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freeing a soul : july 2001
7.31.2001
apple
<nibble-nibble-crunch-crunch-crunch> oh god, apples are so good!
<grins> yup, i am still enjoying every baby step back toward real food. maybe today will be some SOUP!
so another day of thinking that when i get myself completely back to eating, i need to take my ass to an admin employment agency and see if i can score some temp jobs answering somebody's phones or something. sad but true that i have not heard a single word from *anyone* that i sent a resume out to. no one.
<blech>
but there is a little html work and something good will come up soon. it always does :)
posted by belen 11:58 AM
7.30.2001
simple pleasures
i sat on my *couch* and drank a cup of *vegetable broth* and thought "my god! my life is so good at this moment!!!"
<grins>i think its good to step back to the point where a soft place to sit and warm food are great joys. recalibrates the "needs" in life.
so i leave you now to sit on the couch and read a good book...
<sigh of contentment>
posted by belen 9:48 PM
day 6
day 6 has not yet brought IT...but it did bring a counch for free :) one of our neighbors was moving and didnt want her couch anymore...so we pulled out the shoehorn and crammed the couch in :) and now that it is here, the place doesnt look nearly as small as i feared.
i believe this is due to the karma of giving my beloved couch away...although i didnt actually get to give it to another person, which saddened me greatly. but goodwill will redistribute accordingly, i am sure.
so its day 6, nothing has come yet...possibly due to the fact that my diet has consisted mainly of fruits and veggies, grains and very little meat for months now.
i have grown cranky of not eating...and i dont feel as good today as i have other days...i think my body is telling me that 6 days of fasting has done enough to clean out my system, make me appreciate food and hit my reset button.
so i deem today The Last Day. tomorrow (or whenever the maple syrup runs out <grins>) i start drinking broth, other juices and maybe some raw veggies and fruit.
this was a good experience...i am pleased, and will probably repeat from time to time. but i think i am going to take the better course of action and listen to my instincts that my body is done and would like real nutrition again :)
posted by belen 3:23 PM
7.29.2001
<SQUEAL>
i cannot tell you what creative joy the last 3 days has brought me.
i finally took one of my favorite pieces of writing and brought it to life. i have spent *days* making monsters :)
i have never illustrated from scratch before and this was *SO* much fun! the story lent itself so well to this...its like it created its own presentation.
and at the end of this piece, there is a flash movie that makes my toes curl....it must have been inspired, or i have been sleeping with my flash book and not realized it....it has never been so easy for me to create in flash. i sat giggling to myself the whole time.
the piece is called "control issues". it was written shortly after i lost my mind last year...it is the most accurate account i can give of my emotions at the time...shortly thereafter, the dust settled and i saw things very differently. the reasons for that time in my life are complex and multi-faceted...not *all* my fault and my nasty little issues. but it certainly felt that way at the time.
as i wrote it, i was desperately trying to find the humor in it. i think i did pretty well...of course, everyone so far who has read it has called it the most frightening thing they have ever read :)
one, poetically, said "as I read through, I felt I was looking at a reflection of your life through a sliver of a broken mirror."
<BIG GRIN> i think i got through :)
remember, the flash movie at the end is a must-see...i think it is the best part :)
enjoy!
posted by belen 5:58 PM
question
does anyone know a good place to snag a good guestbook thingie? pondering adding one to belen.net :) or using a modified version of one to create a more interactive creative space for us...like i ramble on about some random experience/story and you respond (you damn voyeurs...i want you to play with me instead of always watching :)
let me know if you have recommendations or suggestions :)
posted by belen 12:32 PM
day 5
i think this crazy fast is waking my brain up. this morning, way before i wanted to get out of bed, my brain went on turbo-drive and wouldnt shut up <sighs>
i guess i cant really complain. :) my creativity is oozing over as well...i am working madly on this project that i am having soooo much fun with. i have long since wanted to put up this neat little piece of writing i did a while back, but i had to have art to go with it.
so i have spend the last 2 days making monsters :) you cannot know how liberating it is to the soul to sit around all day and make monsters! i highly suggest you try it sometime.
