the LOOK

It's the LOOK that makes me pause.
And stare.
And nod.
And covet.

When I see it, I recognize it instantly. 
It taunts and tempts me. 
It shouts:  "T"




the  Look
These images are from Tumblr's Polyvore Collection.



(Love those glasses)

(Loving the gray sweater and shoes)

 

(Am I seeing a pattern here...?)

Couturesplash - Tumblr

 

couturesplash - Tumblr

couturesplash - third avenue - Tumblr

 

 

 

 



I’m way overdue a shopping trip.





Turn the Lights Out When You Leave

It's a rainy, cloudy afternoon.  Cooler temps.  We're finished with the docket for the day.  My judge finished signing all his pending Orders and left early for an appointment.  His secretary is on vacation.  The law clerk leaves early every afternoon.  The bailiff is taking care of business elsewhere in the courthouse...

And that leaves me, the court reporter.

Except for my soft jazz playing, background music, it is still as can be.  My candle is lit.  I could shout to the top of my lungs, and I doubt anyone would hear me.  That's kinda cool.  Just me.  Working away on my computer, mind wandering, gazing out the window now and then.  Catch up time.  Quiet time.  ALL.  TO.  MYSELF.

My phone hasn't even rung all afternoon. And I haven't heard the judge's phone ring all afternoon. (Unless the law clerk forwarded the calls....?)

It's rare that I have the entire suite to myself.  But when I do, it makes me wish I had a bottle of wine stashed away.  I mean, who would know?  And who would care?  And what harm would it do?

I could get used to this...



FNL - Go Deep

Go Deep.  Such a powerful little sentence.  One that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, obviously.  But when I hear those two words, I instantly think of baseball.  I dated a guy (for too long) when I was a teenager who was all about baseball -- he played the sport, he worked in the clubhouse for our local Minor League team, and many memories of my time with him revolved around baseball.  We often went to professional baseball games together.  And I can remember when I'd hear that distinctive crack of the bat, I could expect to hear him shout:  GO DEEP!

Deep.  The word can describe length or depth or distance, or it can suggest the concept of complexity, seriousness.  Mysterious. 

A thought-provoking word ... DEEP. 

I consider myself pretty DEEP.  I'm certain I've always been that way.  And I've always wondered HOW I got this way.  Why am I deep?  I didn't consciously decide to be this way.  And I didn't even realize that my personality was "deep" until it was pointed out to me somewhere along the way in my earlier years.  Deep?  Me?  Really?  Hmmmm. 

But it is what it is.  I am deep.

Deep like the ocean.

Maybe that's why I'm inherently fascinated with the ocean...  It's as good an explanation as any.   When I close my eyes, I can still see it ... I remember...

I stopped counting, but these shots are only a handful of the countless shots I took of the ocean this past June while on Marco Island.  As I think back on that time, I smile... I remember the smell, the sound, the expanse, the speechlessness it evokes.  So beautiful.  It will always take my breath away.





 

Listen

  



Weekend Highlights

I began taking my fall decorations down off the shelf in the garage on Friday evening.  I lit candles, poured myself a glass of wine, and turned on some Oscar Peterson...allowing myself to get lost in the ecstacy and expectation of the season ahead.

A dear close GF from the gym stopped by around 8.  She's going through some tough issues and needed to unload, needed an ear, a shoulder, a heart willing to listen.  I listened.  I let her purge.  I shared back.  And then without a hitch, I subtley adjusted the tenor, rerouting her to happy things and laughter and girl stuff.  We so get each other.  She is a mirror of my soul.

The next morning my husband and I skyped with Zach from Japan...that is, after I managed to arouse Rip Van Winkle ... he's NEVER slept in so late!  What's up with THAT.  I kept skype messaging Zach, wait, he's still not up...wait, he's still not up ... and then, "Omg, this is ridiculous...give me two seconds, I'm getting his ass up!"  An hour of chatting and laughing flew by.  He's so precious to me.  I miss him so.

I headed to the gym and nailed my glute/hamstring workout. 

I sat in the sun for 45 mins in the afternoon, listening to tunes, and reading magazines. 

I cleaned the back screened porch and then fired up the blower to hasten the drying process where puddles had formed on the porch floor ... I get it how men like their machines, their lawn gadgets and tools ... I feel so powerful with that thing...it's loud and spirited ... sort of the way I get at times?  ARGGH!!!

My youngest son spent the evening having fun (overdue) with friends, and I headed off for a planned Girls Night Out with a group of girls from my gym.  I was singing and giddy floating on my drive to the restaurant to meet them, and I manged to snap a shot of sunset while heading down the highway -- can the evening get better?  Oh.Yes.It.Did.

I can't remember when I've had so much fun...The noise level at our table had to be annoying to those around us.  We got a few looks.  (Were they checkin' us out?  Annoyed?  Jealous?)  What a shot in the arm.  GNO is as essential as breathing.

And this afternoon, trying to get caught up with chores, I get a text from Gavin, my middle son, who was spending the afternoon at The Irish Festival in PA (I'm jealous!).  Gavin is ALL THINGS IRISH.  He has always been obsessed with Irish anything.  He snaps a picture of this name plaque at the festival...His accompanying text message:

Wow.  It's exactly me.

And he's right.  It is.  Every.Single.Line.









It's been a great weekend.  And with the expectation of change in seasons...it's only gonna get better.

My heart overflows with gratefulness.

 

Like a Waterfall

I've discovered MY station on Pandora.

I have several.

