Dirt Chic

I Do More Than Get Dressed (But It's a Good Thing I'm Clothed)

It's been a weird three weeks.  This semester is so different than the last.  Though, some things stay the same.  I overuse this word: chatoyant.  I learned it when I started obsessing about gemstones in 9th grade.  But it's kind of my word.  It's what my days are like.  It's what my mind is like, good or bad.  It's been a chatoyant 3 weeks, for sure.

Mostly, I've just been focusing on teaching my ONE class this semester (that's how the cards fell.  Is that even a phrase?), and boy, are those students getting my full attention (not that they necessarily appreciate this ;).  However, I am not living a life of leisure.  I've got two books to write, and there are two more RPM shows that I'm going to catch up in Chicago, and then who knows.

But at least I have time, now, to appreciate the little things, more....

Like Canada geese migrating.  Doesn't do it justice.  There were SO many of them.

Like packaging.  Okay, I always notice packaging.  And animals.  Doesn't this look delicious?  Are you so excited when they make fudgsicles and call them poopsicles?

Like things that make me shake my head in wonder, like "Travel Lube", which I would imagine might be owned by whoever brought us "Kum & Go" gas stations.

Like people-watching at the bookstore.  Perhaps I shouldn't have taken this woman's picture but I noted her entire stack of everything was British and she had a BBC-embossed tote bag.  But what really amuses me about this picture is that there is a magazine called "Majesty".  

Like finally having the ability to sit in my pink office, dream about fragrance, color, and texture, and dive back into my novel, which has been problematic for me.  I've been making good headway on my biography (and whenever I say "my biography" I fear people will misunderstand and think I've been commissioned to write my autobiography, which is amusing as well).  I've been nerding out on dramatic literature and have been developing syllabi on history plays and family dramas and religion/metaphysics and theatre.  I broke my brain last semester.  I really did.  For all the reasons it happened, it's been up to me to mend it.  Well, Scorch the thrifted dragon has helped.  He says hi.  His little brown eye makes me happy.  

So anyways.  :)

Pug Interlude (Uh, Pugerlude...)

What a guy.

You would think, being so attuned to comfort, that Biff would find a better headrest.

But who am I to define what is comfortable for a Biff?

An Interlude of Snapshots While I Take a Break From Deadlines

There are random sequins littering my floor. This is how it should be. All year, but especially now.  Where do they come from?  Well, boxes and bags of sequins, sometimes.  But mostly, they shed from my clothes, shoes.  I can't bring myself to sweep them up.

I think I need some confetti.  I think I need some glitter.  I will be extra-festive soon, once I hit some pretty heavy deadlines.

In the meantime, I keep finding a way to make my bright tree brighter.

(I know, I know, the green wires are so obvious - but not in real life.  Please suspend awareness of them, for me?)  I bought my favorite candy canes - cherry-flavored rainbow - and put them on the tree.  I will be snacking on them come January, no doubt.

Love my tree.  It's a lovely ritual to turn all the lights on (and light a candle) before I do anything else.  It makes this deadline-tastic time easier to deal with.  I'm not complaining - but I have a lot going on.  (Don't we all?)

I did finish the teaching semester, though.  *PHEW.*  I tried to catch a picture of this amusing sign, on my drive home:

Small Dog, 59 cents.  I keep thinking of lapdogs.  I will take 1 pug, 1 "80's Dog" (Pomeranian), and a Pekingese.  What a deal.

On a trip to the library, I saw this:

Buddy.  Probably was 59 cents.  I wonder how much a large dog costs.  99 cents?

I have been avoiding my library-room chair for various silly reasons (I go through cycles of wanting to sit in certain places, for one), but I finally sat in it yesterday, during the day, and enjoyed the view of this bank of houseplants, some new.  (My fern is atrocious-looking but still clings to life.)

I would sit here more but then I can't see the tree.

Do you know what I CAN see?  EVERYTHING.  Because after a string of unpleasant experiences, I ended up demanding then having a string of extremely positive experiences at the aforementioned eyewear establishment - Lenscrafters.

I am not endorsing one thing over all others (I get my regular glasses from For Eyes, usually), but I have had positive experiences with Lenscrafters in the past, and was surprised that I kept finding myself dissatisfied.  Longish (and boring) story short: they will make good.  Of course they will.  And now, I have what I want:

Brown Anne Klein sunglasses, plastic lenses, gradated tint, in a better prescription.  And $20 than the best pair I found online.  I am very, very pleased.  Now I just have to get used to not having astigmatism anymore.

So anyways.  This interlude is almost over, and I will make some food to last me through the next few marathon days, and I will write and read and write and read and possibly exercise and certainly shower and in all that, dream about these:

And maybe grab a box on my way up north to celebrate the holidays with my family. :)  And celebrate meeting deadlines, of course.

Stay tuned: I will tell you about my upcoming production in Chicago....

Uploaded Happiness

Here.  Some things that are happiness:

A chipper chap.  

