Christmas in London

I’ve decided that nothing would suit me better this year than Christmas in London. Once Stacie’s wedding is over I don’t have anything much going on so I’m going to grab Erin Laura and head across the pond for some Christmas cheer.

I’ve found a hotel just off of Hyde Park. It’s the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel and has a Superior Suite that is just up my alley. We’ll enjoy our deluxe accomodations overlooking Hyde Park, with a little color tv if the jet lag gets too bad.

One of my long-standing dreams is to go to a play in London’s West End. It’s their version of Broadway and holds way more appeal for me. Moreover, I would love to see some Shakespeare in Shakespeare’s home and my favorite of his shows, Twelfth Night is running through Christmas.

Now, if you are going to see a show in London’s West End, you have to dress the part. I have a blue cocktail dress that would do. However, if I find that I have a little extra cash I might buy something from a great designer, Oscar de la Renta. Make sure to check out the back view. Honestly, there is a lot of flippancy in these ‘dream trip’ posts, but I honestly would dress in nothing but Oscar de la Renta if I could.

So there are a few of my ideas for my trip to London. Would anyone out there add anything?

I Lose Things

“I’m sorry, ok? I lost it!”
“We’re royal ! We’re not supposed to lose it, other people are supposed to lose it! We’re supposed to find it!”

Quote courtesy of The Princess Diaries.

I have a wonderful talent for losing things. I’ve lost a digital camera (I think it might have been stolen), my favorite pair of pink sunglasses, countless bookmarks and more than one pair of fuzzy socks. Most recently I lost the battery charger for my digital camera. The funny thing is I remember putting it somewhere and saying “I’ll never remember where I put this…”

I was right.

However, I’ve discovered a wonderful tool. I just ask Jesus where [whatever the particular item is] has got to. So far it’s had a marvelous rate of success.

That said, I’ve still not found my battery charger. Mostly because up until this moment, I’d forgotten my wonderful Saviour who cares about things like that. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Am I the only one who does this? Please tell me that someone else out there is as prone to object-loss as I am.

The Curious Letter and What it Contained

I’ve always loved velvet upholstery. A dear friend of mine cannot even touch velvet without having a terrible attack of shivers. The thought of an entire piece of furniture covered with the stuff is utterly abhorrent to her.

But I love it. Today, while the footman was telling Lady Victoria of my arrival I took off my gloves and ran both hands over the sofa. It was a wonderful sensation of opulence. With times as difficult as they have been only the aristocracy can afford things like velvet sofas.

Luckily I have an acute sense of hearing and Lady Victoria has had more than her share of cake in her lifetime. I heard her coming before she reached the marble floors of the hall and hurriedly replaced both of my gloves. They were hand dyed, embroidered in a lovely shade of pale gold and fit perfectly.

I always feel better about going visiting when I look my best. The new breed of female believes that we would dress as dowds to feel free. I believe firmly that a nicely embroidered pair of gloves does more for one’s outlook than all the gray wool in the world. Though, I will admit to a partiality for their ideas about footwear. High heels pinch me terribly and my arch is not all that could be desired.

Planning Vacations

Ok, so one of my guilty pleasures is planning vacations that I lack the finances to take.

One of the places that I have never been is Hawaii. Now, I fully approve of the classic hotel-on-the-beach approach to a Hawaiin vacation. I’m actually a secret fan of tourist traps.

Point being, if given free reign, my tastes run to the… shall we say deluxe?

Today I’ve decided to visit the lovely island of Kauai. My villa is a thousand feet above the water and surrounded by 11 acres of wildlife. There are only two bedrooms (one more than I need, of course). Most importantly, there is both a hot tub and a soaking tub.

I’m going to spend my time reading, swimming and drawing copious amounts of little sketches of the island. I am leaving my computer and dvd player at home. Some vacations require entertainment options, but ‘villa on the beach’ is not one of them. I’ll have my cell phone with me in case you need me, but I’m trying to go ‘off grid’ so don’t bug me unless it’s urgent.

Now, no voyage to the lovely warm waters of Hawaii would be complete without scuba diving. And scuba diving with a group of people/ a teacher is lame. Therefore I will need to take Scuba lessons.

Moreover, if you are going to be playing in the water, you need a few new swimming suits. Swimming suits are hard to find, so it’s better to buy them designer.

I really should take a buddy in case that scuba diving thing works out. It’s really a bad idea to scuba without a buddy. Also, I want someone there to pee on my foot if a jellyfish stings it. Anybody want to come with me and hang out at the villa and (possibly) pee on my foot?

That’s the fun thing about fake vacations. You can spend as much “mind money” as you want to. This kind of vacation is once in a lifetime, if you are lucky, and I think that if such things really do come off they should be magnificent.

So there you are. Next week I’m going to the south of France.

