Me: "I'm right behind you doing karaoke."
My new friend: "I think I'm right behind you doing karaoke."
Me: "I absolutely support your karaoke effort."
My new friend: "The best way for you to support karaoke is to get up there yourself."
Me: ...
Me: "You don't happen to work in non-profit, do you?"

We crack up and high-five. We had both just tried to recruit each other for a noble cause and weren't getting away with anything. Owen, I bow to greater development skillz. But what the hell, it's Ivan's birthday. May as well. Neither of us wound up doing any time on the mic while I was there tonight but the room was full of happy, sing-along friends, hilarious sugar cookies, bizarre dioramas and yummy chili. Happy birthday, Ivan!

The no-gifts thing is going pretty well. I've gotten a couple of thoughtful, beautiful things, like a Nepalese handmade paper journal ("Oh but I got this for you MONTHS ago!") from Jodi and a pair of pretty Geisha tabi socks in a lush embroidered bag from a handsome admirer ("These are not a Christmas present. It's a... dammit, it's a solstice present."). I've had to curb the urge to buy something that jumped out at me for someone, but to buy just one would defeat the point. If I still want it for them I can buy it next week. Truth be told, I am excited to bring gifts home from Mexico, Christmas or no Christmas.

They'll be solstice presents.

Current Location: Bird House
Current Mood: amused

Posted via web from firewallender's posterous

i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

Tags: i_hope_that, support, wishes

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

Tags: crafts, diygifts, do it yourself

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

Tags: cooking_club

I am consistently impressed by the curators at Patricia Rovzar Gallery, as it seems I can't walk by without feeling compelled to gaze in the window or stop in to pick up an artist's card. Right now they've got a show by Morgan Brig. Her use of mixed media, clock works, bell jars and carnival midway themes to exhibit the business of living is sophisticated, whimsical and funny. Check her out. I walked past the gallery after buying a new pair of jeans, since I can take my old ones off without unbuttoning them. I bought a size of jeans that I haven't bought in... well, I don't think I've ever bought a pair of size 8 jeans before. Not since I started buying clothes with my own money when I started working, anyway. The mind reels.

Yesterday was my friend Luke's birthday. To celebrate I went up to the lovely Ruggenberg farm on Camano Island with Iko, Luke and Roni. Wonderfully, serendipitously, and in total defiance of the shortest day of the year Luke wanted to go play on the beach for his birthday. Playing on the beach at Camano is one of my very favorite things to do. We walked on the grey sand and stones, searched for beach glass, jumped off of anything tall enough to jump off of and laughed into the wind. We played, goofed and again reassured just how much fun sticks and rocks can be in the right place with brilliant company. I am delighted and humbled to get to spend the key hole day towards a bright tomorrow with these people and this place I love so very much. Happy birthday, Luke!

As usual I have been reading of writing, and this morning read this passage from Henry Miller on Writing (emphasis mine):

"In the beginning I had dreams of rivaling Dostoievski. I hoped to give to the world huge, labyrinthian soul struggles which would devastate the world. But before very far along I realized that we had evolved to a point far beyond that of Dostoievski-- beyond in the sense of degeneration. With us the soul problem has disappeared, or rather presents itself in some strangely distorted chemical guise. We are dealing with the crystalline elements of the dispersed and shattered soul...

I felt compelled, in all honesty, to take the disparate and dispersed elements of our life-- the soul of life, not the cultural life-- and manipulate them through my own personal mode, using my own shattered and dispersed ego as heartlessly and recklessley as I would the flotsam and jetsam of the surrounding phenomenal world. I have never felt any antagonism for or anxiety over the anarchy represented by the prevailing forms of art; on the contrary, I have always welcomed the dissolving influences. In an age marked by dissolution, liquidation seems to me a virtue, nay a moral imperative. Not only have I never felt the least desire to conserve, bolster up or buttress anything, but I might say that I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth."

Tags: art, fitness, poetess, zk
Current Location: Bird House
Current Mood: morning
Current Music: Scratch Tail- Beats Antique

I cracked open my precious Snatcher tonight to retrieve her battery for charging. I got a 'move it or we tow it' notice from Seattle's finest, so up the driveway she'll come. I fret, because she needs new spark plugs, and her gas is probably sour, and she needs an oil change. Oh Snatcher! You're a good motorcycle, you are!

I forgot how much good, old-fashioned nourishment I get out of working in a shop. Oh, how could I forget? I value this so much. Everything else goes away and I work. I understand how things go together and I see very clearly what I need to do to make it right. I don't have a garage here, and visiting Luke in his reminds me of how cathartic it is to simply work, with Agent Orange on the hi-fi, a simple task in front of me: fix the drill press. Okay!

Two hours later my little battery is still charging. But she sure needs to make sure she'll still go fast and gosh I sure miss her and I was gonna ask Iko if he wanted to scream around Boeing Field with me and...

Guess it will have to wait.


++
They can make things worse for me,
sometimes I'd rather die
they can tell me lots of things,
but I cant see eye to eye
I know they know the way I think,
know they always will
someday I'm gonna change my mind

Tags: moto
Current Music: Speed Kills- Agent Orange

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

I have been accused of doing "LIFE, the Musical" by my sweet boyfriend, who probably is sometimes amused and sometimes has to suffer thru it. So, here's a lil' ditty I just came up with; sing it in a talkie, 1920's loungie-voice, make it nasalie: She's too big for you, she'll crush your body in two. She's too big for you, she'll crush your body in two, she's too big, too big, too big! She's too big for you, she's too big for you to screw, she's too big, too big, too big! She's too big for you, she'll crush your body in two. She's too big for you, she's too big, she's too big, she's too big! Inspiration came from my trying to find a magazine cut out body for a cartoon fox head. But I can sympathsize with being (feeling) too big for some men, that's another story~ see froggie style.

Current Mood: nutty

By popular demand! The Fight Club quiz night questions are here.


The last argument of the questioner

These are the questions featured at lovely Charlie's retirement party and my debut on December 2nd. Read my original post about it and see pictures here.

Tags: quiz
Current Music: Eye of the Tiger- Survivor