Every Day Is A Winding Road

 

"But you are still you, and I am still me, and we are still we."

~Richard L. Ratliff

Well, this is a busy weekend for us! Today is Valentine's day, tomorrow is the anniversary of the purchase of our condominium, and it was just a couple days ago that we bought the new Mini Cooper, so it has taken a bit of time doing all the necessary tasks, although some of which I am pushing into next week! But for right now we are just planning on enjoying being us. The us that can make monumental decisions without losing each other in the details. We have pretty much become of one mind when it comes to the big decisions. You would think that would be boring, but believe me, it's not. We make our decisions together, but that doesn't mean that there isn't vigorous debate on what path we take getting there! 

Everyday is a winding road, right?

 Hopefully that road looks just like Desmond road in spring!

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your love!

Our favorite romantic movie scene...

~

Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown #19

 

"I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins!"

~Buddy the Elf

ELF

Oh my, just try to not fall in love with Buddy the Elf! This is a great movie for the family, it's rated PG, and there is something for everyone. Gather around and watch it on Christmas eve! 

"I thought maybe we could make gingerbread houses, 

and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating... and maybe even hold hands."

~Buddy

Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown #10

 

"When Love Feels Like Magic, It's Called Destiny.

 When Destiny Has A Sense Of Humor, It's Called Serendipity."

Serendipity

Movie Tagline

It's time for a little romance, right? Well, this movie definitely fits the bill! John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale are mesmerizing! Curl up with your favorite person, or pet, and just enjoy the love and chemistry between these two actors. This movie will make you believe in magic, and destiny!

 Oh, yeah also serendipity!

Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown... #25

 

Lucy... 

"Peter once asked me when I fell in love with Jack,

 and I told him, it was while you were sleeping."

From the film, While You Were Sleeping

Do you believe in love at first sight? How about love at second sight? I think I believe in both. I was once in love with someone I had only know as we passed each other daily, walking into different jobs, on different sides of the same parking lot. Is it lust that makes us feel those warm and dizzying feelings, you know, the ones where we are so dazzled by someone's eyes, that you instantly forget what they look like when the walk away! 

Shrug.

I had known my husband since the late 1970's, eventually we became best friends, but it wasn't until the late 80's that we began to realize there had been something extraordinary going on. We didn't even know when it began, it was just there. Two years later, we were married, and because we started out as best friends, we had more than a little going for us!

While You Were Sleeping is a movie about the confusion of loneliness, and how it can turn it into the miracle of love, suddenly happening all around you. And learning about what love really is. Watch it. It's a terrific Christmas movie that isn't too Christmassy, and yet its all about the best of Christmas.

Halloween Countdown FIlm #16... Practical Magic

 

 

"Can love really travel back in time and heal a broken heart? Was it our joined hands that finally lifted Maria's curse? I'd like to think so. But there are some things I know for certain: always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can."

 

 Sally Owens (character)

~Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic 

 

Practical Magic IMBD page.

 

I read the book and I saw the movie, and both just happen to be stand alone masterpieces. Practical Magic is actually just one story, in a series of books by, Alice Hoffman, which spans centuries, and tells the story of the Owens women. The story goes all the way back to their ancestor, Maria Owens, a beautiful and tempting woman, with the ability to make magic happen! The books are a fascinating read, although it's dark and deep, but great for this time of year. 

 

By contrast this film, while portraying some of those themes, also celebrates the very best of life. Family, community, friendship, loyalty, discovering who you really are inside, and romance, while embracing the magic we all possess. I know that there is magic in my life, and moments when I have experienced so much of it, that I had to wonder if I was a witch. Like knowing things about people, before I meet them, and having the occasional dream that comes true, almost immediately after I wake up from it.

 

Call it intuition. Call it magic. Call it plane old coincidence, none of it should be ignored because it's a gift to me grateful for, and embraced. So watch this movie, and feel all the emotions it throws at you! And if you enjoy it, there's good news, because the sequel is on the way next year! There is a lot about the Owens woman, just waiting to be told! 

 

The original music is by, Alan Silvestri, and is amazingly beautiful! 

 

Amas Veritas  is one of my favorite songs.

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #18...

