Things I Learned in 2024

-A book should grab you by the lapels and kiss you into tomorrow.                 (Author Kevin Ansbro)

-Death Valley National Park - a diverse wonder - defied its doomsday name when experienced in February's 70-degree temps. 

-Viewing a solar eclipse in the zone of totality became a life imperative. Visiting Vermont for the first time was a bonus. 

-Switching between two phones while using a laptop to track cloud cover percentages for total-eclipse-day fried almost every one of my brain cells. 

-Welcome back to Spotify Joni Mitchell. (and Neil Young)

-Watching my 5-year-old grandniece skip down the street as she blew kisses to the sun, the beach, the sand dunes, the flowers, and the sky informed my definition of seashore bliss.

-After 34 years, the deer have found our meager summer garden.  Curses! 

-Palmyra, Samm Henshaw, Molly Tuttle, Hermanos Guitierrez, and New Dangerfield were some of the 'new-to-me' performers at this year's Newport Folk Fest whose music now resides in my Spotify playlists. 

-The clean-up icon in the iPhone Photos app is a platinum-level addiction. 

-First visit to LasVegas + Super Bowl weekend = Wowza! 

-Never say never. Joni Mitchell's weekend concerts at the Hollywood Bowl were as far-fetched a dream as any. And yet, there we were in October listening both nights to a 27-song set that dove into her rich catalog.

-Sharing that weekend with my music-loving eldest child quenched all thirst.  

-Spoiler alert - we are lucky to live in the time of Joni Mitchell. 

-My reading skills met their match with 100 Years of Solitude.

-We could have had an intelligent woman and competent Congress leading the country.  But, you know, the price of those darn eggs. 😐

-No matter where we go, sharing time away with my college friends fuels my soul and tickles my funny bone.

-The magic created when a couple chooses to marry on the 15th anniversary of their first date softens the toughest among us.

-My youngest daughter's varied travels in Southeast Asia have unlocked little-known wonders inside my Pennsylvania brain. 

-Attempting to sign into any accounts via phone or computer when I am away from home seems equal to trying to steal the nuclear codes.

-Visiting Christmas markets in Strasbourg, France, and Basel, Switzerland along with seeing the refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris amped up holiday magic. 

-Strolling out onto the Ocean City NJ Fishing Club's 748 ft. long pier this summer when it was open to the public for one night almost made me want to fish.  

-When swarm, cluster, colony, or loveliness are the synonym options for naming a group of ladybugs - loveliness will always get my vote. 

-Giving a solo standing ovation at the end of the film Wicked tracks for me. 

-My unscientific observations made while traveling in Europe this month confirmed that European footwear easily out-styles US footwear by a very wide margin. 

-Spotting W. Kamau Bell at an airport gate challenged my fan-girl sensibilities. I praised his work, lauded his activism, and asked for a selfie. No shame. 

W. Kamau Bell & a fan

Dearest Reader, 

Another spin around the sun - another reminder of the ticking clock. 

Thanks for taking your precious time to read this vanity project post. 

Peace and good health to you and to those in your heart. 

And now, a poem for you. 

a wish for the new year

by Megan Failey

 

 because I cannot wish anyone a year

where nothing hard happens, I wish

you a year where you meet what is 

hard with softness.  where you know

softness is an impeccable strength. I 

wish you a heart like a neon sign that

blinks: OPEN 24 HOURS. I wish you an

advent calendar of a year behind

the door of each day: a small gift,

a surprise sweetness, an unexpected

bliss.  I wish you a life like a crowbar,

prying your chest open, letting more

love in

Joni Mitchell - Hollywood Bowl -10/20/24

Below is the link to the December 2024 podcast by NYTimes critic-at-large Wesley Morris along with his editor Sasha Weiss as they share thoughts on attending Joni Mitchell's return to performance at the Hollywood Bowl concerts in October. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/podcasts/the-daily/joni-mitchell-blue.html

And lastly, I learned the word for this airborne ballet

 is murmuration. 

It's something  I could watch for a very long time! 

(seen in Ocean City NJ)

Choosing

                                              

This Election Eve, I find myself reminiscing.

I recall my eldest daughter's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. O'Shea, kindly offering some wisdom in that first 'official' school year. 

While I marveled at catching glimpses of my kid making friends and navigating so many necessary social hurdles, I let my parental insecurity spill over.  

Mrs. O'Shea shared this: Children find who and what they are looking for. So true. 

As parents we can guide, suggest, model, and encourage our kids as we see them choose their compadres, however, kids choose who they choose.  We are not the ship's captain on their journey - merely the tug boat alongside guiding them to safety if and when we are needed. 

Maddie's second piece of advice: Learn who your child is. True again.

The last bit of memorable parental guidance showed up a few years later when I read the following: prepare your child for the path, not the path for your child. 

In my opinion, this triad of advice is all that parents need. (I say this on the 'back nine' of parenting. and wish I did a little better on the 'front nine'. No do-overs; only learning.)

What does this have to do with tomorrow's election?

I think this wisdom also applies to being a good citizen. 

Tomorrow, we choose to vote on what we are looking for, on who we are, and on what path our country will take. 

I have already voted for a leader:

-who is positive; 

-whose work history has been formed in government service; 

-who fiercely supports women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy so only women and their doctors choose what is best in health issues. This must be a federally protected right so women are not racing from state to state in some Hunger Games dystopia endangering their lives to find the medical care they need. 

