obama us and tattoos

Headquarters of Aubuchon Hardware sits on Rte. 2 as I head to work [and of course it continues to sit there after I have raced by]. Rte. 2 is called the Mohawk Trail, but there's nothing special or Mohawkey about it that I can see. It's a four-lane limited access highway like any other. One sight worth seeing used to be the enormous American flag that flew outside Aubuchon. It must have been the largest size made and had to have weighed a ton when wet. Not that anyone probably knew, because they never took it down. It was there in the rain, in the dark, at all times. I wonder if rules used to be different. I remember in the Girl Scouts we weren't supposed to fly the flag in the rain.


Anyway, dear reader, it's gone now. I noticed the other day as I practiced my disciplinarian speech for class ("please be quiet"), that it had been replaced by a much smaller, no longer outsized flag. Bummer.

Also on Rte. 2 and it's still there, is the yellow traffic sign that says only:
FAMOUS DUCKS
I have asked my students about this and no one knows. Does Donald live there, I asked? Daffy?

I do enjoy seeing the sign and one day I await the crossing of a Really Famous Duck.

Moving to Rte. 290 in Worcester, the well-loved polar bear seems to be missing from the Polar Soda billboard.

What's up with that? Generations of children grew up enjoying that bear. It wasn't a picture. It was a three-dimensional white figure that swayed somewhat in the wind. In recent years I have thought that the bear was downsized and now it's gone. Maybe it's in for maintenance.


One fun thing to see from Rte. 290 can only be witnessed one day a year. It's the sight of several hundred blue-robed grads standing on the steps of Auburn High for their class picture. It's an inspiring sight full of hope, though you are going at least 60 mph when it comes into view and can only catch the quickest of glances. One or two of those happy alumni usually end up in my class across 290.

Art bloopers: "The artist used several layers of vanish to achieve this effect."
"This is never seen again in the works of Leonardo DaVinci or anywhere in his cannon."

A bientot
love,
becky

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I wouldn't mind spending an evening with this woman.


She's purposeful. She's on a mission. Something is going on and I'd like to be in on her plan. I'm sure I could help. My natural nosiness would be an asset to her and she could send me around to the other side of the event to scrutinize from there. There's no way she's watching the opera below and besides that, the man across the way is watching HER. Oh, this is intrigue I can't pass up. Put me in. Woman In Black at the Opera by Mary Cassatt (one of my true faves anyway)

Or if I were feeling rather more informal, I wouldn't mind being inserted into this scene by John Singer Sargent.
This group looks as though they've been dipping into the port or the absinthe or the laudanum.
HEY!!! THROCKMORTON!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID WITH THE HORSE?
WHAT?
I SAID DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE HORSE IS?
THAT CLOUD RIGHT THERE BY THE TREE? IT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MY UNCLE JOE! IT'S SCARING ME, MAN!

On second thought, maybe I'd rather work on my dance skills.
I love this Edgar Degas ballerina. She is at the outside leaning apex of a triumphant bow, I feel, a nanosecond away from collapsing forward and receiving Bravas from the audience. She has given her all. It's thrilling.
But I might also like to be just on my way home from a night of doing something secret.

Sargent again and I will stop here. The girl and I have things to chat about this chilly morning. I am falling in step with her now--you can't see me but I am there. Those men across the way should mind their own business.

A bientot
love,
becky

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I definitely won't be eating anything like this. Tender little creamy morsels oozing with liqueur and other succulent flavors. Okay, okay, I won't describe anything. We'll just pretend.

And I most assuredly won't be eating this.


I could have those berries, though. I could politely rip off the green stems and enjoy the tartness of berries. No black coffee, either. One cup of that and you can call me Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, bug-eyed and jangled in the middle of the night.

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No!!! It can't be!!! And yet there is Manny Ramirez doing it. Pulling it ALL BY HIMSELF.



This is Hideki Okajima -- Okie as he is known on the Red Sox-- CARRYING HIS OWN BAG.
Okay, well, Okie is not a HUGE star so maybe we're not totally surprised. Look how small that bag is. Hope he has enough underwear in there.

Looking very Donald Sutherlandesque, Curt Schilling carries HIS own bag and wears BEIGE of all things. What was he thinking? Plenty of underwear and a pillow for beauty sleep.



Tim Wakefield is happy because the knuckleball is known to swerve around an extra revolution in Japan. A little bit of sushi between the cheek and gum, my friends.

Jason Varitek is manly in any country, and I know he would change my tire on the highway. Do they drive on the wrong side?


This is a very satisfying photograph (all are from the Boston Globe--YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST). Always in Boston, Dice K hangs back, looks shy, seems out of place. BUT NOT IN TOKYO, BABY! Can't you just picture him coming alive? HEY, COME ON, YOU GUYS, I GOT THREE MORE DIVE BARS TO TAKE YOU TO BEFORE THE NIGHT IS OVER. I'M KING OF THE DART TEAM AT TWO OF THEM!



Just look at that smile!!! I'm thinking no-hitter for the opening.
Josh ain't here anyway.

