My Biker Man

David took an oath that when gas reached 4 dollars a gallon, that that was the day he would get a bike. And lo an behold, one day when I sat at home on my sick leave, he just walked in the door with this one. He's been consistantly biking to work everyday pretty much, 12 miles round trip to Hollywood and back. Go DavidMichael, Go! Also featured in this fine photograpy is our hiking backpack, finally getting some use, with it's liitle camel water pouch so he can sip water through a straw while biking. Fancy!!! I am very proud that he is saving money, being kind to the environment, AND getting exercise!

Thanks to the friends who've been calling with love in their hearts extending condolences for Joe & Jaime and the family missing them. I've been looking at this picture on Melissa's blog of Joe a lot, as we're grieving him. This picture reminds me of how big he was, in spirit and laughter and cleverness and kindness and heart and mind. And how big his love is for Rachel. That's something that I think continues on strong - past the life of our fragile bodies. Also, Joe was tall - at least taller than us :) I also like to imagine that Melissa's hand holding the blue cup is really Joe's hand, extending all the way around three tiny girls.

I want to post it here for my family and friends, so they have an image to go with the guy I've been telling them about. When I first saw this picture, I thought, "Joe is a man-mountain."
And that's how I'll hold him in my memory.

Shower Me with Lovlies!

I stole pics from Christine of my party! My sister threw me the nicest bridal shower in the world at her house in Santa Maria over Memorial Day weekend. I have more pics of her & Agata on my camera, but have yet to get them off. We had a really really great time, playing games, drinking homeade sangria, eating tons o cake, and enjoying all the ladies in my family. This bikini present is designed by the one and only Christine! And I am proud and excited to wear it!! P.S. the skirt I'm wearing in these pictures is the one I sewed myself :)

I find myself helpless today, searching for something to fill the empty surreal space that has been created at this time of great, great loss. I feel I haven't the words to honor who we've lost, or to comfort friends as we suffer it. And so, I turn to words of a poet I often reference in times of confusion and pain.

Summer was like your house: you knew
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Bitty Bee

After much searching, I found the perfect wedding jewelry for myself! I bought this necklace & earrings on Dogeared.


They are teeny tiny. The neclace is a bitty bee gold charm on a delicate silk thread. I am glad to find something that is tiny and won't overwhelm since my dress is so showy and big, but still feels special and fancy. I am feeling pretty overwhelmed by wedding expectaions right now. I keep seeing so many fancy blogs full of cute ideas and beautiful set ups, and I've put little energy into the decorating. I know the flowers will be beautiful as my dad is ordering them and he's wonderful, but I feel like I need to come up with some crafty practical & cheap ideas to dress up the tables at the hall.

Recovered

Think I am finally over The Plague. Took a long time, but I am feeling pretty much back at 99% good health. Just in time too, am driving back to Lompoc for my bridal shower my sister is throwing me on Saturday. I was getting worried it would be an awful exhausting drive what with my sickness and all, but now I'm optimistic fun will ensue!

Kitteh Fort

My main accomplishment in my homestay sickness days has been to do some laundry. I figured it might be good to cleanse things of germs. In the midst of my slow moving folding, I glanced down to see this kitty rump amid the baskets.He loves that I've been at home, and hardly leaves my side. Poor lonely kitteh, I will be recovered soon and leaving you at home all alone again. Going to the doctor at 11:30, I hate seeing new doctors for the first time. There's always so much paperwork and waiting and questions bleh.

Best News Ever!

I got this email today which put a big smile on my ailing face:

"Thanks to your e-mails and generous contributions, today Gov. Schwarzenegger REMOVED the proposal to close 48 state parks and 16 state beaches from his budget plan. Once the governor proposed closing 48 state parks we jumped into action. Meeting with staff in the governor's office, working with the media, and working with all of you, we demonstrated strong opposition to the proposal to close the parks.

