Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer.##M:[more]##
Richard the Third, Act 1, Scene 1 (William Shakespeare)
Is anybody else ready for this winter to be over and made glorious summer? In the heart of this gray, often dreary February, are you suffering a vague discontent, or at the very least, an indefinable sense of melancholy?
Perhaps it was all those years in California, where there were February days that could have passed for summer, but for me, this longest stretch of winter is always the least pleasant time of year.
Last winter the deep and sustained cold froze the local ponds and we enjoyed some ice-skating that produced lifetime memories. This year the weather is wishy-washy and can’t decide what it wants to do. We looked close a couple of times, but we haven’t even had one snow day, those delicious, unexpected days where it feels right to sleep in and hang out all day in your pajamas.
So, sadly, no pond hockey yet this winter. Football is over (and how! wasn’t the Superbowl fabulous!?) and it’s too early for baseball. It’s that weird limbo between our favorite sports seasons.
But you don’t have to sit back and let the doldrums take over. Grab the spice shaker of life and sprinkle some color into your world. You can chase away the winter blues by taking advantage of local treasures and talents.
There’s that oasis of fun and culture, oft-underused by locals: Princeton University. A friend who coaches squash at Lawrenceville told us we might enjoy watching the fast-paced game, so we went to Jadwin Gymnasium this past week to watch Yale take on Princeton. It makes for an entertaining afternoon and the price was right: absolutely free.
That night, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, another local gem, staged its Broadway POPS program, with a concert featuring three Broadway stars singing hits from some of Lerner and Loewe’s greatest musicals, including My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, and Camelot. While the adult tickets ranged upwards of $64, students are always $16, good to keep in mind if you want to take the kids close by for great entertainment. Richardson Auditorium has a fabulous slate of upcoming events if you need an escape from the cold weather blahs.
One of my favorite forms of winter escape is getting lost in a good book, and despite my lifelong love affairs with public libraries, it still always amazes me when I step into a library, find myself surrounded by the vast collections representing the most brilliant minds of the ages, and know that it is all free for me to browse and borrow. My favorite forms of guilty pleasure come in crime novels by the likes of James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark, and Patricia Cornwell. I also love Janet Evanovich, whose zany heroine, Stephanie Plum, lives and works in the Chambersburg section of Trenton. It’s a kick to read the local references written into her wild adventures, the mentions of Route 1, the Quakerbridge Mall, and various Trenton eateries and personalities.
Combine a good book with a latte or yummy hot chocolate at It’s a Grind, the coffee shop at the new Plainsboro Village Center that has become the hot gathering place in town and you’ve got my idea of heaven on a winter day.
With the ground frozen and hard, it may be a stretch but I’ve been thinking about plants and how they are a lot like children — you put down the seed and nurture them with plenty of time, love and attention and those seedlings will bear fruit and bring you great joy. And because we know it takes a village to raise a child, the work and credit are spread around to others in the community.
In 2000, when I was education manager at Merrill Lynch, I was asked to present the Merrill Lynch scholarship, a sum of $1,”000, to a student graduating from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School (there was still only one back then). That year it went to Plainsboro resident Monica Pham, who was heading off to Cornell University. A picture of us in the newspaper captured our happy faces at that proud moment in time.
Fast forward to the present, and just recently, I received a copy of that clipping in the mail, with a note from Monica saying thank you for that scholarship so long ago. She also invited me to her new art show.
Monica did brilliantly at Cornell, focusing on a neuroscience major with an intent to go to medical school. Along the way, however, she realized that she wanted to make a go of it as an artist, not as a doctor. With the support of her parents, she came home to paint, and has set up a studio in her Plainsboro home, where she is happily creating her work on canvas. At the same time, she’s working at Christie’s, the auction house in New York, and when she’s not painting, is also laying the groundwork to become an attorney specializing in the art world. She’s finished a year of law school and is currently on sabbatical.
We met recently for coffee and I was impressed at the bundle of energy and warmth that she is, and how she is passionate, not just about succeeding as an artist and a lawyer, but in “paying it forward.” by giving back to others the support she’s gotten along the way.
She tells me how grateful she was for that check and how much it meant to her and her family, especially at a time when her mother was ill. I remind her I didn’t personally write that check, and she says yeah, she knows, but it’s that community support she remembers and appreciates.
And now, she keeps that in mind as she helps others, especially young people, whenever she can. Monica reminds me of another great way to warm the heart in this darkest part of winter: by remembering the spirit of “paying it forward” and trying to live by it every day. Monica’s next art show will be held Saturday, February 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tiffany’s Closet in the Windsor Greens Shopping Center (near Whole Foods on Route 1). So come on by and literally bring some color and warmth into your February and your life.
To check out Monica’s artwork, go to www.mopham.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of her art will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Fund in recognition of her own mother’s battle with breast cancer.
