Il a été un long temps

A Maine sky

You thought I had fallen off the face of the earth, right?  I wanted so to return to this space.  And I was desperately trying to but was locked out of my personal email (except for my phone's email functionality) and blog for about three weeks. I had set up a 2-step verification to protect my email from hackers and through a series of events, many of which were my own fault, I was locked out for what seemed like permanently. The protection was so good that even I couldn't access it!

Then, magically, I was able to get one of the codes to work yesterday! Such joy! It happened so unexpectedly after I had truly given up hope. But the ending is wonderful and I am once more writing here. It's true that you do not know how much something means to you until you cannot have it anymore.  This blog is an important part of my life and my personal expression and I am so grateful to have it back!

Wishing anyone who still frequents my little space a joyous weekend! I am having a marvelous time at home with my family in Maine. We dined at a delicious French restaurant in Portland last night and are in the throes of planning our spring family holiday to France in celebration of my mum's birthday (which is actually next week, but April in Paris sounds better than February in Paris, non?)!

Worth

Bits of spring

It's been a while. Life came to a head this weekend and I spent the majority of it resting after a few weeks of holidays and less-than-top-notch health. I could hide all this but it wouldn't seem right because this is where I am right now. A bit of a trough. Which is okay for now.

I am a grown woman who is figuring out how to best take care of herself. I was particularly inspired by meg's post on "loving myself enough" to do the right things like eating well and keeping my apartment clean.  It is those basic things that are keeping my attention now because I am worth their value. We are all worth their value.

One thing I did for myself was to procure the above pot of daffodils - tiny heralds of my favorite season, which we are moving toward!!

I know it could be so much worse. It can always be worse. And it is worse for so many right now. Especially for the people of Haiti who are still suffering from that horrible earthquake two years ago.  So I am going to offer up my trough to them. Because, despite everything, I am truly blessed.

Happy New Year!

What a difference a year can make. For both the good and the bad. In 2011, I was lucky with good turns of events.  I am grateful for every minute of this past year. I hope for more adventures in 2012 and  also to have a life filled with love, for a life without love is not really a life at all.  May you all have love in 2012! Happy New Year!

May You Have Peace and Joy

My favorite holiday decor on a farm in rural Maine (a brilliant star on an early winter's night)

Wishing everyone a joyous and peaceful holiday with everyone they love! Merry Christmas! xoxo

Holiday Scenes and Blessings

Thanks to Pinterest, I decided to make garlands of my favorite Christmas song lyrics

I mean, why not be merry?

L.L. Bean's Christmas Tree (one year they hung colorful Nalgiene bottles on the tree, I miss that)

In Georgetown, they put bows on their houses!

A refined Christmas in DC's Embassy Row

Christmas bundles all ready to be delivered!

Me decked out for a holiday party downtown!

It's been an incredibly hectic holiday season. But when I stop to reflect, it's all good things. I am very lucky. Lucky for the amazing friends and family in my life. Lucky for my job, my little apartment, and the possibilities that next year will hopefully bring. I am blessed in so many ways. Life is good.

My Namesake

Today is Emily Dickinson's birthday. My namesake.  There's a pair of us, you know, as we are both children of December and kindred spirits to boot. She was a homebody that was full of a fiery, crazy passion pent up and only unleashed on the page.  Not unlike myself. Well, with the exception that I have yet to write/publish poetry that will be published posthumously and become world renown. There is, however, still time.


Image found here.

The Simple Sameness

Home to Maine last week was a welcome respite from the quick, unrelenting pace of Washington life. My job had crescendoed in many unexpected ways and I desperately needed a softer tempo to ease the tension. I needed some of that simple sameness that going home always affords. I awoke Wednesday morning to a heaving snowfall, a perfect change from the still humid climes of Virginia. 

We have a quiet, lovely thanksgiving with all the same traditions - the parade, hor d'oeuvres at noon, dinner at four, a walk with the lanthorn (old-fashioned word for lantern) after dinner, and enjoying pie and Miracle on 34th Street (the newer version). 

It felt so very good to be home with the people (and the animals!) that know me best.

