Saturday, January 26, 2013

[Heart] Note...to Tony's


I'm okay with change and modernization. Trust me. I don't know what I'd do without my iPhone and iPad. But in a world of supermarket chains where I can buy one and get two free, and megastores where I can get a two year supply of dishwasher tablets in one package, there are times I just need a quart of half and half, or am hankering for a bag of chips. I don't want to deal with the parking lot shopping cart derby, and I don't want to have to present a card or exchange a coin for a discount.

Lucky for me, walking distance from home, right next door to my Waltonesque post office, is Tony's.

Basic staples without a gas station mark up. No cards, no coins, no coupons, no lines, no nonsense. Groceries with a nod to simpler times.

I love Tony's Store. Every neighborhood should have one.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Battle of the Bags

I have gone on the record here on more than one occasion and admitted freely that I have a bag problem. Until recently that meant I have a problem not buying a bag if I see one and like it. Yes. I have more bags than I should. One for every mood in every season. A dozen. Or more. And that’s after a cleaning frenzy and a Good Will drop.

Lately though my bag problem relates more to back problems.

During Tamara’s visit this summer I found myself beyond uncomfortable in pain as I stood waiting for her to take yet another (sorry, Tam) picture somewhere in Boston (every block, if I remember correctly)—weighed down with my heavy, albeit gorgeous, shoulder bag.

I knew the days of shoulder bags were over. They make me crooked and give me sciatica.

Which of course gave me a new excuse to buy bags. Woe is me.

So I tried short handled bags. And bags with both short handles and cross body straps. And they helped, but not always. Or not for long. Because I carry too much sh*t. Eventually, despite my initial efforts, I fill my bags to capacity. My iPad is heavy enough on its own; add notepads and things I really needn’t carry with my everywhere, and even a short handled bag gets uncomfortable to carry.

So I tried using a tote bag in which I’d throw in a wristlet or smaller bag so I could take that out and use it while shopping or out to eat, and leave everything else in the tote in the car, but I found those a little too small to fit even bare minimum items. Moreover, I found I started carrying more in the tote—even if it was just to the car, into school, back to the car, into the house.

In fact, putting said tote on my front passenger seat set off the seat belt alarm.

Not kidding.

No freakin’ wonder my back hurts.

And then I found it. A leather cross body bag—leather soft as buttah— that can fit my iPad (but doesn’t have to) and those things I have figured out I really do need to have with me, on my person. But it doesn’t weigh as much as a person, so my seat belt alarm stays quiet. And my back feels better.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Hope

So far, the beginning of this new year resembles those of others in recent memory: quite a bit of reflection and taking stock, new storage boxes and a vow to get organized, a trip to the grocery store with a carriage full of produce and Progresso soup, a moment on my bathroom scale (resulting in aforementioned trip to grocery store).

Only the beginning of this year came after the end of last, which--albeit another year of tremendous loss and sadness--ended in a positive way, with happy memories and news of good things to look forward to.

So this year I have thrown a whole lot of hope into my new year mix. (And bought a necklace in San Diego to remind me of it.) I hope for more good. For positive change. For answers to questions. For direction, And courage. And love. And I believe that it can come to me. To us.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Photo Journal: A Different Kind of Love Scene

A couple and their dogs in a baby carriage, after lunch at In-N-Out.




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