Being nice.

Bouncy ball clown.

Also try: Soggy Parallelograms.

Necessity for life.

Fruit Roll-Up without shapes or color gradations.

Extra-cheese pizza (all to myself).

Adult-sized PJ t-shirt.

Yarn witch at Mel-O-Cream.

Chair in SalArmy dressing room.

Amusing claims.

My dressing room.

Curls, fur, skeleton shirt, Diet Coke.

The End.

Camp is Upon Me (Wendy, Don't Look)

Camp time is rolling around, and we all know what that means.  Pictures of food?  Check.  Pictures of me in weird summer-inappropriate clothing combinations?  Check.  Pictures of randomness?  Check.  TOAD OBSESSION?  CHECK.

A retrospective:

What friends they are.  Oh, how I love them.  So pumped.  So pumped to find toads.

I don't just go ga-ga over amphibians.  I love reptiles, too.  And yes, I had to look up the difference.  (This is the person who thought birds were mammals up until recently.) (But I'm not stupid.  I'm just a ditz.)  Proof:

Turtle-hugger.  That's what I am.

(By the way, Wendy is my amazing friend, and I warned her because I love her and she doesn't want to see pictures of toads and I validate this. :)

Want: Aminal Portraits

Man.  I want this woman to make me a gazillion paintings.  Of Biff, of a whistlepig, of a sparrow... sheesh.  (And she's Italian.  And lives in Italy.  Could she be any cooler.)

Animals.  :)

Casual Fridays Lead to Busy Saturdays

Starting the day with a silver bullet of goodness (just for the taste of it).  Reminds me of being a twenty-something, heh heh.  In case you still don't know what I'm talking about but perhaps suspect that either a) I'm a suicidal werewolf or b) doing drugs, you'd be correct, on the latter point.  Caffeine is a drug.  And Diet Coke is addictive.

Anywho.  On this frigid, bright day in January (I'll be glad for this month to be over, just 'cuz February is short and March RULES), I have big plans to do the following:
-not eat breakfast
-exercise for the first time in probably two months BUT I have a new exercise shirt, which is tres exciting (no I won't take a picture because I look like crap) (ok maybe I will because I don't care at all)
-take a bath (I love to do this any time of day, but doing it during the day adds to the luxury and I feel extra-vintage)
-think about teaching and get crabby and thus try to come up with de-crabbifying solutions (I love teaching, it's just been a difficult week)
-write: anything, but preferably screenplay
-REWRITE.

Yes.  Last night I was working with some first-draft "vignettes" (10-minute plays, basically) that I wrote for an upcoming project and it was revealing, but not surprising, to hear them out loud and discover there is just too much or not enough and that if I don't want to make a fool of myself, I better get in there and fix things.  I am actually quite pumped to do this.  For one, the material is written for somebody else, so I'm not as personally attached to it.  Two, I like to make things entertaining.  Funny, especially.  So that is one task at hand, and I want to see how I do at it.  Three, I feel structurally aware of what's working and what's not, and in my quest to become more articulate AND analytical (I am not saying I am neither but I am often not the both together), this is exciting.

This probably is only exciting to me.  But I haven't had much opportunity to re-write for performance and I'll take any experience I can get to actually make me a better writer.

So that is that.  

In other news, I miss my dog.  I just have to periodically put that out in the world.  I know he's happy and well with my parents and that I can see him whenever I go home.  But this time, last year, I still had him and it was just wonderful to have his little self around.  I miss his little excited jumping thing when I was about to feed him.  I miss his floppy ears when he trots.  I miss him putting his face on my feet when sleeping.  I'm not saying any of this to be boo-hoo.  It's partly to commemorate, but it's also just therapeutic for me, to be able to say that I miss him.  Biff is the best. :)

Yes, I got dressed yesterday.  I was "casual".  I tried on a pair of jeans (one of two pairs I own) and got crabby and wore cuffed black pants, my casual look of choice.  I have been avoiding a lot of my black pants because I did gain a smidge of weight over the holidays and this has screwed up my casual black-pant look.  (I am pro-health and all, but I really just like to keep my weight down so I look how I want to look in clothes.)

Whatever.  (Hence, exercising today.)

Pants: $30 at Old Navy but my mom bought them.  Boots: you know.  Beach Bum shirt (another favorite, just because it's so danged versatile): stole from Mary in 1999.  Pink scarf and hat: $4 (found separately).  80's slouchy tan jacket: $3.

In other news I bit the bullet (not the silver one, but that could be arranged) and got a mini-tripod for $10.  (It comes with an adapter thing so I can use a bigger one, too - so Carra, I will keep pestering you for that....)  I am so ready.  So are you.  Life will never be the same.

Today's Not-Thrifted Items: All the Things I Don't Buy

I don't buy everything I like.  If I did, I would be the prime candidate for that (awesome) hoarders show I watch with my mom.  Instead, I just hoard pictures.  (No wonder I'm having issues getting my pictures onto iPhoto.  Or Picasa.  Or anything.)

