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September 2009

Sunday Eve

Sunday evening at the Pomegranates is cool and quiet. Cucciolo is very busy with a bone and Bella Sera is passed out at my feet, asleep next to her son. We are gathered around the porch table eating a variety of catch as catch can for Sunday supper. I am content with some cheese, bread, and tomatoes, and the other 3 are eating penne a la vodka from the Italian place up the street.

The Teen and I have just returned from a college visit to the state college 90 minutes away. It has a great art program and is very accessible up the New York State Thruway. We agree that it is a good safe school for her, even if it is a tad too much like her high school - same population of students.

Sister #4 came along with her daughter, who is also graduating this year. After the tour, I found a very cool coffee house - huge, old sofas, guitar player, tin ceilings, many people on laptops - very much my kind of place. The Teen and I had a drink and then met up with my sister who had found a very cute outdoor shopping center that housed antique stores, candy store, cheese shop, and other boutique like shops. My sister got a cute metal planter that will look adorable on her front porch.

Mystery Man came home triumphant from his new town, having found a place to live. It's been quite the learning experience for him, as he went from deciding he wanted a two-bedroom townhouse to ending up with a really nice bedroom in a townhouse rented out by a couple. Seems the paycheck doesn't go that far even down south, and the places he saw online ended up being in very sketchy neighborhoods.  I am so happy that he ended up renting a room in a house with other people. I didn't relish him living by himself - over an adult movie theater! - in a strange town, starting his first full time job. Now I know that he's in a very nice town house, with a room and bath of his own, with a stable, bright professional couple. Whew! Got by that problem thanks to his determination and a lot of legwork all over the city.

Our Cape Cod house is still in contract. Like most houses on the Cape, it needs a lot of work and updating and we are still negotiating certain frills - like a furnace! With prayers, we hope to have it all resolved this week.

The Pomegranates are going to have an incredibly busy fall. Labor Day weekend we are helping MM move; The Teen has college visits to schedule; we hope to be closing on the Cape and getting up there to get work done. Oh, and we are having our only full bath gutted, which it desperately needs.

So don't think I don't love you all if I am not posting too, too frequently.

I did begin a series of paintings based on old family photographs. I started 4 and found that is an optimum amount as I can paint bits and bobs on each while the others dry.  It is absolutely amazing how much stress is released when I concentrate on painting. It's like an hour on the beach for me. I realized that I just HAVE to work it into my life, as crazy as it is right now. I'm getting up with the dogs and going straight into my artroom. Bella Sera likes to lay next to me and Cucciolo can be bribed with a bone so he doesn't tear apart all my supplies...After 60 minutes of painting, I can be caring, cheerful, and ready for everyone's needs without feeling like the martyr of motherhood.

The night is cool, the crickets are chirping, the candles are lit on the porch. May your Sunday slide into Monday with nary a thought!


The Sweet Life

Typepad has just eaten not one, but two of my witty, erudite, and pithy posts. I was all like, oh, vacation and work and dreary vs. happy, and wow, balancing my life v. work, entertainment vs. relaxation and woo-woo, self-insight, etc.

Not a work kept.

Twice.

I hate you tonight, typepad.

soooooo - what's new?

I was actually looking forward to going back to work. I needed some routine, missed wearing my summer dresses, and actually like the people I work with.

But now it's Tuesday night, I've worn two dresses, rebonded with everyone, and I'm wondering if I could come back next Monday, kay?

My 25 year old admin announced today that summer was over. I vacillated between chopping off her head and dumping 40 pounds of mail on her desk. Corporate protocols necessitated the dumping of the mail. She weighs about 90 pounds and has a sign on her cubicle: will work for food. I am thinking of having her stuffed and put on top of the filing cabinets as a warning to other young, pert admins to be afraid, to be very afraid.

