What a Swell Party this is!
Oct. 6th, 2011 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerI think this might possibly be the Best Birthday Ever! (Or at least top 3, ageing memory being what it is....) Last night we went to the second of the Center for Fiction's many Big Read events in honor of Le Guin throughout the month of October. (I'll be participating in 3 of them - details here.) Lots of hugging of friends - and even meeting of fans - the woman sitting behind me had just read Swordspoint thanks to Twitter's #buyabiggaybookforOrsonScottCard drive, and wanted to tell me how much she'd liked it, and another wanted to talk about Thomas the Rhymer. None of this would have happened, I'm sure, if it hadn't been Erev Birthday. But it was, so it did.
To make things even better, our houseguest (til this morning) has been Sherwood Smith (the divine![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias, and I would just like to say she's welcome in our back room any time!). As we left the Center, we realized that the Algonquin Hotel, which she'd been wanting to visit, was right around the corner. So we went! (This also afforded me the chance to tell all my Algonquin stories, including how Caroline Stevermer & I once smoked cigars in the lobby, and how I used to meet British author Sarah Caudwell there. Damn, ticking on the years means you've got some great stories to tell!)
At the Center, Sherwood had handed me a box of Jacques Torres chocolates (that she'd bought when out with editor Sharyn November that day), with a cheery, "Happy Birthday!" So while Delia ate a much-needed salad and Sherwood drank fizzwa, I sat in the shadow of the Algonquin Round Table eating Jacques Torres chocolates with a side of decaff espresso. (Yes, I offered them some. They wouldn't.) The staff were lovely to us, gave us postcards, explained the original table was off being renovated, let us take photos in front of it, etc.
And so to bed.
This morning, I had a lovely long birthday Skype with one of my closest and oldest friends, Terri Windling, from England. And THEN it was time for:
Augusten Burroughs to come over and take my portrait!
Friends, I cannot describe it. He is a fellow-client of my agent, Christopher Schelling, and a thoroughly lovely guy. He had sent me in advance a 2 page letter that essentially boiled down to: "Wear no makeup. You are beautiful, and I'm going to drape you in pearls and silks and my camera will do the rest."
And that's pretty much what happened. I ended up leaning by the window in a gold Georgian (18c) necklace he had brought along, his jade ring on one finger next to my face. Before that, there were lights, and silks, and I'm afraid I utterly love having my portrait done by the right people - I get all cat-like (sphinx-like?) and quiet and content. My need to be the center of attention is utterly fulfilled, and in the hands of an artist I can relax and just be present.
He then offered to take a family portrait of Delia and me; we did some shots, and then he looked harder at her and said, "You look like someone. You look . . . like Katherine Hepburn!" And off they went to fuss with her hair and light her by the window.
And off he went, seeming well pleased,* and Delia & I went to Silver Moon Bakery on this amazingly clear autumn day, to get a dear little cake for us to share at a dinner she cooked for me. And there I opened cards and presents. My crazy, wonderful parents sent me this print ("Riverside" by Frederick Mershimer). My best friend from college, Caroline Stevermer, sent me a card she'd made about our long friendship. C.S.E. Cooney sent me one about our new friendship. And Delia . . . oh, that crazy kid.
Delia gave me an iPad.
I really wasn't expecting it. I lifted the box and said, "Hmm, it's not a shirt, is it? Too heavy." I lifted the box and said, "Hmm, it must be some kind of a book . . . paper?"
I mean - usually I get earrings. For her birthday I gave her a Battle Hamster that makes amusing noises.
So I really wasn't expecting this.
I have plugged it in, and it is charging now. While I hate the learning curve for new technology - any new technology - I am completely enchanted with its cuteness. I am already making baby noises at it, and wishing I could knit it little sweaters.
I am very silly. But very happy.
*I do not know when the photos will be ready for the public. But here you may see some samples of his other work.
To make things even better, our houseguest (til this morning) has been Sherwood Smith (the divine
sartorias, and I would just like to say she's welcome in our back room any time!). As we left the Center, we realized that the Algonquin Hotel, which she'd been wanting to visit, was right around the corner. So we went! (This also afforded me the chance to tell all my Algonquin stories, including how Caroline Stevermer & I once smoked cigars in the lobby, and how I used to meet British author Sarah Caudwell there. Damn, ticking on the years means you've got some great stories to tell!)At the Center, Sherwood had handed me a box of Jacques Torres chocolates (that she'd bought when out with editor Sharyn November that day), with a cheery, "Happy Birthday!" So while Delia ate a much-needed salad and Sherwood drank fizzwa, I sat in the shadow of the Algonquin Round Table eating Jacques Torres chocolates with a side of decaff espresso. (Yes, I offered them some. They wouldn't.) The staff were lovely to us, gave us postcards, explained the original table was off being renovated, let us take photos in front of it, etc.
