Marcia Clarke – See, Snap, Write!
I have been snapping lots of pictures this year in an effort to get familiar with my Canon, and to ensure I have original pictures to include in my posts. Consequently, I am beginning to overload Picasa’s files (not really); but just had this great idea–I will add some of my latest photos to my posts as the year comes to an end and let them do the talking for me. A picture is worth a thousand words. Here we go, enjoy!
It is December…again. Just like it was just Monday… and it is now Saturday, again. Time is passing by so quickly I can barely catch my breath!
As of Thanksgiving day–Christmas officially arrived; never mind it was already here since before Halloween. I love the holiday season, even when they begin to sneak in Christmas carols on the radio when I am not paying attention. I happened to notice this when I began to hum along, suddenly it hit me–I am humming “It is a wonderful time of the year… la, la, la….
Dont’ get me wrong, I love the holiday season; the songs, the trees, the Menorah and the candles, the Kwanzaa celebrations, lights everywhere, Macy’s windows, Rockefeller Center, etc… (hey, I lived in NYC for over 20 years, the “melting pot” as it is known, and we all celebrated together) but Christmas is my favorite.
Christmas is what I grew up with in Panama; my first recollection of a Christmas present was getting a pair of Winchester Roller Skates, and these were nothing like the rubber skates of today. I mean, these were steel and I felt like a powerhouse when I clamped them on my shoes. I was about five years old when I got the first pair of training Winchesters, fell many times and promptly learned how to skate. By the time I was a teenager I was a pro on those babies; my siblings and friends will have skate parties on the streets, (no rinks, for us daredevils) and we ran competitions to see who could make the most pirouettes without breaking a bone, and then we held on to each other in groups of ten or fifteen kids to form a train or “cola” (long line), and proceeded to jump over the many sets of steps found in “Paseo Las Bovedas”; that memory will be forever etched in my mind. So much fun and… there was always a broken bone and a trip to the emergency room, lol!
Kids today don’t get such physical workouts, like we did. Everything happened outdoors, we played with hacky sacks, which we made ourselves (from old socks filled with lentils), and rode bicycles, roller skated on the streets, went swimming, played every kind of ball there was: baseball, basketball, soccer… you name it. We were fit, brassy and healthy! Today it is all about Nintendo, Xbox and the like, kids and adults can even pretend they are being active by playing games (indoor) on their Wii. What’s up with that?
Enough of that, I am afraid I am dating myself; but yes, I am a child of the age of Aquarius, and the Beatles, and The Temptations, and Aretha Franklin; but make no excuses for that–they were the best of times to grow up in. There’s no mountain high enough to keep me from getting to you…
Here are some pictures I took last week when we were in Orlando and ventured 45 minutes out-of-the-way of the usual sites, to visit Bok Tower Gardens. We enjoyed their Christmas decorations, quiet surroundings and gardens; it was a beautiful experience, and I highly recommend it!
I will post some more pictures during the month as I am now officially–in the Christmas and holiday spirit!
I’ve decided I want to blog more. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now. I will be posting on this blog at least once a week for all of 2011.
I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.
If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.
Thanks,
Marcia C
This summer, I attended a business conference held in National Harbor, MD; I did not recall hearing about this city before, at least not that I could remember.
Nevertheless, I quickly signed up to attend the summer institute conference. National Harbor as it turned out, was all-good; especially because of its proximity to our nation’s capital, which I had the opportunity to visit during last year’s conference.
Aside from the obvious reasons we attend job-related conferences, there are some not so obvious benefits. One of the things I look for is location, location, location! When conferences are held in places I have never been to before, (and that includes many), I jump at the opportunity; quickly launch into a Google research project, and then get excited to learn all I can to begin plotting what to do when the workshops breakout for the day.
I love to travel, explore and see what the city I am in is all about. This morning I was looking through the picture gallery in my Droid with the intent of deleting old files to free-up some memory. I came across a few pictures, taken during my two most recent business trips and instead decided to share them with you. I will soon file them away in that digital album on the desktop I rarely ever go back into.
The Washington monument was looking magnificent on the day I took this picture. I could not ask for a better shot, and was truly amazed to see that it came out of my cell phone camera. I am by no means a photographer, but I hope for the best and expect the camera to see what I see, when I point and shoot at an object. It is always a crime of opportunity; I may or may not have the camera with me, but the cell phone? That is another story. LOL!
The sculpture shown here both took me by surprise and creeped me out at the same time when I first saw it at National Harbor. I thought, what is that all about? Its location made me
think it was making some reference to the sea gods and it looks intense and scary, at least to me it did. I have since learned it is “The Awakening”, created by J Seward Johnson in 1980 and first displayed in Hains Point, MD (another place I never heard of), for 27 years, it was then relocated to National Harbor in 2008 when the sculptor sold it for $750,000! It must be nice!
I lived in Brooklyn, NY for more than twenty years, during that time I visited every “must see” tourist site there was to see in NYC and even some you would not want to see. Every museum: Brooklyn Museum, Children’s Museum, MOMA, Guggenheim and places such as Madison Square, Empire State building, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty–any and all major attractions were part of my weekend itinerary, along with regular visits to Macy’s for shopping and FAO Schwartz to ensure the kids did not complain—I was a very smart mommy!
The point is this, there is so much to see anywhere you live that you should not let the moments of your life go by without taking advantage to enrich yourself. Gather some knowledge and share it with others. There are no excuses accepted these days since Google can take you places you have never been before. I know, it is no substitute for being there, I agree; but a “virtual trip” does not hurt anyone and if you ever get the opportunity to visit in person–you would already have an idea of what to expect when you get there.
Bon Voyage!
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Okay, it is obvious to me that I live in Florida.
I say that to say this, I am old enough, been around and witnessed the days when White dudes wore ponytail and mullet hairstyles everywhere, and Black men (and women) sported afros of all sizes; that was fine back then; after all, they were all the rage back in the day. They were in vogue. I even wore my cute little ‘fro for a number of years—say it loud, I’m Black and proud, as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, used to say. Lol! Yes, I am dating myself.
News flash! That was over thirty years ago! It is now 2011, a new millennium, dudes; and there have been many other hairstyles introduced since the sixties. So I submit to you there is no good reason for anyone to be still sporting any of those hairdos today (unless, of course, you are taking part in a play or movie) read: retro.
Recently, as I waited my turn in a jury selection box, I had to use all the will power in me to suppress the giggles as laughter threatened to escape me and possibly get me in trouble. Obviously, I had plenty of time on my hands, otherwise I would not have noticed the three–count them: one, two, three balding men still sporting their sixties ponytails! What are the odds? There only about about twenty five people in the room, that’s got to be some freaky statistic!
Anyway, I am ranting. But as we go into the sunset, let’s do it with the same gusto we displayed when we were younger, and please let’s find a hairstyle now that speaks to our new station in life. After all, our grandchildren are looking, and I think, they might be saying:
“No, I can’t like it” to our continued use of outdated hairstyles.
And that’s what I am talking about!
Marcia C
Chica on the Move 
