[ Day 5: Wednesday July 8th ]

Trying to steam out my weird summer cold with a hot bath. Bought rose tea at the public market, watched a show at Friendship City with Katie and Brittany. Making my way slowly through Mary Oliver’s poetry. Forgetting about Atlas Shrugged for now and starting All the Pretty Horses instead.

Rained again today; grey clouds covered everything.

I want to crawl out of my skin.

“Whoever should be guided so far towards the mysteries of love, by contemplating beautiful things rightly in due order, is approaching the last grade. Suddenly he will behold a beauty marvellous in its nature, that very Beauty, Socrates, for the sake of which all the earlier hardships had been borne: in the first place, everlasting, and never being born nor perishing, neither increasing nor diminishing; secondly not beautiful here and ugly there, not beautiful now and ugly then, not beautiful in one direction and ugly in another direction, not beautiful in one place and ugly in another place. Again, this beauty will not show itself like a face or hands or any bodily hting at all, nor as a discourse or a science, nor indeed as residing in anything, as in a living creature or in earth or in heaven or anything else, but by being itself with itself always in simplicity; while all the beautiful things elsewhere partake of this beauty in such manner, that when they are born and perish it becomes neither less nor more and nothing at all happens to it…”

[ Day 3 Outtake ]

part of my new dress i’m taking in at the waist.

You know what photo I don't need to see ever again on Flickr?

scout:willmccloud:

An underweight girl hunched over, shirtless, exposing her entire spinal cord.  Over it.  Not cute, clever, or thought-provoking.

teresaeileen:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teresagrasseschi/

color holga film of the photos colleen and I shot the other day. Im crazy happy with them.

yo. check it.

hardlyinventive:

Bumblebee +Cyrstal Castles!

PatrickBoivin makes other super-cool stop-motions too. (Yes it is stop motion!)

 Bumblebee was always my favorite.

[ Day 4: Tuesday July 7th ]

Repotted on Joe’s new back porch, in the rain.

These little spider plants were growing off of their momma, i just snipped ‘em and put them in soil. They’re gonna clean the air in my apartment: “Spiders are not only attractive, easy to grow, and down right fun, they also help clean the air you breathe. NASA performed a study where they filled a sealed Plexiglas chamber with formaldehyde and measured the air cleaning performance of three popular houseplants. Spider Plants were the winners, removing over 95% of it within 24 hours. To reap the air cleaning benefits of plants, the rule of thumb is 2 or 3 for every 100 square feet of space.” (housepants.suite101.com)

Went to the library, checked out some poetry books. Met some friends downtown at the Honeymoon, about the only place in Bellingham I can get into without being 21. I never had a problem with always being youngest until all my friends left me alone in the lame world of being 20. Only one month left until I don’t have to awkwardly say bye and leave someone’s home so they can go to the bars!

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I’m realizing that I’ve been putting a lot of my energy into working on my relationships, working on myself and how I communicate with others. I want people to get me and to feel comfortable talking to me. Especially in my close relationships, I consume myself with figuring out how best to communicate with that person. If there’s a fight or even a heated discussion, i’ll brood all day about where the misunderstanding was, which tone of voice or word or action trigured the emotion, how to be more clear next time. I thought that this was why most couples fight and divorce: they can’t communicate. And I thought that my relationships were different because I was striving to understand always, even at the cost of how I really felt. It took me a long time to even realize that I do this and that other people don’t do this at all. Other people just let it go and move on because forcing things, especially communication skills, sucks. I’m trying to work on this, on being less anxious about how I am viewed. Sometimes I’ve just got to say what I’ve got to say, whether whoever’s listening gets it or not.

I must learn to maintain a balance.

[ Day 3: Monday July 6th ]

“Well, if you’re worried about the weather, then you’ve picked the wrong place to stay…”

A moody day, weather and otherwise. I woke up early, finished my laundry, and changed my car oil so I could drive back to Bellingham in time to sneak into bed with this guy.

Our camping trip plans got foiled by the misty rain, so we stayed in, made dinner (SO YUMMY: whole wheat organic pasta with parmesan and chive chicken, tomato salad with balsamic vinaigerette, and creamy tomato soup), and then rented Apocalypto (meh…) on blue ray.

