My best buddy, the Q Man, getting in the Christmas spirit. . .
Also featured: City Sidewalks singing dog, and Willy the Elf.
Archive for the ‘Beauty’ Category
Getting in the Spirit
Friday, December 10th, 2010The Gift of Dreaming
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010Do you remember your dreams? Do you think they are a message you are supposed to receive and think on? Or are they just your brain’s way of working things out for you while your body rests?
Mine are very vivid, in color, and the ones closest to waking up are sometimes so real that when I do wake up, i confuse the dream with reality. I often talk as I am waking up, as I did the other morning when I said, “There are no more colors” to Todd and Tiller. I wish I could remember what that means, but that one is lost to the ether.
Todd and I talk about dreams often, because he rarely remembers his. When he does remember them, though, they are doozies. (Perhaps he will comment with the story of his ghost dream. I cannot possibly do it justice, it is so funny. When I match that dream story with the sounds he was making while having the dream, I am overcome with giggles.)
I had a wonderful dream last night. Scary and vivid and special, and tied to things going on in my life. We have been watching The Walking Dead on AMC. (I you aren’t watching it, you are dumb. It is awesome, and also, set in Atlanta, which makes it even more fun!) So, the beginning of my dream involved living with a group of survivors or refugees, somewhere out in the wilderness, not unlike the survivor group on The Walking Dead. (Or like the one that I started writing a short story about after having a similar dream while in NC and having seen a Walking Dead episode the night before, then dreaming about that!) Except that, last night, we were not Zombie Apocalypse survivors.
We were survivors of some sort of alien attack. This was no doubt prompted by the announcement yesterday that NASA will have a 2:00 PM Thursday press conference to discuss an astrobiological finding that impacts the search for extraterrestrial life in our universe. The buzz about this press conference was all over Twitter yesterday, and in true nerd fashion, I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day. Not surprisingly, it showed up in my dream.
So, in my dream, there is little explanation for how my group ended up with one, but I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO FLY ONE OF THESE GUYS:
I flew this in my dream. Be jealous. Be very jealous.
Have you ever had a flying dream? I don’t have them very often, but they are the absolute best dreams out there. It is the most exhilarating feeling in the world to soar over things in dreams. (Ironic, considering I am phobic about both heights and flying.) Except of course, flying dreams pale in comparison to one other kind of dream: the dreams where you get to hang out with deceased loved ones.
At some point during my dream, it was announced that good aliens were coming to earth, or maybe we had befriended the original attacking forces. I don’t know which, in that weird way that dreams are logical at the time, but never make sense when you try to describe them to others. But i was in downtown Atlanta and there were tons of people there, hanging out in the shadow of the Equitable building, waiting for the Alien Welcome Parade to begin. (Shadows of DragonCon, i suppose?) There were people I went to high school with, parents of people I went to high school with, some of Todd’s friends from Auburn, and pretty much any other random person that I can think of ever having met in my life. That guy that served me and Todd poolside rum drinks in Belize and told us about the Temptation Island folks? I think he was in my dream, too.
So, in my dream, i am rushing to find a good spot, and someone links arms with me as I am walking, and I look down and immediately recognize the green and white outfit my Grandma Smith wore. Apple green polyester background, with white polka dots. It was one piece, I think. Head-to-toe green and white polka dots. And grandma was beside me, walking damn well (she was a little wobbly there in the last few years, but not in my dream) and she was just SO EXCITED TO BE MEETING ALIENS! My grandmother was thin, wobbly, gray, and psoriatic. But her smile? Grandma had a million dollar smile, and one of the funniest, most contagious laughs I have ever heard.
And me? I went to bed last night worrying about all of the things I had to do today. And I woke up this morning having received a precious gift. I got to link arms with my grandma, celebrate something happy, see her smile, and hear her laughter. And today, I feel as if I have been visited by someone special, and I know there are things in this universe that we will never explain, or understand, but for which we must have respect.
Happy Place
Saturday, November 20th, 2010Slept until ten. Coffee on the patio with my college roommates, overlooking the fields, Table Rock in the distance. Then, eggs, caramel croissant casserole, pancetta and mimosas. About to go for a hike.
I am in my happy place.
By This Afternoon
Friday, November 19th, 2010I will be here.
Can’t wait.
The Good Stuff
Friday, September 24th, 2010Lookie what I got in the mail today! New book club book – Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent and the new Diana Gabaldon graphic novel, The Exile. Looks beautiful, plus same story, but told from a different point of view! Hells yeah, i’m excited!
And I still haven’t started the new Cassandra Clare book, so I am pretty much in anticipatory heaven right now. LOVE having books to look forward to. . .
Big Spider
Saturday, September 11th, 2010Big ass spider in my garden. Picture doesn’t really do justice to his size, or his yellow and black pattern, or the awesome zigzag of his web.
Worth It
Sunday, September 5th, 2010If a grandfather, father, or anyone else ever put up a tire swing, rope swing, or any kind of swing for you, stop reading this right now and go write them or call them to thank them.
Trust me. They did not have an easy time of it.
But the look on your face was worth it.
We Found It!
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010The proverbial Needle In a Haystack. The diamond in a very messy and large rough. My diamond. We found it.
I was picking veggies from the garden, and I came up to the carport and Todd and the kids were grinning like jackasses eating briars.
“Mama?” Todd said. “Remember when you said you would take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese if they found something for you?”
