I can't determine from here if these are wedding dresses or white evening gowns, but will investigate further. It's a lovely display, but not quite the view I'd hoped for. Alas, it's Upfront Week and the hotel is quite full.
Une femme loves to fly. I love almost everything about it (except the lines and the hassle of practically stripping down to skivvies to go through security and then having to scramble to put everything back on and grab possessions off the conveyor and the appalling lack of legroom in coach, even for 5'1" me). I love the smell of jet fuel as you get close to the airport. I love seeing the planes lined up at the gates and love watching them take off and land. I love finding my seat and the acceleration as we take off. I love seeing the familiar and unfamiliar landscapes spread out like maps below me.
First flight, here's what I remember: I was 4, my sister 1-1/2. Being trussed up in our best clothes (fancy dresses, stiff petticoats, patent leather mary janes) and lectured about how we'd better behave, dammit. Passing through a large hangar-like building and crossing the tarmac and up the stair-on-wheels to board the plane. Jr. Hostess wings from the stewardesses (back then they were all female) and going up front to meet the pilots and see the cockpit. Chewing gum to make our ears pop. A hot meal with silverware (at that point the most elegant meal I'd had in my young life). Looking out the windows and playing with the shades. Saying "wheee!" when we hit turbulence. Using the (then) space-age potty. Landing in Chicago, sleepy. Light fixture on the ceiling at Midway airport looked like stars. Boarding the plane for Wheeling, having to walk uphill from the back of the plane to our seats. Little cloth curtains on the windows, and the wings had propellers. Waking up as we landed.
Another flight I'll never forget involved propellers as well. When I was 16, my mother, my sister and I had flown with another family to Vancouver, and were connecting to Victoria. My mother was a nervous flyer and hated smaller planes and propellers especially. When we got to the boarding area and she saw that our connecting flight involved both, she headed to the nearest bar and started drinking. By the time we took off, she was already at twenty thousand feet. It was a beautiful flight that stayed fairly low and we flew over pretty green islands, some with sheep on the hills. On landing, which was a little bumpy but nothing out of the ordinary, our mother threw her head into her lap and started screaming "we're going to DIE! We're going to DIE!" (Oh, and during the flight she'd burned a hole in her dress with her cigarette.) The whole cabin of twenty or so people cracked up but we pretended we didn't know her until we got into our rental car.
Then, for a lot of years, I didn't fly at all. When I did start flying again, it was a new era, no longer special or elegant. People in sweats pushed and shoved to board, the seats were sometimes covered in crumbs or stuffed with trash from the last occupant, the flight attendants were surly. It had become Greyhound with wings.
If you're reading this on Monday, I am probably somewhere between home and the airport, or waiting to board my flight, or 32,000 feet over Missouri, or landing in New York. But there's another flight I plan to take sometime in the few months, and it doesn't involve crowds or even pressurized cabins:
I had planned to take a ride in an open cockpit bi-plane for my 50th birthday, but then we went to Paris instead. I had hip surgery a few weeks before my 51st birthday. But I'm not going to wait for another birthday to pass before I have this adventure. The ironic part is that mon mari hates flying, and so I'll probably have to take my son up with me. He shares my love of the wild blue yonder.
Last May when we were in Paris, we saw Anne Paceo perform as part of a trio opening for Ben Sidran/Georgie Fame. If you are in Paris, like jazz and have a chance to see her perform, don't miss it. She's a phenomenal percussionist!
...it pays to buy good shoes. Bought these Ecco's over a year ago, and just had them "refurbished" by my local shoe repair guy for $30. They look better than new and now I'll get another year or two's wear (or maybe more!) out of a favorite pair. Good shoe repair people are worth their weight in gold, IMHO.
This is a smaller (70cm x 70cm) silk square. Fold diagonally into an oblong shape, then tie a knot in the center, and one on either side of that one. Tie the ends in the back.
(Title and pic in honor of my upcoming trip to NY next week)
Tagged by Shefaly at La Vie Quotidienne:
While this may sound like an exhaustive (and perhaps exhausting!) list, the truth is that I've been able to incorporate most of these into my daily routines and they now are mostly habit. Although no one would probably ever point to me as a picture of glowing fitness, the rest of my life doesn't have to wind and twist like a topiary around what I do in the name of health. Because really, how "healthy" would that be?
Just a note, if you haven't tried any of this season's strawberries or artichokes yet, you're missing out! Both are the best they've been in years. Even the artichokes I bought last weekend at Trader Joe's which were as big as my head cooked up beautifully and were tender and flavorful.
When I first moved to LA, one of the high points was living near a Trader Joe's. If you've never been to one, it's like a gourmet grocery with very low prices on many items. They have a lot of organic foods and environmentally friendly products, and a great wine department featuring inexpensive to mid-priced wines. My son is hooked on their canned chicken chili with beans, and I'm hooked on the "Just a Handful" almonds, both raw and roasted that are packaged in single-serving portions. Another winner is the frozen Frenched rack of lamb, which is a thaw, cook and serve dinner, along with a salad of their house brand baby greens. If you're looking for fresh flowers and herbs they have some of the best around and again at the best prices. During the grocery strike a couple years ago, I shopped almost exclusively at TJ's, and we never ate better. Convenience is now the only reason I shop anywhere else; my nearest supermarket also has a branch of my bank and a pharmacy where we have most of our prescriptions, but I make a point to get to TJ's every week or two to stock up on our favorites.
But the fabric is so fluid and drapes so nicely, and the pattern so pretty, I decided to show it off to better advantage: 
This is another variation on the "bib" with that the ends left hanging loose in front. You can also secure by running both ends through a scarf ring in the back if you don't want to have to continually readjust.
