rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with emily dickinson calendar

The movie theater in our mall shows vintage movies on weeknights, and I really love that idea. Since they started doing it, I've probably seen more old movies there than new ones! When Sara and I saw Les Miserables on Christmas day, there were previews for all of the old movies that the theater would be showing in January. One of them was The Sound of Music, and ever since then, I'd been looking forward to seeing it almost more than I was Les Miserables! Sara and I grew up watching The Sound of Music, used to act it out as kids (with the two of us playing all seven von Trapp children -- and every other role!), and could probably still recite the whole thing from memory. I was beyond excited at the thought of seeing it on the big screen.

Well, today was the day. Sara and I just got back from seeing it with a friend of hers, and it was so good. I wouldn't've thought seeing it in a theater would give me a new appreciation for a film I know like the back of my hand, but it did. So many wide, sweeping shots, so much beautiful scenery, so many little details that Rebecca had never noticed before! I enjoyed every second -- but not having to wait for the frost on Muse Watson's windshield to melt so we could drive home. That's how cold it's been here!

All day at work I was trying to rewrite "Do You Hear the People Sing?" (from Les Mis) to be about The Sound of Music, but it didn't really work. I only got as far as "Do you hear the von Trapps sing, singing about their favorite things?" Can you guess what I'm doing right now? Yep, writing The Sound of Music fanfiction.

P.S. On the art calendar, I'm looking at Improvisation 27 (The Garden of Love II), a 1912 oil painting by Vasily Kandinsky. Sara bought another page-a-day calendar of art from the Met for 2013. We'll be fine-art connoisseurs by the end of the year! I couldn't find my usual Emily Dickinson calendar in stores this year, so I bought a Jewish calendar instead.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews

Athena was in town this weekend, and on Sunday, she, Sara, and I went to see The Possession. (AKA the Jewish exorcism movie I posted about here). I was pretty disappointed. Some scenes that were supposed to be scary just felt stupid, and its treatment of Judaism was borderline offensive to me. The only highlights were the two young actresses and Matisyahu, a Jewish rapper. He has a great song called "Miracle" that I've been listening to non-stop lately (even though it's a Hanukkah song and the High Holy Days are approaching). Anyway, they made up for Kyra Sedgwick, who I find absolutely insufferable. Seriously, I wanted to SLAP her every time she came onscreen!

Matisyahu (with child actress Natasha Calis) exorcising the demon.

After the movie, we all ate lunch at a new deli that just opened, and the food also didn't thrill me. But it was fun getting to visit with Athena. She discovered some new trail mix that she went absolutely crazy over. Then I spent the evening at her parents' house, petting their new guinea pig and helping Eva with her French homework -- yes, this qualifies as fun for me.

So September is here now (can you believe it's September already?) and for Rebecca, that means three things:
1) Cool weather! Hallelujah!
2) SEASON 10 OF NCIS! 22 DAYS LEFT!
3) The Days of Awe. Our temple is kicking them off this Saturday with Selichot. This time of year, especially Yom Kippur, calls for a lot of reflecting and soul-searching, and I'm trying to get into an appropriate frame of mind. Since Matisyahu doesn't have a song for these holidays, I'll share this one from The Maccabeats. It's a parody of "Good Life," by OneRepublic, which I absolutely hate, but I love this parody.

Hopefully this year will bring us happiness and peace
Hopefully sensitivity to others will increase
Hopefully we'll open our eyes and think more consciously
'Cuz hopefully we'll go from where we are to where we want to be

Also, the September words of my Emily Dickinson calendar:
     The Leaves unhooked themselves from Trees --
     And started all abroad
     The Dust did scoop itself like Hands
     And threw away the Road

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Miracle, Matisyahu

Two things I'm loving about this new year: going back through my journal and collecting the first sentence of the first post for every month, and getting a new Emily Dickinson calendar! I've had a calendar featuring her poetry since 2010, and I really love them. Sara got a cool new calendar, too. It's the page-a-day kind, and each page has a tiny reproduction of a famous work of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She put it on the computer table, so right now I'm looking at a detail of Morning Glories, an early 19th-century screen panel by Suzuki Kiitsu.

