gratitude: for friends :Corvallis

For such an impromptu and short trip, this weekend up in Oregon felt slow, full, and intentional. Moments of sunshine, warmth (well...at least on the inside...), rain and cold. Brilliant green fields, glimpses of cloud-hugged mountains, and small-town sidewalks. Nourishing home-cooked meals, indulgent pizzas, and flowing beer (a true trip to Oregon must include it!). Two giggling girls, and many Anjali costume changes. A gratifyingly lengthy bikeride, and hours of conversation, scheming and laughter. We've been together often enough lately that open stretches of time pass in which we are not agape at our cosmic connections and epic, still-expanding story, but simply enjoy each others' company.

Walks, talks, and good folks.

Girls.

Quiet and sunshine. Stairs and Quito kitty.

shenanigans

A reunion of my tushy and a bikeseat for a delicious countryside ride.

Silly.

Below: awesome ladies' bathroom message in the equally awesome

Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland

(Interestingly, we met the owner of this place on our return flight from Baja.

His personable modesty belied the hugeness and radness of his obviously very successful creation).

A Week in Maui, or: My Love Affair with Flowers

The natural beauty abundant in Maui quickly romanced me. I learned that I am a warm-water-beach slut; give me a warm ocean to float in, and I'm ready to call the place home. ; ) When I wasn't gazing contentedly for hours at the aqua and indigo waters from our "Lana'i",

or scheming for an opportunity to immerse myself in their accepting embrace, I was flirting with the fragrant tropical flowers that literally tumbled at my feet from every shrub and tree.

Following the islands' tradition of decorating oneself with these luscious natural trinkets made me feel more feminine and delicious than Marilyn Monroe with a case full of diamonds. It did! Plumeria blossoms littered the lawn outside and begged to be put behind my ear.

A rainbow of hibiscus lined the sidewalks I traveled daily ~ so ubiquitous they practically advertised to be picked.

I'm sure the sun and surf fueled it, but with one of these delicate beauties behind my ear ~ not to mention a whole lei of real flowers around my neck(!), I smiled bigger.

Me and my mama ~ all lei'd up.

And took more self portraits than I have in years.

I felt like a lovely attractive flower myself.

See my collection of flower photos (and other vacation pics) here.

dance, and the dancers

And did I mention dance?  

Creative, innovative, highly skilled, hard-working, passionate and devoted to the dance, 

these lovely creatures are too modest.  

gratitude: for friends

Ahhh. So awesome to have TT, Farhad, Mel, Phil, and Phil's mom, Sonya, "Me-maw," in the area for a while! Music, hookah, dance, laughter, bourbon, and late night (all-the-time, more like it) Indian food (well. . food. if we're involved, there's food involved) were all in abundance.

Ahhh. Good, old friends. And good times with good old friends.

TT!

TT and Farhad toast the oysters at Hog Island in SF's Ferry Building. 

Anjali and her new BFF, Ivy, from whom Anjali earned her first official nickname, Jolly (a common American mispronunciation of the tail end of her name, and more importantly, a fitting adjective). 

Me-maw! (not ours ~ Ivy's.)

A music rehearsal with Helm at the Shochats'.  

The melody from Farhad's tar was the theme of my head the whole time.  

gratitude: for friends

Today I'm giving thanks for our Family, Uncle Brian and Tita Arlene (known formerly on this blog with different names...)

We miss our family dinners with them so much, but that makes having dinners together nowadays even more special.

(Here we are enjoying a family dinner on our back deck.) 
With Family, you have full-on belly laughs like this.  I love this photo of Sealion because it is so genuine and full of joy. 
They're our partners in Good Food. 

(At Oliveto in Rockridge celebrating Arlene's birthday.)
And Tita enthusiastically comes to the rescue for a grumpy squirming Anjali.  (Here we're at the Big Kitchen in San Diego.)
Cheers!  To Family.  

wine and chocolate

when the chocolate bar runs out,

you make do. 