Then I facilitated a very long meeting in which I nodded sagely and asked pertinent questions, all the while thinking:

  • OMG, am I too tan? Will anyone think this is a fake tan??
  • Can you see my grey roots under these flourescent lights or does the general frazzled condition of the hair conceal them?
  • My God, my skin looks orange!
  • When can I bug out of here and get a cappuccino?
  • Will everyone think I'm a pig if I eat the last half of bagel?
  • How many calories are in whipped cream cheese?
  • Why do I never remember to update Itunes and psync my Ipod except when I'm at work??
  • Why can't we wear flip flops in the office??

Later on, I was sailing through the lunchroom when someone sneeringly said that all Aquarians are shallow, very shallow. As I screeched to a halt and went all lawyer on her and declared that I am Very Deep and she was all embarassed and all the while all I was really thinking was, will she think I'm a pig if I eat the last half of bagel on the platter?


Winding Up

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One minute you are sailing along on your vacation,

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Up to your neck in unfettered days,

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Confident that the salt, sea, and sun will regenerate your missing limbs.

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And then, whomp!  Your shadow is suddenly longer.

As the world keeps spinning round.

But when we leave this time, we can hope that we will soon have a piece of this magic to call our own.

Thank you all for your good wishes.


And yes, once we get this house closed, cleaned, prepped, painted, and furnished there's gonna be a Par-Tee!

And ....  some art and writing retreats...stay tuned!!!


That Old Cape Magic

This narrow land really is a sacred place for the Pomegranates. We've been coming here for about 25 years and every town, road, beach, pond, and bay holds memories for us of our children as babies, of my sweet daddy who was here for his 70th birthday before he passed away, of my mom playing in the water with the kids, of my sisters all together with new husbands, of my kids learning to swim, of renting houses with our cousins, and just endless days spent on the beach, on whale watches, of cooking lobsters at home, and of being together as a family.

There really is a magic here for us, an aura, a powerful energy. Is it the incredible light, the absence of work and stress, the rhythm of the ocean? It is all those things and more. I just feel closer to God here and everyday is like a spiritual gift and a challenge for me to appreciate each moment: the early morning, the sultry afternoons, the spectacular sunsets, the smurry days, the wind, and the waves.

If ever there was confirmation that we were meant to be here, it occurred in the last 24 hours. In that small space of time, we have experienced the following:

1.  Mystery Man was offered a full time job with a firm in Baltimore as a mechanical engineer, his career dream since he was a kid putting together a giant roller coaster made of K-nex's;

2. The Princess's boyfriend passed his comps to enter a doctoral program in physics, his lifelong dream; and 

3. Our offer on a house for sale was accepted and if all goes well, we could be the owners of a second home on the Cape, our future retirement, after 25 years of dreaming about it - and it is 8 minutes from the beach!

I am so overwhelmed by it all I am in a daze.

I only wish Mr. Pom could have stayed another week so we could be holding each other but I'll have to settle for sending my love over the phone.


Halfway Point

Popping my head in to say hello. One week down, one to go. Lots of comings and goings.

Mr. Pom and The Princess have gone home. The cousins and aunt and uncle are here and we are spending long days at the beach with all of them.  Cucciolo has learned to swim now, too, though neither dog seems to favor it, preferring just to splash around. Bella Sera, actually, is obsessed with the minnows that appear in the shallows and you can't get her attention to save your life.

What have I done? Read a little, painted a little, swam, boogie boarded, took the dogs to the dog park and dog beach. Cooked, barbecued, had all the cousins over for pizza and ribs, shopped in Chatham, took photos at Stage Harbor where I slipped down the boat ramp but managed not to land in the muck, drank a lot of iced coffees, bought books, looked at houses, had giant family Pictionary nights, and played badminton.

Here are some pics from the week:

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Think he's working? Not. Watching the Yankees online.

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A panoramic photo of dinner on the deck - just couldn't fit in Mr. P.

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Spending time together at the beach.

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The Princess strikes a pose.

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The youngest cousin is the most fearless.

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All the pretty people are wearing white for summer!

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Cousins getting to know one another.

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Mr. Pom couldn't resist cooking up some ribs for his last night.

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Fierce badminton games are nothing compated to the Pictionary battles.

