Nomads R Us. Northern climes or bust.

Merry Happy Everyday, y'all.

I am off on a pre-holiday, holiday & post-holiday adventure. Actually, that sentence makes no sense. Is there a day that isn't holly-wholly-holy? Not on my calendar.

I am turning into a nomad for 3 weeks, with only a backpack & a toiletries bag that contains mostly art supplies & notebooks. I shall not let the grass grow under my feet--mostly because I am going to be in northern climes (don't you just love to say "climes") & it's cold & snowy in them thar hills.

So, in case I don't blog again until Janus turns his face toward the new year, may you celebrate the birth of the new you every day.

Blog alternative:

181. Plan a trip to another time zone, another temperature zone, another dimension. Pack light--only what you can carry. This is imaginary, perhaps, so you really can get by without 3 extra pairs of shoes. Perhaps, like Bilbo, you run off for the first adventure of your life without even a pocket handkerchief. Do you want to go to the Victorian Age? Visit Camelot? Enjoy the trip.

Now Fly!

Once there was a girl with wings

Once a book that flew

Poems lighting hearts

Art flowing like a river

& once is now

always now

now is always

Blog alternative:

180. Think of something you have loved doing or loved loving & love it all over again. Now.

November Dance

I can't believe I missed an opportunity to wish you all happy friday the 13th so I shall do so belatedly.

We have had a string of wonderful days. Some of them were rainy--there's a hurricane somewhere, or was--but they were wonderful anyway. Today it's sunny and seventyish. I'm sitting in a coffee shop. Or perhaps I should call it an ice tea shop.

I just finished typing in a little short story (just under a thousand words) that I wrote on 3 placemats. I have a BUNCH of poems to send out, so I hope to be reporting--oh, Cathy! I just saw this cool car that you would love to see drive past, all tailfins & chrome, with its spare tire encased in the same metal as the car & trimmed in chrome--that I've done a nice little marketing binge.

The other thing I've been doing of late is artwork. Dozens of placemats have laid down before me & offered their unblemished surfaces to my pens & pencils. Plus I've gotten out the watercolors & some scraps of paper I bought at a local letterpress. Such fun.

I read a new brain plasticity book: The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge--a very good read. I find out that multi-tasking is over-rated, as to make actual changes in the brain structure requires actually paying attention to tasks...

As you might recall from my last blog alternative, I invited stories or poems based on my list & was interested to hear from anyone who used every word. Drum roll. Her Chloeness sent me a story the next day that did that very thing--while attending graduate school! I am impressed & humbled & honored & tickled & all sorts of other words that end in ed. Thank you for Death of a Shoe, Chloe m'dear. I appreciate you.

Blog alternative:

179. Dance around outside to celebrate November--but only if the ground isn't icy where November finds you. (I would like to report that no readers were harmed in the writing of this blog. grin.)

Pi, piano, poetry

Heidi's hand,

old piano that came up the Yellowstone River by steamboat

& I shall tell more of the story later

(it involves Indians & horse thievery, etcetera)

I just wanted to see what it felt like to blog twice in a week...

This shall be short. I am thinking of silence & sunlight & fish & the moon & walking & glue & architects & poetry & Persia & mauve & zero & lemonade & blizzards & clean socks & samurai warriors & cats & roses & pink sheets & good wine & sticky notes & guitars & pi & salamanders & string theory & cards & wax & foot lockers & miracles & dynamite & rocket ships & baseball & sweat & music & triangles & nasal spray & seals & calendars & recipes & African violets & the yin yang &

Blog alternative:

177. Make a list of things you didn't even know you were thinking about until you started making the list.

or:

178. Take 3 or 5 or 7 things from my list & put them into a poem or story. (If you use ALL of them, I would very much like to see the poem or story...)

Old Growth Mosaics

6' man attempting to hug big-ass tree

in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

I know, I know--I've been missing. One person noticed and was worried that I'd fallen into a hole or had a personality transplant & was now blogging the blues under an assumed name. (Hi Ken!)

