A Few of My Favorite Things
Last month I listed some of the things I just don’t like (I forgot to mention downhill skiing, but let’s not start that topic again). I promised that I’d follow up with a list what I do like. It seems appropriate for the holidays. 🎅
Being early. I’m early for everything. I get to meetings way too early and I get to the gate at the airport early, too, even if I’m flying in first or business and don’t have to worry about my seat or overhead space. The first real corporate client meeting I did on my own was to Johnson & Johnson in NJ. I was in my mid-20’s. I drove from Connecticut and got to the office parking lot at the J&J facility an hour plus before the meeting. I sat in my car and studied my meeting prep notes until ten minutes before the scheduled meeting, when I walked into the lobby and asked the receptionist for my contact. She informed me that I had the wrong building. He had moved to one a half hour away. I was late. I guess that stuck with me.
Snowstorms, when I can stay inside and watch and listen to the snow hitting the windows.
A classic gin Martini, preferably sitting at the bar in Dukes in Mayfair. I love the chilled sweat of the glass and a few olives after they’ve been immersed in the gin.
Flying at the front of the plane on my way to Paris. I’ve got iPhone music and good earphones, and hopefully I’ve got a great book to read. I love the wines, the warm salted nuts, the dinner, the quiet privacy. Maybe I’ll work on a chapter of my manuscript on my laptop, no interruptions, time to think, and knowing that, assuming we land in one piece, my hotel room on the Left Bank awaits, an afternoon in Paris, then dinner at a favorite bistro, and then an incredible sleep before waking up to warm croissants and coffee. It’s luxury I never stop appreciating.
Baseball diamonds. From the time of my youth when I played the game, the quiet serenity and calming symmetry of the diamond before the game when it’s empty, just the green grass, the red clay, the clean white lines ... and being young.
Dinner & restaurants. It’s like going to great theatre. Restaurants are so good-looking these days, they’re just like theatre sets—but with food and drinks, and more people-watching than you can do in a darkened theatre.
I do love the actual theatre too—serious plays, comedies, musicals, all of it. It’s a truly special kind of magic when the lights go down and the curtain goes up. Even a bad play is a great experience.
I feel calm in libraries. I think it’s because people there appear so calm, and everyone’s reading, working or researching, immersed in their own worlds. Everyone should have a library card and a library branch to call their own.
Sitting at the Metropolitan Opera, alone, so I am totally absorbed in the drama and the music from the stage and not worrying about whether the person with me is enjoying it—which, in most cases in my experience, they are not. When I was much younger, I had a single seat subscription to the Met. It was a great escape. It was like going to church but without all the doubts and the sin baggage. And, like church, I haven’t gone in years.
The ocean. More to look out at and listen to than to actually swim in. This is similar to my feeling about skiing—I love the feeling say of Vermont, but what I really like is sitting in a ski lodge or the bar watching the skiers while I enjoy a glass of wine. For me, that’s better than hauling all that equipment—skis, poles, boots, hats, jackets. I guess I prefer the trappings and rituals of certain things more than the things themselves.
Wow, that sounded deep! 🤔 Hmm. I’m not sure what it means, though. I’ll have to think about it.
Speaking of libraries, I love reading, the ultimate escape into other worlds with things that get resolved and where we are always safe because we know if things get treacherous, we can close the book.
Watching my grandkids on the night before Christmas when they go to bed, sure that Santa will come down their chimney, still too young to question the logistics of Santa covering the world in a single evening, or the challenges of the big guy getting down the chimney, not to mention the gas fire logs at the bottom. It’s magic. That’s all they need to know.
And, of course, I love writing because then, unless I ever write an autobiography, I get to play God. I create the characters and the world they inhabit, and I can make things turn out the way I want them to. And I would never write an autobiography, at least not while I’m alive (after that it would be a truly interesting story).
Finally, I love the holiday season because it reminds me to be thankful for what I cherish the most: the ones I love, my wife of many years, my daughter and son-in-law and those two incredible grandchildren that we have been blessed with.
Happy holidays! 🥂
Best,
EJ
ejsimon@ejsimon.com