tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24257277823349171412024-03-13T19:57:28.189-07:00The Rambling NestDown the road...
Across the pageKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.comBlogger295125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-71342454155391193632015-10-20T20:17:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.594-07:00Memoir, The Art of (The living of)Well hey there, stranger. Nine months into 2015 and here I am, out of nowhere. I had not been missing the blog at all most of this year, but in the last few weeks, I've had the urge again. The urge to both journal, and share, and I'm not on Twitter, and Instagram doesn't favor those long comments, and then, hey, forehead slap, what about MY BLOG?<br />
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Duh.<br />
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These posts, whenever they come, will likely be short little microbursts rather than Big Deep Posts.<br />
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And so:<br />
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I'm reading The Art of Memoir, by one of my literary heroes, Mary Karr. (I wrote a big gushy post about Karr awhile back<a href="http://www.theramblingnest.com/2012/03/rock-star.html" target="_blank"> in this post</a>.) Suffice it to say that though she's from East Texas and I'm from Southern California, her people are my people in fundamental ways.<br />
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The book is a fast read, but I'm purposely reading it in short ten or fifteen minute bursts. My current morning ritual is to get the kids off to school, make coffee & breakfast, read a writing/craft book while eating, then write until I have to go to work -- which only gives me about half an hour of writing time, most days. But routine is a topic for another time.<br />
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Last Tuesday wasn't a great day, or evening. I pissed off a friend by bailing out on a reading I'd said I'd attend in OC. I attended another reading, in much closer Fallbrook. Sometimes stepping out my insular bubble is a good thing, but that night I felt raw, pointless, and very alone in my weird writer-head.<br />
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And I had this thought, ringing through me, that sometimes the writing is not about charging my laptop, the daily word count, the submissions, the rejections, the research, the reaching out for community.<br />
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Some days, the writing is all about the hard things, the brokenness, the sadness, the isolation, the swirl of shit that makes me feel I need to write a memoir in the first place. <br />
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That was Tuesday.<br />
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<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-50908315703635394892015-01-07T22:13:00.000-08:002019-08-02T15:05:26.506-07:00SNOW! (The Best Day)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I can't think of any time in my life when I would have declared New Year's Eve as the best day of the year.<br />
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But maybe, very possibly, this time it was. The best for last.<br />
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In the very early morning hours of December 31, it started to snow here in Temecula. Slowly, lightly, but snow it was. I woke the kids, per their requests. (My Facebook feed was lit up all the previous day with locals talking about the forecast of predicted snow & wondering & hoping & betting if it would actually happen.) <br />
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For context: this is Southern California. About five miles north of the San Diego county line, our little valley sits at about 1,200 feet elevation. The temperature stayed in the 90s into early November, and the last time it snowed here was 2004. (And it sure didn't snow like this.) <br />
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New Year's Eve was the best day. The longest day. We were up and outside around 1:30am, back inside for hot cocoa when it turned back to rain an hour later, asleep briefly and then up for good around 5:30am, when it started snowing in earnest. And of course, the kids still insisted on staying up until midnight, to ring in 2015. (We made it, barely. Also, I'm incapable of napping.) <br />
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The best day, the longest day. Other words: Magical. Awesome. Amazing. Unbelievable. Magical, again. Narnia. The last day of the year! What a way to go, 2014. We'll be talking about it...forever. Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-28126660435571513972015-01-05T22:52:00.000-08:002019-08-02T15:05:26.402-07:00The Rambling Nest<br />
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Well, check me out. I went and changed both the look and the name of the blog. The Reading Nest is now the Rambling Nest, and believe me, I pondered long and hard over how (and whether) to make this change.<br />
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I considered starting a whole new blog, but that didn't appeal. I want the "rambling" part of the title to reflect the many day trips, road trips & vacations I love to experience with my family. Since I already have quite a lot of posts on the "old" blog on that topic, I didn't want to lose them for good...nor did I want to copy them and somehow insert or transport them over into a new blog. (When I decided to start blogging again, it wasn't because I wanted to suddenly start devoting hours and hours to tweaking and fixing a blog.)<br />
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There's still a lot here I want to change...<strike>most especially the URL</strike> [fixed!] but also the About Me page, my photo, post labels and classifications, etc.<br />
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In the end, I decided that the old Reading Nest name reminded me too much of the subjects I most ended up ignoring here...I had neither a book review/bookworm blog, nor was it a "nesting" type of home decor/lifestyle blog. And after a year away, and feeling so much differently about blogging in general, the old name felt like a too-snug and too-itchy sweater that I just wanted to shed. <br />
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The Rambling Nest, for me, is a nod toward my ever-present wanderlust for new roads and sights to explore. It's also about my "rambles" as a writer, working on essays and memoir & seeking out the writing life while mom of two busy, smart kids. And the "nest" still acknowledges my introvert tendencies to nest safe & cozy at home with a good book. <br />
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If you're new, welcome. If you've been around these parts before, welcome back. Hope you like how I've spruced up the place.Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-71830841373691178812014-12-30T17:55:00.002-08:002019-08-02T15:05:26.597-07:00Wrapping It Up. <i>Hola! </i><br />
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It's been so long, you probably thought I went the way of so many bloggers this year and just gave up the ghost and unofficially closed the doors here. </div>
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Actually, you probably didn't think of me at all, and that's okay, too. </div>
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So here I am, on this second-to-last day of 2014, doing a little shout-out to myself and my 2 devoted readers. Wrapping up the year...but not the blog. </div>
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I guess without meaning to, I up and took the year off from blogging. I didn't plan on it, had no forethought or master plan. What mostly happened was that I got a job, a real job -- a part-time job, and one that's ideal for the kids' school calendar (holidays and summers off!) but a job nonetheless. The upkeep of certain things took a definite hit -- the laundry, the dust along my baseboards, the general tidiness of the house during the week -- and most especially, the blog. </div>
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With the time off and some mental distance from blogging, I could better appreciate what a total and utter failure I was at being a Real Blogger. See, a couple of years ago, at the start of 2012, I set out on what I believed was a sincere attempt to have a Real Blog. With a Real Readership, and a Real Little Niche, and maybe even make some real-life, through-the-interwebs friends. (And maybe even make some Real Money...or at least nab a few freebies?) I even paid money to learn tips from an online blogging e-course. </div>
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Reader, I was a dismal failure. Despite hours and hours spent on my tush applying myself to the art and the act of Blogging, I just....really kinda sucked at it. Oh but Reader, how I tried! I focused on commenting regularly on my favorite blogs (building community), on participating in Link Parties and Month-Long Posting Fiestas and writing regular posts and features here and doing All the Bloggy Things. (I even created a Facebook page.) But nothing happened, or changed much. My stats hardly budged. I got no shout-outs, just a few and far-between "Likes." I made no friends, really, despite driving across freeways to other counties and attending Bloggy Events and Putting Myself Out There to local-ish other bloggers. </div>
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All for naught. Except that I got better accustomed to sharing my own voice, to putting it out into the ether, and knowing what I like and want from blogs...other blogs, and my own. I learned that simply because a blogger lives in my part of the state, or the same county, or down the street, and shares my same hair or the same job or enthusiasms or astrological sign, it doesn't mean they want to be my friend. Or read my blog. I learned that as an incorrigible introvert, there's a lot of Bloggy Stuff that I'm never going to feel comfortable doing, or pursuing, or writing about. </div>
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And that's okay. Blogging is weird, the internet is weird, and people are really, <i>really</i>, weird. Me included. Me especially, maybe. </div>
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So, just to be clear: I'm back, and I'm not quitting blogging. There will be some changes here, for sure. Some clarity. Some winnowing down, some fat-trimming. Maybe even a (slight) name change. Who knows? The pressure's off, the stakes couldn't be lower. The core of my deepest loves: day and weekend trips with my family, exploring my beloved home state of California, books and music and random ramblings: that's what my blog is about, that's what I've missed sharing and writing about. </div>
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Until the next post:</div>
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<img alt="Strangers on the Internet Inspirational Quote Print: 8"x10" Wall Art Hand-Lettered Typography" src="https://img0.etsystatic.com/021/0/6665044/il_570xN.499484456_djbg.jpg" /></div>
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I'm a big grown-up lady person with kids and college degrees and houseplants, but some days I still need to have that poster tattooed on my forehead. (From the awesome and hilarious brain and Etsy shop of <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/emilymcdowelldraws" target="_blank">Emily McDowell</a>. ) </div>
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Happy New Year!</div>
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Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-24071256125465276672014-03-27T11:24:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.381-07:00It's A Living<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yes, look! I'm alive. Alive and....blogging. <br />
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Apologies for being gone for so long, and without any warning. That certainly wasn't intentional.<br />
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A quick catch-up: So, the biggest new thing is that I got a job that I started back in mid-January. A real honest-to-god job with a paycheck and everything. On paper, it's a perfect gig for this time in my life: a part-time library aid within the same school district as my kids, which means I get to enjoy the same holidays, breaks, and school calendar as they do. (Like right now, we're all on spring break.) Plus, I get to work with books and recommend them to kids and read aloud to the kids and re-visit the days when I was five years old and played "library" with my books. <br />
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In reality...there is no perfect job. We'll leave it at that. (But it's still close, and I'm pretty jazzed that I got it, no small feat in the competition to score a good district job around here.) <br />