All I wanted to do all day was listen to Portishead and Billie Holiday, but my iPod broke and won’t play any of the songs I have on it. Sigh. Just another thing to fix.

[ Day Two: Sunday July 5th ]

My dad just came into the living room where i’ve been reading and handed me my dinner: his famous italian salad with homemade dressing. And he folded my laundry earlier.

“Why are you being so nice to me, Dad?”

“I want you to come home all the time.”

Awwww.

My mom and I spent a girlie day shopping in Seattle and talking about boys and reincarnation. (We talk about everything). I found some steals: a few new billowy, soft shirts (my favorite kinds) and a couple little dresses. I’ll need to take in the waist of one, the red gingham number. But it’ll be worth ittttt.

We also stopped by a wonderful garden supply store called Ravenna Gardens; I bought a cute box of long owl themed matches for my almost-burnt-to-the-bottom-candles and a pot for one of Joe’s (plant master) baby spider plants to now live in. Since I can’t have a garden this summer, little potted plants will have to suffice. While there, my mom picked up this stone with the saying on it, and while I usually detest these sayings, this one stuck for us.

We’re about to watch Frost/Nixon (it better be good! payperview now costs FIVE DOLLARS).

[ Day One: Saturday July 4th, 2009 ]

So! This is day one of my attempt at the 365 project. I’ll be posting my pictures along with stories and a few other things on here for each day…for the next year (hopefully)!

What a better way to start than with a day like today. I woke up in a sunlit room full of love and summer air, walked home with evening in missoula in hand. I drove to Seattle for Independance Day, to see my parents and lay in the sun with my dog. Armed with an icy corona and a bikini (note the picture!), I battled the 85 degree weather and watched my family: mom busy in the kitchen making italian pasta salad and garden iced tea, cooing over Gus; dad watering the lawn and sipping wine on our deck, begging us to watch the history channel Revolutionary war special; brother busy with friends, planning our firework show for later that night, telling me how amazing it’ll be. And it was amazing. I love the boom and then the brilliant colors, how they light up people’s faces suddenly and then fade slowly away, embers hitting the ground and dying. Our whole neighborhood lit up and shook…it still is rattling and glowing even as I type this. We used two packs of beer, four packs of hotdogs and hamburger meat combined, and three packs of sparklers just dancing around on my deck, spelling our names. Good 4th, I’d say.

openarms:

maako:

You can live in the corner of my room and I will live somewhere between the ceiling and the wall (via *Cinnamon)

cravings, art, and my feeble attempts at entertaining a baby with dance moves

i’m craving some sushi and a long nap. preferably in the sun, on a blanket, surrounded by grass and in a bikini (working on my pitiful tan). it’s me and the 8 month old again today, just us. it’s hard to know what to do with a baby soemtimes to keep them entertained and happy. i just resort ot putting on music and dancing around a lot…she laughs so hard at me. even babies laugh at my attempts to dance. oh well. i have tomorrow and most of next week off, i’m making plans already and all the days seem to be filling up. i must remember to reserve a day for nothing and fulfill my cravings.

i also want to write, i’m feeling the itch. i want to fill notebooks with the things i’ve been thinking lately: about growth, how we do it, when, how quickly. how impermanent we really are. and how beautiful the world seems on sunny days in july.

i also want to start 365 soon…maybe on independance day. i’ll use tumblr to put up my pictures probably, setting up a flickr just for the project seems silly. i sometimes feel i already have to many things on the internet.

i had my second art committee meeting last night and we decided on the projects we want to do: a student commissioned sculpture and a huge mural that we’ll open up tot he entire bellingham community. both will be competitions with cash prizes. we’re focusing on what the building represents, how it brings the community together and serves as the “public entrance” to the university. we’ll be looking for interesting, dynamic pieces with multi-media and interactive features. also, hopefully the gallery will display some old photos and contest finalist pieces for about a week in november. i’m excited about these projects.

tonight, i’ve got to do my second training session for the east asian studies press at the school, right after nannying. then i’ve got to pick up my new blackberry…the one i hav enow (the one i just got!) has gone defective.

today i think i’ll take the dog and the babe out for a long walk and some reading in treehouse park.

enjoy the sunshine…please!