Dream 2

Pecan Sandies

It's 2 o'clock in the morning. The only light comes from distant, intermittent street lamps. It has rained all night and the darkness makes the street look like wet ink. We walk up the street, a residential area, in search of a convenience store in which to buy donuts. He and I. The conversation is light, usually reguarding the rediculous intent that has us out at this hour. We find a convenience store, a beacon of light in the dark and go in. I find it odd that the shelving in this location is taller than me, but set about finding the donuts. My task is hampered because nothing is in marked packaging. Every item on every shelf is in a plain, white paper bag, each requiring inspection to determine the contents. We wander up and down shelves, peering into bag after bag until he declares, "pecan sandies!"
He keeps saying it over, and over as he removes the bag from the shelf.
"Pecan sandies, pecan sandies."
He pronounces pecan in that non- regional way, excentuating the long e.
"Peeeecan sandies."
Dragging out the first sylable for effect.
He pays, shoves a whole cookie in his mouth, smiles to reveal the partially chewed contents, and we walk out of the store and back into the night.

Where the old wives spin their tales

Shaun keeps threatening to send me to the doctor if I don't get over my cold. I guess two weeks of non-stop hacking is starting to grate on his nerves. I hate doctors so, I'm going to experiment with old wives tales. First up, whiskey and lemon juice. At least if it doesn't work I'll sleep well.

Dream 1

The Yellow House

In my childhood I often played here. It was a two-story farmhouse with yellow clapboard and a wide wrap-around porch. The interior of the house was warm, sun filtered in through gauzy curtains with the breeze. The wooden floors made a pleasing sound as bare feet ran over them. This was a happy place.
Up the stairs was a large bedroom. It had huge windows on either side of a dark stained four-poster bed. There were pictures on the side tables but I recognized no one in them. The sound of a babbling baby drew me out of the bedroom and up the hallway. In a small room on the left was a wooden crib. I wasn't tall enough to see into the bed but, I could see the baby kicking his legs as he cooed. The plaster walls in the room were painted white, and the sunshine rendered the room an ethereal glow.

I am older now. I return to this place of happiness to find it abandoned. The grass grows over the porch and the yellow paint peels away from the warped siding. There is no sun today. I enter the house to find it abandoned. It is dark and cold. The floor creaks beaneath every step. The curtains hang limply in front of the windows. I reach to pull them back, hoping for more light and they disintigrate in my hands. Dust has settled on every surface. I climb the stairs and find the bedroom empty. Where the bed sat is a vacant gap between two cracked windows barely obscured by shredded curtains.
I walk up the hallway, dread creeping up my throat. In the small room on the left paint hangs in patches on the cracked plaster. A capped steel pipe projects from the wall at an unnatural angle. On one end of the room a familiar shape is shrouded beneath a dust-covered white sheet. I pull it away to reveal the crib, devoid of even a mattress. In my heart I know the baby didn't live.
The difference is vast between light and dark. The difference between dreams and nightmares.

How does your garden grow?

After a week of almost non-stop rain, today the sun shone.  I went out to look at my much neglected garden to find it had suffered the effects of far too much water, and far too little sunshine.  The plants are all a little yellow.  Hopefully after today, they will get an opportunity to green back up.

Since I've been locked inside, I decided to work on some new houseplants.  After digging out a very old collection of teacups, I planted succulents inside.  Quite a nice re-purpose.  

The Social (Networking) Experiment

It has come to light that I have "quit" Facebook (to use Shaun's terminology). This is simply not true. I am taking a much needed break from the addiction that is social networking.
During a conversation (most likely held while inebriated) some years ago, a friend commented that were he to ever feel something as strong as a need for anything (be it liquor, sex, drugs, or what have you) he would immediately give it up. Granted, this entire conversation occurred under a plume of cigarette smoke, but for some reason, the suggestion stuck with me.
I don't claim to have been driven to social networking every night by a need however, I found I was spending far too much of my time enveloped in it. I was (have been) using Facebook as a crutch to keep myself overly connected to a world I was (am) no longer a part of. I have found this has handicapped my ability to aclimate to the real community in which I am now a part of (herein referred to as Hooterville).
So, while I haven't eliminated e-networking from my social reportoire, I have pulled back to give myself space to live in the real world.