Woke up to a foot and half of snow on my first morning home

Mae by a crackling fire

The table set for our Thanksgiving feast

Isabelle warming herself by the stove as the turkey cooks

An early birthday gift - an original oil painting by Maine artist, Vivian Wixom

A Horseback Riding Adventure!

My copper-colored steed Leon was a worthy mount (even if he occasionally tripped over rocks on the trail)

For some time now, I have longed to go horseback riding. Not just a trot around a track. I mean, real riding, on the trail, in the woods, through the mountains, over hill and dale...you get the picture.

That dream was realized this weekend when my friend Christina and I hit the road and drove to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Hume, Virginia, and went on a 1.5-hour trail ride at the Marriott Ranch.

It was a glorious autumn day. The trees were in full color -- deep reds, fiery oranges, and rustic yellows -- against that bright blue sky that only a day in late fall can afford. The weather was perfect in the low 60s. Weather like that just feels like a gift.

The ride was just what I needed. The slow, soothing rhythm of the horse as he so graciously carried me on the trails - across streams, up and down hills, and through meadows. Manna to a soul overwrought by the cruel concrete and steel of city life. Being in the city has worn on me lately. All the noise, air pollution, and the angry, rude people. I needed some simplicity and some quiet.  I am a country girl by birth and will remain so at heart always.

My and Leon's shadow on the trail

Christina flashes a smile on the trail!

Heading toward an open field with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance

Heading back to the ranch

The end!

Stars

Random picture I took of the NYC skyline THREE years ago (I thought it went with the "star" theme of this post

Listening to NPR's 24-7 Music Live Stream has literally been the only thing standing between me and a mental breakdown this week. That and lattes from Starbucks, which is the only decent coffee place near my office. FOR REALS, so don't think that I've sold out or anything (although I just received my Starbucks Gold Card in the mail so MAYBE I HAVE).

But seriously, this music stream has exposed me to all kinds of new tunes, which I totally dig. This week's discoveries include The Innocence Mission, the Black Keys, and Stars.

Prepare yourself for a cliche: their music speaks to me. This music has been manna to a blank, confused soul.

For my whole life,  you ask me: books or music? I say books. But lately, I feel like my answer would undoubtedly be music. It's just where its at right now.

Here's three songs that are the real deal for me this week:

A Modern Hankerchief

I love when certain events transpire as they might have, say during the Victorian era, but this time with a modern twist. 

It was any ordinary Friday night. After a LONG work week, I was ready for relaxing evening in - a little takeout, a good film, and a good night's rest. Before this fun, however, I decided a quick trip to my apartment's gym was in order to purge myself of all the negative energy from the week.  Nothing releases bad karma like the pounding of one's feet on a treadmill.

So there I was, running in an almost empty gym (one older man on a stationary bike in the corner), watching a rerun of The Daily Show, and keeping up my pace, when I noticed in the window's reflection in front of me a particularly dashing young man entering through one of the rear doors of the gym. I had seen him a few times before around the apartment complex. Tall, sturdy, with longish, dark blond hair. Definitely cute. 

I continued my run but every so often, I would slyly look up to see him lifting at the various weight stations that were behind the treadmills. He would break and pace the room, as people who lift weights tend to do (probably to give their muscles a rest?). 

I soon became more focused on a particularly humorous The Colbert Report.  I had begun to break a sweat so I went to grab my small towel to swab my brow. Grace and coordination not being part of my personal repertoire, the towel slipped and fell on the treadmill floor, which jettisoned the towel onto the floor behind me and just as the young man was walking by.

Bewildered at my clumsy act, I continued to run as if it hadn't happened. I stared straight ahead at the television, when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the guy holding my gym towel and smiling at me. "I think you dropped this, " he said, handing it to me.  Apparently, the gym towel is the modern handkerchief. 

"Thank you," I replied, breathily with a smile.

As I walked back to my apartment after my workout, I couldn't help but smirk at the fact that I dropped my proverbial "handkerchief," which had been been picked up by a young man, just as it had been done hundreds of years ago. Neither Henry James or E.M. Forster could have conjured a more modern equivalent of chivalry. 

Image found here.