wait until you see this project :) i am so pleased with how much fun it has been!
as far as the fasting itself, it goes :) given tim's warnings about his Day 5, i look to today with a little apprehension :)
i dreamt about sweet potato fries (they are *SO* good! if you have never had any, try some), kit kats and still, nachos. we all know what one of my early meals will be...once get past broth, soup and fresh veggies :)
posted by belen 12:14 PM
7.28.2001
day 4
good morning :)
so, here i am, drinking my tasty beverage....end of yesterday, i noticed that my intestines felt like they were being gently cleaned by a teeny-tiny group of housecleaners :) no joke...its this really interesting feeling...not painful, but kinda like someone is taking a water hose and cleaning the side of the garage or using a soft plasic spatula to scrape the sides of the cake bowl :)
i think i had dreams all night of these happy little hippies in firefighter gear padding around my insides, whistling as they scrubbed and scraped, discussing how it was about time i did this :) <giggles> i woke up this morning grinning.
and then i realized that they were gathering everything to release IT, and i shuddered a little. tim's description is the stuff that childrens nightmares are made of :)
and so begins day 4...
posted by belen 10:27 AM
7.27.2001
<GULP>
timothy wrote me today and shared this with me:
Heya... I was visiting your website, and see you're on the master cleanser... Good luck! :)I was on it for five days last year... a lot of my friends at Excite had done it, and they have revised the measure of how long you should be on it. "Stay on it until IT comes out." I can give first hand testimony to what IT is like, and I was shocked. It was *quite* unsavory. After IT came out, and I started eating again, I started "eating vegetarian". (I'm not *A* vegetarian, I merely *EAT* vegetarian. There is no sense denying myself muffalata's! from phoenicia) I felt so much better after that and eating less meat.
Anyway, my experience was that IT was terrifying, and I'm interested to hear what you think after the diet.
goodness. well then, *now* i am excited :)
thanks to tim for the support and warning :)
posted by belen 4:57 PM
ask and ye shall receive
does this happen to you, or do i just have some wicked crazy signal i send out?
i have times where i randomly think of someone from my past...some were very close to me, some passing acquaintances. and for a day (or maybe a few) they play in my mind...i remember odd little things about them or how they made me feel...i wonder how they are...what they are doing. i regret not having any way to get ahold of them....
and then they drop me an email about a month later. <raises eyebrow> it really creeps me out. i mean, its wonderful, but a little unnerving.
it just happened again. i had been thinking about this wonderful boy i knew in high school. he had beautifully haunting eyes and a cloak of silence wrapped around him in such a way that i couldnt take my mind off him. and one day something broke the ice and quickly thereafter we were lovers...for a time. he reminded me so much of the friends i have now. and about a month ago, i found myself wondering what had become of this lovely boy.
i *almost* wrote about him here...i think the only reason i didnt is i got sidetracked that day. there were many things about him that stuck with me through the years. he touched me.
he had an *adorable* cat named Dawg. i loved that.
so today i struggled out of bed and there it was...an email from him. i almost fell over.
what a wonderful way to start the day.
posted by belen 9:54 AM
day 3not much new to say :) still here..still good :)
posted by belen 9:41 AM
7.26.2001
day 2 (cont)
i sit sipping my tasty beverage and realize that i have gone two whole days without food. and today, i still managed to walk to the store (about 14 blocks roundtrip), play a good game of scrabble and pounce the boy :)
obviously this stuff does *something* for one's energy level!
the downside is that i would still *reallllly* like to eat :) i smell the neighbors' food cooking, walk through the grocery store staring longingly at the fruit, lick my lips as david cooks ramen. they say after day 3, you stop wanting food :) lets hope.
but its not like hunger, its just the longing to eat real food.
andre just told me a really gross story about how he thinks he knows someone who did this as well...it involved a description of 16ft of fecal matter that was to unsavory to repeat.
