time out


i am burning up upon re-entry. this week back has killed me a bit. a funeral, a birth, planning a wedding shower, planning a baby shower. .. life in all its splendor. i know life can move quickly. i know that things change. but i really wish sometimes that things could just stay the same for at least a minute or two.

there is a scene in the movie Parenthood, when the grandmother senses that things are moving too quickly for her family so she recounts a story about the roller coaster and how she loves to ride it because she never knows how it's going to twist and turn. she states how exhilarating it is to her. she said that some of her friends only rode the ferris wheel, but she never found much joy in that because all it ever did was go around and around. she thought it was incredibly boring.

i'm thinking there's got to be some kind of ride that's in-between those two extremes.
isn't there?

thursday, aug. 7, 2008- a full day of seattle, part I

run, don't walk.

being lucky enough to explore more of the city with my mantourage on a beautiful sunny day we decided to walk. a lot. first to capitol hill where john fondly recalled a blow job he had received in one of the public bathrooms there. and so began the quest for photographing signs that we could giggle at.




and then there were just the plain old great looking signs.




we stumbled upon this fantastic vintage clothing store called red light. highly recommended. plus the basement was full of halloween costumes where the guys spent practically an hour laughing themselves silly while trying on hilarious looking hats and other paraphernalia.



there was even a little something for me....



plus these skank-fabulous glasses. john said they made me look like barbara stanwyck on acid.

wednesday aug. 6th, 2008- seattle

breathing more slowly now that we're actually in seattle. this place just makes me happy. and it's not just the coffee either. the energy here is nice and the anticipation that i'll see something wonderful is always great. the hotel we're staying in was built in 1926. the crazy characters on the side of the building affirm that opening on halloween day was the perfect choice.



and now we must feed the addiction. how great that our favorite coffee spot is just right across the street.





the barista explained to me that her tatt was an accordian exploding with rays of radness. i love that.


then we watched the paramount theatre sign light the sky.



while other signs quickly followed suit.



as we listened to a dog living in this apartment building who barked incessantly.



his bark echoed all the way down pine street. i woke up in the middle of the night and he was still barking his twilight bark. it would later become a running joke during the length of our trip..."i wonder if the dog's still barking?"

resurfaced

hi!
we had a great adventure. i took a few pictures. two. thousand.

i promise i will bore you to death with several of them over the next week or two. you will be tired of the eye popping beauty of our beautiful country and our beautiful neighboring country canada, by the time it's all over and done with. but for now, here's a taste.






the other day i decided to go to the sacred ground where my new personal ikea store is being built. it is a heavenly place. it nearly glows with potential wonder and delight. it will contain things of smart design and furniture in flat boxes. of swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce. of lovely saturated hues and indirect lighting.

the building is nearly built, the access road is paved. it is real. it's really, real.

they are building it and i will come. and i will smile like a stupid fool. because ikea is eye candy.

mr. ntm and the pb kid are sure i will be but a faint memory once the store is opened. but i'm thinking that i will see them again.

eventually.

in



the creation of one imaginative boy and a handful of straws.
oh, and a dog toy that was graciously loaned by two hospitable girl dogs. they didn't even mind that their toy was being used for a masterpiece.

and yet more handiwork.....



watching him create with such abandon made me realize how much i would like to be like him....fearless when it comes to my own creative endeavors.

so busy

in

my good friend gillian and her sweet boy paid me a visit the other night. he is so full of life and wonder. everything is fascinating to him and so new. you can actually capture some of your own sense of naivete again just by watching him take everything in.

after they left, i had to laugh because i suddenly remembered when i was a little girl and my grandmother commented to my parents that she wished she had half as much energy as i did. i just could not figure out what she could have meant by that. but now i know.

in


as a woman, i feel lucky that i get to use makeup on a daily basis if i choose to. i know some women hate it, but i don't.

i love everything about makeup. i know i'm not alone. i remember my sister-in-law plunking down her ginormouse makeup tackle box in front of me one day. it was loaded with every kind of color and tool you could ever imagine. she laughed about how ridiculous it was that she had such an extraordinary amount of makeup, but i was in awe.

whenever my friend sharon and i see each other, we sit on the bed and spread our makeup out. we try out each other's colors and talk about life. it's a ritual we started when we were college roommates and we do it to this day.

now i watch the p.b. kid's fascination with makeup. i've taught her how to unconditionally love all things mac and smashbox and she teaches me about other lines of makeups and different ways of applying them. and probably one day when she's my age, her daughter will be teaching her...and maybe me also if i'm lucky enough to live that long.

my fly fishery man








mr. ntm has been fly fishing for years and years and he still enjoys it just as much now as he did when he first started. he says he is still trying to master the art of tying his own flies, but i'd say he's pretty darn good at it now.

it'll be fly fishing season again in the fall which will make me a fishing widow once again. i've learned the only way i can get attention when it's that time of year is to break out the trout suit.

guess i better get it out of storage.

the only thing standing between me and shooting a beautiful field of lovely pale pink hibiscis was this:

well, let's see. he can out run me, he outweighs me and those horns look like they should be registered with the tactical threat division.

luckily, the big guy was feeling charitable, so we made friends, and i got my shots.









wondering if these ruby shoes still have some magic left in them....

but then again, what would i do with them if they did? i'm sure i could think of something...

pink

in
i think geraniums are like the clowns of the summer annuals. they're so in-your-face bright. i love them.
the p.b. kid's summer ritual...the afternoon nap. she's got to keep up her strength for lifting those heavy spoons of peanut butter.


my brother-in-law told me the other day that he's dealing with some mid-life crisis issues. i told him that i was dealing with the same.

honestly though,mine feels more like a full-blown psychotic state. the thesaurus defines crisis as: "A highly volatile dangerous situation requiring immediate remedial action."

there's just no way to administer immediate remedial action to this kind of crisis however. it's just something you have to sort through and it takes time. probably the universe figured that by mid-life you'd have the patience and tolerance to be able to navigate the relentless, nagging doubts and feelings that spring up right about this time in life.

what was the universe thinking?

why is that whenever we're sitting on the fence about a decision we're trying to make, that the fence we are sitting on always has to be barbed wire? sometimes we just need to be on that fence for a little bit but the barbed wire makes it so prickly and uncomfortable that we jump off of it and end up making a decision that may not have been the best choice.

maybe the trick is to learn how to sit differently and endure that prickly feeling.