Witty & Wise Ties, Trivia & Lies
Skitter was chilly this Halloween morn, so she chose to wear her red plaid Bow Tie o’ the Day. I told her she could choose her own Halloween costume, and she said she wanted to be an order of McDonald’s french fries again this year. What Skitter apparently doesn’t want to be is awake.
I’ve never had to look at a calendar to know when Halloween season is due to arrive. Nope. I just pay attention to Mom. When Helen Sr. is sharpening her broom, Halloween is nigh. She’ll tell you herself that she is every bit the witch she says Dad always told her she was. Mom certainly had him bewitched.
Here are a few photos left over from my month of October, in no particular order. 1. In celebration of National Candy Corn Day, Candy Cane Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day took a wild ride on The Saddle Purse this afternoon. 2. I ate a taste-astic steak at MARTYRS STEAKHOUSE in Taos. 3. I did not buy either of the arty wood fish on this gallery wall in Taos, but I got oodles of compliments on the autumn-hued Bow Tie o’ the Day I was wearing. 4.,5. Fall colors and fall light blasted at me from the foliage behind our house when we got home from Taos.
Tonight, don’t eat the rest of the Halloween candy you haven’t already eaten. Tomorrow is the bigly day kids will be coming for it. Do not disappoint children and dentists.
Hey, don’t forget today is National Candy Corn Day. Munch on, folks!
I found a hefty package sitting on my porch, and I knew it was the painting Suzanne bought for me when I found it in a gallery in Taos. I wanted to tear the package apart immediately, but I didn’t. Suzanne was at work, and I knew she’d want to be home when I opened my package. And then I realized that it would make Suzanne even happier if I let her open it for me. She likes to open gift. So I tied down my excitement for the rest of the day, but was often tempted to just open the damn thing myself. Of course, Suzanne worked late. I was dying a cruel death, as the painting lay inside its packaging mocking me from across the living room. Finally, I moved it into the closet with the hope Suzanne would be home oh, so very soon to open it up.
And then, when Suzanne finally got home, she tortured me further by opening my gift as slowly as possible. She enjoyed herself immensely. And Candy Corn Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day supervised every minute of it.
I looked at hundreds of paintings in Taos, but this one entranced me. I wanted it to live with me until I die. There’s no explaining why a piece of art speaks so loudly to a soul. But if it does, it does. This one did. It is called “Blue House by the Golden Gate.” The pink and yellow remind me of spectacular Delta sunsets.
The artist, Pat Woodall, was working in his gallery where we found this. When he saw which painting I chose to own, he looked at me in whatever loud duds I was wearing, and then back at the painting, and said to me, “You’re not afraid of color.” Nope. Color does not frighten me one iota.
After Miss Tiffany cut our hairs Saturday afternoon, we took our new hairdos to Capitol Theater to act snooty at the ballet. It was opening night of Ballet West’s current offering, which consists of three short ballets. I wore a spiderweb Bow Tie o’ the Day for the occasion. Suzanne wore yet another necklace (turquoise!) I bought her in Taos with my malnourished wallet. As per usual, Candy Corn Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day was a stowaway in The Saddle Purse for the evening.
Every so often, I feel like it’s my civic duty to go to the ballet. Ballet is amazing. The dancers always put up a gorgeous fight with gravity on the stage. I admire the whole production, including the orchestra most spectators can’t even see down there in the orchestra pit. Although the ballet is not something I feel the need to experience regularly, I do want to support it. Its awesomeness deserves to thrive. It’s my pleasure to buy tickets on occasion.
We need to make sure we appreciate things— especially the arts— for their incredibility, even if we aren’t “into” them. In fact, that pretty accurately explains why I do attend a ballet here and there: I go to the ballet to find wonder in its intricate strength and beauty, and I also go to the ballet to remind myself that it’s not one of my fave-rave ways to spend time. I’m a better person for attending, but it just ain’t my thing.
BTW Suzanne is very proud of the post photo in which she’s gazing at the ceiling— because it shows her inner nostril. I look just plain sinister in that same pic.
We had big plans for last Saturday night, but we needed our hairs cut before we went out. I donned my hairscuttin’ scissors Bow Tie o’ the Day, and off Suzanne and I went to Great Clips Saturday afternoon, to have our hairs hacked off by the wondrous and skillful Miss Tiffany. I put Suzanne in charge of directing Miss Tiffany in the cutting of my mop, and she was excited about that. Suzanne was very adamant about how she wanted each of my hairs, so Miss Tiffany got to see a bossy side of Suzanne she had never seen before.
I was kinda surprised Suzanne ordered the construction of what is basically one of my fave, go-to asymmetrical cuts. She says it’s one of her faves on me, so that works out dandy for both of us— since we’re the only people who have to spend a great deal of time being in the same vicinity as my hairs.
Of course, y’all have to see my hairs in posts daily, so sorry about that if you aren’t a fan of my half-bald head. But it could be worse: I could try to grow it out again. Be grateful every day that I won’t put any of us through that disaster again.
