The 2nd Fall Faire, by M

So, here we are kayaking Santa Barbara harbor and bay Sunday Last. We took a backroad up to avoid traffic and stopped to get giant, but reasonably priced pumpkins... Kerry was tired, but she came anyway. She rallied and I was glad to have her but I felt bad. I think I should've tried to leave her at home because half the time I would be 100yards away and she'd be just floating there looking for a seal to surface. Which is a classic illustration of how she wants to experience and i want to accomplish, because to me accomplishing something is the experience. It's interesting. Anyway this time on the kayak I felt off-kilter and within a hairsbreadth of capsizing. Which I'm leary of, and generally have a good sense of balance. It might've been the criss-cut fries I had for lunch or the CGi storyboard of how this girl's leg got bitten off by a shark but I was completely rattly and unnerved. And i hate that! Finally 1/2 way through meandering around the bay, I paddled to shore while Kerry, in another example of just experiencing things by herself, while I had an objective, watched me paddle to shore but didn't follow. She was worrying about beaching herself, and looking for seals, which compared to capsizing and getting eaten by sharks was completely imperatively different. You can see by my face below, despite the epic setting, that I was like, if i move i'm going to die. After beaching myself, it was like hitting the reset button. I pulled myself to shore, took some breaths, cursed my fat, and my fear of sharks and got back on the kayak and shoved myself into the water. Going back into the water with a different attitude, while I still need to take a day to actually practice capsizing, was completely redeeming and I was able to relax and watch the pelicans.... and renew my vow to one day kayak around an island. This next weekend promises to be completely uneventful in comparison. You will not be seeing pictures of epic blue skies and fall activities. And it will be fantastic.

oh hells yes, by pen

Program your DVRs! Stylista is here! I love this site about ProRun (Project RunGay), btw. ‘Tis snarky and fabulous.

 

Fall Splendidness

Ah, yes. Another adventure at Balboa Lake. Man made, but not unglorious full of interesting birds and rogue packs of geese. We biked the perimeter of the park, and topped it off with speeding thru sloped tunnel areas and stretching on the grass. A perfect saturday. One might almost say idyllic as we chatted and wended our way... discussing politics to why there's a park in the middle of the san fernando valley. I say, thank god for friends and flood plains.

Today I, by pen

…did an ab exercise segment in which the lady used the word “awesome” so many times that if it were a drinking game instead, I would have easily been drunk, in a coma, and then dead.

Today I, by M

feel like a dragonfly that has posed itself on a pole above a garden fountain. There is a giant glob of tar next to my delicate foot and the water is not catching the light quite right.

Today I, by M

feel like a black marble on a wooden game board. I've hit a slot and stuck and all the other marbles flew off the board, which was upset by a cat with long black hair and white patches. Luckily its squeezed out the window and let in some air.

Today I, by M

feel like a claymation character. At one point I was smashed into a pancake. But then remolded, to pretty much what I looked like before. There's the tell-tale thumbprints and I like the color they came up with (red) and my outfit (yellow flower in my hair). But still there's that vague apprehension again. I'm sure tomorrow will be a walk in the park. With chipmunks and cool summer breezes, and paychecks. And maybe a claymation horse to go riding off into the sunset with.

And that one day, I might blog about real non-symbolic things... maybe one day.

She liked it!

My friend and loyal commenter, Almost Anonymous, is a tough nut to crack. She's an enigma wrapped in an antique map but this is what I got based on what I know of her. She's got the Libra balance and zen thing going, but under that quiet lies an adventurer who is feminine and fierce... a little natural, a little formal, a little old school a little all her own... the quote is my anthem for her: "vincit qui se vincit" : she conquers, who conquers herself.

the ship is the umbrella and she's come ashore... and the rest is for her to imagine. happy birthday!!

Today I, by M

feel like a dragon kite, flying high over the beach. The breeze is strong, the kid holding me seems to be getting distracted though, and it's causing me to pitch erratically.

Wedding! FLOWERS!

So this is my first attempt at an actual wedding bouquet, though I've been making many a bouquet over the years for vases... the pressure is a little more intense. It took me 3 hours roughly because the roses had actual thorns! and leaves! though no fragrance. Silly fakish flowers. But they held up well besides a little bruising of the white roses which are frickin finicky and the asters held up and it was all fantastic. The flowers cost $67 total at the LA Flower Market, with flowers to spare for a small cluster of white roses for the bride/grooms table and 3longstem bouquets for the mothers... wee. I think I achieved what I wanted- something simple, elegant, but also with an old fashioned/antiquish vibe... voila!