 

Captain Daniel Gregg: You must make your own life amongst the living and, whether you meet fair winds or foul, find your own way to harbor in the end.

 

~The Ghost And Mrs. Muir

 

This movie is a ghost story, sure, but it also a romance that will have you in tears! I like it when horror, mixes with unexpected emotions. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is also a wonderful tv show, starring, Hope Lang. It's available on YouTube, so watch that too if you get the chance! 

 

 

Happy Holidays

"Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas, and I found myself grinning."

~Alan Bradley

I Am Half-Sick Of Shadows

Now, before you ask me about that quote, you should probably know, I am not super sentimental about Christmas. Yes, I am a Christian. Yes, the birth of Christ means something to me. Yes, my faith is deeper than ever, but when it comes to all the other stuff, the nonstop Christmas music, the endless Christmas movies, and all the other super sentimental stuff, it's just not my deal. Although a quiet night of romance, decorating the tree, and snugly Christmas mornings... well... that's what fills my heart! 

There, I said it! 

 # 87 Leaf Of The Day

December 17th 2018

Photographed  September 29th 2018

Cull Canyon

Samsung

"Maybe spring is the season of love and fall the season of mad lust. Spring for flirting but fall for the untamed delicious wild thing."

~Elizabeth Cohen 

The Hypothetical Girl

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 85~ Time Passages

All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's ( or things ) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt."



~Susan Sontag


 


I love the streetcars in San Francisco, and I need to spend a more time photographing them. They are such wonderful looking machines, that kinda makes me feel like I have stepped back in time whenever one passes by. The whole experience brings about all kinds of wonderful romantic images of men in fedora hats and ladies in gorgeous peplum skirts circa the 1940's. I can imagine all kinds of wonderful Film noir scenarios of great adventure with dashing men of intrigue and femme fatales just waiting to seduce them.. How delicious it all was. With Hollywood constantly remaking films and TV, I would love to see the eras of the 30's and 40's redone. 


With the silent movie, The Artist, having won the Academy Award for best film, I suppose there is a good chance that particular time in history could be highlighted more often. It would be so refreshing to not have to see a cell phone, or a Google search do all the legwork. There was a time when one actually had to put thought into things... sigh... I guess I am showing my age here... but I would love to escape to another era sometimes. Oh not to stay mind you, just a little break from the heartbreaking truth of today, and the harshness of having everything so damn available. Sometimes I think my generation was the last great one, because we didn't have such devices doing all our thinking for us. LOL I can remember when the pocket calculater was the hot new must have electronic device.



LOL. Yes, the older I get the more I sound like an old coot. It's okay... so be it. I wouldn't trade growing up the world the way it was for nothing. Although, I imagine that had the world already had the social networking sights it does now, it would have made the world a much different place than the one we live in now. I dunno. Shrug. I know I can sit for hours and listen to folks who lived through those eras, compare then and now. Would I really choose then over now? No, probably not if push came to shove, but oh how I would love to visit sometime, with camera in hand, and perhaps help some big galoot solve a mystery using nothing but my smarts, my cat like instincts, and my feminine wiles.

Yeah... that would work out well! LOL.


So tell me, if you could visit any era, with your camera, for 1 week maximum, which era would you choose to visit, and why?




:)



~Me




Today's Link...


JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/08/apadf6-83.html

Happy Valentine's Day! :)

"When you smiled, you had my undivided attention. When you laughed, you had my urge to laugh with you. When you cried, you had my urge to hold you, when you said you loved me, you had my heart forever."

-Unknown

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alan and I are making a cheese fondue for dinner, followed by a chocolate fondue for dessert, then we are going to put the babies to bed, snuggle into each other, with a big warm blanket around us, and watch monster movies, while the rain pours outside. It's not everyone's idea of romance, but it works for us.

:)

Happy Valentine's Day

Love, Carly

Scenes From A Date...

"Don't cry for a man who's left you, the next one may fall for your smile."

