Jamaica

The Never Ending Story

"If you have never spent whole afternoons with burning ears and rumpled hair, forgetting the world around you over a book, forgetting cold and hunger--
If you have never read secretly under the bedclothes with a flashlight, because your father or mother or some other well-meaning person has switched off the lamp on the plausible ground that it was time to sleep because you had to get up so early--
If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless--
If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won't understand what Bastian did next."
-Michael Ende (The Neverending Story)

Murakami at Versailles

Costa Rican Storm

Maldives - Infinity Pool

Camel Ride - Abu Dhabi

Love

Prater

Star Flyer

The Land of the Midnight Sun

Copenhagen, Denmark. Midnight and still light out.

Spook House

Fairy Tale

Prater Amusement Park. Vienna, Austria.

Tivoli (Copenhagen)

Impressionist-esque Sculpture

Bakken. Copenhagen, Denmark.

Summer Rain Over New Jersey

Blizzard 2010

Snow Galore

While I love the snow, it has now forced me to postpone my trip to Punta Cana -- cancelled and delayed flights, etc. Ah well. While I try and arrange alternate winter break plans for this week I will share with you an abundance of my SNOW pictures.

Ski Trip at Windham








Next up - some photos I took of last Wednesday's blizzard.

3 Years...

This day was like no other, I climbed the Eiffel Tower,
and saw the rooftops from the angels' view
Now things will never, will never be the same...
It took me by surprise,
the shocking newness of my seeing,
to find the round earth flat and crossed by lines
I thought of you in Paris
I remembered us together
I thought of all the things I should have said,
Now things will never, will never be the same
This day was like no other,
I climbed the Eiffel Tower,
and when I closed my eyes I thought of you:
I imagined you in Paris
I remembered you still sleeping
I felt your quiet hand still held in mine
But things can never . . . will never be the same

And Dad I'll never forget. I lit a candle for you tonight.

But instead of remembering what I felt on this day 3 years ago, I woke up from a vibrant and wonderful dream. (if Marge was jet lagged she would have said that she 'woked up happy'). I have been lazy about writing down the details of my vivid dreams but this morning I did. I skipped the extra cup of coffee and Zoey didn't get a full walk (but don't worry, Dondo, she did her business in front of the 'DeliColdBeerCleaners' and she was happily wagging her duster tail. She saw you this morning while I was blow drying my hair. It made her run in circles and bark. Interesting how she didn't sense anything from the front door. She was turning circles in front of the only antique in my modern designed apartment -- the antique hurricane lamp mounted on the wall.

I won't share all the details of my dream. But I'll reveal my favorite parts. I was in that 'dream world' place that is (at least for me) a combination of my past, present and future (in my dreams it is always a mixture of Funston Ave, our high school LW, the halls of Main Building at Vassar, Las Vegas becoming Stonestown Galleria, and then -- this place I have never been. It's an estate somewhere in the South. It has plantations and shrubbery and children and we drink iced tea poured from the pitcher. Your mother's pitcher. My grandmother. You call me Louise (my middle name) and I call you Sir. You hold me on your lap and I feel happy and warm and safe.

3 years. I feel I've rounded a bend, come out from under a cloud, emerged from a cocoon but am not quite at butterfly stage yet. I feel that is going to happen soon. I'm happy. I'm energized.

And Daddy, for tonight that's why I leave you with this--
Hard Times Come Again No More

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh Hard times come again no more.
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.

Kitchen - Before and After

KITCHEN - BEFORE

KITCHEN - AFTER

KITCHEN - BEFORE

KITCHEN - AFTER

'Jingle Bell Rock' (Literal Video Version)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!