i found this unpublished so i will quickly share. i went to NYC in the spring of 2024, and these are a few of the pictures from the trip!
	this is what happened to my sunglasses through the TSA checkpoint. thanks a lot, government goons! LOL i know, i know - they didn't break the sunglasses....on purpose.... (i did throw them away after this... sadsauce)
i snapped this shot because this guy has a hard hat carabinered to his backpack. what kind of badass job does he have?? might have to strap one to my backpack next time through the airport just to look badass like this guy.
	biscoff and ginger ale for the eternal airplane snack WIN!
the welcome to new york sign!!           laguardia, i love you so.
	the view directly out my hotel window = the chrysler building!! incredible, for reals.
art deco chrysler building -- lovely details.
	on the rainy ride back to the airport, we passed the united nations building. posh, posh.
laguardia has been all gussied up. if you have been there lately, you know that it is much more chic than the urban bus station that it used to be... however, just peer out the window to be reminded that it is built on a swamp!
	🡨 🡨 🡨 🡨 ubiquitous take off shot. rainy.
ubiquitous approach shot. sunny. 🡪 🡪 🡪 🡪

books 2025

* = book club book

	audio books harry potter and the half-blood prince (stephen fry) - jk rowling (started in 2024)
	paper books the thursday murder club - richard osman (not yet finished since 2024)
	ebooks an echo in the bone - diana gabaldon (not yet finished since 2022/3)

books 2024

* = book club book

	audio books harry potter and the half-blood prince (stephen fry) - jk rowling harry potter and the order of the phoenix (stephen fry) - jk rowling harry potter and the goblet of fire (stephen fry) - jk rowling harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban (stephen fry) - jk rowling the body on the shore - nick louth the body in the marsh - nick louth vermillion drift - william kent krueger heaven's keep - william kent krueger red knife - william kent krueger thunder bay - william kent krueger harry potter and the philosopher's stone (stephen fry) - jk rowling copper river - william kent krueger the museum of ordinary people - mike gayle* mercy falls - william kent krueger blood hollow - william kent krueger purgatory ridge - william kent krueger boundary waters - william kent krueger iron lake - william kent krueger this tender land - william kent krueger harry potter and the sorcerer's stone - jk rowling the fireground - dervla mctiernan weavers' way - david blake long gore hall - david blake storm force - david blake the wherryman - david blake horsey mere - david blake three rivers - david blake moorings - david blake st benet's - david blake broadland - david blake one-way tickets - peter grainger lane - peter grainger another girl - peter grainger missing pieces - peter grainger roxanne - peter grainger on eden street - peter grainger songbird - peter grainger the camera man - peter grainger the truth - peter grainger a private investigation - peter grainger the secret book of flora lee - patti callahan henry * time and tide - peter grainger the rags of time - peter grainger in this bright future - peter grainger persons of interest - peter grainger luck and judgement - peter grainger but for the grace - peter grainger an accidental death - peter grainger the running grave - robert gailbraith remarkably bright creatures - shelby van pelt * ink black heart - robert galbraith troubled blood - robert galbraith surrender, new york - caleb carr
	paper books the thursday murder club - richard osman
	ebooks an echo in the bone - diana gabaldon

am i tho

sitting at starbucks like a grown-up, trying not to watch the clock and think about constraints, but instead to enjoy the feeling of coffeeshopness. 

wondering why blogger indents the first line of any post by one spaceband. not the beginning of every paragraph... merely the first line of the entire post. by one single spaceband. automatically. every time.

listening to laurie r king's "lantern's dance", the 18th in the mary russell & sherlock holmes series. the first in the series, "the beekeeper's apprentice", was published in 1994. that's at once pretty recent and unbelievably far in the past. 30 years. crazy, actually.

trying to ignore the woman next to me... pull out the chair, pull it in. fidget with belongings, be still. get up, sit down. 

wondering if wearing kurta pajama would be cultural appropriation, and if that matters. can't we all just share the best of our cultures with each other? people all over the world wear NYY ball caps. isn't that appropriating american culture? maybe that doesn't count because america is a melting pot or maybe sharing isn't such a bad thing. 

maybe i am just old.

