Category Archives: all the best

Elusive

Strawberry rhubarb is in season

Searching can be a pleasant way to pass your time.

Anyone with a smart phone has a feel for that experience. 

We know that all conversations can lead to you pecking into the keyboard. Oh, yes, so-and-so is….

Wish that my search had been as simple as that. I was looking for a more elusive thing.

Something that I could not just see on my screen, but needed to have on my plate. I wanted a piece of the pie.

It’s strawberry rhubarb season, well it’s always strawberry time but rhubarb, well that’s short lived.

In fact, I was going to resort to boiling up my own; couldn’t find it at any green grocery.

That didn’t bode well for my pie quest!

I remember when, because it was its season, you could walk into most local area diners to enjoy a piece of my favorite pie.

My phone search told me that I could find a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie at JG Melon. I took this as encouraging, and intended to stop by for a slice.

Thwarted, again. Lines waiting for a table were discouragement enough.

Amazingly, there was a huge pie at Citarella. So, yes, this story of a pursuit has a happy ending.

Some of the strawberry rhubarb pie is now waiting in the freezer. Some has been digested, and yes, it was good.

The season is short. Hurry.

Bussing to a lunching

Look at the motto, which reminds me

This struck me as exceedingly clever.

The bag says The Container Store. The tagline says

WELCOME TO THE ORGANIZATION.

Bloomingdale’s country has several new interesting hi-rise neighbors to the flagship store

It was in one of the several dining rooms at Bloomingdale’s that I met D for lunch. My notation post our get-together was «lunch with D was heavenly.« Should I have journaled «divine?«

I had what I always described as a Bloomingdale’s habit as a teen. The store was midway between school and where my parents, who were my ride home, worked. That made it the perfect stopover.

For years, if you needed a break during your shopping trip, there were only 2 places to visit. 40 Carrots, a yogurt emporium was downstairs. [There were always lines for that treat.] The fancier restaurant, tablecloths and all, named Blue something, was on 7.

All the options upon our visit were more casual if upscale. We hit two on the same visit. The adorable Studio 59 has a limited menu, with the exception of a cocktails list. The breakfast was excellent. On to Flip, the burger joint (get it, flippin’ burgers) off the Men’s department. It checks off every box: Very friendly. Very tasty. Plenty of variety. Very cute.

Of course, my journal comment wasn’t about the (good) food. It was most definitely about the good company and sprawling conversation we, D and I, shared.

Organized

My resource among professional organizers turned out to be a unique choice.

Karen Guccione has a background in social work.
She was perfect for the small task I needed.

Of course, she would be suited to undertake your daunting need to get everything ship shape as well.

I wanted someone who would schlep my excessive stacks of receipts and bank statements to the shredding event our public representative, Rebecca Seawright, had organized. I intended to go with but did not have an aide to stay with my husband that day.

Karen brought her large shlepping cart to help with the undertaking. She came back afterward to give me company, support, and compassion.

Karen’s web page will lead you to her services.

Wabi-Sabi

Perfect in its imperfection!

I have been searching for this word, and today, it popped up in the NYT Mini Puzzle!

I first learned of this idea in a pottery class.

An intentional dent or ding was the suggestion forwarded by my instructor.

I never did carch the name of the philosophy until now.

This concept isn’t just a construct for aesthetics and the arts.

It is how we should embrace life.

Perfect in its imperfections.

It is a balance. Perfect because of its imperfection.

It is an intentional contradiction.

Quibbles bangles and bright shiny things

My imagined dialog with Julia Louis Dreyfus over my quibble about the name of her [except for its name, maybe?] impeccable podcast goes like this:

Tamara: Why “Wiser than Me,” Julia, when it should be “than I”?

Julia: Because.. I don’t want to sound prissy?

Tamara: You don’t want to sound grammatically correct, Julia.

[And she aka I, Tamara goes on:] We, none of us do. We throw aints around as if we were born to them.

Now, I will pivot back to the original programming here. I developed this doubt. Than Me/I? He or She vs. Him or Her? Wiser than him? Nah, it’s Wiser than He with the is that would follow implied or unspoken.

So, running back to the quibble that brought me to this diatribe, there is an “am” to end “Wiser than I”. By the way, Julia, great work.

M.C.N.Y.

Sing it to the tune of .. yeah you guessed it.

When you tell people you plan a visit to the Museum of the City of New York, they usually have a positive response.

My friend M said something to the effect of , “I love that place.” You get the drift.

I loved the Manny Vega exhibit. That especially, but there was a lot to like in every gallery.

So, a chance to enjoy tea [and crumpets?] with a curator just seemed like a perfect lunchtime activity.

One such event passed us by on the 2nd (with Sarah Henry), and The Curator’s Cup: Afternoon Tea with Sarah Seidman is on Oct 22nd, aka this Tuesday.

I am intending on attending the November 19th. I look forward to The Curator’s Cup: Afternoon Tea with Lilly Tuttle.

Connecting

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

The topic was conversation and connection on Melissa Kirsch’s NYT The Morning. She called it Easy Listening. I felt the tug of  connection when her trip home took her past Worcester.

She kept going as you have to from Maine to New York.

There was more geography to recognize. Worcester, however, was where I spent four [plus] years. Formative, informing years I might add. It’s where I went to college. It’s where I learned how to grow up.

Melissa Kirsch’s rental car took me back to a kind of beginning.

To bring us back on topic, it’s the habit of reminiscing that brings me joy. 

I have a habit of taking another’s experience as a jumping off point to recall some of mine.

Makes me feel happy and, yes, connected.