<makes face> what did i just sign up for? but then again, i think i would rather have that *out* of me than *in* me!
posted by belen 10:48 PM
day 2
strangely enough, i woke up this morning, made myself a Tasty Fasting Beverage and it mostly tasted good :) i think my body is beginning to realize that it must make friends with this new diet choice or else.
i would have thought that by today i would be feeling pretty damn icky, but i am not. this is indeed good news!
posted by belen 11:57 AM
7.25.2001
day 1(cont)
we are at the end of Day 1 and david has already wussed out <rolls eyes>
not that i even expected him to try it with me in the first place :) silly boy. this isnt something you do if you arent personally motivated (or masochistic)
off to bed for me...not miserable yet!
posted by belen 11:17 PM
day 1
so what does this stuff taste like? well, its kinda like really sweet lemonade...but with some bite. kinda hard to describe. not unpleasant, but not like candy either :)
as Day 1 works its way toward evening, david and i keep thinking, "9 more days of this?"
you would be surprised how much cooking and eating breaks up your day when you work from home. never underestimate how pleasurable it is to go through that process we call eating. as of late, i have been in a slump where i have neither enjoyed the cooking or the eating...jsut no real desire for either. however, after a day of not eating, i am fantasizing about nachos and thinking i can't *wait* to cook again!as far as the physical side, its not too terrible. my stomach pokes me occassionally and says, "uh, belen? remember us? look, we dont want much...how about just a cracker?"
and then it gets another lemonade and sighs in resignation.
as bad as my blood sugar gets, it isnt being fussy about this latest experiment. i dont feel spry and amazing, but i am not dibilitated either (at least not yet :) reading a good book..hanging out.
mostly, i am just a little weary of the lemonade. everything will taste sooooo good after this!
posted by belen 6:41 PM
cleansing
alright friends, you get to experience something new with me.
i decided, after interesting research, to try a body cleansing fast. i have long since been rather fascinated by the idea that in our modern-day eating, things get "stuck" in our system and just sit there, building up toxins. so after a very stimulating conversation the topic on the plane back from austin with a very interesting video-grapher, i dug in and did some research on the fast he recommended.
it is called "The Master Cleanser" and it was written in 1976 by a man named Stanley Burroughs. i ordered the book online and while i waited for it, i poked around on the internet to find out what other people have said about it.
the fast isnt the "traditional" sort of just juice or water or broth. it is a combination of lemon juice, maple syrup, chayanne pepper and water, taken 6-12 times a day. you are supposed to do it a minimum of 10 days, a max of 40 (sounds crazy huh?). but apparently, after you get past the hump of the first 3 days and your body stops complaining about lack of food, you have a lot of energy and it is not unpleasant at all...contrast this to traditional fasts where the faster usually stays in bed for the duration of the fast. it will be interesting to see if this is true....
the idea behind the cleansing is to rid your system of all the icky things. but in addition, the other thing they have apparently found is that while on this fast, the body is able to redirect the energy it spends digesting and processing your food to other things. there are a lot of stories out there about people who have seen radical changes in long-term health problems, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, stomach/intestine issues, acne and other stuff.
of course, this is 25 years of stories, so i am sure that the "amazing" cases are few and far between :) but i am really interested to see what exactly this does. david is trying it too, so i figured i would take you guys along for the ride...let you have a peek into the experience.
all the written testaments of the cleansing say the same thing: "you will be shocked to see what comes out of your body"
<grins> yup, this sounds like fun :)
posted by belen 11:38 AM
7.23.2001
the joy of completion
2 years ago, i began putting together a collection of my short stories. amidst the fickle love i have given belen.net, it has only just now been completed...and *god* does it feel good!