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In other news, things have been pretty status quo in terms of me still feeling fairly housebound and craving some change. (Because, y'know, my first job in a dozen years doesn't count.) No major adventures or road trips or vacations lately. <br />
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However: last week, the husband and I escaped for a quickie overnight stay to downtown L.A., to see <a href="http://www.kraftwerk.com/" target="_blank">Kraftwerk</a> in concert. It was a little pathetic how excited I was to be in THE CITY! ANY CITY! and away from the 'burbs and our extremely kid-centric community. Our getaway was much too short but it was excellent, as was the concert. I admit that I'm not the huge fan of electronic music that my husband is, but it was still thrilling to see those old iconic Germans up there on stage. (And though I<i> may</i> have nodded off a few times, in my defense, the concert didn't even start until 10:30. And also: Kraftwerk.) <br />
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We stayed at the Westin Bonaventure, which I thought was sort of funny, just because the glass building is such an old icon itself. Does anyone but me remember the early '80s sitcom "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Living_%281980_TV_series%29" target="_blank">It's A Living</a>"? It starred Ann Jillian and featured a group of cocktail waitresses who worked in a bar at the top of the Bonaventure. I kept thinking of that, and hearing the theme song in my head. <br />
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The Westin Bonaventure was the strangest hotel I can remember staying in recent memory. It feels very much like an airport, what with all the escalators, the lounge areas, and the random food court options. On the other hand, the privately run brewery restaurant inside the hotel was really good. Best Caesar salad I've had in ages.<br />
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And the glass-elevators that run on the outside of the towers were still a hoot. <br />
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So that's it for now. We actually have some minor travelling plans later this spring break, so I'll have something else to share soon.<br />
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Oh! And this: I recently deleted my Facebook page for the blog, so if that's how you've been receiving updates, I guess you won't see this. My reasons weren't that complicated, it just didn't feel right anymore. But I am totes still on Instagram and you still follow me there. <br />
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I am, and shall remain, your @readingnest1 Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-21793250743038149562014-01-09T12:58:00.002-08:002019-08-02T15:05:26.365-07:00A Hike for the New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On the first day of the new year, I roused my family from our holiday stupor (we didn't go out on New Year's, but we did stay up past midnight) and got us all out of the house for a hike.<br />
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This is the same way we entered in the new year last January, too. You can see pics from <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/01/best-laid-plans.html" target="_blank">that hike here</a>.<br />
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This year, we headed a bit north to the<a href="http://www.rivcoparks.org/education/santa-rosa-plateau/santa-rosa-plateau/" target="_blank"> Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve</a>. It's only about 20 minutes north from us, plus a few minutes to climb west and into the foothills.<br />
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It was obvious that a whole lot of other people had my same idea, as it was busy, even in the mid-afternoon. <br />
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I was so glad to be out in the open air, taking in the vistas and just feeling a part of the larger world. Here are some photos of our day out, all taken with my sucky camera phone. <br />
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The building you see is an old adobe, supposedly the oldest structure built in Riverside County, back when this area was settled by ranchers and cowboys. The tree is a big old oak that needed a hug. At least, that's what my Tucker said, and then he ran up and hugged it. <br />
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I'm not sure what it is about the light, the sky, the long shadows, but these photos feel very quintessentially "Southern California winter" to me. It's been a very mild and dry winter, a statement that probably makes you want to smack me upside the head if you live anywhere east of Arizona. Sorry, Polar Vortex survivors.<br />
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But I do wish for some gray skies and a good dose or two of rain before the winter is done.<br />
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And this time, I <u>AM </u>speaking purely metaphorically.<br />
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Back soon. Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-6309269304232326042013-10-21T23:19:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:06:05.107-07:00Never Have I Been A Blue Calm SeaI've always wanted this blog to be a place where I share my loves, my secret self, the things I hold most dear. Instead, too often I treat it like my Facebook page, the one where I share pics of the kids and say pithy things about nothing much at all and smile and put only the "best stuff" out there. (Because if I've learned anything this last decade in Far Suburbia, it's that one must put her Best Face Forward everyday, lest one be sent to the ranks of the Weird. Much like high school, come to think of it...) <br />
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Anyway. Here's something I love. A lot. I grew up pretty obsessed with Stevie Nicks. I mean, I looooved her. I wanted to be her. Earlier, there had been Judy Garland and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Julie Andrews </a>and then <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/09/la-music-linda-ronstadt-country-rock.html" target="_blank">Linda Ronstadt,</a> but by the time I was in eighth grade, it was Stevie all the way.<br />
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In my wild and dysfunctional childhood, I sought out the occult and Ouija boards and all the paranormal stuff that made up the weekly segments of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._%28TV_series%29" target="_blank"><i> "In Search Of..." </i></a>Gypsies and palm readers and crystal balls, oh my. I wanted answers. I wanted reasons. I wanted to feel in control of days and decisions that were anything but under my control.<br />
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Some days, I feel I haven't changed much at all in thirty years. I haven't listened to Stevie much in the last twenty years. But every once in a while, I'll watch something of hers, or catch something on the radio, and it will trigger those days, when she represented all I wished to be: a twirling white witch, mystical and beautiful and blonde and able to rise, rise, above them all. <i>Wouldn't you love to love her? </i><br />
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I spent untold hours staring at the photos from her <i>Belladonna</i> album. </div>
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This week, I remembered this obscure Stevie song, "Storms," from the Fleetwood Mac album <i>Tusk</i>. It's slow and quiet and a bit passive about a whole lot of buried emotions. Maybe that's why it speaks to me again, in this odd and empty and changing season. The video doesn't feature Nicks, but a changing montage of nature and mountain scenes that complement the mood. <br />
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<i>I'd like to leave you with something warm<br />
But never have I been a blue calm sea<br />
I have always been a storm.<br /> </i><br />
<i><a href="https://www.thisismyjam.com/kelly1/_708o9uh" target="_blank">This is my Jam</a> for the week. </i>Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-44178496498336961142013-10-10T12:41:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.467-07:00The Playroom Must Go!: Week 2<br />
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Welcome back to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge, hosted by the <a href="http://www.callingithome.com/" target="_blank">Calling It Home</a> blog. Quick recap from <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/10/the-play-room-must-go.html" target="_blank">Week 1</a>: I'm re-imagining our small downstairs playroom/sometime guest room into primarily a guestroom, while still keeping the kid's computer area and games in the space. Here's a Before:<br />
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Confession: I haven't done much at all with the playroom in the last week. Not unless you count my little internal shudder that happens each time I glance inside. But I do have a tiny bit of progress to show you from the previous week.<br />
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I'm at the not-fun stage, where I'm organizing and de-cluttering and making messy piles of "stay," "donate," and "figure out WTH to do with this thing." And piles don't look very pretty or glamourous, either in person or on my blog. <br />
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Well. Part of this mess you see on the floor here:<br />
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is due to the fact that I've successfully purged out the pressboard "rustic" wardrobe from Ikea. This piece is leaving, and it's just about ready for me to create a listing on Craigslist and bid it farewell.<br />
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Empty wardrobe:<br />
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I haven't been as productive in purging out the desk sitting beside the wardrobe. The desk drawers are chock full of both my things and kids' stuff. It's actually my own stuff that's harder to figure out (most of the kid's stuff can be chucked).<br />
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So that's where things stand as of this week. But enough of ugly Before. Let's see the vibe and direction I have planned for the room.<br />
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I like this small room below, especially because the lay-out mimics that of my own space. (Except it's still bigger than my tiny room.) <br />
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Design by Erika Ward, via <a href="http://mycolortopia.com/blog/bedrooms/atlanta-designers-find-inspiration-for-design-and-doing-good" target="_blank">My Colortopia</a>. </div>
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I plan on painting the large wall where the wardrobe/desk area is now a similar dark color. I'm picturing a nice true navy blue though, not the blue above that tilts a good bit toward violet.<br />
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And I also plan on placing the bed in the same location as above. (I don't know yet whether I'll try for some kind of faux-headboard, or just use some art above the bed.)<br />
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In this little recessed nook where the bed is now:<br />
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I plan on putting a console desk for the computer monitor. It's not very wide though (just as wide as a queen bed, in fact) but I hope to find something white and clean-lined, similar to this one from Ikea:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RsmcDGaNHtbuey9pZiCTBb0lAEGdbkebVZ1dQI4YN8_hTKkadSaVw8SQqWid81EdvieSFt2iQQgzq8hG5zvfiozNtvGOzTHv25y2UlnNd9It-8z9IYC7LJxve8nclDE9rlzcGPINYgqA/s1600/besta-burs-desk__0090374_PE224144_S4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RsmcDGaNHtbuey9pZiCTBb0lAEGdbkebVZ1dQI4YN8_hTKkadSaVw8SQqWid81EdvieSFt2iQQgzq8hG5zvfiozNtvGOzTHv25y2UlnNd9It-8z9IYC7LJxve8nclDE9rlzcGPINYgqA/s400/besta-burs-desk__0090374_PE224144_S4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
This is the Besta Burs desk, which is 70" wide and therefore won't fit in the nook. But you get the idea of what I'm after here. (I could also put the desk on the wall where the Expedite system is now, swap that into the nook area, and flip it up to use vertically.) <br />