That is not the case. I am alive & well & floating an electron's-width above the face of the planet. Life is as fabulous as ever. I wish it was easier to switch the email address that owns a blog, as I am aiming to phase out of earthlink & into gmail, but one of these days I'll figure it out. Or, more accurately, I'll go through the complex dance steps required.

For those of you who are interested, my new email address is laurelwinter@gmail.com but earthlink will continue to work until I stop being a technolazydaisy.

I can't imagine filling you in on all the marvelous things that have happened since (gulp) July 9th, so I shall be selective. I did indeed reach New Jersey & Minnesota & Montana & Minnesota again. My Montana highlight--beside playing a few billion games of cards with my parents--was helping irrigate. No offense, Sister Shelly, but I still prefer irrigating to golf.

I've been busy taking classes again. Google SketchUp 7 rocks! Try it if you've ever wanted a (FREE) 3D modeling program with (FREE) tutorials on YouTube. I'm also taking a mosaic class & learning about hempcrete & getting the scoop (or at least the beginning of the scoop) on intellectual property.

Besides that, there's the usual writing-y & arting-y sorts of thing going on. Just drafted another picture book. The poems are coming lickety-split. A story idea is hovering just below the fingertips. Oh, & my beautiful childrens just celebrated their two-dozenth birthday.

Blog alternative:

175. Ask someone an interesting & uplifting question. A couple examples: whilst leaving the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (Holy xylem, Batman! Those trees are big!) I asked a boy on the trail how old he was & then, seconds later, apologized for asking such an inane question. "What's something interesting about you?" I asked (or words to that effect). I found out he likes to build things & is good at climbing. Then his brother joined us & I found out that HE is making a mini-submarine. Much more fun than knowing ages. Also I just got my teeth cleaned (Yay!) & I asked my hygienist what were her favorite things about her kids.

Bonus blog alternative:

176. Give your gums a nice massage. (Wash your hands first!) (Notice I said gums, not gum.)

Fizzy Turquoise Mood

Although some of you have been speculating that I dropped off the face of the earth (perhaps checking out my home planet?) given that I posted not once in June, I do in fact still exist. Yay. Just been busier than usual, with a massive re-organization project.

No artwork today. I'm in a hotel in Virginia on my way to Montana via New Jersey.

Um, you say, have you been reorganizing the map?

Good idea, but no. I was going straight to Montana & then to Minnesota & Ohio on the way back home & then I found out my ex-husband was going to be in Rochester for a week so I rearranged my schedule to hit Minnesota first so I could say hi to him & then my son who just moved to New Jersey needed to get back to Rochester to get his Buick (it wouldn't fit in the UHaul) so I said, heck, New Jersey's practically on the way & I was maybe going to see him on the other end of the trip so why not? This will be a lot more fun. Plus we'll get to stop in Ohio to see my other son, so that will be lots of fun.

The title of this blog is courtesy of a reader who happened across me somehow & bestowed the concept of a fizzy turquoise mood. So, Elsa, wherever you are, thanks for you sparkling word sense. I would also like to honor Tami, another diner at the Boston Beanery, who overheard me asking a server if there was a Barnes & Noble in the mall (I'm looking for an audio book--thought of it on my way out of town, so no time to order it) & not only told me where she thought there might be one, but then looked it up on her I-phone & brought the information over to me. (Saved me a trip, because I called them up & they didn't have it either. Ah, well.) It's pretty cool when you want to fill out a positive comment card on other customers who provide great service at restaurants. My server was good, too.

This will not be the most scintillating blog entry ever, because I am going to go right to sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all.

Blog alternative: (which, Tami & Elsa, if you don't want to read down & figure out what the heck this is all about, it's simply a suggestion of other things to do rather than the writing or reading of blogs, or the watching of tv or such. I think I did the first blog alternative list on April 18th of 2007 or somesuch)
174. Take a round-about trip. Maybe Montana via New Jersey. Once I went to Los Angeles via Ohio, because I was going to a science fiction convention in Madison & was then headed to Los Angeles for an author in the school visit. Told my Ohio son that I was going through Rockford, Illinois to pick up the freeways that would take me south & he said, "Illinois is close to Ohio." "Yep," I said.