In one week, more than 31,000 of us e-mailed the governor and asked him to keep the parks open. The good news is that he heard us and for now the parks are safe, but this campaign has taught us that the parks need more protection. For years, funding for the parks has gone down. While this is not the end of the fight -- we will now need to make sure we have a long term plan for protecting our parks -- it is a huge victory. So pat yourself on the back and get ready for the next battle. We need to reverse the trend of park funding and ensure that we can protect our parks for future generations.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Sincerely,

Dan Jacobson
Environment California Legislative Director"

I sent one email, so not much hard work was done by this little bee, but I sure am glad!! I'm thrilled actually, it's a huge weight off the Tiny's shoulders :)

Mothers Day 2008

I went to Lompoc for Mother's Day weekend, and had a lovely family time. Courtney and I spent a really fun day together in San Luis Obispo, we stopped on the way to order my yellow wedding cake from Gina's Piece of Cake in SM. In San Luis tragedy struck and she sprained her ankle - but what a trooper - we had lunch to rest and see how it was feeling, and she hobbled to Sephora with me to do wedding make up. I got a little make-over and spent tons o money on new cosmetics, but I haven't bought any for years, and I loved the stuff they put on me.

I drove out to Cabrillo where Dad was having a plant sale / BBQ to sell off what he and his class had been growing all year, and I coudn't believe how beautiful his greenhouse is. It astounds me that he was able to accomplish so much on his own initiative. He came up with the idea for this horticulture class, and it's literally "blossomed" into this huge thriving enterprise. What a great resource for the kids too, how much fun would that have been when I was in high school.
It's really nice to get to see my family. They're so interesting and fun. After dinner on Saturday night, Dad brought in a big bucket (yes, I too think it's gross that he uses and old kitty litter bucket, but at least it's kind of recycling) of honeycomb he'd just removed from the inside of someone's house (the bees can get in and build in your walls) to turn into Honeycomb Rounds.

You are supposed to just bite out a chunk, suck the honey out and chew the wax. The wax grosses me out - but they are so cool looking and fun. On sunday we had lunch at the Alisal golf course in Solvang, and it was a warm delicious day of lingering outside and eating good food. What's not so good now, is that I some how developed strep throat by monday morning. I took Monday off work, and thought it would be ok to go back in on Tuesday, but I guess that made me a lot worse. I called around noon for a doctor's appointment, but they couldn't see me until Thursday, so Lindsay kindly pointed me in the direction of her Urgent Care center, where they'll see you and treat you for a flat rate of $90. That doesn't open until 6pm though, so I drove over at 5 and sat to wait. It seems pretty rediculous to me that our medical system is so counterintuitive. I was in so much pain I could barely manage to swallow, as a result of which I was becoming pretty dehydrated from avoiding liquid. When someone finally checked me in I was running a fever, and mostly unable to speak more than a whisper. The happy ending is that I got some antibiotics and am slowly recovering, still in some pain and feeling weak, but soon will be better!

Otis Senior Grad Show 2008

Last night David and I went to the Otis grad show, and we had fun. I bought this Hilary In Satan's Service tee shirt which I thought was awesome from one of the graduating comarts guys, he had some cool letterpress flyers I liked, and once he reminded me of the movie Detroit Rock City, I was a sure sale. I'm a sucker for that movie, it's AWESOME. I wish I'd taken photos in the show because there were some great thesis projects, but I didn't. I was excited, and then I thought I don't want to look like I'm stealing ideas or something. PLUS I kept bumping into people I really like and wanted to chat with, like Krisztianna & Joel, happily married and glowing with radience. And Barbara - who told me she's gotten a thesis published, and more on the way - Barbara's poetry is so good and funny and dark, it's excellent. And Patty! Patty Kovic, beloved design teacher. I loved Patty's type class, I told her how one of my favorite projects was making a shared timeline of 2 unrelated things. I picked Sign Language and Classical Music, which I went on to turn into a mailer for an after school club called Music & The Deaf, which teaches precussion to deaf children. Anyway, good times, good projects. I was most taken with this girl Whitney Jeffries who made an illustrated/typographical book telling the stories of kids she found that made it through the foster care system. She said United Colors of Benetton is interested in it, and may possibly publish it. It made me want to sink myself into a book project again.