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Here are a few other shots of a room that I really love. It's a lounging area for a teen girl, but mostly I just love the clean white with pops of intense color, and the fun vibe:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdDm-MJA8kZjgEj06m-Y4giNdqVYRbSdjuy_rwytQSNaLyl0VVrkNDA-MvGltecIi2UVglDCFDiKhnFlb15JFnacvbpziH2ciqmkn-noGHB8pHpTPfDHFf-BKuU2JXeo4UYTidylM3WWO/s1600/KMBrown2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdDm-MJA8kZjgEj06m-Y4giNdqVYRbSdjuy_rwytQSNaLyl0VVrkNDA-MvGltecIi2UVglDCFDiKhnFlb15JFnacvbpziH2ciqmkn-noGHB8pHpTPfDHFf-BKuU2JXeo4UYTidylM3WWO/s640/KMBrown2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via <a href="http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2013/04/k-mathiesen-brown-design.html" target="_blank">House of Turquoise</a></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSHXhMXmtrd1SuChaOtr_6xO0n1BAlUmaIOF9J48FXtC2WyQ369aKJsHEAo3ynftT1vsRlfL1yF7l71dkkD7Xb_ghyphenhyphenlyWwriFTV9fZl5NcdAkvFu0py2w9bo9-lDV_gF6ueJNBssQw6ykl/s1600/KMBrown1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSHXhMXmtrd1SuChaOtr_6xO0n1BAlUmaIOF9J48FXtC2WyQ369aKJsHEAo3ynftT1vsRlfL1yF7l71dkkD7Xb_ghyphenhyphenlyWwriFTV9fZl5NcdAkvFu0py2w9bo9-lDV_gF6ueJNBssQw6ykl/s640/KMBrown1.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via <a href="http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2013/04/k-mathiesen-brown-design.html" target="_blank">House of Turquoise</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1n_xU7BkJPUs4NWzKmB6Uo4gJiGa20Zxg6ViLCAZamhShfWDWqIoU5rjFIYbzYmMfTRrddmhfx1Muptq8STHYibV3e55XNas5jTsi7m4Feo9z9WFhX6nWGAyxT6k0A_UBV698rNVvAo_/s1600/KMBrown3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2013/04/k-mathiesen-brown-design.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1n_xU7BkJPUs4NWzKmB6Uo4gJiGa20Zxg6ViLCAZamhShfWDWqIoU5rjFIYbzYmMfTRrddmhfx1Muptq8STHYibV3e55XNas5jTsi7m4Feo9z9WFhX6nWGAyxT6k0A_UBV698rNVvAo_/s640/KMBrown3.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
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Photo of K. Mathiesen Brown's design via <a href="http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2013/04/k-mathiesen-brown-design.html" target="_blank">House of Turquoise</a></div>
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(All of the above 4 inspiration rooms can be found on my Pinterest board, "<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/kellys2/tween-room-ideas/" target="_blank">Tween Room Ideas." )</a></div>
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Obviously, with a navy blue wall, my guestroom isn't going to be as white and bright. It's the overall playful vibe that's my inspiration. (And the other walls are going to be re-painted in a brighter, semi-gloss white, to replace both the flat white paint & the pastel green walls.) In keeping with the inspiration rooms, here are a couple of fun pillows that I've already purchased for the bed:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-buiABPlsLejeRoqNfJ9yXMGyCTOz51__TZWzwHLiAArYAkkMDXhSNnPGLtSOTFPOreDcJWaOMgiLomsDXHQGZDI0KMrpiMFa3mMOlSkahM1wu2N0G2_VRwkLNDmx1zfSSHB6td_E6Bt6/s1600/2013-10-03+10.03.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-buiABPlsLejeRoqNfJ9yXMGyCTOz51__TZWzwHLiAArYAkkMDXhSNnPGLtSOTFPOreDcJWaOMgiLomsDXHQGZDI0KMrpiMFa3mMOlSkahM1wu2N0G2_VRwkLNDmx1zfSSHB6td_E6Bt6/s640/2013-10-03+10.03.37.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The sequins on the "Famous" pillow are just printed on, which I love: no picking off sequins by bored little hands. And the shiny patent-orange pillow is just fun, and I think it'll pop like crazy against the navy wall. (And both were bought at HomeGoods.) <br />
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So that's my vision, and you've seen the reality...now it's my job to make it all come together. Back next week to hopefully show some further progress! Thanks for coming by.Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-74653645839208246392013-10-03T11:38:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.613-07:00The Play Room Must Go! And so we find ourselves yet again in my guest room-slash-playroom. That room that rarely houses guests, and rarely gets "played" in by my kids (unless you count Minecraft, on the computer). <br />
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I first wrote about cleaning it up,<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/03/cleaning-play-room.html" target="_blank"> here in this post</a>.<br />
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Above is what it looked like all freshly purged of (that round) of kids toys, back when we still used the small orange Ikea futon for guests.<br />
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And then I showed you how we removed the aging futon and put our too-soft for the master bedroom, but fine-for-guests mattress into the room, earlier this year<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/02/sleeping-in-playroom.html" target="_blank"> in this post</a>.<br />
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Which as you can see, hogs up most of the space in this small room. (Although we did finally get the box springs up off the floor with some bed rails.) <br />
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We have 4 bedrooms upstairs in our house, which works perfectly for us: the master, one for the girl, one for the boy, and an office for the Husband, who works from home and is a bit of a mad-scientist/techie geek (i.e., his office is a mess of computers and parts and wires and mother boards and isn't fit for guest traffic).<br />
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And then we have this funny little angled room downstairs, right by the front door, and one of the first things you see when you come into our home.<br />
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I've been to other houses in our neighborhood with our same floor plan, and the builder had intended for this to be an open "den" small office area. The wall that you see below, with the map, is usually opened up as a great big open window, often with plantation shutters. <br />
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But the family who lived here before us had more kids, and so they closed up the open window (in a rather rough job) to use this as their eldest girl's bedroom. They also framed out the doorway and installed double-doors, as again the original intent was for this "den" area to be open. <br />
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People!! I am so OVER this room, and the way is does, or does NOT function in my house. <br />
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I am taking on the challenge of emptying out most of the toys and furniture, and restoring it to function primarily as a guest room. I'll continue to store some games and books in the Expedit system, but I no longer see it as a "play room." I'm keeping the kids computer in here, too, as this is where they play Minecraft and noodle on the shared computer -- but its not where they do homework.<br />
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And I wanna get all this done by the end of the month, which is why I'm joining up with the blog "<a href="http://www.callingithome.com/" target="_blank">Calling It Home</a>'s" <a href="http://www.callingithome.com/2013/10/one-room-challenge-linking-party.html" target="_blank">One Room Challenge Linking Party</a> during the month of October.<br />
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Here's what I'm getting rid of:<br />
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Both of these big pieces, the Ikea "rustic" wardrobe, and the Ikea "secretary" type desk, are going. The wardrobe is full of games and craft supplies, with a rail to hang guest's clothes. The desk drawers (there are 4) are full of memories and journals and innumerable broken pens, receipts and ticket stubs.<br />
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This wall o' fun also needs to get dealt with: <br />
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Lily has agreed to sell her Fisher Price dollhouse, so that's going, too. <br />
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I'm also changing out the pale green paint and most of the artwork. I would LOVE to explore the idea of bashing out that faux-window seat. It has a bullnose lip, is too narrow to actually serve as a window seat, and is totally useless, except to look "decorative." And eat up precious space.<br />
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In the meantime, if you're new here from the link party, I'd hate for you to think my whole house is also just as cluttered and awkward and uninspired. So here's a recent DIY project I completed with the Malm dresser in our entryway:<br />
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Yay for <a href="http://www.myoverlays.com/" target="_blank">Overlays</a>! Yay for gold spray paint!<br />
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Come back week, and I'll share my inspiration photos of what I'd like
the new guest room to feel like, plus a couple of fun pillows that I've already
bought for the bed. <br />
In the meantime, it's cleaning and purging over here (oh, and Halloween decor for the rest of the house.)<br />
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The fun never ends.<br />
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<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-46681146824487966812013-10-02T13:18:00.002-07:002019-08-02T15:06:23.108-07:00Bucket Listing in L.A. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't really have a bucket list. I have some hazy, intangible ideas of things I'd like to do and see, things that might be really cool or wonderful or just personally meaningful.<br />
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I'd love to get to Europe someday, something that nobody in my immediate family has ever done. (Wait, whoops -- my aunt went to Spain in the early '70s.) Someday I'd like to get up in front of a crowd and sing some great karaoke. (I belted out some epic Dio <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2009/01/good-times.html" target="_blank">a few years ago</a>, but only to a tiny group of sympathetic ears.) <br />
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Late last year, I realized that someday, I'd really love to participate in a sing-a-long showing of<i> The Sound of Music </i>which is tied with <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> as my favorite childhood movie. ("Sound of Music" clearly has a better soundtrack, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" notwithstanding.) <br />
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So when my sister texted me back in August if I'd like to go to the Hollywood Bowl with her and a friend to the Bowl's annual Sound of Music sing-a-long, I immediately texted back my reply: "Oh holy fuck, yes!!" <br />
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And so it was that on a Saturday evening last month, I joined dozens of other <strike>fools </strike>participants in donning a costume and walking across the stage at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the pre-show costume parade. (By the way, Hollywood Bowl organizers: that parade would've been a lot shorter and more interesting if you enforced the rule that people should <i>actually be in costume</i>s, not just wanting to walk up onstage and wave to their friends.)<br />
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Behold me in my Maria-esque finery, and looking pretty thrilled to be there:<br />
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Note the faux-Edelweiss tucked behind my ear, provided in the fun prop bag:<br />
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It was a great, fun evening. I loved singing along with the crowd, and especially everyone hissing whenever the catty, nasty Baroness was onscreen. (And catcalling to hunky Captain Von Trapp was funny, too.) My only regret is that I didn't belt the hell out of "I Have Confidence," which may be my favorite song in the film, but it was early on in the evening. And I wasn't feeling quite that confident yet.<br />
*******<br />
Another thing I'd love to do is hear the mighty voice of Linda Ronstadt singing one of her great love songs in person. Sadly, as you may have heard, Ronstadt can no longer sing, as she recently revealed that she suffers from Parkinson's and the disease has stripped her of the power to even sing in the shower. But last Tuesday evening, she appeared in public at an event sponsored by Writers Bloc to talk about her new memoir and be interviewed by famed L.A. journalist Patt Morrison.<br />
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I bought my ticket practically the moment they went on sale, and it's a good thing I did: evidently the event sold out in record time, and it took place in a fairly small venue. But after I bought the ticket, I realized the venue was in Santa Monica, not downtown L.A., as I'd assumed. <br />
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Because it's such a far drive for me (just about exactly 100 miles, one-way), I almost talked myself out of going. The Westside in rush-hour traffic is just hard to get to, and I did sit in my car forever as I crawled through the last 10 miles of the trip. But I'm glad I went, and not just because I spotted legendary rock photographer <a href="http://www.henrydiltz.com/" target="_blank">Henry Diltz</a> in the row in front of mine...and then later recognized an attractive woman in the aisle as Rita Wilson...followed closely behind by her husband, Tom Hanks. (He's tall. And he looks just like Tom Hanks!) <br />
