Almost Freezing Friday

I missed the bus I was trying to catch and the next one is a full 12 minutes away. I decided to walk to the bus stop in lieu of stopping by the neighborhood Starbucks because I thought I’d try to start another post. Third this week, and I am both surprised and happy about that.

I was looking for a photo to post with the last two pieces I wrote but I didn’t have any. I have been taking video after video, forgetting I need photos, too. Thankfully, there is the screenshot. Problem solved.

The last couple of days left me feeling like I was overdressed in layers I didn’t need. I ended up sweating with too much warmth that it was uncomfortable. Sometimes you just can’t win with the temperatures getting milder some days, and plunging to lows of 35 like today. But I can feel the freezing wind hitting my face, and I am thankful k didn’t forget my cap and I wore a light knit jacket under my transition coat.

Winter can be a tricky business. People look forward and not look forward to snow. It gets too cold and tricky walking when it comes. Like I always say, I like the snow when it’s freshly fallen or when it’s actually falling — even if it’s a snowstorm. It’s the aftermath of the snow that I dread. So white christmases are a nice thought but not something I actually pine for.

I really could’ve stayed home but am heading to work because of some things that were just easier done from my workstation, rather than via the laptop’s remote connection. For all the advances we have seen this past 2 years in enhancing the “work from home” scenario, it still isn’t quite the same as being in the office. Plus, I wanted to do some errands that needed to be done sooner rather than later. Today was one of those days that I can actually look at finishing the day earlier than usual, so there is hope..

My Fridays are “happy thought” days. From “sleeping in” to doing “me stuff” and just having a 48 hour break— it is a promise of good things to come. Yes, even when it’s an almost freezing Friday.

So here I am trying to plan the weekend. I had wanted to go to the city one day — and looks like it will be Sunday. The postcard group I’m a part of is having its Christmas party and I have missed the meetings the last couple of months. I even missed the grand postcard show in November because I was on the other side of the world. The thought of cramming everything else into Saturday, though, gives me pause. I guess I will decide on Sunday depending on how Saturday goes. It’s a pretty fluid calendar.

Those are my weekend plans. I certainly hope that yours turns out well, whatever you have in store for you.

Early (but not THAT early) on a Sunday morning

I don’t know if it’s because I slept half exhausted and still in pain that I managed to beat my 4:00-4:30 am body alarm.  I woke up at past 5am this morning.  So I crawled out of bed around 5:30 and turned on the espresso machine.  I’ve been working on my RSS link here and I’m afraid I still didn’t get it right.  (RSS Expert advice most welcome.. please leave a comment or e-mail me at gothamchicketsy at gmail.com)

I just want to curl up and spend the rest of the day in la-la land, or in bed just puttering around.  I have never been one to sleep all day.  There’s something about the sun hitting my eyes — even when I’m asleep — that wakes me up.  The thick drapes in the bedroom don’t help — it seems I’m just wired that way.

Even when I was younger and I would come home in the wee hours of the morning, my body would promptly give me a kick in the behind and wake me up when the sun started to shine.  I have learned not to fight it.

I attempted to start something with polymer clay last night after not sitting in my craft corner for what feels like ages.  Then I realized that the handle to my pasta machine is not where it’s supposed to be.  A search through my area while watching the episode of Blue Bloods that I missed didn’t produce the yellow colored part of my contraption, so all I managed was to condition some antique gold clay.  I had bought some embossing plates I am dying to use — but I cannot until I can run the clay through the machine.  So that didn’t get very far.

Of course, BFF Fe was online (Viber) and we did our usual “Good morning there in New York” and “Good evening, Manila.”  Our conversations usually revolve around traffic, the hearing postponement of the day, the plastic flowers (or some such) in the Judge’s sala or the client who just won’t follow his/her lawyer’s advice.  Or she talks about Mia, her nephews and Dodong.  I talk about the commute into the city, the characters I work with, my make up, and all those other things that make up my world here, 10,000 miles away.  Today was short and sweet.  She’s exhausted, too.

The last few hours of the weekend and I don’t really have anything planned beyond mass in an hour.  Maybe I’ll make nice with my bed again. =)  And tomorrow, a new week begins.

 

 

 

On my way home

I took the local route tonight because I had to send off my invites. And now as I’m writing this, I just realized I failed to take photographs or scans of my owl, so I will have to create one for my craft blog, Gotham Chick. It was another busy, busy day.