I knew right away what it was they had found, but I played dumb for effect. For the kiddos. I had promised them, in those first days after losing the diamond, when we were turning the house upside down, and going through the dirt in the vacuum cleaner, that if they found my diamond, I would take them to Chuck E. Cheese’s.
“Did you find something?”
They made me close my eyes and hold out my hand. I did. They told me i could open. I did.
There was my engagement ring, diamond still missing, in the palm of my hand.
Wait. What? Where’s my diamond?!
Rollie walked over and put a gem in my hand.
I looked at Todd. “Where did you find it?” I said, amazed at how small it looked in my hand.
He had been moving the new mattress his parents gave us into Rollie’s room to replace Rollie’s old mattress. He lifted the old mattress up and found a piece of paper and my diamond. It is so small, it is a miracle that he saw it. I remembered, then, that one of the places that I remembered my ring hanging up on things was in Rollie’s room when I changed his sheets. It must have come off then.
What are the odds of getting a new mattress a month after losing your diamond and then finding the diamond under the old mattress? Was it God? Maybe. I waver between thinking there are no coincidences and thinking that life is all a series of hits and misses without any rhyme or reason. This definitely made me swing back to the side of fate and destiny and higher power. At least for a moment; For a moment, things seemed clear and magical at the same time.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Todd said.
“Yeah, I think so.” Diamonds look different when they aren’t in the setting. In all honesty, it kind of looked fake.
“It kind of looks fake, though, doesn’t it?” Todd said.
“Yeah, kind of.”
But I set it in the prongs of my ring and it fit perfectly.
We went inside and the kids celebrated “their” find. I put my arms around my husband and hugged him and remembered how wonderful it is that he asked me to marry him. I have not ever, not once, ever regretted saying, “Yes.” It is the most important “Yes” i ever uttered. Then, we all ate dinner together.
And that’s how, after seven years of parental avoidance, yet another wall came down, another line crossed, and I finally had to break down and take the kids to Fuck E. Cheese’s.
SkeeBall is still fun. The pizza is still disgusting.
Help Me Pull the Trigger
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010On a dining room lighting choice.
So, this is going to be a decorating post. I know. Very out of character. Bear with me. . .
My tastes veer toward antique, junk, found objects, metal, rust, peeling paint. This fit in pretty fine when Todd and I were in our first house in EAV.
I loved that house.
Then we got knocked up and had to move to a bigger house.
Furniture still worked. Schools didn’t.
And now we are in a great school, but in something i never thought i would own. A split-level. And my furniture? It still works, but I am finding that I need to mix it with more modern elements to keep it from looking incongruous with its surroundings.
So, I am getting a new piece of furniture, an old pie safe, from my in-laws. It is beautiful, and I will post a photo when it moves in, and give the whole scoop on its history. (I know. You are just riveted now, aren’t you?) It will go in the dining room. My dining room, with its farm table, beat up junk store chairs, and weird Pop objects: old iron, churn, huge antique crocks. Old photos on the walls.
I decided I wanted to repaint the den and dining room, to brighten the area. I love the color that we picked, but it is turning out to be too dark in those rooms (the den and dining area are connected). The dining room only has one window. I figured while I repainted, I would also use that as an excuse to get rid of the dining room light. It is the exact same fixture my grandparents had in THEIR house in Warner Robins. Need I say more? That bitch needs to go.
I started looking at fixtures. Realized the more traditional fixtures were going to make my dining room look like a Cracker Barrel. Decided what I really wanted was something more funky. Lighter, airier, brighter, less heavy.
This is new for me. I found myself looking at fixtures I would never have looked at before. I got Todd on board. We are in agreement. And now I’ve narrowed them down to a few I like.
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- #1
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- #2
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- #3
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- We are thinking about knocking out the windows and putting doors to a screened porch. (Which will add to darkness, but i want one.)
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- Stairs up to BRs. Stairs down to basement. Thinking i should repaint this room too, since they are adjoining.
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- Quint and Scully stay, as do couch, door on wall, drawing in frame.
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- Will probably paint dining room door white to brighten room.
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- Red hutch in back is going. Mirror on wall is going. Keeping the armillary sphere. Armoire is going somewhere else – too overpowering in this space.
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- See what I mean? Small. No light. (Let’s concentrate on the dining area for now – yes, Kitchen’s Grandma wallpaper is going from kitchen. Baby steps.)
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- Walls will be painted white/off-white. Junk in left back corner will be gone. Hutch in back right corner will be gone. Table and chairs stay. See how dark it is?
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- This thing is gone. Have to lighten things up in here.
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- Good example of stuff i like – repurposed wooden table, vintage enamel bowl with red trim.
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- Love the purples and greens. My favorite colors. Wish I could wear two patterns like this and not look like a sofa or a crazy bag lady.
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- She loves my camera.
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- #4
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- #5
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- #6
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- #7
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- #8
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- #9
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- #10
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- #11
I always have trouble pulling the trigger on decisions like this, though. I have a favorite. Todd has a favorite.
Which is your favorite?
Update: Added photos of dining room and adjoining living room.
The Chase
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
My brother-in-law took this when we were on Cape San Blas. The little guy is my nephew, Dash. Note how empty the beach is, and it was 4th of July weekend, but it is usually like that at CSB, so I don’t think it was really attributable to the oil spill.
Would be mighty cool if life felt like this all the time.