In Which it's New Year's Eve 2023

 

...and going to be a quiet one. Beth, our person, managed to avoid it for close to four years, but COVID finally got her just before Christmas. She's pretty sure she knows who it was that came to work sick when they shouldn't have and needless to say, she is NOT a very happy camper. She didn't get super sick or anything - just a lot of sinus drip, a LOT of sneezing and an extreme amount of Samuel L. Jackson style cursing when the second line appeared on the little test thingy. She's been feeling better since Tuesday but still had a positive test this morning. She would tell you all to wear masks, although that train apparently left the station week before last. (And yes, she is indeed fully vaxxed and boosted, which is why she's up and about making peanut butter cookies and complaining about it rather than being in the hospital or worse.) I get it, though. Man, I'd be pissed, too. 

These weird things are some leftover Orbeez, by the way. I think she had the idea of using them to maybe root cuttings. She said she had some that were actually pretty (blue and purple) but she used them a few years ago in a failed attempt at keeping lucky bamboo happy. So these are apparently the ugly ones she's hydrating. These things are weird. Kind of like the love child of one of those Superballs you get out of a gum machine and a Jello shot. Don't tell her I know what Jello shots are, okay? You do learn some stuff being on the web. 

Speaking of learning stuff....

Lenore: I thought it was supposed to be sunny today.

Fawn: It was. *Supposed* to be. When was the sun out last, anyway?

Lenore: Christmas day....

Fawn: What were you asking Jamie about?

Lenore: I asked him if he'd asked Miss Beth about his sister coming here, and he said he hadn't yet. He also said there's a Miss Torrance who's going to be joining us. I think she's older, though. Like him. 

Fawn: Jamie isn't that old!

Lenore: No, but he's older than we are. And did you find the website?

Fawn: Right here. Archive of Our Own. That's the one Beth was talking about. 

Lenore: So where's this story?

Fawn: There are a bunch of them. This one's really funny, though. One of the characters is reading one of those really dirty books, but it's really badly written.

Lenore: It looks okay to me.

Fawn: No, the story isn't badly written. The book he's reading is badly written. and they wrote a bunch of excerpts. 

Lenore: Like the one Miss Beth wrote where one of the characters was reading that really awful romance novel?

Fawn: Yeah, except this one's really explicit. And funny. Like this. "My demon lover approached me and shredded the clothes from my body, scattering the shredded rags about the library like autumn leaves to the wind..."

Lenore: I hope he brought a change of clothes or that's not gonna be a fun commute home from work...

Fawn: I'm sure he thought of that somewhere along the line. He did plan this, you know."

Fawn, still reading several hilariously painful paragraphs later: "With this power from our coupling, I can replant the entire Amazon rain forest!" my demon lover declared as he vanished, leaving me sated and spent. It was then that I realized I had nothing to wear to get home..."

Lenore: Told you he didn't think it through.

Fawn: Well, I guess he could have worn a garbage bag. But that still would have been embarrassing.

Lenore: Not to mention that kind of went out of style awhile ago. And if the library has garbage bags like Miss Beth's office, they're all clear. So that wouldn't have worked either. 

Fawn: Yeah, he *really* should have thought that through. 

(For the record, Beth said "yeah, they're about the age I was when we started reading stuff like that, but we didn't have fanfiction. We had to make do with sneaking actual books. As long as they come to me with any questions, it's fine." She also can't remember the name of the one everyone was passing around like seventh-grade contraband, which, some to think of it, it probably was. She also said it was just about as comically bad, except it wasn't supposed to be funny. I think she enjoys playing benevolent cool aunt to a couple of twelvish-year-old girls.)

Lenore also got a guitar for Christmas, but she eschewed the "Campfire Sing-Alongs" book it came with in favor of looking up the chords to "Rock And Roll High School." Like Beth at that age, I think she's decided she wants to be Riff Randall when she grows up. 

Meanwhile, back in the living room....

Maddy: Okay, these things are weird. What are they again?

Hawthorne: Cool! A ball pit! COWABUNGA!!!!

Maddy: Hawthorne, wait up! This isn't a....

*SPLAT*

Maddy: I tried to tell you....

Barbie: Oh for the love of - Hawthorne, are you okay!?

Hawthorne: I thought it was a ball pit!

