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I must be on a type kick lately. Very cool the way it's used in this video-- easy to sing along whether you speak Spanish or not. (The title means I don't know what to do with myself anymore. Hmmm... ever have days like that?) The band is from Uruguay.

This afternoon I'm off to the New England SCBWI conference in New Hampshire! They're having a lot of great workshops and speakers this year-- I'll post about it next week.

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Today is Serendipity Day, aka Serendipity Do-Da, aka Do-Da Day.  So what does this mean? 

If you didn't see the movie Serendipity, then you need to go ahead and do that because it's all about fate and destiny and energy and has awesome NYC scenes.  And if you did see it, you probably didn't pick up on the fact that Jonathan and Sara meet on December 20...which is today!  That's the day they're in Bloomingdale's at the beginning of the movie, trying to grab the same pair of gloves.  So they meet and have this intense connection and go to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolates and skating in Central Park.  But when Jonathan writes down his number for Sara, it gets blown away and she thinks that's a bad sign.  So then he writes his name and number on the back of a five-dollar bill, which she immediately uses to buy mints.  Sara's idea is that if the five-dollar bill makes its way back to her, then they're meant to be together.

So.  My friend Joe and I loved the idea of this movie and we used to celebrate Serendipity Day by going to Serendipity (after going to the same glove counter at Bloomingdale's and also Wollman Rink, since once you put your names in at Serendipity it takes at least two hours to get a table and these locations are actually very close to each other in real life).  We had frozen hot chocolates and then we each wrote our name and number on the back of a five-dollar bill, which we then used to tip the waiter.  Not that anyone ever called our asses.  But that's not the point.  The point is that we put it out there.  The city is magic.  It does magic things.

How can you celebrate Serendipity Day if you're not here?  Well, if you are with your soul mate now and doing the happy dance, then celebrate with the One.  But if you are still searching, send out positive energy into the universe today.  True love will find you.

Oh, and by the way?  Serendipity is also home of the $1,000 Golden Opulence Sundae, served in a Baccarat crystal goblet (which you get to take home), made with the world's most expensive chocolate, and covered in 23K edible gold leaf:

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John Lennon's birthday was October 9, which means celebration time here in New York City. Some of us head over to Strawberry Fields in Central Park every year to remember John and sing and cry and just let it all out.

My friend David Ippolito is known as That Guitar Man from Central Park. He plays the most amazing music on Saturdays when it's warm enough to chill outside. All the best folk stuff: James Taylor, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, like that. He went to Strawberry Fields and filmed John's birthday party. If you want to feel what it was like, take a look:



"You might say I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one.

I hope one day you will join us
and the world will live as one."

Thanks for inspiring peace, John. We remember.

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In any given sad situation, you can choose to deal in one of two ways.  You can get all twarked up in a big ball of snit over it.  Or you can accept the things you cannot change and focus on the positive side.  Because no matter how atrocious the situation seems, there is always a positive side.  You just have to look harder to find it sometimes, is all.

Daylight hours are a huge deal for me.  They increase by about two minutes per day from the winter solstice until the summer solstice.  Lots of people don't realize that the day after summer begins, daylight hours actually start to decrease.  Sad, but true.  Less daylight hours make me feel all wilted and foggy.  In the winter, Seasonal Affective Disorder causes some people to feel depressed.  This is because the amount of light you're exposed to affects your mood and sleep patterns.  That's why SAD patients sit in front of light boxes (which emit full-spectrum white light to simulate sunlight) for a certain amount of time each day to improve their depression.  This happens in places that experience lots of rainy days, like Seattle (which would explain most of the Grey's Anatomy Season Three craziness, but that's another entry) or locations in polar regions (which experience three months of living in almost total darkness every year).  That's OD.

But that's not the point.  The point is this:  Instead of being bummed about decreasing daylight hours, I'm going to focus on sweet summer memories and palm trees.  Palm trees always make me feel peaceful.  Palm trees say, "Hi.  Why not kick back with a tall glass of watermelon juice (with those paper umbrellas sticking out of it) and enjoy this perfect 73-degree day?  More fruit salad?"  So I think of palm trees.  Like these, brought to you by the most extraordinary photographer ever, Alan Maltz.  Check out his website for many more.

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