Plastic Box

...there's going to be the sense that you missed something...

A lot has been happening. A LOT. And I haven't been keeping you posted. Bad blogger, bad blogger!!

Three (count em) three babies have been born: Miles to Sarah M, Cameron to Maggie L, and Eli to Shannon B. Three babies born to people I love since I last updated this blog. That is huge! No matter what the personal crap I have been dealing with, three families have been forever changed and I am so happy for them.

The in-laws came to visit this weekend, due to Jon's birthday, and we got a handful of house projects either done or started, not the least of which was to paint the master bedroom. You like the rectangles?

      

We also had two great meals, one at Tartine (in Rocky River) and one at Mallorca (downtown), a tried and true favorite.

Before the in-law-fest, I had a lovely lunch with some coworkers at Blue Point Grille. I was fortunate to be a part of a large intranet project and am trying to translate it to my role on the Change Agent Network (CAN) at work. There is so much happening at my amazing company, and I am so priveleged to be included in committees and groups that really drive change and progress. (spoken like a true corporate square, eh?)

Other than that, my brother got promoted to "AM sous chef" and has also quit smoking, thanks to an electronic cigarette. GO LITTLE BROTHER! He's been working hard to advance himself in the culinary world and I am happy to see him take the bull by the horns. I am so proud of him.

Last but not least, it is almost "officially spring" (don't give me that technical bullshit) and I am happy to see it come. Here's to new beginnings...

Meditations in an Escape

Every now and then I fall head over heels in love with a show. But this time I have cheated on my darling HBO and had an affair with AMC, which airs Mad Men. Part of it, yes, is because I adore the clothes and if I could come back as anything in my next life it will be a housewife from 1960 who has every item in Betty Draper's closet (shirtdresses and pearls and pleats, ohmy!).

     

But more so than that is the undercurrent of the show, something that Maureen Ryan from The Chicago Tribune called a "wonderfully made Rorschach test. What you get out of the show – how you fill in the blanks – depends on what you bring to it."

She goes on to say the following:

“Mad Men” characters often find themselves not together, but not apart. Attempting to find or flee isolation, unsure of whether making a connection is worth the effort but unable to resist (occasionally) trying.

[The show] has created people whose lives and dilemmas seem absolutely real. They are constantly surprising us, yet no matter what they do, no matter how much particular actions may disappoint us, on some level we root for them ... to feel joy instead of pain, to find contentment rather than alienation, to feel loved for who they really are. We root for them because we are them. They’re often fighting their worst impulses, fighting their desire to hide their flaws and pain behind a mask, fighting their desire to value security above uncertainty.

Stepping out from behind their carefully constructed personas to truly love someone else, or merely relaxing enough to rely on another person – for Don, Betty, Peggy and the rest, these things are not easy.

“Mad Men” shows us that trusting oneself and trusting others, and telling the truth, are acts that require courage.

To continue the Rorschach theme, it was appropriate that episode 1 of season 2 featured Don Draper's voiceover of a Frank O'Hara poem that I immediately identified with, "Mayakovsky" from his book Meditations in an Emergency:

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I ? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.