Frankly my dear...

I've been wanting to write a post about my love of deers for a while now. I always knew that the title would be "Frankly my dear," but mistakenly believed that it was a line made famous by Humphrey Bogart.

 Clark Gable dissing Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind

Oops! 

You learn something new everyday, it seems.

Of the Cervidae family, deer include moose, elk (also known as wapiti), caribou and reindeer (ho ho ho) and have been around for over 35 million years. Their main defenses when attacked by predators include 1) running away and 2) hiding.

Interesting.

Since I always thought it was impossible to have an actual, live deer, I collect every other kind possible. Drawn, painted or sculpted... they're all equally dear to me.

a present from my mom

 painted by yours truly

 a gift from dear friends

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was not only possible to have a deer, but that one of my all-time favourite people - Audrey Hepburn - had one.

Audrey and I have always had a special relationship. 

Even though I never met her, her talent, grace and kindness have been inspirations to me since the day I put my very own ballet slippers in the fridge in her honour. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's

There's something about her spirit that has always connected me to her and the quotes I stumbled upon while researching this post have only served to strengthen that connection.

Audrey's deer's name was Pippin but she called him Ip. She got him in 1959 while filming Green Mansions, a movie about a jungle girl  - with a deer - who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller. 

In order for her and the deer to have good on-screen chemistry, it was suggested that Audrey bring Pippin home. 

So she did. 

And they became fast friends.

If only it was as easy to get a deer as it is to put ballet slippers in the fridge. Sigh.

It seems as if Audrey Hepburn isn't the only person to have a special connection with deers...

   fawning

Love, life, (labels) and the pursuit of happiness

Like Seinfeld, Sex and the City spawned a slew of quotables that can be used in everyday life. Nary a day goes by, in fact, that a SATC quote, or situation (getting broken up with on a Post-It note, anyone?), doesn't come to mind.   

But maybe that's just me.

I was out for dinner at Il Cortile with a friend the other night when she unleashed one of the greatest compliments ever. 

"You remind me of Carrie," she said. End quote.

While some people may not view the above statement as a compliment, given Carrie's ever-so-slightly neurotic nature, I most certainly do.

Like Carrie, I'm a writer. Like Carrie, I'm a bon vivant of not just food and drink but also of clothes and shoes. Like Carrie, I'm blessed/cursed with a Mr. Big. Like Carrie, I have curly blonde hair... and so forth.

Like the actress who portrayed the ever-so-slightly neurotic writer, Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP), my initials also run the gamut of three characters - with J firmly ensconced as the middle one; UJL.

Freaky!

A couple of weeks ago, when my laptop suddenly crashed, I was reminded of the following quote from season 4, episode 8 (My Motherboard, My Self): "No one talks about backing up. You've never used that expression with me before, ever, but apparently everybody's secretly running home at night and backing up their work."

Like Carrie, obviously, I'm not one of those people. Unlike Carrie, my computer didn't die. Yesss...

Some SATC quotes are funny. "You can't swing a Fendi purse without knocking over five losers," "I like my money where I can see it - hanging in my closet," "I have a style and jewelled panties aren't it," and "All righty? He said all righty? Now I'm thinking the upsetting thing isn't that you proposed, it's that you proposed to a guy that says "all righty,"" are some examples.

Some SATC quotes are life lessons, like "maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with," "They say nothing lasts forever; dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style," and "You and I are like that red wall. It's a good idea in theory, but somehow it doesn't quite work."

And finally, some SATC quotes are just plain sad. "Oh, it's never different. It's six years of never being different! This is it! I am done! Don't call me ever again! Forget you know my number! In fact, forget you know my name! And you can drive up this street all you want - because I don't live here anymore!" is a doozy. "We're so over we need a new word for over," is another.

By the way, I'm back in the city. I guess that makes me a citycountrycity bumpkin.    

 

People don't change

Or do they?

Lately, I've been thinking about the old adage that pretty much affirms that we are all stuck in our own $%#@ and simply can't change.