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Linda talked a lot about her childhood in Arizona, of being influenced by her very musical family. She talked a bit about dating Jerry Brown back in the day, and told a funny anecdote about his famed cheapness. She talked a lot about music, and how she came to sing the songs she chose. She had lots of opinions about politics and music education and the current sorry state of audio technology (she really hates MP3s and digital sound quality).<br />
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The crowd was allowed to use their phones & cameras to quickly snap some shots at the very beginning of the program. My sucky phone-camera just didn't manage much, so here's what I got:<br />
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Here's a photo from the L.A. Times of Linda at the event:<br />
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And here's my copy of her memoir,<i> Simple Dreams</i>. It has her signature inside, pre-signed before the event. Due to her Parkinson's, she didn't have the physical stamina to sign books in person afterwards:<br />
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I spent the night at my mom's house after the event was over. Even living in L.A. county, it still took me nearly an hour just to get to her place with the traffic. I'm very glad that I soldiered through and saw one of my idols in person -- but I'm not signing myself up to drive out to Santa Monica alone again anytime soon. <br />
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So that's where I've been and been up to lately. Another bucket list item? Publishing a book. I've been forcing myself to sit down and write in the morning, but it's been slooooow going. But that's better than not sitting down to write at all.<br />
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Tomorrow, I plan to be back with an actual nesting post about the house, and a one-room challenge link-up that I'm going to participate in this month. See you then. <br />
<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-54871642230775789352013-09-24T12:10:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.533-07:00Halloween Time at Disneyland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Friday the kids had the day off of school (for "staff development" in the district), so the husband took the day off from work and we spent it at Disneyland.<br />
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The park was all decked out for "Halloween Time," with lots of candy-corn colored bunting up and down Main Street, carved pumpkins on ledges and balconies, and a general "Harvest Festival" feel to the air. The fact that the weather had cooled off from the 90s and it was overcast all day helped make it feel a little (teeny tiny bit) like Fall. (Or at least Fall in SoCal.)<br />
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The next set of pictures were all taken at the "Woody's Round Up" ranch and barbeque area near Frontierland:<br />
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Even the little goats in the petting zoo sported seasonal bandanas.<br />
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I love this picture on a whole lot of levels. It just makes me smile:<br />
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The lollipops, Donald Duck in costume, the harvest decor, the smiles on my kids...this is just a lot o' cheesy Disney goodness all in one place. <br />
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And these shots were taken near or at the Haunted Mansion, which is all decked out again in a "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme until the entire holiday season ends in January. <br />
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It was a great day, capped off by our family's first viewing of the <i>Fantasmic!</i> water show. The only disappointment was that a large portion of the seasonal "harvest carnival" area at Woody's Ranch was closed that day. (I really wanted to check out the new "Conjure a Villain" tent.)<br />
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On the other hand, for the first time ever, we've bought tickets to attend a night of "Mickey's Halloween Party" in late October. This is special event (that requires an additional ticket), where everyone gets to dress up in costume, kids can trick or treat in different areas, lots of fun mini-events and character stuff, and a themed fireworks show. I'm pretty sure all the specific seasonal displays will be open and running that evening.<br />
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In the meantime, go get yourself a pumpkin latte. Or a handful of candy corn. Being at Disney, and looking at these photos again, makes me feel all harvest-y. It may be close to 90 degrees here again today, but it's time to burn that pumpkin candle! Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-11172672767406133722013-09-17T13:05:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.327-07:00The Last Bookstore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Way back in another lifetime, I taught a couple of English & writing classes to college students. I was freshly out of grad school myself, and though I was near 30, the fact that I was newly married, immersed in college life, and without any kids made me feel like I was still fairly close in age to the incoming generation of students. <br />
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That all abruptly changed when one of my students, a confident young guy, asked as I stood in front of the class what I liked to do in my free time. Or maybe he asked what my husband and I liked to do together. So I told him, and the class, about our favorite kind of date night. (But since we didn't have kids back then, it wasn't "date night." It was just "Friday night.") I told him that we liked to first go out to dinner, and then while away several hours at our local Borders bookstore, often hanging out until closing time. (Remember Borders?)<br />
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The student, and the class in general, was horrified at our idea of "fun." (Although I recall a couple of females defending me, saying that it was "cute.") <br />
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Anyway. Maybe you'll think the same about our sole family outing over the 3-day Labor Day weekend. It was crazy-hot out, and humid, and I could not think of anything to do. The beach sounded good, but too adventurous. Our local pool was just too damn hot. I had a craving to look at some books. We don't have an independent bookstore here, which is unfortunate, and a true lack. We do have a Barnes & Noble, but I wasn't in the mood to browse in that sort of corporate, pre-selected atmosphere. I could already guess what they would and wouldn't have.<br />
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I remembered seeing some photos of <a href="http://lastbookstorela.com/" target="_blank">The Last Bookstore</a>, and got it in my head to check it out. The Last Bookstore is in downtown Los Angeles, located in an old bank. It's also about 80 miles from my front door, which is a long way to drive to casually browse through the stacks. On the other hand, downtown L.A. is only about 20 minutes east of my mom's house, so I was able to bundle in a "trip to grandma's" at the end of our bookstore jaunt.<br />
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It was worth the drive. There were books everywhere. Used and new books live happily together on the sorted shelves downstairs. <br />
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Books are art, and decoration, and functional: the front cash register is housed behind a counter area made of stacked books. <br />
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As you head upstairs, you pass through a tunnel of books:<br />
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Upstairs are used books, and most are only $1. They're sorted loosely by genre, and also by color:<br />
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The old bank vault houses true crime & horror:<br />
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The only negative is that it was still crazy-hot and humid in L.A., and the store didn't have air-conditioning. Yikes. Most any other day, that wouldn't be such an issue, but on one of the hottest weekends of the year, it was awfully stuffy and close, and I felt pretty uh, "glowing" by the time we were done. But it was still fun, and we still stayed for a couple of hours, checking everything out, including the artist studios and shops, also on the 2nd floor.<br />
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In the end, I bought an armful of books: four for me, three for the kids, and one for the husband, an oldie but goodie from his childhood:<br />
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My grand total was less than $25.00. <br />
<br />
I wish that we lived closer, so that <a href="http://lastbookstorela.com/" target="_blank">The Last Bookstore </a>could be a frequent stop for us, and not a special event. In any case, I know I'll be back someday, hopefully on a cooler day when I can wear boots and a sweater and feel all cozy surrounded by books and other kindred souls like me, who think whiling away a few hours in a bookstore is a perfect way to spend their day (or date night). <br />
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Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-6568075653085781132013-09-06T12:56:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.581-07:00Curly Headed WomanBe forewarned, this post contains a lot of pictures of me. And most are selfies, too, God help me. Not because I think I'm so gaw-geous or anything, but simply talking about my hair without the accompanying visuals just ain't gonna cut it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/09/curly-mama.html" target="_blank">Last September, I wrote about my short (and greying) hair </a>and how I was trying to grow it out. It took a long time, pretty much the whole year, but my hair is all grown out (and I do mean "out," as in width vs. length). <br />
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This was me last year, at my aunt's pool party: <br />
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And this is me now (taking my selfie-taking so seriously!). <br />
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My hair is, and will still grow "longer" than this, but it's hard to tell, because of shrinkage. That means my hair is one length when it's wet out of the shower, and about 3" shorter after it dries. So in the photo above, my hair, when wet, is actually about as long as where my shirt puckers on both sides above my chest, but it's all dried and "shrunk." My hair is extremely curly, not just a little, and it dries into tight little corkscrews, especially in the back. <br />
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I knew I was going to write here about my hair, because I've had some breakthrough/revelatory feelings about it lately. So I had the Husband take a few shots of me last week:<br />
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I've found that my hair can be just as non-photogenic as the rest of me. While my face gets all fake and tense and my body language stiffens up, my curls are just hard to actually <i>see. </i>I had the husband take my photo because it was a good hair day, i.e, I had lot of good curl separation and definition. But in the photo above, it just looks like one big dark clump of hair, especially on the left.<br />
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Let's try it with a flash, I told him.<br />
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The flash does help show more of the tight little curls I have going on back there. But still, it's hard to get a sense what exactly is going on back there (and under there, too).<br />
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So maybe you've read this far and are thinking I feel bad about the whole drama that is my hair. (And maybe or probably, you're feeling bad <i>for</i> me.) But in the last month, after years of cowering under my hair and it's...<i>size</i>, I feel proud of it. Happy that it's mine, and healthy, and even glad that it's so terribly, ridiculously thick.<br />
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Last month, I was getting a bit fed up and wanting to hack my hair off again and go back to short. I was trolling images of hair on Pinterest, looking for inspiration. (There's not a lot out there for curlies like me.) While there, I stumbled upon some of the graphic cartoons and the blog of <a href="http://tallncurly.com/" target="_blank">"Tall n' Curly</a>." The woman who writes <a href="http://tallncurly.com/" target="_blank">Tall n' Curly</a> not only has ginormous big curly hair, but she's also 5' 11.5." So she might know a thing or two about never being able to be invisible or disappearing in a crowd. She might know something about wanting to hunker down and just be "normal" looking. <br />