Hawthorne is fine, by the way. But we had a very long talk with her about (literally!) looking before you leap, and asking questions - and permission.

And no. I have no idea what Beth was planning to do with those Orbeez, but pixie ball pit probably wasn't it....

Anyway, Happy New Year!

In Which Lenore is Today's Guest Blogger

 Miss Caroline said it would be okay for me to introduce myself. I don't know if I want to start my own blog or not. 

Hi. I'm Lenore.

I came to live here in April, 2020. That was a really weird year. I used to live in Colorado, but the lady I lived with said that I needed to go to New York. It was a better place for me and I'd have more friends there. I didn't want to go, though. I thought I was going to stay in Colorado forever. And I hadn't given up thinking that one one day everyone would come back and things would be like they used to be. But the lady said that wasn't going to happen, it couldn't happen for a bunch of reasons and I would be much happier in New York. I wasn't at first. The lady I was sent to live with, Miss Beth, had adopted another doll who at the time I really, really didn't like. I thought she had come to take my place, and she thought I was really spoiled and ungrateful and didn't appreciate everything I had. And I guess she was right. I kind of didn't. Anyway, I didn't think I was going to be happy here at all. But everyone turned out to be okay. Even Fawn turned out to be really, really nice. I miss my Ahma sometimes, though. She had to go back to the Fairy Court, but this time they wouldn't allow me to come with her. They said it's because I'm not one of them. I don't think it's very fair, but I didn't have much of a say in it. But they're really mean anyway, except for Ahma, so maybe it's for the best. 

Anyway, I've been here for almost four years now, and I think I like it. It's really nice, although Miss Beth said we're going to be moving to another place at some point soon. A place around here, though. Some of the other dolls are going to have to go into storage, she said, but Fawn, Miss Caroline, Miss Madrigal and I aren't among them. She said we'll get to be with her the whole time. I'm kind of excited, although I don't know where we'll be going or anything. I want a place with lots of windows so we can have more houseplants. 

Miss Beth reminded me that Christmas is coming up at the end of the month and asked me what I wanted. I said some new clothes and a new pair of boots. I really want some leggings like Fawn wears all the time. I wish they still made MP3 players. They look like they'd be cool. I was watching a bunch of music videos on YouTube and asked Miss Beth what she liked when she was my age. She said that there was this show by a band called Sha Na Na and they played all these songs from the Fifties and she liked them a lot. There was another show called Pink Lady and Jeff that all the grownups thought was stupid, but they had cool bands like Cheap Trick and Blondie and Alice Cooper, too, and she liked all of them because of the show. She also said someone at her school thought it would be a good idea to put a jukebox in the cafeteria, but it only lasted about a month. She thinks now it was because one of the grownups figured out what the lyrics to "My Sharona" and "Good Girl's Don't" meant. (She also said Sharona is a real lady and she's apparently really cool.) She also said she really liked the Ramones after they were on with Sha Na Na. She said that the Ramones (who really weren't named Ramone) and Blondie were punk bands from New York City, and that it was a big deal at the time because nobody knew what to think of them. She said she wanted to be like Debbie Harry when she grew up. I think I do, too. She's really pretty and cool. Maybe I should ask for a guitar? I think that's what you need to play of you want to be in a band. I played violin for a long time, but I don't think there are a lot of violinists in bands. Miss Caroline played a bunch of songs from the Psychedelic Furs for me and they're pretty cool, too, but I think she totally misinterpreted the song she named herself after. I think the Caroline in the song is what Miss Simona would have called "loose." I know that means doing stuff with men that she shouldn't be. There's also a song by another band called Concrete Blonde called "Caroline" and Miss Beth and I both think it's about the same person. Maybe I'll start a band like the Alarm. They write songs about standing up to the people that keep trying to keep things bad or make them worse when they should be making them better. That's what we all should do, I think.  

This is me, Fawn and Mr. Jamie. He's also really nice. He's one of the only boys here. He told me, Fawn and Miss Caroline that he has a sister our age and he wants to ask Miss Beth if she can come stay with us when her school term is over. I think he's a little afraid to ask, but I don't think she'll say no. He said she's been studying ballet but isn't sure she wants to be a professional dancer. I think their mother wants her to be and isn't taking no for an answer. 

