I did it!

I was awake circa 1:30 pm, walking the dog by 1:45 -- in the rain. Raining-rain. We're wet.
And garshdangitall, we're walked.
Two days in a row. For an hour.
Yeah.
I need plastic pants.

Get moving, keep moving, just move d*mmit!

I don't move much. I was a sloth in a pretty recent incarnation, I just know it. Probably worked my way through some cold blooded lives too. I just don't remember being a physically active person. Spurts of fitness crazes here and there. I guess I liked it, obviously not enough to become my own Cory Everson nor enough to avoid remaining soft bodied. Now having been a mama for more than 12 years, I guess I deserve to continue to remain soft bodied. My soft bodiedness has no ill effect on my health, I've dodged the obesity bullet.
And it sure would be cool if is cool when I move my ass. Really. I just know, too, that moving the muscles in my body creates a chemical reaction beyond my human understanding; it allows the whole of my body to work together. Seeing what I see, thinking what I think, hearing what I hear, all change the composite that is at any one time ~*me*~
Yesterday, I made the loop over to the abandoned campground (where Charlie got some glorious off-leash time, returning at the high-pitched kissing sound I make) and back around home again, through my favorite local neighborhood, listening to Memiors of a Geisha.
We saw Juniper berries that look like little Easter Island facesAnd moss covered, well, everything, including this rockAnd beautiful, strong, tall, evergreens, which remind me to keep the faithAnd yet another rock, supporting yet more green lifea sign of young political activism, patriotism at its finest a sign our children are importanta find that reminded me of my childrenAnd lest one think we're drowning in green overloadthe colors explode from everywhereI long to eat such beautifully colored foods!!another sign for me to seeand still more kinds of moss and green to admireand graceful beauty of mushroomsI sat for a moment in awe of this fungusAnd later, when I was parked again, I watched The Dog Whisperer. Yeah, right in my own living room, Cesar gave me the what-for about our Charlie issues. "Dogs wake up and they walk. It's what they do. You need to do that for your dog." Because the dog's schedule is tied to mine (yep, that makes me the bitch) it's my awakening that dictates the walk's beginning. So today, for the very first time of my life, save some bizarre weeks at Xian church camps with morning calisthenics, I was outside walking, the dog, within 15 minutes of waking.
Work starts Monday. I'll be scheduling a dog walk before taking the bus to work. Hm. Let's see what happens tomorrow. For today, I moved. Yay me ♥

Frisbee Sniper

Midnight, Saturday/Sunday, Corvallis, OR, a large group of folk want to play night frisbee. On the Courthouse lawn. No one cared. Really. The security guard checked the nearby bushes for any lingering bad guys & threw the frisbee back into the circle when it landed nearby... We even recruited 4 (tipsy) strangers to join in for a toss or two ♥ It was a beautiful and amazing thing.
I don't play group frisbee. I don't play because I have this bizarre fear of being hit in the face. Same reason I avoid basketball & any variety of baseball-ish sports. PE cured me, not of my propensity to being distracted while a projectile heads towards my skull at full speed, of my desire to be in a position of having projectiles headed towards my skull at full speed. under any circumstance. Good job Mr. Bush! (a different Mr. Bush, I promise!)
Anyhoo, we're they're playing in a big circle and I'm gabbing with Casey off to the side when *WHAM* my head explodes. It's gone. I'm headless and probably soon dead. And I blink. Hey, dead people don't blink. People without heads generally don't have severe face pain either. Cool, I'm not headless nor dead. Aw fuck, MY FACE HURTS. Teeth intact, check. Blood, a bit. Hey, it hurts exactly in the middle of my two front teeth, but up on my lip. Wait! He nailed me square! Damn, that's one hell of a shot! and it hurts like a motherfucker!! I gotta get back to Sunnyside Up and get ice. OMG I can't lose my teeth wow, I'm not hurt worse, pretty cool...
I manage to actually call out to the tosser, I know it was an accident, no one coulda hit me like that on purpose ::::vbg::: (or as much of one as I could muster with my swollen lips and all.) And I make my way 1/2 block to Sunnyside Up and the ICE MACHINE! I wait a few hours before looking in a mirror, I work hard to keep myself together, well, as together as I am on a good day, anyway

o frisbee sniper
I am in awe of your aim
forgiveness with ease

So I write haiku, take daily pictures,
revel in my temporary mustachioedness!









Go ahead, click to enlarge either of the last two pictures, so you too can appreciate that b.e.a.u.tiful bruise, revel in that awe inspiring Frisbee marksmanship!And really, I just gotta say, what are the odds of the deepest indentation on my face getting injured?!? Missed my skull, my temple, my glasses, my teeth, my nose, my teeth, hallelujah it missed my teeth!





Hit me right in that one teeny tiny well-indented spot.




