Rooful.

#24/365-- november notes.

1. My nephew was very very cute in his Halloween costume, despite being a decidedly unidentifiable mongrel breed of doggie.

Check it out:

2. That being said, my nephew was even cuter (to me, anyway) in his morning playtime ensemble of yellow plastic hard hat, Lightning McQueen underroos, and little white athletic socks-- he looked like the tiniest Village Person. (My brother-in-law, for some reason, didn't find this comparison quite so amusing.)

3. I got back in touch with one of my closest childhood friends, who I haven't seen in years. She has a pretty house, an even prettier horse, a happy husband and a baby on the way. Hard to get better news than that.

4. I bought myself a nifty hammer that I can use to smack patterns into metal. I was experimenting with it yesterday, on a disc of copper. The texture it made was pretty, and talk about a great way to work off aggression! smack!CLANG! smack!CLANG!

Maybe if this theatre thing doesn't work out, I can find work as a blacksmith.

5. I made chocolate-chip cookies for my honey and me-- smiles all around. Is there anything better for turning that frown upside-down than chocolate-chip cookies?

Also-- I'm enjoying the unseasonably balmy weather. Maybe November isn't supposed to be this warm, but it's such nice walking weather I've decided not to worry. See? Even climate change can have an upside.

#23/365-- monday, monday, can't trust that day (especially since it was a sunday.)

What am I grateful for today, you ask?
Well, I'll tell you--
(She's going to tell! She's going to te--
No! No ! not like that !)

Ahem.

1. I had a nice chat on the phone with my mom, mostly about my nephew's soon-to-be halloween costume ( a puppy-- as he has demanded), and our thoughts on the most recent Project Runway elimination (we think they axed the wrong guy.)

2. My husband and I took a nap. It was nice.

3. Flavored creamer really does make coffee at home feel a little more indulgent--
in a "what was that waiter's name?" "Jean-Luc!"
sort of way.

4. I made a card for my husband's birthday yesterday. It had koalas on it. I think he liked it.

5. I put all our books away. Really. All of them.
I can actually walk around my apartment !

The End.

#22/365-- guh.

I am not feeling graceful.
Bloated, woozy, borderline bitchy, perhaps.
But I'm still glad to be alive.

Which brings to mind that old nasty joke about not trusting anything that bleeds for a week and doesn't die.

1. The saving grace of feeling bitchy in this day and age is that I can tell the people who honestly find that joke funny to go fuck themselves.

Though I can sometimes see their point.

2. I brought the crispy-crinkle french fries home from the market, and I cooked them up in a pan. Crispy-crinkle french fries are the new bacon!

3. Michael Kors hasn't been on La Runway so much this season. I realized tonight that I had been experiencing it as a nice change.
(Okay, so that comment was a little bitchy, too-- behold the power of bitchiness, wielded for the greater good! All will eat my crispy-crinkle fries, and despair!)

4. I'm finding my bloated punchiness entertaining. I'm glad someone does.

5. I haven't been thinking about spontaneous limb amputation as much of late. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

#21/365-- legal adulthood.

I'm not sure how much this title has to do with the graces I'm listing today.

1. banana bread- I write about this a lot, I've realized. There must be something to it.

I think it's the instant feeling of competence, coupled with the comforting message that we won't starve, and that we're using up all the produce before it goes bad.

Plus, it makes my kitchen toasty-warm and peanut-butter-scented.

2. It's chilly outside.

I was a winter bride. Chilly air reminds me of young romance-- warm kisses in cold snow. My husband awakens Pluto-like from his summer languor and begins to twinkle.

I start cooking with nutmeg, and brewing a lot of tea.

3. The holidays are coming.

I'll be spending Halloween with my nephews, which is bound to near-kill me with adorableness. I'm looking forward to some time with my family.

And I'm starting to think about Thanksgiving-- who's coming, do I want to make anything new this year . ..

I really enjoy Thanksgiving. It might be my favorite holiday.

4. The trees are pretty.

Do I need to elaborate on this one? I'm sure you all know where I'm coming from.

5. I bet if I went out later, after I have a slice of this banana bread I'm cooking, I might find an appealing pumpkin that wants to come home with me.

And why not? I'm a legal adult. I'm fully authorized to traffic in pumpkins.

Climb ev'ry mountain, fjord ev'ry stream . ..

Congratulations, Barack Obama!

It's a lot to live up to--
but I'm betting you're good for it.

In the meantime, take it easy on the gravlaks,
and try not to let seasonal affective disorder get you down . ..

#19/365-- sunday in the park with roo.

1. October is already in full swing. Today was brisk and golden, and the air smelled like apples.

2. I don't know what it is about an iced latte with an extra shot that never fails to bring a smile to my face. Caffeine, probably.

3. On our stroll to the used bookstore, we spotted a rainbow lurking alongside a girder underneath the George Washington Bridge.

4. I found a new old book by a new old favorite author-- The Fragile Species, by Lewis Thomas. I'd read his Lives of a Cell back in high school, and stumbled across my copy last time I visited my parents. I heartily enjoyed my second tour through the material. I also found the subject matter remarkably current for a collection of science writing first published in the early Seventies.

If my new book is half as enjoyable, I'll be pleased.

5. Grilled cheese sandwiches are toasting even as I type. Melty goodness is sure to follow.

#18/365-- Underrated movies for inducing happiness.

1. Galaxy Quest
Seriously-- this is a very sweet movie, with a cute premise and like-able, well-drawn characters. Plus tentacle sex! How can you go wrong?

