Charm City Daily

My Birthday-A Week In Review

At first, I was determined to not discuss my last birthday; most specifically, I was determined to not discuss my Age. Now, I think I'm over all that and I had such a wonderful week, that I want to share it.

So. Last Wednesday, 18 June, I turned 40. This was a Big One, obviously, and I will admit to struggling with it from time to time. While I feel a little better about things, it still hits me and I am not quite used to it.

At any rate, the Husband went way Above and Beyond in the area of making it Special, and here's a photo recap of the week.

Monday: We went to D.C. to the Kennedy Center to see the National Opera perform TCHAIKOVSKY's "Eugene Oengin." It was beautiful.

(that's the 50s dress I scored for $2 at a yard sale, cut and hemmed. made in Honolulu)

Wednesday, to my Great Surprise, he took a half day off work, showed up at home with a picnic lunch from the Italian deli, and took me here, to Loch Raven for a picnic. It was the most perfectly beautiful day and we sat about a foot from the water.

We stayed until some other people came, with dogs and noise, but long enough to relax.

(he never leaves the house without a hat. I love that.)

Saturday, we saw "To Catch A Thief" at the art house theater downtown, on the Big Screen. How beautiful! It has long been a favorite of mine, and now His, too...He loved it!  We walked around in Charles Village for a bit, found a yard sale and a craft fair. The Craft Fair was great but expensive, though I did pick up two mid-Century pottery planters for a total of $5!! at the yard sale.

(No pictures of Saturday, I stupidly forgot the camera!) But I'll have some photos of the planters later today!

All in all, a Great Week and I had a wonderful time. We had a nice dinner Wednesday evening, and mostly ate out all week...I couldn't ask for more!

Good Manners.

At some point in the past, oh let's say 25 years, Society seems to have decided that Good Old Fashioned Good Manners were, well, Old Fashioned. Now, no one seems to bother much about it.

You see, that's not how I was raised. And I'm not that old, either, which makes this even more sad.

In a novel I was reading, and I can't recall which, there is a scene in which the lead character is faced with an old guy with dementia who has wandered onto her porch. Her inner monologue says something like when you don't know what else to do, act like a hostess. I love that! The book takes place in the Deep South in the 50s-60s, so that kind of figures, but still--isn't that great advice??

The Husband and I have taken to going out of our way to "report" people who give us exceptional service in daily life. From the diner waitress to the kid at the drive thru, we've been making sure that their superiors are informed of their quality service. Our thinking is that, in the first place, no one bothers to talk about anything except complaints anymore, and in the second place, maybe with enough positive feedback and reinforcement, the behavior will become contagious. Of course, we're just two folks in a medium-sized town, but hopefully others have reached this same conclusion.

Certainly, among the people I count as my friends both online and in real life, Good Manners are automatic. They just  default to appropriate behavior. 

These are the Retrophile folks I love.

Yves Saint Laurent. R.I.P.

Legendary fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday in Paris.
He was 71.

AWOL

As I've been MIA for the better part of the month, it's about time I surfaced long enough to explain myself!

We have been in full-time production on a short film noir written by and starring my handsome and oh-so-talented Husband. The shoot was in a 1940s bar about 2.5 hours North of here, so time was definitely being crunched and we're exhausted but ecstatic with the outcome! The raw footage is gorgeous-- HiDef, black and white, starkly lit. Beautiful. The story takes place in the late 4os and the production is period perfect, flawless.

Please take a minute to go to the MySpace page for the film, The Debt Collector, and add the film as a "friend." For your troubles, you'll have access to an exclusive gallery of photos of the gorgeous Asia DeVinyl in the film. In the meantime, here's the Old Man in character, on set and looking for all the world like a real Noir Thug.

Gosh, I'm a lucky girl.

Vintage Knits.

Not only am I a die-hard Retrophile, I am a Knitting Retrophile. 

Being able to find gems like this one to satisfy both those passions, is what keeps me going! I was so excited to get this in yesterday's post...

Green.

There is a great deal of talk about "going green" these days. Frankly, I'm a little surprised at the "trendiness" of the whole thing, but I know I shouldn't be. Because, let's be honest, a lot of it is just hype.

The facts about all of it are really not as pretty as the facade. In this country, recycling paper is more environmentally detrimental than just throwing it away and letting it degrade in a landfill. It will degrade naturally. While the recycling process pumps tons of smog, costs tons of money, and uses more energy. It cancels out whatever good you think you're doing.

Plastics make a bit more sense, as do other things that will not naturally degrade. So I do make an effort there, most of the time. What I think is more important than all of it, though, is to Use Less and Waste Less.

The waste in our society these days is sickening. People live almost completely disposable lives. No one gets things repaired anymore--they just buy new. That is really the problem in the landfills. Vacuum cleaners that could and should be repaired, usually cheaper than a replacement. Shoes, clothes, whatever...Fix it. Or have it fixed. Think about the local merchants who specialize in these repairs. Keep them in business and push out the huge, gentrified, multi-national that makes every neighborhood look like every other.

Back in the Good Old Days we all love, there wasn't anything approaching the waste of today. Especially during War Time. Nothing was thrown away, because there was nothing to replace it. All the country's resources were supporting the War Effort. We may not take it that seriously today, but we should think about it.  Make Do & Mend was the Mantra of the Greatest Generation.

There is a movement towards this, a lot of people are sewing and knitting and "re-purposing" old things.

But the Retrophiles know--we've been doing it for years!

Weekend.

Saturday was absolutely Beautiful. Perfect. Glorious. Our yard is awash in Spring blossoms, the grass is green and thick. Our Doves have returned for a second season. Last year was the first, they laid eggs in one of my hanging geranium baskets, and we watched entranced as the eggs hatched, and the tiny doves grew fluffier and stronger by the day. Until one day, they were gone.  So we were thrilled to have them back this year, especially since it seems they've brought friends! Yesterday, there were 2 males on the porch railing, and a female in each hanging basket!

To make up for yesterday being unrealistically perfect, the weather today has been awful and I've been right under it all day long. As luck would have it.

Tomorrow, by this time, I'll have a newly installed, new dishwasher, though, so that's something.

Until then, I'm just going to bed and hope to stay there. The dishes in the sink will just have to wait.

Ravelry!

Once upon a time, I tried out knitty.com, but it didn't really take. I'm sure it's a wonderful site, and I do find myself there, via links, from time to time. I hear great things about it, but for some reason, it just didn't click with me.

Ravelry is a completely different story! I spend way too much there, looking at pictures and bookmarking patterns...I'll never knit up everything I've tagged!!

Look me up: VintageKnits, and be my Friend!!

 

Hi!

After many many, too-many-to-list, Internet/Blog/Journal incarnations, I've finally settled here on this one.

"Charm City Daily" is promising to be a New Start for me, which I am desperately needing these days. Spring seems to be a great time to start something Fresh, so here it is!

I'll keep this brief, please feel free to ask anything along the way, but I don't plan to be too boring about Biographical stuff...it's all too dull anyway!