And now, without further ado, my first-sentence round-up for 2011!

January
The last day of 2010 was a busy one for Rebecca.

February
I've had four job interviews in the last three weeks.

March
I tossed and turned all night last night.

April
If you're wondering why I've been so absent from the blog world recently, our computer crashed last Friday.

May
I'm finally home after an exhausting trip and a very long car ride, but I can't complain because I got to see James Taylor in concert!

June
As soon as I got out of bed today, I got a call from a staffing company, telling me that a job had opened up unexpectedly, and could I come in for an interview, like, right now?

July
After years of abuse, my cell phone has decided it's had enough.

August
Sara and I made a little day-trip to Baton Rouge today -- or more specifically, to Blue Bayou water park!

September
Yesterday morning, my fast food run ended with me driving Muse Watson to the auto-repair shop.

October
My first High Holy Days as an official Jew are still rolling on.

November
My asthma has been worse since the weather turned colder, and today I finally called the pharmacy to get my inhaler refilled.

December
Rebecca has taken some good-natured teasing from folks at her temple for putting up a Chris -- uh, I mean, a holiday tree.

Sad P.S. I feel like I'm just waiting to get a call from my aunt telling me that Grandma has died. I don't want that call, but at this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised if I got it.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: NCIS rerun of "In the Dark"

I figure that maybe if I make a post sending summer on its way, cool weather will get here sooner. Please? To recap a few things, this summer Rebecca got wet... in a mikvah in Baton Rouge, at Blue Bayou waterpark in Baton Rouge, at a much smaller local waterpark, bike-riding in the rain, and washing her car. Which reminds me, I've got to get the oil changed on that thing.

This summer, Rebecca heard wunderbar... in X-Men: First Class (Kevin Bacon's character says it near the beginning) and in Kiss Me, Kate (Mr. G was in a local production, and it's the title of a beautiful song the two main characters sing; "What a bright and shining star / Like our love is wunderbar"). Wunderbar is the German word for wonderful. I also participated in my first ficathon and officially converted to Judaism!

Summer for thee, grant I may be
When Summer days are flown!
Thy music still, when Whipporwill
And Oriole—are done!

(The image is from my trip to the Jewish section of the cemetery with Sara. The poem is from my Emily Dickinson calendar.)

27 DAYS LEFT until the Season 9 premiere of NCIS!

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: California, Phantom Planet

After work today, Sara and I went for a walk in the cemetery, then I rode my bike over to Grandma's to pick tomatoes for her. (That's what I love about summer. The days are long enough to pack a lot into them.) Grandma seems to have given up on watering and/or picking from her garden since she's about to move, so I spent about five minutes just sitting on the grass picking all the cherry tomatoes in reach. The bellpepper and cucumber plants both looked so withered and sad, and as I was watering them, it occurred to me that by this time next month, Grandma will probably be completely moved out of that house. She's lived there for 47 years! It doesn't seem possible.

I've been meaning to post these photos for a while. They're not great, because I used the GE rather than the Kodak. (The Kodak has better picture quality, but the GE has way more storage space and its batteries last longer.) I took them over the last month or so. They make me think of the June words of my Emily Dickinson calendar:

A sepal, petal, and a thorn
Upon a common summer's morn -
A flask of Dew - a Bee or two -
A Breeze - a caper in the trees -
And I'm a Rose!

( Louisiana Flowers and Fresh Produce of Rebecca's Neighborhood (Lots of Photos) )

I took a few good photos in the cemetery today, but I will share those later. (Update: Well, I only ever got around to posting one, but you can see it here.)

