TO OZ / BE TRU

These were the back-to-back vanity plates I passed yesterday. And as I cleanse my kitchen, purging the fridge of its tupperpiles, I'm reminded: Hope creates obligation, yet I partake. Leveraging opportunity. Creating space. My living room, whole. Grateful for neighbors who tend the communal spaces joyfully.

The winter grass grows in every crevice, an emerald explosion.
The last wishbone I played shattered across the room
like none I had ever seen.
(no) I would not wish for a dishwasher !

The Joy Formidable

on top of a weekend buried in tennis balls and LAlove, tonight unfolded magically. the pool's too cold even for my toes, but the air is still warm. so we decided to hike instead. and while walking to the car, swimming in friendship, i notice it for the first time: Home. straight through the trees across the street, my homehome twenty-five miles away, those glowing red towers. Point B to this oasis i revel in.

and as i'm winding my way up this new mountain of mine (there are so many; there is so much love), i'm sure i know which way i'm facing. No, that's North. you know i was wrong, and it boggled my mind because i live and breathe the cardinal points, and it kept happening the entire time. i lost it after every curve; breathless and so full of life under a sea of stars.

it's okay. i know i'll see straight from the top, and there's no rush.

Sun Up

Prairie Home

This weekend I learned that my Nana first learned to read in English, not her native tongue. In that sense, it was a doubly removed experience, compounding the distances it could take her. And there, waiting patiently at the bottom of my bag all this time, anticipating the reawakening of that dormant urge, the one book I've been carrying with me since Borders closed: The Solace of Open Spaces.

Learning to carry space within myself ,
Finding so much room for others .

volver

i woke up this morning and the words on my lips were, i love this place.
and i didn't know what place in particular.
my bed in the morning. this place in my life.
i went to work and i reminded myself to love it.
and as i mingled with friends tonight,
i didn't feel the familiarity until the words rolled out of my mouth,
i love this place!
like i brought it back around to me,
without immediately realizing i'd created it
but knowing it was right.
i love this place.

another thing We have in Common

the king's speech
in the cards
/ empress past / emperor future
/ the priestess anchors the hermit and the magus
the / joke is ,
how long do i fear my own power ?
believe
and command the chariot
into the light /

Time Warp

I was doing the dishes tonight, listening to one of my faaavorite teenage soundtracks, and I got sooo lost in a Patsy Cline song that I forgot (and almost lamented) I wasn't in the middle of her greatest hits. The woman is transcendent, so seamlessly integrated into time. And as my heart reawakened to that original love for the parent album, it was amazing to realize why I actually loved it.

I feel love when I listen to it. Immediate, happy, healthy, overflowing love. All different kinds of love. I hope you ALL have an album like this somewhere. I mean seriously. Patsy Cline and Etta James AND Neil Diamond. AND it was scored by Thomas Newman, ciNeMa cOmPoSeR ExTrAoRdinAiRE !!
))Shawshank ))American Beauty ))Lemony Snicket ))Finding Nemo.

Can you guess the album? It's totally How to Make an American Quilt. For real, I swear to god. Maybe it was the music, but we all know it was probably just Winona Ryder, really. And as I walked the whole album in my memories, I thought, "I found love right where I left it. I totally forgot about it, and it was just exactly right there." And it made the dishes I was doing romantic.

And to say that I found love where I left it would be the understatement of the century. I found some old friends this week, right after I made a bunch of new ones. And I'm never lonely in this couchless island, my raaaaad new place, because I have a lifetime of friends to revisit in my mind. (I also have Netflix.)

And when I finally put forth the effort to socialize after a whole glorious day of creating my den alone, I run into the cooooolest chick I know at the happiest place on earth, who reminds me that every day can be a picnic on your living room floor.

I'd say you guys always help me time it all perfectly.

somewhere

i was glad to catch up with a good friend today,
then found his name featured in an /amazing documentary.
in other conversations
indeed, there is water, but he is not actually john the bathtist;
and jesus' sidekick finds his way into this same flick.
finding my values in my friends.
__nothing is lost in translation

__ to see you go

so many friends in motion, farewell to two this week.
how someone can leave a mark in no time ;
how time leaves no marks.
it all rolls in pairs.

__Tammy gives me my first coach piece (shoes!) :
__Charlie shows me videos of what it means to be a coach. we watch the baseball game monday night. i never just watch baseball, and it was rad. such awesome footage of the detroit tigers retiring coach sparky's number 11 on sunday nite. took them to the world series in 84 (yup).
__and lo, Jianna invites me to the game the next night. seat 13. home run. love the dbacks, all the way back to our own series.

always seeing double, wish i could remember to use both eyes.
still wishing for a third.

my my , my coaches , my best friends
t h a n k y o u
the best memories always the most recent
not a moment wasted

what it is

One

running to keep up.

airplane ceilings give way under pressure. one by one they land over my head on the night the train blows into town. daybreak, jet set, i'm off !! the coincidences continue to stack, day by day, April reminds me, no surprises.