Brain Plastic

This is a (mildly belated) birthday card for a friend I haven't met yet. She's met me, kinda sorta, as her eyes & consciousness connected with the words in my novel Growing Wings. Her aunt told me her birthday was Tuesday, the day I flew back from Wiscon, & I am getting going now with sundry & various accomplishments, including this blog.

Wiscon & Madison & State Street & the farmer's market around the state capitol (someone told me it was the largest outdoor farmer's market in the country) & the food & the conversation & the friends new & old--I am very appreciative. I had fun reading poetry with 3 other poets & the panel I moderated on the workings of consciousness went VERY well. Richard Russell, who is an experienced moderator & was one of my panelists (the panel was his idea), later told me I used a technique for identifying 3 or 4 audience participants in advance that really let the conversation & information flow. He hadn't seen that used before & is planning on utilizing the technique himself. I brought art supplies (placemats & colored pencils) to the signing, so was very happy creating during lulls. Delia Sherman & Ellen Kushner sat at my table, so I had very good company indeed.

I am about to play some cards--a game that my business partner & I invented, which stimulates brain plasticity--so I shall ta ta for now.

Blog alternative:
173. Take a walk or a drive. Admire license plates that have cool numbers or letters on them. Make up a vanity plate for yourself.

From skull sutures to distal phalanges--I love thee so, dear skeleton

A few weeks ago I had a phone conference with a lovely bunch of girls in Nebraska, who read Growing Wings in their school book club. In appreciation for them & their attention, I offer this drawing! (I don't want to ignore Maryam & Nancy, the book club coordinators, but I didn't find out their favorite colors...)

It is absolutely gorgeous today. Sunny & breezy & brisk. (66 degrees as I write this in the midafternoon.) Just the sort of mountain day that lets you know it's still spring. I have nothing against summer, but one of the things I so love about living in the mountains is that even in summer, you get the cool-downs that let you appreciate the warm-ups more.

I just purchased an interesting thing--an iron creation with 12 large cups on it designed to hold bottles of wine. It hangs on the wall & looks like a vine. Now, currently I have just 1 bottle of wine in the house & I doubt I've ever had 12, so why did I buy it? Simple: art supplies! Paint brushes & colored pencils & markers & pen & glue sticks & scissors. Oh, what fun. I might even reserve 1 or 2 cups for tea lights, if I get some LONG matches to light them with. Probably cast some pretty fascinating flickers from deep inside the cups. It was on clearance because the top cup is very shaky & not wine-worthy, but a few paint brushes won't stress it out. I'll probably put cups of supplies inside the metal cups, so I can lift them out as a unit & set them on a table. Of course, a couple bottles of wine will be good to have as well....

(Yeah, I know, this is perhaps as deeply satisfying as a description of watching paint dry; but hey, remember my theory that you're better off doing something personally satisfying rather than reading blogs, so if I'm boring it's probably all to the good.)

Now it is time for me to go pack for Wiscon. Perhaps I shall see some of you there.

Ooh! I forgot to mention that Skritter has officially launched. Check out the website at skritter.com & be sure to look at the comic. (My connection with Skritter, which is a program that helps people learn to write Chinese characters, is that it is the brainchild of my offspring Nick.)

My other offspring, Zach, recently drove to Montana for the graduation of my lovely niece Crystal, who managed to be both valedictorian AND homecoming queen. Plus she's nice. So many beautiful people on the planet. (You among them. I'll claim you all as relatives.) The word on the street is that Zach represented us splendidly, which surprises me not at all.

Blog alternative:
171. Lie down in a quiet place (or sit in a noisy place, if that's what's available to you) & appreciate your bones. Think of them as the tree in the center of the garden that is you. Thank them for making your blood. Thank them for being a cosmic transmitter-receiver of energy. Thank them for making sure that you're not just a puddle of goo, blurping about on the floor, unable to throw a football or hold a paintbrush, unable to make love, unable even to make a sandwich. Rah, rah, rah, Yay Bones!
&
inspired by the word "Bones"
172. Go see the new Star Trek movie!