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Let It Be Me, The Indigo Girls

The last day of 2010 was a busy one for Rebecca. I woke up early to call a car lot and my credit union, but apparently everything in town was closed yesterday. Everything, that is, except where I work, and we were actually pretty busy. From work I went straight to Shabbat services at the temple. The service was held a half-hour earlier than usual, and afterwards, a lot of us went to an interdominational prayer service/dinner at the Methodist church.

The prayer service was a little cheesy, but I enjoyed it. People from different faiths gave speeches about their religious traditions for the new year, and while one lady was talking about customs in Catholic Latin America, she asked if anyone knew the names of the three wise men. Rebecca owned that: Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar. Somebody from the temple asked me how I knew that, and I told him it was because I went to Catholic high school (and I did) but it's really because I live with my name-obsessed sister. That's also how I know the names of Noah's three sons. In fact, I'd bet any amount of money Sara knows more about Biblical names than 99% of religious people, and she's not religious at all.

The dinner was mostly dessert foods, although there was cabbage and black-eyed peas, of course. Somehow, I wound up seated next to the mayor of our city! I didn't realize who he was until someone introduced me, and after I'd lost the opportunity to talk to him, I found out he speaks Cajun French! I didn't eat too much, but the food was very rich, so I felt sick later.

Today Sara and I went to CJ & Company's house to eat lunch and play games. Aunt Connie had cooked up a ton of food (pot roast, green bean casserole, "funeral potatoes," salad, black-eyed peas) and I ate too much, but I lose all shreds of self-control when I get near green bean casserole. Then I went bike riding with Eva and swinging in the park with Josh. As we were leaving, I found a mirror they were throwing out and brought it home to put on the back of my door. It's leaning against the wall now, and when Sable saw it, he sniffed and growled at his reflection! I was so amazed. I had no idea his eyesight was still that good. He hasn't paid any attention to his reflection since he was a puppy and thought his reflection in our dishwasher was his brother (whom he lived with before we got him).

I got a giftcard to the bookstore for Christmas, and I put it to good use. I got the two things I really wanted: a 2011 calendar and a Tanakh (a Jewish Bible). I went with another Emily Dickinson calendar like the one I had in 2010, and usually I hate repetitive calendars, but what can I say, her poetry is really growing on me. My Tanakh is pocket-sized, with very fine fine print, but now I'm all set to go to Torah study at the temple next week. The young woman who's holding it is named Rebekah and is almost exactly my age. :)

A Cajun blessing for 2011:
Je vous souhaite du bonne aventure, bonne fortune, bonne santé, et une bonne nouvelle année.

Current Mood: full
Current Music: When We Were Fab, George Harrison

Any guesses as to where Rebecca was at five this morning? She was lying in bed, eating chocolate chip cookie dough out of tub! And at five this evening, I was listening to my bad-ass Cajun grandma mumble to herself in French while she cooked pumpkin muffins. Not a bad day.

So far this weekend, we've turned off our air conditioning and turned on the heater, I've gotten out my thermal underwear again, and tomorrow we turn our clocks back an hour. I guess there's no more denying that winter is upon us. I still managed to ride my bike to the temple on Friday night, but it was so cold and dark, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up. Fortunately there was a dinner of lentil soup after the service (because we read the Torah portion where Esau trades his birthright for a bowl of lentils) that stuck to my ribs and kept me warm on the way home. I let Graycat in for part of the night, because it was so cold where he was sleeping on the stairs, but I had to put him out again when I started wheezing. Sable hasn't had hair in so long that I'd forgotten how much of a problem pet hair used to be for me.

Rebecca hates winter! *grumble grumble* Why is it that summer seemed to drag on forever, but fall was over before I could blink? Oh wait, because I live in Louisiana. In the final words of my Emily Dickinson calendar:
     It can't be Summer! That got through!
     Too early, yet, for Spring!
     There's that long town of White to cross
     Before the Blackbirds sing.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: I'm Still Standing, Elton John

After years of constantly losing them, finding them, losing them, and finding them again, I seem to have finally lost my glasses. As in, for good. I still can't really believe it, because after being lost, dropped, sat on, stepped on, etc. for so long, I thought those glasses could survive anything. I've been wearing my contacts almost exclusively, so it's not a huge deal. The only time I really miss them is when I walk Sable before bed, because I don't want to bother putting them in just for that, but I'm a wuss and don't like going outside at night without being able to see well.

