X is for...

X is for... X10.

Otherwise known as my friend, Christen.

She will probably be horribly embarrassed by this, but I think she's super-cool and you all on the interwebs should know it.

Yes, I'm sure you thought I would go with something shocking (x-rated) or perhaps medical (x-rays) or Duchovny-esque (I don't have to say it, do I?) for this post, but that seemed too easy and frankly, kinda cliche. I thought it would be more interesting to dedicate it to my friend X10.

She is exceptionally generous- when we were replacing our deck, she and her husband came over & helped without even being asked.

She has a cute weiner (dog).

She's a real cool dancer.

And photogenic as well.

She's astonishingly tall.

And had never used public transportation until the night we took this picture.

She participates in Women Swimmin', a fundraiser for Hospicare that involves swimming across Cayuga Lake.
I hope to join her this year.

She has a huge heart, as evidenced by her adopting this beautiful broken kitty.

She is fun to travel with.
Best quote ever: "I love Vermont! You wake up with no hangover and
the coffee comes out of the wall!"

And she is capable of great feats of strength.

Christen is going back to school to study nursing and I admire the heck out of her for juggling school, work, her pets, crazy friends, and everything else life can throw at you and making it all look easy. She is awesomesauce incarnate and I am lucky to call her my friend.

L is for...

L is for ... Lost Generation?
Loving your friends?
Lots of liquor?
Lobster rolls?
Laughing about Lemon parties?
Late (staying up)?

All of the above. Sort of. (L has been a surprisingly tough letter.)

I've been reading a lot about the Lost Generation of the 1920s- Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, that bunch. All interesting characters, but the couple that fascinates me most from this time were known more for being fabulous party-throwers and amazing friends more than anything else: Gerald and Sara Murphy. They were the inspiration for several characters in their illustrious friends' books but never wrote themselves. Gerald did some truly avant garde pop art paintings, but the pieces were enormous and he only did a few of them before putting his paintbrushes away for good.

"Gerald Clery Murphy and Sara Sherman Wiborg were wealthy, expatriate Americans who moved to the French Riviera in the early 20th century and who, with their generous hospitality and flair for parties, created a vibrant social circle, particularly in the 1920s, that included a great number of artists and writers of the Lost Generation."

"Some 50 years after meeting Gerald and Sara Murphy, a still dazzled Donald Ogden Stewart wrote: ''Once upon a time there was a prince and a princess: that's exactly how a description of the Murphys should begin. They were both rich; he was handsome; she was beautiful; they had three golden children. They loved each other, they enjoyed their own company, and they had the gift of making life enchantingly pleasurable for those who were fortunate enough to be their friends.''

There was a quote of Sara Murphy's that I was reminded of after I had an absolutely wonderful weekend away in Vermont with some of my friends. After three fabulous days together and five hours of driving, we just didn't want to say goodbye, so anyone who could stayed for pizza and tv after we got home Sunday night (along with some of the folks who couldn't make it away for the weekend). I thought about how rare it is to love your friends so much that you can't see enough of them, and it brought to mind Sara Murphy's quote:

“It wasn’t the parties that made it such a gay time.

There was such affection between everybody. You loved your friends

and wanted to see them every day, and usually you did see them

every day. It was like a great fair, and everybody was so young.” - Sara Murphy

The paperboy and the cat go way back

Thursday

5:45 a.m.

A caller on West First Street said there was a possibly rabid cat near the paperboy.  The complaint was unfounded.  The paperboy and cat are friends, police said.