Power: a collection is finally all up in its entirety (and many pieces that were there before have been redesigned). the pieces have been written for years, but i just hadnt found the right way to present them. with all this time on my hands, i have finally gotten them done.
the collection was based on the idea of 5 seperate and independant pieces of writing coming together to form an interesting view of one girl's life...and how the play of Power effects it.
at this point, i find myself stepping back to look at the whole, rather than the pieces, and i am getting a bit caught up in the stories. for most of these, it had been years since i had read through them. it is an eerie and haunting thing to read some of these...to feel their strength again.
because the pieces are drawn from my experience and then embellished upon, i was taken aback by the various emotions they portrayed...the anger, the betrayal, the pain, the hopelessness, the cruelty, the fear.
i had forgotten...or more acurately, i think by writing them and putting them away, i let go of much of it. so much of what i have written there no longer grips me the way it once did.
its rather nice.
posted by belen 5:37 PM
a sad day indeed
dearly beloved, we are gathered here to witness the end of an era....david's car has just been hauled to a junkyard. dogdog is homeless and must now be subjected to the small sharp teeth of the local felines.
we debated all day and decided that the $1k+ that it would be to fix the car wasnt worth it. (not that we have the cash anyway)
the plan of action is to give ourselves a few months to save up some cash (of course, this includes increasing the average income of our meager existances) to invest in my little car, beg the help of friends in austin to get my car fixed up (off to the mechanic for her!), and have david fly down and drive her up.
i hope that we can manage this by october. but as it is, we will just have to see how the rollercoaster goes. luckily, we really dont *need* a car here. it means no trips to seattle or camping etc, but everything essential is within walking or bus distance.
(yes, mairi...my dear sweet girlfriend, you were right...it *is* a good thing that i kept my car and i will give you many many kisses the first chance i get :)
posted by belen 5:23 PM
7.22.2001
mission impossible
goal: camping...frolicing in the 70 degree beauty of the pacific northwest
target: mt. ranier national park, ipsus creek campgrounds
description:
as some of you may have noticed lately, i have become a little obsessed with our friend the ninja/stealth mountain, mt. ranier. well, since we were gonna go camping anyway, i thought "why not drop into our big friend's hood and say 'hi'?"
we left olympia at 3:30pm...it was sunny and 75...i was in a tank top and jeans. for the entire 2 hour drive toward His Land, we drove past lovely green fields, happy cows, bright red barns. all very charming. and no sign of the 14,000 ft mountain.
the campgrounds themselves were at an elevation of 2300 ft. there was a hiking trail nearby that you could make the 6.8 mile hike (roundtrip) to see one of the glaciers that ranier keeps at hand to wow the fans. (we skipped that)
as we drove up to the entrance for the campgrounds, it began to rain...just a drizzle really. and it was *considerably* colder. so we get our site, nestled between lovely big trees, the sound of the creek drifting through the park. i put on 4 more layers of clothes and a hat and we set up camp.
i was very bitter. our camping experience with mel was a sunny, lovely dream. however, this time we were on mt. ranier's turf and he was not going to make this easy. he needed to teach us the #1 Lesson of the Northwest: WHEN CAMPING IN A RAINFOREST, EVEN IF THERE IS A DROUGHT, EXPECT RAIN.
for the dumb girl from texas, this was a shock. rain was definately an unwanted guest.
but at least we got everything set up before it began to actually *rain*. we crawled into the tent, under its nice big tarpe, and ate sandwiches for dinner and lit candles and played scrabble.
it rained all night. it tapered off by morning and so everything was just....wet. mmmm-mmmm good. nice thing about rain is that you can effectively sleep in until noon :)
so after eating and putting on many layers of clothing to keep us warm (and looking around in confusion at the strange people in shorts and tank-tops), we wandered down to the creek to look for additional (wet) wood. the creek was formed from the runoff of one of the glaciers and the creekbed was made of big fat round rocks.
while david hunted wood (rah, i am a man in the woods!), i sat on one of the big boulders and watched the creek and surrounding area. the fog hung low in the pines...it was so peaceful and lovely.
then i had a tripping moment. i looked down and saw a little rock who had so much personality...he begged to be a pet rock. then i saw others...and then i was totally overwhelmed by how *beautiful* the rocks all were. from a distance they all look like various shades of grey, but up close, peeking out of the rivets of water flowing around me, they were all so unique and lovely!
there were little rounded white wones with grey speckles...cream-colored ones with bleck marbling, pale green with white flecks, lavender ones with black and grey, rust-colored ones with yellow flecks, grey with green and blue-ish spots, dark green with cream marbling, pink ones, black ones, blue-grey ones. so many! and all so round and cute...so many different sizes all stacked against each other.