-Mae West

Fun! Fun? What's that again? Oh yeah, I remember! Despite all the stress in our lives lately, Alan and I do remember how fun, fun can be. The trouble is, due to the crashing economy, everything has gotten so expensive. Heck, a nice dinner and a movie could cost about $65.00 dollars! If we did go out for an evening like that, and enjoyed it, we would probably be ruminating over the cost the next day. That's not fun. So what's a married couple, who likes to date each other even after nearly 18 years of marriage, do for date night? Well, if they keep their eyes open, something really special might just present itself. And last Friday night... it did!

Dunsmuir House & Gardens, held a "Movie on the Lawn" night! The cost of the tickets were $5.00 each, and the movie was non other than, our movie, "So I Married An Axe Murderer." I know it sounds funny to have that as our movie, but it is such a cute movie, and we are both big fans of Mike Meyers. And it doesn't hurt that the movie was filmed in San Francisco, and that a portion of the film was also shot right here in the Oakland hills at... you guessed it... Dunsmuir House! LOL. I can't even tell you how cool it was to watch the movie, see Dunsmuir house on the screen, and also know it was right behind us at the same time. It was almost like stepping into the movie. :)

The gates opened to the general public at 6:00 pm, and we were encouraged to bring some blankets, some comfortable chairs and picnic dinner. We did just that. We brought some sodas, and a couple homemade roast beef sandwiches, and had a blast just hanging out, playing Travel Scrabble, and reminiscing until the movie started at 8:30 pm. The Jensen Family, who hosted the event, had an extra special reason for being there that night, it seems their son, Jessie, had found the girl of his dreams in the lovely Amanda, and the evening was serving as their engagement party! Love was in the air. To make it all just a little more romantic, we found out that Jessie's parents were married at Dunsmuir House 30 years ago! Aren't family traditions like that just the best?

I hope Dunsmuir House will hold another movie night this year. There are lots of films that have been shot on the grounds, such as, Phantasm, A View To A Kill, and Burnt Offerings, which would be a hoot to see on the lawn screen. I would love to go back again before the cold weather comes in. We had such a good time, and the crowd was a lot of fun. Each time we saw the bridge in the movie, a cheer would go up, and when Dunsmuir House appeared, the sound was downright deafening. FUN! It was good to get away from all the stress, if even for just a little while. It's good to date your spouse. It's good to never lose the things you enjoyed when you were young, and stress seemed like something that happened to other people.

:)

-OndineMonet
Dunsmuir House & Gardens
Oakland, California
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Afternoon

Let's Talk About Sex Baby

"Maybe the best we can do is not quit, play the hand we've been given, and accessorize the outfit we've got."

-Carrie Bradshaw, (Sarah Jessica Parker) Sex And The City

I am a Miranda... how about you? Well, at least that is the character from Sex and the City that I am most like, according to the cute little quiz I found at iVillage. Somehow I am surprised that I am a Miranda, most days I feel more like Charlotte, although don't think that there aren't plenty of days when I would swear my name is Carrie. That's what I found neat about the show... there was a little of all of these women in most women. Of course, that was the point I think. We were somehow supposed to identify with these ladies, and just because we were married didn't mean we were left out.

Ok, yeah I know, it was supposed to be all about the angst of post 30 dating, but as I watched the series, I could see my past a little clearer somehow. Just because you marry the right man, doesn't mean you don't still love your past loves just a little... or even a lot. That's just one of the little secrets about marriage no one tells you, until one day you find out for yourself. Well, at least in my case that's true. I am an overly sentimental person. I hold on to things until the brutal, bitter end. I guess it is a weird kind of collection that I still have in my heart. Mr. November, was my Mr. Big. Sigh. I got over most of them. Life does go on. Perfectly. Happily. And yet... sigh. That man completely broke my heart.

LOL. Anyway, Sex and the City turned out to be a better show then I thought it would be. We have all dated stupid men, and fell for the wrong guy, and fell for the right guy and found happiness, and lost happiness, and dealt with the absurdities of life in general. One of my favorite moments was when Carrie was modeling in a fashion show for a fabulous designer, of course, and right as she began her sexy walk down the catwalk, she falls right off her shoes... landing right on the floor. Yikes! She was fashion roadkill. But she got back up, and finished her walk down that catwalk... head held high! She ended her strut with a high five to super model Heidi Klum. It was perfect. If you have ever fallen on your face, either literally or metaphorically, you understood her triumph. :) By the way, that was Episode #50 "The Real Me."