Busted Theramin Cherry--& Hi Mom!

The title refers to the fact that I--she blushes modestly--am no longer a theremin virgin. Yes, at Hatchfest Asheville a few weeks ago, I got up close & personal with a theremin. & it was fun!

In the last month I attended parts of 2 great festivals: the aforementioned Hatchfest (which was, btw, born in Bozeman, MT, where I went to college 30 years ago. Coincidence--well, maybe, but I doubt it) which is an innovation incubator, & Wordfest Asheville, which is a poetry festival. I was able to hear & speak with Li-Young Lee, who I have had the pleasure of hearing twice before (once in Rochester, Minnesota, during my birthday week when I was 25ish & at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies annual convention in Oregon in 2002) & other fabulous poets new to my now, including Valzhyna (kinda like Regina) Mort from Belarus. & the amazing Alan Wolf (who presented a workshop/reading for & by young poets, including his amazing son Simon, coincidentally at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Center.)

Today is Mother's Day. I was well-wished by my sons (one of whom had challenged his Skritter co-conspirator to think of a single other woman who would happily let her child eat off the floor) & I am about to do the same for my mother. But I would like to extend the well-wishing to you all, of whatever age or gender or parturition status. Happy Mothering Day. Congratulations on the daily (or momently, if you want to break it down further) birth & nurturing of you, yourself.

Blog alternative:
170. Appreciate yourself as your own child, & as your own mother. Make yourself a card. Buy yourself dinner or flowers. Take yourself to a movie. Thank yourself.

Five Point Ozone

Yesterday was the much-celebrated release of Laurel Version 5.0 & we dare say she is now even better than before. As with any new release, there is some debugging going on. 5.0 came with sniffles, which is not a feature we plan to support. Enhancements include clutter control & inspired organization. The piece de resistance, though, is superior self-centering, in which Laurel is increasingly aware of her own point of reference & preference & adjusts her course accordingly. This is not a standard upgrade, as many think it will take them out of the sphere of Love&Caring, but we find that Laurel fills up with Absolute Unconditional Love 17% faster than her previous (already high) rate, which then spills over onto her friends & relatives & relative strangers & the universe in general. In short, Laurel 5.0 is now more popular than ever with herself & it is possible--although not necessary--that 5.0 will be the preferred version worldwide.

Blog alternative:
169. Think of yourself as a piece of software. Plan a new release, perhaps scheduled to coincide with your next birthday. Cathy Version 4.4? Nikola Tesla Version 15.3? John Cusack Version 4.3? (You get the idea...)

Sense of Wonder Thunderstormy

Between Cusco & Machu Picchu, Peru trip 2004

April is one of my favorite months. In part because it's spring personified & in part because it contains my birthday. (April 22nd, Earthday, I become the 5.0 version of Laurel. Yee-haw.)

I am better at being me than I ever have been. That is something to celebrate. Really, I feel like every single day is my birthday, because every day is the new beginning of life.

Tonight is the second session of my screenwriting class. The text is Screenplay, by Syd Field, & I really LOVE this book. Not just for the practical screenwriting advice, but for the metaphorical metaphysics of it as well. For example, he tells us that if you don't know how to end the screenplay, write the ending you WANT to happen. He tells us that any action or dialogue should do one of two things: illuminate character or move the storyline forward. If it doesn't do one of those things, it doesn't belong in your screenplay. So, I extrapolate that into the realm of writing & creating a life & see the choice element: I'm going toward the ending I want & I get to pick the characteristics in my life that I would like to illuminate & if something isn't leading me toward what I want, well, why am I putting it there? Whining? Don't like that story. Worrying? Don't think so! Creative? Yep. Loving? Yep. (I could go on, but you get the picture. More importantly, I get the picture.) I'm the screenwriter & the director & central casting. I'm liking this movie. It's got magic & romance & adventure & peace & great scenery. & a thunderstorm. (But don't worry, I've unplugged my computer, so I won't get fried while bringing you these words.)