and the sand all around the creek was obviously volcanic mixed with all other kinds. there were about 10 different colors of grains...some sparkly. the whole thing was just amazing, but you had to look at them carefully. the passing glance would have seen nothing special in them.
i, on the other hand, practically had my nose in them!
i was still fairly fussy about the grey day. we took a hike down one of the trails, and that did a bit to improve my mood. if you have never seen the rainforests up here, they are exactly like the movie sets for the planet of endor in the return of the jedi. biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig tall amazing trees, falled logs with moss and fungus growing on them, big/small/bright/glowing ferns everywhere, fat moss hanging on some of the trees, light barely filtering in. it is amazing.
when we came back, we lit another fire and cooked some dinner. david contented himself with playing with fire most of the night (*WHAT* is it with men and fire?) the weather had cleared a bit, so things werent as damp as they had been. the evening was pleasant and cool (i could see my breath sometimes in JULY)
another night of sleep piled under every blanked we own, woke up an broke everything down...packed up the car. as we were getting the last packed int he car, a group of kids/adults arrived (looked much like a church group) and a gaggle of boys stood nearby....they stared and whispered. one of them waved to me & i grinned and waved back....he blushed and kept staring and whispering. <grins> at least i know i am still hot to the 14 yr old boys out there :) at 26, that is very exciting :) (of course, my hair was in braids, and i probably looked fairly young)
so, mt. ranier was a no-show. i went to *him* and still got no love :(
on the drive home (past lovely happy cows and red barns again) i notived a sign that was very funny for a girl who comes from houston. it was an evacuation route sign, but instead of being a Hurricane Evacuation Route, it was Volcano Evacuation Route! i can just see all the cars jam packed on the two-lane road racing the lava down that valley :)
so, we are home now...although the car has decided to stage a more permanent protest than usual. 6 blocks from the house. she was just towed to the mechanic :|
posted by belen 4:53 PM
7.20.2001
junkie
anyone who knew me in my former houston life would just sit in shock.
i realized that we probably only had one more chance to go camping during the good weather (between trips to oregon, jason coming in and david leaving for chicago for sept.) and i got very pouty.
so *i* motivated us upward to go camping again this weekend. <shakes head> too funny from the girl who wouldnt step foot in a tent 2 years ago.
but then again, who can resist the giant trees, 75 degree hiking, cool evenings, babbling brooks and other natural amenities up here?
off to spend the weekend in the woods while 300,000 people converge upon olympia for lakefair this weekend. :)
posted by belen 11:51 AM
7.19.2001
strange little town
olympia is hosting an event called Lakefair...started on wednesday...ends on sunday. 5 days of amusement park rides, vendors to stuff you full and live music. (i would be more charmed if the screaming children on the rides were not so close to my open window...these are not sweet children excercising their voices...they are tired, cranky, overstimulated demons)
but this bizarre little town did something today that i find astounding.
there is a big parade scheduled for saturday @ 5, down the street that we live on.
today, lawn chairs began appearing along the street...some taped to the ground. many more appeared over the course of the day.
the parade is *2* full days away! WHAT are these crazy people doing???
and the weird thing is that you know you are in small-town america....none of the chairs are dissappearing.
posted by belen 10:54 PM
work ethic
my current job situation is not new or different than it was last week, or the week before, or even the month before. so last night, as i tried to have a functional, normal evening, i was frustrated and angry that my mind was stuck on that topic, and was having such a hard time letting go. something was bothering me alot, and i couldnt figure out what it was.
after much struggle and little sleep, i feel confident that i understand the crux of what is making me itchy:
my work ethic and how it effects my personality.
when i do a job, i dont just work....i sink myself wholeheartedly into it. i have never had a job that i didnt become indispensible at...i never had a job that during the time i was there, i didnt love what i did (well, ok, moneystar, but i was enjoying the money a lot). my work ethic is such that i dont want to put in my time...i want to excel, i want to please everyone, i want to make things better, i want to have an ownership mentality about what i do.
