leisure time – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2025, leisure time

Nobody Wants This….

Posted on October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by nancyb422

….I want more!

I’m talking about the show Nobody Wants This on Netflix with Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as Joanne and Noah. A meet cute matchup of a podcaster who talks about sex and a rabbi. They fall in love but in order to move forward, he wants her to commit to converting to Judaism. But she’s not sure she wants to because she doesn’t “feel it”. The show was created by Erin Foster, based on her conversion experience.

The first season brought them to a point where he was being offered the senior rabbi position so she broke up with him so he would get the position. But before the fade out of the season, he found her and told her they’d work it out.

This season he gets passed over for the job, so he moves on from that Temple and strikes out on his own. They are still going back and forth about her converting. I don’t want to spoil it if you’re watching so, I’ll leave it at that!

This season the background characters had their days in the sun. Joanne’s sister and parents and Noah’s brother and sister-in-law all had story lines that brought their fears and desires into view.

I’ve always had a fascination with Judaism. To me, there’s something magical about it the way the traditions are embraced and celebrated. Maybe that’s just me on the outside looking in. I read a book series growing up about a Jewish family with five girls and a son in the 1920s living on the lower east side of New York and it stuck with me.

I also enjoyed watching Charlotte in Sex in the City during her conversion before her marriage to Harry.

So I finished Season 2 in just a few days and now I will suffer until Season 3 comes around. To prepare for the new season, I watched Season 1 over again. I guess I’ll do the same as it gets closer.

Have you watched it? What do you think about it?

2025, leisure time

Saturday Morning

Posted on October 25, 2025 by nancyb422

I love sitting in my comfy family room chair on Saturday mornings drinking my two medium sized cups of coffee reading emails and watching the crazy birds at the window feeder. Today, they are particularly out of control –

Usually the birds sit on the roof above, but we’ve added a little “eyebrow” over the window which initially confused the birds but now they wait their turn on the side supports or the roof of the pergola. Or float in mid-air waiting their turn.

We have all the common birds of Connecticut: the house finch, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, field sparrow, and probably more. The cardinal family is particularly bossy, the mourning dove barely fits but can’t resist, and the blue jay is messy, and sometimes will allow smaller birds to share their space.

When it gets quiet at the feeder it’s usually because of this –

We’ve seen feathers around once or twice but I do love cats so it’s hard to hate him! When he’s elsewhere in the yard, he will give you that cat stare but meet up with him in the road and he will happily lay down and give you his belly to pet!

2025, leisure time, thoughts

In The Not So Distant Past…

Posted on July 18, 2025July 18, 2025 by nancyb422

If you would call 30 years ago, not so distant, that was the time that we acquired our first computer. It was a no-name computer put together by someone who knew what they were doing and it gave us access to the World Wide Web. Back then we were tethered to a desktop and a dial up modem. If someone had told me we would have mini computers in our hands, I would have thought they were crazy!

I think about those times now with the need to constantly update myself on what’s going on in the world. Such a “fear of missing out”!

What did I do back when our only link was the desktop and dial-up? I might knit, or read, or watch tv, and back then, I was definitely playing with our son!

I am really glad all this technology wasn’t available to me 30 years ago!

*An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly*

2025, hobbies, leisure time, life, Politics, relaxing

Madam Secretary

Posted on May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by nancyb422

The television show, Madam Secretary, had been on my Netflix Watch List for a very long time. Just when I went to start watching the six season show in early April, I discovered it was leaving Netflix forever on May 14th!

97 episodes. Could I do it? That would be an average of 3.5 shows a day! Highly unlikely. But I started watching anyway.

As my bedtime approached last night, I had managed to get through 4 complete seasons – 67 episodes. Many days it was 2 episodes a day, one at lunchtime and one in the evening. One rainy Saturday, I managed FIVE! It wasn’t totally “unproductive time” as I could knit and watch, and many times, scroll on my phone and watch.

Obviously, I really enjoyed the show! Since it ran for six seasons I felt it must be a somewhat realistic look into the federal government and the State Department in particular. Handy for our current situation!

I learned of how we aid(ed) countries around the world and I learned what you see on the surface is not always what’s happening below. Foreign Ministers, corrupt governments, and who’s helping who behind who’s back.

