I love you Charlie Brown!

Why? Because it helped me feel better to watch it last night...you see, I'm in recovery, I have endured a terrible past 8 days...I've been in the worst mood - my only good day was Turkey Day - and there's not been a drop of Holiday Cheer to be found anywhere in my vicinity. I felt like punching old ladies and stealing candy from children and then delighting when they cried. That's evil. But I don't believe in holding back your emotions either - if you suppress it, it just grows and gets worse, so might as well let it go and let it flow away and be gone. Or you can recite the prayer Rosemary says in Rosemary's Baby: "pain be gone, I'll have no more of thee" and smile strangely as if possessed and eat some raw bloody meat and get a really bad haircut and before you know it, the baby kicks and you start to look and feel better and then you watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and smile and want to put up your own Christmas decorations just by waving your hands and arms frenetically and you can decide to start acting like a normal person again and forgive and forget and be happy right now and then - BINGO! You are in recovery.

I'm not being cryptic, really, it was just a work thing, my anger has passed, I won the battle and hopefully - in the long run - the war and really - it's so NOT important. This isn't my life, this is what I do to have money to live my life so if people - such as Little Miss Snot Nose - want to be petty, she can go on and do so. I'm smarter and better than her and she can just leave me out of it because no one steps on my toes without getting them stomped on right back. So. There.

I also need to thank Floating Head for keeping me sane. Saturday I woke up in the midst of the worst of the mood to find I had no hot water and no heat and I just wanted to run and hide somewhere and she let me go to her apartment to do so where we learned how to be fabulous from Kimora - our new best friend and idol - and had soup and tea and mini quiches. Sunday I forced myself out of bed, despite a crappy night's sleep, and out into the cold to yoga at 10 am and then met FH again for noodle soup at Republic, some ring purchasing in Union Square Holiday Market - I splurged on two beautiful rings, one a moonstone - to replace the one I lost - and one of labradorite - and then we went to temple - Buddhist, not Beth Shalom - for a prayer, some incense, and a fortune ... oh please please please Temple Fortune, come only true ... then we had coffee and chatted in Soho but not before seriously considering buying diamond Hello Kitty jewelry at the Baby Phat store (well I came close anyway, its way too expensive for me but still, I luvvvv Hello Kitty...maybe some day I can splurge on something so frivolously adorable).

Also, new song obsession. Well I've had it for awhile, but was unable to find it anywhere since the band Lush is no longer together and their old label 4AD just released their stuff for digital download, but it's "I Have the Moon" which is such a beautiful song, I can't stop listening to it - its originally a Magnetic Fields song - that version is awesome too, just sung in a deeper voice but the Lush one is so pretty and slightly melancholic. As it should be. You can listen to it here

http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/old-favorites-lush/

And of course, here are the lyrics:

We have walked in ancient times

And we've been burned for many crimes

We have ended many lives

But we never really died

You have the sun, I have the moon

You have to fly around the world all day

To keep the sun upon your face

I'd like to come and comfort you

But I'd be blinded by the blue

You have the sun, I have the moon

You're going to die under the sun

And I'll be doomed to carry on

You have become like other men

But let me kiss you once again

You have the sun, I have the moon

So tonight, I'm watching the Grinch and then Ghost Hunters and putting up my tree I think and keep on trying to eradicate the Bad Mood. Its like an illness, you gotta fight it with supergreen drinks and lots of good sleep and pomegranates and no alcohol or junk food.

Gobble gobble - But Let's Be Pigs!!

Lesson learned this Thanksgiving? That to make homemade gravy from turkey drippings, let alone the rest of a really excellent feast, it takes a village. Or in this case, two sisters and one Las Vegas chick. Here's how it breaks down.

You need:
#1 to hold the roasting pan and ferociously whisk the roux into the drippings until it is at the desired thickness/amount and then pour as
#2 holds the gravy boat and strainer as
#3 puts her arms around and in between both 1 and 2 to help spoon it all out and into gravy boat so that none spills.

Keep in mind, all three persons are on their second glass of wine as well.

Result? Yummy Gravy!

But it was fun, lots of giggling and watching (and drooling) over Steve and Grant on the Ghost Hunters marathon (I like Grant, Elba likes Steve), and of course the Eating of the Food. The food was awesome - Ms. Jany is an wonderful hostess and I have to say, her turkey was one of the best I think I've ever had. I baked two pies, an apple and a pumpkin, met Elba on the G ("lady with the pies!"..."where is the rest of the train?") at my train station and then we were off to Forest Hills - she made this sweet potato dish that was yummy - the smell alone needs to be marketed. Perhaps a Pier One Reed and Oil Set in "Essence of Floating Head" in the future? So all of this, plus corn, plus green beans, plus stuffing, plus mashed potatoes with goat cheese, plus plus plus..oooh plus WINE (can't forget that) and even more silliness and giggling. Really, a wonderful day - so thanks to the Lozano-Crespos for including me in their family celebrations - truly one of the best Turkey Days I've had in a long time!