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I'm only 5' 6 1/2", but related to just about everything she had to say. I spent over an hour clicking through her site, smiling and nodding at so many of the graphic cartoons describing all the stupid things straight-haired people say to curly-heads: "have you ever tried to straighten it?" "don't you ever moisturize?" "oh my god, you look so much BETTER with it straight, you should wear it like that EVERY DAY!" and especially, "it's SOOOO humid/rainy today I can't do a thing with my hair!" <br />
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But I also got a little emotional reading her<a href="http://tallncurly.com/about/" target="_blank"> "About" page</a>, where she talks in length about her evolution of accepting herself and her hair. This part in particular hit me:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Looking for the truth everywhere, I now believe everything happens for a
reason. And in “everything”, there is my hair. I was born with this
hair. There must be a reason for that too. So although I still – and
will always – get angry a lot at it, I now respect my hair for what it
is : a part of me.<br />
Actually it’s not that different from who I am. I’m pretty stubborn and rebellious too. What was I expecting from it ? <img alt=";)" src="http://s1.wp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif?m=1129645325g" /></i></blockquote>
Well, yeah. What she says. And it seems so simple, but it really shifted my feelings about my hair. Not to imply that I've always hated my hair, because I don't, and I haven't. On the other hand, I've always felt the need to make apologies and excuses for my hair, like it's my bad monkey-child that I just have to drag along everywhere I go, like it or not.<br />
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Most of that guilt and embarrassment comes from my mother, who, in a nutshell, just doesn't like my hair. And she REALLY doesn't like it when I choose to grow it out. (Like now.) That topic is a whole other post, but let me just say: I spent my childhood with her <i>brushing my hair.</i> <i>Daily</i>. (I know it's not her fault that she didn't know how to handle it, but all that fighting with my hair made her actively dislike it, except when it's cut very short.) <br />
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Speaking of humidity, I must be all grown and wised-up these days, because I've (mostly) been able to control my hair in the crazy heat & humidity that's lingered here for the last two weeks. In the past, I'd have been forced to just throw it in a pony-tail every day to deal. But my hair has been mostly behaving with the products I've been using. (And paying my crazy-expensive Deva stylist is also a big part of it.) Yesterday I did wear it up in a great big, top-of-my-head up-do. (My daughter said it looked like a hair-tsunami!) <br />
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After I took it out of the heavy-duty hair elastic, I had some REALLY big hair and volume going on. I tried to capture it at bedtime, but even these shots don't capture the true size of the event happening on top of my head:<br />
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My first and middle names have Celtic/Teutonic roots, and my names, respectively, mean "woman warrior" and "famous in battle." With those kind of names, it's no wonder that so often I go through life fighting everything (especially myself) and making not-so-complicated choices into arduous, drawn out battles.<br />
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But I think it's time to stop fighting myself, my hair, and my true nature and declare: you know what,<strike> mom</strike> world? Life & DNA gave me some really crazy-thick and curly hair. And I actually like it. And my husband loooves it and thinks its sexy.<br />
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Deal with it. I'm a woman warrior, and I've got the hair to prove it. ;) <br />
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Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-54671415931393903922013-08-29T11:48:00.003-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.529-07:00The BIg Pink, Revisited<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a year and a half since I shared the<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/02/big-pink.html" target="_blank"> re-do of my daughter Lily's bedroom</a>. In the original post, I wrote about how it all evolved, and also about the (many) things I don't love about the room. <br />
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Fast forward to this spring, and my irritation with the general look and feel of the room hadn't changed. In fact it was worse, because now the room was thoroughly lived in and thoroughly messy and more, it was clear that Lily couldn't hang out in the room with her friends because there wasn't anyplace to sit. <br />
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Around this time, in my despair to find a way to rearrange a room that just can't be very rearranged, I remembered the little orange futon that used to live in the playroom. After <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/02/sleeping-in-playroom.html" target="_blank">rearranging the playroom/guestroom</a>, the futon was living out in the garage, waiting for me to put it up for sale on Craigslist.<br />
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One Saturday afternoon when I went in to dust and straighten the bedroom, I got completely fed up and started hurling piles of crap out into the hall and getting that "thousand mile decorator's stare" as I leaned in the doorframe and started cooking up a plan.<br />
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Within the hour, I had the husband hauling that heavy orange futon out of the garage and up the staircase. (I have such a nice husband. Have I mentioned that?) Anyway.<br />
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Before:<br />
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And After:<br />
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I rearranged the room and later that weekend, hung up the shelves (<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/11/updated-entryway.html" target="_blank">that used to live in my entryway</a>). I'd been promising to do that forever, and Lily and I were both glad that I finally came through. It allows her to display her Josef birthday doll collection (note that they stop at 9 -- because she didn't have any display space, they didn't get purchased these last 2 birthdays). It also lets her display the "potion" crafts that were a big part of her summer.<br />
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So her room was completely rearranged, but still needed a good sorting and re-organization of so much clutter. But then summer hit and the kids were out of school, and so for the entire summer her room was merely different, but still not really done (or cleaned). <br />
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Now they're back in school, and this week I've been cleaning and cleaning and throwing things out and helping to find better storage and organization options for her.<br />
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She's been a Japanese manga and chibi drawing fool lately, which is cute, but also means that her desk (and the surrounding floor) have been littered with papers in various stages of creation. Since she's in middle school now, and since she's starting to do her homework alone in her room, we needed to clean up the chaos and make it a better space for studying along with the creativity.<br />
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The drawers are cleaned out, the crayons and markers are sorted and contained, and I bought her the pink paper organizer at Ikea this weekend. <br />
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Her vanity area is now next to the door, and the surface was also a big cluttered mess of lip gloss, earrings, Harry Potter wands, marbles, papers, etc. And she'd stopped wearing most of her earrings, because they were lost in her equally cluttered little jewelry box. <br />
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I bought the earring tree at Michael's, and she loves it, and loves that I found & sorted her earrings. Let's see how well she can keep up with actually using it!<br />
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Some cheap purple Command hooks serve to display her soccer medals and Disney pin lanyard. I want to buy some nicer, real hooks to install to the left of the mirror for necklaces and scarves. So far I haven't found anything I like, but a trip to Anthropologie would probably solve that. <br />
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The futon has <i>just</i> enough room under there to fold out into a full sized bed, once you move out the little table. We've used it for a sleepover, and it worked out great. (In the old version of the room, there was no space to sleep on the floor.)<br />
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While I'm still a long way from loving this room, I like it a lot more now that its more functional. Lily is able to invite friends into her room and have a place to actually sit and hang out. This is a small room already, and it's packed full of furniture -- but every piece serves a function<br />
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The fact that she still prefers to crawl into <i>my </i>bed on lazy weekend mornings to sit and read gives me hope: it tells me that in a couple years, she'll likely get tired of exotic loft-sleeping, and want a regular bed again. Already, she has to duck down to get into the bed, and she certainly can't sit up in it. She's mentioned wanting a chandelier -- until I reminded her that she can't have any hanging fixtures while the loft is up. <br />
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I'll be more than happy to oblige when that time comes. Until then, she's an eleven-year-old girl who still feels that she has a pretty awesome bedroom, no matter what mom thinks.<br />
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And mom just thinks she's a pretty awesome kid. <br />
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You can see all the bedroom Before shots in my original post about her bedroom,<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/02/big-pink.html" target="_blank"> here. </a><br />
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<i>Linking up with <a href="http://www.pancakesandfrenchfries.com/" target="_blank">Jules for the William Morris Project. </a></i>Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-59783222327791550922013-08-26T10:52:00.004-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.556-07:00The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for GirlsLast week I finished "The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls," a coming-of-age novel set at an exclusive riding/boarding camp for rich Southern girls in 1930. I really enjoyed this book; the voice of the narrator, Thea Atwell, is strong and sure and terribly self-possessed for a sheltered fifteen-year-old. <br />
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I was a couple of chapters into the book before it dawned on me why I was enjoying it so much: back when I was a teen/tween, I inhaled books about girls at boarding schools and summer camp. Going away to school, and particularly summer camp, is something taken for granted if you're at least middle-class on the east coast (or so I learned), but that reality was terribly exotic and foreign to me, a barely middle-class girl from SoCal. <br />
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I also have a huge weakness for books set in the South, especially the wealthy South prior to the 1960s, where manners and etiquette and good breeding were so much a part of the culture. Again, growing up I knew nothing of debutantes and cotillions and family names, but I soaked it all up like I was studying for some future test. (I read <i>Gone With the Wind </i>at least 3 times.) <br />
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So when wealthy young Thea is shipped from her isolated home comprised of acres of wild north Florida landscape, and shipped off to the mountains of North Carolina as punishment for some unnamed transgression, I was hooked. <br />
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I liked the plot of the book, but what I liked even more is how DiSclafani chose to make Thea such a fiercely strong and feminist character in that insulated world of wealthy young horsewomen. Yes, she is sexual, and has strong sexual desires and fantasies, which maybe upsets people, but her desires are perfectly normal -- for 15 and 16 year old girls now, and those back in 1930. <br />
