Sticking to the Point

It's Friday Love #96

MOPA, Balboa Park, San Diego.

Photo booth Friday. I was getting nervous that it would be longer than a week; what with no strippies and no one offering their tuckus to sit with me inside a small box. The mister always gives good booth, but you'll have to wait for that. Andrea had a challenge this month and seeing that it's the very last day, I thought I'd play.

The little stuff.

• Neen is in town. Yay me.
• The start of another 365 project.
• Sharing a truth. Even though it wasn't received as I'd hoped, knowing it's always good to speak from your heart.
• My job.
• This bag. Come on, you know you want one.

Heard.

Twice in the last week, my girl has blown me away. First with humor and then, straight from the heart.

"A, why do you keep touching my jewelry?" 

(this drives me nuts, the constant touching of my things. soon enough she'll be borrowing my shit, let me enjoy it for awhile.)

"Mama, I've got hands and their job is to touch."  Word.

As we're driving to school,

"I want to send three balloons to heaven, mama. One for Grandma Lynn, one for Grandma Miriam and one for Grandpa Harold. And I want a rose on each."  The heart, she swells.

Kiki :: the mememoir

Lovely Rachel tagged me to post my memoir in six words. Stretching the rules a wee bit, I choose to illustrate my life not as a memoir, but as a work in progress. As in, right now.

a butterfly spirit, longing to soar.

And now for the fun part. The tagging of five every, lovely lady whose story I'd love to read. Tag you're it.

48 hours :: in a post that feels like it will take 48 hours to read

Typically when we do our Los Angeles vacations, we fly Saturday to Saturday. I'm not sure why we deviated, but this last trip had us flying on Friday afternoon. Not even 24 hours, but a world of difference in my opinion (M disagrees), it was nice to have a full weekend this trip. (And it worked out nicely because M's cousin P, flew down for a visit from the Bay Area.)

Always a packed itinerary, this time, we mixed it up. We had a few days on either end where we did nothing and stayed local.  The rest of the trip was spent on the east side of town, (with an overnighter down south), not our typical west side outings.

P arrived Saturday morning and after lunch at our favorite Mexican joint, we went downtown.  I love my hometown. A shell of what it once was, Manhattan Beach has become this swanky little town, that I still love, it's just different. (if you scroll through the wiki link, you can see how much it's changed).

I think it was a fantastic place to grow up. I love that it was a sleepy community with modest homes and bungalow style cottages. I rode my bike everywhere. I spent my summers on the beach and most of my teen-aged angst was spent gazing out to sea, in the parking lot, to the right of the pier.

first row: H & poppa
2nd row: miss A, the mister and P

At the end of the pier, we saw people pointing and laughing, "look at the dolphins, they're so cute".

Last time I checked dolphins were gray and even-colored.  A good zoom lens tells a very different story.

there weren't any gruesome stories about surfers being attacked, so it's safe to assume that the predatory nature of the killer whale is only dangerous to other fish.

On Sunday, me and the rest of Los Angeles, had the bright idea to head up to the Griffith Observatory. (seriously the parking was heinous, yo.)  We met my friend R and her family, hoping to see a show at the planetarium (not a chance with the crowds) and instead roamed the museum and grounds.

Peeps, let me tell you, the Griffith Observatory and the surrounding grounds are the bomb. As you ascend, swank-ass houses line the winding road. On your left you pass the sublime Greek Theatre, my all-time favorite venue. You continue to climb and then you spy the observatory on the hill, noting  the Hollywood sign in the background. And you are surrounded by woods. Except you're in the middle of Los Angeles. Totally inspiring. Totally my favorite place to hang out; I can already see myself when we're living there in one thousand, four hundred and sixty days, but whose counting?

isn't this cool? i haven't a clue what the exhibition is actually about, all i know is the blue is electrical current.

Next up, my playdate with DeeZee.

Self Portrait Challenge - blue.4

Passed on with love from my sister, originally this shirt was given to me for the chilly morning runs I'd take along the streets of San Francisco.

Later, it became my favorite, go-to sleep shirt, when running wasn't part of my repertoire.

The softest cotton imaginable, even as it comes apart (literally) at the seams, my favorite t-shirt in blue.



the last week of blue over here.

