hours, days, weeks, months, etc.

I keep falling into the obvious trap of the internet - maybe you've seen it or even fallen into it yourself: "I'll post later." until suddenly the month is over and, well, you know.

So more pictures, since that's what I've got ready to go! These are from the beach in May - I have to post them now, because I'm getting ready to go again (pre-birthday)! These daisies are from right beside the bathrooms at the Devil's Churn. I think they're sweet.


I have no idea what this flower is - I even looked in a book but NO DICE. I will look more closely. [side note: trivia night has trained me out of saying "harder", as in "I'll look harder" because it just becomes an unintended (by me) joke and then I have to activate my personal dignity powers and pretend like I don't realize what I've just said or it becomes a 'that's what she said' non-hilarious hilarity party. The phrase I'm always reaching for = "more difficult."]


More daisies! Love them.
Further unrelated news: Fresno Aunt left exactly a week ago, and exactly yesterday her son (I can't call him Fresno Cousin because he hates Fresno, but that's the relation) called up and said "I'm in town for work" or something like that - basically, he's on the couch for a few days. Which is fine! He's the easiest guest, for real. But it was still a no-warning kind of thing and I always get thrown off, somehow.
Like right now, I need to go see if the cat wants to come in. But the door is right by the couch! and I don't want to be loud. and the cat will want back out again in half an hour. Sigh.

Thimbleberry, in flower form! It's sort of blackberry like, sort of rose like. I think it's very pretty in a wild way.
Are you watching Bunheads? I like it! If you didn't like Gilmore Girls, it's probably not the show for you, but I enjoy Amy Sherman-Palladino's made up towns and fast-talking heroines very much.


Salal - so pretty! They look like little candies, waiting to be eaten. I think maybe you can eat these? but my policy on eating wildflowers is pretty much no, because what if I'm wrong? (writhing in agony and certain death, is what!)

all the rest have thirty one

august is so long! I know it's just as long as most other months of the year (apart from september, april, june, november and february), but this august has felt like it's 10000 days. Mostly this has been a good thing -- I've read a lot of books and had a second beach vacation (I'm very lucky) and other fun stuff. But I've also been having a weird period of physical malady with twists, sprains, compression bandages, face band-aids and spectacular arm bruises. What's up with that? I won't even try to explain the weird headache stuff since I think 20% of this blog is full of it already.

ANYWAY, between having fun and injuring myself, I've been having all these ideas. One of the latest is that I'm going to start going to the movies again -- I pretty much quit for a long time for many reasons (biggest reason = inertia), but decided that the time to resume is now. I want to vote with my dollars! I'm lucky because portland has lots of places to see movies, including a variety of second-run (cuz I'm slow) and art house theaters. Anyway, my very modest goal is to try and see at least one a month in the theater. More if I feel like it, but let's not get crazy. I also want to watch more movies at home, especially since it's so easy for me to pick them up at work. (fellow portlanders: the library has a really great collection of dvds.)

But like I said, I'm all full of ideas and short on implementation. (being full of implementation sounds like a painful medical condition. Maybe being full of implementation but not implementing is what's causing my month of casualty -- if I would actually DO any of the things I need to do, perhaps I would stop falling down and walking into things, etc.) I need to break this stuff down into actionable lists! Or something. I did make a list on a whiteboard (it has categories!), but it's still too broad; despite running around and being busy, I didn't get anything crossed off. I need to put Make Detailed List on a list and mark it #1. But that's a job for tomorrow, day #9997 of August. I'm hoping to cross at least 2 things off the list and avoid any new injuries. I think I can do it.

here's an 8 second campfire for you (from beach vacation 1: camping). I roasted marshmallows over this very fire without burning myself! (I did spill hot chocolate all over my lap, but you know, that's another story.)

you always end up in the ci-ty

There's all this stuff I've been wanting to write up forever (books, movies, projects, tv, etc), but I kept putting it off because I was busy or having a crisis or you know, just lazy. Then it (the heretofore mentioned "stuff") became a giant MOUNTAIN that seemed way too tall to climb without sherpas or mountain goats or alpacas or the steely ponchos-in-prison determination of Martha Stewart. (I don't have these things!) It was a problem. But then a lightbulb switched on and I realized that I don't have to do it all at once -- some of it I don't even have to do at all. (a pretty dim lightbulb, but sometimes any illumination helps.):

TV: I have this new TV watching plan that makes me feel like I have discovered penicillin or invented the mini-marshmallow. Are you ready? I am trying to only watch shows that I really want to watch. It seems so obvious, but my habit for far too long has been to park my butt on the couch with my laptop and simultaneously read, answer email, and watch tv. This is no good! I've decided to pay more attention to the shows I enjoy (and also to watch more movies -- more on this later), and if I'm not watching something I like, then get up and do something else. Like... read a book! or sew! (although I have taken to doing hand sewing while watching TV, which is less distracting than the computer.) Anyway -- it's not a perfect plan, but I'm trying to be more aware of my time and make sure I'm doing things I want to do.