2. Green Card
Yes, it's true-- Andie Macdowell can't act her way out of a paper bag. And one of her lines in this movie is one of the worst-delivered lines I've ever seen in film (you'll know it when you see it.) But she's awful pretty. I'd like to think there's a more nuanced reason I like her so much, but there may not be.

And Gerard Depardieu (and his nose) can be a lot to take, generally.

But this movie is charming. The plot is an unusual and well-developed twist on standard romantic comedy fare. There's a nice chemistry between the pair, too-- understated but for some reason completely credible.

And Enya did the soundtrack. Ahhh. .. I love an echoey, celtic-like noise.

3. Liar Liar
I know I'm going to take a lot of ribbing for this choice, but I'm sorry-- the physical comedy in this movie is freaking hilarious. Go ahead and shut it off after Jim Carrey falls off the airplane-- the movie doesn't lose anything if you skip the sappy denouement.

4. I Heart Huckabees
I wonder if this movie flopped because of the combined stress of a stupid title and the extreme overexposure of Jude Law at the time it was released. Otherwise, it's a bit of a mystery to me-- strong cast, intriguing script, gentle, intelligent humor, sensitive rendering of emotional life . ..

I guess there's no accounting for taste.

Which brings us to the final item on today's list:

5. Elf
I defy you to watch Will Ferrell eagerly settling his gigantic frame in a delightfully hang-dog Bob Newhart's elfin lap, without giggling.

Enthusiastic joyfulness is never cool.
But it sure is a pleasure to watch.

#17/365: And that's all she wrote.

Today... today.

The things I'm most grateful for today I'm leery of verbalizing. I want to keep them for myself a bit.

Instead, I'll write :

1. I finished a stage of a project today. Feels good. Though my mind is, probably resultantly, fried.

Is resultantly a word?

2. 'La Chanson d'Olympia,' from Les Contes d'Hoffmann. This is not always a song to be grateful for-- in the wrong hands, a real disaster. But my recording of Natalie Dessay is pretty damn heavenly.

Which leads quite nicely to

3. Glenn Gould's recordings of Bach's Two- and Three- Part Inventions.
I love the plunky separateness of Gould's evocation of lines. And there's this strange, wonderful quality of his, that you can shut off his recording at any point in any piece, and it will sound like an appropriate end point-- regardless of where it lands harmonically. Each one of his notes sound finished.

Not worked, not sanded smooth-- but finished. Complete.

4. I realized today, with a fresh sense of conviction, that I am in fact quite a bit better at most things that I like to do than I used to be.

Getting older isn't all bad.

5. I went for a jog around the park today-- breaking a many-month-long regimen of not running. Felt good.

Still does, actually. I think I may go again tomorrow.

#16/365-- crafty roo .

Today, I celebrate craftiness.

I don't mean craftiness of the sort practiced by swindlers and shifty-eyed women--
though I suppose that kind has its virtues in certain circumstances.

No, today I raise my imaginary glass to craftiness as an ability to figure a way around or through a tricky situation, using common sense and whatever tools present themselves to hand.

I locked myself out of my apartment today-- just walked out and shut the door without thinking. And it turns out my super doesn't have a copy of the key.

He said, " Well, your husband, maybe he come home soon. "

I had my doubts about that, since Jeff has been at work past ten most nights this week. But I had no phone, no money, no metrocard. No key.

But I did have a cigarette and a lighter. I decided I might as well smoke, since that's where I was headed when I locked myself out.

Yeah, I know-- more proof that smoking is bad for me.

With a nicotine-induced calm, I assessed my options.

1. I found an old knife in the laundry room, which proved a serviceable screwdriver.

2. A plant-hanger I'd left outside the door was sturdy enough to use as a mini-crowbar.

3. Someone had left a long brass rod with flattened ends at the end of my hall, which I was able to use to turn the latch after I'd removed the doorknob and pried up the plate underneath.

4. Back in my apartment-- Hooray! -- i found some tape and covered the latch, so I wouldn't unwittingly lock myself in when I closed the de-knobbed door.

5. It's 1:44 in the morning, and my husband just got home, so I'm very glad I decided to be crafty instead of listening to my super.

#15/365- With a cat-like grace...

Well, the calendar pages fluttered past, as I predicted they might--
yet my list of graces stalled sometime before the snow melted.

In some ways, little has changed--
unemployment continues (though sadly the dole does not.)
My husband and I muddle through our days, anxious but generally happy.

But I'm not the same person I was in February.
I have some new dreams. And if there's anything to be said for my tenure at my last full-time gig, it's this--
I've learned how to be confident in my ability to figure out how to do things I've never done before.

Turns out brains are good for more than schoolwork. Who knew?

This is not to say that an unknown future no longer frightens me.
I still struggle against panicky inertia from time to time.
I probably wouldn't recognize me as me if i didn't.

But I have faith that between us, Jeff and I can navigate the shoals.

Which brings me to today's list of five:

1.- A handsome, brainy young architect lives in my apartment with me.
2.- He does laundry, and tells me I'm pretty.
3.- His t-shirt smells warm and clean when I use his chest as a pillow.
4.- He has ideas about how to slay some of the creepy crawlies that like to prowl around the back of my brain. (I try to return the favor.)
5.- He takes the critique segment of Project Runway as seriously as i do.

Plus, he sends me videos of cats wearing socks.
Enjoy!