Cinco de Mayo para los gringos

1 medium lemon-berry slush from Sonic
Liberal amounts of Rum

Combine. Enjoy.

Bacon et Tofu

Now introducing the crime fighting duo of Mr. Bacon, and Monsieur Tofu.

Our world has never been safer. I mean, ish, safe-ish. (you have to click on it to read)

Greener Pastures

KEEPER: Stop! What is your name?

GALAHAD: Sir Galahad of Camelot.

KEEPER: What is your quest?

GALAHAD: I seek the Holy Grail.

KEEPER: What is your favorite color?

GALAHAD: Blue. No yel-- Auuuuuuuugh!

Should have just said green. I have a thing, for green. It's mostly unexplainable, and certainly irrational but, until recently, I didn't realize I even had a favourite colour. In my profession it's best to be open about colours. So, how this snuck up on me I'll never know. It started simply enough with the delivery of a lime green sofa last year. The most recent addition is the apple green mixer. It seems I may have a problem. In an effort to localize the issue I did a little research on the colour green.

Here's some About.com nonsense:

Green is a restful color with some of the same calming attributes of blue. Like blue, time moves faster in a green room.

What in the heck is that last part supposed to mean? Go ahead kids, for a fun time warp, just add a little green to your Kilz. If I thought this were remotely true, I would paint every office in downtown Bartlesville emerald (well, maybe all but one). But alas, Sherwin Williams hasn't perfected the "Space Time Continuum Spruce" yet.

This next one came from a website claiming your favorite color determined your sexual prowess.

Those who prefer green are fresh and innocent in their approach to sex. Women who love green will always make love like virgins all their life. And a man may always be a trifle clumsy and awkward but in a charming and endearing sort of way. Green lovers are gentle, but not passionate. If chosen as a mate, one will never need worry about infidelity.

Ahem, I'm going to go ahead and kindly disagree.

In case you are one who also needs fun facts, here are a few:

Green was George Washington's favourite color.

Green is used in night-vision goggles because it is the color with which the eye sees the most variations.

Green is the national colour of Ireland.

Suicides dropped 34% when London's Blackfriar Bridge was painted green.

If I'm going to have a favorite, I guess it might as well be green.

And, in case you were wondering, yes, they are green.

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises."Pedro Calderon de la Barca

On What I've Seen

In 1996 I was a freshman in high school taking journalism with mostly upper classmen. There was one guy that I had several other classes and participated in several extra cirriculars with.
We spent vast amounts of time in discussion far beyond what should be reasonable conversation for people of our youth. One afternoon he arrived in class, pulled out his wallet and removed a sheet of lined notebook paper that had been folded several times. On this sheet of college rule, were his life goals. He had apparently been inspired recently and put down in writing what he hoped to see and do in his lifetime, and encouraged me to do the same. While I never saw what was on his sheet, he helped me begin a list that has grown to many pages. Some I will keep to myself, some are completed, and some will never come to fruition. Though I continue to add to it, these have helped me gauge my life as it has progressed, and in some cases, shown me how far I have strayed. Italic= completed.

Learn to play guitar
Travel on a mission to an impoverished country
Fly in a plane
Ride on a passenger train
Play an instrumental solo
Get published (this used to mean writing, I would take having pictures published too though)
Own a non-traditional home (I guess old storefront, fire station, bus...)
Take both ground & flight school & get pilot's license
Graduate from high school
Graduate from college
Get a master's degree
Take too many pictures
Swim in the ocean - It was the Atlantic
Learn to throw pottery
Get laser eye surgery
See a real palm tree
Sleep on a beach
Act - I'm counting this complete, although, I think its original intentions were professional
Go camping
See a tornado
Go Horseback riding
Keep a journal
Write my eulogy


The second part of the list is places I want(ed) to see.