and now, i am not part of anything. no one needs me. no one notices if i am not there. no one appreciates me. (this of course only refers to work...i know that many people love me and appreciate me :)
a few people have told me that i need to take that ownership mentality and apply it to myself and my contracting career....yes, good idea. except the market isnt really allowing for much gratification in the pursuit at the moment. i'm trying.....its just not happening for the time being.
so then i think about getting some random parttime job and i think "meh". i wont be happy at some job that i cant put my heart into.
and maybe i'm spoiled, but unless it is an emergency, i really dont believe that i should spend the bulk of my days doing something that i dont like. everyone has their bad work days, but i hope that i never allow myself to be in so bad a situation that i have to stay indefinately at a job that makes me miserable.
but i think i have to face the eventuality that for a while, i am probably going to have to just "work". <grins> but with my personality, whatever job i take, i will make myself indispensible, end up a manager, and maybe make a whopping $10/hr. :)
eventually everything will work out. it was just a momentary blow to realize that i was no longer part of anything larger than myself. doesnt sit well with me.
posted by belen 10:23 AM
7.18.2001
LameLameLame
i think i am a lame host.
i dont mean to be. i rather enjoy most aspects of my quiet little life...but i think it makes for not-so-great visiting material.
with little money to spare, little room to move about in, little for frills in life like cable TV, little desire to be social, and living in a little town without much to offer in the way of Exciting or Driving Things To Do, i fear that those who visit get a bit jipped in the experience.
regardless, it is good to see them...and the joy of their company is greatly appreciated. i just always feel great pangs of guilt that i am not able to give them the non-stop, socialite partygirl that they might have had a few years ago. these are different times, i suppose.
perhaps camping in forests thousands of years old helps a bit :)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
i am fairly disgruntled in my universe today. well, my work universe anyway....
i have been officially cut loose from conduit's ties that meant i was just more than another contractor. dont get me wrong, the extra things they covered like insurance etc were above and beyond what they ever should have done for me...but still...its that final indicator that i am not really a part of anything stable anymore.
(obviously, that little filter that would not write this for the sake of sparing my mother that heart-attack is out tonight...dont worry mom, i can still pay my bills, i am still ok, my world is not going to hell in a handbasket)
i am only working at best 10 hrs a week...this does not bode well for our young hero's bill-paying. and i am making quarterly tax payments so i dont find myself screwed at the end of the year...so that means not much spare cash laying around. <sighs> our industry is just so painfully slow right now...sad as it is.
do i ask myself if i should have moved...walked away from security? sometimes....and then i realize that if i had stayed in austin, i would have much higher bills...i would be doing 4HourWireless stuff all day every day, and probably be very very dissatisfied with my work, but stuck because i couldnt find anything better. donna is the right kind of personality to deal with them...she doesnt take it personally. i just couldnt do it. i would be a stark raving mad lunatic by now. i still think work-wise, i am better this way...at least for now.
so, in addition to scoping out the contract possibilities, i am looking at part-time job stuff. *something* to bring in some extra cash. we'll see what comes up. i can always go back to office stuff...conceal and remove peircings every day...plug them back in every night :)
we'll see. blech. i am done thinking about money, work and stress for the day. no more.
posted by belen 7:00 PM
7.14.2001
meltem speaks
So, I was indeed afraid when I stepped off the airplane that B was leaving me to hitchhike as threatened. Somehow our info got mixed up, but eventually I found David (how can you miss him?) and Belen was not far behind. This was my first solo plane trip. (exciting, no?) I discovered that you meet some of the strangest people on an airplane. My flight had a stop in Albequerque. On the first half of the trip, I was seated next to a little old lady who was very chattery and very concerned for my sister, because she "would be afraid to drive to the airport. The traffic is scary. And wasn't your sister scared moving all the way across the country? That's scary." This was cute. What was a bit more uncomfortable was the gentleman on my right. I found myself squished against the side of a large black man, who apparently occupied 1.5 seats. He studied me as he were choosing steak at the grocery store and said "How much you weigh soakin wet?" and when I replied, he shook his head incredulously and turned away. Since I don't enjoy being pressed against a total stranger, at Albequerque, I chose a window seat. The man who sat next to me seemed normal enough. Until he saw the bookmark I had grabbed for my Stephen King book--it happens to have a Bible verse on it. He turns to me with the calm but somehow disturbing eyes of the serial killer in Seven and shows express concern for whether or not my soul is saved, or if it's just a bookmark. oh boy. I dispatched that conversation as quickly as possible, and was greatly amused later when he pulled out a book entitled, "How to Be the Best Leader You Can Be."
and people call my *sister* a freak??
