A Week of Surreal Moments

for those that have the eyes to see

Well, hey there, welcome back, denizens of fantasyland:

sometimes the City is surreal - this photo is untouched and unfiltered

It has been quite a fascinating week in my little world!

I enjoyed seeing my friend Greg sing in a band to start off the week, with his talented daughter stepping up to do a number as well—what a joy. And speaking of surreal: our daughters met when they were six months old, our sons when they were five—and now one kid was my server, one was turning 23, one was having a perfectly legal beer, and the last was taking a break from packing to go back to college.

This week was rife with the good-kind-of-crazy:an hour before a Robert Burns party started I was invited and said yes before I discovered it was in a private room at Harry’s — the downtown bar where the martini was invented and where my husband’s wealthy uncle used to bring us to “the India House Club” in the 90s for occasional cocktails.

Now the uncle is dead, the husband is dissipated, and the India House Club is of course, office space.

I do love Old New York. It was a glamorous night, a sit-down dinner at a table of only 16, and the Scotch brand that sponsored the night was generous—the three course meal included swordfish, prime rib, and baked clams, as well as a spectacular haggis wheeled in on a cart, properly fanfared with a kilt-garbed Scottish bagpiper and then gloriously addressed by a fabulous actor who recited the correct Burns poem before a ceremonial carving.

haggis on a silver tray….

It was inspiring to sample a 25 year Scotch in a former speakeasy room surrounded by cheerful people and drunk monk paintings of unknown provenance…. so inspiring in fact that I volunteered to read a Burns poem myself: the glorious “To A Mouse.”

“I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion has broken Nature’s social union…”

Burns said it in the 1700s and it sadly still holds true today.

Toasts, bagpipes, raucous laughter, great food, great drinks, and poetry - it was an extraordinary night. Of course I fondly recalled the Burns night that Pen Parentis hosted mixing Scottish poetry read by a fabulous poet wearing a kilt and famous poets from Brooklyn reading their own poetry… so fun, those early in-person salons.

(We just hosted our Annual Poetry Salon — tune in if you like poetry! Subscribe if you like author-interviews or if you’re a parent who needs inspiration!)

Saw several award-nominated movies to round out the week (between parties - it was amazing to run into some publishers and a few quite renown writers, looking at you Claudia Dreyfus, at a private house-mourning party where a friend was moving out after 40+ spectacular years of life in a glorious Tribeca loft). The movies were Emilia Perez and The Substance. Both were….unexpected. Emilia Perez is a musical in Spanish centering around a transgender drug cartel jefe. The Substance is an intelligent body horror monster movie. There is a LOT of blood in it, and most of the movie was entirely unwatchable to someone of my queasiness. Not to my taste - but the social commentary on aging and beauty was spectacular. If you love body horror, you must see this movie.

I had to rewatch Wicked to get it out of my head so I could go to sleep!

My week ended with Lunar New Year celebrations! Lion Dances and a secret tea marketplace on a reclaimed blank floor of an office building downtown. Amazing.

I’m ready for the wisdom and creativity that The Year of the Snake foretells. Are you?

---

Writing News:

First publication in 2025! I have a tiny horror piece out in Flash Phantoms. (Fair warning, Mom and others who have a weak stomach, this online journal is horror-only and they do NOT go easy on the graphics.) My piece is the third one down from the top. The accompanying photo is a creepy empty shawl thing that looks like a furry brown caterpillar. It’s a micro-fiction (100 words exactly).

I have also started to write about my trip to Japan! I know, I know. It’s about time.

Here are the first two posts:

How to Plan the Perfect Trip to Japan

-and-

First Moments in Japan

(there are photos!)

Also, I don’t know when it is coming out exactly, but the essay I briefly mentioned during the Lithuanian reading last weekend is actually getting reprinted in the forthcoming book Heritage, Connection, Writing: conversations with North American Lithuanian Diaspora Writers (Peter Lang, 2025)! It will be in print and electronic (it’s an academic publication). Originally, the essay was printed in Lithuanian Heritage Magazine. It’s called “J.F. will never read this.”

Also go ahead and get excited in advance: “Milda M De Voe of Pen Parentis On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain & Turbulent Times” comes out in Authority Magazine on Feb 28, 2025!

---

Random Final Thought:

I know pet owners who graciously and kindly administer medicines to their beloved dogs, cats, hamsters, birds, turtles and fish in elaborate rituals, sometimes three times a day, and in the most complicated and difficult ways—drops, shots, pills, who knows—and they tolerate their pets’ worst digestive disorders and discomforts, bad smells, sleepless nights, and other undignified signs of aging or illness with easy humor….yet I don’t know anyone who as consistently graciously, kindly, and uncomplainingly does the same to their aging parents or neighbors.

“oh please, the sun has been in my eyes this whole time and you don’t hear me complaining!”

---