Driving Your Cat Crazy 101

This morning I stayed home from church to make soup. While out in my garden, knee deep in really damp plants, I realized that I should probably harvest some catnip before the first frost comes and kills it. So I clambered over the Italian Parsley, the Marjoram and the nameless flowers and cut off about a pound of catnip. I washed it and spread it on a towel on the kitchen counter.

So between the “chicken carcass bubbling in a pan” smell and the overwhelming odor of catnip, my cat looks like she had multiple personality disorder. She keeps wandering from place to place looking pretty cranked up and completely confused.

Good times.

Life today

I don’t post very much for the simple reason that my daily life is simple and my inner life too complicated (and “inner”) to be posted on the internet. There are a few interesting tidbits worth sharing, though.

I’m teaching my first art lesson tomorrow. We are going to start with basic forms and move on to acrylic painting soon. Student 1 wants to learn semi-abstract, student 2 likes to draw flowers and student 3 has yet to express an opinion. Directly following said art lesson will be my first piano lesson, for which I have a substitute teacher since my actual teacher has double booked herself.  I already know how to do inversion, which is not something that you need to know when the only key that you can play in is C major. (Not that they are related, it’s more of a level of technical ability that doesn’t go with MY technical ability.)

A Challenge

—I am going to start a story. I want someone out there in the blogosphere to take it up where I leave off. You can add a paragraph, a sentence or as much as you want to the narrative. Leave it at another “cliffhanger” and I’ll take over again and finish it. Who’s game?!—

Ned thought his life was interesting but he doubted that anyone else would find it so. He worked very hard and enjoyed collecting doorknobs in his spare time. His hobbies are, for our purposes, incidental and immaterial.

Ned worked for the Department of Unnecessary Road Works. It was Ned’s job to find the most used roads and decide to alter them in some “vitally important” but really ridiculous way. It was his secret delight to inconvenience as many people as possible with the least trouble to his sister department, the Department of Employing Road Workers at Exhorbant Rates to Little Purpose.

My New Baby

Not to be confused with my sister’s new baby, who isn’t actually new yet as he is still womb-ified.

Yesterday I bought a Yamaha P85 digital piano. It’s cute as a button, a full 88 keys, weighted and the most exciting thing in my life since I became taller than my sister.

I’ve been wanting to play piano since I was little. A combination of poor teaching styles, my hatred for learning to read music, and the wrong idea that I am “just not a musician” has kept me from ever learning. My family’s dear friend Lynn is trading my music lessons for art lessons for her three kids. I’m going to teach them basic artistic techniques and she’s going to teach me the “chord” method of learning piano.

The guy at the music store was a kick in the pants. He knew Lynn by name, asked after Chrissy (a super talented guitar player that we all know) and was incredibly helpful. I got an insane deal and now have an account set up at American Music in Bellevue.

So now I’m sitting on my couch watching a PBS special on Pavarotti. You know he’s an amazing opera singer because I am actually watching him sing opera. I hate opera.

I also hate golf, but I could learn to change that…

Nanny Job

I didn’t take the nanny job. 7:30 to 5 o’clock every day- NO WAY!

And certainly not for ten bucks an hour. I mean, raising someone’s kids should pay better.

“There’s a Peso in My Bed” or “It’s Nice to Be Home”

I have returned from my sojourn to the great Kansas City. It was a good time of refreshment, shopping and meeting some famous people. (No kidding.)

The plane ride home was less than eventful, unless you include the five member family who decided to ask me to nanny for them. No kidding. I’m expecting a phone call from the parentals any second to set up some face time. I’m going to ask for too much money and if they say ‘yes’ it’ll be a good way to make some cash.

The first thing I did when I got home was inadvertantly look in a mirror. This was a poor idea as both my eyes were completely bloodshot. Now, red certainly does set off my naturally green irises, but it does so in a creepy-sci-fi-movie way. Sometimes when I get really tired my eyes do this, but it hasn’t happened in years. Literally. They aren’t quite back to normal so I’m still avoiding the mirrors.

The second thing I did was to completely clean out my room. I’d been awake for fourteen hours and figured that “there is no time like the present”. When stripping the sheets off of my bed, I found a peso.  Ten peso’s, actually. Besides the fact that I have no idea where it came from it was pretty neat.

Today I went wedding dress shopping with my best friend and we found the perfect dress. It’s beautiful and she got it for a really good price. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy wedding dress shopping [for other people]. It’s fun to watch the super swank fashion show that is finding the perfect gown.  

The first show of the season starts this week and I’m training my new boss and my new lobby attendant all on the same day. I’d be more excited if I had a copy of my schedule but as of yet I’ve got nothing. Very frustrating and somewhat unproffessional.

In conclusion, “Behind me, as before me, God is and all is well.”