I cant think of anything else to talk about right now, but here's a picture Miss Beth took a couple of weeks ago. This was over the Hudson river where she works first thing in the morning, and she said she has no idea where the rainbow came from because it had stopped raining by then. But it's still really cool. 

In which it's literally everything everywhere all at once....

 

This coming Monday is the first day of spring. I need to keep reminding myself of that. 

Yeah, this was NOT what I meant when I was wondering if it was possible to sage someplace without setting off the sprinklers. This was yesterday morning. It was still snowing when we went to bed, but thankfully it wasn't quite as wet as it was earlier and enough of it is out of the trees that they're not as bent over anymore. I'm pretty sure throwing a snowball made from that first round would have ended in a capitol murder charge, but now it's just the type of snow that packs. And the Weather Channel had someone in Poughkeepsie. I'm just glad it wasn't Jim Cantore. Because, as much as I love me some Jim Cantore, when he shows up, you KNOW it's about to get real....

Then there was this. Note we are in the 0% area. Now, storms like this are hard to forecast. There's the problem of accumulations being elevation-dependent, bands of snow setting up within the storm, that sort of thing. But given that the next pic is what actually happened....

One of us should have bought a Powerball ticket....
 

But  I digress,,,,

Remember me talking about a road trip a few weeks ago? Well, it finally happened. And yeah, it was quite the happening. In the best way possible. But let me explain....

Originally it was supposed to happen on March 4th. The plan was that Beth, my person, had a civil service exam that morning and from there, we were going to jet (well, metaphorically jet. More like drive) across the Hudson to Woodstock. You see, there's this band called the Bongos who my person loved back in the 80s and still does, as a matter of fact. Their lead singer, Richard Barone, wrote a book about the New York folk scene in the 60s during lockdown, and it's out, and he was coming to Woodstock to talk about it and well, as she put it, her seventeen-year-old self would never, ever have forgiven her 2023 self had she not gone. 

However, March fourth wasn't to be. At least not for that. Unlike the county, Richard had the good sense to reschedule for the eleventh when it turned out that it might be quite nasty that day. She did make the exam, but the roads were quite unpleasant on the drive up, to say the least. Then everyone was made to park in the extreme back parking lot and walk across the street and up about eighty million stairs, So yeah, no fun.

So it rolled around to March 11th and OF COURSE it snowed again. We were going back and forth for a bit on whether or not the roads were going to be okay, but - we decided to go for it. So - we did. And someday one of us really needs to figure out what the HECK they did with the westbound entrance ramp to I-84 in Fishkill. We circled around twice, didn't see it and finally got on the eastbound one and went down an exit to turn around. I swear she's either the reincarnation of the Pathfinder or she can get lost in a driveway and there's no in-between. But anyway, we finally made it across the river and Woodstock-bound, only to discover that hey, there wasn't even any snow at all over across that way! Now that's the way I like it. (And someone really needs to repave the NYS Thruway. I was convinced we had a flat tire, but nope, just about twenty-seven miles worth of bad road.) Over toward Woodstock there was a bit more snow on the ground. It was just icky enough and just too-many-peopley-enough that our original plan to snag a bunch of pics beforehand didn't pan out. We were, however, not disappointed. We stopped in a coffee shop to regroup and grab lunch, drove around for a bit and finally headed back to the church where the whole thing was taking place. I was thinking we'd grab some pics of the place before anyone else got there, but that was not to be, in the coolest way possible. Because when we got there...

"Oh my God, Caroline, I think - oh my God, that's - him...."

Yup, it was indeed the man himself getting his guitar out of the trunk of a car. I didn't think my person's eyes could even get that big. She played it very, very cool, however, before parking behind the building and having a bit of a minor freak-out. 

I do wish we'd gotten a picture of the front of the building though....

We were still kind of early, so we waited a bit in the car. I think I was posting about it on Ye Old Book of Face while my person was wondering just what she'd let herself in for. Because up until now, I think the only famous person she'd ever met was the journalist who broke something she called the Iran-Contra story, Dale Van Atta. She promised she'd explain that to me someday. 

(Beth - And Joe Clark. Remember the movie about that New Jersey principal? "Lean On Me" with Morgan Freeman? That one.)

