28 February 2012

A week in photos: 2/17 - 2/23

The week before last I had the idea that I would try to take at least one picture every day and then once a week post the pictures with captions explaining why I took the pictures.  I carry my phone with me everywhere I go so it should be pretty easy.  I know this isn't a radical new idea and that there are whole sites devoted to this kind of thing, but even so, I thought it would be fun.  I was almost successful with this last week.

So here is a week in (iPhone) pictures February 17 to 23:

Friday 2/17:  This was taken in Grand Central Station while I was waiting for Emily to arrive.  That was a truly fabulous day!
Saturday 2/18:  This is my nephew's birthday cake made by my brother and sister-in-law.  I posted a picture of it on Facebook and people said it reminded them of the old MTV ads.  I can hear the music in my head now...
Sunday & Monday 2/19 & 2/20:  I spent a lot of time lolling in bed this long weekend.  It was lovely.
Tuesday 2/21:  Tuesday it was back to work after a four day weekend.  It was rough to get back and especially when my view was of the water and yachts.


Wednesday 2/22:  This is the view from my office.  I love it on a sunny day.
Thursday 2/23:  This is my car thermometer.  It was so warm that I didn't even need a coat.  Given that the average temperature in CT in February is closer to half that, I'd say this day was remarkable.  Oh and you can see my cute new iPhone case in the rearview mirror.

22 February 2012

Ima.com

Zoe calls my mother Ima.  All my mom's grandchildren call her Ima.  Zoe was the first and that was how she said "Grandma" when she was a year old.  Ima just stuck.  Over the years we've learned that the name we thought was so unique is actually the Hebrew word for mother and that lots of people use it for both their Mom and their Grandma.  To me, it will always be a Zoe invention though.  Kind of like "milky bop" for her bottle.

Tonight at dinner we somehow got on the subject of the book "Watership Down" (no idea why) and I suggested that Zoe might like to read it.  My mom told Zoe that it was a parable.  Zoe then asked what a parable was and my mom told her to go look it up on her iPad.  Zoe said, "Why should I look it up on my iPad when I can just go to Ima.com?  She knows."  We got a good giggle out of that because anyone who knows my mom knows she could have a site called Ima.com that had the answers to stuff like that as well as figuring out the square root of 324.  (The answer is 18, by the way.)

Of course I had to then go and google ima.com, but unfortunately the URL is already being used here.  However, the google results for "Ima" did turn up some interesting results including the Indianapolis Museum of Art and even more fitting, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications.

21 February 2012

Tuesday Shoesday: Color Blocking

It has been too long since I've done a shoe post!

These days I'm really liking the color blocking I'm seeing in lots of places.  I think it looks cool on some of the clothes I've seen, but really hard to wear well.  Instead (and not surprisingly) I prefer this look in shoes.

Here are some of my favorites:

These Steve Madden wedges use a fantastic color palette, but they look
a bit hard to walk in with that high platform.


These are from Banana Republic and look like a perfect choice for work.
Too bad they are sold out already!

And I can't leave out Kate Spade who does it brilliantly and incredibly wearable.
These are on my spring wish list!

What shoes are you thinking of for spring?

19 February 2012

It's good to be Zoe

I think that if I am every reincarnated, I want to come back as Zoe.  She has a truly ideal life.  Let me give you an example of what I mean by giving you her detailed weekend activities:

Saturday:

  • 9am Basketball game attended by Rob, Ima (aka Marcy's Mom), and me.  They didn't win the game, but it was a well-played game.  Her best friend is on her team so they got to hang out as well.  
  • Doughnuts immediately after the game supplied thoughtfully by the coaches since it was the last game of the season.
  • 12:30 go to her cousin's birthday party.  She may have been the oldest kid there, but it did not stop her from running around and having a great time.  Cake, goody bag, etc.
  • 4pm we dropped her off at my Dad's so she could go ice skating and then to dinner with him.
  • Dinner was followed up with frozen yogurt.
Sunday:
  • Sleep late
  • Go out shopping with me for a birthday present for another cousin and leave the store with new jeans, new t-shirt, and a (very pretty!) dress for a wedding we are attending in June. 
  • Go out to lunch with Rob and me.
  • Spend afternoon playing Poptropica (her favorite video game)
  • Going to see the movie Hugo tonight.
I'm afraid I've spoiled her completely rotten.  The upside is that when you ask her, she freely admits she has a great life.  At least for now.  I know when she turns 13 or so, she'll no longer agree, but let's hope by 23 she remembers all this great stuff.  

10 February 2012

Someday

Today I had a meeting with a senior executive in my company. It wasn't me alone, but a few of us went into the NYC office for the meeting. The senior executive was a woman and as it turned out she and I were the only women in the room. Of course that is not unusual for me especially since I work in IT, but today I noticed. Maybe because the woman exec is so senior in my company. I know I am certainly impressed by her. Everyone (or at least every woman working in corporate America) knows that the higher up the chain you go, the fewer women you see.

