Monthly Archives:

May 2013

FaceBook Circa The 1990’s

What if FaceBook had been around in my pre-Andy dating years? The early 20’s of my life, in the late 90’s of the calendar, were embarrassing on a number of fronts, and I would have used far more exclamation points than merited. Some people (including myself) over-share regularly on FB, but I like to think I navigate those treacherous waters farely well. Back then though, I honestly can’t imagine how much trouble would have ensued. If I did, it might go something like this:

September 1994Kissed a man for the first time in my life. What was I thinking?! And wow, stubble is freaking sharp. Like, razor sharp. Like, it BURNS!

November 1994 – I think I just got dumped. And I didn’t even know we were going out.

April 1995 – Yes! This silver lame pantsuit goes perfectly with my silver sequin jacket! But I still need bells for my belt…

May 1995 – Met a man on the train. We exchanged numbers and he called me! He wasn’t wearing underwear either! I don’t know if I like him though.

September 1995 – I am going to have my real estate agent’s babies – I know it! Stalking session tonight. Wish me luck!!

October 1996 – The cute kid in my literature class knows my name! He handed me my paper at the end of class. I love him already!

November 1996 – I probably shouldn’t have made that mix tape and written that love letter and called him ten times in a night. But isn’t that just being honest about my feelings?

February 1997 – I can’t tell if the waiter is in love with me or my sequined vest. Romance is so hard!

February 1998 – He wiped the snow off my car. This is more than a one-night-stand.

March 1998 – Why doesn’t he love me?!?!?

June 1998 – Drinking from a garden hose at 6 in the morning because some guy made me sleep in my car instead of inviting me in. Turns out I punched him.

September 1998 – Since when is drunkenly groping a guy on the couch an hour after we met unattractive? Are we now Victorian?!

May 2000 – In my defense, had I not had that screwdriver in the morning, I would never have had sex with three guys in one day. I just happened to start early.

June 2000 – I think I’m over my slutty phase. No one needs to see their phone number in a bathroom stall.

July 2000 – A summertime P-town fling is just what the doctor ordered! Yay me! And what’s-his-name! I wonder why he hasn’t called…

[I won’t even get into what nonsense I may have Tweeted back then…]

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Anniversary Stroll

As per tradition, Andy and I strolled through the Boston Public Garden in commemoration of our wedding day. It was as gorgeous as the original, if slightly cooler and breezier. This time, though, there was music – and not only the honking of agitated geese at the presence of one too many ducks, or the excited squeals of youngsters at the line of tiny ducklings in the wake of their parents.

As if we’d been transported to another continent, the sounds of an erhu carried on the wind. We traced its origin to a gentlemen sitting on a bench before the pond, and we sat down on a neighboring bench to listen. The music traveled throughout the park, perfectly complementing our walk, and the fluttering of cherry blossoms along the way.

On this particular morning, a straw boater hat provided both aesthetic pleasure and practical function, shielding a bit of the sun from my eyes, and allowing the cool breeze to travel through its woven structure. Though it was Derby Day (an unplanned happy coincidence), the denizens of Boston did not yet seem ready to embrace the hat, at least according to Andy’s tracking of puzzled reactions. No matter. It worked wonders.

The hat was a bigger hit with those at the Bristol Lounge of the Four Seasons. It’s where we had our wedding lunch, and is the only place we return to when revisiting our anniversary spots (I’m saving the original restaurants for a special one – maybe ten or twenty).

As the day unfolded, we walked around the city, enfolded by blooms soft and bold. Another year, and another season, were under way.

 

 

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Happy Anniversary, Andy

Today marks our third wedding anniversary, already well-documented here, but this is my own personal message to my husband, who still reads what I write. We spent a mostly lovely weekend in Boston, where the city was in full bloom. There was a certain pallor over the days, given recent events, but the city is on the mend, and the spirit remains strong.

It is, not surprisingly, one of my favorite times to be in the city. The flowering cherries and crab apples light up the sky, as do the American dogwoods, blooming on their bare limbs in foliage-free derring-do. The tulips are in their prime, and the daffodils, thanks to cool nights, are still hanging on too.

 

Exquisite and enchanting, it’s the stuff of fairy tales ~ or wedding anniversaries. Or both.

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Wedding Anniversary 2013 ~ 5

After a lunch at the Four Seasons, we barely had time to digest and build up some hunger for our final dinner of the festivities, at Mistral. Tying on a bow tie was my exertion for the day.

