Altwiener Christkindlmarkt waits for you.....and for me

It's been awhile since I joined in Postcard Friendship Friday, aka PFF, but when this postcard was included inside the holiday card I received from my wonderful friend, Francessa, I thought it must be a part of PFF this week.

Francessa lives in Vienna where this scene was photographed, as noted on the back of the card, by Carl Anders Nilsson. The back of the card has only this short description: ALTWIENER CHRISTKINDLMARKT AUf dER FREYUNG/WIEN, or  Old Viennese Christmas market at Freyung. I think it looks like a magical place for Christmas/holiday shopping. 

Francessa feels as close as a sister to me yet we still haven't met in person. So how did our friendship begin? you might wonder.  Blogging!  I have high hopes that our intentions to meet will be realized in the future. It's one of those things I expect will happen, although I can't see how or when at this point. Even if a summer visit to Francessa's beautiful home village in the Alps or a holiday stroll with her through the Altwiener Christkindlmarkt didn't happen in 2009 our friendship has grown in richness as we've shared our lives through long, long emails and exciting real mail. We even have one of those stories that will be fun/funny to recall years into the future, the kind that old friends seem to always develop along the way. This vignette is topical, being holiday-related.......

Austrian Customs actually confiscated my Christmas present to Francessa in 2008 and it took some months before all was settled to their/her satisfaction. It was only then that she emailed describing the hassle she had been through! What a great friend; she didn't want to worry me. There's a lesson here: do not send anything made of crystal to a friend in Austria, the land of Austrian crystal which, according to wisegeek, "is not a trademark in and of itself, but it might as well be. The generic term is indelibly linked with Swarovski crystals, produced in a factory in Wattens, Austria." Here's some additional info from the wisegeek article:

. . . (Swarovski) entered the American jewelry market rather late, in 1977, but has emerged as an icon. Austrian crystal has a reputation for fine worksmanship but is also less expensive than jewelry made from precious stones. Austrian crystal also earned international attention during the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, when a mouse figurine crafted by Max Schreck from chandelier parts morphed into the mascot of those games, as well as launching a new product line of Swarvoski figurines. Swarovski's own corporate symbol has evolved from an edelweiss flower to a swan.

The Swarovski empire has also proved a boon to tourism in Austria. Kristallwelten (Crystal World), a museum and showroom devoted to Austrian crystal, is the second most-visited attraction in the country. . .

Now that you've seen a sample of Francessa's great taste in postcards you may want to visit her blog, Francessa's Thinking, where you'll learn more about this teacher, researcher, and bilingual commuter/traveler. You already know that she is not in the international crystal trade!

To my dear friend, Francessa - thank you for the beautiful postcard!
To all of you - happy PFF!

And to me - a long-time favorite song, ever since I was a crazy child

(actually, a crazy 25 year old).......

And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

.

Forever Jung

Blogging is a wonder to me. It has brought me back to myself. It has blessed me with remarkable friends, one whose birthday is on July 26.

Francessa, is celebrating her birthday in Vienna today. She is a teacher, researcher, and admitted "hard blogging scientist." Truly, she has one of the most inquisitive minds I've ever known and she delights in life's intricacies as well as its simplicities.

As lifetimes go our friendship is new. As friendships go our connection is real.

When Francessa and I exchanged our birth dates I told her that mine is the same day as Joan Baez, and she said hers is shared with Mick Jagger. When I went to my calendar to write my friend's birthday on the July 26 square, Karl Jung's name was already there. (Jung has been on my calendars since 1985, the year I got sober and read him in earnest; sorry, Francessa, I like Mick Jagger but he doesn't rate high enough to make my wall calendar birthday notes!)

I have a New Years Day tradition of transferring all my birthday notes from the old wall calendar to the one for the new year. I've been doing it since I was in high school. As the years have passed some names dropped (ex-husband, co-workers, etc.) and new ones were added. What has remained consistent are names of living and deceased family members and other people I admire for various reasons. When I see these names it gives me a sweet pause to consider a life that means or meant a lot to me, or to the masses.

There is a Bob Dylan song, at its best covered by Joan Baez, one of those heart songs of mine that, coincidentally, just happens to be one great song to commemorate a birthday...

Happy Birthday, Francessa, and may you stay Forever Young!






An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

Carl Jung

Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961)

The Road to Reno

This post is to thank my new friend, Francessa, for honoring me in her recent fascinating post from Germany titled, The Road to Reno. Francessa's post concerns the relationship of an award-winning (2007) book titled The Road to Reno with the 1960 movie The Misfits that was filmed there, starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

Born and raised in Reno, I left there for Oregon when I was 25. I do so love Oregon and haven't regretted moving here. However, you can take the Nevadan out of the desert but you can't take the desert out of the Nevadan. So I travel there in my thoughts frequently, and make the occasional 500-mile trip back to my hometown for a dose of the land that raised me.

I was nine-years-old when The Misfits was made. My mother was a 21 dealer at Harold's Club and told Nel and me about seeing Clark Gable and some of the film crew in "the club." I don't recall that she sighted Marilyn Monroe or Arthur Miller, but I'm fairly sure that my mother wouldn't have known who Arthur Miller was at that time.

It became a part of Reno lore that The Misfits was Gable's last movie, some believing the strife with Monroe on and off the set to be the cause of his spiral into-illness-into-death.

But that was before a Kansas-based church (actually a hate group) proclaimed at the beginning of 2008 that "God hates Reno," and surely if they'd known this in 1960 Monroe would have been let off the hook and the location of the film might have been blamed for Gable's death. The original post in the iconic and irreverent blog God hates Reno describes how 21st-century Renoites reacted to the insane comments by the sect reported by the Associated Press. For one, that wickedly funny blog was born. It's listed in my Reno blogroll separate from my main blogroll. Just love that gaudy "neon" header.

This photo is from my solo drive to Reno in April 2007. I hadn't been "home" since 1999 and I'm sure it won't be that long until my next visit. That trip was to attend the surprise 80th birthday party of the mom of a childhood friend of mine. Carol's mom and mine worked at Harold's Club together and were close friends. My mother is gone now and I was anxious to represent her at the gala.

Mike couldn't be away from work so I hit the road alone. Every mile that took me closer to Reno held more excitement than the next. I just didn't realize how much I'd missed that familiar place until I saw the Sierras come into view and the air became drier and warmer and I heard Reno radio stations. Sure, I know I can get them online but there's nothing like knowing the music is coming from where I'm heading. Faster. Giddier. Younger. I drove straight into the pages of my past, passing this scene and then stopping and driving in reverse to take the shot.