And so to bed.
This morning, I had a lovely long birthday Skype with one of my closest and oldest friends, Terri Windling, from England. And THEN it was time for:
Augusten Burroughs to come over and take my portrait!
Friends, I cannot describe it. He is a fellow-client of my agent, Christopher Schelling, and a thoroughly lovely guy. He had sent me in advance a 2 page letter that essentially boiled down to: "Wear no makeup. You are beautiful, and I'm going to drape you in pearls and silks and my camera will do the rest."
And that's pretty much what happened. I ended up leaning by the window in a gold Georgian (18c) necklace he had brought along, his jade ring on one finger next to my face. Before that, there were lights, and silks, and I'm afraid I utterly love having my portrait done by the right people - I get all cat-like (sphinx-like?) and quiet and content. My need to be the center of attention is utterly fulfilled, and in the hands of an artist I can relax and just be present.
He then offered to take a family portrait of Delia and me; we did some shots, and then he looked harder at her and said, "You look like someone. You look . . . like Katherine Hepburn!" And off they went to fuss with her hair and light her by the window.
And off he went, seeming well pleased,* and Delia & I went to Silver Moon Bakery on this amazingly clear autumn day, to get a dear little cake for us to share at a dinner she cooked for me. And there I opened cards and presents. My crazy, wonderful parents sent me this print ("Riverside" by Frederick Mershimer). My best friend from college, Caroline Stevermer, sent me a card she'd made about our long friendship. C.S.E. Cooney sent me one about our new friendship. And Delia . . . oh, that crazy kid.
Delia gave me an iPad.
I really wasn't expecting it. I lifted the box and said, "Hmm, it's not a shirt, is it? Too heavy." I lifted the box and said, "Hmm, it must be some kind of a book . . . paper?"
I mean - usually I get earrings. For her birthday I gave her a Battle Hamster that makes amusing noises.
So I really wasn't expecting this.
I have plugged it in, and it is charging now. While I hate the learning curve for new technology - any new technology - I am completely enchanted with its cuteness. I am already making baby noises at it, and wishing I could knit it little sweaters.
I am very silly. But very happy.
*I do not know when the photos will be ready for the public. But here you may see some samples of his other work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:54 am (UTC)Have fun with the new toy.
Happy birthday!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:01 pm (UTC)E-fucking-gad. Adrienne Martini (who's THE YEAR OF KNITTING DANGEROUSLY is incredibly entertaining, even to non-knitters) just sent me this: http://haramisdesigns.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/cabled-ipad-sleeve-pattern/
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 05:39 pm (UTC)Regardless of the fact that Delia does, you may have just opened yourself up to receiving a number of iPad sweaters.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-10 05:53 am (UTC)And yes, Ellen, we knitters all think like that. Small projects like that are fun!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 03:47 am (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 04:16 am (UTC)Also, whoa, Sherwood was in town?! I had no idea! I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to see her.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 05:36 am (UTC)*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 06:52 am (UTC)Last year my children pooled together and bought me an iPad 1. I am still unreasonably delighted that they did so. I wasn't expecting it.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 07:08 am (UTC)I was exactly the same with my iPad, I knew it was coming so I had already gotten myself a pen, a docking station and a case that looks like an old book. It felt like I had already had set up a room for the new baby.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:03 pm (UTC)(Pen? What is this "pen"?)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:42 pm (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/TouchTec%C2%AE-Capacitive-Stylus-iPhone-Kindle/dp/B0052VZTUI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317998148&sr=8-1
There are some really neat apps for notebook obsessed people (like me). There is for example one called clibe (http://myclibe.com/), where you can write with the keyboard, draw, handwrite or put in pictures and save it all on the net (basically like dropbox) so it can't be lost in case the ipad has a tragic accident. You can also make the clibe-notebooks public but that's a bit like lj without comments.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 09:06 am (UTC)I love the picture. It's very atmospheric, but not much like your Riverside as I imagine it.
Enjoy your iPad! I had one last Christmas (a present from me to me) and I love it. It does more or less everything my main computer does, and there are some terrific apps for it.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:05 pm (UTC)What apps do you recommend for iPad? This is a Brave New World for me.
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Date: 2011-10-07 03:25 pm (UTC)I knew the picture wasn't your Riverside, but didn't realise it was in New York.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 06:55 pm (UTC)I'm still chewing my fingernails & trying to figure out how to crossload just the albums I want.....
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Date: 2011-10-09 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 09:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 06:04 pm (UTC)I could totally make you one of those. Or something similar.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 02:24 pm (UTC)I actually had the same knitting impulse when I got my ipod... and immediately knitted it a cozy. icozy. heheheh....
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Date: 2011-10-07 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-08 12:20 pm (UTC)It sounds like a wonderful birthday - I'm glad it was so nice.
And I love the print! :)