If there is indeed a god or 1200, s/he/they're laughing their divine asses off at this one ♥
Always glad to entertain, fellas! Don't forget to tip ♥

Hannah's Molly

Molly ran a good contest against Hannah, in the baby-naming competition between Mitch and I. By sheer stubbornness, I won out (okay plus the fact that Molly Lea doesn't quite flow smoothly off the tongue) though I'm happy to admit that both Molly and Mallory tickled my fancy. If only I'd not been waiting 18 whole years to have a Hannah of my own... So we named her first dolly, Molly. Molly now lives the free life of a hedonist in the care of my friends, Meemer and Prairie. With this big Molly thread in our life, it was easy to begin to collect American Girl schtuff and over the years we amassed quite a collection. I've been blessed to witness the continued joy-bringing of Hannah's collection; the bittersweet gift of paying forward our fortune. Much to Hayden's surprise, I made it through an entire American Girl movie with nary a tear shed for what coulda been -- I was too busy soaking up the Joy of What Is: An American Girl movie with my son ♥

Blossom for Hannah, 2004

I'll say it right now, a tough ornament to write about, in fact, they're piling up now, the Hannah ornaments, waiting to be written about. A both joyful and sorrowful task, indeed.
Hannah especially loved the Powerpuff Girls. I was shocked at the cutesy violence (in the tooth fairy storyline, Buttercup knocks the teeth out of the mouths of known bad guys to collect booty from the tooth fairy -- and it works!) and just as distracted right away from it by their, well, cuteness. Cartoonnetwork.com was one of the kids' first regularly visited websites for games. The Powerpuff Snowboarding game used to be free & the three of us would take turns playing. That musta been closer to 2004. I kinda miss these girls, now that I think of it. I think I'll do a DVR search and reminisce...

Bart Simpson, 2004

I witnessed Bart's television debut, in Maggie's living room, Bakersfield, CA. Half my life ago. Our regular group viewing of FOX (the new network)'s Sunday night line up, ya remember, The Tracy Ullman Show and 21 Jumpstreet ♥ I've since been photographed with Matt Groening & crew while dressed as a valet, learned to say his name properly (rhymes with raining, thanks Jon), and given birth to a son who loves, loves, loves The Simpsons. Hayden giggles when Homer strangles his son, lucky to have lived a life without throttling; it makes my heiney tingle. every. time. I'm joyful at the difference in our perspectives; I know I've made his world better by shifting my own perspective, using consideration and striving to be mindful. Bart is the electrifying antithesis to Hayden's true life. He can have Bart-like excitement and adventure with me, instead of in spite of me. What more could I dare ask for?

A Golden Vortex Party

As soon as the message was on the board, the plotting began... we Sunnyside-Up-pers were determined to have a holiday party truly reflective of, well, Sunnyside Up & Our Crew. First order of business, the employees invited their super cool friends & the bosses did, too ♥ It was the perfect blend of unschoolers and future unschoolers ♥The food? sorry, I couldn't stop stuffing myself long enough to take pictures. Didja know those almond-stuffed-dates-wrapped-in-bacon-thingies are totally dairy free? Me neither! But now I know ♥ Thank you Caroline for bringing such amazingness into the vortex, we will keep you. (Jon even made some with fakon, I don't think they were as good...) I even snuck a few pieces of Barack O'Brownie, because I had to; they went with my card that reads: (front) [photo of Barack] Christmas 2008 (inside) Thanks, Santa! hee hee hee.
The companionship? I got pictures of that! Our drum circle was the highlight of the nightThe dancefloor doubled as a hackey-sack fieldReally, it was such a blast I have few pictures...Then there is The Frisbee Sniper Incident, which shall be a post all it's own, so as not to hijack this one! Let me just say I am honored to work in such an amazing place, for and with the most amazing humans, following our most amazing paths, creating our most amazing connections, in this most amazing time and place - Namaste, for real my friends, Namaste.

I ♥ Secret Santa, 1996

This lil guy is why I LOVE having a Secret Santa exchange!
One simple little, hilarious, ornament has given me 12 years of giggles each time I spy these boots!
It was Hannah's first Christmas that year. I was working at East Dakota Educational Co-op, as secretary extraordinaire & Mitch was still working nights at Heartland Paper Company, in the warehouse. This was our 4th Xmas holiday together, he & I, our second as married folk, our first as parents. It was Christmas 1995 when we discovered we were pregnant (and again Christmas 1997). His brain tumor was still a big dark cosmic secret. We split our days to be fully present with our new daughter; she'd yet to have had a single moment without either of us by her side. It was near this time that she decided she didn't need a bottle of breastmilk while I was at work, I came home often enough for her to be patient & we were both happy for her to nurse to her heart's content all night long. My parents lived next door & Mitch was turning our garage into the coolest Clubhouse in town. Blissfully happy, Christmas 1996, blissfully happy ♥

When the man in your life dies...

it's time to go to Disneyland...gather your favorite people...swing at Venice Beach...and swim nekkid in 'netta's pool ♥ in December! He who has not looked on Sorrow,
will never see Joy.
~Kahlil Gibran

Never undervalue Handmade!

Made by my supervising teacher, Lu McComb and her children, when I worked at Highland High School as an interpreter, 20some years ago.
Seeing him every year reminds me of the 19 year old Self I used to be.
Let today be a testament to her.
At such a crossroads in diana development.
So much newness to life. Burgeoning wisdom.
Tough & fragile.
Celebrate the choices she made, which led to more, new, different possible choices,
which all lead to right here, right now.
Thanks past-self! You done alright ♥