My Favorite Monday -- Flowers

It's been a while since I played along with Tiburon's "My Favorite Monday", but I've got a couple of minutes to spare before a meeting today and the topic caught my attention: My Favorite Flower.

I've got a couple of different "favorites" -- I love the tulips and irises in the Springtime. I have some nice tulips in my front flower bed & am very hopeful that I'll have even more next year thanks to my fortuitous score earlier this year. While those are nice, however, my all-time-favorite is the Gladiolus.

Glads are a very versatile flower. They come in many different colors, and like tulips, some of them can be multi-hued, with one color in the center and a different color around the edges. They can be upscale and elegant (think white glads arranged with red roses) or everyday and homey (say, a spray of various colored glads mixed together).

Because they have multiple blooms on a single stalk, they are a long-lasting flower. They bloom from the bottom up, so even if the first flowers are fading, newer ones further up the stalk are just opening.

I used to have quite a few glads that would bloom in my front flower bed, but they've not been doing so well in the past few years. I think the bulbs I had have "run their course" -- either that or the squirrels got 'em. Either way, I need to plant new ones.

The one complaint I have about them is that since they are tall & can get "top heavy" with blooms, they tend to get knocked down/fall over if there's a heavy rain. With the heat and humidity we get here in DC, it's not surprising to get frequent thunderstorms, some of which can be quite heavy, resulting in quite a few glads that need to be cut/brought inside, often all at once. At times, I've had too many to know what to do with -- glads in a vase on the kitchen table, on the hall table, in my room, in the family room, etc. But, hey! That's a problem I can learn to live with!!

Miss vs. Ma'am

I've noticed something lately -- all of a sudden, I'm being called "Ma'am" instead of "Miss". It's not everywhere, but (teenage) cashiers when I check out at places like Target or CVS or whatever now say, "Ma'am". It's weird.

I used to teach at the US Naval Academy & it was the only place I ever felt old. Part of it was working with 17 and 18-year-olds, but the other part was I was always referred to as "Ma'am" -- "Yes, Ma'am", "Ma'am, I have a question", "Thank You, Ma'am", etc. I know that in that case, it was a military thing & they wouldn't have dared say anything else, lest an upper class student or officer overhear them, but it still was startling and a bit unsettling to hear it.

Now it seems like I'd better get used to it.

*Sigh*. I'm not ready for this!!

Words are Failing Me at the Moment

ZOMG!!!!! There are no words.....The Lion King is AMAZING!! All I can say is that if it comes to a city/theatre near you, GO!!!! Drop everything else & go order tickets!! Go on. What are you waiting for?!

I am a big Disney fan. When I lived in SoCal, I had an annual pass to Disneyland. I'd even made it a rule that any time we drove past the park, we had to stop, go in & ride at least one ride. (You can do silly things like that when you have an annual pass.) But, I have to say I really was disappointed in The Lion King the movie; I saw it when it first came out in the theatres & never bothered to see it again or buy it for my collection. It just didn't do anything for me.

The Lion King the play, however, is a whole 'nother story!! I am completely in awe of the person who was the creative force that brought the stage production into being. I am a pretty creative person, in general. I also have spent a fair amount of time in productions -- dance or otherwise. But I can't even begin to say that I have anything close to the vision that it took to create what I saw tonight!! Even more amazing was what it must have taken to verbalize that vision to others in order to get the costuming, choreography, animal life, staging, set design, lighting, etc., not to mention the financial backing, support, & investment that was needed to make that vision a reality.

Wow!

Just Wow!!

Thankful Thursday

It's been a quiet week, but that doesn't mean there aren't things to be thankful for. In no particular order:

• Live theatre! -- Opening night is tonight for the Lion King and then I get to see Julius Ceasar at the Shakespeare Theatre over the weekend.
  
  
• Friends who can hook me up with tickets to live theatre -- See above.
  
  
• Finding a REALLY GORGEOUS vintage bracelet at an expo over the weekend that was very affordable. Even better, it goes perfectly with a dress I got a couple of months ago. Best of all, it's over-sized, but my wrists are small, so I can have matching earrings made from the links I'll have to have removed so it'll fit me.
  
