Monthly Archive

Got my Thursday Thirteen up.  This week I chose to write about 13 wishes.

And this week’s Photo Hunt theme is art.  It’s going to be so hard to choose pictures for that one. 

Retail has just about screeched to a halt; looks like the whole town is broke.

she who blogs has two more members; picture me doing a happy little dance.

As I’ve told you I always like to start new projects during a full moon, so  tonight I will begin working on a companion blog for the group.

Stay tuned.

the month that is - I don’t think I know anyone named May - do I?

From what I’m reading online there is a Blue Moon coming up tomorrow night.

I usually like to start new projects during a full moon, so let’s see what I get myself into by tomorrow night.

Retail is phenomenally slow today; end of the month uusually means no money left.

Sending my best from New York,

Frances

A few drops of rain fell as I was heading for the bus station this morning, but by time I got to Jersey it was blue skies.

The plan is to put in a few hours before I head back to the city to meet up with friends for dinner.

Just sent another invite out - I’m too excited about this Group.   Don’t you love the sense of community on the Internet?   Let me tell you  online buddies are there for you.

Speaking of online buddies I have a few e-mails I want to write.

Hey, didn’t I say I  wanted to put in a few hours ?  Looks like they will be online hours hehehe

Everyone give yourself a great big hug!

Sculpture In Union Square Park - I call it Deranged Rabbit with Tamborine

Flower in Union Square Park

Union Square park is a little green oasis right in one of the middle of one of the city’s busiest areas.

On the way to Park Slope

View from F train wndow

This leaf just plopped right on my bag, so I snapped it!

Sunday afternoon.
My favorite coffeebar.
Managed to score the curtained off little corner all to myself.
Music playing on the sound system is totally tolerable.

Last night at Starbucks the crew declared  it Salsa Night, and pumped the volume. My guess - the manager went home early. 

I was a heartbeat from jumping on the train today, and heading out to Coney Island. But the subways schedules stink on Sunday, and everyone with two or more children has the same idea anyway.  The place will be overrun. Maybe I’ll take a day during the week, and just do it.

I love this place.  It’s privately owned, and the fearless leaders furnished it with old sofas and overstuffed chairs from the Goodwill or something.  The curtained off corner that I’m in has several beat up old wing chairs set around a small coffeetable.  One side of the table looks like someone or thing gnawed at it for quite a while.  Do folks keep beavers as pets I wonder.
The curtains hanging from iron pipe driven into explosed brick create a golden sort of glow.  I feel like a kid again.  My brother and I used to stretch sheets over chair backs to create secret rooms.  I am totally without scheduled activity this afternoon.  Just want to chill.

Going to spend the better part of tomorrow afternoon sending out invites to the group.
I made a little logo out of a font called Chick.  I just loved the way the words looked in it.  You can see it in my previous post.
Think I’ll just sit back and listen to the music.
Better not close my eyes for too long; the staff may find me snoring soon.

Cut to F Train roaring toward Brooklyn; headed for Park Slope to meet best buddy. We spoke while I was coffeebar, and decided to meet up for dinner.

 
On the way downtown the 6 train skip stopped, so I landed in Union Square - told you subways stink on Sunday.
 Took a quick walk through the park, and grabbed a couple of pictures.

Cut to bench in Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Got here early so I could sit in park and work a bit on my writing. Going to spend the next hour working on Life Story. Printed up a free writing course I found online. Will be back manana to tell you about it.
Adios

And I have been sending invites out to all you wonderful women.

I’ve had to leave a few invites in comments which is not my preferred method, but not everyone lists an e-mail link.

Understandable since listing one often leads to massive piles of caca in our inboxes.

I’ve put a join up link in my sidebar, so feel free visit to visit.

Wishing you all a good holiday weekend.

And before I go I hope you’ll take a moment to remember all the wonderful servicemen and women, past and present, who have and will continue to guard our shores.

Visit Group Page Here

I’m hungry.  Not a slight rumble in my tummy hungry, but slightly wild-eyed fiending for comfort food hungry.
You can read more about that at my weight loss blog.
My Saturday Photo Hunt is up.
And I am wondering what the theme will be for Sunday Scribblings.
Looking forward to visiting as many of you as I can.
Waving at you from New York.

Last night I opened a new Yahoo Group.  I’m in Starbucks right now, and as soon as I finish this post I will work on the group’s description. There are a few lines there for now, but I want to replace them with something with a bit more voltage.  The group is for women who blog.  It’s called She Who Blogs, and I will be inviting all the wonderful women bloggers who I read to join me.  And I hope they’ll invite all the women whose blogs they visit to join too.  I

From where I’m sitting I can see the bathroom door, and the neverending line in front of it.  Whoever is in there is taking their sweet time; there’s a woman in a black & white sundress at the head of the line, clutching a passion ice tea, and looking like she about to tear that door off it’s hinges with her teeth.  Must have had one too many refills I guess.

