Cheekey Monkey Views

Behind Box Number Two

Last night I was told to be ready for a dinner date at 6:45pm sharp.

My date pulls up on time, runs through the house, clutching wrapping paper and ribbon and rushes upstairs to her study.   Ten minutes later, my date walks down the stairs singing "Happy Birthday" and carrying a beautifully wrapped gift.

I am handed the box and told to proceed with unwrapping.   To my delight, underneath the wrapping is a camera box.  To my surprise, inside the box is the manual and software cd for the camera I purchased two months ago.  

I start laughing (to know this date is to love her), she screams "ooh-no!" grabs the box and rushes back upstairs.  Two minutes later, my date returns (singing a different version of "Happy Birthday") and places (with a very big smile on her face) a new unwrapped 200mm camera lense into my hands.  It is, in fact, the dream lense I've been talking about for weeks but, as a distant future sort of thing.  

The beauty of this lense (and why it's such an amazing gift) is that it enables you to zoom in on your subject.  In this case, it's two boxes and you can see from their closeness in size and coloring how confusion may occur while wrapping.      

The rest of the evening was equally amazing (champagne toasts, surprise dinner guests, favorite Italian restaurant).   Thank you beautiful date and friends!

I did not start the day thinking this 44th birthday would always be remembered.

        

Simple Life

She wakes up on this day known as "40-something" knowing she has a beautiful life.  A life filled with blessings and love beyond measure.  Her wishes have, in fact, all come true.  

She gives thanks for finding her roots and for those she loves and shares her life with.   She has been lucky this way.

She bends down, blows out the candles and knows it is simplicity and love that matter most in her world.  She is happy, enormously happy.

Because how we spend our days is,
of course, how we spend our lives. 

- Annie Dillard

 

Turn Table

All Yours

Permission to take one day just for you, only you

Permission to feel exactly what you are feeling

Permission to say it. 

 

Permission to do one thing completely different

Permission to express it.

 

Permission to do absolutely nothing 

Permission to do it all.

 

Wishing you a day that is completely yours...

 

 

  

Bon Appetit'

I ventured into new territory on vacation--meaning, I crossed into the land of seafood.  Seafood is never, ever my first choice on a menu although depending on how it's prepared, I will eat shellfish (shrimp, oysters, lobster) from time to time.   What can I say, I'm a meat and potatoes girl from North Dakota and my Mom was too.

The chef at our hotel was from Guatemela (amazing) and in fact, a Conde Naste journalist sat at the table next to us on our last night sampling menu items for her hotel review.  Hopefully, there will not be any mention in the article of the power lesbians who gifted their complimentary bottle of house wine to the waiters in order to venture into the main cellar. 

Back to fish....The chef's expertise is combining fresh and exotic spices (the key here is fresh).   I've learned the hard way on freshness (or lack thereof) trying to work fish into my diet over the years which is why I basically stopped ordering it or being a nice dinner guest.  There is no room in my tastebuds for the slightest margin of error in this area.      

I sampled a bit of "S'" red snapper on the first night (which is huge in itself) and to my surprise (and hers), it became my favorite dinner dish.  Freshness, texture, a banana leaf and a very spicy sauce!  Wow.

After scrolling through several recipes yesterday, I came across BBQ and Grilling's Snapper in a Banana Leaf. The secret ingredient to replicating this dish is the banana leaf and the chile lime sauce.   

There are no promises being made when it comes to my relationship with fish but, I am giving it another try in the spirit of adventure and swinging by Whole Food's to purchase the freshest piece of snapper and the most perfect banana leaf one can buy.   Note: a 10 ounce piece of filet mignon will also be purchased and prepared to avoid starvation in the event of a colossal mistake. 

 

A Thousand Words

And She's Off...

        Va·ca·tion 

Pronunciation:

\vā-ˈkā-shən, və-\   

1. respite or time away from something
2. a scheduled period during which activity is suspended
3. a period of exemption from work
4. a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation
5. an act or instance of vacating

Survival kit: 5 books (tossing an extra one in just in case), 4 bikinis, 3 bottles of sunscreen, 3 pairs of flip flops. 

Back soon (and maybe even with a good story or two)!   

In Concert

The review on Mr. Yorn's concert last night is in. 

The man can play his guitar and his harmonica! 

Not a single regret about staying up past 11pm on a school night to see him up close and personal. (Albeit, today's second cup of coffee is needed).

He played more songs from Music for a Morning After then from the new album which speaks to why I love independent song writers and musicians.  They play exactly what they "feel" on any given night as opposed to what they are told to promote. 

A new artist from Kuala Lumpur, Zee Avi, opened the show.  Very reminiscent of Norah Jones although young...very, very young.  Or maybe I'm just getting old...very, very old. 

At any rate, she plays both the guitar and the ukelele (note: a dictionary spell check just occurred).  Some of her songs may remind you of being on a Hawaiian vacation (which is not necessarily a bad thing).   

See the show if you can.

  

Play Guitar

I'm not a rock star. 

I wanted to be one when I was growing up but, my musical talents are frozen in time.  Time being defined as the 6th grade when I first learned to play guitar with the True Cross Elementary School Choir.

A,B,C,D,Em,F,G7.  Those are my chords. 

I will never play or sing for you in person.  It won't happen even if copious amounts of alcohol or a "pretty please with sugar on top" are thrown in.

My portfolio (the term is used loosely) consists of 15 songs.   Top five include Green Eyes (Coldplay), Just Another (Pete Yorn), Foo Fighters (Times Like These), Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders), Crocodile Rock (Elton John).

The pets are my audience.  The cat is deaf and the dogs are easily entertained.   

Their favorite song is Crocodile Rock.   The high pitched la, la, la, la, la brings them to an upright sitting position.  

And, that's the whole story on guitar playing.  

It's all I've got for you.  Seriously.  

Serendipity

We had the benefit last year of storing the library of our good friend, Paul, while he spent eight months traveling through Central and South America.  His book collection is extensive--20,000 (yes, 20,000) of the best classic and philosophical books ever written.  The writers consist of all the greats you can imagine--Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Henry Miller, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Virgina Woolf, Richard Bach,  Emerson, Hemingway, Plato, Dostoevksy.  The list of familiar names mixed into this well chronicled and organized collection goes on and on.     

The important thing to know about Paul's collection is that he has never paid full price for any book.   Each book has either been found in a traveler's coffee shop in a far away country or in a used book store.  This simplistic and deep passion to read the dog-eared copies of others is one reason I became so drawn to it.   

The energy of previous readers is on every page and I frequently came across the thoughts of others flitting about in the margins.  Normally, bent pages or pencil markings  drive me crazy but, I found myself looking forward to seeing the thought provoking scribbles of others.    

I started playing a game....randomly selecting a book and page to open as a way to let the universe tell me what I needed to read and carry with me.   The words effecting my day as they seeped into my brain.  

Letting the universe decide what comes next has since become my favorite way to discover new books.   The decision comes in the form of recommendations from friends, strangers and serendipity.  

There are reasons a good book falls into your lap at a certain time (I believe this).  Discovering the meaning of "why now" is as equally interesting and fun to me as reading the story.         

"Stroke of Insight" and "The Time Traveler's Wife" are the two books that the universe has presented for next week's vacation.  We shall see what bubbles up to the surface from each.