Colorado
San Fransisco
San Diego
Yellowstone National Park
The Grand Canyon
Louisiana- New Orleans
Chicago
Oak Park and all of the FLW's within
Philadelphia
New York City- specifically on New Year's Eve or Thanksgiving
Washington DC
Monticello
Disneyworld
Prince Edward Island
Fallingwater
The Mayer May house
England- specifically London and Stonehenge
Ireland
Hawaii- Pearl Harbor
Mexico- Chechen Itza
Italy- specifically Rome and Florence
Paris- the Louve and the Eiffel Tower
Japan
Crete and Greece
Talamena Drive
Take a New England fall tour
Take a Mississippi Riverboat tour
Egypt
Natchez, Mississippi

Alright, this list goes on and on so I'll end it here.

What did I waste today on?

Good question, good folks. I'll elaborate.

I spent several hours last night trying to get this damn blog to format correctly, going so far as to manually edit the html and add in breaks. Alas, as you can tell by the previous post, blogger is a cunt (I'm using cunt in that cute British way that makes it funny not vulgar). After editing the same post eight times and seeing no change in the end product I gave up and went to bed. Unfortunately, this was later than I intended and thus, I slept later than I intended.

My goal today was to design a device to connect my digital camera lens to the top of a box camera in order to minimize light leakage. It was sunny out though, and my ADD got the better of me (I don't really have ADD, I suffer from a tremendously rare brain disorder that prevents me from sticking to any task if the sun is shining*) and I spent three hours cleaning out my car. After scrubbing all of the child goo off of the back seat and putting air in the tires I declared my work a moderate success and went in to change clothes.

As soon as I walked in the house I decided it wasn't worth it for the Bartlesville movie theatre and left in the less than stellar garb I cleaned in. You see, several weeks ago I promised Alice we would go see 'Hotel for Dogs' during one of those conversations where she spends so much time getting to the point I agree just to make her stop trying. The movie was less than inspirational. Even the previews sucked. I was however, the only person (in a packed theatre of children) that laughed hysterically at the trailer for the new 'Dragonball Evolution' movie. I was probably the only person that had even heard of it though, and I don't think the preview was meant to be humorous.

That's pretty much the whole day excluding about 30 minutes where I repeatedly filled a half-empty glass with water trying to fix the viscosity of Kool-Aid.

Something tells me I'm going to have to bulk-up my social calendar before I have a mental break and start adopting stray cats and naming them after deceased relatives.





*Also not true.

Through the Viewfinder

I have, for some time, wanted to try through the viewfinder photography (TTV). This method involves shooting digital photos through the viewfinder of a second camera. Usually, the second camera would be an older film model. This provides you with a frame, some good, old fashioned dirt on the lens, and a softer end product. The natural age variations in the second lens add to the charm.

My sister has what could be described as an absurd number of mid-century box cameras. I grabbed a couple today and headed out around southeast Kansas.

First stop. Niotaze, Kansas.

There is a very old sandstone chapel in this community. I used my digital camera and shot through an argus seventy-five 75mm box camera. I hand-held both cameras which made it difficult to get a clean, straight shot. However, this method did lend some interesting perspectives. In one, where the digital wasn't perfectly aligned, the picture appears warped and distorted.

Here is the chapel straight shot.

Here are the TTV.

I drove on to Peru, Kansas. A highway used to run through the "business district" of this town but, has been re-routed. All that remains are these buildings. Built in 1894 of limestone and what appears to be a sandstone mortar, they have victorian elements such as pressed tin ceilings and screen doors with gingerbread. These buildings also have structural columns (although pilasters would be more correct) made of cast iron and manufactured in Joplin, Missouri.

For the TTV I shot here I used a Kodak duaflex II box camera mounted on a small tripod.

Here is the top portion of the building with the year it was built, along with other information I don't know the meaning of.

Here are the TTV.

From this I learned:

1. I need to find a way to block more light around the lens and viewfinder to prevent washout and prevent reflection.

2. This works better with a macro lens.

3. It's easier to shoot with the film camera mounted to a tripod.

I will definately be trying this again very soon.

