POWER

GIRL POWER

 GAY POWER

 BLACK POWER

 POWER BAR

POWER WALK

  POWER OUTAGE

Yesterday, people in San Diego truly understood the definition of having no power:  no lights, no traffic lights,no cell phones, no computer.

Henry came home and found me reading my kindle by candlelight...there is a sad irony here.

MARY QUANT, THE BEATLES (1963), AND ME

What do they have in common...my new haircut.

That and the fact that I probably have a Courreges color blocked A-line dress and a pair of white knee boots somewhere in the closet!

'Nuffield said.

LET'S HAVE A CUPPA..

We have lived here for 11 years.  Every day when I drive in the garage, I zip by a little box filled with mugs, mugs that for some reason I have hung on to through the years (many).  I decided to take a look and see WHY? 
Small print---I did not wash any of these because I figured I would not be able to throw them away.

 
This was my favorite cup since college...and I graduated in 1972. 

• Lipton teabag
• Steeped 12 minutes
• Nuked for 50 seconds
• Add cream and sweet an low
• Perfection!!!

When pigs fly???
Why did I keep this?

This was purchased at the first Origins store in the United States in Harvard Square--"A mother's nature is a force to be reckoned with.."

No kidding!

 If it's in sight it must be right!

The slogan of Steak and Shake...other than rhyming I have never figured out what they mean...but I could use one of their orange shakes right now.  Found this in a vintage shop in NY.

I bought it.
It says Clifford.
How could I throw it out.

Spencer, of course!

A mini mug for Cliffy to have his coffee in when he was little.

When Cliff was little he loved Murder, She Wrote.  We would cuddle up on Sunday nights and watch it.  My favorite was when he turned to me and said....I don't think I would like to be her friend, they all end up dead.



There were 20 cups in all...I think I began saving them when I decided to do broken shard mosaics.  Some I saved for sentiment, some for color.  I just want you to know that I repacked the box and threw them out!!!

Well almost all of them

How could anyone throw this out, especially when I saw the back...

IT BEARS REPEATING...

This the reason you live in San Diego....the true beauty of where we live.

My friend Melinda and I (dear me, when will I learn to turn sideways for a photo) go exploring once a week...maybe a movie, but always food.  Like an old married couple, we have begun to dress alike, eat the same things at the same places, do the same thing every week.

We begin with brunch at the Coffee Cup in LaJolla. The night before I begin thinking about the wonderful Papas Loco (Crispy rosemary potatoes grilled with jalapenos, onions, tomatoes, black beans, jack cheese, cilantro, flour tortillas and a side of sour cream--minus the cheese and the sour cream, if I can resist)...but by the time I get there I find myself ordering the Blackberry Banana Pancakes, keeping in mind that I do not like pancakes at all.  Melinda gets the Coffee Cup French Toast which is  made with fresh baked cinnamon bread garnished with
blueberry puree & powdered sugar. 



We always say we don't ever eat French Toast/Pancakes (and we don't).

We always complain about our seat and move.

We always complain to each other about the service, which is probably a result of complaining about our seat and moving.

We always park in the exact same parking space--it is true!

We always check our tires for chalk marks--and then move the car so we don't get a ticket.

We always walk over to Warwick's and look at the books/pens/cards/tinnif and do not buy anything special.

We always talk about what a beautiful place we live and how much we like how beautiful La Jolla is...then we talk about how we really wouldn't like to live there because of the traffic, May Gray, June Gloom, etc...

We always laugh at each other's jokes, talk about grandkids, ailments, kids, events past, events upcoming, and, of course, SHOES!

This week we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which, ashamedly, neither of us had ever visited before.  The opening picture was taken there.  It was an incredibly beautiful venue...with a phenomenal sculpture of boats suspended in the air outside (or as Melinda puts it--Biscayne Bay after a Hurricane)...

but if you get far enough away...

and look at it just right....

they kind of look like a man made palm tree

The bottom line is that certain days are special and they replay in your mind forever....this will be one of them.

ONE RINGY DINGY

This is a pay phone...or a technology unicorn...rarely seen, unconfirmed existence.  The other morning Henry and I went to breakfast and there was a man standing outside using a payphone.  We both stopped and said...PAYPHONE.  (Just so you know, there are not enough Chlorox wipes in the world for me to touch a payphone)  I told Hen the man was obviously talking to his girlfriend...or he would be using his cell phone.  But after 20 years of Law and Order we know that if she wanted to track down who he was seeing they could quickly run all the coins and get FINGERPRINTS...but I ramble.

When we traveled we would go to banks of payphones at the airport and make our calls.  Once I miraculously ended up on a plane seated next to Kurt Russell.  I could barely contain myself---racing from the plane to call my friend Andrea and let her know what had happened.  The seas definitely parted that day. Seriously, look at that man and tell me what would you do.  Spend two hours wanting to ask him to say
"You can call me Snake"
Oh, yes I will. (Any excuse to include Kurt)

There will be a whole generation of people who will not know what a collect call was.  We asked Clifford this weekend as a quiz.  He said sure:  You dial the 1-800 number, say it is collect, give them your name.  Then when your parents answer, you yell our "Pick me up at the busstop at 2PM."  Then, we, the good dutiful parents would say, no I won't except the call...but we would be at the busstop.

