When the dog bites, when the bee stings ...
I was randomly thinking today about some of my favorite possessions:
- a piece of the Berlin Wall (irregularly shaped, but about 1" in diameter), complete with blue graffiti along one side, which a friend brought me after her trip to Europe in 1989 (This small, rough piece of cement, which sits on a windowsill I pass several times every day when I walk up or down the stairs, often makes me think of the Jesus Jones 1990 song "Right Here, Right Now.") I tried to take a photo of it to post here, but it turned out really blurry.
- the antique book I carried (instead of flowers) down the aisle with me when I walked to the altar to meet Shannon for our wedding ceremony:
- the kikoy (a rectangular cotton garment that is worn most often as a sarong or wrapped head covering) I got during my summer at Stanford on a fellowship. My roommate had spent some time in Kenya and owned a few kikoys, and told me stories about how the women in Kenya wore them in many different ways, and I thought they were beautiful, so bright and cheerful in unexpected combinations of hues. The one I have (which I think I bought in Palo Alto, of all places) is mainly turquoise, with bands of darker blue, paler blue, and yellow (similar to this). I don't think I've ever worn my kikoy (if I have, it was a very long time ago, when I first got it), but I've often used it for decorative purposes, because I just love to look at it.
- one of my mom's paintings from before she met my dad or had any kids. It's from her "blue period" (she liked Picasso), and it's a still from the excellent Franco Zeffirelli 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet:
- a giant Monet (my favorite artist) poster that I bought at the Musée d'Orsay (my favorite museum) on one of my trips to Paris:
- the double-wedding-ring quilt my mom worked on (by hand) for two decades before she gave it to me *AND* (in the same photo) the red-and-white afghan I crocheted when I was 10, and which has stood up amazingly well to the passage of time!
- my emerald green iPod Nano, which Shannon gave me as a combined Christmas/birthday gift a couple years ago, and which I have used almost every day since. I loved the tiny silver Shuffle that I had bought myself years before, but couldn't arrange the tracks into playlists, which eventually became annoying. Also, the Shuffle doesn't have enough space to hold an entire audio book, unless it's really short. But the Nano can do everything! It can hold several audio books in their entirety at the same time as it holds as much music as I could possibly want to hear on any particular outing, all arranged into easily navigated playlists. It's my baby!
- my GIGANTIC insulated mugs, which I use only for ice water, and which I use all day long, every day. They keep the water very cold, and they keep me hydrated. Excellent!
- my first edition copy of John Crowley's fantasy novel Little, Big. My friend Donald knew it was my favorite book and went to considerable trouble to find me a first edition, back when such things were not so easy to locate as they are now.
- my great-grandma's electric mixer, which still works amazingly well:
- the incredibly wonderful linguistic light switch plate I bought in The Castro (neighborhood in SF) not long after I had moved to the Bay Area:
- the "lucky rock" I found at Outdoor Ed in sixth grade, which has accompanied me pretty much everywhere in the three decades since then:
- a variety of tiny objects that have congregated on top of a bookcase in our upstairs hallway (Note: I *DO* know how to spell "Normandy," but apparently Photoshop does not. Yes, let's blame it on Photoshop.):
- the small wooden box Katherine painted and gave to me (I believe as a birthday gift) early on in our friendship -- so almost 20 years ago:
- my favorite mug, which was a spontaneous gift from my friend Janet many years ago, when we were walking down Telegraph Avenue one day, idly checking out the street vendors, and I casually said that I liked it. I was so flabbergasted when she just whipped out her wallet and bought it for me! I often think of it as my Cobweb mug, because it is striped like she is, and in similar colors (except the blue):
- my blue canary night-light, which I've written about in this journal before:
- the plain-looking but very nostalgic bookmark I got from the only bookstore I knew of in Powell, Wyoming, where I visited my dad in the summers in the early 1980s:
- a piece of the Berlin Wall (irregularly shaped, but about 1" in diameter), complete with blue graffiti along one side, which a friend brought me after her trip to Europe in 1989 (This small, rough piece of cement, which sits on a windowsill I pass several times every day when I walk up or down the stairs, often makes me think of the Jesus Jones 1990 song "Right Here, Right Now.") I tried to take a photo of it to post here, but it turned out really blurry.
- the antique book I carried (instead of flowers) down the aisle with me when I walked to the altar to meet Shannon for our wedding ceremony:
- the kikoy (a rectangular cotton garment that is worn most often as a sarong or wrapped head covering) I got during my summer at Stanford on a fellowship. My roommate had spent some time in Kenya and owned a few kikoys, and told me stories about how the women in Kenya wore them in many different ways, and I thought they were beautiful, so bright and cheerful in unexpected combinations of hues. The one I have (which I think I bought in Palo Alto, of all places) is mainly turquoise, with bands of darker blue, paler blue, and yellow (similar to this). I don't think I've ever worn my kikoy (if I have, it was a very long time ago, when I first got it), but I've often used it for decorative purposes, because I just love to look at it.
- one of my mom's paintings from before she met my dad or had any kids. It's from her "blue period" (she liked Picasso), and it's a still from the excellent Franco Zeffirelli 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet:
- a giant Monet (my favorite artist) poster that I bought at the Musée d'Orsay (my favorite museum) on one of my trips to Paris:
- the double-wedding-ring quilt my mom worked on (by hand) for two decades before she gave it to me *AND* (in the same photo) the red-and-white afghan I crocheted when I was 10, and which has stood up amazingly well to the passage of time!
- my emerald green iPod Nano, which Shannon gave me as a combined Christmas/birthday gift a couple years ago, and which I have used almost every day since. I loved the tiny silver Shuffle that I had bought myself years before, but couldn't arrange the tracks into playlists, which eventually became annoying. Also, the Shuffle doesn't have enough space to hold an entire audio book, unless it's really short. But the Nano can do everything! It can hold several audio books in their entirety at the same time as it holds as much music as I could possibly want to hear on any particular outing, all arranged into easily navigated playlists. It's my baby!
- my GIGANTIC insulated mugs, which I use only for ice water, and which I use all day long, every day. They keep the water very cold, and they keep me hydrated. Excellent!
- my first edition copy of John Crowley's fantasy novel Little, Big. My friend Donald knew it was my favorite book and went to considerable trouble to find me a first edition, back when such things were not so easy to locate as they are now.
- my great-grandma's electric mixer, which still works amazingly well:
- the incredibly wonderful linguistic light switch plate I bought in The Castro (neighborhood in SF) not long after I had moved to the Bay Area:
- the "lucky rock" I found at Outdoor Ed in sixth grade, which has accompanied me pretty much everywhere in the three decades since then:
- a variety of tiny objects that have congregated on top of a bookcase in our upstairs hallway (Note: I *DO* know how to spell "Normandy," but apparently Photoshop does not. Yes, let's blame it on Photoshop.):
- the small wooden box Katherine painted and gave to me (I believe as a birthday gift) early on in our friendship -- so almost 20 years ago:
- my favorite mug, which was a spontaneous gift from my friend Janet many years ago, when we were walking down Telegraph Avenue one day, idly checking out the street vendors, and I casually said that I liked it. I was so flabbergasted when she just whipped out her wallet and bought it for me! I often think of it as my Cobweb mug, because it is striped like she is, and in similar colors (except the blue):
- my blue canary night-light, which I've written about in this journal before:
- the plain-looking but very nostalgic bookmark I got from the only bookstore I knew of in Powell, Wyoming, where I visited my dad in the summers in the early 1980s: