City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York,

Quite a few weeks ago, and if I were being more precise, it might actually be more than a few weeks ago, the wonderful Cait O'Connor passed along to me a few interview questions. I have certainly taken my time in replying.


I am starting with a post of a painting I did many years ago, when I was a much younger person, and carried many dreams in my head. At that point in my life, I still thought that time went on forever, and that dreams would come true, if only one wished for them over and over.

Years later, I realized that more than wishes might be involved. I even began to enlarge my field of dreaming.

Back to Cait's interview questions.

1. Was I ever an art student. Oh yes. My college diploma says my major was in Economics, but I also took enough courses to qualify for a degree in Art Studio. I just, perhaps rightly...perhaps not, that Economics would grant me more employment possibilities.

2. If you had your life to live over again, what, if anything, would you do differently. Ah Cait, this is a tough one. At the end of every week, I have reasons to reconsider lots of what I did in the past bunch of hours.

I was raised in a totally different environment, am just a bit too old to be considered a baby boomer. I think that I was taught as a child to be seen and not heard, and as a female to also be more submissive than my inner nature told me. I turned down several marriage proposals, and wonder about one of those nays. It was ages ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, and accepting would have set me on a totally different path. I was frightenened to take that path.

3. What do most look forward to when you retire. Ah, this is the joke question! Right now, at age 63, I already qualify for this country's Social Security benefits. These months monetary benefits are stated to increase the later once chooses to sign up for them. I will wait as long as possible, but really feel that the entire Social Security system is yet another Ponzi scheme, based upon the feeding of the base of its pyramid by increasing numbers of willing workers who are involuntarily made part of this system.

Gosh, I have so many interests, and so wish that I could spend every day on them, starting right now! Painting, drawing, printmaking, writing, sewing, knitting, crocheting, reading, gardening ... in my dreams-only garden. Seeing friends, traveling. Maybe I will eventually be able to have at least one blow out year!

4. Where is your favorite place in New York? Easy. Central Park, the very big back yard (garden) for all of us who live in Manhattan. It never lets you down. Just take a walk there ... 30 minutes are enough, longer is better, and your mind is refreshed. I saw a "host" of snowdrops in the Yoko-funded Strawberry Fields area today. And a host of tourists taking photos of the Imagine mosaic.

5. List your passions. Cait, this one is tricky, because it is the most revealing. I really do love kindness. Openness. Great art from all the cultures and centuries that have gone before us. The same is true of literature. Friends who cling together for many decades and let our ridges and splinters show. Fresh flowers, and fresh spring and summer fruits and vegetables. Learning anything new. Having my opinions tested and learning something new.

Thank you Cait, for the opportunity to answer your questions. If anyone reading this would also like to take the time to me interviewed, please do leave me a message. I will try to provide some questions as fine as those that Cait sent me.

Sweet dreams to all.

City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

For some of you, it is already Friday the thirteenth. Here in New York, it is still the birthday of one of our better known Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, born on February 12.

Our current and still very new President Obama, is encountering the first turbulence sent towards him by the opposition party, the Republican Party. No damage to the hull of the new administration yet. I think that most of the population is still very much caught up in the financial crisis, and What It Might Still Mean to Each of Them.

In my micro land, I am delighted to have had my head pass recent inspection and even treatment by some very fine doctors. I am now in possession of a renovated back molar. It is now strengthened, and filled in, by a brand new inlay. Celebrating that, and having read about the study showing that eggs are good for us, I have wasted no time in getting an early start on the Easter season.

The gift-wrapped creme egg pictured above is now history. It was deliciously rich in the way that the first creme egg of the season always seems.

I came upon a very small display of the beloved creme eggs in a neighborhood drug store (chemist shop) this afternoon after a visit to my eye doc for a regular check of my glaucoma. All is well with my optic nerves, and I am instructed to continue on with the drop of the magic fluid in each eye every night. To properly check my eyes, inside out, my wonderful and informative doctor has to dilute my pupils. That part I hate, and it is so unpleasant to leave his office and come out into a bright early afternoon light.

All the same, I did squint my way a few blocks to the drug store to get some Valentine's Day candy that we can give to customers in the shop on Saturday.


That's it! And, right next to Cupid's mix was that tiny assortment of the creme eggs. Of course, I could not resist. And ... I also got myself some multi-vitamins. All in balance.

It was amazingly windy today, and I was very glad that the many tall construction projects still underway in the neighborhood all seemed to have all their various equipment and building materials all tied down. Safe journey on the sidewalks this afternoon.

When I got home, I returned to a new year's crochet project, which was started to used up a bunch of left over yarn in various shades of ivory, pink, red, rose, and some other pastels. Very much a Valentines Day shade card.


Of course, starting such a project always leads me to buying more yarns. That is why I will never, never get to the end of my left overs.

This afghan will probably be 10 by10 squares, with each square about 5", with some sort of lacy bit surrounding the squares, once I finally get them connected.

However, that connecting will have to wait, because tomorrow it is back to work. I will leave my television vigil over what this new government of ours might do to get our economy back into positive mode, and which local sports stars might be found out to be liars.

The not-so-new-now owners of this apartment building still are trying to get more than one of the three elevators to work. The ugly painting is still in the lobby.

It is very cosy here tonight, even with the wind blowing fiercely outside. I hope to finish that afghan before true springtime arrives.

May I wish all of my readers a very Happy Valentine's Day. It is a day for sweets, and a day to be sweet. I find it fun to practice being sweet.

Pleasant dreams to all.