In Stowe, Slow Comforts

Stowe Community Church in this historic village. Meg and Greg belong to

the congregation and I will join them for Sunday morning service.

I drove up to visit Meg and Greg for a Friday to Monday trip. Dan has to work at a party tomorrow night in Manhattan, writing 60-Second Novels, and Ice Spice has school, so it's just me. I didn't sleep enough last night and the night before. I was tired and fought to keep my eyes open on part of the 7-hour drive. I didn't get an iced coffee when I had the chance (Starbucks) and then the desperate coffee detour I took on an exit off Route 91 North led me to a small supermarket where the only coffee was in tiramisu or ice cream, no bottled cold brew or hot java, not even a coffee-flavored chocolate bar. I got an extreme dark bar and that caffeine seemed to kick in.

Meg treated us to dinner at the Green Mountain Inn, a fixture on Main Street in Stowe since 1833. It was a generous splurge. I had an ample slice of old-fashioned, fork-tender, perfectly seasoned prime rib au jus with baked potato and veg. Little basket of warm bread with foil-wrapped butter pats. Hot apple cider.

Slow comforts. Sitting here in the living room talking. Finally seeing, in real time, the beautiful new desk Meg showed me on FaceTime. Presenting the royal house cat, Sami, with a gift of little stuffed toy mice. Being grateful for old friends. Meg and I met at age 18, first night of college.

Good night from a nurturing place under beautiful skies and mountain peaks. #gratitude 

Writing about Christmas Clubs (to Build up Snow Sugar Funds)

I immersed myself in Christmas Club savings accounts for SoFi*, one of my new clients. It’s a strong resource--a modern, flourishing fintech (personal financial technology) platform. An online bank. Read about its interesting history here. 

Over decades of lifestyle and financial writing, in terms of rugged, rigorous fact sourcing, SoFi stands tall--on strapping shoulders--above my consumer pieces for Good Housekeeping Magazine (holiday deals, cutting car costs), ReadersDigest.com (clickable guides to best teen Christmas gifts) and CoastalLiving.com (savings tips for sea-bound travelers). Those latter three brands are thorough and true to their claims, but this money reporting requires me, as the writer, to very carefully document where I found every fact (if it’s not common knowledge).

I’m always careful, but this is super careful. This is a bank, with banking rules and regulations. I like my two editors a lot. Yet even for a seasoned writer (and for a while I did some Citibank writing), this has been a learning curve.

I’m grateful that the work is portable and remote. I can fit it in from my comfy, stuffed living room chair, a hotel business center at the Shore or the Port Authority Bus Terminal--and at any hour, so long as my Rose Gold MacBook is charged. The internet practically never, ever takes a coffee break or goes to sleep. With the stress level at home of late, this flexibility is key. I can do many SoFi assignments per month if I accept many assignments per month.

You may know the name: SoFi Stadium is home to the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. I have also seen many TV commercials for SoFi.

My article link below. I enjoyed charting the history of Christmas Clubs. Dan had one as a boy in Teaneck, NJ and I had at least one as a young magazine staffer in NYC (maybe Seventeen Magazine?). But it got to where I had to take out the money before Christmastime to cover other expenses, such as a carburetor. Now I am more learned and becoming more careful. I’m on a road in that direction, anyway.

https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/what-is-a-christmas-club-account/

Speaking of white Christmases and evergreen trees, greetings from Vermont in June. I took the Amtrak "Vermonter" up here to my friends’ home in Stowe for peace and perspective, with Dan’s encouragement.

*Based in San Francisco, SoFI was sparked in 2011 by four graduate students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (I want to say by four male grad students, since their names appear to be traditionally assigned to men.)

Grace

I weeded the front gardens today. Sometimes, what looks like a flower turns out to be a weed, a fast-growing impostor that can crowd out your irises and lavender, choke the rosebush a Girl Scout troop gave you long ago.

There's a life lesson there....maybe someone you think is a true friend is not. A habit that seems harmless goes bad. A welcoming smile hides an underhanded intention.

Those perky little green weeds with tiny blue blooms....they pop up all over in moist soil, eager to carpet it.

The black-eyed Susans, kind of raggedy now, slyly take root near the sea grass border.

The good news is, most weeds are easy to pull. Their roots don't go deep, so up they go.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

TCOY

1. Got to my support group. Had missed a couple of weeks. Good to be there among friends. Caught up with my friend after.
2. Pedicure--but went to one of the many nail salons in town to save $, instead of to the salon I like. The quality did not compare. The man who did the pedi didn't even apply a base coat before the color. 
3. Nap.
4. Gardening.
5. Reading.

