Oct 15, 2007 | This Life
I’m waiting for the rain. The forecast says that’s all we should expect this week. Showers. Rain. Drizzle. Wet. Apparently, there are lots of ways to say precipitation, and our forecast is using all of them except snow. It makes a girl want to stay in bed!
However, I’m not complaining. I managed to drag my sorry self outside to walk this morning (thanks Kathleen!!) before the skies opened up and sent forth the deluge. And, in retrospect, I accomplished a lot for such a lazy weekend. Saturday and Sunday seem so far away, but while I was living them life seemed to move slowly. Slow motion weekend—I blame it on the sun.
Some how, (and credit where credit is due: thank you sunshine!) I managed to lazy my way through the weekend and still accomplish most of the items on my list without feeling rushed. I’m thinking that for the first time in a long time, the weekend felt like it had the right balance. Enough doing and enough being. It helps to write a short list. The sunshine didn’t hurt, either.
Speaking of doing. One of the things I accomplished this weekend was begging for an ad in an online craft bazaar. I don’t know why those emails are so hard to write, considering if I’m allowed to place the ad I still have to pay for it… you would think that would be easy, right? Anyhow, I should know soon if Thrifty Goodness made the cut. In the meantime, I also crafted a few new lavender pillows from vintage embroidered linen. These are a labor of love, as I don’t enjoy Lavender…Achoo!
But the weekend has passed and taken the glorious sun with it. Rain is expected any moment… and I can’t help but wonder what kind of week it will bring after my busy, lazy kind of weekend.
Oct 12, 2007 | In Photos, This Life
Yes, those would be blue skies.
Oct 11, 2007 | This Life
I will admit, I find myself in a state of gray lately. Funky, off center, and in need of more sleep than I can get. It’s probably just the weather (and rebounding from this virus that is still kicking me sideways!) but it’s getting to me. It seems that every corner I turn in this house, I find yet another project half finished or half cleaned or half undone. I’m left feeling a little undone myself.
Feeling a bit like this wrecked witch.
Evidently, our small town has its seasonal act together. A spattering of these wind blown lovelies have appeared in the last week and every where I go there are Halloween displays. In fact, if you are local and are looking for a great witch costume, do I have a tip for you. The Antique Mall on Marine features a vendor who puts together whole witch ensembles for a bargain. For $18-$25 you can go as a glorious spell-caster: complete with groovy dress, jewelry, and hat! All vintage and all perfectly bewitching. Hurry!! (her stall is on the basement level… ask at the front desk, they’ll direct you.)
Considering the holiday is creeping up with speed, my little family is showing no signs of taking that seriously. Now, I love Halloween! The pumpkins, the candy, the decorations, Boo! It’s true, I tend to eschew advanced planning, but this is not the case with Halloween. You would think being surround by “Js” that my little family would be well on our way to glorious Halloween. Not so! I’ve yet to manage a serious conversation with the men in my family about it. They are scattered-brained on the subject matter. We should be Pirates. We should do Jedi. No, no, Harry Potter. We should plan an elaborate themed extravaganza and hire musicians. Yet, when pressed on any of this, both of them look at me like I’m speaking gibberish. They become downright Zombiefied; regrettably, that’s not helping with the all important planning part of this Halloween.
If these sad little pumpkins, trapped in their grocery netting are any indication, it could be weeks before we get our acts together. Which leads me to believe that we will do what we always do. Let the kid reuse his costume for another year (4th year running!!!!) and carve pumpkins late on the 30th. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to bewitch this family into action. Could someone lend me a wand?
Oct 6, 2007 | This Life
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Oct 4, 2007 | This Life
We are finally back in the Northwest. And for the first time since moving here, I feel out-of-body in this town. Alien, despite the familiar surroundings. It’s probably just the drastic weather shift.
In many ways, Santa Barbara was a bit of a homecoming for us. IZ is a Santa Barbara boy. He drove us by his old homes and knew every backstreet to the town. No maps needed! For me, the topography of the canyons is familiar… as I grew up with very similar landscapes. The Oak scrub savanna is much like the little alpine lake of my youth… we just didn’t have palm trees everywhere. While I didn’t grow up in Santa Barbara, I spent a great deal of time there during my undergraduate work. It was always a toss up each break—do I head for Montecito or do I head for Laguna? The American Rivera usually won out.
It’s hard not to love a world of permanent sunshine. Yesterday found us stuffing suitcases with souvenirs and rumpled laundry, headed back to the wet. I was ready to leave, but not to come home. As we took our last transport to the airport I found myself wishing for a do-over… for a chance to head back to Santa Barbara. To sink into the big king bed surrounded by the pale blue of our hotel room and just rest. One last stroll on the beach. One last glimpse of terracotta and palm fronds.
Perhaps never to leave.
Oct 1, 2007 | This Life
Boy Wonder: “What continent is this? (riding “It’s a Small World” and entering the all white finale.)
Me: “It’s all the nations and continents represented in white.”
IZ: “It’s heaven.”
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It’s nearly 10 pm on the first day of October and I’m sitting by a pool watching my child organize water games. It’s not a bad way to begin the month. Wireless pool side blogging, how much better can it get? I suppose you’re wanting photographic proof, but it’s going to have to wait. It appears that in the dash to leave Santa Barbara for Anaheim, some one male in my family stashed my camera cord and I’ve yet to locate it. It seems they remember packing it, but, uh, yeah… not sure where. Somehow, this little glitch doesn’t bother me—I’m guessing that the smell of chlorine on a balmy night has something to do with this nonchalance.
Our annual trek to warmth and Disney is almost over. Soon, we will be back in the northwest, ready to take on the tasks this month naturally brings having soaked up enough vitamin D to last us. Or so we hope and so we pray. The weather here as been priceless, even if our health hasn’t. Of course, IZ came down with this “gunk” and we’ve all stayed very well medicated. I suspect we’ve staved off infections which is a good thing. It hasn’t dampened our spirits… we’ve been soaking in the sunshine, banking for rainy days headed our way.
But we are not home just yet. No, we have a few more moments of basking in this sunlight and happiness. And we’ve managed to live this week large, cramming more into it than most. I’m finding that I still enjoy people watching most. It’s a no-charge ride, never the same twice. However, for all the running around we’ve done, I’ve still managed to check on this blog—at least enough to read comments and chuckle at your amazement over my “well-being.” Evidently, I have some “splainin'” to do regarding my hair among other things… and I promise answers, I do. It’s just right now, the sunshine has taken me hostage. I intend to be held captive as long as possible in this heaven.
 
 