I took today off.  Yes, I know there has been a lot of that going on, but I needed to take care of an errand that’s been put off far too long.  It’s done, so no need to worry anymore.  And I’m not taking the holiday weekend off.

I’m loving the view right in front of me.  There’s a man just sat down with the Sports Thursday section and a hot & sour soup from the Chinese restaurant.  Did Starbucks hang up a public space sign or what?

See you all later.

Successfully dodged the pigeons, and made it to the bus station.  It’s like a paintball tournament every morning. 

On the bus now, I love the ride across the George Washington Bridge.  Every morning brings some small change from the day before.  One day it’s storm clouds stampeding across the sky, and the next cotton candy clouds and streaks of silver.

One of my biggest disappointments ever: no photography is allowed on the bridge.  If it were I’d probably walk across every day just to take photos.

Off the bus and at IHOP.  I’ve had a craving for hominy grits for days now.  The waiter just knows I’m in from the city because I asked for the check with the food.  It can take longer to pay the check in some places, than it does to eat the meal.  My grapefruit juice is a sort of tropical pink; it’s looks just like a Sex on the Beach.  If only it were!

Let’s see how this all tastes.  See you all later.

Day’s End

Waiting for the bus to take me back into New York. 

Things were fairly quiet today.

Got my Thursday Thirteen up early.  I made a list of 13 Things I’d like to get done before New Years Eve.  One of which is get myself a real pen pal.  As much as I love the wonders of e-mail, every once in a while I long to write a real pen to paper letter.  I’m sure there’s someone out there who would like to do the same. 

Will probably sit in Starbucks when I get back to the city & work on something for Blogforth. 

Been hankering to write about my childhood - definitely wouldn’t be I Remember Mama-like that’s for sure.  My Italian grandmother was a combination of Golden Girl’s Sophia & Everybody Loves Raymond’s Marie.  Well, actually she was as maniacal about a clean house as Marie, but more like Frank personality-wise. Funny thing is I miss her so much.  You could count on that woman.

It’ll be interesting to see what I come up with.

Ciao for now.
 

Just finished working on one of my writing projects.  One of my dreams is to write and star in a play I’ve written.  I also want to produce, direct, design the poster and ads, sell the tickets, direct the audience to their seats, and then invite them all over afterwards for coffee.

  Over the last couple of years I’ve made tons of notes, worked on an outline, and even got some dialogue down.  But today it actually began to take a form.  I even came up with a title.  Titles are funny.  Sometimes you hear something, and realize it would make a perfect title.  You haven’tÿot a story yet, but you’ve got a title.  I’ve had the idea for this particular play for two years now, and could not come up with a title until this afternoon, when it just fell from my fingertips.

The project consists of three short plays.  The weird thing is I’m going to die in all three.  Dare I ask: is this overkill?  Sorry I just couldn’t resist.  Years ago I read somewhere that actors hate working with kids, and love to die on stage/screen.  It’s just that the stories work better when I kick off in them.
 

NEO



Cleopatra’s Needle, Central Park



Stairway, Central Park



Sax Player, Central Park



Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Woke up with my eyes killing me, and my heart in need of art, so I took the day off.  Maybe my eyes would be better if I took two seconds to put on my glasses before spending hours online reading and writing.

This post is being written on my NEO; it’s our first time out together.  It’s the greatest.  Lightweight.  No need to carry a power cord; it runs on batteries.  No eyestrain; the screen has a black and green thing going on, and the font is blessedly clear and large.

My camera is along for the ride. This week’s  Saturday Photo Hunter’s theme is colorful, and I want to get some nice pics for my first post in weeks and weeks.

I’m in one of my favorite Upper East Side coffee bars.  Just had a light lunch, especially necessary after Sunday’s mega carb, calorie & fat overload.

In a little while I’m going to go to Barnes & Nobles for some juice, and a major magazine reading session.  And yes, I am wearing my glasses.  Barnes & Nobles allows customers to sit for hours reading anything they wish.  I’ve seen college students writing term papers at the tables that are set up around the store.  They use as many B&N books as they like without even a sideways glance from the staff.

I always order something in the cafe; I figure it’s the least I can do for all the magazines I’ll get to read free.

Actually I usually leave with at least one magazine purchase anyway.

I haven’t read the entire NEO instruction book yet.  I’m working on instinct today.  There are eight places to store projects, and I am sure there are ways to add more.  I’ve been working on and off on a couple of plays and I will store each in it’s own file.

One file will be for blog entries like this, which I’ll upload to my laptop and post later.