$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET

• Kings, several big-ticket items. After much dedicated reporting and a trip to Cuba, Dan's article about the mysterious illness affecting diplomats in Cuba is in tomorrow's Sunday NY Times Magazine. Here is the online LINK or google Dan Hurley and nytimes.com. Anyway, Dan just flew back today after 2 nights in Savannah working at a gig as 60-Second Novelist and is working at another party tonight in NYC. So we had no time to go out and celebrate. He likes good cheese and fig jam, so I got those. Here is list: dahlia planter, $20; small wheel Jasper Hill Farm Harbison Cheese from Vermont, $16.99 [in VT., I had their blue cheese in a chocolate truffle, yum]; Carr's cracker assortment, $4.99; new welcome mat for front stoop, $25; and lots of groceries, including tofu, vegan patties, Boca burgers, turkey burgers, whipped butter, regular butter [making tart for book group, need to do the dough], blueberry jam, Van's waffles, Peanut Butter & Co. PB on sale, etc, total, $119.01.
• Parking meter, $2.
• Bagel with turkey, Swiss, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo--lunch special w drink, etc., $8.52 + jar tip, $9.
• Pedi, $27 + tip, $32. Will not rush back there.
• Joyist, iced coffee w. coconut milk to bring to Fig at work and hazelnut energy bites for me, $11.
• Little Daisy Bake Shop, why did I walk in? Oh well, it was the single most delicious piece of crumb cake I have ever had, $3.20 + tip, $4.20. Tender, light cake crumb, no bitter shortening bite, just butter, and crowned with thick layer of perfect brown sugar crumbs.

TOTAL DAILY SPEND: $177.21.
RUNNING TOTAL FOR MONTH AS OF MAY 18: $1,536.31.
MAY AVERAGE DAILY SPEND: $85.35.

In the Still of Vermont

I stopped here at Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea Co., in a big red barnlike building in Waterbury, before I head home for the drive that inevitably runs about 7 hours, though it takes others maybe 6.

I want to write here, where it's quiet and still, rather than at home, where things can get pretty hectic--and there's a fussy little dog who pees on the floor, dustballs behind the chairs, cracks in the ceiling paint, an often rambunctious, slime-making fifth grader. [Her slime ingredients are carefully lined up on her vanity: glue, food coloring, scented lotion, shaving cream, etc. Blending, pressing, squishing and kneading the soft slime is a stress reliever for Punch. Kids love it and she even peddles it to her friends.]

I asked Meggy to recommend a good cafe where I could sit and write...and she suggested Artisan. It is on my way home. Her brother, sister-in-law and their two daughters visited this past summer from Oregon and told her about it. You step out of the car and smell coffee. I got a regular cup for $1.95. Delicious. The music is great. There is even a coffee school here.

Anyway, here are some signs of Vermont that I loved on this trip. I arrived Saturday at 5 p.m. and am leaving less than 48 hours later, but rested and recharged. It is fun to see my friend and her husband. I'm so grateful Meg and I met on the first night of freshman year at Douglass College!

The Fabric of Vermont

1. Slippy, muddy dirt road this morning. But Meggy told me to turn left at the red barn in her Cady Hill Road neighborhood, so I did, and that helped. But I should have braked sooner when approaching the stop sign. My brakes stuttered a little.
2. Snow on the mountaintop. We drove up to the ski area, so lovely. Flurries. And we popped into the skytop village, stopping in First Chair Alpine Co. shop to browse fashion that works from town to trail, as the saleswoman said. Such beautiful sweaters, hats and gloves. I want to be rich when I walk in that store and feel the soft white hats, see the tapered, zippered sweaters and the little cosmetic bags made from real Swiss army blankets! I want money to be no object, as they say.
3. The cheery, cherry-red "Over Easy" gondolas that carry skiers [or tourists] from one area to another.
4. Mountains, mountains everywhere. Quiet, strong and still. Tranquil and trustworthy. Reminding me of men, women and sleeping bears of few words. They're not going anywhere. They weather storms--and look even prettier for having done so. Rain and snow cannot beat them down. We women can be like mountains. We weather a lot, have some wrinkles and crinkles but are still beautiful, majestic and strong after the storms. People know they can lean on us.
5. Cabot cheese. Yum, I had on my eggs at the Whip Bar & Grill in the Green Mountain Inn [since 1833] and saw Cheddar mashed potatoes listed on menus.
6. The annual crafts fair in South Burlington! Meggy loves to go, and that's why I came this weekend. It was really something. My favorites included: Alchemy Fine Jewelry, with Connie Coleman's slender, wavy, stackable silver rings with precious stones; Sweet Seasons Farm & Artisan Confections, where I bought lovely packaged vegan chocolates for Figgy's Christmas stocking, and a chocolate-dunked marshmallow on a stick for Punch; the beeswax candle booth, have to find card in my car; and Bonnie Doon's Scottish Shortbread, though I should not have bought a pack of 4 for $5 because I ate 3.5 of them and Meg only ate a half. Meggy always likes to visit artist Ellie Tallon's booth. She buys adorable clay Christmas tree ornaments for the little girls in her life, including her two nieces in Oregon and our Punchy. So sweet.
7. White steeples against November skies.
8. People in plaid shirts and sensible boots.
9. The beautiful deer that visits M & G's yard a lot.
10. Hearing about the events at church that Meggy helps with: the chicken potpie supper and the Christmas fair. Darn, my timing was off for both of those!

