i missed the equinox

in the last week:

i found part of a black cat's tail while walking the dog. i carried it with me in a plastic bag for awhile, thinking i would do something (?) with it, but then EVERY CAT we saw was black after that, so i threw it away.

school started. the viewing list for my american musicals class includes hedwig and the angry inch and the rocky horror picture show! it also means i have to watch singin' in the rain for yet another class.

we watched two movies on my list (from the new york times' 1000 best movies): sugarland express and straw dogs. i recommend them, but the latter not before bed.

xo

like airplane! but not funny

1. please go to andrew sloan's listening party featuring the new of montreal album, skull lamping. it's at someday lounge, monday the 8th. i'm going to add a link to his blog today so you can read all about it. you! must! support!
2. i've seen two movies in the past week that i can't get out of my head and i think everyone should see them in this order: rent the sweet hereafter, and then go directly to the theater afterwards and watch vicky cristina barcelona. that way you have contrast. snow vs. sun, incestuous vs. polyamorous, etc. they will balance in your system like a good salad dressing on your tongue.
3. a guy died at my gym two days ago. he was thirty-five and had a heart attack while he was playing basketball. life is brutal and beautiful and i hope i don't die in a gymnasium.
4. k. and i are going to massachusetts for a week starting wednesday, so while the rest of portland is seeing del the funky homosapien and cool kids (!) i am going to be eating lobster rolls and watching the red sox play at fenway park. pray for sun.
xo

sunshine day

hi.. i am downloading music (four sufjan stevens records, devendra banhart and les savy fav)before heading back out to enjoy the sunshine.
yesterday:
~a man on a motorcycle riding on 39th ave. dropped a package of sausages and, instead of leaving them for the crows, he stopped traffic going both ways to pick them up. i think he was planning on bbq-ing those road weenies regardless of the bits of dirt.
~a small child (five, maybe? i am terrible with ages)in a shoddy red cape that looked like it was made of an old nightgown waved at me, unsmiling, as i left the gym. like a little serious man. like dustin hoffman.
~a table of perfectly normal people at work prayed before their meal, which is, in itself, exceptional, but get this: they prayed AFTER their appetizers but BEFORE the entrees! this isn't the first time i have seen this, but it is still curious to me. does god not provide the appetizers, therefore He is not to be thanked for them? is there a lesser diety in charge of calamari and bread? i am not against prayer (any more than i am against, say, adam sandler movies)but it's weird to so conspicuously display your faith in a restaurant. much like the so-called liberal homophobes: i don't care what those people do, just so long as they don't flaunt it right in my face. ha!
xo

summer absence..

so, hi! i haven't posted anything of substance this summer because it's been too beautiful outside to sit on the computer and write. i have been working on fiction writing, but in a notebook so i can take it outside in the yard or when i am riding the bus someplace.
things that have been happening:
1. the chickens started laying eggs! at first it was freaky to eat them because we are so disconnected from our food sources, it seemed like eating someone's poo. and it's strange to see stella running around with a worm hanging out of her mouth and know that whatever she eats is going to end up in the egg. hmm. i am thinking of putting them on different diets to see what effect that will have on the taste of the eggs. for example.. what would a steady diet of marshmallows make the yolks taste like? what about frosted flakes? rhubarb?
2. my running has fallen off, big time. i am unconcerned. my extremist self wants to sign up for the ironman on the moon competition, but my other self (the one that likes to sleep ten hours a night and thinks that popcorn makes a fine dinner)thinks this is dumb. they are duking it out presently.
3. i spent as much time as possible reading, writing and thinking this summer, and trying to spend time at the beach with my family. it's been a good one, in an unflashy way. i am unenthused about the advent of SCHOOL. it looms. like a giant cloud of stink on the horizon.
4. i am hoping to start a food blog soon, detailing the places i eat out and the food that i am making at home. more to come when the rain starts in earnest.

xo xo

return to our secret lake

things i forgot to say:

1. on sunday gigi and i went for a run and got sketched out by springwater corridor (again) so we ran into milwaukie. it was like we had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the suburbs of L.A.-- there is still a city vibe, but everyone is driving instead of walking or biking and there are tons of trees. i thought we were headed away from the storm that was coming, but on 70-something and king street, we were pummeled by raindrops. it was like getting slapped by hundreds of undersized goldfish. i couldn't see a thing and there were people standing on the balconies of their apartments watching the lightning hit the hills. looking into those apartments, with the toy-sized dogs and giant t.v. screens, made me happy, like the residents were living a different kind of life from mine. i hoped they were enjoying all the stouffer's mac and cheese that i am too paranoid to eat now. and it made me even happier to think of how i must seem crazy to them.
2. there were sign language interpreters at the billy idol show! they signed all of the lyrics for the deaf people in the audience. what a cool job!
xo
p.s. the other day keith and i were cheese shopping.
he: what about that one?
me: it isn't organic, though.
he: (pouty) man, i'm sick of organic!

ups & downs

today was all over the map for me. i cannot divulge the biggest news of the day just yet, but when i do, hats will be flying through the air like mary tyler moore's. suspense, dear readers, makes the blog-o-sphere go 'round.
i recognized today that i am not going with my instincts with my revisions in writing -- i had a meeting with my ex-professor that was disheartening. (and when i say disheartening, i mean i am psycho-sensitive. and when i say psycho-sensitive, i mean i am not great at taking criticism.) i revised the fuck out of my work and didn't believe in what i was doing and of course it didn't pan out.
it's so hard to know when to stick to your guns and when not to! is that what i am meant to be learning here?
i then ran four shitty miles at the gym, which is the only place lately where i am not being chased by scary dogs who want to tear my sneakers and my dog to bits.
in thinking about last night with bob, i realised that it was just like old times in the best way (not in the we-are-subsisting-on-day-old-pastries kind of way). he has reestablished himself as essential in my life with the tenacity of a barnacle: so funny and fun and inspiring and smart and sassy. (is it ok to call a man sassy?) he is proposing a 33&1/3 concept soon so cross yr fingers that they see his greatness. go, bob, go.
xo