Eva's birthday was yesterday; she turned 13. I did some calculating and figured out that by the time she turns 20, my aunt and uncle will have had at least one teenage daughter for almost twenty. Solid. Years.

I finally finished reading Shutter Island and watched the movie, but I still haven't started Mockingjay (the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy, just released last week) yet. I think Sara and I are each waiting for the other one to buy a copy. And Athena is waiting for either of us to buy it. But for some reason, I'm not as anxious to read this one as I was with the second book, Catching Fire. Maybe because it's the last book and I don't want it to be over. Or maybe because the bad-fanfiction ending of Harry Potter scarred me for life. *shudder*

I'm so glad fall is (almost) here. Fall is the best season for bike riding, and I hope to enjoy as much of it as I can before winter sets in, because winter is the fucking worst season for it. To quote my calendar of Emily Dickinson poetry (I used to absolutely hate her stuff, but for some reason, she's grown on me in recent years):
     And thus, without a Wing
     Or service of a Keel
     Our Summer made her light escape
     Into the Beautiful

Best of all, fall means the Season 8 premiere of NCIS is closer! than! ever!

Current Mood: another Singulair headache!
Current Music: Mine, Taylor Swift

We got a 15% employee discount at work this weekend (rather than our normal 10%) so today I bought presents for Mom, Ben, Eva, and myself. That's right, myself! It was the Emily Dickinson calendar that I wanted so much last year, but we quit carrying it before I got around to buying it. I resisted taking the shrink-wrap off it because I plan to wrap it, put it under our tree, and label it To Rebecca, from Rebecca. Heh heh.

We had a store meeting this morning, so I had to be there bright and early at 8 a.m. It sucked because I closed last night and we didn't get out until almost 10 (which is really late for our store). Not surprisingly, I was closing with the one manager who has no idea how to budget time and who let a customer in after we'd closed. No other manager would have ever done that. Ever. But tomorrow is Sara's birthday and we're both off to celebrate it! And no human force is dragging me out of my bed tomorrow before I'm good and ready. Tonight we ate spaghetti and brownies and Grandma's and watched Up. "I was hiding under your porch because I love you."

Grandma had a lemon tree planted in her yard some years ago (she insists that it was only two years ago, but I think her memory's going, because it really seems longer that) and for a long time its lemons were so hard and shriveled that I didn't think it would produce edible fruit in Grandma's lifetime. So you can imagine how surprised I was when Grandma gave me and Sara four big, juicy, delicious lemons a few weeks ago. They were so good, as good as store-bought lemons, and usually homegrown ones taste distinctly different. I wish we had asked her for more when we were over there today.

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: "Do not mention Dug to me at this time."

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Do you hear the von Trapps sing?
But my strength comes not from man at all...
2012: Famous poetry, famous artwork, and first sentences!
Shall Rebecca compare thee to a summer's day?
But she wasn't supposed to move until the fall!
If you're not part of the future, then get out of the way!
Essence of winter sleep is on the night, the scent of apples...
The batter swings, and the summer flies...
Rebecca's just about done with her Christmas shopping!

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on your journey, i will bless you...

...and you will be a blessing

Entries tagged with emily dickinson calendar

Do you hear the von Trapps sing?

But my strength comes not from man at all...

2012: Famous poetry, famous artwork, and first sentences!

Shall Rebecca compare thee to a summer's day?

But she wasn't supposed to move until the fall!

If you're not part of the future, then get out of the way!

Essence of winter sleep is on the night, the scent of apples...

The batter swings, and the summer flies...

Rebecca's just about done with her Christmas shopping!