life — Page 315

Funky & Magical Dining

November 18, 2012 at 9:13 am by Claudia

I’m not much for fancy restaurants. I have never felt entirely comfortable in them. I feel like I have to be on my best behavior, like a little girl in her very best dress, ham-strung with warnings not to get a stain on it or spill anything.

If I have a choice, it will always be for comfortable and funky. The funkiest restaurant I’ve ever seen is in a little town in our area. Yesterday, Don and I took a little drive and had lunch there.

Every single inch of space – walls, ceiling, floors – is covered with paintings, decoration, tchotchkes, you name it. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s so whimsical: part souvenirs, part Asian influence, part decorative painting, part dumpster diving treasures, part sparkle and glitter.

Hubcaps on the ceiling.

Paintings on the wall.

Our table was a painting: trees, water, horses.

And the food is unbelievably good.

Don drinking his Decaf.

Me, sans makeup, looking a wee bit sleepy. Don took this and really likes it, so even though I don’t like photos of me without makeup, here goes. Me: on the cusp of a big birthday.

This is on the wall in the entry:

I love these words. After some googling, I found the source.

Isn’t the restaurant magical and wonderful? I wish I could have taken even more photos (all of them via the iPhone, by the way) but I didn’t want to intrude on the other patrons.

It just might be one of my favorite places to eat.

Happy Sunday.

Making Music on a Chalkboard

November 16, 2012 at 8:53 am by Claudia

Early morning. I’m in that stage where I’m just beginning to ease out of sleep into wakefulness. And what flashes through my foggy mind? Being in music class as a kid and wishing I could use the cool chalk holder thingy that the teacher employed to draw the musical staff on the chalkboard. Remember those? They were wire contraptions attached to a wooden handle and there were 5 holders for chalk. The teacher would glide the chalk across the board and suddenly there was a musical staff. The next thing to appear would be the treble clef, then notes, measures, sharps and flats.

I wanted one. Or rather, I wanted to be able to walk up to the front of the classroom, take that holder in my hands and make a muscial staff magically appear. (I was that kind of kid – always wanted to write on the chalkboard, be class monitor, that kind of thing,)

I hadn’t thought of them in years and assumed they were no longer in use. Because I now think that anything used in my childhood must be vintage and retro nowadays. (If I see one more item from my childhood labeled “Antique” on Craigslist, I am going to scream.) Surely there must be some new high-tech way of drawing a staff?

So, hoping to find a photo of one, I googled ‘musical staff chalk’ and found lots of them available. New ones. On eBay, on Amazon, everywhere. Teachers are still using them. Sigh of happiness.

This one is made by Quartet. It’s officially called a Wood Music Staff Liner.

I want one. I could use it on my chalkboard.

I could pretend I was the Music Teacher. I could compose a little melody.

But even better? Finding a vintage liner. I could hang it on my wall. Wouldn’t that be cool? I suppose if I can’t find a vintage liner, I could ‘age’ a new one. But I like vintage, as you know.

One sleepy thought = a search and a Friday post.

Thanks for all the wonderful tips on getting back to sleep. It looks like I am in good company. So many of us struggle with this. And I can’t blame it on menopause because that particular pain-in-the-tush is over, thank goodness. In fact, next Wednesday is my birthday and it’s rather a big one.

How can that be? I’m still around 39 in my head and heart.

I’m wearing black that day.

I’ll be back at 8:00 EST with A Favorite Thing.

Happy Friday.

Question Of The Day: What Do You Do When You Can’t Sleep?

November 15, 2012 at 7:03 am by Claudia

I’ve been awake since about 4 am.

I finally gave up on more sleep and arose at 6 am.

Don has been having some serious problems sleeping lately. He gets restless and when he moves around in bed, I wake up. And sometimes I simply wake up on my own. Then my head starts going and I can’t get back to sleep. At times, my head is filled with worries. But sometimes it’s filled with nonsense. Either way, it keeps me from sleeping.

I don’t do well without sleep. But the truth is, even when I get up after a sleepless night and think that there is no way I can get through the day, I usually get through it just fine. I have stingy eyes and I’m this close to being irritable, but I get through it.

Don’t you envy the way dogs and cats sleep? Scout will get up, go outside to do her business, come back in, drink some water, and promptly fall right back to sleep. For hours.

Of course, our animal friends live in the present. They don’t worry about the future, they don’t regret the past. They live in the NOW, a place that few of us humans can exist in for more than a minute or two.

So here’s my question for the day. What do you do when you can’t sleep? Do you get up and read? Do you do a crossword puzzle? (I’ve been known to do that.) Do you just stay in bed and toss and turn? Do you watch television?

Please share.

Happy Thursday.

Funky & Magical Dining

Making Music on a Chalkboard

Question Of The Day: What Do You Do When You Can’t Sleep?

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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