Winter Begone

Happy me--I spent a week with my family in the Bahamas for break. It wasn't a very wired trip so I didn't post for the duration but I did take a lot of photos. I will share a few with a tale or two now and maybe more as the week progresses.



To begin with, we stayed on a small (10 mile long) island in the Abacos, called Great Guana Cay. Initially I thought "Guana" was the same as "Guano" which seemed a bad start but actually Guana is a name of a lizard. Although we did see a couple of small lizards, they weren't the highlight of our trip. As might be expected that was the beach! I'm a bit of a gourmand for beaches but this was pretty special. The sand was as soft and fine as anywhere I've walked on and the water was so many shades of blue that I wouldn't know words for them. The camera definitely doesn't do it justice.



It is still winter in the Bahamas so temperatures varied from chilly, with a stiff wind, to balmy, sleeping with the windows open. After being home in Chicago for 4 days I especially miss the windows open part. I get cold easily so the one day we took a boat trip to a snorkeling preserve I actually wore a short wet suit and still found it cold. My memory of my last trip to the Bahamas (my honeymoon 22 years ago) was much warmer weather and water but of course that was in September.
The island was quiet--only 150 or so permanent residents and not too many tourists when we were there--and only accessible by ferry. Mostly residents walk or drive around in golf carts. We rented a cart one day and the kids had fun driving it. We tried to explore that day to both ends of the island but found that each is occupied by an exclusive club and is closed to the public. One end apparently houses a number of celebrities, we heard tell of Martha Stewart and Matt Damon. Apparently riffraff such as ourselves are not invited.

Pre-performing

Tonight is dress rehearsal and there are performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday of my local Nutcracker show with me making a cameo as a, gasp, adult in the party scene. More importantly my younger son plays the eponymous Nutcracker. Kudos to him--it is a lot of hard work, especially as finals have started this week and he has a head cold.
I enjoy my minute or two in the limelight, something that comes as an absolute surprise to me. I was the kid who detested the school play but now I've discovered that although I'm a little nervous right before curtain time, I've finally learned not to care so much about how I seem to the audience. One good thing that came with age, I guess.
The picture is of me in my dress. I had to take it home to hem the skirt so I was able to pose in front of the bathroom mirror. For tonight's dress rehearsal I'll look much the same except I'll be wearing makeup (tons) and will remember hopefully to take my watch off! Getting my hair to cooperate into a bun shape is a bit of a challenge! It always has a tendency to escape from all attempts at control. I plan to spray (Aqua Gel believe it or not!), gel, tie, twist and hair net into submission. Kind of like wrestling with a python.
Wish me luck.

Airport photos

On the way to Seattle before Thanksgiving I had a few moments to take airport pictures. Airports aren't too bad for photography. Sometimes, like in parts of O'Hare they can be quite eye-catching. In addition, I always have my camera and sometimes have nothing better to do. Here are a few shots.



For those of you who have never flown United through O'Hare airport, this is looking up in the lighted moving walkway area. It is great fun to take pictures of.



Looking through a circular screen in the food court.

Have One for Me

Downtown San Francisco has some charming clocks to add to my "collection." For more clocks see my Flickr set.

Plotting

Last month I attended a conference in San Francisco. I still haven't processed the photos but I did score a few more clock photos for my "collection" on Flickr. I stayed in a trendy-seeming hotel, a bit too trendy for my middle aged tastes, one of the highlights of which was this postcard.
Still trying to blog a bit more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No turkey was harmed in the printing of this vintage postcard--I'm guessing around 1920's. Enjoy your holiday, day or weekend.

UN

I can't believe I've been so UN--my last post was over a month (two?) ago. I've been uninspired, unavailable, uninteresting, unpleasant, unhappy, uninvolved, uninvested, uncool, unintelligent, etc. It is a bit of my annual fall laissez-faire, added to a bit of worry and woe and a bit of everyday ordinary laziness.
So what have I been up to during the past months' brain fog? Playing too many games of on-line Scrabble, reading books, making meals, watching TV, helping my son with Geometry (talk about ancient history for me), a bit of travel to San Francisco for a meeting and starting rehearsals for my annual Nutcracker show. Oh, I almost forgot, I work too. Unfortunately my creative brain took a leave of absence, hence too few photos and no blogging. I hope this will change soon enough. Perhaps this is the day. After my headache goes away.
TTFN.