That's why I liked the show. It usually left you feeling a little less alone. You know what I mean don't you ladies? If you are a female, you probably have those days, once in a while, when you are just out of step, no matter how confident you usually feel. No matter how fabulous you think you are, or even how fabulous your friends think you are, there are days when you just feel like giving up. If you aren't fashion roadkill, then you are emotional roadkill or relationship roadkill. Right? Well, like Carrie, all we can do on those days is pick ourselves up, and get on with that day's strut down the catwalk and hold our heads high. Thanks Carrie, you did good! High Five!

So tell me, are you planning to see the new movie "Sex And The City?" Will you go see it when it hits the theaters on May 30th, or will you wait until it makes it to cable or DVD? Which character do you identify with most? Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte or Samantha? Who was your favorite male character? Do you have a great love you have never quite gotten over? Is there a Mr. Big in your past? If you could see them again... would you want to? Come on... share. You know you want to! WINK.

"Can you get to your future, if your past is present?"

-Carrie Bradshaw

"I am good at crossword puzzles, I am not so good at people puzzles."

-Carrie Bradshaw

Trivia Question... What was Mr. Big's first name?

-OndineMonet

An October Evening

Click on the photo to see the enlarged version.

"Night, the beloved. When words fade, and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of the day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man resembles his fragmentary self, and grows with the calm of the tree."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

There was a gorgeous sunset last night, so naturally I just had to stop and photograph it. This is the view from Grizzly Peak Boulevard, here in Berkeley, looking out toward San Francisco. The weatherman says it will be nice for one more day, and then some rain will be coming in for most of next week. Sigh. I love the rain, but I love the clear days that lead to sunsets like this one. What's a girl to do?

-OndineMonet
"Berkeley Sunset"
October 13th, 2007
Berkeley, California
Twilight

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #151: Valentine's Day - Fun Or Forced?

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last think on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."

-Unknown

Weekend Assignment #151: Is Valentine's Day a genuinely romantic day? Or just a big commercial money pit into which romantic people fall? Go on, share how you really feel about the day - whether you enjoy it or feel like it's forced on you by greeting card companies, or fall somewhere in between those two poles.

Extra Credit: Suggest a nice romantic movie.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

Valentine's Day you say! Well, for a holiday, it can certainly have it's moments. Fun? Yes. Romantic? Yes. Complicated? Oh my...YES! There are more rules to that one holiday, then all the rest put together. At least during the holidays in December, you can give either individual or group cards. If you are unsure what to wish someone, you can always wish them "Happy Holidays." When it comes to Valentine's Day, if you wish the wrong person a Happy Valentine's Day, you never know if their psycho other half might hunt you down in a mad fit of jealousy! LOL.

All kidding aside, I think it's a fun holiday. You don't have to allow commercialism to lead you around, no matter what holiday you are facing on a calendar. Life...and love...are what you make of them. Some of my favorite Valentine's Days were spent with Alan, doing very little, but enjoying each other. Then there was the one where he made dinner for me, after I had worked a very long day at the flower shop, making flower arrangements for other ladies. By the time I was done working that day, I didn't want to ever see another rose! I came home so tired, all I wanted to do was drown in a bubble bath. Alan had anticipated what I needed and a bath was ready for me when I came through the door. Not to drown in mind you, but one to soak away the long day I had just had. While I was soaking my poor, tired muscles, he was preparing one of his famous gourmet dinners. There is nothing like having your needs anticipated and then met... any day of the year!

Days on a calendar are what we decide to make of them. Go have fun. Life is too short to worry about the negativity that can be found in anything and everything. If you happen to be alone on Valentine's Day... use it as a day to take care of yourself. Indulge. Eat something sinful. Be bad. Smile at a stranger. Flirt with a friend. Buy yourself something expensive, you don't need. When I was alone, I did all of the above, and you know what? It was fun!

Extra Credit: I really enjoyed the movie, "Simply Irresistible," which stars, Sarah Michelle Geller, and Sean Patrick Flanery. Visually stunning, and absolutely BEWITCHING! Great soundtrack as well.

-OndineMonet
"True Love" By Kim Anderson