Our days are shorter now. Where it used to be that the sun didn’t set until after 8pm, now the sun is lazier to crawl up in the morning and quicker to retire at the end of the day. It’s still warm but no longer scorching hot — and the evenings are getting chillier. It isn’t even surprising anymore to find dried, yellowing leaves strewn on the ground. Precursors of fall.

I stole a shot in the normally “photography-not-allowed” subway car. Two other people on their way home. Between them and myself, three different races on one ride. That’s one thing I love about New York — we are all so different and yet so alike.

With my invites on their way to Manila, I have some swaps to take care of. I’m going to slow down because I want to concentrate on the shop over at Etsy. The “ber” months are here. Time to think about my Christmas card, too. Every year for the last 5 years at least, I’ve handmade my holiday cards. With my Grand Calibur on my shelf now, I am even more excited to design my card. I’m wishing out loud for the yet to be released Brother Scan ‘n Cut which Julie Fei-fan Balzer had already talked about in her blog. How lucky to be able to get the manufacturer to send her one in advance so she could try it out! As a novice crafter and an expert crafter-of-all-trades, my only prayer of getting one free is if there were a random giveaway or raffle draw and I won it. (Dear Brother (USA)— the company, not Abril or Nikki, please send me one of your gorgeous Scan n’ Cut machines and I promise to post about it EVERYDAY!!). You never know who is listening or reading or scanning meta tags, etc…

Almost home and it’s dark. Dusk has fallen. I’m getting off a few blocks early to grab some bars for my boy.. And to exercise a little, too. I’m trying to be good.

Basking in the glow of Autumn

I finally had the good sense to take out the camera before I reached this curb in our community where this majestic tree becomes visible.  On a day-to-day walk, I end up rushing past it as I walk to the bus stop.  Today, I deliberately took out my camera and had it on the ready a good 50 paces away, so that when I found a good spot, all I had to do was stop, adjust the cam, and shoot.  It’s not quite as good as I had hoped it would be and I guess it’s the fact that my camera is too intelligent for me — there seems to be an adjustment I need to make to stop it from trying too hard to focus.  (Which usually ends up with worse..)

The hurried shot doesn’t quite do justice to what I want to bring out, but it’s one of the better pictures I’ve taken in the last couple of days.  (Could it be that my not stopping fully to take the pictures is affecting the frame?  HAHA!)

As I walked to the bus stop finally, I thought about how I’ve been wanting to walk around and take pictures of the marvelous colors of fall.  Too busy, too cold, no time.  Well, the weather has improved quite a bit but I’m nowhere near the gorgeous colors of fire.

My current header picture is a photo taken in Central Park in the Fall of 2009.  I would love to walk down to Central Park one of these days on the ready with extra batteries and memory cards, a ziploc to put some leaves in and just spend a day enjoying my home city.   I’ve planned time and again in previous years but have never really gotten the chance to.

Another thing I would love to be able to do is photograph the fabulous display windows of the big stores here in New York during the holidays  which make a big deal of unveiling their storefront facades.  There was a time I had taken photos of Bergdorf Goodman in 2007, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Tiffany’s in full holiday regalia which was indeed a feast for the eyes.  (Amateur photographer tip: Best taken at night when the storefront glass won’t show a reflection of the scene outside the store — like you clicking away — plus the display lighting can do wonders to bring out the desired effect that the display was meant to evoke.)

I just looked at my banked vacation days and I stand to lose a week at least if I don’t take any substantial vacation in the next couple of days.  As it so happens, Christmas and New Year fall on a Tuesday, and my company has so generously allowed us the eve of both holidays as an office closing.  So that means the holidays will actually eat up on 3 of my vacation days.

We were actually mulling about a trip back home (again) but it’s a little too late in the year to be still planning and not booking it yet.  The fares during the dates we can go are astronomically high.  Our biggest consideration is that Angelo is now in third grade and can no longer afford to be away for an extended period given that they start state testing this year.  (Audible sigh.)  It’s a nice thought, but I don’t think it’s happening.  The sad thing is I have the time to give.

I will take the vacation days — probably a day here and there.  And I might yet get to go to Central Park this year just to photograph the leaves and the trees and all of Autumn after all.