A walk down memeory lane

KC, one quarter of my wicked foursome, tagged me for a lovely meme. You all know how much I love a good meme, how can I resist?

Here are the rules:

Go back through your archives and link to your five favorite posts.

Link one: about the familia

Link two: about friends

Link three: about yourself

Link four: about something you love

Link five: your choice

Tag five other people (two should be people you'd like to get to know better)

So here goes...

Familia: Sing, sing a song. 10.2005

(a walk down memory lane - i love to read about my girl before she turned six and became a tween.)

Friends: Flying Solo. 7.2006

(on meeting my BlogHer kindreds)

Moi: Provide, Provide. 2.2008

(my transformation and favorite poem)

Love: It's Friday Love #72. 8.2007

(my wedding day)

My choice: Follow your Dreams. 8.2007

(my hopes and dreams for the future of our girls)

Tag, you're it:

Kirsten of Live, Love, Laugh

Caroline of My Pocket

Nicole of Sometimes Everything Girl

Neen of Can We Kick the Bar Here?

Rachel of The Metaphorical Magpie

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

It's hard to believe it's already Thursday. We leave in two days and I write those words with a heavy heart.

Maybe it's because it's still winter at home. 28 degree days and more of that damn olive green down parka.

I know it's more than that. It's going home to a place that feels less and less like home.

Don't get me wrong, I love my house and I love my job and I even love our life back east. We've made a nice life for us and I've been happy.

But getting here, coming home, this is what feels right for me. I see the handful of friends and family when I visit and I feel like myself again.

My heart longs to make L.A. my home again and we're figuring out how to make that happen.

We have a 4 year plan. And in the big scheme of things, 4 years will happen in a blink of an eye.

There are things that could make that move happen sooner. And maybe, it won't happen at all.

Which means, I need to make my life back east work for me again, as it has for the last 15 years.

I just need to reconfigure how my days unfold.

Part of this is the transformation that I'm going through. Physically and emotionally, I'm changing and through this metamorphis I'm questioning, which is a good thing.

I sat down here this morning to write a very different post. I wanted to tell you about the hundreds of photos I've shot this week and how excited I am to get home and start editing.

I wanted to tell you about my delicious playdate with DeeZee. How we spent all day Monday together, roaming the east side of L.A., exploring and shooting our way through Silverlake and Los Feliz; two neighborhoods that the mister and I have on our short list of places we'd like to live.

I wanted to tell you about our trip down to La Jolla, how 24 hours alone did wonders for us and gave us the opportunity to really talk about our 4 year plan, (among other things, wink).

Arriving back in L.A. yesterday, serendipity had a way of working its way into our life and now we're looking at our life a little differently.

It's too early to share any of that; we still haven't formulated our thoughts and feelings after receiving news that might or might not shape our future.

Instead, I plan to enjoy our last 48 hours here. We'll visit the California Science Center this afternoon and I'm looking forward to hanging with my friend R and her son T. The kiddies can run and touch and watch, and R and I can continue where we left off Sunday.

I'm not glum and I won't pout when we return. There is much to be thankful for and appreciate about our life back east.

But I'm glad to have a goal, even if it's one thousand, four hundred and sixty days away.

Self Portrait Challenge - blue.3

Just as you take my hand

Just as you write my number down

Just as the drinks arrive

Just as they play your favorite song

As your bad mood disappears

No longer wound up like a spring...

-jigsaw falling into place, radiohead.

Lately, it's been all about the afternoon dance party. My antidote to the winter blues.

more blue here.

Sometimes I wonder...

what we're doing on the East Coast.

Putting on my headphones, I walk outside mid-February with a long sleeve shirt, no need for a sweater or even, another shirt.  If I was home, I'd have all the necessary winter gear: two shirts, a sweatshirt, a hat and gloves. And I'd still be cold, with snot-sickles frozen around my nostrils, my lips chapped from too many elements blasting me.

Walking, I see lemon trees busting out bright yellow globes; the branches bending with abundance, lemons forgotten on the lawn. At home, one lemon costs one dollar and if you're lucky, it just might be juicy.

Calla lillies grow like forgotten weeds. Gardenias and Jasmine offer white delight to my eyes used to white meaning frost and snow.

