Day 2

American craft council show - two days down, two days to go! Fun, exhausted, fun, exhausted, repeat repeat repeat.
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Blonde on a train

Ang sleeping on our way to Baltimore. Fun and excitement, what more can I say?!
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But I Love My Pink Ballet Slippers

I love when I stumble upon a good documentary!

This week, I watched Random Lunacy, which is available on Hulu.com (for FREE!)

It's the story of Poppa Neutrino, a man who basically made the conscious decision to shun all material possessions and avoid any kind of traditional lifestyle. He ended up raising his family as a traveling band of street musicians, then as circus performers. For extended periods of time, the family lived on boats that they built.



I had heard about Poppa Neutrino because his daughter, Ingrid Lucia, (now an adult) is a musician in New Orleans. She has a beautiful voice and i love seeing her perform.



But the Random Lunacy doc was amazing in and of itself. It was really an odd coincidence that I happened upon a story about shedding material possessions, because that's what I've been trying to do for the last weeks. (Not to the Poppa Neutrino extreme, but in my own little way).

It's pretty ridiculous, all the things that we keep and carry with us every time we move. Sometimes the things we keep take on some special meaning for no reason other than we've had them for a long time. I've got lot's of stuff like that -- things that I think SHOULD be "important" because of where I got it, or who got it for me, but the truth is, i don't even really care much for the thing I'm keeping -- just the symbolism I've attached to it. So this week, I'm working on filling a few bags for the Salvation Army.

Why I Love Astoria: Reason #683

There's been a lot of talk in the past few years about the benefits of eating locally grown foods. The idea being that you not only support local businesses, but also that --theoretically-- you have more control over what you're consuming, because you have access to information such as how the fruits/veges were grown, and under what sort of conditions the animals were raised.

Today, the concept of "locavore" was taken to a whole new level when I had lunch in Astoria.

Mikey D and I decided on an impromptu beer-and-dumplings lunch at Zlata Praha, the Czech-Slovak restaurant under the 30th Ave subway stop. There's something really satisfying about drinking beer at 2pm on a cold February day. I ordered a sweet and delicious BrouCzech, one of my all time favorite beers.

Perusing the menu, it quickly became apparent that we'd picked a good week to go to Zlata Praha -- it was "Venison Week" meaning that the menu was packed with a variety of venison dishes. Chatting with the bartender, we were told that the owner had just returned from a hunting trip and had caught rabbits, deer, a boar (thus, Vension Week).  Wowza. We decided on venison in wine sauce, pickled herring, and dumplings.

Soon, we were snarfing down hearty Czech food and washing it down with swigs of beer. We were so busy feasting that we were suprised to see the bartender standing over us, holding what, at first glance, I thought was a dart. I soon realized that in fact, it was the ARROW THAT HAD KILLED THE DEER WE WERE EATING AT THAT VERY MOMENT.

I don't know if I should have been horrified, but my reaction was pure intrigue. The arrow was really beautiful. I've never seem an arrow like that up close before -- it reminded me of a very sharp tulip bulb. I even got a picture of it:

At the far right, you can see where the arrow was snapped in half when removed from the deer. We soon realized that the guy waving to us from the other end of the bar was the owner, and he was the one who shot our lunch.

I guess there's probably a lot of people out there who'd be pretty horrified to be presented with an arrow while trying to enjoy lunch. But I'm not one of those people.

Aftermath

How come in December it's called a Winter Wonderland and in February it's just a reminder that spring is really, really, really far away?

I really love this pic of my parents. Took it on their anniversary this year. Mom's crying cause she just got Springsteen tickets. Dad's glowing cause he knows, in the World Series of gift giving, he just scored a home run.

The Feb 14th Edition

Dare I point out that Valentines Day is right around the corner?  I dare.

I guess, as a girl who has been single for a while now, Valentines Day should be a holiday where I feel a little bummed out about not having someone to shower me with flowers and little stuffed creatures. Honestly though, the reality is the complete opposite -- I look forward to my single-girl Valentines Days.

I've passed plenty of Feb 14ths in committed relationships, which leads me to believe that I must have celebrated the holiday at some point with someone who i cared somewhat about. But, as much I've wracked my brain, I cannot remember a single Valentines Day that involved dinner at a nice restaurant or a box of chocolates. In fact, I can't remember a V Day spent with a boyfriend.

What I do remember, however, are all the Valentine's Days I spent with my friends. I remember the year that a bunch of my girls and i went downtown and saw Ryan Montbleau play at the Knitting Factory. And the year that my roomies and  I all made up excuses to go in to work late, then cooked a huge V Day brunch with mimosas, chocolates, and LOTS of bacon.

 
In college, my roomie and I decided to participate in that feminist/Valentines Day/college tradition: The Vagina Monologues. It was a great experience, though I walked away firmer than ever in my belief that the stage was one place I was definitely NOT meant to be. Also, I realized that red was NOT my color:

Then there was the year that I decided to follow Assembly of Dust through four dates of their Northeast tour, which happened to fall over Valentines weekend. The guy I was dating at the time was pretty unhappy that I was leaving town, but, hey it's AOD! I spent Feb 14th in Northhampton, MA at the Pearl Street Music Hall. The band covered Van Morrison that night. And after the show, I remember driving for-ev-er looking for a hotel room, because every place I stopped at was booked with couples on romantic weekend getaways.

Last year, my girls and I decided to go to Costa Rica. Angela and I spent Valentines Day on a crisis-filled journey from Queens to Miami to Fort Lauderdale to San Jose. The two of us celebrated the holiday with a lunch (comped by the fantasically crappy Spirit Airlines) at a Chili's in the Miami airport. Our Valentines Day dinner was a granola bar in the San Jose hotel room at midnight. Still, it was one of the most joyful V Days I can remember, because we were so happy to have finally arrived in Costa Rica.

This year, I will once again be celebrating a single-girl Valentines Day. And, once again, I'm looking forward to it. If Ang can avoid another airline crisis, she'll be arriving from Michigan on the 14th. There may be a dance party. And not a pajama-gram or stuffed farm animal in sight.

Nest Ring and Stuff

A good Sunday usually involves banana chocolate chip pancakes. Today was a good Sunday. Brunch with some of the Astoria girls and then lots of photographing pieces that shoulda been photographed six months ago.

Heres a fave:

 
It's for sale on Etsy if you're interested in getting one of your very own.

Now heading out to Lil C's place for some Superbowl-goodness. There will be ribs. And beer. And, I think, football.

_____

PS  I'm starting to have nightmares about the American Craft Council show in Baltimore, which I'll be selling at during the last weekend in Feb. Last night, the nightmare involved realizing in the 11th hour that all my displays were still in Michigan with Elsie Q.  Whoops!

Doppelganger

Today, my postman told me i look like a singer from the 60's who I'd never heard of: Melanie Safka. So I had to do a little googling:

 

Separated at birth??  To bad this pic of me is 8 years old. I still have that awesome turquoise necklace though.