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Dear Winter,
After 1. Numerous Venti Chai Tea Lattes from Starbucks 2. Trudging through a rain and wind storm carrying a heavy computer bag, a large box (bound for post office), and an umbrella (that tried to blow away) 3. Walking through my neighborhood that has golden and rusty red (wet) leaves on the sidewalk and Halloween decorations on stoops and in windows, and 4. Seeing this terrific illustration on SnuggleMuffin’s site…
Skating from http://snugglemuffin.vox.com/
I’m ready for you.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m officially excited it’s autumn, and I have nothing against it. In fact I quite love the autumn season: It smells good, the air starts to get cool, colors in nature get saturated and lovely, what’s old falls away and makes room for the new and exciting. Autumn’s great.
But I’m officially ready to have autumn usher you in, dear winter.
Bring on the snow! and hot cocoa! and cozy fires! and Christmas trees! and twinkle lights! and snowball fights! and…okay, you get the idea.
Hot Chocolate from http://snugglemuffin.vox.com/
I look forward to seeing you again, ol’ friend.
xo
Uptown Small Town
All of my grandparents passed while I was a child so, as I got older, I sort of just “adopted” new family members. Two people in particular, Jack and Jane (yes, those are their real names!), became my grandparents ~ not by blood, but by love.
Grandma Jane was a fairly prominent artist ~ she was the Artist in Residence in Yosemite, she was featured on The Today Show, etc., and when she died, Grandpa Jack invited my mom and I over to go through her paintings and pick one out. (!!!)
It was… one of those experiences I will never forget. It was like opening a book to someone’s visions and dreams, sitting on the floor with complete awe and wonderment propelling me through painting after painting after painting. Though I’d known Jane since I was a small child, I knew her better that day. And I loved her all over again.
The painting I chose is actually unfinished. She died before finishing it… but to me, it’s perfect.
It hangs in my bedroom and every night before falling asleep and every morning when the sun starts to stream in through my windows, I peek at it. And dream in it.
(Please forgive the picture of a painting!)
It’s no small wonder that I would choose the French Riviera to visit for vacation ~ I was craving what the painting was providing. Color and contrast and texture and light and shadow and history and calm confidence.
And on my first full day in France, I made it my mission to get absorbed into the feelings and rhythms ~ to find the color and contrast and texture and light and shadow and history and calm confidence of the Mediterranean city.
And find it, I did.
Though I’m not really a “leave something unfinished” sort of person (generally speaking…that’s not to say I don’t have ten books started and discarded for another day), I find beauty every day in what Grandma Jane left unfinished ~ it’s a painterly sort of unfinished. And her gift could never have been more complete.
Bon Voyage, my friends. I’m jetting off to the sea and the sunshine that I dream of… as depicted in this drawing I discovered in my notebook at work (thanks to LB). 
Is it possible to have pre-travel jet lag? If so, I think I may have it… I’m currently in search of a few travel odds & ends and Google is telling me to go here:
A luggage store that doesn’t sell luggage or travel goods of any kind. Gah! Way to make a (soon-to-be / somewhat spontaneous) traveler feel (even more) wonkey!
But like any good pre (or post) jet lagged explorer, I paused to investigate that which I’d stumbled upon. Apparently this Luggage Store (that doesn’t sell luggage) is an arts organization with the mission to “amplify the voices of the region’s diverse artists and residents, to promote inclusion and respect, to reduce inter-group tensions and to work towards dispelling the stereotypes and fears that continue to separate us.” Terrific!
Here are some of the featured works:
More of the Luggage Store works can be seen here.
So while it may have led to a dead-end, it was a nice little side-trip.
Cheers!
I may be over-thinking this whole idea of a vacation but I’ve become curious about something… how do people decide on where they vacation? What drives this decision most of the time?
I would certainly be one to travel for pure curiosity… being the curious sort and all. I have traveled to Paris out of an inherited (from my mom) love of France, I’ve ventured to Scotland due to a simple invitation by a friend, I’ve traveled to Jackson Hole to see family, Seattle because I won a contest, etc., etc. I suppose we choose locations for all different reasons, which, in itself, is quite enjoyable ~ I do love a good story. And this is usually the part of the travel story that gets left out.
Lately I have been wanting to travel to locations to feel in that location. I’m currently quite drawn to Italy ~ Lake Como, Florence, and Tuscany~ and London. I want to feel the earthy, sensual richness that I love about Italy and I want to explore the pointy-tipped proper city of London with that historic British sensibility that is all its own.
I want to vacation. I am in need of vacation. I have taken one vacation day from work in the past year… one. I’m ridiculously overdue. Apparently the word “travel” is derived from the french term travailler ~ to work hard ~ and that term is related to the latin word trepalium ~ a torturing device.
Awesome. No wonder people feel they need a vacation from their vacation.
So, I will continue to torture myself by dreaming of my next set of travels while I work hard.
Travel story TBD…
Thanks LB for “introducing” me to the delicious art of Tadahiro Uesugi.
So while I’m decidedly a digital communicator, and while nothing beats in-person chats and conversations, I must say that I really enjoy receiving fun notes in the mail.
Snail mail. (I know. Antiquated concept. And no, I don’t know where the nearest post office is to my apartment…but to my defense I’m a digital nomad! I’m only in an executive apartment in NYC for another week!)
And I can’t say it happens all that often, receiving handwritten notes in the mail, but when it does… it’s delightful.
Adding another layer of delight are these “hello” envelope seals ~ great little greeting stickers.
Seal-the-deal stickers by KisForCaligraphy
Maybe these little deal-sealers will help inspire me to (locate a post office to purchase stamps and) mail a note!
This. Is. Freaking. Fabulous.
Generally speaking, book trailers can be rather bland and somewhat cheesy. This one, however, I find terrifically “strange.”