Our weekend began less than one second after Suzanne walked got home from the sweatshop Friday. We had dinner reservations in SLC at TIN ANGEL, which is located in a corner of the main entry to the Eccles Theater. The restaurant is truly a splendid place to sit and people-watch. We had groovy views of the street and the main lobby. My Day of the Dead Bow Tie o’ the Day couldn’t stop talking about how people can be weird when they go out on a Friday night. And Bow Tie didn’t mean us. People-watching is never dull.
Suzanne and I each ended up ordering— and enjoying— the same dish: spicy saffron salmon. When we were ready for dessert, I clamored for the bread pudding. Suzanne went with the chocolate torte, which was the slenderest slice of any dessert we had ever seen. Candy Corn Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day had to wriggle out of my Saddle Purse to take a gander at the barely-there confection. Suzanne reported that the teeny tiny torte was yummy and worth it.
After dinner we headed into the theater for a taping of NPR’s WAIT, WAIT…DON’T TELL ME!— a hilarious radio show about the news of the week. It is normally taped in Chicago, so we’ve been patiently waiting for the show to haul its cast out to SLC for a performance, as it has done a handful of times. Finally! Bobcat Goldthwait was one of the show’s rotating panelists whose job it is to skewer the ridiculousness of current events. Bill Curtis, journalist extraordinaire, is the show’s announcer. Oh, my golly! The quizzes and limericks about news stories were spot-on and comical. However, one Utah guy in the audience did get his knickers in a snit about some zucchini jokes the performers made. That, too, was funny.
DO NOT POKE FUN AT ZUCCHINIS WHILE IN UTAH, PEOPLE!
I had a swell and busy weekend, full of hair cuts and ballet and current events quizzes. I aim to fill y’all in on the happenings, but this fantastic photo of Gracie showed up on my Facebook feed. I’m sure you’ll agree that Gracie and her head Bow Tie o’ the Day simply must be the week’s first TIE O’ THE DAY post.
Candy Corn Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day managed to hog a chunk of the spotlight when I snapped some pix of Suzanne, bejeweled in her newly acquired amber pendant and amber-gemmed, tangle rings. In the Taos gallery where Suzanne found her new bling, I learned that “amber” can form in more colors than what we think of as “amber”— as evidenced here by the Ring o’ Many Ambers on her left hand. Purty, huh?
Just outside of Taos is Taos Pueblo. It is a community of about 150 of the 1200 Taos Indian Reservation residents. They live in stacked, adobe apartment-like homes, some of which have existed since the 1200’s. The stacked homes are accessible only by ladder, and none of the homes have running water or electricity. Some of the adobe structures are shops in which the resident’s Native American wares, jewelry, art, and food is for sale.
Bow Tie o’ the Day I was wearing when we visited Taos Pueblo and Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day were impressed with the entire Taos Pueblo set-up. Suzanne was impressed with the jewelry she found there. And yes, she found two more necklaces for me to buy her.
The Taos-area landscape was not in-your-face pretty. It wasn’t much to look at initially. I say this with love, but it looked a lot like Fillmore and Delta. It had the same dreamy sky, because it had the same flat desert landscape. Taos is close to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, although not as close to the mountains as we thought it would be. The skiing at Taos Ski Valley is said to be as “reverential” an experience as Utah’s bigly skiing provides.
In fact, Taos reminded Suzanne and I both of Park City, but all sprawled out and in its 1970’s unkept, un-yuppified condition. We had a swell time, but the town itself seemed kinda grungey and— in my way of saying it— fall-y apart-y. We ate out only twice, cuz most restaurants we saw gave me a grime vibe. The places where we did actually eat served up darn tasty food, but I’m glad we had a decent kitchen in the condo. I’m sure there are good places to eat in Taos, but we didn’t run across more than a couple of them in the short time we were there.
Taos Pueblo is worth visiting if you’re into that sort of thing. And I would go back just to take another gander at the Rio Grande Gorge. Mostly, if you are art-minded, Taos is a place for you to spend time. I think I’d like to return to see it in winter. Snow turns every place into a different place, if you know what I mean.
One of the fabulous sights we saw on our Taos vacation was a sight we didn’t know existed until we got there: The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It sits 650 feet above the Rio Grande, connecting a highway. Sidewalks are provided for walking across the bridge.
The first thing Candy Corn Bow Tie On A Shelf o’ the Day and my Halloween-colors Tie o’ the Day had to do when we stopped on the bridge to take photos was, of course, to strike the pose of all folks having their pic taken above water: pretend to dive into the whatever-body-of-water it is. Suzanne’s thumb also managed to do the dive pose for the photo, right along with Bow Tie.
We were all enjoying the spectacular views, and suddenly Bow Tie found this suicide crisis call box. We were reminded that for some people a phenomenal bridge and a river can look like a way out of indescribable pain. I was sad the box was necessary, but glad it was there for someone in such desperate pain.
I stood on The Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland on the night of January 7, 2000. I was done. As I waited for whatever I was waiting for before I jumped, the bridge and the bay and the sky came together in such a way that I felt almost lightning-struck by the scene’s elegance. Its beauty called me back to solid ground. I didn’t want to miss this. I can’t explain it beyond that.