Last night I talked to Courtney on the phone, and had a fun talk catching up. Sadly though, she had this job she loved at the MAC makeup counter in SB, and they started downsizing due to the poor economy, and she got laid off. She's picked up another job at the Lompoc Record, but I was sad for her because I know how much she enjoyed her previous work. I was amazed though at how optimistic she was being about it, and how positive her attitude is. I miss Courtney a lot, and hope I get to see her when I'm in town for Mother's Day.

This might sound weird, but I've started myself a new project of drawing up simplified floor plans of my childhood best-friend's homes that I inhabited a lot when I was growing up. The challenge is to see how well I can pull all these details up from memory. Somethings are so vivid and clear, while other sections of the house just don't exist in my mind, I can't find it no matter how hard I try. I've done 4 so far, and I like them. They are interesting to compare, and it's also funny how big I keep making everything. I'm also trying to place furniture and fixtures in the drawings, and add in memories of the people that lived there. I'd really like to get back inside those houses now and see if I'm accurate or not, but some of them have be sold or rented out to people I don't know by now.

Kabob

This weekend, David took me to Jonathon Wright and Company, on Beverly and Martel, to get wedding invitation plates made for the letterpress. It is the most chaming, lovely little shop of cards, paper, and books, all hung with paper flowers from the ceiling. They are a letterpress studio as well as retailer, and I was so enchanted by all the pieces in the store. On Sunday we visited Joe's new place in Silverlake, he's moved to the most beautiful little house with hardwood floors, and a tiny patio for grilling and relaxing in the sun, with windows that open without screens so you can lean out to greet people coming up the drive. AND a bathtub with clawfeet :) I sat in the sun, drank beer, and ate kabobs from 1-6, and then we tottered home. Sadly, I had a big headache by that time that put me strraight to bed, so the weekend seemed a little short.

This American Life Live!

Last night Lindsay and I went to see a live in-theater podcast of This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass. If you've never listened to an episode, you need to get online and do so. I've listened to just about every one of the some 300 that are avaliable to stream and enjoy for free. New episodes I eagerly await each weekend to listen to on National Public Radio. The episodes consist of stories and essays, interviews documenting everyday people's lives, which are extrordinary. Recently the show has put out one sesason on television, and this live theater podcast was marking the second season's beginning on Showtime. Ira is the host of the show, and he played some clips of outtakes, played some recorded interview clips, talked about the transition from radio to TV, and answered auudience questions, all live from New York. He gave a nod to all the people attending in different theaters across the country, with a special thank you to the only 2 tickets sold in Victorville, Ca, which cracked me up. Some of the stories presented last night were urban kids who live in innercity Philidelphia who keep and ride horses around the extremely non-rural environment, 2 inmates who constructed an escape ladder to scale a prison wall entirely of thousands of yards of dental floss, Jr. High School boys who want to be stand up comedians, an Iraqi man who traveled southern and mid-western Americal all summer sitting in a Lucy Peanut's style booth with a big sign that read "Talk To An Iraqi" so he could interview people about why they wanted to invade his country and what they percieved the war to be like. Each story was so great, we where laughing out loud and clapping thorugh the whole show. At the end during a Q&A one man in the audience asked Ira if he could do a show interviewing celebrities, who he's like to invite, and I loved Ira's totally honest, matter of fact response. He said the famouses are simply too boring and normal to him. It rang so true, I was delighted.
I listen online at work a lot, and am sometimes moved to tears by this show. I've often thought about buying some of the CDs they offer and giving them as gifts to fiends and family, and I may do it for Christmas this year. It's so good, you just want to share and talk about it all the time after you hear it.