Crazy as Joy - Escape Home to NYC Day #1

Magnet #1160 - Crazy as a Loon

Hahaha - one day in the City, and I totally forgot to do yesterday's magnet. Oh, how quickly they forget.

Mind you, I didn't get home until midnight this morning, and I woke up at 5 yesterday, so I totally get a pass.

Yeah, you can definitely tell I'm back in New York, because I'm running around town, nonstop since then, crazy as a loon. (See what I did there?)

I can't help it! I didn't want to miss a single second of my first day back in town - so of course, I didn't.

Diner breakfast with my diner coffee - Check.

Lunch and fab dessert (what idiot turns down dessert, I ask you?) at Union Square Cafe with a good friend - Check.

Checking out the digs for a possible place of employment - Check.

Shopping - Check.

Wait. More shopping - Check.

A little more shopping - Check.

Ice cream from the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Truck - Check.

Still more shopping - Check.

Acquired nine magnets - Check. (Including this Rangeley Lakes, Maine, magnet my lunch friend brought back for me from Maine! Supercool! And quite fitting, thanks!)

Drinks with good friends to bitch about old place of work - Check.

A quintessentially NYC, evening book launch event in Brooklyn - Check.

Discover really great restaurant for dinner in Brooklyn - Check. (Haven't a clue what the name of the place was...and not entirely sure I could find it again, but whatever.)

Traveling on as many as five different train lines in an hour - Check.

Ready to start the next day?

Oh, hells yes.

On the docket?

Alice's Tea Cup for scones. The Met. The MoMA. Lunch/Dinner/Drinks with friends and coworkers. Heading out to Queens for the Royal Wedding.

And, oh yeah, possibly some shopping.

White cliffs of Appledore

Magnet #1071 - Childe Hassam's The South Ledges

Oh, there's the ocean again. Because you know how much I love the beach.

There's an amazing collection of American Impressionists at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, and I was superexcited when I saw they chose this one for a magnet.

Despite the beach theme, I love, love, love this Childe Hassam painting of The South Ledges in Appledore, Maine. Hassam and a bunch of his creative friends all used to hang out at poet Celia Thaxter's house there during the summers, so there's more than a few Appledore paintings in Hassam's body of work.

Part of why I'm so drawn to this painting is because it's such a gorgeous color combination of blues and whites. Obviously. And always.

I'm also drawn to how the lady, presumably a well-to-do New Englander, is perched against the rocks, lost in thought. Honestly, the painting also reminds me of my favorite picture of well, me...against the world.

And, of course, the other reason I love it is because if you're just walking by the piece in a gallery, at first glance it feels like it's a Monet. Subtle differences show that it's not, and with each Hassam that I see, I'm getting better and better at telling the difference.

Or, I'm just getting better at reading the placards.

Here's lookin' at you, joy. Part two, electric Moose-a-loo

Magnet #925 - Moose

Yes. I totally bought this second magnet from that same gas station in Massachusetts. What?

This guy was totally what I was looking for all up and down the Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont part of our roadtrip this week.

What? It's not like they're joking when they put up those MOOSE CROSSING signs!

Sigh. The Meese must be on the same evac plans that the Bears are on when I come rollin' through town.

Quick! Joy's here, everyone! Stay outta sight!

Say hello to George for me...

Magnet #922 - Kennebunkport

My dad has this funny joke that he uses whenever he gets a chance.

When we went to London, he wanted to drop by Buckingham Palace, to say hi to Liz.

When people visited DC, he sent his regards to Bill or George.

And so, today, it made sense that when we stumbled into Kennebunkport on our way to Portland, that my dad would want to visit George, even from across the inlet.

I honestly didn't believe that's what this house was, the Bush's cottage getaway, even as half a dozen other tourists stood at our same vantage point. But, that's what it was, and of course, now, we have the pictures to prove we said hello.