So, last night I watched Bones and sewed patches on my vintage quilt. Oh, Bones! I missed you when you were gone. Here are some of the things I like about this show: 1) great ensemble (hey, look -- functional yet imperfect people working together!) 2) I love the Booth/Bones relationship -- they come at the world from completely different ends, yet respect and care for each other -- seemingly unheard of in this post Bush/Gore environment. 3) the crime of the week is never the main point of the show, the ensemble is the main point of the show. (although this week it intertwined since Brennan's father was on trial.)

That being said, the very things I love about the show also worry me since I'm a worrier: 1)If everyone gets along so great, where's the tension? (They've handled it well so far, but this is something I can see becoming an issue.) 2) Bones/Booth: to quote Giles from Buffy, the subtext is rapidly becoming text. I like to see their relationship developing as it has been (they have crazy chemistry), but I think it's important that they don't push it too fast. That tension is so delicate and balanced at this point -- it's one of the few things that really separates this show from others of its ilk. 3) That courtroom scene this week was incredibly unbelievable. Like Boston Legal unbelievable. Ally McBeal unbelievable! I don't mind because that's not what the show is about for me, but even I noticed. 4) I love Sweets! But I did not love the insane way they decided to tell us he could stay on the show -- he gets to continue studying Booth/Brennan and why they get along when they should not, but since he no longer has a Legitimate Sanctioned Reason, he's doing it in exchange for "profiles on demand" which sounds pretty lame to me, and like I've said before, I'm no procedural purist. (but I love him and am glad that he'll be on more. He is A-dorable.)

song stuck in my head: Myriad Harbor by New Pornographers. I know it's from last summer, but I'm loving it so much RIGHT NOW it's making me crazy. I woke up and had to hear it 10 times. (10 times is a lie! it was more times than that.) It makes me want to dance around in my pajamas, sing it in the car, go somewhere, do something moderately stupid just because. I love that it has a specific, evocative setting (NYC) yet captures that universal everywhere feeling when the sun hits just right and you're with your friends wandering around talking to people and doing stuff for no particular reason. Things are not perfect, troubles from yesterday will be there tomorrow; there's no plan and you'll probably get into at least one argument over nothing -- yet there's a certain buoyancy as the day unspools. It sounds like a warm weather song to me -- not that it's currently warm here, but I have faith that it will be warm again. I need to hear it 3 more times, right now.
I took a plane, I took a train/ (ah, who cares, you always end up in the city)

confessions of a DEQ scofflaw

The tags on my car have expired and I have NO DESIRE to go and get them renewed. They expired on the 2nd of February, but since it doesn't say the day on the little number tag (only the month), I always wait until the end of Feb. to do it. Except this time! Now I am waiting for who knows what. I have no good excuse: I don't anticipate any trouble passing the test, I have the money, it's not far or really even that inconvenient. It's sheer cussed laziness on my part, but now some perverse stubbornness has kicked in; the longer I wait, the less I want to do it. It's getting bad, too -- I find myself running yellow lights, turning without signaling -- being the opposite of extra careful, like I want to get caught and hauled away to DEQ jail! I am at war with myself once again; this time it's the honest law abiding citizen (who, to be fair, is usually in charge) trying to take down the lazy DEQ-ignoring moving-violation petty criminal who has somehow gained ascendance. But the HLAC has to go undercover, like Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street! I probably should go take care of this tomorrow, before I find myself drag racing or operating an illegal taxi service. It's a cry for help, I tell you.

(the photo is from a road trip in 2005, in which I drove through a tree! not this tree, but a different, roomier tree. It was one of those things where you say to yourself "why the hell would I want to drive through a tree???, but once you get there all sensible objections evaporate and are replaced with the knowledge that yes, I will drive through a tree. I have to say that the gift shops in the redwoods, particularly anywhere in the vicinity of a drive through tree, are really TOP NOTCH for kitschy wonderfulness. or awfulness. Really, it's both. Wonderfully awful, awfully wonderful.)