I especially want to work on some creative writing for Blogforth.  Trying to do my creative writing on my laptop doesn’t work for me; the call of e-mail and other online goodies is too strong.

Writing in my beloved notebooks is always wonderful, but I never get around to copying it from notebook to blog.  And honestly, sometimes I can’t read my own writing.

Another great thing about the NEO is that every thing you write is automatically saved.  I just had to do a ladies room run.  With the laptop I would have had to unplug it from wall, close the laptop, put it and the cord in my bag, and lug it all to ladies room.  People will watch your stuff for you, but I worry more about someone spilling their drink on my machine than stealing it.

The NEO just required me to hit off, and stuff it in my tote.  Too cool.  When I got back, I pulled it out of my tote, propped it on my kn, hit on and I was back where I left off in seconds.

I just tried the spellcheck feature out - guys I’m in love - and it’s serious.

Okay, now we’re in Central Park and it’s simply gorgeous out today.  The benches are lined with sunbathers, couples and people talking on cell phones.  Here in New York every available bit of outdoor seating becomes a mini office.  Everywhere you look someone is on a Blackberry, Treo or wi-fi. 
Hey folks, it’s a high speed society that demands instant communication & entertainment.

Cell phones have multi-megapixel cameras, video recorders, navigation software, tracking capabilities, e-mail and web browsing capabilities, and mp3 players.  People have to go everywhere with their chargers, because by time they use all the extra goodies on their phones there’s no more juice left for a phone call. 

We’re using a lot of expenive stuff on us these days, and it’s not just electronics..   I was in a store recently, and a man was wheeling his bike around shopping.  I remarked; “Nice bike, I wouldn’t leave it outside either.” He told me it cost $7,000! For a bike!
Wow!

Then again I know I’ve spent more than that on computers, software, cameras and cell phones in the last couple of years. 

As I sitting here on this bench aka my mini-office people are glancing at the NEO as they walk by.  I know why they’re staring; I’d never seen anything but a picture of one till it was delivered.  I know they’re wondering what “new” thing I’ve got that they don’t.  Welcome to the 21st Century folks.
 

Yes, I know I had one yesterday, but I need another.

I want to spend an entire day at my favorite coffeebar writing on my new Neo.

Yesterday’s day off was spent walking all over the city.  My Jersey friend likes to walk too, and we covered a lot of ground.  I didn’t bring the camera, because I wanted to give my full attention to the conversation.  You know me  - I would be stopping every two minutes to take a picture.

If you’d like to read my Sunday Scribbling please go to Blogforth

Everyone Have A Wonderful Monday Morning!

 UPS delivered my NEO today.

It’s so lightweight; they say it’s two pounds, but it feels like it weighs just two ounces.

We put the batteries in, and it was ready to go!

And the best part is it will fit easily into most of my bags.

Now for the good-bye pictures part.

Yesterday I took a day off, and walked a total of ten miles around New York City.

My Fuji was loaded with pictures; my favorite was of a pair of fabulous sky blue go-go boots a woman was wearing near Trump Tower.  When I got home I discovered that my camera’s storage card had somehow become unformatted.  The pictures were not salvagable.  I’ve since reformatted the card, but so mourn the loss of those pics.

Hopefully those sky blue go-go boots and I will meet up again soon.

How are all of you?

make me crazeeeeeeeeeeee!

For some reason I seem to lock myself out of a certain credit card every other month.

Not any of the others - just that one.

Customer service must have a special note on my account by now.

And I don’t like to write down these things down for obvious reasons.

So tell me how do you remember yours?

Reopened The Meme Section

Working on Blogforth

Longing to see the UPS man walk in with my new Neo.

Taking tomorrow off.

What’s up with you?

Made a major ebay purchase.

Cost me a nickel.

Yup, I kid you not.  I bought one of my all-time favorite reads for just five cents; a first edition paperback of The Unoriginal Sinner & The Ice Cream God by John R. Powers.

The shipping and handling charges were three bucks and change - still a  bargain.

I could tell the seller appreciate books by how carefully it was wrapped.  In addition to a bubble-wrap envelope, the book was carefully wrapped in a sheet of wax paper.

John R. Powers like me grew up Catholic.   He did his time in Chicago, me in New York.

I had been wanting to re-read that book for a long time, but couldn’t find it in any stores.  So I decided to do what most of America is doing, and search for it on ebay.  One copy turned up,  it was one of those Buy It Nows so I did.

I’m saving it for a quiet evening.

How are all of you?

My own daughter could not be with me this Mother’s Day.

Her own plate is overflowing; she just moved to another city, had a recent bout of sciatica, and this week her mother-in-law’s husband required major surgery without warning.  And to top it all off the dog has to have surgery too! 