Sometimes I wonder why we live so far from family and friends; people that get me in an effortless sort of way. I watch my girl as her face cracks a deep smile, happy to be with papa and H. She shines in a family environment that she's starved for at home, where it's just the three of us.

We talk often of relocation, and then we quickly remember why we're still back east. M and I both have really good gigs with our professional lives, and of course, we love our home.

I'm homesick for Cali, even though I know it's not the right time.

Still, a girl can dream.

It's Friday Love #95

Photo booth Friday .
Strip no. 2  from a lunch date with miss Bella in January. Seriously the last of my strippies. I'm so hitting the booths while visiting L.A.  Join me?

The little stuff.

• this scrumptious apron pattern, arriving in the mail very soon
• afternoon dance parties
• losing weight. i know, enough already. but it's super empowering to feel good about myself.
• the artist way. we're almost done. these past 11 weeks have kicked my butt in all the right ways. because  i'm dreading its end, i plan to begin again. i think each time  begins a process completely different from the last. to be continued.
• fluidline. for the make-up applicator spaz in me, this gel liner is fantastic and glittery.
  
• venus embrace. i cheated for awhile with the schick quattro, but it wasn't good. i forgot what a close shave feels like. it's nice to have a razor that's good for more than one use.
  
• i have a couple posts in the queue while i'm away and i'll check in from the left coast.  see you when we return!
  

Miss A.

I haven't been able to share miss A's art work while our desktop was sick.  A's still crazy about making books, this time the theme is global.



(i like the hands in the pockets of mouse-boy.)

Randomly, with a little love

Happy Valentines day, you are loved and cherished.

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As one that has spent many an hour sick reclining these past few weeks, I've been afforded the opportunity to read. A lot.

When sick, I love nothing more than digging into  juicy, fiction. The Constant Princess was perfect.

I'm a big fan of historical fiction, especially a story centering on the Tudors. This novel is somewhat of a pre-quel to Gregory's big hit, The Other Boleyn Girl. This time the story's  focus is Catherine of Aragon and her rise to the throne as Queen of England.

A light read, I'm now primed for the series on Showtime to begin. Men in tights. Be still my heart.

Next in queue was the Twilight series trilogy. I love a good vampire story and devoured the first book, Twilight. I love when classic horror themes have a twist. It's why I love 28 Days Later and its horrifying sequel, 28 Weeks Later.

Twilight pushes beyond stereotypes and isn't your typical vampire story. It makes the attraction between mortal and immortal plausible; Bella isn't drawn into dark, dank basements where blood suckers rise from a coffin bed. Her dark prince dazzles in sunlight and refrains from feeding on humans. Instead the Cullen family feeds on animals, choosing to live as humanly as possible.

I devoured Twilight and have eagerly begun the second book, New Moon, whose plot surprises me and I'm eager to read at night, instead of watch TV.

In book club news, the selection for March is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I'm on the fence about Barbara Kingsolver novels. While on bed rest, I read The Poisonwood Bible and at the end, I wasn't at all sure I liked the story. Her writing is lovely; she was able to keep my interest, but the subject was grim.

I am however, looking forward to this new book. I'm curious about a year of living close to the earth; it's something I think about  a lot lately. How can a lazy urbanite make better choices...Catchy title right?

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Last summer, when Luzie was visiting, we sat down to watch Pan's Labyrinth. It was a favorite of many friends, I was curious. We quickly decided the movie was too dark and violent and I think we opted instead, for Just Like Heaven (which I own and love). But I kept thinking I should watch the movie. Catching the title while scrolling through the cable guide, on a whim I recorded it, finally sitting to watch yesterday. My heart broke a little with this film, I'm still not whole. I wept through the ending, I heard my tears dropping onto the sofa as I gently cradled myself. It was almost too much to bear. Staggering and breathtaking, I was devastated, trying to absorb all that I'd just seen, listening to the haunting soundtrack as the ending credits rolled by.

Honestly, I had to watch L.A. Ink afterwards, a stark opposite. I needed to clear my brain, let my body return to a world where a movie like that is just a story, even when I know on many levels, that it was so much more.

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I've got a crap load of packing to do today, a task that always  gives me shpilkes. I'm leaving winter for spring and I want to look cute for my 24 hour date in La Jolla (and the other days too), oy!