The Life Aquatic (with 8 Carters)

So sometimes you just need a little more super-hero in your life.  Like when we all went scuba diving and gave ourselves scuba super-hero names.  (Recommendation: if ever, ever, ever you get the chance to learn how to scuba, DO IT.  It's amazing down there.)

through the woods we ran, deep into the mountain sound

a Day of Ages

Last saturday I lived a thousand ages in one day.

We packed up the old truck and drove ourselves into the heart of the woods.

I say a thousand ages because when you're with people who have the same heart as you, the same outlook and desires and feelings, you feel like an old soul and a good soul.  And in those thousand ages we did all sorts of stuff (all of which was interspersed with Lord of the Rings quotes and random outbursts of song.  Unbeknownst to us before this weekend, we all share the same affinity for Lord of the Rings and for singing.):

• ate gourmet quesadillas, cobbler, waffles, etc.
• fished on the lake at 5:45-sunrise
• walked the road back, past a dead deer and a beaver dam and a crawdad cemetery
• hiked through forest woods and quaking aspens
• slacklined (I fell off, and nearly lived out my greatest fear: having your right leg slip left and your left leg slip right.)
• told scary stories around a wood stove while eating dutch oven
• lots of moments of people jumping out of the woods to scare us (ray and stephen, nathan and stephen...stephen and stephen...)
• the truth game, in which we all became best friends forever.
• invented the best game in the world, called "Orcs in the Woods" (this is the more P.C. title)
• decided if ever I have a band, we'll be called The Cabin Fevers
• played lots of nerts and phase 10, in which nathan proved himself after we more or less sabotaged him with an entire round of "skip"s.

Best of all, we woke up to snow and hot cocoa in the morning.

leap day!

things you should do on leap day:

1. go to ireland

2. kiss the blarney stone

3. climb a tree.

4. find a pond, believe in magic

an alpine dinner

i can still feel the crisp cool clean of that switzerland air in my nostrils.

you the orchard of my winter

First- if you are in love - that's a good thing - that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.

     Second - There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you - of kindness, and consideration and respect - not only the social respect of manners but the greatest respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.

     Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

     And don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens - The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

(John Steinbeck, in a letter to his lovesick son)

(photo from a 7am project this morning with andrea.  stay tuned!)

leaf me in heber

friday night i escaped my homework, job, dating, and all other forms of stress,

and rosie, my darling darling sister, and i drove up to heber to be with my cousins.

we ate grapes and cheese ball on crackers and hummus on pita

so warm in our truck,

so dark in the canyon.

we played games all night and laughed and laughed

and in the morning we made german pancakes and butter-caramel syrup

and raked raymon's whole lawn so we could jump in the piles and have leaf fights.

and death in the leaves.

a word on spelling bees

there are some things you should know before your first spelling bee.

one, attire.  ("attire: A-T-T-I-R-E.  attire.") attire can make or break the event.  too many would-bee-spellers think they can show up in their sneakers and polos.  people, this is not a frivolous endeavor, to set out to correctly spell the lexical bricks of our every communication.  to strut your orthographic merit, you must first show you can wear it.  it, of course, being the accoutrements fitting for this mental station for which you aim by entering yourself in a spelling bee.  this is, as one might say, the reverse of sweet katerina's speech:

Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth
. . .
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
(Taming of the Shrew, V.ii.169-172)

in the case of the spelling bee, our external parts must be made to well agree with our internal parts, orthographical skills being chief, of course, among such.

some apparel you might consider:

• sperry top-siders (for boys)
• oxford shoes (for boys or girls)
• pleated skirts (for girls.  scottish boys excepted.)
• yellow- or navy-themed ensembles (see parenthetical note A)
• tortoise-shell glasses (fake or prescription.  only you will know the difference.)
• a tie or a bow-tie (for the boys)
• avoid overly gaudy jewelry (both sexes), as no self-respecting lexical aesthete will take seriously a person draped in, as they say, "bling."

parenthetical note A:  color-themed ensembles can be a precarious arena through which to navigate.  if your escort is using the same color scheme, you may consider each appropriating slightly different tinctures so as to increase the monochromatic range (and therefore interest) of the ensemble's ultimate delivery.

now when you find yourself onstage, microphone in hand, beckon the etymological powers of the universe to you.  listen to them.  take your time.  use your stopwatch if you need to, but take every blessed second.  because sometimes the idea that perhaps "klomp" is spelled with a "k" instead of a "c" won't come to you until second 57.  that 57th second might mean the difference between a shameful walk off stage and that coveted trophy.

cheer for fellow spellers when they forget the first "u" in "chauffeur."

always doubt the moderator's ability to pronounce words correctly.  he or she might mistake "raucous" for "ruckus", or "piquancy" for "pickansee" (which isn't even a word), so be sure to ask for a definition and the part of speech where appropriate.

and most important of all, when you're sitting there on stage, front and center, spell-write every word the moderator gives your opponents on the palm of your hand with the forefinger of your other.  do this with an air of unparalleled intensity.  your competition will get a little more fidgety as you knowingly nod to yourself, "yes, i DO know how to spell 'autobahn' despite it being a different language."

{saturday morning adventure}: crepes & cards

any chance to dress up and we're happy.

and this saturday morning it was sailboat regatta attire

crepes sweet & savoury

and such such a beautiful morning for playing french card games

on a big quilt

under a bigger tree

with friends.

 

 

saturday morning adventure: fly fishing

the flirtatious tugs
perhaps just
the hook dragging the riverbottom rocks
the late summer glacier's final run down the mountain before a new snowcap
pull pull pull against the line

parabola-curved (whisk whisk)
mach's-number-straight (click click click)

one little baby
meant for catch
& release

the grand old seat of precious freedom and democracy

adventures lately:

antique & boutique shopping in old town alexandria

breakfast at eastern market with kim and chris, my shakespeare friends

(as i was walking around eastern market, guess who i spotted! "husband", walking kingsley! i did one of those, "oh hi!" as if you're running into an old friend, and then realized where i knew him from and that he would have no idea who i was....awkward. p.s. taza and husband, i think you two are darling.)

library of congress

(sidenote: when i first walked into this building i started giggling i was so happy! the world's largest library! the building is breathtaking.)

the capitol building

(heather gave us a behind-the-scenes VIP tour: these pictures were taken behind the "no admittance" lines--you are getting priveleged looks at the inner workings of the capitol building!)

(the washington monument from the capitol building)

girls' night at ted's montana grill.

(after shopping the outlet malls, this lovely table of lovely ladies ordered plates and plates of chili cheese fries and downed them all. and then went to the parking lot to jump around.)