--I DIDN’T FORGET


…I hope you’re having a very special day. You deserve it.

…For Valentine’s Day, my son’s girlfriend came over to the house early. She covered the steps in rose pedals. She added arrows every few yards. She put more arrows and pedals in the hall until it came to my son’s room where she’d decorated the walls and ceilings with streamers.
When my son got home from school, he followed the path and found her sitting there holding a skateboard (my son’s a skater boy) with the word TOLO? on it.
Pretty darn cute, right?

…Getting new music always makes me happy. I’m very happy.
Yesterday these things came in the mail: Dr. Dog (so good), Passion Pit, Local Natives, Deer Tick, Chairlift, Tom Waits (“Closing Time” oh boy), The Men, and new Leonard Cohen.

…Yesterday I also got the new Rolling Stone in the mail. The thing was as thin as a letter opener--A whooping 76 pages, but nine more than the previous month. By contrast, this month’s Vanity Fair is 3392 pages and Harper’s Bazaar weighs in at 436 pages.
Poor Rolling Stone. It’s probably got a year left. You could say it’s because young people don’t read magazines, but on the other hand, doesn’t Rolling Stone have some sort of responsibility to stay relevant? Paul McCartney is on the cover. Does any 16 or 18 year old even care about the new “Standards” album McCartney is coming out with? Couldn’t they re-invent themselves as a lifestyle magazine, including fashion and, yes, maybe even some gossip? What’s new in books, tech, gadgets? It’s just a little sad and frustrating for me, a music-lover and fan of the magazine.

…Seattle is where Starbucks began. They’re trying/testing some new things here at half a dozen local shops, serving wine and beer. I think that’s a grand idea.
In Lake Tahoe, California they have the world’s one and only ski-in/ski-out Starbucks where you slide up to the drive-in window on your skis. Now that’s being inventive, as well as customer-friendly.

…Apparently when you Google “Mitt Romney” you’ll find this definition working its way up search engines-- “Romney: To defecate in terror.”
Yikes.

…My butt is sore. So are my knees.
I went for a seven miler on a new trail this morning. There was this girl/gal/woman/lady a ways in front of me, going at a good pace. I decided to catch her. Bad idea. I almost had a coronary. The only way I managed to finally pass her was that she stopped to adjust her equipment.
So, yeah, my butt and knees are sore.

…I like these things for a special Friday:

"Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love." Rumi
"Sometimes it's better not to know." Stephen Elliott
• "But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to...nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?” Elizabeth Gilbert
"There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own
way." Christopher Darlington Morley

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without words
and never stops at all." Emily Dickinson