“Life is like an ice cream cone…
You have to learn to lick it!”--Charlie Brown
Yesterday for my lunch break I went to the library to take some books back and to pick up one I had on hold. It feels a little late to read it now that Christmas has passed, but then again a Christmas spirit without the materiality and media is nice to carry always. The book is called The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits (2008) by Les Standiford. I finished A Christmas Carol in December and loved every word of it. I also started reading A Tale of Two Cities on Kindle. I was immediately hooked and love the language. The first part was clear to me and I could see the details of the characters and setting and it made sense to me. However, I am a little bogged down by the second part so far. I’m certain that it will come together for me as I continue reading.
When I left home yesterday I decided to take my camera. I grabbed it and attached it to the satchel I carry around as my purse. When I took my lunch break, I decided I would go in search of a 2012 calendar for work—one of the daily calendars. I usually try to get to the stores and purchase them at 50% off. As I walked, I couldn’t believe what a nice day it was. The air didn’t feel icy like it has and the brisk pace of my walking was making me feel warm. It was like a spring day in winter. I told the day how beautiful it was and smiled up at the sky. I had my camera with me but I didn’t see anything that I wanted to snap. When I got to the store, there weren’t many calendars left. Last year there were. I left with nothing. I had stopped into another small store before that. Nothing. I was determined. As I wound my way back, there was one last store. They had about five calendars and only one daily calendar. I wanted one then and there and I liked that it was a Zen calendar. It was the last one. I ended up paying full price.
I usually have a few daily calendars around my desk area. Back at work, I decided to quickly hop onto Amazon.com and search for The Booklovers Calendar. Then I saw there was a word origins calendar. I added it to my cart. After checkout, it didn’t look like the word origins calendar was available. I didn’t want to wait and have it not show up. I canceled that one and tried to find something humorous in its place. I settled on The Argyle Sweater Calendar. Both calendars were 50% off but with tax and shipping, it all evened out. I was relieved to have my one calendar already and two on the way.
The end of the day came and I walked to the car. The sunset was gorgeous. Muted amber tones. I took my camera out and began snapping. I needed to go to the grocery store before home. As I continued driving, the sunset colors changed. They became a molten ruby red. I pulled over to the side of the dark road. I snapped away. For an amateur photographer such as myself, the images don’t necessarily transfer the way I saw them with my own eyes. This one though feels close.
A few months back I purchased Chat Pack: Fun Questions to Spark Conversations. Here’s one of the questions: “If you were making a list of the five things (not people!) that make you happiest in your life, what five things would you write down?”
The sunset—nature is definitely on my list of five.
4 comments:
Rebb,
The sunset is just gorgeous.
About calendars, I used to get many beautiful ones as growing up in Japan from shops and companies and even in the U.S. while I worked for Japanese companies. But that was long time ago. In back of my head, I probably think calendars should be free because whenever I see them in bookstores, I check them for design and photos, but never buy them except last December in Japan. I found a small calendar of puppies. The front cover was two brownish puppies with dark nose. They are so adorable, and once my son showed me a picture in his wallet that he wished he could have the dog like it. We both look at the photo admiring it saying how cute they were. We thought they were probably a mutt. Anyway, it wasn't a mutt. It was Shiba, a Japanese dog. Adult Shiba has a bit pointy nose, so we didn't think they were Shiba. Anyway, only two calendars of shiba puppies without a plastic cover left. I bought one for my son. Next day, I went back to buy the last one, but it was gone. I wanted it for myself! They were so cute.
Keiko,
Glad you enjoyed the sunset.
I can imagine the beautiful calendars in Japan. I've seen a few Shibas. They are very cute. They seem to be especially loyal to their owners. I tried to be friendly with one but he wasn't interested. Many Labs I've met will allow me to hug them and return my friendliness with no problem their owners being there or not. I'm glad you were able to get at least the one cute calendar for your son. Next year I better try to go earlier to get a better selection.
Rebb,
I sent you good info. by email on a writer workshop in summer by Jessica Barksdale Inclan. It's in SF.
Thank you, Keiko.
Post a Comment