nativity scenes

the nativity scene is still up in the entrance of the hospital where i toil.

one could question the propriety of putting up a nativity scene in a hospital that serves diverse cultures and religious faiths.

one could argue that if you display a nativity scene at all that you should also put up displays important to other religious faiths and cultures during this time of winter celebration. Bloomingdale's actually had some fantastic window displays this year doing just that. Each window depicted traditions from around the world, including Ireland, the Netherlands, and Kwanzaa.

one might draw the conclusion that keeping the nativity scene up in january is simply in poor taste. or perhaps it is just lazines in taking it down.

here's to a more tolerant, peaceful 2007, no matter where you are from, no matter what you believe.

chuck close

i saw the niftiest book when i was perusing Lee's Art shop...
it was a flip book of chuck close's self portrait. if you happen to find it on some store counter somewhere, take a flip.

making the switch

really not so painful.
i switched today to blogger beta. a few little things changed, perhaps for the better. love the new label feature. not that this matters all that much, as i haven't been blogging much lately. but there you have it anyway.

i'm having a fairly lazy sunday. writing holiday cards. catching up on blogs that i've been too busy to read for the last few weeks. there are some really great blogs out there. why anybody reads this one, i can't imagine.

i've pulled out last year's MS Holiday Cookies magazine (they didn't publish one this year that i can find) and have been in a baking frenzy. the new favorite recipe is snickerdoodles. for those who care, if you add a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon allspice to the batter (in addition to rolling the dough in cinnamon sugar before baking), they are extra good. today we will be trying a new recipe for molasses ginger cookies.

i just love this time of year. makes me want to drink hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.

a running question

a question for fellow blog-reading runners out there.

i've been training for a half-marathon of late. it's a fund-raising event for the hospital where i work. it's going well, now that the blister is healed. but every day when i start out, i have left shoulder pain, no matter how much stretching i do. after about a mile or so, it stops. why is that?

on a somewhat related note, i was just down in new york visiting family and went running in central park, one of my favorite things to do. i started out near columbus circle and ran up around the reservoir. it was a weekend morning, so the park was full of other runners and bikers and families and couples. it was quite distracting, and still somehow motivating, to have other runners around. not that i was competing with any of them, but it helped a bit with pacing, particularly since it was 11am and 95 degrees out.

there was a musician playing on the grass near tavern on the green, a crowd of people sitting and listening raptly. lots of people having picnics on the great lawn with their coffee and bagels. i absolutely love the peace and quiet of living in a small place, but it was nice to be immersed in the city again, even just for a few days.

morning edition

one of the good things about being on my ED month is that i get to listen to the entirety of morning edition, as opposed to the 10 minute snippet i usually get on my drive into the hospital. so today, there was a really neat piece on jerry falwell. i was not aware of this, but apparently, everyone sends him Tinky-Winkys and the guy who ghost-wrote his autobiography has come out of the closet and sits front and center in his church every sunday. talk about poetic justice. i highly recommend a listen.