Mary Schwartz and Ethel Hodgkiss

My christian Dior, I wore than tore,

Got fitted for, a new Balenciaga

I like Chanal, She wears so well

As history will tell, her flows are a saga

Valentina's where I've been, I just adore that

Things with good lines?

Like things form Kleins?

I do all of my shopping there with Mary and Ethel....

We're on a mission from God.

Last nights bar tending gig for British Petroleum execs had a "Blues' Brothers" theme. So we were all wearing hats and sunglasses.

It could have been worse, when the DNC came to town we were asked to wear feather boas behind the bar. It figures that would be the day I got to meet Obama. At least I'll be able to remind him of that then next time we meet.

Work or lack thereof....

"Migrant Farm workers from Arkansas", 1940

"The Girl Works All Day in a Cannery", 1940

Spent all day yesterday in workshops at the office of my "Out-Placement Specialist" and am spending today being filmed and critiqued in a mock interview. While it makes me feel pro-active it does nothing to change the fact that the date of my last severance pay check is hurtling towards me like a race car and then unemployment remains my only source of income. While not panicking yet, i am definitely in a state of high nervousness.

The advice we were given yesterday? "Don't appear desperate" when interviewing for a job! Of course not! 20% of the entire population is out of work and competing for the same 10 jobs in order to hold on to health benefits, jeep our homes together and have some food other than rice and shredded wall paper to eat, but we mustn't appear desperate!

Aflame!

Satin sets fashion aflame!

You'll never be viewed the same!

So if glamour is truly your game,

dawn satin's dart and aim!

She's been on my mind....

I Hanker for a Hunk o' .......

How sad is it that I can't remember most of the history I learned in grammer school OR high school (don't even mention algebraic eqations) yet, I can quote this whole song verbatim 33 years past childhood?

Beware of Sleestak

I admit to being very non-plussed after having discovered they've made a move version of "Land of the Lost". Is nothing sacred?????

I will also admit that the sleestak gave me the heebie jeebies for years.

"Must Have" art work!

Despite the kid's facial expression, and the fact that the candies are probably made out of transparent rubber and will taste like old erasers, I LOVE the colors in this ad and long for a framed print to hang in my kitchen. So there!

Anniversaries and a step forward.

May 16th marks a year since I created this blog. May 28th marks a year since I signed settlement papers ridding myself forever of 250 pounds of ugly fat. My life has gotten a whole lot better for both events. To all of you out there who have read and commented, K-A, Jason, TJB, Michael, Mr. Peenee, David, Scooter and i'm awake I'm so glad to have found all of you, if only online! Norma, of course you and I knew each from pretty much our anniversaries of being on this planet so we've got the best of both worlds!

This Sunday May 16th a lovely woman named Earlene, with an equally lovely dog(Cleo) will be moving into my two vacant rooms. This will allow me to survive financially, especially in light of the fact that I've been laid off. This will also force me out of my self imposed curmudgeonly loner lifestyle. A little more (live) human interaction can only be good for my soul.

Two missteps away from the home....

Alrighty, so I came home from lunch with the lovely Norma, put my kettle on for some green tea and then became engrossed in updating my resume online (I am still unemployed after all) 40 minutes later I wander down to my kitchen to encounter an odd smell and suddenly wonder why the flames underneath the kettle are green?!? Fully realizing that this is not a good sign I turn the burner off only to have the spout fall off the kettle! The heat from boiling it dry un-soldered the unit! I didn't think that was within the realm of possibility.

Obviously I need to get a job, I am to unsafe to be puttering around at home!!!! Somebody help me!!!

Oh, and now I'm kettle-less, by the bye.......

For particulars of this Geiger counter story.....

A phrase still oft repeated at all the finer cosmetic counters today!

Further financial (and literal) house cleaning.....

Okay, so the basement reconstruction is done and I now have a lovely light airy non-musty library/den. While it did not previously look as bad as the pic above before construction started, it was close! Working in Libraries and books stores for over 27 years does not let you escape unscathed without an unnecessarily large personal collection.

So they've been thinned, thinned again and thinned once more. I am keeping the authors I cannot live without, the valuable first editions and the cookbooks that I read like candy. All the rest have been input into Amazon.com for sale. If you are shopping there keep an eye out for used options among the quality goods of AVbooks.....

If anyone is interested I also offer an antiquarian and hard to find used book search service.....Just drop me an email.

His lips are moving.

Just got some spam mail from a "Shawn" whose header reads: "I will not LIE to you"

Granted if this is true he'd be the first man I ever encountered who didn't start out lying, continue lying all the while trying to think up even bigger lies to tell me in future! (but I bitterly digress)

Anyway the gist of the email is that he is trying to sell/give away start up Internet business kits provided I access a provided link. You a ll know the line, "Go on touch, just see what happens....."

Why am I still skeptical???

Seventies Schoolin'

Educated Results

We Likey!

Financial rescue vs. sartorial history

My two extra bedrooms are finally rented! This means I can financially survive my recent layoff and also handle all of the debt incurred from all the home renovations.

It also means I have to finally finish the Herculean task of cleaning out the two bedroom closets I've still been using and thinning out my large wardrobe.

Being the middle child of seven offspring from thrifty parents, I grew up wearing more than my fair share of hand me down clothing. Over the years I exemplified a psychological lesson in overcompensation by shopping for new clothes. (albeit thriftily, being a child of depression era parents I long ago mastered the art of the clearance rack!)

