have never considered before, you never know what gem you might find!

If you haven't read it yet... go read it! If you have read it, tell me what you think! What was the last book you read? Do you have a favorite genre of book? If you have to choose one book to have the rest of your life, which book would it be?

Tell me everything! Let's talk books!

Wicked, The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West.

-Carly

An Early Summer's Day Life Fantasy...

"Art is a shadow of what a person is thinking... a small glimpse of what they hold inside. Little secrets, regrets, joys... every line has it's own meaning."

-Sarah, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999

I have decided to experiment with displaying my photos with frames. I used to use frames from time to time, but I came to think of the frame as a distraction. Lately though, mostly with my florals, my photographs seem a little too stark, so I took a look inside my photo editing program for frames that would enhance my photos, without drawing the eyes away from the subject. I like this frame, because I think it looks a lot like a window frame. It kind of provokes a daydream in me.

A Season Ago...

As I let my imagination go, I can see myself looking at these flowers blooming outside my bedroom window. I breathe in deeply, and as I exhale, I allow my mind to drift to wherever, and whoever it wants. I can almost hear the sound of wind chimes in the far off distance, or is it a clock tower in a far off village square, playing a summer song, as it's hands strike the hour? Is he thinking of me too? Do days like this remind him of me? Or am I now less than a memory? I smile as I close my eyes and wonder...

"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

-Edgar Allen Poe


-OndineMonet
"A Season Ago"
Berkeley, California
June 29th, 2007
11:00 AM