I enjoyed Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, the Secretary of State. A former CIA agent, she was realistic, but could be emotional, she could be tough but remained diplomatic. Her Department staff as well. Assistant, speech writer, press secretary, foreign policy advisor, chief of staff, no idea of many of these positions before this show, and now my eyes and ears perk up when I see or hear those words.

Tim Daly as her husband who was a professor at the war college (and was recruited for some CIA work), and her three children, also grew on me. When the show began, she had been tapped as Secretary when the current one’s plane blew up over the Atlantic Ocean (season one’s mystery!). They had to move from their farm in Virginia or somewhere, to Washington DC, so culture shock and living in a fish bowl hit them hard. They learned to navigate it over the seasons.

This morning, my Netflix popped up and Madam Secretary was gone.

I still have 2 seasons (30 episodes) to watch and according to my local library’s catalog, they have all five seasons on DVD. Lucky me because I still have a portable DVD player! I’m going to give myself a little break before I head to the library to pick up Season 5.

Have you ever watched the show? Did you like it? Think it was realistic or not? Let me know!

2025, family, Holidays, leisure time, life, Memories

New York! New York!

Posted on May 7, 2025 by nancyb422

New York, New York, what a wonderful town
The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down!
—from On Our Way with Gene Kelly

My first memory of visiting New York City is when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. It was a Columbus Day trip with my mother, two sisters, aunt, and cousin and our destination was the Statue of Liberty.

We took the Metro North train out of New Haven and got on the subway heading to Battery Park. We were looking for the Bowling Green stop but how we missed it a few times! We probably headed into Brooklyn and then had to get back on in the direction we came from. We made it to the Statue and had a great time, and I got a pen in the gift shop with a floating statue.

The next time I traveled into the city it was with my sisters during Christmas time. Those trips bring back memories of Crabtree and Evelyn scents and Dansko clogs! We would visit Rockefeller Center to see the tree and shop.

When I lived in California, I always raved about New York, and must have been incredibly obnoxious! San Francisco just didn’t compare.

After we moved back to Connecticut, my sisters and I would take our kids into the city to wander. We weren’t very comfortable on the subway – we didn’t want to get lost – so we dragged the kids all over the place on foot! One trip by the time we got the Met on 82nd Street, they were exhausted already! They were very happy when we were finally comfortable enough to take the subway.

My husband is now my favorite traveler to New York. We’ve gone for concerts and basketball games at Madison Square Garden, stayed a few days at a time to shop at Christmastime, and this year I’ve (dragged him along) taken him to a broadway play, with more to come.

Today we headed in for a short trip to see the newly re-opened Frick Collection. We had an early lunch before our 12:30 check in. The museum isn’t very large so we saw all we needed to see in an hour. We were headed home on the 2:04pm train.

We’ll be back down there in early June with my husband’s aunt and uncle from California. Tickets have been purchased for a play (Six), tickets for the Vessel, and ideas ready for dinners. I can’t wait!

What’s your favorite place to visit and how often do you get there?

2025, Goals, Healthy Living, hobbies, leisure time, life, Writing

Make it – Check it

Posted on April 28, 2025 by nancyb422

When do you feel most productive?

I always think I will be so productive because I get out of bed by 6am every morning. But that really has nothing to do with productivity because I’ve perfected the art of taking my time.

I feel the most productive when I make a list of what I want to do and what I have to do.

I find it amazing that I have so many “things” I want to do, yet I never work on them, because I don’t remember them in the moment. If I have a list, I can look and say “oh, I’ll do a little work on this”.

I guess it’s time to take own advice!

2025, Goals, hobbies, Home, leisure time, life, thoughts, Writing

Social Media and Me

Posted on January 19, 2025 by nancyb422

Ugh. That is how I feel about this relationship.

I am curious which also translates to nosy. This is why once I start scrolling, I can’t stop. Facebook to Instagram to Threads. I hate Threads the most. It’s filled with complaining.

I deleted them all so many times off my devices during the election season. Then my fingers (and my brain) would itch to see what was going and I just had to reinstall them. And then delete them again.

They are unhealthy. But….

I have accounts for our business and I try to keep those full of content and comment on followers accounts.

I want positivity in my life. I don’t want negativity in my life.

