Good Bye 2013, Hello 2014...in London!

It seems like eons ago, but just a few short weeks past we we're in London, visiting Platform 9 and 3/4, celebrating New Year's Eve in the shadow of Big Ben, and tromping through Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. It's nice to look back in the middle of this very long stressful week to such a lovely holiday.

Cheers to a great trip and to all that 2014 has to offer, on this side of the ocean and the other!

The March Blues

Winter lasts at least six months of the year in New England. Sometimes it seems like it never actually ends but just goes into hiding only to reappear as soon as your hopes are high. As spring approaches, the worst is the constant tease of warmer weather; we get a foot of a snow and then it’s 50 degrees the next day, then it’s freezing rain and back to the high 40s and sunny. You keep getting your hopes up, only to have them dashed on the cold hard ground and no one knows what to wear (Rain boots? Winter boots? Rain slicker? Down jacket? Both?)

You know the spring is coming but by early March when the snow is still falling regularly, it gets pretty depressing. And the March Blues have definitely taken up full time residence around these parts. Short of relocating, all I can do is keep the blues at bay by any means necessary.

Make cookies

Or cake. Or anything tasty. We recently discovered the wonderment that is “The Great British Bake Off” and have now begun our own baking competition that consists of our own good sense against our own lacking skills. But every so often something comes out beautifully – or at least very tasty - and one just feels so accomplished. Baking aside, coming home after a shitty day and cooking a beautiful meal often salvages the day. Or just go out and let someone else cook for you.

Okay, so I bought it not made it.

Schedule a dream vacation (or at least create an inspiration board about it)

When things aren't going well, it’s important to remember things will change eventually. Even better is to start making exciting plans to look forward to. Pick a weekend to meet up with friends or schedule a mini trip away. Better yet, plan a big summer adventure that you can research and dream about straight through the spring rains. Comparing beaches and resort menus is the best use of your lunch break - besides eating cookies.

Bermuda, Horseshoe Bay

Escape mentally

A good book transports you to another time and place and let’s you be someone different for a few hours. A well-crafted movie or show can do the same with striking images and soaring music. It seems simple enough to turn on the tv or pick up a book, but to truly immerse yourself - put down the smartphone, stop reading the mail, and finish the chores first - into a piece can relax your mind and give you a bit of peace. Pretending you are somewhere - or someone - else for an evening might just distract you from the dreary reality outside your door.

You know you always wanted to be a wizard, admit it

March will come and go and spring will arrive. In the meantime you might as well enjoy yourself, mother nature be damned!

2012: A Year in Review Part I

2012 is a year that will live in infamy. Not only did I get married and Obama was re-elected, I also met Jeanette Winterson and visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Momentous, if i do say so myself.  So for posterity and good cheer, here’s the year in review:

January
 

See?

It is a little known fact that Hogwarts is located a short distance from Jurassic Park, but I now am privy to this important geological knowledge. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter or affectionately “Harry Potter Land” is located in Orlando, Florida as consolation to all the Americans not lucky enough to actually be British. It is so cleverly appointed, right down to Moaning Mrytle’s incessant weeping and wailing in the girl’s bathroom. It is almost as fun to stand in line as it is to get on the Hogwart’s ride, as you snake through the school grounds, scoping out the greenhouse and Dumbledore's office. Two engaged, late twenty-somethings gallivanting around on the only 40 degree day in Florida to the sound of John William’s “Hedwig Theme” was purely romantic. And cold, but you have to suffer for the things you love.

February

I debate each year which month is worse: February or March. In New England, they are both piercingly cold, dark, mostly miserable time spans. Valentine’s candy typically pushes February ahead of March, but not this year.  I don’t remember anything of note.

March

I think I’ve traditionally disliked March more than other months since by then I am so deep in the SAD disorder, I want to sleep under a heat lamp and can only watch uncomplicated children’s movies without full on weeping. They lied when they quipped “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” In the northeast, it normally just rains or snows or both, all month long.
 
But this March, I met Jeanette Winterson. British author of “The Powerbook”, “The Passion”, and her cover story / autobiography “Why be Happy when you could be Normal”, Winterson is one of my favorite contemporary writers.  And I met her. I said some silly things to her and she signed my copy of “The Powerbook.” Then I swooned all the way home and bought more of her books on Amazon. It was one of those inspiring experiences that made me simply happy to exist.

Oh you know, me and Jeanette.

 April

April 30th was our four year anniversary (and Queen’s Day in the Netherlands). This year was even more special as we would be getting married in two months, on another 30th. We had afternoon tea at the Four Seasons in Boston and semi-anxiously awaited the upcoming nuptials...by pretending nothing was happening at all.

May

About a month before my wedding, in the midst of a plethora of activity and events, I started this blog. I loved to write and wanted to do it more often, but I needed structure (and positive feedback). Thus “Tea and Circuses” was born and I finally stopped being a total creeper and actually started commenting on some of the blogs I had been reading for years.

June

On June 30, 2012, I married my best friend.  While many people make this cliche statement, I actually mean it.  April and I are madly in love and very compatible, but we spend more time playing silly games, reenacting chase scenes through the house, quoting “Shaun of the Dead” or "Austin Powers" and engaging in general ridiculousness than we do gazing into each others’ eyes and reciting poetry. Though I do sometimes read the sex columns and Jeremy Clarkson pieces out loud to her. She brings me tea every morning and rubs my perpetually sore muscles. I cook her favorite meals  and pack her lunches for work. We are the couple the photographer turns to, even when it’s not our wedding but I rarely notice, since I’m usually whispering to April to check out someone’s unfortunate dress choice.

 Part II to follow...

Goals

I like accomplishing things. I make to-do lists just so I can check things off throughout the day. Instead of a New Year's resolution this year, I made an array of goals covering everything from literature to language study to homemade pasta.  

Thus far I've been most successful with my goal to read 26 books in 2012, which averages out to a book every two weeks.  I love to read.  My undergraduate university degree is English literature and before that, most of my high school awards were in writing or literature.  I eventually went into a field that doesn't totally utilize those interests and strengths, which led me to setting this goal and creating this blog.

1 year goal in 6 months flat. Now to up the challenge I am aiming for 26 new books, since I did get sucked into re-reading the complete Harry Potter series this winter...

2012 Book Challenge (27/26, 21 new)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Larson
The Girl who Played with Fire - Larson
HP and the SS - JK Rowling
HP and the C of S - JK Rowling
At Home - Bryson
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Larson
HP and the POA - JK Rowling
Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell
HP and the OotP - JK Rowling
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Collins
Mockingjay - Collins
The da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Why be Happy when you could be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
Sexing the Cherry - Winterson
The World According to Clarkson - Jeremy Clarkson
HP and the HBP - JK Rowling
One Step Behind - Henning Mankell
Cane - Jean Toomer
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
A Conspiracy of Papers - David Liss
HP and the DH - J.K. Rowling
The World According to Clarkson Part II - Jeremy Clarkson
The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Fire Engine that Disappeared - Wahloo
Sacred Hearts - Sarah Dunant

My favorites included Jeanette Winterson's memoir or "cover story", as she described it and Bryson's "The Mother Tongue" and "At Home".  I love everything Bryson write and he has an uncanny ability to take seemingly mundane topics and bring them to live through details otherwise ignored.

Now that I've started reading at maximum capacity again I don't plan to slow down anytime soon, especially with a week at the beach coming up!