And so anyway, around twenty of three, we decided to go in. She was thinking that we probably wouldn't run into anyone and we'd find a seat....

And I really need a cellphone of my own to take pics, because when we walked in, Richard Barone was right there, chatting with a couple of other people. He looked around, gave us this gorgeous smile and said "Hi, I'm Richard." I have to hand it to my person, she played it a whole lot cooler than I would have. But here she was, thinking that oh, she might get to say hello to him if she was really lucky, and instead, she ends up chatting with him and several other people while they were setting up. 

Yes, he's absolutely the nicest guy. 

I think my person knows more about music in that sense than I do, but it was really interesting. I know I learned a lot. And got to hear a bunch of great songs, And next time we're up there, I must make a point of getting a pic of myself with the adorable travel doll companion of the lady who owns the Golden Notebook (the shop that arranged everything.) It was even cooler not being the only travel doll there, It meant I didn't need to stay in her bag.

And as much as my person despises pics of herself, I am going to post this one. It's her, of course, me and Richard Barone. I think she'll forgive me, I also think she's still in total fangirl mode four days later.

And honestly, I kind of am, too.... 

So yeah, literally everything all at once, but at least some of it is beyond awesome...

In Which I Think the Groundhog Missed the Long-Range Forecast.....

 

See what I mean? It's February and we have crocuses. 

 

Last year was - this. 

Okay, this was actually February 19th of last year, and it was a snow squall, not a whole snowstorm. We got about an inch, albeit in something like less than ten minutes. But you get the idea. 

Today, however, it's both 60F and President's Day, which means our person isn't at work. The rest of the week is supposed to be less pleasant, however, and they're hinting about snow possibly for Saturday late. 

No, the whole road trip thing is supposed to be the following Saturday, March 4th. This coming Saturday is Tax Appointment Day, also known as The Day We Get All These Freaking Envelopes Off The Desk Day. 

Today, however, is a very non-manic Monday. 

Or would be if there weren't bees everywhere. I remember Sohalia telling me that elephants have a specific noise that means "There are bees here; let's leave immediately!" Why are elephants smarter than we are?

Celine: "We do have a noise like that."

Me: Really? What does it sound like?"

Celine: "Like this - THERE ARE BEES HERE, LET;' LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!"

Okay, that was not one of my finest moments......

Faye was hanging out on the front porch when we went around. She was hoping either her Dad or her Papa would be home today, despite Maddy reminding her it's going to be awhile yet. They intended to come over with her, but got delayed in London. According to Maddy, something's going down in the Up. Wherever the Up is. 

It's kind of rough on her. She's really close to both of them. She's also actually the youngest out of all of us. (Lenore being a changeling and older than she seems, that is. I was told that she's over two hundred but for all intents and purposes is more like eleven or twelve. I'm not familiar with fairies and how they do things, so I have no idea.) Faye is about sixteen. I asked Maddy again and she said she doesn't expect Faye's Dad until maybe April or May and her Papa until maybe June. That's about the time Celine's sister Seren (aka Indigo) should be back from school. 

As for why they sent her here, Maddy said it was because it was safer for her to stay with her sisters while everything was going down - or Up? I have no idea who she meant, though, given that Faye is staying with her and Celine......

Bonus pic....

In Which - a possible road trip?!?!!!!

 

Okay, so - there is a very good possibility that we may be taking a road trip back to Woodstock in the very near future.

Let me elaborate...

My person (whose name is Beth, BTW) saw on the old Book of Face that the lead singer of one of her *favorite* bands from Back When is going to be in Woodstock on March 4th. 

Beth: Not "back when." They're back together!

Anyway, said band is called the Bongos and their lead singer, Richard Barone, has written several books and he's going to be in Woodstock talking about the very music scene we both missed (her because she was too young, me because, well, I kind of didn't exist back in the early 80s....) And since we have to be up in Poughkeepsie at what Maddy lovingly referred to as the "Arse-Crack of Dawn" that day, we're pretty much a third or so of the way there.

My person is mildly freaking out over the prospect because it involves one of her least favorite things to do, crossing a bridge (we're totally on the wrong side of the Hudson for this) and she's nervous as all heck about actually going but I don't think her seventeen-year-old self would ever, ever forgive her current self if she didn't, so....

Road trip!