Footwear:

I especially like how it looks like the dancer is wearing an oversized sweater.  Which would not be unheard of, as I saw many dancers at the Colorado Ballet wearing similar outfits.  (No tulle, though.)

Mary contemplates tiny Oxfords.

You may note a thing I have for animals.  I LOVE ANIMALS.

It is very hard for me not to buy anything with an animal, especially a cute and/or sad animal, on it/in it/of it.

Case in point.  I even feel bad about throwing away my scale which never worked (it noted me as being 200 pounds, always.  And always unacceptable.  Though funny.)  So imagine what it's like for me, to walk away from such things.  (It doesn't always work.  See: toys "for" the little people who come see me.  AKA stuffed animals stuffed in a closet.)

Yes.  It's so very true.

And I'm even worse at antique malls.  

But to capture digitally is cheaper than to buy.  Excuse me while I go take a picture of my scale.

Plant Watering Solution

I can't stand - CAN'T STAND - to let houseplants die.  I have inadvertently killed 2 cacti, and I was devastated.  I feel that since these living things are entrusted into my care, the least I can do is water them and stuff.  And since I no longer am a pet owner in the daily sense of the word, I feel at least a smidge more affection for these things that at least demand a small bit of my attention.  (Plus, most of them have been given to me, or I've had them for years, so it would be extra-devastating to let them die...)

Not that it's really a problem.  Besides watering, a bit of pruning here, a repotting there, and my spider plant and "bamboo" and I-don't-know-what-it-is-but-it's-large-and-ornamental and remaining cactus are doing fine.

Bonsai, on the other hand, has been a bit of a problem.  Bonsai-selling (and onion-smelling) (sorry, she was eating a raw onion in front of me) lady told me to keep the soil moist.  !!!  So I've kept a water bottle by it, and water it fairly often.  But bits of the leaves (or whatever they are) keep turning brown and falling off.

Solution (As Seen on TV! but purchased at ACE Hardware): watering globe thing.  Been meaning to get one for a long time.  Came in a 3-pack, so I stuck the others in Bamboo and Spidey.  They are currently not being very thirsty.

But I checked Bonsai today, and Bonsai has been VERY thirsty.  This made me happy/excited, as I at first thought maybe the globes were a rip-off.  Apparently, when the plant needs more water, an oxygen bubble goes up the globe and sucks the water out, or something scientific like that (that's not my area of science, so I don't know).  

Nice solution, especially as I head for camp for a week, soon.  (Yah, the globe is big, but whatever.  Looks somewhat alien-ish.  I like it.)

As you can see, Bonsai still has Fishing Friend.  And keeps the tent revival company.  And continues to make me happy and relieved, to keep another living thing living.

Coming Home, Leaving Soon

A trip to Aurora for a funeral.  I sort of behave at funerals.  Couldn't help taking pics of the black feather wreaths, though.  Or the chair in the elevator.  Would've taken more pictures, such as of the tombstone with the name "Dromgoole" on it, but I'll just have to envision them in my mind's eye.  And I can remember Dromgoole, so I'm set, anyway.

I am wondering if it would be tacky for me, here, to talk about how on a level, I truly hate funerals.  I know some people hate weddings.  I guess it could be for the same reasons - artifice masking emptiness, perhaps.  Or more specifically, a lack of pondering about meaning, and a whole lot of astro-turf.  (Oh wait.  Weddings don't have astro-turf.  Well, let this be a tip for the industry.)

I have more thoughts on this matter, but I will be less tacky.  Instead, I will wear this button:

In other news, I had a stack of books waiting for me when I came home.  I hope this was from yesterday.  (I almost typed Saturday.  I've thought today and yesterday were both Sunday.  Maybe if I thought this every day, I would save a lot of money, because I would always think SalArmy is closed.)  Books.  Books.  Books.  No matter how many I collect and manage not to read, I always am happy to get more.

(Pic is fuzzy.  Brain was also fuzzy when I took pic.  Sesame Street Honker guy looks pretty manic about it all, though, right?)

And if I don't buy them, there are always cell phone pics.

(I have a thing for bees)

(Noel Coward's fine and all, but this design is even cooler.)

I did get to see Biff this weekend.  It rocked and sucked.  Rocked, because he is the best, and I was glad to see him enjoying my parents, and they him.  Sucked, because he was depressed, and I am sure it is because his life has changed so dramatically, and I don't ever take him home anymore.  He sort of played hard-to-get for awhile.  Then he came around, and put his face on my foot.

 

Going to Cornerstone next week.  And maybe going home again, before that, if baby Hamm-Smith says a great big hi to the world.  We're hoping she waits a bit... but no time is precisely a good time this summer.

Ok, I really do have to go read, and write.  But that is always the case.  But today is extra the case.  

(P.S. They are holding a "Jesus is Lord" tent revival in the yard right next to the apartment.  Heh heh.)