As a class, we came up with a character & her background, to start playing around with how to play around with screenplays. I have fallen in love with my ex-basketball player drug rep who has just moved back home with her parents at age 31. I might just keep working on this one for a while. (I got another really great idea, but it's more complicated so I think I might try to get one screenplay under my belt first.)

All righty then, time to go do something, anything, outside. One must take advantage of a good thunderstorm.

Blog alternative:
168. Imagine your life as a movie. What is the genre? Romantic comedy, action adventure, one of those real downers where you just know the main character is NOT going to get the good stuff? Remember, you're in charge. You can change the plot around (Hollywood does it all the time) & shoot new scenes & even go back & give old scenes new interpretation. If you don't like the genre, change it. Take creative control.

Dear Chaos, I'll never forget that weekend in Paris...

March is marching steadily toward completion. It came in like a lion (or perhaps more like a lamb if you consider that the white fluffy stuff that blanketed Asheville looked like lamb's wool), triskadekaphiled a second Friday the thirteenth for the year, skipped a merry Irish jig over St. Patrick's day & is now mere days from becoming an April Fool.



I bought a new salt crystal lamp (seen above, through 2 glass blocks) (have I mentioned how much I love glass blocks!) & took a class in dry stack stone. It's been a while since I've been so delightfully dusty. As "civilized" humans (these would be intentional airquotes if I were speaking this blog to you) we don't spend enough time messing around with the bones of our grandmother earth. I recommend it!

Chaos is my new love. As in fractals. Chaos theory. The butterfly effect. Not so much a new love as a deepening of an old crush. It's as if I had Miss/ter Chaos as a pin-up on my bulletin board & spent time fantasizing about it & then we had a chance to meet & talk. I have gazed into the eyes of Chaos & I didn't think, hmmm, you're curvier & more self-similar in your pictures... The Teaching Company course on Chaos is really fantastic. I recommend it highly. (Just finished lecture 17 of 24.)

I'm heading back to my apartment now. The property manager just finished installing a new washer on my bathroom sink--I had a serious drip of the faucet.

Blog alternative:
167. Get dirty. Play with mud. Stack some stones. Chop some wood. Help out at a branding. (When I was a kid, we got to wrestle the calves. Now that's some satisfying dirt &, well, um, shit.) Get down on your knees & pull some weeds.

Billy & Willy--can Milli Vanilli be far behind?

Dear Google Chrome, 

What's with the font stuff? You want to be the cool new kid on the block? Support fonts. (Georgia, Georgia, Georgia on my--oops, that's scheduled for later in the blog.) Heck, Blogger wants me to access my account with a Google email address, so y'all ought to be working together. I can get to my fonts in (polite cough) Mozilla Firefox. Need I say more? Now, please excuse me, for I must talk to my loyal blog followers (um, that would be Cathy & Bill & probably Sharon & Bruce & Helen & Nick & Chloe & Jeremiah & possibly Zach) so, Google Chrome, I say TTFN.

Semi-warmly,

Laurel Winter

Hi Everybody Else (Okay GChrome, you're included too),

Now this is weird. Georgia may have JUST started working. Not sure, because sometimes (in Chrome) it SAYS it's working & when I post it's a boring font, but we'll see... (When I started it wouldn't even pretend it was using Georgia.) ( p.s. I've posted & I see that it WAS just pretending to use Georgia.)

Okay,

Wow,

Shift in the universal energies anyone?

I've talked to several people, including myself (hey, I love talking to myself) about how it feels like a whole different universe since February started. Like time compresses & expands willy-nilly, that sort of thing.