One of my goals for 2025 was to “read less what other people and write more of what I want to say”.

Heading off to delete those apps off my IPad again….

2024, hobbies, Holidays, Home, leisure time, life, Religion

My Latest Treasure

Posted on December 28, 2024 by nancyb422

My husband and I had nothing to do the day after Christmas. What a treat after hosting our family party of 26 people on Saturday which was fabulous and I loved every minute, but we were enjoying our down time!

I had to go to Hamden a couple of towns away to drop something off. Since we were taking “the back way” home, via Whitney Avenue, I suggested a stop at Wentworth’s Ice Cream, not really thinking they’d be open, but I enjoy that route.

As I suspected, they were closed. However, right next door is an antiques store, actually a house, that I’d never been to, but “always meant to get to”. I’ve seen it advertised in the local weekly newspaper, and in the little booklets we get in the mail as he is always looking for antiques and coins. As a matter of fact, I actually knew him as the former brother in law of a friend from the crowd I hung around with in my mid-20s.

We drove through the ice cream shop parking lot and went back, parked in front of the house and were instantly taken in by the stone bird baths, railings, and objects in the front yard.

We stepped in to the house (after he unlocked the door!) and were mesmerized by the amount of antiques throughout the space. And this was just the first floor!

Clocks, pictures in big gold ornate frames, sculptures, Tiffany lamps – Oh My!

We talked with Don, the owner, for quite a while. He was telling us the history of his love for antiques and where he gets them and we shared what we enjoy and what we look for for our home and yard.

My eye caught a piece on the wall. It wasn’t large, but I felt a connection to it from the religious items I love to see in museums.

He explained to us it was Pietre Dure – hard stones. I looked it up when I got home and it is known as Intarsia Lapidary. Unlike mosaic pieces which are generally of similar pieces and grouted in place, Pietre Dura are mostly larger and cut to a shape suiting their place in the image and glued in place. They first appeared in Rome in the 16th century. The technique is used on table tops, altars and portraits.

I didn’t know what it was when I saw it, and I was attracted to the frame more than the picture, is that a horn coming out of her head?, but the more I look at it, the more I love all of it.

*Current location of my Pietre Dure piece*

We have it hung on the wall, but I feel like it needs a larger expanse of wall around it to really make it pop.

If you’re local to the Wallingford area, the location is 3651 Whitney Avenue in Hamden – Don Barese Fine Art & Antiques. His hours are by appointment, but the OPEN flag was out when we drove by. He buys and sells internationally. We’re already planning our next trip back!

2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

12/10/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on December 10, 2024 by nancyb422

I’m sifting through the 29,000 photos in my IPhoto app and came across photos from a trip to South Carolina in 2016.

We went to Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet twice during out time there. It was early May and really beautiful, full of sculptures and flowers.

In addition to the gardens, we took a carriage ride around the gardens and to the river and marshes where rice was planted and harvested.

2024, family, hikes, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

Rocky Mountain High

Posted on December 5, 2024 by nancyb422

Do you have a favorite place you have visited? Where is it?

One of my favorite places that I have visited was Colorado!

I was in Fort Collins in September of 2022 for a long weekend to “help” my niece select her wedding gown. My two sisters and two other nieces were all there and we had a fun “girls weekend” which included her fiancé!

Very early on a cold September morning in Estes Park

In one day we saw the sunrise in Estes Park, went to the Alpine Ridge Trail at 12,005 feet above sea level, went to the CSU football game walked 100 miles to a bar after (and then back to our car!). It was a great adventure!

We went back again in September of 2023 for her wedding. Family was together and we had fabulous weather, until the day of the outdoor wedding! Luckily the rain stopped and we had indoor access.

Before we met up with family, my husband and I had time to visit a good friend in Denver and also had time to hike a little bit in Boulder and visit Red Rocks Amphitheater.

On our off day with family, besides the hike, we rented bikes and explored the fabulous trail system in Fort Collins. Of course we hit New Belgium Brewery too!

The day after the wedding, we went to Laramie Wyoming, because, why not? We went to the old prison which is now a museum. First we had breakfast in a bar! Just us and a guy drinking a beer at 9:30!

There is so much to do all over the state and we both look forward to going back!