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Not to give too much away as to why Thea is abruptly sent hundreds of miles away from her beloved home and twin brother, but in our current culture of "slut-shaming" and blaming the victim, I loved how Thea understood and tapped into her own female power to navigate her new surroundings.<br />
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Very strong and engaging first novel, and I look forward to more from DiSclafani. <br />
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So, as I got a few chapters into the book and remembered how much I loved "boarding school books," I remembered my favorite one of all. But I couldn't recall the name. Thanks to the internet, a few minutes of searching provided the answer:<br />
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It was "They'll Never Make A Movie Starring Me," by Alice Bach. Despite re-reading the book several times, all I can recall now is that the narrator is a well-to-do young woman from NYC, sent to boarding school in New England. She's obsessed with the young Katherine Hepburn, and tries to live her life by mimicking Kate's wealthy blue blood/dryly witty persona of her early comedies. What I most remember from the book is that protagonist wants to attend Bryn Mawr, the exclusive women's college that Hepburn actually went to.<br />
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Since I had no clue about New England blue bloods or what the heck "Bryn Mawr" was or implied, I lapped up all this fascinating cultural stuff. And since it feels like I also spent huge chunks of my adolescence trying on personas and mimicking famous people or characters, it's no wonder I responded to this book so much. <br />
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And I'm happy that "The Yonahlossee..." novel brought it all back to me. Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-90742891575128505872013-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.674-07:00Love and Eydie GormeLast Friday, a chill went through me when I learned that Eydie Gorme had passed away at 84. Celebrities die all the time, and sometimes it gives us pause, and more often we say, "who? Oh....<i>right</i>. Her/Him."<br />
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But sometimes we get a little misty and take a longer pause, like the <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/04/he-stopped-loving-her-today.html" target="_blank">last time I was inspired to write about music</a>. If <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/04/he-stopped-loving-her-today.html" target="_blank">George Jones</a> was the artist who most reminds me of my dad (for so many reasons), than it's probably the sound of Eydie Gorme who most makes me think of my mother. Well, her and Johnny Mathis.<br />
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Eydie Gorme reminds me of so, so many things. Of being a child in both my parent's and grandparent's homes, sitting and listening to their stacks of albums. Of late Sunday brunches that my dad worked over all morning, eggs benedict with creamy cheese sauce and Bloody Mary's (for them) and Sunny Delite for me, both served in tall glasses that he'd chilled first in the freezer. And Eydie Gorme and her<i> Amor</i> album on the hi-fi. <br />
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It's the <i>Amor</i> album that we all loved best, and by "we all" I mean most of the members on my mom's side of the family. As I have (or haven't?) mentioned here before, I'm half-Mexican American, on my mom's side. If I mention this, people who aren't familiar with the cultural makeup of Southern California will ask,<i> Ohhh. So where's your family from?</i>" implying that my mother was born in Mexico or a Latin American country. But no, my mother's family are from here, from this native ground of Santa Ana winds and palm trees and balmy Christmas mornings. <br />
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(If you<i> are</i> from SoCal, or have at least lived here long enough, you know that half-breeds like me, who don't look or sound at all Mexican, are a dime a dozen. Turn over any Mission tortilla, and there we are.) <br />
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What this all has to do with Eydie Gorme is that I find it funny and ironic, how a white girl from New York City produced an album that’s so beloved in so many families like my own. What this all has to do with me is that, in a way, Eydie Gorme is the reason I'm writing a memoir, rather than sticking to my first love, fiction. <br />
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Also: a fiction (mostly) piece that I did get published is titled "Don't Go to Strangers." Which is the name of the title track from this album, another fixture in my household:<br />
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That album, and my story, which is also thinly-veiled memoir, are another story altogether. Which is why I'm finally writing that memoir. So many stories to tell.<br />
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For now, here's "Piel Canela", that first song on the <i>Amor </i>album that starts playing when the record needle drops into the grooves. I know all the songs by heart and sing along --- phonetically. I still have no idea of most of what she's singing about. Except, you know, <i>love</i>. What else is there to sing about? <br />
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R.I.P., Eydie. </div>
Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-83695997805017617982013-07-30T10:32:00.001-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.640-07:00The Post-Tahoe Post<i>Hola, </i>world.<br />
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I'm still here! Still alive.<br />
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I've put off blogging since we went to Lake Tahoe earlier this month, because I planned to do a big post-Tahoe post and show you all the cool things we did. And we really did have a great family time -- we hiked, we biked, we rafted down the mellow Truckee river. We even had a black bear go loping through the backyard of our cottage. (No photos of that, it happened so fast.)<br />
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But returning to post-vacation life, with its attendant laundry, laziness, and lack of anticipation, has left me feeling really blah. I could blame the kids, and how they're constantly here, they're constantly behind my desk chair, bickering and whining and wanting apples sliced up. (Because God forbid they'd have to eat, like, a whole apple.)<br />
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It's not really the kids, because I could blog after bedtime (though bedtime averages around 10 this summer). I think that this summer has sort of sucked my creative juices dry, and there's nothing I really feel a need to talk about much. <br />
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In a nutshell, Tahoe was beautiful, if crowded, and we'd like to go back again, but as the husband says (quoting me), it's a great big world and there's a lot to see. Meaning, we're not the type of family who repeats going to the same spots over and over. (With the exception of Palm Springs. But that's like, totally different.)<br />
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Right now, there are no upcoming trips, except the ones to the mall, to buy the kids new shoes and argue about why I won't spend that same amount of money at Build-A-Bear or Game Stop or etc. etc. <br />
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Alright then. School starts in just over 2 weeks. I'll probably be back with a real honest-to-God and enthusiastic post before then, but no promises. <br />
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Until then, here's one of my favorite photos, from the 400+ we took during the Tahoe trip. I have a lot of gorgeous shots of the lake, but neither the time or inclination to sort through and edit them quite yet.<br />
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(No lie, I was just about to hit "Publish" when Tucker came up behind me and asked for an apple.) Gotta go...<br />
<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-32685735110285791392013-07-01T10:59:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.423-07:00Writing NewsRemember back in late April & May, when I talked a lot about my writing, how I was working on a particular piece and feeling all braggy about sitting at my kitchen table and writing almost every morning?<br />
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I talked more about it <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/05/poem-for-hot-friday.html" target="_blank">back in this post</a>, how I was working on an essay about shopping, and the department stores of my youth.<br />
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Well, last week I received word that my essay "I Dream of Department Stores" has been accepted for inclusion in a book of personal essays, all themed around different takes on shopping. The anthology will be published by <a href="http://www.sealpress.com/home.php" target="_blank">Seal Press</a>, a small yet well-established publishing house out of Portland that specializes in women's interests.<br />
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Actually, I knew that I was potentially in as a "yes" awhile back, through e-mail correspondence with the editors, and I felt especially writerly when I received the (minimal) edits for the piece last month, which meant I was <i>working with an editor</i>. Heady stuff!<br />
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But I knew it was Officially Official when I received my contributors contract last week, which outlines the details of my publishing rights and payment (again, minimal) and all that. Also, I knew it was official when in another e-mail, the editor told the contributors, "Yes! Feel free to tell everyone!" <br />
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This is not the first time my writing has been published. I've had a few short stories appear in small literary journals (including <a href="http://newmillenniumwritings.com/" target="_blank">this one</a>), and had some journalism published way, way long ago in the<i> OC Weekly</i>. But this was certainly the first contract I've ever received, and it will easily be the most I've been paid so far for putting pen to paper. It also goes without saying that this is the first<i> book </i>that I've been in, which is the most exciting part of it all. <br />
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The best and worst part is that this is my first piece of memoir that I've had accepted. Best, because this is the genre that I'm working in now, and it feels great to have this finished piece accepted so easily (easily, after the accumulation of rejection slips for my short stories that were eventually published). Worst, because its memoir. It's all true, all just out there. I was driving around last week, and the sudden realization that the names of some of my family members would be out there in the world made me want to pass out. Or take it all back:<i> "wait, can I change some names here??" </i>But I'm not going to change names, or take anything back.<br />
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The book, titled <i>The Dressing Room</i>, won't be published until the fall of 2014. That feels like a long time, maybe even long enough to work up to telling my extended family. (Ha!) In the meantime, this news is a great, great boost to my motivation to keep going with memoir, and telling my family's particular story. (Although I've been incapable so far this summer at figuring out how to write with the kids at home.) <br />
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<i>Onward! </i><br />
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All photos from my Instagram account. Also, it's July 1 and I'm in total denial about the demise of Google Reader. (As of this morning, it was still working.) Follow me on Instagram at "<a href="http://instagram.com/readingnest1#" target="_blank">readingnest1</a>," my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Reading-Nest/361408730568282?ref=hl" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> (where I always link to my new blog posts), or at Feedly, though I haven't actually figured out how to properly navigate around there yet. <br />
<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-6816993228371904322013-06-24T11:41:00.001-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.587-07:00Hello Monday {Solstice in Old Town}<i>Hola! </i><br />
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It's Monday and I'm all worn out from a marathon, 14-hour day at the Disney parks yesterday. More on that later this week.<br />
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Today, I'm sharing some camera-photos from our Friday evening in our <a href="http://www.oldtowntemecula.com/" target="_blank">Old Town </a>district. It was the summer solstice, and we ate on the patio of one of our favorite casual Mexican joints,<a href="http://rosascantina.com/" target="_blank"> Rosa's Cantina</a>.<br />