  
• Getting assigned to a new project at work that is not only high-visibility, it should be a lot of fun to do. I also get to hone new skills/expand existing ones, and it allows me to engage my more-creative side (something that I don't get to do too often at work).
  
  
• Local fruits are starting to come in season. The berries are here & it won't be long before roadside stands have peaches, tomatoes, and locally-grown corn available. Nothing says "Summer!" like fresh, vine or tree ripe produce!!
  
  
• Getting inspired to do some redecorating at home. When I got my home phone/internet fixed, I also went ahead and got cable tv. Up until then, I'd only had what was available on broadcast tv. HGTV has become a favorite station already and while I haven't hit on a "vision" yet, I'm now starting to mull over possibilities for my family room. I've also gotten motivated to work on my bedroom too. (Of course, actually finding the time & energy to execute any plans I come up with will be another matter altogether, but at least something is starting to happen.)

So, that's my list. Your turn. Feel free to take the banner & make your own post -- I stole both from Tiburon's SharkBait blog.

My "Personality Type"

No, I haven't changed my name, nor is that a reference to a particular disorder that affects men. It stands for "Energetic Doer" which was what I tested on a quick "personality type" test. It's not 100% accurate, but a lot of it is true for me. Click on the button to read more and/or take the test yourself.

I Want to Be in Sweden!

I was an exchange student to Sweden in high school & ever since then, it's been my "second home" -- a place I really feel at home, not just a visitor passing through. I don't think there's any time of year where I'd turn down the offer of being able to go back ("here's a plane ticket; off you go"), but that pull is especially strong this time of year and particularly strong today.

Why today?

Because today is Midsummer. The summer solstice. The longest day/shortest night of the year. When you live so far north, there are times of the year when there isn't much daylight. The flip side of that is the summertime, when there is lots of sun. Above the arctic circle, the sun won't disappear at all today. For areas a wee bit farther south (e.g. Stockholm & its environs), it'll get dusky around 11:00 pm or so & remain twilight-like until about 3:00 am-ish, when the sun will come back up. In general, Swedes know how to make the most of this fact, enjoying the summer with a zeal most of us probably will never know. Midsummer is the epitome of that enjoyment.

First off, today is a national holiday. A 3-day weekend? Yeah, I could go for that. :-)

Second, there will be festivals all over the country. Actually, for many, Midsummer is second only to Christmas as far as its importance, but unlike Christmas, Midsummer is often celebrated with friends and/or extended families; the more, the merrier! It's a time to be outside, surrounded by friends and family, enjoying the long sunlit evenings, the first fruits of summer, good company, etc.

I wish you all a Good Midsummer. May you enjoy a wonderful evening in whatever way you'd like. For me, I'll do my own version of midsummer albeit not quite like these "make your own midsummer party" directions I found. Mine will be a bit quieter, but, on principle, there will be dancing, if only for a little while, probably on my back patio watching the sun set after I get home tonight.

Oh, and there will be 7 types of wildflowers under my pillow tonight. Or as many as I can find considering I live in the suburbs of a major city & walking in the woods doesn't come easy.

What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You, but Should! Chapter 2: What a Difference a Quadrant Makes!

DC is divided into 4 quadrants: NE, NW, SE, and SW. The magic spot that divides one quadrant from another is the US Capitol. I suspect that the guidebooks you read in preparation for your trip to our fair city did, in fact, tell you this important piece of information, but you were either on information overload or didn't realize it would be on the test, so you glossed over it. Bad move!

As you plan your visit to the various landmarks & points of interest DC has to offer, you'll want to notice in which quadrant each point of interest is located. Knowing that you want to go to a building/statue/memorial/whatever at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't enough; you also need to know which quadrant it's in. This is especially true when said intersection is in the vicinity of the US Capitol as there very well could be 4 different intersections of X and Y street and they might be a goodly number of blocks away from each other. Without the quadrant information, you'll sound like agent Maxwell Smart as you hear yourself saying, "Missed it by that much!"

Oh and one last note: the building/landmark/statue/memorial that you expect to be at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't going to magically appear when you're in the wrong quadrant, no matter how long you stare at the map or point at the street signs & declare, "but we're at the intersections of X and Y street just like it says". This is DC, not Brigadoon!