We went camping last night. She picked a gorgeous place to live. We took a walk at dusk through the rainforest. The big mossy trees and ferns and fallen logs made me feel like we had stepped onto a movie set--so beautiful it can't be real. but it is. As it got darker, I felt like something was behind me, but when I turned around, nothing. Somehow I wasn't surprised. I slept in footy pajamas, much to the amusement of everyone in the Staircase Rapids campground :) we decided that if we could find footy pj's to fit David, that would be a true spectacle.
posted by belen 6:59 PM
7.12.2001
chatter...chatter...chatter
one of those days.
my old, dear friend from high school, justin, found me on AIM today...that is *indeed* a fortuitous and wonderful thing :) now he cant escape me <MWHAHAHAHAHA> unlike bryce, who maliciously teased me with one delightful email and then never replied to mine. <grumble> dont worry, i *will* hunt him down :)
alex is back in austin from japan and i feel slight pangs that he had to return just as i left. <sighs> i fear that he will become like andre in my life...only brief periods allowed in the same city. he is planning his Farm Party as we speak...highlights including building catapults for waterballoons, waterballoon capture the flag, a scavenger hunt, strip drinking twister (which of course becomes naked twister), and many other fun events. i will be there in spirit...naked as a jay-bird and stirring up trouble :)
so my sister arrives today...i think i'll make her hitchhike from the airport...good life lesson, dont you think? no, huh. alright, fine, i'll go pick her up.
you spoil all my fun.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: PROTEST OF THE DAY ::
i protest summer days with a high of 70!
where is the *warmth* in this summer??? how can they call *THIS* summer? they dont even claim summer *begins* until JULY!
summer! bah! they need to invent a new word for this season they call *SUMMER*!
<ducks as everyone in the south throws sharp objects at me>
posted by belen 11:13 AM
7.8.2001
Stealth Mountain
i have discovered a little known wonder of nature.
Mt. Ranier is actually Stealth Mountain. he would be upset to know that i am revealing his true identity like this, but i can no longer keep it a secret.
he snuck up on us again today. and that's twice now that bastard has made us jump out of our skin and yell "HOLY SHIT!"
so it was time to get him back.
*HOW* can a *14000 ft tall mountain* be stealthy?, you ask? obviously you havent met our sneaky mountain yet.
the first time he got us, we were driving to seattle from olympia. about to enter tacoma...cruising along. this was our 4th or 5th round trip since moving to olympia.
*all of a sudden*, we turn a bend, and these is this MOUNTAIN.
he loomed on the horizon. i gasped...i pointed...david gasped...we just gaped at this HUGE mountain. in front of us. and we asked "HOW could we have driven on this road so many times and NEVER seen this obnoxiously huge mountain?"
in future trips, we found his secret. now that we *knew* where he was, we looked for him. sometmies, he was totally hidden. sometimes, his peak could be seen nestled in the clouds as his gray base lurked among the other grays of the sky. sometimes, you could see just a sliver of him.
every time, every day, he had various camaflaging techniques...never the same. he was truly a master of disguise.
but we had his number. we *knew* where he was.
HA.
then we were attacked again today.
driving a road we sometimes do in olympia, curving from 101N onto I-5...cruising along.