A bientot and thanks again to the Boston Globe.
love from Red Sox Nation,
becky

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G: Honey?

T: Yes?

G: I'm so happy you are wearing a regular hat.

T: Yeah, me too.

G: The bag was foolish.

T: Yeah, well....

G: You call much more attention to yourself with a bag over your head than merely looking normal.

T: Hey baby?

G: Besides, no one has ever heard of Hannaford's grocery store, whatever it is.

T: Hey, baby?

G: Yes, love?

T: Have you ever heard of the Buffalo Bills?

G: I suppose that is more American sports. You know I am not into that.

T: Yes, but have you ever heard of them?

G: I think so. They are eaten with blue cheese dressing, isn't that right?

T: Very funny. Tim Russert is a big fan of the Bills.

G: Are you taking me for dinner?

T: Yes. The Buffalo Bills went to four Super Bowls.


G: I am really in the mood for Thai.

T: You're not listening, Giselle. The Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row. Did you hear me? In a row.

G: That is terrible. Did they wear bags over their heads?

T: Don't you think that's a lot worse than losing one Super Bowl?

G: Certainly, darling. I am going to splurge and eat half of an egg roll. I promise. Is that your cell?

T: Oh man? When is Eli going to stop prank calling me?

G: Doesn't he know that's really childish?

T: Yeah, Peyton does it too sometimes. But wait. It's not Eli.

G: Oh darling, take a deep breath. Things can't be any worse.

G: It's Bridget.


Things can always be worse, dear reader.
I'm enjoying spring break. In the words of one of my students I am grinning "from ear to ear to ear."
A bientot

love,
becky

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The only zest higher than this will be on the final day of the semester.

That will be heavenly.



But right now is pretty good. I came through some annoying and challenging obstacles this week and made it. And now? Could it be.....

SPRING BREAK????


Alas, I will not be in a scene like this. Spring break means different things to different people. To my students it is one thing.






To me it might mean something else.






But to one and all it means....


PAAAAAAARTY!!!!!!

Be here now.
A bientot
love,
becky

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....we get depressed and down in the dumps and more or less irritable as all fk here in beautiful New England. Oh, don't get me wrong. We've got the beautiful stone walls and the thrilling plaques and statues and history of all sorts. BUT IT FREAKING LOOKS LIKE THIS DAY IN AND DAY OUT. I MEAN YOU GET SICK OF IT AFTER A WHILE, GET ME?

Okay, I'm calm.



But in March, when it's been this way for so long, we lose all hope. We really think in our so-called reptile brains that it's going to stay this way. That we deserve it. That nothing better is coming, no matter what the calendar says. I'll be wearing my boots and ski parka (well, not really a parka, ew) forever and ever, world without end amen.

I have 62,000 words in on the nun book, by the way.




March is supposed to come in like a lion and it was leonine today, I guess. AT A VERY LOW TEMPERATURE LEONINE. AND LET'S NOT FORGET IT'S ALREADY THE TWELFTH.

This will be the year. The year that it never ends.



I will always look out my kitchen door at midnight and see the Blight of the Earth. Okay, so I didn't get a shot of this at midnight. That's a little hard to do. And this is an old shot--there's actually no snow out there. Only mud and ruts in the driveway. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

Be here now.
Or be in Miami now.
Or Myrtle Beach.
Anywhere but here.
A bientot
love,
becky
(still Blanche)

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Put that receiver down, Mr. Bell! Okay, I'll call you Alexander if you want me to. Or Alex? No no no, I didn't mean that. Is AG better? Okay okay. I agree. It's much more modern. And certainly you look like you've lost weight. Being dead that long probably helped.

JUST GET MY DIAL TONE BACK ON, OKAY?

You think well, I have a cell phone so what real difference will the absence of a land line make?

Plenty.

I can't get online. You can't see me, but I am hiding in the closet at Hannaford's, using the produce manager's laptop. It's degrading. You know?

Why should I have to hide?

I had a far different post planned. It was going to be on the best SNL skit of all time, Lord and Lady Douchebag. I had a picture of it too, but Google will not let me drag pictures today. I call that piling on, but never mind.

It's rare that any joke gets more than one laugh and the DB skit may be the only time I ever saw one keep getting a huge response variation after variation. Really, every time it was uttered, the place fell apart.

"Where the devil are those Douchebags?"

"Tell me, Douchebag, how are things with you?"

"Yes, Parliament has always had plenty of Douchebags and always will."

I can't remember them all, but I know I never laughed so hard.

I'm trying to remember times that I laughed and enjoyed myself.

BECAUSE I AM SO FRUSTRATED.


Meanwhile, this is Hansel, trying to pick a reading selection from Maeve's collection. Soon I will have a pic of Maeve showing affection to Hansel. I'll just tell you this. She uses her whole body weight doing it.


A bientot
love,
blanche

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The Dixie cups have failed!

I am without phone and/or internet and you may call me Blanche Dubois, relying on the kindness of strangers to connect me to the world. Well, strangers isn't true, it's my friends who are bailing me out.

Working my way back to you guys!
A bientot
love,
b
(for blanche)

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