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This side of the family are the dog lovers. Good thing, since Cucciolo was a little nutty....

This week will be quieter with just Mystery Man, The Teen, Sister #2  and myself. Will maybe have some time to do some art, write a few paragraphs, and finish a book.  Off to sleep. Nothing like sand and surf to wear a girl out!


Before I Change My Mind

I am writing this very, very quickly before I change my mind:

no new posting on Pomegranatesandpaper until we return from vacation. I have a huge suitcase full of books, art supplies, a half-finished journal, and writing projects, and I am sitting on the deck blog surfing for hours....

I have to use this time creatively if I am ever to become who I am meant to be.

Love you all, and I may post some photos if MM remembers the cable.

Otherwise, I know you will understand that I can't just keep dreaming the impossible dream....


August Nights

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.  ~Wallace Stevens

Monday grew as warm and humid as a petrie dish, enveloping us with typical August weather in a summer that has been anything but.   We had yet to have those sultry evenings where the mosquitoes are plentiful and our beach towels are still damp by morning. But they are here now and the dogs are antsy, flopping from floor to floor, searching for a spot to cool their fur.

The Princess, Sister #2, and I sit on the deck as long as we can until it is too dark to read and the bugs become thick. Inside, the house is hot and stuffy and I don't wish to watch the news about anything that is going on in the world.

I persuade Mr. Pom and The Teen to take a car ride. We glide out into the night and down the dark hill to the Brewster Store. We come upon a tableau as bright as any Rockwell painting. Gathered as though stage set by an expert prop master, there is a great gaggle of people sitting outside on the worn benches, all with ice cream cones or dishes in their hands. Families with children lined up according to size; elderly couples with sensible small cones; giggling teenagers; and even a few moon-eyed young couples spooning a shared dish of towering whipped cream and hot fudge.  No one seems bothered by the humidity or the mosquitos. 

We go inside the air conditioned store, a very old building that creaks with our steps and is filled to the rafters with necessities, tom-fooleries, and sugary products from yesteryears and today. After perusing the penny candy (black licorice and Mary Janes for me), the vintage toy cars, the metal spatterware, and the lobster forks, clam shuckers, napkins with funny Cape sayings, and old time artifacts like the peanut roaster that really works, we glide off again into the night.

Our destination is the beach, Paine's Creek on the bay. When we shut off the motor, the velvet night encloses us in its clasp and I wonder when I last sat in such still darkness.  The air is soft and briny and no sounds break the quiet. It is mid-tide, so the flats are covered and even the sound of the tidal creek filling or letting out is stilled.

Amidst the eelgrass that blankets the tidal zone sits a large tidal pool.   Although there is no moon, the pool  glows as if lit by some magical light.  It is more beautiful than any maharajah's marble pool, and as I stare at it, it tricks me into thinking it is getting brighter, lit from within by some magical transference of day to night, a deep, white lunar light that  shimmers like the inside of an abalone shell.

Another car comes noisily down the hill,  breaking the magic with the beams of twin headlights trained on the water. A carful of teenage boys spill out and  quickly disperse into the dunes once they realize we are in the car next to them. We see flares of lighters and glowing red tips of something lit and then they quickly  come laughing back to the car, laughing and yelling the directions to another more secluded spot where they can get high.

We turn the car back around and climb the dark hill to our beds. The dogs will be up before dawn and we will have the chance to see the bay once again before dawn breaks light.


SUMMER VACATION '09

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Our pretty house is right up the street from the Brewster General Store. We can walk there for our breakfast coffee and our after dinner penny candy.

Yesterday was clear, sunny, and breezy. Today was sunny and HOT HOT HOT. Yay! Finally! It's summer! We're slathering on the sunscreen, hiding under the umbrella, and hanging out down by the water. 

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We've swum, swammed, swimmed with the dolphins dogs at the dog beach. We've eaten a lobster rolls, boiled our own lobsters and corn, and eaten more lobster rolls.

We've made burgers and dogs, cooked bacon and eggs, eaten mangoes and cheese, gone to the bay, to the dog beach, to the ocean, to the dog park, which has its own windmill!