BAM!
in front of us, there is a mountain that is SO FUCKING BIG there is no way anyone with *eyes* could miss it. for about 20 seconds it loomed above us...closer than it ever seemed on the road to tacoma.
and we gasped "HOLY SHIT!"
he did it again. and with even more style this time. *somehow* we had never seen Mt. Ranier from this road before. and there he was...laughing at us.
the Great Stealth Mountain.
sneaky bastard.
posted by belen 10:42 PM
7.4.2001
mY suMmeR VaCAtiON (part 1)
david's parents are in town, so we have begun Round 1 of Vacationing With Visitors :) (poor andre got jipped...came too soon - but don't worry, its not usually a problem for him)
so we were supposed to drive into seattle saturday morning to pick them up and hit the city. so, naturally david and i stayed up most of the night debating world dominance, population control, the human brain, the future of human intellegence and the wisdom and possibility of interplanetary colonization. <grins>
just as a peek into this profound pontificating, i asserted a new belief that i hadnt given much thought to prior to that evening. i think that the human body is *entirely* too frail for the capacity that the human mind has. by the time our brains have begun to really learn and be able to make intellegent and more intuitive connections in our thought processes, our bodies are already failing. humans dont really begin to "get it"...to understand their effects on each other, to savvy what and who they are, to look at how their presence effects their environment, until they are 45-50. and by then they only have another 20 years to really *use* that knowledge and understanding. i truly believe that the human brain was meant to live for at least a few hundred years...that in that time, with each set of learning experiences, the brain could open up and tap into more of itself. all that brain space we dont use is because we havent learned enough to unlock it. so once we can live longer, the human species can grow into their potential.
<grins> so *there*...chew on that for a while :)
so we dragged ourselves out of bed on saturday, with 4 hours of sleep and determination to get out the door. it was lovely weather (as it always is when someone visits)...sunny, high of 75. we wandered all around...went up the space needle and took a 360 gander at seattle. wandered the pike street farmers market (i cant *WAIT* to take my sister there!). meandered through pioneer square....and eventually jumped on a ferry to bainsbridge island. it was about a 30 minute ride...very pretty. and the island was small and charming. we pondered living there and then saw the prices :)
after an exhausting day we drove back to olympia, ate good seafood and passed out.
sunday...off again. down to the olympia farmers market...bought fruit and smoked salmon. jumped in the car and went to the park with the rainforest and stone pebble beach. we spent a few delicious hours basking in the sun, watching the boats in the bay, eating and drinking and chattering and being generally lazy. it was wonderful :) we asked ourselves "why dont we do this more often?" and then realized that the weather had only *truly* turned warm enough in the last 2 weeks :) its so strange to live somewhere where "summer" begins in july!
the day ended with dinner and sunset at the Harbinger Inn where his parents were staying. and then we walked the 15 blocks home in the breezy, lovely evening air.
monday - rise and shine...no rest for the weary! checked in with work and then packed everything for canada. we drove the 2 1/2 hrs out to prot angeles to catch the ferry over to victoria. 90 minute ferry ride put us in the vicotia harbor. it was *so* lovely! i had forgotten how beautiful the city was. ti is the capitol of british columbia, so it had the parliment building and it was tourist heaven :) we checked into our bed & breakfast and then hunted up some dinner. we ended up at an irish pub with *amazing* food.
tuesday morning <hophophop> we had a date with whales :) with the weather a high of 85 and bright and sunny, we wrangled ourselves into these huge orange surival suits to keep us warm and hopped on a zodiac boat (open boat 12 passengers) on the Prince of Whales tour. when i saw on the brochure it said "3 hour tour" i giggled and said that didnt sound fortuitous...no gilligan's island love for me!
it was *AMAZING*. we were watching orcas (which i want to learn so much more about now!). we spent 3 hours speeding along, stopping to watch orcas, look and bald eagles, seals, lighthouses...it was such a perfect day for it. once back tot he harbor, we grabbed lunch, wandered around and then eventually hopped the 7:30 ferry back to port angeles and dragged ourselves up to the apt by midnight.
i tell you, being a tourist is hard work! i am exhausted to the bone. tomorrow afternoon we leave for david's aunts house on the oregon coast and i cant wait. this will be the mellow zenlike leg of our frantic vacationing. us tooling around in an RV and then finally pulling into their beautiful house that brought me so much peace and joy last summer. i very much look forward to it.
posted by belen 12:20 PM