Fortunately they found a wonderful apartment in the new city.  She came through the sciatica well,and hopefully it won’t happen again.  Her mother-in-law’s husband’s surgery went smoothly, and he was released from the hospital on his birthday.  And the dog’s surgery is a simple procedure. 

Yesterday one of my neighbors came to visit me. She’s a beautiful woman in her late 60’s, who doesn’t speak much English. My Spanish is the worst on the planet, but on a lucky day I can make myself understood. About a month ago she had a problem with an item she ordered on the telephone. Even though the company had a Spanish customer service department, things just weren’t going right. The great thing about Spanish customer service is that all the operators are bilingual. I gave them a call and managed to get her a new item. Yesterday out of gratitude she brought me the most beautiful Mother’s Day bouquet.

Today one of my daughter’s best friends invited me out to an early dinner with her and her mom. My husband, who has church all day, will take me out for something late tonight. I love a midnight excursion for food.

Well, let me go find something to wear. 

May the Universe send  each and every one of you something marvelous today!

Bought myself a new little toy

It’s going to be a lot easier to carry around than my laptop.

And I won’t be distracted by email and such while I am working.

Later folks.

Caught the latest Spidey spectaular.

Very cool villains.

Thomas Hayden Church was the Sand Man, and Topher Grace Venom.

The special effects move fast in this one.

I spent half the film with my stomach lodged somewhere in my throat.  Every time Spiderman drops starts swinging off those buildings my fear of heights kicks in.

Definitely worth seeing.

Official Site

Today I set forth to brave the crowds and that special madness that is only found in New York City department stores.

My summer uniform is capris and sandals, and what was in my closet was just not going to take me through September.

I made a mental list: khaki, black, navy and some sort of green capris & two pair of slip on sandals. 

A long walk through Central Park was necessary to relax my mind, and limber up the bod; it can get rough.

Burlington on 23rd usually has a decent selection of  capris in my size.  The trick is check the rack from end to end, and if you can;t find what you want start checking the floor under the rack.  Sure enough the navy and black capris were waiting for me on the carpet.  The tan were actually hanging neatly on the rack along woth several shades of green.  I went with sort of a seafoam that would look good with crisp white t-tops.

I bought one wild set.  A white t-short with cute muti-colored thong sandals embroidered on the front; the matching capris were tangerine and embroidered with tiny thong sandals.  That is my going to Coney Island on a Sunday outfit.

After I left Burlington I strolled down to 7th, and thought about where I might find sandals.  My feet have always been wide, so I don’t have the fun most women have shoe shopping.  Don’t know what made me try K-mart, but I’m glad I did they had two pair of Cobbie Cuddlers that fit me perfectly!  And they were on sale.   And the line wasn’t long.  And I swear I almost cried with joy.

Here’s some pics from my walk in Central Park - this area is known as the Boat Pond:

Well, not this very minute,  but I’ll be out of the apartment in about an hour or so.

Wish I could sleep ten hours every night, usually I wake up within six hours no matter what.

I needed the Motrin because I think I stayed in one position for almost the whole ten hours.  Owwww!

My Sunday Scribbling is up at my creative efforts blog. 

You know any day I expect to hear about  12 step program for blog-a-holics.

My name is Frances and I am a blog-a-holic. 

I have a photoblog

I have a creative efforts blog

I have a blog just for memes (due to reopen this week)

I’m currently working on a new fictional blog, and a blog just about what’s going on in New York.

There’s also a weight loss blog that I kept this past month; I’m revamping that one; you’ll have a link soon.

Yup, folks I got a bad case of blog-a-holism.  Actually constantly reworking my blogs over the years has been great.   You know when I createdmy first little page at women.com years ago I didn’t even know how to make a parargraph tag.  Everything just ran together in one huge block of text! 

Shortly after that I discovered HTML tags and went crazeeee.  The number of animated gifs on that first page was astonishing.  I even found a bit of javascript that allowed visitors to change the page color.  Wished I’d saved it so you all could see it.

Time to go enjoy my day off.

You all take care.

I’ll should be back soon with pics and details.

Wow, I missed all of you.

How are you?

My 30 Day Project is over.  Actually it is not really over, but going into a second phase.  I spent April on a weight loss/gain health plan.  By the 30th I had lost 15 pounds and 30 inches, which included four and a half from my waist, four from my hips, and two from each thigh.  Some great products from a company called Isagenix helped me a lot.  I’m going to continue using a few on an ongoing basis.

I’m going to continue keeping a separate weight loss blog; you’ll find a link here soon.

Hey, I went to Philly for the afternoon on Sunday, and then on to Atlantic City in the evening.

Here’s some pics:

click on them for a larger view