Leopard Print Uggs

I bought them 2 years ago at the David Z website:

http://tinyurl.com/yhdxfkg



I also love these, but NEVER at the same time.

A Stroll Down Lexington Avenue

I had just spent the afternoon at MoMA. Three and a half hours of glorious solitude with Van Gogh and Warhol. I headed over to Lexington Ave to walk the 15 blocks south to my hotel. It was cold, but sunny, and I was enjoying my walk. I had my leopard print uggs on for warmth and comfort, along with a silk scarf and stylin' beige jacket. I thought I looked New York worthy.

A good looking man in a dark overcoat and suitcase strode by me on the left. “You walk like a married woman,” he stated. Then he looked at me, smiled, and kept walking. I stopped. “What does that mean?'

He just laughed.

Explain

List

I haven't posted a list in awhile. This is 25 Things About Me, which was originally a Facebook post, but I really like it.

1. I cannot sing but know I would be an excellent back up singer.
2. When I'm away from my kids, I should miss them more than I do.
3. I spend too much time playing spider solitaire.
4. Sometimes I go to bed with my make up on.
5. I look forward to my kale/celery/broccoli stem/cucumber juice every morning.
6. I need to be less judgmental of socially inept people.
7. What did I do before TiVo?
8. I buy clothes for the life I don't lead.
9. Snow is unappealing to me even when it is fresh, fluffy and beautiful.
10. I am terrified that the cancer will come back.
11. I don't spend that much time thinking about it.
12. I'd like to be a better photographer.
13. The sound of a cocktail shaker brings me joy.
14. I love the feeling you get when you're reading a great book and can't wait to share it.
15. I can eat a bag of Lay's potato chips at one sitting and still want more.
16. Fear of failure can immobilize me.
17. I wish I had a beach house.
18. Having my younger son call me a bad influence only encourages me.
19. I can't be having a mid-life crisis unless I live to be 102.
20. Laughing is my favorite thing to do.
21. Shopping is right up there.
22. I have had to leave the room watching my adult and near-adult children interact, because I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of it all.
23. There is no one who would put up with me like my husband does.
24. Sometimes that annoys me.
25. These boots were made for walking.

Florence

So, one of the major line items in My Life Plan is to travel to Italy every October. So far, so good. I first went 4 years ago, to this cooking school in the small Tuscan village of Montefollonico. I flew into Florence, and spent 2 days there before heading south. I fell in love with Florence: the art, the food, the people. I burst into tears as I rounded the corner in the Accademia and saw the “David.” I wandered around the Duomo, marvelling in its beauty and architecture. I plunked my ass down in the Piazza della Republica, sipped chianti, and watched Italian fashion (the boots! The boots!) pass me by. Since then I've visited Pisa, Rome, Naples, Siena, Venice and many small villages (including the one my grandmother is from) in between. As I planned this most recent trip I wondered if I would still feel the same way about Florence: was it just because it was my first Italian city that I loved it so? Nope!

My second trip to Florence this past October confirmed my first impressions. I love it. And a second trip allowed me to delve a bit deeper. Of course I had to visit the David and the Duomo again. But this time I had a chance to have dinner with a Florentine resident who directed me here. Breathtaking. He also told me about this restaurant, popular with locals, off the beaten track. Can't wait to go back. Do I have to wait until October?

I'm working on it.

Wow! Almost a month!

OK, so I meant to blog whilst traveling; I even brought a little mini notebook with me, with the intention of posting photos and witticisms from Florence and Venice. Guess what? Didn't happen. The mini was annoying to use and I found myself using my time to actually explore the cities. Took photos and made notes but nothing that could be posted right away.

How do travel bloggers do it? Anyone? I fell into bed pretty late every night and was up early every AM.

Now that I am back (Wahhhh) postings to follow.

Mad Men and Me

There are many many reason for my Mad Men obsession. One is the breathtakingly masculine, bourbon swilling, Marlboro smoking, lady killing Don Draper. What is it about him that is so appealing? He doesn't breathe, he exudes. In one scene he is shoving his wife against a wall, in another he is frying hamburgers for his anxious daughter. In one scene he is the mouthpiece of morality, chastising his boss for his foolish behavior, in another he invites a stewardess to his hotel room. Likeable? Not one bit. When he is on screen, I can't take my eyes off him.

Then there is the setting, which is a character on its own: the year 1963. I was 6 in 1963. Watching the scenes involving the Draper family has surprised me by releasing dormant memories. I'm recalling events I thought I forgot. The Drapers go on a picnic in their brand new Cadillac. At the end of the picnic, Don shakes out the blanket; napkins, paper plates, soda bottles spew onto the grass. He rolls up the blanket and off they go. I remember clearly being told to just throw trash out of the car window when I was a child.

Another scene has Sally Draper, maybe 8 years old, driving a car down the road, while being instructed by her grandfather who was seated in the passenger seat. My flashback: sitting on my father's lap and steering the car while he worked the pedals. I hadn't thought about that in years. My parents were divorced and my memories of my father are complicated and not complimentary. Thinking about “driving,” though, I remember us laughing and laughing.

In a recent episode Betty Draper gives birth to her third child. Don drops her at the hospital and is told by the nurse that his work is done; he is relegated to the waiting room while Betty gets wheeled away. She is drugged to the max and wakes up with voila! a new baby boy. Since it is 1963, she remains in the hospital for more than 1 day. Don brings his 2 other children to visit, but kids are not allowed inside so there is a scene in which they stand on the sidewalk, waving up to Betty at the window holding the new baby.

I call my mother. “Did my father take me to the hospital to see you after S. was born? Did I stand down on the sidewalk with him while you stood at the window holding the baby, waving? Was I wearing cowboy boots?” “Yup,” she said. I was 3 years old.

Let the analysis begin.

Morning Cocktail

These are the ingredients for my morning juice. I TRY to do it every morning: sometimes I succeed; sometimes I don't. I especially need the infusion of alkaline today since the weekend consisted of brisket, potato latkes, challah, apple pie. Toss in the fact that 4 invited guests canceled at the last minute, causing great consternation and an excess of delicious, high fat, high fun food. Instead of nine people, there were five.

I have a Breville juicer and my concoction consists of

5 or 6 leaves of kale, including the stalks
2 stalks of celery
1 large cucumber
2 or 3 broccoli stems