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Then we strolled up the street toward the City Hall plaza, where the Street Art Festival that took place this past weekend was just getting started. By Saturday afternoon, the street is filled with chalk art drawn by local artists. I think anyone can enter in advance -- there were lots of young people in their late teens, alongside more serious artists.<br />
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The city also sets up two great big grid areas for children (or anyone, actually) to add their own art squares. The kids are given plastic gloves and a box of artist pastels and invited to get creative. Of course my own kids were thrilled to jump in:<br />
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After that, we got them cleaned up and strolled around town for a while... It was nearing sunset on the longest day of the year, and the streets were filled with a fairly even mix of both local families and tourists. <br />
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And of course, it wouldn't be right to welcome in summer without stopping for ice cream. (Cotton candy flavored, for him.) <br />
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Hello to another week of summer vacation...the kids are in soccer camp this week, and it starts at 9am. That's a welcome change, to be dressed and out the door early in the day. We've been pretty laid-back around here. (Although we were out of the house before 7 to hit Disney yesterday.)<br />
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Hello to the last week of June...is it me, or has this been a realllly long month? Not in a bad way, but the first of June, back when the kids were still in school, already feels like ages ago.<br />
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Hello, Leon Day. Do you celebrate? My husband is crazy about the holidays, and Leon Day (Noel, spelled backwards) marks 6 months until Christmas Day. I'll wake up tomorrow to carols and "Jingle Bell Rock" at my house. The kids are all excited about it. I like to think I'm the lone sane person here, rolling my eyes at the whole thing.<br />
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Hello to sweaty soccer clothes and pool time and probably some more ice cream thrown in there, too. <br />
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Hello to Tucker's Love Robot. You have to look hard, but it's got a great big red heart in its center (just like my sensitive, sweet boy). <br />
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Wishing you all a great first <i>official </i>week of summer.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/">Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays. </a></i><br />
<br />Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-26760186252618935222013-06-18T12:43:00.003-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.396-07:00Rancho Las Palmas in June<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Sunday (not Father's Day, but the week before), we left for a quick 2-night getaway to the <a href="http://www.rancholaspalmas.com/" target="_blank">Rancho Las Palmas </a>resort in Rancho Mirage. I'd been wanting to stay there for a while, knowing that the kids would love it. The hotel calls their water play/pool area "Splashtopia" and it boasts a lazy river, a zero entry sand-play area for the toddler set, 2 twisting water slides, a spray zone, and large regular pool. <br />
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This was definitely one of our more kid-centric escapes to the desert, which is also typically our romantic-getaway spot. The rates during the winter high season at the resort are crazy high, especially for what was, to me, a three and half star hotel. It's an older property, notably in the architecture, which is sort of a watered-down '70s hacienda style. I was also not a fan of the beach chairs, which are the same strappy white plastic style we keep down at our HOA pool. They get dirty so easily with wet feet. (The rooms were nice and spacious, and the bathroom was updated in granite.) <br />
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Thanks to an internet sale site, I didn't pay the crazy-high winter rates, but a much more reasonable one, which made the negatives not too big a deal. (I'd have been a lot more cranky about the cheap chaises if I'd paid $300+ per night.)<br />
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It was hot out, of course. I'm used to and enjoy the desert heat, but I tell ya...sitting by the pool with the sun bouncing off all that scorching concrete, with other bodies in close proximity -- even under an umbrella, it was <i>hot.</i><br />
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Obligatory pool-side feet shot:<i> </i><br />
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By the way, on our last morning, the pool attendant wouldn't let us bring in our inflatable whale (christened Shamwow), because he wasn't transparent like the similar dolphin toys sold at the resort's swim shop. He said it was because the life guards couldn't see through it. My husband pointed out that no life guards were on duty, anyway. Still, no go for Shamwow on Tuesday morning. Oh well. <br />
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Here's the lazy river, before it opened at 10am. (The pool opens earlier, and then people, us included, line up around 9:30 at the gate to the the river, to score chairs in the shade.) <br />
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The lazy river shortly after opening:<br />
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Me and my boy:<br />
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Our ground-floor room overlooked one part of the golf course:<br />
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This was the reading in our car, after we returned from lunch:<br />
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It wasn't really that hot at all -- only a mere 104 or 105 degrees. <br />
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Like I said, it was a very kid-friendly, kid-centered trip this time around. One good side effect of spending so much time in the sun and water is that my monkeys, sharing a double-bed, were too tired to fuss and whisper and not sleep well, like they typically do when sharing a hotel bed. They were conked out but good.<br />
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I'd go back, but not without my children. The husband and I definitely prefer the quirky charms of the small boutique hotels near downtown Palm Springs. But for a family outing, this was, like I hoped, a great way to kick off our summer.<br />
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<i>For a different take on what to do in the desert with the family, check out my post</i>, "<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/03/palm-springs-breakwith-kids.html" target="_blank">Palm Springs Break...with Kids.</a>" Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-21019572840646100452013-06-07T12:16:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.361-07:00Summer PlansFirst day of summer vacation, and here we are, still in our pj's in what some would say is early afternoon, but I prefer to call it<i> late morning.</i> <br />
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It was a strange week, a whirlwind of crazy-busy, interspersed with stretches of downtime that I didn't quite know what to do with. (Attempted a nap one day, but unless I'm sick, I can't ever fall asleep.) <br />
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And it was a wonderful week. Wednesday was Lily's promotion ceremony out of 5th grade. Lots of smiles and hugs and high-fives all around. (But no tears!)<br />
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She was delighted with that candy bouquet. <br />
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Yesterday was the last day of school: Lily went to her class pool party, and by all accounts it was awesome. Listening to the DJ playing Taylor Swift and knowing my girl was down there screaming along to "Trouble," was the one moment of the week I got a little misty and sentimental. So begins the point in her life when most of her best memories and good times will be spent away from us, and with her own crew. <br />
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*Sniff.*<br />
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On the last day of school,<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/06/end-of-school-gifts.html" target="_blank"> just like last year</a>, I had end-of-the-school-year gift bags for the kids when they got home. Inside were new boogie boards and pool toys, along with some gift cards for ice cream and Jamba Juice and boredom-busting books. Yes, I spoil them. On the other hand, I like to reward them for a good year --- Tucker came home with a perfect report card, and Lily was recognized at her ceremony with the President's Award, for making the Honor Roll throughout 4th and 5th grades. (And yes, I'm bragging, I know.) <br />
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***<br />
So now what? We're ultra-lazy on this Friday, but that's certainly not my intent for the whole summer. There is the pool. There is the beach, 45 minutes away. There are Disneyland passes that must be justified. There are free movies and play dates and the library's summer program and so forth. My husband, who works from home, is dreading the next 9 weeks -- it's distracting having the kids home all day, and it just makes him feel bad -- we're free to spend the day as we please, and he's locked up in his office, typing away.<br />
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One new routine I hope to implement is attending our city's free summer concert series, that happen mid-week through August. Although we've lived here for nearly a decade, we've never attended a single concert (okay, maybe one). I want to change that up -- pack a picnic or grab some take-out, and enjoy being out and about on a warm evening with live music (even if it's just a Journey cover band). Maybe it'll make the husband feel a little more in the summer spirit, too.<br />
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And though I already don't post that often, expect me to be more absent on the blog.There will be other lazy days like this one, but overall I really don't want this to be the summer of jammies-till-noon. <br />
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But I invite you to follow my Instagram feed. I've been one of the last 10 bloggers on the planet to join, and I'm enjoying it -- it's like reading blogs behind-the-scenes and gives my Harriet the Spy personality a little thrill. I've been posting a pic pretty much daily, and if you followed, you could see the awesome way I spent my downtime at the end of Wednesday.<br />
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It was just me and some old records that I recently carted home from my mom's house:<br />
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<a href="http://instagram.com/p/aMj5qIvvjD/" target="_blank">Grease is the word. </a><br />
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<a href="http://instagram.com/p/aMuAdpPvh3/" target="_blank">Sauvecito memories.</a> (I recall a New Year's Eve party when I was maybe 5 years old, and this was on the turntable.) <br />
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Anyway, I invite you to join along with my feed, via <a href="http://instagram.com/readingnest1#" target="_blank">this link,</a> or the Instagram camera button on my sidebar. You can indulge your own Harriet the Spy, voyeuristic tendencies, and see what I'm up to and where I've been. For instance, in a couple days we're going to be hanging out near where the <a href="http://sunnylands.org/" target="_blank">President is spending the weekend. </a><br />
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I don't expect to be sharing any Obama pics, but who knows? Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-76350520316903895762013-06-03T11:35:00.000-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.616-07:00Hello, Monday {Goodbye, 5th Grade}<i>Hola! </i><br />
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It's going to be a busy, fun, emotional week around here....the last week of school. On Wednesday morning, Lily and the rest of the 5th graders will have a small promotion ceremony, as they say farewell to elementary school. They're all big shots now, moving on to middle school and the 6th grade. <br />
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I am not at all a scrapbooker, but I've been working on a memory book as a gift for her, with photos from of each of her six years at our school, starting with the first day of Kindergarten:<br />
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I remember picking out her first-day clothes at Gymboree. (Now walking past Gymboree makes me sad, as she's too big for all those cute coordinated outfits.)<br />
