A Few of My Totally Random Favorite Things (in NO particular order)...

So, I think I may have talked about how fickle I am before. *rolls eyes*

Not so much with people (thank goodness... i am a pretty loyal soul) but with things. Objects. Books. Art. Music. Entertainment. Clothing. Oh, lord, clothing. What was I thinking when I bought that last year?!

My tastes can change from moment to moment; what appealed to me so much last winter, this winter not so much.

So instead of doing any sort of year end list of new things I love, I thought I'd just do a top ten list of totally random things I constantly love. Never get sick of. Find myself craving, day after week, after year. . .

Why? No reason. It just occurred to me as I was updating my private facebook page* with the photo you see above and a wonderful cover photo that I illegally lifted, but totally credited to, the stupendous Maira Kalman:

Maira Kalman: New York, Grand Central Station, 1999

Oh, how I love Maira Kalman.
By love I mean, covet.
As in, wish I could be her.
Wish I had written her books.
Wish I could spend many hours of every day reading her books.
Wish I could... well, you get the gist.



Maira Kalman: What Pete Ate From A - Z
we read this so many times aloud. . .  

My younger son, especially, and I would spend hours reading her picture books together. The whimsy and sophistication never ceased to entertain, and still don't. There's just something about her art and prose that fill my soul.

So, Maira Kalman is #1 of Things I Don't Get Sick of (TiDGSo); 


While we're at it, #2: birds. Birds and Botanicals. Botanical, aviary-type birds. And their cages. I love pretty bird cages, too.

Like the birds I put on my photo up there. Or, say, these (notice the botanicals on my chairs and table! I never get sick of my table. You should see how pretty my table is... if you bug me to, I'll go take a photo...):



yep, see, birds. . .

 



Oh, don't fail me, YMI jeans...

#3 YMI jeans. Cheap and well-fitted.




Need I say more about that?

 

#4 listening to my husband sing...



and play his shakers and guiros! :)


And, while we're stating the obvious #5 Water in general,

and open water swimming... in particular. . .

photo credit: Carol Moore

#6  Cherry blossoms...

And, some more obvious, but, oh, so true:

#7 Listening to Sam play guitar:

          or, #8 watching Holden play basketball:

photo: courtesy Rick Kopstein

 #9. This store, Heartichoke, in Northport, NY... (ah, the baubles and trinkets... even lots of birds and botanicals ;))

and,

come on, guys, the number one

(or, um, #10)

totally random (shiny) thing I (almost) never get sick of... even when I wish that I would?

facebook!

oh, how you distract me with your blue and white hypnosis. . .

That's it. My totally random, highly incomplete, no-order top ten list for all time and/or 2012.

Hope you're all having wonderful holidays. See you for some resolutions or wishes in the New Year.

xox gae

* if you are a lovely, wonderful YA reader and want to follow me on fb, please follow me HERE and not there. :)

Words Can't Capture . . .

. . .this morning, my older (and often tired, lethargic, naysaying) son somewhat surprisingly came through and joined me during my 6:15 a.m. open water swim.

We had just bought him a brand new kayak in the hopes he would, but still, with a 14-yr-old (especially of the lethargic naysaying variety) you never know. After all, school just ended and there's a whole summer ahead of him, and I came in to wake him at 5:15 a.m.

"Let's go," I said. "You said you were coming."

And he did something miraculous: He got out of bed.

As we loaded the kayak on the car and strapped it on, I still had my doubts. As we arrived at the beach and unloaded and dragged it down to the waterline, I still had my doubts. As he looked at the seaweed and lapping waves that carried the potential jellyfish and other sealife he's heard me talking about for the past several weeks as I, myself, conquered the world of open water swims, and said, "Okay, I'm not touching that," I still had my doubts.

But then, he stepped in, sat down, and started paddling.

He had told me he had done plenty of kayaking at his week-long sleepaway camp over the past two summers, but I had never seen him, so really had no idea.

My mother's nerves tugged at the back of my brain, as off he went beyond the ropes to wait for me and the rest of the swimmers to join him.

And, then, it happened. It became abundantly clear that he was adept with the kayak; that he was even in his element. He steered away from us and cut across the water's surface like a pro.

As I swam along behind him, periodically glancing up to catch a glimpse of him in his flame red-orange kayak, a red life jacket and puff of brown hair moving farther and farther away from me, it filled me to see my boy this way: Capable. At peace. Self-assured.

It is an image I won't forget, though words will never capture the way it made me feel.