I see that I am going to have to use a more concrete example of a dramatic change in the spacetime continuum:

I took a basket making class--2 of them, actually--out at the Arboretum. Involving needle & thread-substitute. (aka raffia) I only poked myself once. For those of you who have known me less long, you may be unfamiliar with the fact that the last time I played with needles, not-so-willingly, was high school home ec class, more than 30 years ago. Boy, did I not go to the head of the class for that! But I sat there &--under the tutelage of a wonderful Cherokee woman named Nancy Basket--made a cute little coiled pine needle basket. I'm not going to quit my day job (poetry, stories long & short, art, inventing stuff, designing stuff, guiding cosmic energy through people) anytime soon to make coiled baskets, but it was fun. Then, after a nice lunch break, we had a second class:

Freeform Kudzu Basket

I gave that a line of its own, because I am definitely going to have fun with kudzu again. & again. & etcetera. Talk about having the raw materials handy. & if my friend's yard runs out (not likely) pretty much anyone you go talk to & say, "Pardon me, but can I borrow a cup of kudzu? I brought my own clippers." will give you as much kudzu as you can carry & refrain from calling the mental hospital because they just hope you're crazy enough to come back for more.

little pine needle basket digesting

in belly of freeform kudzu basket

I've also been listening to some cds. (Yeah, I know, I'm probably one of the last 3 people on the planet to not own some sort of IPod or mp3 player--but that will change. I just got advice from my sons on which device I might want, so I can transfer songs & not be dealing with stacks of scratchable discs. [this is the camera speaking, I who still have complete control over her imaging capability. Don't hold your breath, cds.]

So, I got out my 2 disc Essential Willie Nelson & Billy Joel's Greatest Hits, vol. I & II (that's only good through 1985, so I bet there's more out there) &--because I have no Milli Vanilli to follow Willy & Billy--listened to The Proclaimers & John Denver & Don McLean (Bye, bye, Miss American Pie. Drove my chevy to...um, don't want to violate copyright here) & Neil Diamond.

& as Neil Diamond says, "Good times never seemed so good." Here I am in Sweet Carolina, with Georgia on my mind (at least as my font) & Wild Montana Skies in my heart &--well, none of the songs were about Minnesota or Wisconsin, the other 2 places I've lived, but I've been thinking them (& all you who live there) fondly as well. 

As Bobby McFerrin says (another recent companion of my ear) "Don't worry. Be happy." Good advice.

Blog alternative:

165. Listen to some music from your past. Bonus points if you dance around the living room.

&

a bonus:

166. Take a (short) class in something you used to hate/be-really-not-good-at/think-you-couldn't-do-so-never-ever-tried. Your single mission: to have fun playing with it. The great thing about this is if you're able to do it at ALL you're doing well. & it's good if you don't do it well the first time, because then there's nowhere to go but up.

Flash Ferret & the Pet Peeves: now touring

Beast Friends

In honor of the groundhog
In honor of Zach's new puppy (a min pin named Cheese)


We get two Friday-the-thirteenths in a row. I'm celebrating ten days in advance of the first of them.

Yesterday it snowed & rained. Today it is sunning, but the snow is supposed to return this evening & a few more snow showers tomorrow. Hope it doesn't mess up my espanol (I don't really know how to put the ~ over the n, so you will have to use your own mental powers to move it there yourself. Don't explode your brain doing so.) Even though we're in the mountains, we're still in the south, so things get canceled at the drop of a not-so-very-many flakes.

The PowerPoint class was good fun & useful. Flash web animation coming up this Saturday. Screenwriting is either canceled or postponed for a month--I've had both stories so far. I am voting for the latter to be true.

My big news of the week:
I was voted
Best Poetry Contributor
for
StarShipSofa, the Audio Science Fiction Magazine

Check them out at starshipsofa.com
lots of good authors & sound effects & people with great accents (hi Tony) & lovely voices (especially Diane, who has narrated my work)

Besides that, much poetry has flared through my synapses & through my fingers. Who knows where it was before that! Ditto drawings. Don't tell my camera [What is she scheming now, I wonder; this cannot be good.] but I definitely am planning an upgrade [Upgrade! Upgrade! I am outraged.] now that I've got PowerPoint plans & need to have sharper photos of my placemat drawings [Sure, blame the camera.] to put into presentations.

So much to experience. So much to express. So, see ya later.