Two

see it / be it

May rolled in so chill, the loveliest of cool spring days, so graciously, forgivingly late after a series of jarring seasonal transitions. windy windy windy.
Serious Winds of Change.

Act III in this story that continues unwritten

/all things in time

a long overdue Soul Cleanse : bittersweet Memorial .

6/5/11: the numbers fell into place (of course) and i felt closer to knowing.

space to appreciate at the museum. so rich and radiant, that saffron sea. excited bewilderment and unnerving security in the dark & illuminating reflections of infinite space. i’d like to take you there sometime (we’re already there together).

Synchronous words in overlapping conversations, landing on green Together. Unity in divergent trajectories; it never ceases to amaze me.

winning the raffle
making space
finding the patience not to worry
planting love
knowing happiness in honesty
keeping my eyes open to inspiration
believing .

be here now

Last night I dreamt of a bird trapped in the house. It was late. He was hop/fluttering up and across the office bookshelves to disappear through a (nonexistent) attic hatch in the closet. When I got a closer look, he had an acquaintance's face. Little Friend BirdMan. How strange, dreaming so recently of new locked doors, and now of new hidden spaces !

un/believable situations in un/known places
so many combinations . . ,
usually all my teeth fall out
, . . but sometimes enough i breathe underwater : )

27

wicked .
tornados tear across the states
through askewville, so aptly named.
free feast with the finest.
sunset on town & country, good bones
more skeletal than you know.
two bob dylans in that beige gallery, echoes of art
: icon in stereo, regardless.
mr. fantastic boogies at the bus stop,
shins frontman has a new g!g.
weekly library visits prove
culturally stimulating,
and sooon a concert
: polyphonic spree indeed.
full moon hike, spring only in the breeze
pitch black mountain waves in a glowing city sea
reflections of the canyon in my heart.
lucky me __so much time__

proximity
progress
+

april fool

I awoke last night in a cold sweat, hoping I hadn't actually wandered the halls in my sleep. Dreamscape : I wake up in the darkest part of the night and despite a vague urgency, I can't get a single light switch in my house to work. Not one. The only light in the house slips beneath the cracks of my closet door, and I tear it open to find another. locked. door.

Who has the key to a door that =doesn't= exist ?!

The first thing I did this month was go to bed. I don't know what inspired me to turn on the FM radio, but stranger things happen after midnight. ~Love~ national public radio and unknown classical pieces that l?sten to your feelings. Forty-five minutes in : already rocking April in new ways.

Cool breeze, warm sunshine, desert sunday springpeace. I share a daytime SkyBloom with Jianna (but it's magical in the moonlight):



This after an accidental jaunt through Papago and ASU's SkySong: Center for Innovation, Technology and Imagination. Last year I watched the Phoenix Children's Hospital climb into the sky above Thomas Road, and tonight I notice from the epic 51: so colorfully lit, it glitters like a kaleidoscope.

We've got the makings for greatness, A to Z.

Sliding in at the right time to say goodbye to an old friend.
Never late for the perfect moment.

Free entry to the Phoenix Art Museum (Phart!—it always makes me laugh).
Ann Taylor's personal wardrobe, Théâtre de la Mode,
modest Degas and Picasso ...
so much to soak in/never enough time in any artspAce/Lost in the Unfolding

The best part : fresh interpretive flower arrangements accompanying select pieces throughout the galleries.

Interpretations of interpretations.
Eternal Recurrence.
What isn't ?
:)

numbers recap

Where would you even begin to pick the highlights for any given month? Andy was telling me about an inadvertently depressing newsletter he wrote for his company that turned out to be pretty hilarious. What can you do but laugh?

earthquakes and waves/revolutions
/new job/two jobs/home/hOme/h0me/roadtrip/friendship
I hope you did lots of things in the sunshine, too
and appreciate the gravity of community : )

loved march .

flying fish

o p e n :) r o a d . . .
calizona's sandy interior
/prehistoric shore !
sun at my heels all weekend.

crafts by surprise !
we've graduated from coloring now,
wandering the fabric district,
bringing the outdoors in.
to tree or not to tree :
Collaborative Creativity__
take a break and see
whatever will be will be
before we know it .

( dreams of home? all nite
( always searching , ,

hearing my name
in the strangest of strangers' conversations:
__everywhere everymoment__
neighborhood l o v e,
overcast and shoeworthy,
eggs florentine & crUncHy frEnCh to@st
__the taste of freedom.

philip glass in the windmill gardens,
a family of trees.
kids w/ mgmt aspirations.
rearview sunsets.
__west coast !

