First Things First
I'm glad Christmas is over.  I didn't get anything I really needed, or wanted... again!  I got a few nice things, like a little cash.  Which, sadly, is already spent.  Oh well.  Maybe next year, right?
In site news, I've added a few more pages since last month.  If you click on 17 you'll find a couple of new things, including The Fitzgerald, and the Winter Dreams bookstore.  I hope you check them out.  Soon I plan on adding more pictures to Vista Drive and more to 17.

Afterthoughts : No Cage Required
For the last few days a tiny bird has been flying around my window.  He's a small thing, only a couple of inches tall, but he's cute.  I first saw him last week.  I was eating breakfast and there he was, fighting it out with the window.  He seemed to want to get into the house.  I opened the window so that he could come in and maybe grab a bite.  My grandmother thought he was cute and also wanted to catch him.  But, then as I watched him I came to a realization, I shouldn't cage this tiny creature.  His beauty comes from the fact that he gets to fly around seemingly playing tag with the window.  I thought back to a book title, "Why does the caged bird sing," and asked myself, why.  I think I know why, and I thought better than to take this tiny bird and cage him up.  I had a few canaries growing up, and even then I could bring myself to shut them in a cage.  They had a cage, but I left the door open so they could fly around as they wished.  Still, it's not the same as being out in the world.  So, I'll enjoy watching this tiny bird fly around my window for as long as he wishes to remain around here.  I'd like to give him a name so I don't just go around saying, "The bird is back."  He needs a name, but we haven't been able to agree on one.  For now I might just call him Emerald, because he's green.  Yet, he also has a splash of red on the very top of his head, which could lend itself to another name... Red.  :)

Man About Town : Union Station

Union Station is the hub of rail transportation in Los Angeles.  More then that it is a prime example of the art-deco influences on the buildings of Los Angeles.  Done in a Spanish mission style, the station's interiors are pure deco.  The station harks back to an era in which the train was the way to go.  Train stations where what airports are today, only with a grand style that shown in every aspect of the trip.  Upon entering Union Station one is struck by the space of the mail hall.  The interior's size is more reminiscent of a cathedral, than anything else.  But, that was the point.  Riding the train not the cattle drive that flying a plane has now become.  There seemed to be more time to enjoy.  The train never got you to your destination at breakneck speed, but it did get you there in comfort and style.  The great train stations around the nation, like Union Station, represent that attitude.

Many movies have used Union Station as a local to represent a bygone era.  Since the interiors haven't changed, they lend a air of the past that can't always be duplicated on a movie set.

Union Station is a great place to people watch.  Each person has a place to go, and a reason for choosing the train.  Some might be afraid to fly, other might like the inherent romance that a train trip has.  Still others might just be taking the subway, or a Metrolink commuter train, you never know.  Yet, that's the fun in watching people walk by at Union Station, you can imagine they might be headed anywhere.

Editorial : Loose Socks
I tie my shoes on tightly because I don't like them moving around from under my feet, like with sandals.  I hate sandals because I don't feel secure walking in them.

One thing that thwarts my best shoe tightening efforts are loose socks.  They move up towards the toe and that drive me crazy.  It's like I have a rock in my shoe, and no matter how many times I wiggle my toes that darn lump of cloth is still bunched up in the front of my shoe.  Right now I have to throw out a perfectly good pair of socks because they ride down to the toe.

What I really hate is when one sock in a pair is loose and the other is firm.  I have a pile of socks that don't have a matched pair.  It's like a mountain of mismatched socks in my drawer.  I should just get rid of them, don't you think?  But, I don't know when the match might suddenly show up in the wash.  It's happened before.  I've had a mismatched sock in my drawer for a while.  I didn't throw it away, even though I was sure that I threw away the other sock because it had a hole in it.  Well, a few weeks later, there it was, on my clean clothes pile.  I ended up throwing both of the socks away, one because it was loose and the other because it had a hole in it.  I just can't win with socks.

Etcetera : The Next Hot Girl

Elisha Cuthbert
picture copyright © 2001 Maxim Inc.