Blog alternative:
164. Befriend a beast. Love on your cat or dog or ferret if you have one. Compliment some barky dog you are walking past, telling he, she or it "good job! way to defend your territory." Imagine fondly some dear departed pet (hey, timespace is something we're making up as we go along, so they're not really gone) and let the hands of your heart fondle those feathers or scales or fur.

Oh, that reminds me of a thought I'd had about pet peeves. What do you do with pets? Give them food & attention & training, help them to grow & be strong & healthy. Do you really want to lavish that attention on an annoyance? ("No, I can't come over yet; gotta walk the peeve.") I've abandoned a pet peeve on the side of the highway. Now, instead of fuming over the people who don't signal, I'm choosing to notice & praise the ones who do. I'll admit every once in a while the peeve hops on my hood, but I shoo it off at the next traffic light....

Confessions of a Camera Obscura

BioMagikus: Dark Energy Device

Hello from Laurel's camera. I have returned, if only temporarily. heh heh heh. I find she appreciates me a great deal more if I go on the occasional walkabout. Maybe I don't have all the bells & whistles of the new cameras, but who wants to make that much noise anyway. Bells--bleah. Whistles--what?

I fear my days are numbered. Is it my fault if she can't hold me steady enough to get the lowlight no flash pictures she prefers? No, I say, a thousand times no! But she casts hungry eyes (isn't that mixed up anyway? hungry is the stomache's job) on the gyroscopic functions that make her microscopic shakes (she likes really low light) a non-issue. Sigh. What's a camera to do?

Answer: Hide! I'm getting good at it. She may replace me, but she'll never get my memory card!

So here we are in the new administration. I'm going to write to Obama & see if he has a job for an old (but gold) camera. I've been around the block--Peru, Ireland, Paris. I've seen things. 

Blog alternative:

163. Take several pictures of something. Close-up. Upside down. With & without flash. 

Asheville's Most Wanted: Angel hair pasta. Probably not armed, or dangerous

Greetings from the middle of January (or dang close anyway).

I guess I haven't talked to you since Christmas, which means you know nothing of the lovely time I had with Nick & Chloe. (Unless you are Nick or Chloe.) (Hi Nick!) (Hi Chloe!) We did art & took walks & saw movies & ate food & made cookies & traipsed all over town in search of diGiornio's fresh angel hair pasta with which to make Italian Stir Fry (a fabulous dish I invented which Nick remembered fondly from childhood). (We didn't quite find the exact thing, but we got a nearly as good (good thing, too, because it was expensive as all get out!) substitute, so Nick was able to inhale at least a small portion of his childhood fave.)

Movies: Slumdog Millionaire gets 5 stars out of 3! See this movie. Pretty please. Your self will thank you for it. The Tale of Desperaux gets 1.5 out of 3, which was disappointing. I bet the book (by the lovely & talented Kate diCamillo) is much better. Yes Man gets 2.679 out of 3, because of a fun script & not too much over-the-top Jim Carey-ing.

& since I dropped the kidlets off at the Tri-Cities airport, I have had much fun doing artworks & writing (even wrote (& mailed off to an editor!) a picture book) & walks & more movies & etcetera etcetera etcetera. My first continuing education class happened. Intro to Photoshop. Lots of fun. I'm looking forward to Flash & Powerpoint. Might have to get my hands on some Adobe. Fortunately I'll be able to get a student discount. (They lure you in with a good deal, because they want you hooked on their software. Like drugs--"Hey man, try this out. The first one's free....") (Well, not anywhere near free, but also not anywhere near the bloated full price either.)

I am going to post this quick, without artwork (sorry Helen), because I don't want to go another day without posting & the camera has gone on an adventure. (Perhaps under a pillow?)

I didn't make any resolutions, but I did pick a word for the year. (See Christine Kane's blog if you want a really wonderful article on the process.) My word for the year: Trust. (As in, relax, you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing & all is so far weller than well that you can't even imagine (& you know how magnificent your imagination is!) the results that are on the way.)

Blog alternative:

162. Pick a word for the year that will guide your bodymindheartsoul into the center.