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And gotten up at 4:00 with Cucciolo who can't quite get himself comfortable in the new digs.

[Quote from Mr Pom: Never again do the dogs go on vacation!]

Until next year, of course.

Oh, and we also were about to bid on a house when it was sold out from under us.

So I'm just saying, it's only Monday evening and we've done it all.

Photos? The few I've posted here are from the 'net cause, uh, you know the trouble I had with the cable to the camera a few weeks ago? Well, it seems I grabbed the wrong one once again and I'm can't upload anything.But Mystery Man is coming up later in the week after his SECOND interview in Baltimore, and has promised to find the right one and bring it. And a large omelette pan cause the house just has a puny one.

Can't wait to show it to you - it has a pretty well-stocked kitchen, too. And you'd laugh to know that about 2 miles away is a Super Stop and Shop with a Starbucks. So I pretty much can get anything I need.

Tomorrow night we are having a Perseids Party. Meteor watching on the deck with Grapefruit Vodka and Tonics! La Tur cheese with crackers!

AND Bella Sera LEARNED TO SWIM! We dragged her into the deep water a few times and she took a nice leisurely swim around us. I could cry, I tell ya. Her son, the Cuch, was similarly coaxed dragged in but he blew out of the water as fast as a flying fish.

Tomorrow, we try again. 

The Teen got sunburned because she is 17 and knows more than any of us. Right now she and Bella Sera are sitting adorably together on the back lawn while The Cucch eats something disgusting under the deck.

The Princess is texting and calling Physics Boyfriend every 5 minutes because he has his big exams tomorrow. Good luck, Physics Boyfriend! We know you can do it!

I have done a few quick watercolors at the beach and I am trying to begin a new book.

I promise to have a book post up later in the week once I have time to pull all the books out into one place.

Sister #2 is home from the gym and we are about to tuck into lobster rolls that Amy told us about and I am hoping to hear again from Miss Sunshine State cause she was right nearby but I missed seeing her email until too late in the day.


Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli

So today, very apropos post for Mrs. Pom in the New York Times on what to pack as a Kitchen Essential for your summer vaca on the Cape.

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(An aside: I'm reading the article in the car outside Starbucks at 7:00 a.m., pretending that I'm already at the beach and don't have to drop off the dogs, who are breathing down my neck just in case I happened to get a croissant that I might want to share as if I would share a $3 piece of bad pastry with two dogs which I probably would, sigh. Anyway. I'm reading the article and thinking, gee, who wrote this because it has some really lovely phrases, so I go back to the front section to look at the byline and oh. Jhumpa Lahiri. Okay, yeah, she's a slightly good writer....)

So Ms. Lahiri writes about what she considers her essential kitchen needs even in a summer house and it got me to thinking. We're leaving on Saturday....for two weeks, which I haven't done in a couple of years and we are very excited.

I have already packed my clothes, my art supplies, and have gathered The Books into two big piles (which Mr. Pom is eying and threatening to ground me for.) I haven't given a thought to The Kitchen. Usually, I don't bring anything special except a box of Equal and a selection of Twinings Tea so I don't have to spend the money up there.

Part of the fun of a vacation house is getting to use other people's "stuff" and making do.  And it's not like there isn't a giant Stop and Shop a few miles from the house. In fact, I poked Blackbird for worrying about what food to pack when she was on Cape until she reminded that she's a good twenty minutes from a big supermarket.

But Jhumpa got me thinking. It will be two weeks. I do have some dietary needs.

Like the same coffee I drive 2 miles out of my way to get on the way home everyday, which I was feeling weird about until I realize that I could be stopping to throw back a beer each night so what's a cup of coffee??

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OMG! How am I going to go two weeks without Essse coffee when I can't go more than a day now??

