Day Twenty-nine

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 29, 2011 - 2:49 pm | ,
14 Comments

Here are all the quotes that I keep on my MacBook’s dashboard.

“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”  Mary Oliver

“The truth will set you free, but not until it’s done with you.”  David Foster Wallace

“‘Your father and I just expected so much more from you.’”  Sarah Brown

“. . . not until a mother’s womb softens from the pain of labor, will a way unfold and the infant find that opening to be born.”  Rumi

“Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that is wrong. They know less, that’s why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.”  Margaret Atwood

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”  Howard Thurman

“Build a vivid image in your mind’s eye of what you need.” “Intensify your commitment to mastering the work you came to this planet to do.”  Rob Brezsny

“Which decision makes you the better version of you?”  Evany Thomas

“The primary moral imperative is to think clearly.”  Blaise Pascal

“What is the secret of your serenity?”
Said the Master, “Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable.”
Anthony DeMello

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”  Immanuel Kant

“Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”  Henry Van Dyke

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”   Steve Jobs

Day Twenty-seven

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 27, 2011 - 9:56 pm | ,
12 Comments

In tortoise news today, we’ve been seeing a lot of Peanut as she migrates around the house looking for the right nook to hibernate in for the winter. She’s refusing all food, no matter how tasty (romaine, bananas) or exotic (Japanese pear, raw hamburger). That worried me for a few days, because I think tortoises should be more like bears and gorge themselves before curling up in someone’s Ugg boot for three or four months.

This year, though, she’s having trouble finding just the right spot for her nap. Like Goldilocks, or the Buddha, it seems she’s trying to find the middle way. In front of the warm refrigerator vent is too public; the patch of sun on Jackson’s carpet too transient; and even though that spot underneath Peewee’s dog bed fulfills her requirements for dark, warm, and private, inevitably one finds a dog’s ass pressing down upon one’s shell, sometimes accompanied by an unnecessary amount of scooting and barking.

Day Twenty-six

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 26, 2011 - 5:47 pm | ,
4 Comments

I took Yoda’s advice and went to see the new Twilight today with Jackson. Afterward, I almost spent $30 on Jacob and Edward action figures (20% off at Metro Comics), but I just couldn’t pull the trigger with Bella missing. Also, $30 on two action figures? The fact that I even considered it points to an imbalance of some sort in my life. I think I need to find a new direction.

Day Twenty-five

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 25, 2011 - 5:49 pm |
2 Comments

I’m still a little bloated and hung over from Thanksgiving, and a little ashamed of all the things Yoda knows about me now, but I still managed to suck it up and be productive today. Alice and I did a test-run of the podcast we’re going to start doing next year and I was totally encouraged by how well we made almost all of our technology mesh. (I was especially impressed when Alice figured out how to Skype through her iPad. It’s quick thinking like that that wins wars, people.) We may be the only ones who find us funny, of course, but then that’s what podcasting is about half the time anyway.

When I was done patting myself on the back about the podcast, I finished writing a Popcorn Whisperer post that’s supposed to be about shopping in the movies. I may not have been all that clear about my topic because the thing most people seem to take away from it is that someone needs to start a service that will deliver Johnny Depp to their door. I’m not sure that’s what Dell had in mind when they offered to sponsor the post, but when you hire Mrs. Kennedy, you get a lot of things that don’t necessarily make sense right away. Give it time, though, and it’ll all soak in.

The last thing you might want to see is my post for The Stir, entitled “Pepper Spray: It’s Not Just for Dinner Anymore.” Because I am topical as hell. Also, I wanted to give you something that will make sense right away, in case you’re busy and don’t have time to let your knowledge steep.

Day Twenty-one

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 21, 2011 - 12:32 pm | ,
21 Comments

And now it’s time for NaBloShoeMo: Boots Edition. This fine collection of footwear was amassed over a period of decades. I admit, it’s pretty self-indulgent — I had a boyfriend after college who had one pair of shoes, after all. One. But it’s not like I went out and bought these all at once, laughing at the Bangladeshi orphans as I stuffed them into the trunk of my car. No, serious shoe collecting takes time, people. (Time and, in my case, self-restraint, two jobs, and an understanding husband.)

Blundstones circa 1994-ish. The best waterproof boots I have, but not the most comfortable for a day on your feet.

Uggs, circa this year’s birthday present. Off the charts comfortable, I don’t care how weird they look.

Danskos bought half price from Amazon last summer because who doesn’t need a pair of suede knee-high boots in the middle of July? The shaft is too wide around my calf but the slight bunching at the ankle gives them an appealing Robin Hood quality.

Borns from a couple of years back. I never know what to do with these. They’re too high for standing all day at work and they need more cushioning. I still don’t want to give up on them, though.

Some of you may remember these from ShoeMo ’07. These Donald Pliners are WAY too high for work, but when I wear them I feel like Chrissie Hynde. I should probably just be buried in them.

These Pikolinos are embarrassingly rock-and-roll, but they work with jeans tucked into them. I don’t feel like they’re totally “me” but whenever I wear them Jack shouts, “THERE YOU GO, BABY!”

Franco Sarto. These are total Cruella de Villes. Surprisingly versatile for something I bought as a joke for a Halloween costume.

Merrells bought on a trip to Colorado several years back when I discovered the pelvis-breaking potential that are motorcycle boots* on ice. Super grippy, they leave a little snowflake pattern in your footprints.

An impulse purchase from the two-hour paroxysm of shopping I did before the book tour last spring. The brand is Relaxshoe? Okay. Super snug around the ankles = surprisingly sexy.

These Tony Lamas are now in their 30th year in my closet. Actually, these are the ones you should bury me in, sorry.

Keen hikers. I use them about once a year, because as you know I abhor nature. But they haven’t failed to protect me from prickles or slippery moss yet.

Is there anything better than sale Fluevogs? NO, THERE IS NOT.

Bought on Eighth Street in New York in 1988. Terrible for walking on ice. My nephew once sneered at them for being “so out of fashion.” I guess I could have gone into some speech about the difference between fashion and personal style, but fourteen-year-olds know everything! Do not bother talking to them unless you have your Gucci sunglasses on!

I thought about buying a pair of engineer boots for fifteen years until I finally pulled the trigger on these in 1999. By then it was sort of too late to sashay around campus wearing them with a mini-kilt and torn stockings, but I manage to find other, more matronly ways to wear them. Like with a bikini.

I had no idea I needed a pair of purple suede ankle boots until I saw these at Marshall’s last month. They are Borns and super comfy, even though Jack says wearing them makes me look like a Midwestern strip mall prostitute. Jack has a LOT of opinions, I am shielding you from so many of them, you should thank me. I admit these are borderline tasteful but there’s something about them that just speaks to me, it’s worth building an entire outfit around them. As a matter of fact, I’m going to wear them today. SO THERE, JACK. FIFTY BUCKS FOR A BLOWJOB. NO, WAIT: $150 FOR YOU.

Day Twenty

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 20, 2011 - 10:55 pm | ,
9 Comments

I have a little bit of a thing for the hydrangeas in my neighborhood, and last April 26 I started taking pictures of one particular plant that’s in the back by our garage. Every year it gets cut down to the nubs, and every year it comes back, so I thought that instead of merely charting its demise, I’d chart its growth and it’s demise. Every few days, when the plant was in shade, I’d take a picture from roughly the same position. All through August and September I waited for the gardeners to see that it had passed the prime of its bloom and cut it back, but they left it, giving me faith in fading beauty, and let it have a long and pleasant dotage that lasted until last week.