The Lovely Holly

Miss Holly from over at Sweetheartville needed some headshots for a feature she is going to be in. So, this morning she got all dolled up and we took some pictures.

I might be biased but, I think these came out pretty sweet!

The Naughty Bits

Interior designers are addicted to animal crackers. They are our heroin. When I was in college we used to keep a 50 pound keg of them in the studio. Now, we keep a plastic bear full of them in our office.
Throughout the day, when an interior designer needs to rejuvinate, we gather, as a group around the plastic bear for worship.
Today, as usual, the conversation went south.
One of our older designers suggested we nibble around the "animal cracker genitals" to avoid being gross. This thought sent our boss running for the shelter of his office. So now, we're saving a big pile of cracker crotches for our boss.
Employment doesn't get any sweeter than this.

Purpose

renew, begin again, start over, refurbish, breathe new life into, bring up to date, gentrify, reaffirm, reawaken, recommence, recondition, recreate, reestablish, refit, reinvigorate, reopen, restate, transform.

I haven't touched this blog in exactly one year, three months. Let's make up for lost time.

January, 2009.

Oh, The Places You'll Go... If Ever You Have The Time

I'm a bit hum-drum today. The weather is finally changing around here to fall and I don't seem to have the time to enjoy it. It makes me remorseful I haven't gotten out more.
I didn't get that post-graduation adventure I was hopeing for (to be honest graduation sort of passed without much notice). And now all I want is to see those things I missed out on to get edumacated (pronounced as backwoods as possible). So many of my peers got to see more of the world through family trips and vacations. My family... well, we once went to Arkansas.
If my life ever slows down to a manageable pace I'd like to get in the car and just drive. I'd like to at least see this new home state of mine. Since I arrived in June I've only seen Bartlesville (I'm told there are more impressive things to see). Some say we have mountains, red dirt, and something akin to the Ozarks. I'd like to see that.
Until then I'll keep dreaming of other places while I eat my foreign TV dinners.

Happy 6th Birthday Alice Rain

Notice the necklace.... she stole it from me. That would be her great-great-grandma Bessie Alice's necklace.

Beep Beep

Well, as most know, I've been car-less for several weeks now thanks to the blazer going under. So, I went to Tulsa yesterday, loosened the purse strings a bought a... NEW BEETLE! It's so cute. Who knew Geko Green was my color. I had it for a total of four hours before Shaun stole my thunder and bought himself a new car. In a matter of hours I went from no car payments to two. Yikes! Guess I'd better get to work.

State of the Union

So what if I'm not the president of anything (yet) I still get to give an address once in a while. It's been a long three weeks. Alice started Kindergarten, promptly got lost at school placed on a bus and began crying until they took her off (probably would help if I mentioned she wasn't a bus student). The second week she was sexually assaulted (I'm being slightly dramatic here). Some kid in her class grabbed her by the crotch. Now she has a cold. So, far I'm finding Oklahoma public schools lacking.... in every way. I'm fairly certain her teacher is uneducated (although correct verbage use in this state is optional for all) and actually has a dislike for small children. This is alright for kindergarten (I suppose for now) but I don't think we will be participating in this state's lackluster educational system in the future.
On a more fun topic, I finally found a gumball machine in the "not gold plated" price range. Turns out junking was worth my time this weekend. I discovered a really nice penny machine in Joplin, MO. $10 all glass and metal. Alice was thrilled. Now just to find the gumballs....

Three Dog Night

Here's a little video from my Three Dog Night experience. It was unique. People that old should really know better. I'm sure there were a lot of visits to the orthopedic surgeon in the following weeks. Yikes.

Eventful Events and Such

Thanks to Meagan for scouring the world for things to do. As a result I will be attending the Spiva Center for the Arts "Girls Night Out." I love a good cocktail chocolate party. Also on the agenda for this month is a trip to Catoosa (I know, where is that?) to see 3 Dog Night. Yes, 3 Dog Night. Sure at their age night is somewhere in the 6:30 time area, but they're still cool. Not being bound to education is so much fun.