Example, at one time I owned over 86 suits, I spent yesterday organizing 140 polo shirts by color and cut. My best estimate at pairs of slacks is 160 due to the vagaries of weight lifting, requiring weight gain and loss phases thus necessitating waist size shifts.....And don't get me started on shoes, sweaters, coats and blazers!

The weigh lifting had made a great deal of the wardrobe extraneous. the suits are now unwearable as I've lost all the weight they were used to hide. Still how do you temper a drop of 5 to 6 waist sizes with the loss of a designer champagne grey three piece cashmere suit that was only worn once?

You see Chickadees, At one time I went out socially, and often. The goal was to never be seen wearing the same outfit twice and it was VERY achieved(actually the goal was to land a man but that is another long and painful story for another post) Now my time is divided between the gym and bar tending, requiring two uniform changes, tank top and shorts for the former, white oxford, bow tie and black slacks for the latter. All the unworn items with tags still hanging in my closet seem an even bigger waste of time in light of all this.

Due to the 'new economy" and being laid off I am no longer buying new clothes and thanks to my hording years I no longer have to. Still I can't help looking at my now overly stuffed one bedroom closet and wondering how many mortgage payments I have hanging up in there....

Why don't they make them like this anymore......

Thanks to TCM, I spent a delightful rainy Sunday afternoon with a bottle of Malbec and a viewing of "The Cassandra Crossing". made in 1976 and starring Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, (a pre-murder-trial-still-action-hero-material) O.J. Simpson, a young Martin Sheen, Lee Strasburg, Lionel Strander , who I thought was Ernest Borgnine and Ann Turkel who I kept mistaking for Carly Simon. It was as if they had set a Love Boat episode on a European cross Continental train journey and thrown in the bubonic plague as a plot twist.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Difficult or easy, YOU decide!

Oh dear! "SCENES"!!!!! Perhaps Mrs A.R. sensibly preferred a little drama in her humdrum middle class existence.....

Lady Godiva was a freedom rider.....

And then (there was) Maude!!!

R.I.P.





Bea Arthur, star of 'Golden Girls' and 'Maude,' dies at 86

Home again, home again

No, I didn't run it. I've spent the last 10 days running the dining facility for the Elite Athletes Villa for the top 30 placed runners. I've never seen so many fit people eating so much white rice and white bread. It was against everything I stood for, I kept stopping myself from forcing whole wheat on them.

It was a great gig and it paid my mortgage for the month, now if I can only get my spare bedrooms rented I'll be able to stay in my home despite getting laid off. If anyone knows of someone who's moving to Boston, see: http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/roo/1133412318.html

Madame Beatrice, where have you been all of my life????

I think "flask' is the operative word here....

You'll never go back to an ordinary bed again.

"as beautiful to look at, as it is to feel" I think I just find my new pick-up line.....

And remember it's both elegant and versatile!

Be brave! Choose "Beauty'!

"Would you have beauty?.......Many girls, when they realize they are beautiful, become slaves to the conventional methods of enhancing their charms" To which we say: "SUCK IT UP!"

Mr? B Natural

I don't know about you....

but I am SOOOOOO tired of being watched, judged, checked out.

It's spring again

And I am not above admitting that a little romance in bloom would do a LOT to relieve my winter trodden heart.

How I spent Saturday afternoons in my youth.

Explains a lot, doesn't it.......

Radium! For that 'natural' glow......

radior
Originally uploaded by harpsichord_gal

gym panties?

gym panties - m4m - 25 (cambridge)
Reply to: pers-nj4zx-1067388666@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]Date: 2009-03-09, 3:22PM EDT
I saw you dressing in the locker room at the gym. You were wearing red laced panties under your gym clothes. You tried to get undressed quick and toss them into your locker, but you weren't that quick. I am white, 5'6" scruffy beard, short hair, very hairy legs, ass and chest, well muscled. I think you may have noticed me. You were about 6 feet and very skinny with sandy blond hair probably in your mid thirties, but I'm sure you know who you are because you were the one wearing lacy panties while you worked out. I wanted to stick around and watch you some more after you got out of the shower, but I had to go. Hopefully you work out around that time all the time or you see this ad. If you do see the ad and you don't feel like writing back, just take your short off first and then take your panties off. We can take it from there.

Is there NOTHING you can't find on Craigslist??????

I'm sure you know who you are because you were the one wearing lacy panties while you worked out........

For the car-lover/dog-hater in your life!

"with small rubber tubing to prevent marring the car"....OF COURSE!

The NU-VIM Appliance Co.

Your whole body will tingle with delight!

Job Interview, MAD TV

Alas I am not facing anything as fun or as easy as this...

Well, the proverbial ax fell today

Once I was finally able to drag my flu riddled ass back to campus, I was promptly asked to remove it and not to return. If anyone knows of a technical service Librarian position let me know.

MEN! MEN!

Marry Rich!

This offer will not be repeated if we can get enough men for our women.

The magic of drugs!

Prescription medications to be exact.

After two weeks of missing work and three physican's consultations it looks like my doctor finally found the right combination of antibiotics, codeine and an inhaler to make inroads into battling whatever bronchial virus got hold of me!

I'm finally starting to feel better, now I'm just left dealing with the cabin fever.

One thing made me feel very good though, I was very surprised by all the people in my life who stopped by, ran errands for me, called or emailed to check in on me

No man is poor who has friends, Thanks everyone!