Bon Voyage, Mes Amis

Nala dog waits anxiously in a newly-emptied living room

At the turn of the month, our good  friends, Gemini Cricket, Hot Mama Honeybee, and baby June Firefly, will be embarking on a Grand Adventure.  They have given away or loaned out all of the belongings in their comfy 2-story home ~ furniture, kitchenware, decor, mementos, an extensive and hand-picked art collection.  They are leaving a well-cultivated life with reliable jobs and a solid, interconnected, fun community of friends ~ to move into an Airstream, and then across the country and into the unknown.  

I made a similar exfoliation of my former life just a few years ago (still proud that I came out to start over with only seven (7) packing boxes ~ which included my sewing machines and art supplies, costuming and huge platform boots, and my loyal stuffed koala, Sheltowee), but in retrospect it seems I had  a lot less responsibility and a lot less to lose  ~ although I still miss my community every single day.   Don't want to discount my experience, for it changed me and my path forever in countless ways.  But looking at what they're doing from the vantage point of my cozy, feathered nest with family, solidly in my thirties, I wince a little and think, "Yeesh!  That's a big leap!"

As always, these guys give me pause to think.  I look around the house which we've only occupied for a year and a half now, and marvel at the piles of clutter that never disappear, but simply get dispersed ~ to recollect in a week or so.  The clutter gets so noisy in my periphery (and we keep a pretty tidy house for the most part) that it drives me out the door ~ which is the best place to be anyway.  Which leads me back to these traveling folks and what they are essentially forcing themselves to do.  Be outside more.  

And just *be*, without the stuff.   The process of skin shedding has been a huge and complicated challenge to them already.  I give them 1000 kudos for the effort and perseverance.   And for that, I dedicate perhaps my favorite moment from perhaps my favorite movie, "Harold and Maude."  (and I think I've already told this to Gemini, so I'm sorry if it's anticlimactic, but I still love how appropriate it is.)  When they are sitting together by the little pond, after having a wonderful time together, and Harold hands Maude the little coin that has engraved on it, "Harold loves Maude."   And she says, "Oh, Harold, it's wonderful!" and immediately flings it into the water.  "Now I'll always know where it is!" (or something like that.)  

But, my friends, more than forcefully detaching yourself from possessions, security, and comfort, I salute you for following your gut.  There's a little saying (from a tea bag label) that's been glued to my keyboard since not long after I took my big jump a few years ago:  "Live from your heart, you will be truly satisfied."  May your ear always be tuned to the frequency of your heart.

wine and chocolate

Sealion has been working a slew of evening shifts recently.  Where he usually can count on a relatively balanced schedule among morning, evening, and night shifts (such is the nature of his profession), this last month was almost all evenings.  This month is not much different.  (We're thinking that this is what happens when a computer program takes over what a human used to do ~ juggling schedules.)  This means that Anjali and I have been spending afternoons and evenings on our own.  The daily family meal has become breakfast.  And I have developed a pleasant little ritual to transition the afternoon into evening:  wine and chocolate.

  

During my pregnancy (beside the fact that I attempted to avoid chocolate altogether), dark chocolate was too strong for me (horror!), so I had to switch to milk chocolate.  That was a fun side journey (my favorite is Dagoba's Chai).  Happily my taste and intuition have lead me back to the dark side (The Force is strong in me..).  Lately I've been sticking to straight dark chocolate with no mix-ins ~ Green and Black's 70% is what is open in the cabinet.  Needing only a few squares, a bar can last me well over a week.  Old vine zinfandel is my wine preference these days.  They call it "old vine" because the vines are. .  old, and they're gnarly from when they pruned them in the old school method ~ lopping them off at the top each year ~ instead of training them to trellises.  Supposedly their age makes them harder to work with, producing fewer grapes per vine, and of variable size.  I've also heard that this variety is trendy among folks like me, but ~ what a yummy way to be trendy; much better than, say, tight-rolling your pantlegs.   I'm satisfied with a pretty tiny portion (in our house we call it a "dot"), but it does manage to add a celebratory note to that time when the shadows are long and things are slowing but not sleeping and the house might be feeling a bit quiet.

I'd rather have the boy, but. . this routine ain't bad.