The early highlight of this era was the Princess Phone...real Princesses had the phone with a Push Button, Princesses in waiting rotary dial.  It was slim not clunky...so much better.  It made it's singing debut with the classic number from Bye Bye Birdie with Ann Margaret.  Their communication method was a phone tree of Princess Phones...title song--Goin' Steady!

The other movie in which a telephone was immortalized was the incredibly wonderful sharing of a party line by Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk.  In the dark ages (or when we lived in Salida, CO) you had to share phones with other people.  You had a special ringtone from whoever else was on the party line, but you would still quitely pick up and listen to the whole conversation.  My mother did not solve this issue as creatively as Rock and Doris did...her resolution was to not say anything on the phone that you did not "want the world to know"--"those operators were all gossip".  Which is probably proven by the most famous operator of all: Ernestine.  I am sure that she was the person mannig the phones in Salida.CO.

The future was all about Dick Tracy and his two way talk TV:

Not so different from my iPod Nano...is it...

Suffice it to say, changes have come and gone.  Most for the better.  They all make our lives move at warp speed....when I often would like to slow it down.

Time for bed--no pun intended.

MOMMY not so "DEAREST"

Now I have always known, I would not be a candidate for Mother of the Year, but I have always muddled through, very thankful of how Cliff turned out.

Yesterday, he needed his immunization records.  I said quite simply, I threw them out. Who knew this would be the make or break deal for my motherhood status, after all I still had the receipt for his gym clothes for 4th grade, his receipt for photos for every year he was in school, Jr. Theater Playbooks of anything he was ever in....

"For God's sake" he said in a well modulated tone, "you never throw anything out.  Never.  What made you decide to throw out my Immunization records...now I have to get them again."

There was some truth in his words...I began to look for the records (even though I remember thinking, Yeah, don't need this any more...

This is what I found that I did keep...

The place card for Andy and Jen's wedding

These are the spare buttons that went with the suit that I wore to Katie's wedding...I no longer have the suit, but the buttons were FABULOUS!

An empty box of my mother's...

This is an earring I loved to wear in the 1980's when I was young an hip and living in LA...thankfully, you only wore one.

This is my cat, Sefronia (named after the 1973 album by Tim Buckley). She died in 1987, he died in 1975.

These wonderful earrings were marked down because a stone was missing (it is in the box).  These are from the days that Henri Bendel was a little 7 story building on West 57th Street with one elevator and a man who ran it and actually said things like (3rd Floor Lingerie).  A hand written tag, seriously, and more seriously, $149 was the mark down price for the broken earrings that are still in the box awaiting repair for 30 years.

This is a note that was in a magnificent Gucci wallet (and I saved the card) that was a gift from my friend Marcia in 1975.  If I dig deeper maybe I can find the wallet and put it on eBay (Vintage--Used).

This is one of a pair of earrings that I wore to my second wedding to Henry in December of 1987.  I purchased them at an art gallery in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1980.

This is from an art show in Santa Fe in 2008.

Believe it or not, this is a hair ornament from the 80's.  I remember wearing it to Gladstone's in Malibu with a large group of people, including my niece, Lauri.  She had put our name in as Flinstone party of 10.  When they called our name we broke into the classic "Flinstone's we're the Flinstone's....et cetera.  I was the only one with Pebbles hair however....

This was a gift from my parents on a visit to Iron River, Michigan....circa 1956.  This was right after we drover by the World's largest frying pan (Iowa), and the World's largest ball of twine (Kansas).  See what fun it was to drive cross country in the 50's.

This is a hair ornament that I bought at the 6th Winter Park Art Festival in 1966.  It was made by Geri Brownell, a fabric artist, wife of my Dentist Dr Brownell.

 This is a picture of Cliff the last time he thought I was the "Best Mom in the World"....I still think he is the bestest son though.

All of these things have been put back in their respective places, because they all have specific memories...and I cannot let go of them yet.  Maybe the time is coming...maybe not.

Go fourth and run..

The day began at 5:30 with a trip to Coronado for a 15K Run for Henry.  Does he look ready to run?

Even though we arrived a 6AM for a 7AM run, we had to park 1.5 miles away (count this as my exercise).  Thank heavens I brought a chair for this event.


And off they went...

 I had 100  67 pictures before I got to Henry at the start. 

There he is, the one in orange waving!

Look close, you will see him.  

The race went by in a flash---I fell asleep in the chair we brought.  I woke up in time for

the finish!!

We headed home, where I slept until it was time to go to our friends for a cookout!

 Nobody looks better in a holiday headband than Melinda.

Sonny is always ready with Pool Games.

 Miss P was in the swim

 As was her daddy.

 "Cathi, take my picture" was a common refrain.

 The love boat--Julie, suddenly a redhead.

 The best friends

 The best burger with SSS (Sonny's Special Sauce)

 "I'm watching you!!"

I told Amy that I did not think I had a picture of her that was not in front of the fridge...so here is another one...the annual fridge pix.

It was a great day!!

Thanks to all involved for making it special!!