And so, because it takes a village, remember to be thankful for your village...and I am...this has been an utterly CRAPFILLED week and I was not really in the holiday mood but my little village seems to pull through for me when it counts and so thank you thank you thank you - I am blessed with good friends and family, indeed.

Now it's onto removing the crap and moving on and not letting anything or anyone ruin my favorite time o' the year...Christmas is officially ON! And as the saying goes, fake it until you make it and so I'm going to fake my way into the good mood I was in just one week ago and just watch it come back to me.

Oh it's rainy and its cold and I have a sinus headache and I feel slightly hungover...I really can't drink much anymore, can I? I just feel so icky the next day...last night it was just two little beers...ahh but two really tasty beers, I'm here to share with you that this Dogfish craft beer from Delaware - http://www.dogfish.com/ - is just about the best beer I've ever had...Daddy, I'm not sure if you can get this in Las Vegas, but if my supermarket keeps carrying it, I'll bring you a bottle home at Xmas to try... I have the 60 Minute India Pale Ale...Cousin Megan, this should be a Gold Star Winner for Beer Club!

So I had two of these last night while watching the season finale of Ghost Hunters - and they are strong, being craft beers - and woke up this morning feeling tummy troubled and headachy and a bit cracked ...

"There is a crack, a crack in everything...that's how the light gets in"
- Leonard Cohen

I feel smiley though for reasons known and unknown ... I just feel expectant like something good is about to happen but I don't know what it is, it's just around the corner and it keeps peeking over in my direction, sticking its tongue out at me, na na na boo boo, but then it turns and runs the other way whenever I look closely to see what it actually is...I hope I'm right ... at the very least I've got two giant pomegranates on my desk right now that are full of little red juicy seeds of something good...Snow, don't pomegranates make you think of Grandma and Mom making jelly in our kitchen? They did grape too - funny, I don't remember them boiling the grapes down, so I'm assuming they just bought juice - isn't that cheating? - but I loved the pomegranate best of all and it was this big production and assembly line complete with wax seals on the jars and it only happened once a year sort of like the sugar snow in Little House in the Big Woods ... Maple candy! Or pig slaughtering time and Mary and Laura made a balloon with the pig bladder and played with that...do Allie and Jake do that ever? Hee hee hee...

My Daily Good Morning from Daddy and Jakie

I just wanted to share with you the picture that I have as my desktop background at work - so when I login each morning, these goofballs are sticking their tongues out at me in my general direction! I think Snow White should take a picture of both Allie and Jacob making funny faces and then email it to me so I can giggle all day ... or maybe both of them doing Mini-Man!

Not too much going on here that's of much interest to you people out there...I've been busy with work stuff I guess this week and everything has been GO GO GO ... I'm ready for Xmas by the way, usually I'm upset to see Xmas decorations and commercials RIGHT after Halloween but this year they are just making me feel happy that my favorite time of the year is upon us...yes, its almost time to be cutely bundled and sipping hot drinks and laughing merrily as we skip down the street..ok, everything except that last part, I DO NOT skip. But I do enjoy being cutely bundled and my parents seem to like that phrase that I've coined so I'm going to use it nonstop just to bring a chuckle to Chuckie. I bought a SMOKING hot black leather jacket this weekend in a SMALL mind you - so it's tight but I think it looks nice on me - its very fitted. And if I just lose a little more weight it will be really perfection. This week it got colder so it was time to bring out the wool coats as well and I realized how dumpy I felt in my black coat of 5 years. Yes, after five years I think its time to bid you farewell...you never did fit me right, but my cheap (ahem, THRIFTY) soul would not part with you until I could wear you no longer. And so that time has come...a nice new grey double-breasted coat that is so much warmer and looks much nicer on me.

It will in the 40's this weekend, so I'll have lots of chances to wear it - Saturday is yoga, followed by Healthy Lunch (maybe Floating Head?), followed by more shopping to Rid Self of Dumpiness, then out to Forest Hills for Girls Movie Night where we shall watch Spaceballs with lots of silliness and some liquor. Sunday I hope to go to yoga again, then - and I'm super excited about this - I'm taking a Sacred Jewelry class at the Rubin- Himalayan art - museum. Here's the description of the class:

"Go from concept to finished piece. Class begins with a gallery tour to explore the traditional colors, designs and sacred meanings of Himalayan jewelry. Working with beads and stones from the region, bring to life your own sacred jewelry, and leave wearing a beautiful piece."

Cool, yes? I KNOW! I'll take a photo of my finished piece and let you all know how it turned out!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! MWWAHHHHHHAHAHAHA!!

That's my evil laugh by the way... in case you couldn't tell... may you all make it safely across the covered bridge tonight, away from the Headless Horseman and Brom Bones ...