Well, I would love to write more, but I better go. I have a long road ahead of me.

Punch has Sister to Sister after school with her friend and my sitter/friend Elaine is getting her at 5:15, then bringing her home. I hope to be home by 9 p.m. Dan should be home well before that.

Have a good Monday.

Vermont Notebook

I loved getting away for four days/three nights. I'm a couple hours from NY Penn Station on the way home now.

The train is nosing closer and closer to that hectic pace, that crowded Eighth Avenue sidewalk I will navigate between Penn Station and the Port Authority, where I will then catch the #66 bus back to Montclair. All that jostling on the NYC sidewalk for maybe 15 minutes, walking with two big bags....I can feel it already. Trying hard not to bump into people. And my luggage is even heavier than when I left because it's loaded down with 2 jars of Vermont berry jam, a little jug of maple syrup for Sis, a pretty blue mason jar, a hot pink beverage bottle I bought at PK Coffee, and one large maple sugar leaf for my Figgy.

I do love my family, but I cherish freedom and space and leisure....you already know that about me!

LOVE LIST: SWEET DOZEN

1. Those white steeples against that blue sky, mountains soaring everywhere.
2. Pure Vermont maple syrup jugs and treats. I noticed cheesecake and milkshakes made with the liquid gold--and of course, those molded maple sugar candies shaped like perfect leaves. I got a box for Punch and her cabin mates/two counselors at camp.
3. Which brings me to the U.S. Post Office in Stowe. I love visiting Post Offices when I travel.....proof that I am away,  immersing myself in the place, sending something back home. My mother was like that, too, with the P.O. on Cape Cod. Anyway, I bought a red padded envelope with hearts on it and shipped the candies off to the mini brunette.
4. Seeing Meggy and her husband, Greg. Having time to talk to Meggy about everything from sunscreen to mammograms, college memories to careers. So.much.fun. Biking and walking with her, seeing her women's running club, meeting her friend, watching a couple of old "Perry Mason" shows. Eating out, laughing, taking time to myself to read and doze.
5. Soft bed, clean sheets, plush towels, immaculate house...serene and unlike mine. No dust balls, clutter, broken dishwasher....no children living there now.
6. Nice Vermont water in my glass.
7. Melted Cabot Cheddar cheese featured everywhere--had it on my scrambled eggs yesterday and on Potatoes Verde today, with mild green chilies and salsa. Yum.
8. Green and white license plates, fresh green and white road signs [not like NJ's dull signs].
9. Getting driven everywhere, like a princess, in either Meg's or Greg's car.
10. Having/taking/building in mental space and time to apply concealer, mascara and bronzing powder and remove makeup at night. That felt good. TCOY. I want to do that daily at home! But sometimes just too exhausted. TBH, not sometimes, but often.
11. Pretty flower gardens and planters.
12. Cows and horses.

Talk to you later. xo

She’s Got a Ticket to Ride

I was on the train from 12:17 until 9:50 ish--more than 9 hours. But I read, worked on my laptop [setting up article interviews] and gazed out the window at:

• Lakes blanketed with lily pads.
• Soaring green mountains.
• Old deserted factories along the tracks.
• Cows grazing.
• Horses roaming.
• Traditional family homes.
• A field full of teen soccer players who all waved at the train.

Tired now! Good to be here. My heart fluttered a little, hoping Punch was doing ok on her first full day of sleepaway camp. I sent some prayers and love over my shoulder, back toward camp as the train zoomed to Vermont. And then one of the directors emailed me w a horseback riding question and mentioned that Punch is settling in nicely. Yay!

Good night to you.