tuesday aug 12,2008-juneau, alaska

we took a small plane and flew over several beautiful glaciers to a remote lodge that was built in the 1920's. then we ate grilled salmon that had been caught that morning and warmed ourselves by the fire that was crackling and popping in the huge stone fireplace. a fantastic meal and place. it was so still and quiet there. the glacier that was two miles away from us was called hole in the wall glacier and we were informed that it was a dancing glacier meaning that by the time 80 years rolls around, the glacier will have overtaken the very spot we were standing on. nice to know that not every glacier is slipping away from us.












sunday, august 10, 2008 sitka, alaska

sitka is a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem. at least that's what all their t-shirts said. i thought it was just charming. there is a lot of russian history here and it is truly evident in most of the architecture. seriously feening for a good cup of coffee at this point and luckily we got one here in a great little independent coffee shop. i had seriously begun to hallucinate that i was seeing starbucks signs on the side of the mountains.



















we went to a salmon hatchery and for a hike in the national forest. at the end of the trail, we watched hundreds of huge salmon leaping out of the lake like the craziest ballet i've ever seen. a really nice day.

friday august 8, 2008- ocean locomotion







i'm not a sea faring person, so i have to get used to words like "stateroom" "for" "aft" and "muster your stations" (as in muster i really wear this stupid life jacket?) whewie... there are lots of humans here on this boat. lots of humans doing various things. this human decided to get a massage which was really heavenly. unfortunately, i was given the hard core sales pitch afterwards when i was told that it would only take $600 worth of products to detoxify my body in a natural way. i think my muscles immediately seized up after that and completely undid all the good that had just gotten done. maybe that's also part of the hard core sales pitch? i don't know. all i know is that i guess i will continue being unnatural for now....

saturday august 9, 2008

hey! what do you sea(e)?
exactly.
(another running joke during the trip)

miles and miles of sea. and i was getting antsy until i caught myself thinking that there was no way i could find anything really interesting on this boat. that's when i challenged myself to look harder and think differently.



if you didn't answer the pirate's questions correctly, they unrelentingly chanted "walk the plank" over and over again.





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.