In the afternoon, I explored Midtown, visiting Grand Central and Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. The sun was out in full force. A pleasant surprise. The weather reports had anticipated rain for weeks. I was a little startled by how quickly everybody walked. People moved with extreme speed in Grand Central. Extreme. … More Afternoon in Midtown
After a wonderfully raucous meeting with my new art group – a story I’ll save for later – I went ice skating with an old friend. I also ended up befriending two little girls who asked if I could teach them to skate. One thought I was 15 years old – turns out I was … More Figure Eight
Looking ahead, I wanted to note some changes to coolpeppermint moving forward. The first big change is that I finally went ahead and upgraded my Wordpress. The pesky ads are gone. And I have a domain: coolpeppermint.blog! … More Changes
We took the ferry to Cernobbio, a quiet town on Lake Como. Beforehand, we had a leisurely breakfast overlooking the lake. Every morning, our kind waitress set up the table with an obscene amount of food: fruits, bread, cereals, salami, cheese, croissants, cucumbers, and more. Because it was a small hotel, we felt guilty about … More A Day in Cernobbio, Italy
We arrived in Lyon, a beautiful city in southeast France. Straddled between the Rhône and Saône rivers, Lyon was a refreshing mix of new and old, industrial and nature. Looking across the river, I immediately felt lighter. Compared to Paris, there were fewer crowds and less smoke. Overall, it was slower and easier to … More Hills of Lyon are Alive
Over the years, on Wordpress, people have come and gone, shared lives and left, left old blogs to pursue new ones. They continue on with their lives, maybe updating with the occasional life update, but most often not. … More You’ve Got a Blogger in Me
In early April, we took (yet another) spontaneous road trip. The drive over was smooth. The weather was perfect. Sunshine and teal skies. Microsoft screensaver clouds and a cool breeze. I was our Spotify DJ, my usual responsibility. I hopped from one genre to another, trying to -catch- a vibe. On my 90’s playlist, Wannabe … More Discovering Dishes
I photographed strangers, artwork, puppies, toys, store fronts, adults on small trains, humans wearing felt panda heads. It was then that I realized: there is so much whimsicalness in the world. So much strangeness and beauty. I began to shift my perception, seeing my surroundings in blacks and whites, hues and gradients, shadows and bright spots. … More B&W Film
Happy 2/22/22! Thought I’d repost this from last Fall. I shared something similar on my Tumblr blog in 2011, too, on 1/11/11, although I’d never been bombarded by numbers until recently. (Also, this stopped around December.) Right before we went on our road trip for the 4th, I started noticing something weird: repeating and consecutive … More Repeating Numbers
Two years ago, I stumbled upon a local farm, vintage film camera in tow. Despite always having lived in a semi-rural-but-mostly-suburban area, it never occurred to me that there’d be a live, operating farm twenty minutes away. And it was free to explore, because the city had designated the 6 acres as historic and educational … More Fall at the Farm [35mm Film]
We were at the bookstore yesterday, in the corner by the back of the tables, where I read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I was surprised by how drawn I was to the story, situated in Boston, and I was surprised by how vivid the scenes were. They reminded me of Pennsylvania, the suburbs on … More Vivid
The interesting part, to me, is that when it comes to psychological mechanisms – like the subconscious or defensiveness or cyclical patterns of trauma – is how they occur under the surface, seemingly undetected, causing destruction later on. It’s like an eel slithering under a layer of frozen water. The eel slithers around – slither, … More Slithering Subconscious
The best dates are accidental – the bookstore/coffeeshop you didn’t expect, the historic square you didn’t anticipate, the flea market you didn’t know about. Today had all three – the bookstore/coffeeshop, the historic square, the flea market. I had an itch to go somewhere, maybe a bookstore or coffeeshop, preferably somewhere with space, parking, novelties, … More Accidental Date II
Sometimes I forget I was in a long distance relationship. I never mentioned it on my blog, despite having blogged throughout it all. I kept it vague, since it seemed personal. But since it’s in the past, it’s more of something I peer at curiously. Until now, I haven’t made a peep about it, but … More On Long Distance
Le beau took me to the unpaved trail by the lake. When our bikes hit the loose gravel, I was reminded of the time we went off-roading in Colorado. On the trail, my legs burned. It was up, up, up, and then down. And then back up. We then turned back around, where I felt … More Déjà Vu
Reading a book now called White Ivy. In some ways, I see myself in the protagonist, Ivy, but also not. Growing up, I was bathed in affection, overwhelmed in it, while love was withheld from her. She was born in China, then brought to America, while I was born and raised here, a banana. Her … More When We Were Young
There are more sparklers, quiet starts, sputters and spins than full blown fireworks. The most exciting one is the giant sno-cone styled one that L chose. It shoots off for a solid minute, pauses, spits more sparks, stops, fountain of light. We don’t trust it when it stops going off. A runs over to pour beer into it. … More Fourth of July Weekend
I suppose in the end it’s a desperate struggle to make room for yourself in this world, by leaving behind stories, hoping they’ll suffice and be able to construct a near perfect image of our souls. A carbon dating for the experiences we’ll have buried. It’s terrifying, the yawning void. I used to be scared … More Daily Blog #474 : Of writing and telling people too much
There’s an upper level to ruggedness. We all have one. Well. I hit mine today when we veered off the boulder-infested roads, dipped into a steep hill, sped manically through unpaved meadow, plowed on forward towards another steep hill, faced an intimidatingly 90 degrees towards the cloudy skies, and found ourselves staring at the physically insurmountable mound of dirt, unable to move forwards or back. … More The One Where We Get Lost In The Woods And Stuck On A Steep Backroads Dirt Mound In The Middle Of A Storm
In a half awake haze, I saw myself sitting at a train station. It looked like the train station on 34st. I was sitting on the train bench outside, waiting for the train to arrive. Waiting and waiting. So I waited and waited and waited and waited. At some point, though, I realized that the … More Train Station
Yesterday morning, we left the tiny house Airbnb. Leaving town, we cruised up Road 50. More beautiful winding roads up up the mountainside. There was a road delay up ahead, a sheriff told us: a thirty minute wait. We parked by the side of the road, across a ranch, where a hawk spun around in … More Jump Street and Symphony of Moo’s
As I laid there, pretending to sleep, I realized that the best decisions of my life were all impulsive. Done on a whim. A day before, I would never have imagined that I’d do what I did, but I did. Without any planning. Without any rational. And yet it’d shape up to be one of … More Whim
I’m like a small crying cherub filled with helium always on the verge of flying into the clouds and as if I’m on a string le beau will pull me down and remind me to be here with me now
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