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And this is from last August, on her first day of 5th grade. (At least she's still open to wearing skirts.) <br />
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It's such a cliche that it all goes by so fast...but<i> wow</i>. How it has. Even though I'm a hugely emotional person, I rarely cry at ceremonies, happy or sad. But we'll see how I hold up on Wednesday morning...I know the 5th graders have been practicing a couple of songs to perform for us parents. Sounds treacherous for me! <br />
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Then on Thursday, the official last day of school, the entire 5th grade will walk down to our community pool for a big pool party. Lily is <i>soooo </i>excited for this, and I'm excited for her. We live close to the pool, and every year I hear the shouts & screams of excitement from the 5th grade class, while the hired DJ spins tween pop songs. And this year my own girl will be there. <br />
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Look at that happy girl. Friday was "Hawaiian Day" at school, and this was taken shortly after the Honor Roll awards (she made it again) and during her Girl Scout troop's wrap-up ceremony. Whew! So much to keep track of and on top of lately.<br />
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Summer! I can't believe it's here again, so soon.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/">Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays. </a></i><br />
Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-43453783389344769332013-05-29T10:05:00.002-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.455-07:00What I'm Reading: Life After LifeAs I mentioned last week, I'm done with writing long-winded reviews about the books I'm reading. All my life, I've been a total bookworm and usually have a couple in-progress titles on my nightstand, and feel unmoored and restless when I have nothing to read.<br />
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However. After 6 years on the blog, I've learned that I sorta hate doing thoughtful reviews of books. Despite my best efforts, I'm unable to keep it short & sweet. You know who has a good knack for writing reviews? My daughter. Recently she started a blog, called <a href="http://lilylandofbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Lilyland</a>. She reviews books for the middle school set, and keeps it really brief and on-topic. And for a 5th grader, she's pretty funny. You can check her out at <a href="http://lilylandofbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Lilyland -- "the land of Books, Harry Potter, and other awesome stuff.</a>" <br />
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Back to me. This is what I'm reading:<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-A-Novel/dp/0316176486/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_har?ie=UTF8&qid=1369846977&sr=8-1&keywords=Life+after+Life%2C+Kate+Atkinson" target="_blank">Life After Life</a>,</i> by Kate Atkinson. Love her, and loving her latest book. I'd describe it as a mash-up of <i>Downton Abbey</i> and<i> Groundhog Day</i>, with a little <i>Dr. Who</i> thrown in. It's not sci-fi, closer to magical realism, but with a good bracing jolt of British pragmatism. Great, smart writing. <br />
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And that's it! Dude, I'm out. Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-37828891536647911612013-05-27T14:40:00.002-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.444-07:00Hello, Monday {Sandwiches}<i>Hola!</i> It's Monday, but not really, because of the holiday here in the states. My kids are home running about, giving me a preview of what's to come in a few weeks, when they'll be out of school for the summer.<br />
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This past week, I was thinking about sandwiches. Not the kind you eat, although come to think of it, sandwiches are one of my favorite foods. Grilled cheese + a glass of chocolate milk is my ultimate comfort food (though I've yet to perfect making a great one at home). And a greasy pastrami + a cold beer? Heaven. <br />
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No, this week, I was thinking about being part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich_generation" target="_blank">sandwich generation</a>: that group of people caring for their own children, and for their aging parents, too. My sister and I have become card-carrying members of that generation, as lately we've been talking about and helping my mom with some recent health issues. <br />
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Thankfully, its not even a health<i> crisis</i> that she's having, but since my mom has a severe phobia of anything remotely medical, the mere fact that she's had to visit a few different doctors over the last month has suddenly brought the issue of her age and her need for support to the forefront. <br />
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I spent two nights at her house last week, so that I could drive and help her through an out-patient procedure. A very, very common procedure for people of a certain age. In fact, her ophthalmologist says that <i>everyone </i>will require this procedure at a certain point. That should clue you in. To come out and say the words would make my mom deeply offended. <br />
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Yeah. So that's the kind of fun I've been up to: navigating the touchy areas of aging, denial, anger, vanity, pride. It's a big, heavy stew. I'm not that fond of stew.<br />
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I like sandwiches.<br />
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Perhaps the best sandwich I ever ate was a muffeletta, a famous New Orleans concoction. I ate it at the counter at City Grocery, the famous home of muffalettas in the French Quarter, on my one and only trip to wonderful New Orleans. You need to like salty, briny olives to like this sandwich, as olive salad is <i>the </i>major ingredient, along with lovely layers of salami, meats and cheeses. <i>Mmmmm. </i><br />
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So there you have it. Sandwiches.
(It took me forever to compose this, since I ran smack into the issue of Pinterest's new image embedding format. What a pain, and a rather ugly result, to boot.)<br />
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All I know is that I'm hungry now, and cranky too! Better go get some lunch.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/">Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays. </a></i><br />
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Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425727782334917141.post-91051087774524755582013-05-20T12:00:00.001-07:002019-08-02T15:05:26.678-07:00Hello, Monday {California Love}<i>Hola! </i><br />
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Today I'm sharing a recent book find, a score at one of my favorite, secret home decor shops, <a href="http://www.thealley.info/" target="_blank">The Alley</a>. Its a small chain mostly located in the desert communities around Palm Springs, but we also have one here in my town. (I also <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2011/10/mumbo-jumbo.html" target="_blank">wrote about it here</a>, in a post featuring another cool book find at The Alley.) <br />
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I love the "Little Big Book of..." series. We have both the "Moms" and "Dads" editions, gifts from my mother-in-law. (We used to joke with the kids that they were parenting instruction books, and they believed us.) The books are small and chock-full of ephemera art and quotes and songs and recipes and book excerpts. So imagine my delight when at a recent stop at The Alley, I found a big stack of sale books of <i>The Little Big Book of California</i>. <br />
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It was clearance priced for only $2.99. Crazy!<br />
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The book is really lovely, and lovingly put-together. There are recipes for guacamole, churros, and huevos rancheros, and the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's "California" and other songs. There are essays about the gold rush, Hollywood as mindset-over-place, Cesar Chavez, and the water wars over the Colorado River.<br />
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It's a great mix of fun and more thoughtful pieces, and interspersed on nearly every page are vintage art and woodcut illustrations: <br />
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Half Dome at Yosemite.<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/10/31-trips-in-cali-day-19-yosemite-in.html" target="_blank"> Been there!</a><br />
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A California Mission.<a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/10/31-trips-in-cali-day-20-mission-san.html" target="_blank"> Been there</a> (more than one)!<br />
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The great state seal, as seen in Sacramento, our capitol. <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/10/31-trips-in-cali-day-21-sacramento.html" target="_blank">Been there</a>!<br />
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Bougainvillea beside a swimming pool: looks like Palm Springs. <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/10/31-trips-in-cali-day-13-palm-springs.html" target="_blank">Been there</a>! <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/03/palm-springs-breakwith-kids.html">So.</a><a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2013/03/palm-springs-and-poem.html" target="_blank"> Many</a>. <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/06/palm-springs-girls-getaway.html" target="_blank">Times!</a> (Hint: each of those words has a link to a different Palm Spring post.) <br />
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Hello, my little blog. I'm still here as "The Reading Nest." Late last week, I started thinking about my blog's subtitle, "La Vida California," and became convinced that I should change my blog name to that. I've realized lately that most of my posts are about my road trips and day trips, and my life here (and the weather). Not so much at all about either "reading" or "nesting," although I still do quite a lot of both. For some reason, I just don't feel as inspired to write about those topics.<br />
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<i>"Oh, but California...</i>" to quote Joni Mitchell. For whatever reason, I get really excited talking about places and ideas and writers and musicians that are California-centric. I've always been fascinated by the concepts of place, geography and regionalism. It's the same reason I was so enamored of "The South" that <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/02/help-or-my-own-private-mississippi.html" target="_blank">I went to spend a year in Mississippi.</a><br />
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In the end...I just changed my banner up there to something a little cleaner and brighter, with a California poppy illustration from the book. I realized that changing the blog's name would probably confuse and alienate my 14 readers, and why do that to you? If you frequent the blog, you already know that I love my state and talking about travel and our Sunday drives. <br />
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So maybe expect a little more California love here on the blog. Summer is coming, and already I have trips to Rancho Mirage and Lake Tahoe planned, that I can't wait to take and then share with you. And rather than beating myself up about hating to write book reviews -- even though I'm a writer & bookworm -- I've decided to simply share a photo each week (or so) of whatever book is in my lap. So there ya go.<br />
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Hello, Monday. I'm still here. Still loving books (especially pretty ones that only cost $2.99). Still dreaming of road trips. Still listening to Joni Mitchell and <a href="http://www.thereadingnest.com/2012/09/la-music-linda-ronstadt-country-rock.html" target="_blank">Linda Ronstandt</a> and old school, mellow 70s yacht-rock. <br />
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Still embarrassed that I've never been to the East Coast, though I'm pretty sure which one I'll always consider the best coast.<br />
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Happy Monday, wherever this may find you. <br />
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<i><a href="http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/">Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays. </a></i><br />
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Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14000400260579054708noreply@blogger.com2