Sometime after the meeting a colleague and I knocked on her office door to ask a few follow up questions and I have to admit that I didn't necessarily hear everything that was said because I was completely wowed by this woman's office. It was a nice size and certainly well-appointed, but the thing that made it so amazing was the fact that two of the walls were floor to ceiling windows that faced west and north from the 25th floor in the heart of Times Square. You could see west all the way to the Hudson and there was a perfect view of all the jumbotrons and other enormous signs and lights that make Times Square what it is. Now this is an office, I was thinking to myself. This is an office I could aspire to.

So often I feel the challenges of being a woman in the corporate world. I've been held back and insulted and any one of a number things that don't happen to men. Rarely do I feel empowered as a woman and rarely do I feel I have the same chance for promotion and success as a man. But as we were walking out of her office and I glanced back at the view I thought, someday. Someday I think I'd like that. And it might just happen.



06 February 2012

Something happens to girls in 4th grade

That is what Zoe's teacher told me the other day when I went in to meet with her about Zoe's homework.  She said, "Something happens to girls in 4th grade.  They get cool."

Oy.

This has been coming on gradually, but it came to a head the other day when I realized that Zoe did not bring her homework home for the third time in a row.  Boy was she in trouble!  She ended up with no TV for a week and I paid a visit to her teacher to discuss her "problem."  We set some new homework rules and now that Zoe knows she's being monitored more carefully she is back to being a good homework doer.  It was a mini-crisis for certain, but that sentence won't leave me.  Something happens to girls in 4th grade...  What's going to happen to my little Moodgie?  Is she going to be too cool to be called Moodgie?  Does that explain the recent difficulties with picking out clothes in the morning and changing outfits 3 times?  The other night she asked me what she should wear to go to her cousin's play -- and that was 2 days away!

*Sob*

Of course when I questioned her about this she then said "I just want to look pretty like you always do."  So my baby who loves me, and thinks of me as "pretty mommy" is still in there.  I just hope "cool" Zoe doesn't eat her all up.

Before I conclude, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to my own mother for all the grief I may have given her over clothes to buy or outfits that needed changing.  I don't recall it, but if I was like this, I'm so sorry.  This might also explain why my mother has all the patience in the world for Zoe's outfit picking/changing -- she (perhaps) had a lot of practice!

05 February 2012

Sketchbook

I've had many, many sketchbooks in my life.  For some time I fancied myself some kind of artist or designer.  I even started a graduate program in stage design (costumes specifically).  When I quit that grad program for a variety of reasons I pretty much quit on art and design as well.  I continued to like art and design, but I stopped producing any myself.

Over the years I've had different fantasies about getting a new drafting table to work on, about different types of projects I'd like to try and even the feeling of spending time creating.  I haven't actually done much of anything in the past 18 years though.

I don't know if I'm any good or if I just like doing it, but I feel like it is finally time I got back to doing something.  I've decided to start small with a really small sketchbook and a couple of pencils -- one hard, and one soft.  I'd like to say I'd spend time on one sketch a day, but given my current schedule I think that would be setting myself up for failure so I am going to try for one sketch a week.  I'm even going to post the sketch here and that will be doubly good.

The first sketch I'm posting is actually from this past summer.  It is an idea I had to paint on our back fence.    I had hoped to translate it into actual paint on the fence, but my ridiculous health issues and a new job got in the way so I put it on hold.  However, I am really going to try to get it done this summer as I think it will look really cool.  I plan to sketch it a few more times with some actual fence so it will be more clear on how it lays out, but this is my first draft.


I know it doesn't look like much, but I am a little rusty. More next week.

03 February 2012

Watching TV

I simply cannot stand kid's television. I don't know what it is and I never thought I'd be this way, but when Zoe is watching her shows (see: iCarly, MadTV, Victorious, etc.) I am literally repelled from the room. Sitting down to watch TV together is something we rarely do.

Both my mother and Rob seem to have a much greater tolerance than I do. They can actually sit in the room. They might be reading or something else, but I can't even think when faced with those shows.

In a way, it's good. I do a lot of reading, writing or other things that need doing while Zoe watches TV. Also I am always sure Zoe goes to bed on time because I can't wait for her TV time to be over.

As a result of this I have often felt like I don't get to watch anything I want to watch. Like it is off limits to me. That's probably not entirely true, but that's how it feels. So finally a few weeks ago when my birthday was approaching I decided that what I wanted was my own TV.

I have to say it was one of the best self-indulgent things I've done. I haven't spent much more time watching tv than I did before, but now when I do, it is almost like a spa treatment. I get into bed and watch what I want watch when I want to watch it. (Then I usually fall asleep about 10 minutes later.)

It's the little things.



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