And Snow White! Do you remember this record that we had when we were little? I saw this on someone else's blog and he was writing about how this was so scary to listen to and how it started him loving Edgar Allen Poe stories - remember they had the wind howling and whistling in between stories? I remember turning off all the lights and listening to this with you...the Headless Horseman was scary fun and so was the Tell-Tale Heart....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

"A terrorist is the product of our education that says that fantasy is not real, that says aesthetics is just for artists, that says soul is only for priests, imagination is trivial or dangerous and for crazies, and that reality, what we must adapt to, is the external world, a world that is dead. A terrorist is a result of this whole long process of wiping out the psyche."
~ James Hillman

And along those lines, please check out the Museum of Make-Believe http://www.ruinedeye.com/MOMB/MAKEB.htm

Vron, if you go to the second floor, you can check out Baba Yaga's comb! And Mom, also on the second floor, you can see the Little Match Girl's apron...the saddest fairy tale of them all...

I'm having a good day by the way ... can't say exactly why - shhhh its a secret - but I am and I hope the good vibes in the air are flowing out to all of you reading this now ... its rainy and cloudy and chilly this morning, as it should be, finally, at last, the fall weather seems to be here to stay and that means that winter isn't far off and we all know I'm happiest when its cold outside and the snow is falling and Christmas is upon us and I can bundle up and drink hot cocoa with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head ... and here's a recipe for sugarplums wouldn't you know it ... http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec74.htm

Well my second favorite team is now in the World Series! Aren't I lucky, I can still enjoy baseball even if the Mets don't make it into the playoffs...I love the Red Sox too so I watched the past couple of games happily - favorite players? Jonathan Papelbon and Mike Lowell...I just like their whole vibe - even Manny Ramirez doesn't bother me...so as much as I like the Rockies - I always have to cheer for the underdog, you know - my heart is for Boston and so it goes...

So, you know, this weekend was quite busy apart from BaseballGameWatching ... Saturday I saw Elizabeth the Golden Age and had a funky dinner in Astoria - Turkish/Argentinian - how's that for a mix? They had this delicious dish called Red Sonja, made out of red lentils that you scooped up with lettuce and this yummy as hell dessert - semolina and honey with some vanilla ice cream and pistachios and walnuts and almonds. Yum indeed. Sunday, I was proud of myself. Yoga has returned to the schedule and we almost had a private class, just me and Floating Head - finally two other people showed up and I felt very stiff and creaky and today I'm a touch sore since its been so long but I made it back and lets make a promise that its back for good. Then it was brunch time with Jany at East of Eighth and some shopping and walking around and all in all - a good weekend.

ALSO. I must mention - although I plan to send an actual thank you of some sort - I have to do a blog shout out to Vron and Larisa. I LOVED LOVED LOVED your gifts - and your "gifts" a.k.a. TALENTS. The paintings were so wonderful, seriously, I was really touched that you took the time to make me something so beautiful and I'm framing them and putting them on the wall effective immediately. Also a bit inspiring too, because I've been wanting to try painting and sketching - so maybe I'll send you some NicoleArt someday - but most likely it will look like this:

See, that's me and Veronica flying a kite last October when she was visiting. And the sun is shining. Just know that. Larisa, should I add action sparks?

BOO! All are welcome to the Scary Spirit of Halloween!

I’m so in it…I decorated my apartment, I bought pumpkins for carving, I put up cobwebs, orange lights, bats, black candles - Snow, I hung the glow in the dark Mr. Bones you sent me!!! It’s in my hallway and if you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, its right across from the toilet to scare you! But most importantly, I’ve decorated my office … this is all to bring back the Spooky but Fun Spirit of Halloween back into my life. Not that it was ever really missing but I kind of felt like well, I don’t have kids so why am I decorating or baking or making a jack o’lantern, etc, but one of the gifts that was given to me by my parents was a very magical childhood that went hand in hand with a love of celebrating holidays and that you are never too old to enjoy them and somehow I’ve missed that gift of mine the past couple of years. For example, my mom was one of those people who dyed everything green on St Patrick’s Day – we’d wake up to green oatmeal, green OJ, and some holiday appropriate treat to bring to eat at school, like cupcakes, and she’d get out our shamrock pin so we wouldn’t get pinched (or Snow, do you remember those pins we had that would swivel open and there was solid perfume underneath?) and we ALWAYS ate corned beef and hash and potatoes for dinner that night.

So to honor the Spirit of the Parents Who Are Still Young At Heart, I brought in a fun candy bowl with a hand that grabs you and says spookily “want some candy?” and some other decorations and last night I made mini cupcakes and decorated them in Halloween colors and guess what? Everyone here is laughing a LOT, smiling a LOT, and is in a good mood … and do you know is having the most fun? ME. That’s the secret I think that my parents knew all these years – its fun to watch other people get a kick out of the little things you do, its fun to watch other people laugh and scream at a silly spooky bowl, and if a tiny cupcake can make someone more friendly or have a better day, then why wouldn’t I feel good too?

So there you go, lesson for the day from Joyce and Charlie - if you make someone feel good, you’ll end up feeling good as well. They would also like you to know that they will be celebrating Oktoberfest next week, so drop on by if you are in the neighborhood, but don’t you DARE bring any guacamole – it’s not German!! Wear your lederhosen should you be so inclined and to really get a laugh out of them, knock on their door and announce in your best Clark Griswold voice, "My family and I are looking for sex"!

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

--Walt Whitman