Of course I do -- I'm a music addict.

 

But my newly created station is absolutely PERFECT for chillin'

 

It is simply:

Blank & Jones

And then as Pandora does,

kindred music is added randomly

and the listener gives it a thumbs up or down.

 

But I've had to "thumbs down" VERY few...

 

Take.Me.Away.

Keep it coming.

Love this stuff.

 

 

 can it get any deeper?



Take Me Out to the Ball Game

So our trip to PA this past weekend was a good one.   We arrived at my son's apartment around 1 pm on Saturday.  What?  It's all clean!  His girlfriend, we later found out, had spent two solid hours that morning cleaning, sanitizing, and organizing.  From what she tells us, he had not done any cleaning for quite some time, and she couldn't bear the thought of our spending the night there with it in such a state.  What a sweetheart -- and how DOES she put up with his slob-like existence?  It's a good thing she still lives at home and her exposure is short-lived and sporadic.  It was good chatting with her again too.  She filled me in on her nursing program that's under way at Duquesne.  One year to go, and she'll be ready to launch.

We had dinner with them Saturday night and bought tickets to see the 9:40 showing of Elysium at a local theater.  Very strange movie...!  One-third of the way through the movie, something happened to the sound and they had to stop the movie to attempt troubleshooting.  After about ten minutes and no success, management ended up giving all the patrons refunds and free tickets to see another movie. We gave our tickets to my son and his GF, since we don't live there and they would make better use of the freebies.  We headed back to his apartment to hang out and watch more movies.  But they chose the typical high-paced action thriller, and I decided to hibernate off by myself and read his August issue of Muscle Fitness Magazine featuring Hugh Jackman as "Wolverine" on the cover.  Yep.  I was convinced that would keep me happily preoccupied for a while.  

He has air conditioning in his apartment, but only downstairs, the kitchen/family room area.  Upstairs?  Not.  And that is where the small, windowless bathroom and the two bedrooms are.  His bedroom has a window fan in the window which he claims keeps him sufficiently comfortable while sleeping at night.  I would have thought he'd have saved some of his money to buy a window AC for the upstairs after two full months of summer heat and humidity.  But he's tight as the bark on a tree, and he seems to like living the minimalist lifestyle, boasting that questionable, austere bachelor reputation.  Keep it simple.  That's his motto.

Of course, that's fine for him, but not much fun for us when we come to visit.  I planned ahead and snagged a decent-sized turbo fan at 25% off at a local Rite Aide to take with us.  We had purchased a Coleman queen-sized air mattress for his second bedroom.  Although it's better than sleeping on the floor, I still did not get much rest Saturday night, both from the lack of AC (hey, I'm peri-menopausal!) and from bouncing (rolling) around on the air mattress every time I wanted to reposition.  When dawn hit, I was more than ready to get up and at it.  Now.  Where's the coffee?

His coffee pot is sad.  Very sad.  I made a half pot of coffee to start me off while everyone else was still sleeping.  Eager for that first sip, I was sorely disappointed that it was actually not very hot.  Note to self:  He needs a new coffee pot.  As I took a look around, I began seeing many other things that he was in need of, and I began making a list of things to buy him for Christmas for his apartment.  Women are far more aware of the details.  And this woman NEVER takes them for granted. 

We made it to the Pirates game, excited from the energy of the fans, the sounds, the smells, the people, the food.  I love watching live professional baseball.  My youngest son is a Cardinals fan, so that made the rivalry between him and his brother a bit more engaging.  Me?  I was rooting for the Pirates, along with my son and his GF.  My husband was ambivalent.  The Cardinals ended up wiping out the Pirates, and my son was overjoyed, rubbing it in his brother's face at every chance.  I drank two Bud Lites while at the game, and only indulged in two of my son's monstrous bucket of wings, trying to stick to my diet and save most of my calories and carbs on dinner after the game.  It didn't bother me much that the Pirates were losing.  I was having fun people watching (my, are there some weirdos out there!) and just hanging out with my family.  There was a nice breeze most of the game, and we had loads of fun.  I managed to snap a couple shots of "Cutch" at bat.  There's just something sexy about that hair...

We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.  Colton loves that place and we don't have one where we live.  We always take him to eat at Joe's while vacationing on Marco Island, but he didn't go to Marco this year, and getting to eat with the family at Joe's in Pittsburgh made up for it.  I had two Ultras -- that comes to four, I'm counting -- along with my grilled shrimp and steamed veggie dinner.  Safe choice?  Yet beer is SO filling!  I'm mostly a red wine woman, but I'd already started with beer at the game the fun, laid-back atmosphere at Joe's seemed to shout BEER.  A total of four beers over the course of six hours... eh, not so bad.

We had to drive home Sunday night because my son had a JV football game at 10:00 the next morning, and we'd have to be up early for the game to allow for travel time.  It was a long drive home, not having much rest the two nights before, and needless to say I was exhausted when I arrived home.  And that fatigue intensified the following day.  It was an exhaustion that cleverly masquerades as hunger and cravings when I am not on my toes and ready to fight it.  And I wasn't.  And I gave in.  Nosiree, I was NOT a good girl on my diet on Monday.  I did manage to get in a two-hour, much needed afternoon nap.  I was feeling more and more like a slug as the day wore on.

No worries, and no regrets.  It was a fun-filled and happy weekend overall, visiting with my son and his girlfriend in PA.  Happy times, good food, laughter, memories.

And now life resumes...back to normal...and fall is only days away.