 

turn the lights back on

ICYMI the inimitable billy joel has produced a new song. 

back in the day, i got my albums via the columbia record & tape club. cr&tc was truly a racket based on the human inability to remember to say "no" via postcard once per month, and simultaneously, it was a cost-effective way to get recordings delivered right to the door. each month when my new billy joel or jackson brown or james taylor or dan fogelberg or supertramp or david bowie or reo speedwagon or eagles or cat stevens or barry manilow album would arrive, i'd put it on the stereo record player i'd saved money to buy from zayre's and i'd play it over and over and over again, with the lyrics (inevitably printed on the liner notes) in my lap, singing along and memorizing the lyrics, melody, and pocket.

some singers stay firmly in the pocket. the eagles, for example, due to the requirements of both tight harmony and the simple act of singing at the same time, stay in the pocket. barry manilow stays in the pocket...i don't have music theory training, so i can't say why he does this exactly, but it's got to do with the sound he's trying to produce. james taylor stays pretty much in the pocket as well. jackson browne tends to drag slightly behind the pocket, which i am guessing is due to his being sort of bluesy.

nearly always, billy joel gets ahead of the pocket. this makes it a real challenge to sing along, because you have to anticipate. eventually, i got pretty good at memorizing his timing, which can be like memorizing lyrics. it does make it difficult to just pick up one of his songs, but it's a fun kind of puzzle to get it right. 

i haven't taken the time with the new song to really get it down. i want to do so, but you know, life is so different when you're a grown up...not different bad or anything, just that time gets allocated in ways that seem to stymie hours-long sessions pounding one song in the ol' cranium.

i did notice that during the piano solo, there is a touch of "italian restaurant". did he do that on purpose? a tie-in from that song seems to fit thematically. 

in conclusion, i'm convinced all this singing along with men in the vocally formative years of my youth resulted in my being an alto. i mean, right?

i covet your thoughts on this matter.

1 = i have dry hair and dry skin. partially age-related (get off my lawn!) and partially just the luck of the genetic draw. 

2 = this winter, we went hiking a couple times. very cold and very fun. upon returning to the domicile from these frigiventures, i partook of steaming hot showers. i mean, steaming. steaming hot. so hot it felt cold. (have you ever experienced water so hot it feels cold? just me? mmkay.)

1 + 2 = my skin literally falling off like flakes of snow. body dandruff. 

wups.

to repair the skin damage, my aesthetician (yes, i have one of those [not actually personally owned, but you know... mine]) recommended nivea - the nivea that's like paste in a pot. i am very familiar with this product, having slathered it liberally upon my visage since college (a couple years ago) (lol).

but i figured, if i had done this kind of damage to my skin, probably something similar had been done to my hair. simultaneouswise, target had one of those offers like "spend X dollars on beauty shizzle in the app and get a $5 target gift card!!!!!!!" so, i shopped up some cucumber + mint vegan volumizing shampoo and conditioner which is "thoughtfully made" and promises weightless clean volume and declares itself paraben-free in no less than two of the eight descriptive bullet points on the product page.

impressive.

received product. placed in shower. used. obtained benefits. (also, it smells great!)

now...i already have a 2-in-1 shampooditioner leftover from summertime when the living is easy, which had been pushed aside for the separate shampoo & conditioner procured in autumn when the living becomes more complex. with short hair, these products can last for months, so i already have three bottles (jars? containers?) of hair product in the shower, and here come two more. 

the ish is that i don't have room for all this. the conundrum is what to do with the unused portions of the previous solutions. do i put it back in the closet and pretend i am going to use it again sometime? leave it in the shower to continually shame myself for being wasteful? throw it out?

i would really like to take door number three, but can't make myself. it would be gloriously freeing and also naughtily wasteful - which combines to make it sound fantastically fun. but i just can't seem to bring myself to have that much fun.

i covet your thoughts on this matter.

perambulators perambulate

in an earlier season of my life, i hung out in an online space where runners chatted about running stuff and tossed around phrases like "runners run" - a wisdom disguised as an inanity, equal parts well durr and HELLS TO THE YES. in those days, it wouldn't be unusual for me to put in 9 miles in one lunch hour (or so) - 3 miles to the park, 3 miles speed work, 3 miles back...my job was very different then, and my running much quicker. 

my job changed. our offices moved and instead of in a secluded alcove, i was working in a glass box. that and the larger team signaled increased responsibility. i could not in good conscience take expansive lunch hours.

my ability changed. i was diagnosed with asthma, battled tendonitis, took the skin off my right knee thrice across so many years - tripped while running. the last time, there was legit doubt that i had enough knee skin (as opposed to scar tissue) to enable skin to grow back. it did grow back thank goodness because getting butt skin grafted onto my knee did not seem a promising route. 

then there was the pandemic. rather than my tediously detailing the derailing, i'll just say that job, office, running, and family were all significantly disrupted, maybe not in that order. 

during that time, though, i did discover real joy in walking. well, walking and audiobooks. this is my balm, my rejuvenation, my joy. give me 3 miles and a narrator with no goofy vocal habits. ahh.

here recently, however, 3 isn't enough. i want 4 or 5 or more. the other day i miscalculated my route and did 7.5 and loved it, no regrets. the books are still part of it - undeniably - but i can listen to books sitting on my ass. the mileage craving is a thing unto itself. 

we'll see where it takes me - literally and figuratively - but i don't care about the ends. i don't have goals at this point...right now, it's just me and the mileage. 

why? c'mon. you know why. 

perambulators perambulate.