-who loves and defends democracy; 

-whose inclusive, appropriate behavior is welcomed at my dinner table.

A bonus is this leader is female.  We've had 46 US Presidencies with men of all calibers. Men have had more than enough chances to lead this country.  Let's begin to balance the scale with a qualified female president on election day.  

I want a capable, sane, measured, compassionate, strong woman as US President, and have found her in Kamala Harris.

Keep Kalmala and carry-on-a-la.

                                                                                              

Watch This

Time. In the seconds it takes to type this sentence it has already moved on to this moment.

For better or worse, it persists. 

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Time scrapes by slowly while we sit at red lights, or when our kids are babies, or when we are placed on hold making a phone call (which includes listening to the same voice on repeat noting how much our call is 'valued' - each iteration more insincere - but I digress.)

Time accelerates too quickly when we spend it with our favorite loved ones, or when we're on vacation, or during my youthful summers when the streetlights came on sadly signaling the end of playing outside. 

In the last several years, my December 31st "What I Learned..." blog posts have concluded with an observation about the passing of time because I am a woman of a certain age who is paying more attention.

When does time begin to become important in our lives? I can pinpoint exactly when this happened to me.

It was when I received a wristwatch as a gift from my parents for my First Communion. 

No matter where I have stored jewelry on my bureau over the years, this watch has been included in my messy collection, usually buried far below the jewelry du jour.  Even after many cleanouts, I cannot part with this cherished piece. 

It is a stainless steel, chrome-finished Timex watch with a partial elastic wristband. 

My 1962 Timex watch

My seven-year-old memory of opening that gift box is easily accessed. 

It was October, 1962. Special occasions burst forth with familial attention in our suburban rowhome back then. 

I can clearly see my siblings, parents, grandparents, godparents, and cousins all seated around the table after savoring a celebratory multi-course dinner prepared by my mom. 

She handed the unfamiliar-shaped box to me with pride. Most childhood gifts were normally inside Lit Brothers department store boxes. My mom worked at their 69th Street location in Upper Darby for most of my school years and she 'shopped locally' using her 20% employee discount.

But this box was different. I turned the odd-shaped plastic case over once and creaked open the lid unveiling the doorway to maturity - a wristwatch. 

It represented a portal to responsibility (at least in my second-grade brain.) 

It was singular, personal access to where I was in the 24-hour day; a portable, modern sundial just for me.

It was my first piece of 'good' jewelry. 

Everyone in my family wore wristwatches. I am the youngest so I longed to be part of the Timex 'club.' We wore Timex watches because their products were the middle-class timepieces of choice. 

The brand's tagline in the 1950s and 1960s - "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking" - imbued confidence and a whiff of snazzy-ness to this lucky owner. (Timex brought back the famous slogan in the 1990s to moderate reviews.)

I lifted it from my old jewelry box and immediately wound the stem piece wondering if the watch still kept time. The second hand clicked forward right away in its familiar staccato motion. 

I placed the wristwatch near my ear to double-check that it really worked and to hear that familiar ticking sound. So reassuring.

The next day it continued to display the correct time. 

Who could predict that this trinket from six decades ago would perform so seamlessly? I think the Timex marketing folks doubled down on this idea of durability and permanence in all of their ads back in the day but did they really believe it? 

They sure made me a believer. 

This little timepiece was my lone grade school jewelry until I had my ears pierced at age 13. While other watches came into my future world, I can't recall any notable replacements until much later when the plastic, colorful Swatch watches upended the fine watch industry in the early eighties. 

Swatches were welcomed wrist candy for a young demographic. Their bold colors and graphic designs to go with any outfit were seductive. I fell hard for them.

But my first Timex remained on my meager jewelry team. Swatch watches were eventually kicked off. 

While I outgrew my Timex by my early teens, I continued wearing watches repairing/replacing them as needed. My wrist felt abandoned without one. I think I was in the minority. 

Several years ago, a younger co-worker remarked upon noticing my watch, "It's cute that you still wear a watch!" 

Cute? It's essential! (or so I believed.)

Today, we are in an era where our phones have become the tellers of time. 

My current non-Timex watch has taken a licking and has stopped ticking. I am hoping it is a battery issue. However, should it be a mechanical problem I may, for the first time ever, succumb to using my phone as my lone timepiece. 

Sigh.

This concession will not dim my devotion to my little Timex beauty. She will remain with my declining collection of jewelry. I cannot part with her. 

She defined time eloquently. 

She elevated me into a responsible child. 

She made my little girl self feel fancy.

And she made me a lifelong watch wearer. 

I can't say if the Timex company knew that its durable timepieces were also carving equally lasting memories about time.

I can say the imprint was made on this girl. 

My first wristwatch memory will always keep on ticking. 

My current & not-so-current watches

                             1960s era TV ad with Timex spokesperon John Cameron Swayze

Timex updated its "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" slogan in 2003 to "Life is ticking." .

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/business/media-business-advertising-takes-licking-keeps-ticking-way-timex-now-it-s-life.html

Timex Company marked its 170th anniversary in business in 2024. 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/timex-marks-a-significant-milestone-in-its-legacy-of-simply-great-watchmaking-302166103.html