Dear Chuck,

Thank you !
money may not be It
but it makes the World go round.
so excited to be following in your footsteps:
sowing seeds of green,
one in a league of 12,500.

)thirteen thousand missing in Japan(

hearing:black keys/edward sharpe/mumford and sons/queenbowie/yo la tengo
seeing:tideland/the great debaters
weather: supermoon=(rain+cold) ?
~groovin~
~grateful~ for so many people,
so many positive environments,
intellectual challenge,
weekends
safety
opportunity
and new clothes :)

ready, set, gO !

day One

driving 2 job 2 this evening,
i noticed two guys
taking a sunset break
from some sort of home renovation,
sitting cross-legged
in the back of a pickup truck.
one canted his head and listened to
the other talk with his hands.
and i just felt like
i shared in something good .

and after work,
as i'm counting my cash
to settle up with the house,
(always) facing the bills and choosing
the crispest to keep,
i see the note
on the back of the scraggliest note:
help someone

you know i kept it,
glad for the reminder !

can't wait to share the wealth :]

(ps. whY is jason schwartzman Always the perfect nightcap ?! )

This one's for all ma ladies.

So many prompts to appreciate so many things in soo many ways today.

Woke up this morning in my owwn universe, so I was surprised mid-afternoon: my mom was more informed than I. An earthquake in my Japan? >:worryworry:< But my friends are blessed at all corners of the planet :) Spent some time flipping through all my unorganized AWESOME photos, grateful.

Dawn posts : "BE HUMBLED, always"
And that one has stuck with me all day.

Kaleena changes her photo to that favorite of all my favorite images eVeR: Hokusai's 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa'. Then I roll into work and she tells me she was up in the middle of the nite after dreams of waaves?

Dreaming !! It's right up there with at least butter and showers in the Top Five of all my favorite things eVeR :b

So I got home from an easy evening at work and reached out [online—how cool!] to rekindle an important friendship. I have good feelings about this. After sharing time with one friend, I bump into another when

Eiko posts from Japan: "no less than 50 countries proposed us to help! no border on the earth!"

I really know some
amazingly
positive &
proactive &
tuned-in
people.

...and I really need to study.
keep it coming :)

math ! tax tables !

these are the words skipping out of my mouth as i sit here, crunching the numbers and finding out why Federal Return X = State Return Y. my tax bracket changes every period ! is this normaal?

it's a curious jaunt, this yellowbrick road.
still, i write the $5 check
and mail it to My State, knowing
I get exactly what I pay for . . .

first friday at Bikini Lounge with the Best,
looking upon today's youth over a seven dollar pitcher of PBR,
I was happy for Arizona's future !

don't you think? style is so androgynous these days; i'm lamenting having donated all my plaid shirts — you know i loved them. everyone's just cool with letting other weirdos do their own thing
together.

fat tuesday
i really like it
:]

phx love .

Baby You're a Rich Man Too !

Loving my Beatles lately; appreciating their influence on the art around me :)

"That was freakin' transcendental, Paul McCartney." Their Walk Hard cameo is pretty awesome, but not nearly as sneaky as Nowhere Boy. I was impressed. Who doesn't want to be John Lennon for two hours?

Chapter Two: the wonderfully 90s campy Backbeat, featuring the Would-Beatles. Oh Stu, my head would explode at the glimpse of such magnitude, too. And it turns out Ringo was really the best, Pete. Drummer's just there to have fun.

& George . I Me Mine : 8 days a week !

<3

happy march i !

magic in a bowl, this banoffee pie.
celebrating new beginnings
on the first day
of this month of numbers.
two weeks away
today,
banoffee 3.14
:)

i heart NASA !

Andy shared this link today :

Shuttle Launch from the Skyyyy !!!

Heck yes !
Take-offs and landings :)
Inspiring .

When was the last time you went into Fry's Electronics ?!

Or, "So this is heaven ! "

The last time I went into Fry's Electronics, it was a dark and scary warehouse dungeon. It was grey, it was dusty and disheveled. It was no place for a lady.

But what ! I went there with Bill on Saturday, and who knew you could buy your new high-efficiency washer & dryer, your electric piano, your blender and your office supplies at Fry's !

It was a sensory wonderland. The colors were bright, the shelves were stocked. At the end of each aisle, they post smiling photographs of the employees responsible for merchandising that section. What ! People shopping respectfully ! Sweet.

But the best part of all : The floor is art. At first I thought it was just different colors cut into the laminate tiles to breathe life into the massive square-foot expanse. And then I saw it : golf course. How perfect, here in dude paradise.

It was my paradise too :]

who knew

new blog, layout to follow :)

but this is my favorite show ever :

community ! election

seriously, people. what's not to love.

i love it !