I don't buy it. 

Not for one second.

While we may not be able to completely transform deeply ingrained aspects of our person, or personality, I think life is a lesson (or series of lessons) that can teach us a thing or two about ourselves and compel us to improve - for the better.

I think this is what Oprah would call an "Aha moment!"

What first got me thinking about this was a a dream I had about Nicole Richie (yes, you heard me right, I dream about celebrities - but only the ones I consider close friends). 

Ten years ago, she was pretty much a train wreck. 

mug shots

Nowadays, she's sober, married, has two kids, a clothing line, jewellery line, an online series, etc. (I think you get the point I'm trying to make.)  

And I absolutely adore her.

pageant shot

There's a scene in the movie Great Expectations, with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, where Goop's character Estella states, point blank, "We are who were are, people don't change."

Bull$%#@

Just look at John R. "Johnny" Cash.

After watching Walk the Line last night, I came to the realization that love can sometimes be a huge catalyst for change. Years of druggin' and boozin' took their toll on Johnny Cash but, in the end, love took an even bigger toll.

After helping him get sober, June Carter spent 35 years with the man in black. They had a child together and when she died in 2003, he pretty much lost the will to live... and died four months later - of a broken heart.

So the next time somebody tells you people don't, or can't, change just think of Nicole Richie and Johnny Cash and remember that "lies only exist if we believe in them."

    

Seeing signs everywhere

Some (or even most) people like to take pictures of people. 

Then there are those who enjoy photographing landscapes... and such.

Then there's me... who can't get enough of signs!

 so clever!

Whether I'm travelling in Europe or walking around my hometown I often find myself drawn to signs.

I'm not sure if it's the images, the writing, or the combination of both, but I find signs fascinating and have accumulated quite a photo collection of them.

 lol

 stop and take some time to... do some art?

A sign can be one of many things. 

It can used to identify or advertise a place of business, to indicate the rules of the road or to express a feeling or thought. It can also refer to an object or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else.

I'm always looking for signs... of all varieties.

I've come face to face with a couple of interesting ones lately (again, of all varieties) and have thus decided to share a few... the ones I could photograph anyway.

My dad recently told me that we hailed from Gypsy stock so the following sign really caught my attention...

And just look at these... an adorable (and bilingual) missing dog and found tefilin (sic)...

According to Wikipedia and in case you're curious, tefillin (correctly spelled with two l's), also called phylacteries, are a "set of small, black, leather boxes which contain scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah."    

And finally, an artist who enjoys signs as much as I do.

Before midnight

There are probably about five movies that have really marked me and Before Sunrise, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, is one of them. I remember watching the (dare I say cringe-worthy) scene where Jesse and Celine uncomfortably listen to a song in a music booth like it was yesterday and it always brings me back to the "root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life."  

That moment, and film, defined for me at the tender age of 20 what love was all about. 

It was something that happened between two people who connected at an almost cellular level and could be content no matter where they were, how much money they had or what they were doing.

“This is all we need. A couple of smokes, a cup of coffee, and a little bit of conversation. You and me and five bucks.” (Spoken, strangely enough, by the Hawkester in another one of my defining movies; Reality Bites.)  

But it was also something fleeting, ephemeral.

When Before Sunset came out nine years later I was overjoyed and also forced to reconsider. Jesse and Celine were being given another chance. True, a lot of time had gone by, Jesse had been married and divorced and Celine had experienced a string of seemingly loserish relationships but hope was not yet lost.  

And now, yet another nine years later, the story has come full circle. Jesse and Celine are married. They have children. And, by the looks of the trailer, they are still in love.

"Sometimes I feel like you're breathing helium and I'm breathing oxygen." Ha!

I first read the happy news about Before Midnight, the third and presumably last installment chronicling one of the greatest love stories of all time, this morning while perusing Lainey Gossip. It. Made. My. Day. 

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

* All pictures were taken in Vienna except for the last one which was taken in Paris. The poem is by E. E. Cummings.