Category: All (-ish)

45RPM: Oh what a beautiful morning.

Where I match a song to a specific memory.

One summer, I worked the night shift two days per week at a budget motel.  There were a lot of “betweens” that summer.  I was between colleges and boyfriends, my parents were poised between marriage and divorce and my brother was between residences.  I loved and hated the night shift.  It was fun being on my own, the only one awake among hundreds of sleeping motel guests.  I loved that I was an official “creature of the night”.  But it was exhausting, pushing myself all the way to 6:00 a.m., and sleeping during the day was a challenge.  There also wasn’t much to do in the middle of the night after all the grumpy traveling families had checked in and were tucked away in their beds, and all the truckers had wandered from their endless conversations in the lobby to their slumber.  I listened to cassette tapes to keep me company and every morning at 4:30 I would take a “security walk” around the parking lot. It was really just an excuse to get out of the office before people turned out to complain about the toast bar.  By 4:30 the dawn had broken and the clear Boise sky was melting into blue.  No matter how tired I was, no matter how boring the night had been, it was always a beautiful morning and I sang this song aloud as I ambled through the lot.  Oh what a beautiful day.

ps.  Hugh Jackman! He’s the man! He’s rather broad, but you have to picture him much further away from you, up on stage.

Postcards from Spain and Limburg

O! Postcrossing, why do you give me two postcards on the same day instead of spreading them out?

Those Boise, Idaho readers know that I loved this Basque Country postcard. For those not in the know, Boise has a pretty strong basque community. The postcard is from Dani, who asks me to send her something.  I’ve not yet done so, but I’m not ruling it out.
 

And where is Limburg?  Why the Netherlands, of course, didn’t you know?  (I didn’t, I had to look it up.)  Peggy sends me this card and remarks that it’s funny she is sending a postcard to me in Portland, Oregon as she will soon be leaving on a trip to the Pacific Northwest, traveling from Seattle to San Francisco.  She was planning to visit either Portland or the Gorge, depending on weather.  When I registered the postcard, I told her that sounded like a fabulous trip.

Reading her Postcrossing profile, I found that Peggy is also very cool because she requests the tourist cards (some Postcrossing people don’t like them) and then uses them to plan her travels.  You are a smart lady, Peggy.

Stay stiching the neckline, joining the shoulders

Now that all that basting is done (three movies worth, geez-almighty) I can move on to the next step: stay stitching the neckline. we do  this to ensure it doesn’t stretch out with repeated wear.  I’m in.

Here, I have traced my sewing line in disappearing marker so I know where to sew.
 

I’m choosing the organza strips and I get to not only pin, but also to baste the organza.  That Gertie lady is crazy for basting.
 
The finished stay stitched neckline.  You can’t really see it, but it’s done.  And I got to sew together the shoulders!  Very exciting.
 

Postcards from Write Around Portland, Joshua Tree, Ukrane

Three postcards arrived in the mail today and none of them were from Postcrossing.

I’m taking a writing class through Write Around Portland and the second of the wonderful surprises of the class (the first is that there are always snacks to eat during the class) is that each week we get a postcard from our instructor complimenting some aspect of our writing.  It’s very sweet.
 

The Aunts went on a trip and Aunt Pat sent me this postcard. Guess where they visited?
 
I have a friend living in the Ukraine for 10 months and she sent me a postcard.  It took her three months to discover where they were keeping the postcards in the Ukraine. Sadly, she does not share this with me, so if you visit the Ukraine, you will have to find them on your own.   She also observes that all the buildings are ice cream colored.

Thanks Write Around Portland, Aunt Pat and Margaret!

Laurie Notaro

Kelly and I wandered down to Powell’s for our third Laurie Notaro reading.  She was funny as ever, in her hilariously charming over-sharing way. If you are looking for a bit of a pick-me-up any of her books of essays will do.

ps.  The gallery installation behind her was incredible.  A whole heap of author portraits done by two artists. I especially loved the style of Allison Bruns (the top one pictured here).  She was great at capturing expression.

More pictures of the exhibit.
http://powells.tumblr.com/post/51569909347/travelingbookgirl-powells-city-of-books

Three sentence movie reviews: Star Trek Into Darkness

I loved the Star Trek reboot and was looking forward to this movie.  It delivered everything I wanted: humor, action, plot, special effects.  And, it quasi-inspired me to actually watch the original Star Trek movies which, except for the whale one, I’ve never seen.

Cost:  $6.00 (plus another $7.50 for wine and popcorn)
Where watched:  St. John’s Cinema

45RPM: Brown-Eyed Girl

Where I match a song to a specific memory.
My first job was in a tiny restaurant where they served good food and lots of it.  I worked Saturdays, alternating waiting tables with washing dishes.  My companion in work was a boy my own age, S.  We were acquaintances, people with things in common who never really became close friends, though I liked him.  He was smart and funny and a good conversationalist. In fact, at the end of high school, I surveyed the scene and decided that of all our classmates, he would be the one I would marry, if I had to marry someone.  Partway through our acquaintance on the job, he decided to reject who he had been and he foraged a new self, changing his name, quitting wrestling, getting rid of the music he was leaving behind.  Instead, he starting going by his middle name K., focused more on the art he created and he pledged his musical troth to Mudhoney and other bands we were then calling “Alt.”  To me, the reinvention seemed unnecessary, as he seemed the same as he ever was, but he said things were much better this way.  His devotion to his new alternative way of life was so complete I was surprised one day that he commented how much he liked Van Morrison’s  song “Brown Eyed Girl.”  The song was played in heavy rotation at the time, thanks to being featured in movies and it was impossible to escape if the radio was set to the oldies station–they played it seemingly ever hour.  It seemed so run-of-the-mill for my very unique coworker that I forever linked the two of them together.