Hump Day Happy in honor of Marika’s birthday

Possibly the silliest purchase I’ve ever made on eBay arrived today. I blame David Puterbaugh and his rousing endorsement of Toy Story 3. While Jim was here, we watched the first two Toy Story movies on DVD, then Jim, Tim, Tom, and I saw the new one in the theater. And YES, David, I DID need the Kleenex I took with me at your suggestion, and I wasn’t the only one. One of the themes of the movie is what happens to toys when their children grow up.

For years, I’ve mourned the disappearance of my wooden push puppet lion. He was one of my favorite toys, and if our toys remember us, he knows I didn’t lose him, discard him, or give him away. I’m sure he was stolen, and I know who the probable culprit was. I’ve never been able to find another resembling his craftsmanship and appearance, and I’ll never settle for anything less.

Along with my lion, other toys vanished along the way. I probably don’t remember most of them, but I do remember my Dolls of the World.

Dolls of the World were sold for 99 cents each with the purchase of Arco gasoline. There were twelve in all, and my mother collected six of them for me. They weren’t really to play with; they were for display. Even at that, not a whole lot of skill and craft went into them. They were basic plastic dolls–the kind often used for crafting–with hair too fine to brush, only movable at the arms and neck, and their clothes were cheaply made and not removable. Still, I liked the six I had. I learned about the countries they were from and took good care of them. Once they even helped me when I started in a new school. I took them for show and tell, and they were such a hit that my teacher took me to all the other classes in my grade so I could share them, a bizarre experience for a shy girl who normally did everything she could to avoid attention.

I know the dolls were on my bookshelves when I went away to college, but I suppose at some point, I was persuaded to let them go. After seeing Toy Story, I dreamed about them, which caused me to look them up online and on eBay. Not all of the dolls I found look like the ones I had, so maybe there were different versions for different years or regions. But I found England’s and Spain’s dolls that were identical to mine, and they were practically free, so I bought them.

In honor of Marika’s birthday, and the child who remains within us no matter how many birthdays we have, I decided to resurrect Hump Day Happy for this week. (Marika is the only one who ever expressed regret that it vanished as surely as my push puppet lion.) Anyone who wants to give me a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, can get an item from the happiness book to celebrate Marika’s special day with her. (I don’t advise picking 8/11, because I think Marika’s chosen it a couple of times, and it never changes.) Meanwhile, Marika, let’s pretend that whatever number you pick, it includes dancing naked men.

Unleaving

I’ve mentioned one of my favorite poems, and certainly one of my favorite seasons, on my LJ before. You may recall a photo I shot when I was on vacation earlier this summer:

I kept those leaves, though they’re slowly losing the colors that made them so striking to me. I thought of them immediately for the most recent Work of Art challenge, when we were asked to [c]reate a work of art inspired by nature. Incorporate one or more found natural objects (leaves, rocks, twigs, dirt, etc.).

Here’s that poem I love, written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Spring and Fall: To a young child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

I hope my art piece, titled “Unleaving” after the word coined by Hopkins, conveys some of the beauty, humanity, and mortality of his poem and my favorite season, autumn.

(click here to see a larger version on a black background)

You can see other submissions for this challenge on the Work of Art blog.

LJ Runway Monday: Larger Than Life (PR 8:2)

Heidi: On the most recent episode of Lifetime’s Project Runway, the designers were asked to create a look that defines the Marie Claire woman. The winning look would be featured on a billboard in Times Square.

Summer: To present Becks an additional challenge, we gave her some extra time but also told her she had to create looks for Heidi, Barbie, and me to wear this week.

Barbie: And we think the designs she created match our styles to perfection. Summer looks like the girl next door, I look chic, and Heidi looks like–

Heidi: [glare] –the sexy woman I am.

Barbie: Of course that’s what I was going to say.

Summer: For her model’s look this week, Becks chose fabrics of lace and sheer organza.

Barbie: And I chose the fabulous Dallas to be her model.

Heidi: Ready to see what she created?

Then click here, please.

Some of my Thursday

Seriously, you can’t take me anywhere. Tonight, I was THAT person. I got to Murder By the Book for Dean James’s signing of his new cozy mystery Murder Past Due, written as Miranda James, in time to enjoy some conversation with him and get a hug from Johnnie beforehand. Then I turned the sound off on my phone. Only I DIDN’T! I must have forgotten that vital last step, “Set,” because in the middle of Dean’s story to a VERY good crowd, my dumb cell began to ring. Which meant I had to scramble in my purse and find the thing and turn it off–it took an eternity. Sorry Dean and readers. I’m a moron.

Still, it was a wonderful night, because that’s the only way Murder By the Book knows how to do an event.


David introducing Dean with accolades from other mystery writers.


Kinley and John, two members of the best staff you’ll find at any bookseller anywhere.


Dean had a gratifyingly large audience and a long line to get books signed. In addition to Murder Past Due, he signed his Trailer Park Mystery series (written as Jimmie Ruth Evans), and his short story in the Delta Blues collection. Delta Blues includes well-loved writers (James Lee Burke, John Grisham, Ace Atkins, Charlaine Harris, Suzanne Hudson, Bill Fitzhugh, Suzann Ellingsworth, Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, Mary Saums, Lynne Barrett, Dean James, Les Standiford, Toni L.P. Kelner, and Carolyn Haines), plus new authors (Alice Jackson, David Sheffield, Nathan Singer, Michael Lister, and Daniel Martine), and contains an introduction by Morgan Freeman. A portion of every book sold will go to Freeman’s Rock River Foundation, an organization that promotes literacy and provides grants to assist schools.

One thing I’ve found concerning recent changes to my health is that I MUST EAT when it’s time to eat or I get…cranky. Very cranky. So I was not amused to get home to find someone’s car blocking the drive into The Compound. A simple phone call and my problem would have vanished courtesy of the HPD’s choice of a tow truck. Instead, through some eel-like maneuvering, I was able to get my car inside the gate. Then I left this poster on the offending vehicle’s windshield:

they wanted to go to work

The Hartford Distributors shooting occurred on August 3, 2010, in Manchester, Connecticut. A disgruntled employee accused of theft had been given the option of resigning or being fired. He signed resignation papers and while being escorted from the building, took a Ruger SR9 semi-automatic pistol from his lunch box and killed eight people, wounding two others, before taking his own life.

Those killed were:

Francis Fazio, Jr., 57
Douglas Scruton, 56
Edwin Kennison, 49
William Ackerman, 51
Bryan Cirigliano, 51
Craig Pepin, 60
Louis Felder, 50
Victor James, 61

The wounded were:

Steven Hollander, 50
Jerome Rosenstein, 77