Here's what it says online about Essse coffee:

Essse Espresso Coffee Beans

Essse coffee, roasted by the world renowned Mr. Segafredo, is delightful to almost every espresso coffee palate and found in 5 star, white tablecloth restaurants. Now, this coffee with the BIG S, is available to you in the home through 1st-line! There are four different blends and one decaf that are currently available. We suggest that you try 2 blends at a time to conclude the best taste for you.

So now Mr. Pom knows who I will ultimately leave him for: Mr. Segafredo, which is a totally made up name which means something like "saw cold" and probably has some cool Italian idiomatic meaning, but although I am descended from Italians on both sides, I know five words. But me want to meet Mr. Segafredo and bear his children because I loves his coffee so much.

So I send sister #2 to Arthur Avenue to get it. But then I figure she's never going to get there and I realize, duh! I can ask them at the cafe where I buy it each day to sell me the coffee beans and they are in fact only happy to sell me anything for a price.

So of course, Sister #2 had already been to Arthur Av so now we have enough coffee for the summer. However, she really thought ahead and bought caffeinated and decaffeinated, so we have our morning fix and our evening fix.

So with the coffee and the French press, I only need to pack a toothbrush and my bathing suit and I could leave tonight.

Oh, and 20 books and a giant bag of art supplies.

So here is my question: if you were going away for a week where you had to prepare your own meals and weren't sure what the kitchen would be equipped with, what would be your Kitchen Essential?

Write soon! Need time to pack it all!


Tours of New York 2009

Longtime readers of this blog - all 6 of you - may remember that the Poms favorite summer pastime is to head out to the ocean wilds on summer weekends. We were all about being the first ones on the beach, preferably before 8:00 a.m., with coffee and mangoes and buttered rolls in hand.

Summer 2009, the summer that is stuck in perpetual late spring rains and chill, sees us on August 2nd as pale and sunless as our midwinter selves. No, we haven't seen the melanoma foolishness of our ways, we just have two problems that prevent us from hauling out of bed at the crack of dawn and greeting the sun rise over the Atlantic:

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New York beaches do not allow dogs, which is a shame because the labs love the water and would rather spend a day at the shore than anywhere else. (There is a small dog beach nearby, but humans cannot swim there.  I could write a treatise about the development of the Long Island Sound shoreline over the last century and the privatization of water access for the wealthy, but I don't want to bore you.)

But don't cry for me, Pomegranate readers, we have just adjusted our recreational activities until later in the day. Instead of haunting the beach this summer, we are exploring the greatest city in the world, the world that is at our door steps and like most native New Yorkers, we tend to largely ignore. This summer we are playing tourists in our town, with a grateful nod to The Princess for the apt description.

Saturday was the jewel in a damp crown of summer days. Mr. Pom said, let's go, and we went. That's how it is around here. We jump at the chance to be outside in the sun.

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Museums are filled with masterpieces, but today we were loathe to be inside.

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There were masterpieces to be found all over the city.

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The sidewalks were our galleries.

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The plazas our exhibition spaces.

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When you walk the city streets you discover the beauty of the municipal sculptures from yesteryear, a little bit of European culture that has all but disappeared from our cities.

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The sweetness of the carillon in the Children's Zoo with it's panoply of charming animals to mark the hours.

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And birds that you can only see on city streets.

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After so much fresh air and culture, we needed to partake of the gourmet delights of Manhattan.  Anyone who is a foodie - or not - is aware of the incredible quality of the high end restaurants in the city of New York.

We don't do that.

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We do this.


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Mr.Pom thinks nothing of driving from the Upper East side to the Village for pizza made in a coal-fired oven.

So our ocean mornings have morphed into city afternoons. We are together outside in the sun, enjoying the sights and each other, discovering parts of the city that we rarely visit and discovering new parts of our relationship for our empty nest selves. It is a new excitement in our lives, something else to anticipate and plan and to enjoy without much planning or effort.

Funny thing is, we had always planned to move far away once the kids were grown, but now we are forming a new attachment to the city, and even shyly looking at real estate ads, though I am more able to imagine ourselves in a city environment than Mr Pom can.

I guess that's the point of it all: keep things fresh, spontaneous, and the future close at hand.