 

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Madonna at the Met Gala 2013

[We interrupt the anniversary proceedings for this breaking bit of news.]

As I predicted on FaceBook yesterday, Madonna’s latest big-moment was her appearance at this year’s Met Gala. The theme was punk, and she delivered in this clever ensemble that made genius use of fishnet tights (a Madonna staple going back three decades), and a lot of studding. The hair is dramatic, the fit is stellar, and the pink heels give it that bit of Little Edie rebellion that sets it soaring. As with some of her severe looks, I wasn’t sure about this upon first, grainy-photo Instagram inspection, but when the better shots came in, I was convinced, and once again left befuddled at ever having doubted. Nobody does it better. No one ever will.

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Wedding Anniversary 2013 ~ 3

Peonies were in bloom wherever we went, it seemed. The lobby of the Taj was filled with them, and Suzie brought a bunch for a wedding bouquet. (To think I had almost foregone a wedding bouquet… sometimes the Matron of Honor saves the day.) The day dawned, and the sun was in the sky, pouring into our room.

As you can see, the story about me wearing ripped jeans to my wedding was not a tall tale. I’m too short for tall tales.

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Wedding Anniversary 2013 ~ 2

Our guests convened in our hotel suite before a few sidecars at the bar downstairs. Then it was off to the Rehearsal Dinner at the Top of the Hub. (And the last night of a bachelor…)

 

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Wedding Anniversary 2013 ~ 1

The next two days will be filled with several more pre-programmed posts, as Andy and I have only just returned from Boston, and they’re a recap of said event three years ago. No matter what goes on in the world, and no matter where my head is at, looking back to May 2010 always brings me a sense of peace and calm and happiness. It began with our arrival at the Taj, with a suite overlooking the site of the ceremony, the Boston Public Garden.

Rather than re-write history, and make you re-read it, I’m only going to direct you to the original links. Those of you who have already seen it can come back here on May 8…

 

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Parade of Pink Cherry Blossoms ~ 3

The last set of cherry blossom photos, for now, taken in the last sunlight of the day. That golden hour makes many things more beautiful, shading them in a deeper way. The dying light of a day is often its finest.

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Parade of Pink Cherry Blossoms ~ 1

This is the weeping cherry that sits diagonally across from the white cherry previously depicted. Its blossoms are a little fancier, but not quite as fancy or large as the Kwanzan (the last of our cherries to bloom). It strikes a nice balance between the perhaps-too-simple white cherry and the perhaps-too-overwrought Kwanzan.

 

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No Weeping In Gardening

As in baseball, there is no crying in gardening, unless you’re a weeping larch, in which case your tears are more than welcome. This is detail of the specimen I have growing in the side yard. While it looks like an evergreen, those leaves will actually turn bright coppery orange in the autumn, then fall to the ground in deciduous rapture. Right now, they are just beginning their star-like explosion of this soft shade of green. To touch, they are soft and feathery – the complete anti-thesis of a stiff traditional evergreen. I like the trickery in that.

 

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Popping the Backyard Cherries

The cherry trees in the backyard are in their prime and glory, with blooms tumbling off tiers of branches, and petals falling delicately in the wind. In the warmth and sun, they don’t last as long, but the trade-off for the fine weather is more than worth it. I planted this tree when we first moved into our home. Barely five feet tall then, it soon shot up and out. Ten years later it’s about twenty-five feet taller (and in dire need of further pruning, but not until these beautiful blossoms fade).

This is a single-flowered cherry tree, and one of the earliest. It flowers before most of the foliage leafs out fully, lending it an aspect of elegance as the blooms are held starkly against branch and sky. It begins white, changing gradually to the slightest shade of the lightest pink toward the end of its blooming cycle. Fruit – inedible for most folks – will appear later in the season, but it usually gets eaten by the birds before the fall. (In fact, I’ve never seen fruit on the tree once the leaves have fallen, and most is picked off before it’s even ripe.)

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Bark of Coral

The golden hour of the day works its most enchanting magic on something like this coral bark maple, with its chartreuse leaves and new red bark. This was one of the more expensive additions to the garden, but its unique coloration made it worth it every penny. Starting off like this, the leaves will slowly graduate to a deeper green, while the new stem growth is bright red (and reason to keep it judiciously pruned, so more appears each year). In the fall, the leaves turn an intense shade of yellow, before lightening to a pale, ghostly tone, fading almost to white as the frosts begin. In its protected corner, it gets the first and last sunlight of the day – the best illumination for showing off its colorful carriage through the seasons.

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