the Be Good Tanya's

They are my newest obsession. They make life a little sweeter. Three weeks ago a friend told me I would love this band so last Saturday I bought their Blue Horse album because I liked that cover best. They put sunshine in my eyes and thoughts of light cotton summer dresses on my limbs...mmmm. I am not Winter's child. I don't fair well. Now it's time to construct the imaginary paper walls with painted summer blossoms falling all around in the corners of my mind... to protect the fragile soul from the harsher elements that lay waiting outside my doorstep every morning. Time to drink cool summer drinks and tiptoe barefoot around the house late at night pretending the overheated wooden floorboards are of southern hemispheres. Playing that summer music in the hopes that it will lift me past one more winter, oblivious.


"We're both gypsy souls and it's time for me to roll
And I'm askin' do you wanna come along
Cause I've gotta get away to sing my song
Oh, be good Tanya, Tanya be good..."
-Obo Martin McCrory

To watch their "Littlest Birds" video please touch your screen right here.

happy all hallow's eve

here's that [ommitted] x 3

the other night I took you close to me to appease you.
so you'd leave me alone...
and afterwards in the dark my eyes spilled tears until 5am.

another scooter adventure

In 3 minutes, I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine just like this one. It's been a hellishly long week - a lot of physical labor, and I have to be up before the sun rises tomorrow for some more of it.



Another scooter ride home tonight from a work buddy, and I was laughing my ass of the entire time - so much so - that my sides hurt. There was a marked difference between this ride and the one a few weeks back from my girlfriend, and that is that he drove like a fucking maniac, especially when it came to passing in between the cars stopped at the red lights. Between my incessant laughter I was screaming "I hate it - make it stop - oh my god - I hate it" at the top of my lungs.

But I loved it. My adrenaline was in over-drive. As soon as I jumped off the back of his scooter after being driven up the sidewalk at lightning speed and then smacking into the bottom step outside of my house I ripped off my helmet and buckled over with screaming laughter and kept yelling random things at him. The last thing I remember shouting was that the helmet I borrowed was stinky (it wasn't his), and then I gave him a big hug goodnight.

a small moment

Yesterday we were all sardined in the underground train already when suddenly a man pressed in tighly behind me saying "This is love-ly" as he pushed us all in even tighter to fit before the doors closed behind him. His arm was reaching above my head for a handle to hold onto, elbowing my skull in the process, so I shouted "No, this sucks!"

Suddeny I cringed in my personal darkness (my eyes had been closed) due to the realization that perhaps I said it louder than I thought, so I opened my eyes. Sure enough, A few people were looking at me and one woman looked away quickly and then directly at the man next to her and they started giggling. Then I darted my eyes around all the bodies pressed against me and I saw them all looking at each other and smiling as well. It made the blood rush to my face and then I couldn't help smiling too, before I closed my eyes again and thumbed the volume way up on my ipod.

I'd like a sandwish please...

I love finding mispelled signs, I find them so endearing.

il cibo

Many hours spent seated at tables this weekend. Hubby cooked a wonderful dinner Friday night and a cozy Saturday brunch. Saturday evening there was a large dinner party to say farewell to a good friend, before heading out to meet the larger party for cocktails and dancing.

good deed

We have a movie bandit in our house. We have an account with Netflix and when we are done with the film we typically leave it down at our mailbox for the mailman to pick it up. Lately I noticed it has taken up to a week or more for netflix to receive our returned movies, as opposed to the usual day or two at most that it used to take. One DVD was never returned at all.

Yesterday Hubby placed the netflix envelope on the ledge above our mailbox as usual, and when I left the house an hour later it was gone, and I knew for a fact that the mailman hadn't even arrived yet. And what do you know that same envelope reappeared later that evening and the seal had been opened.

Now a pretty handwritten letter is taped up above the mailboxes addressed to the "Netflix Freeloader" advising him/her as to how to set up their very own account seeing as we will no longer be leaving our outgoing mail to be pilfered and they will no longer have the pleasure of "borrowing" our movies. I provided the Netflix URL and encouragement as to the simplicity of setting up an account, pointing out that it takes far less energy than stealing ours and they will have the added benefit of selecting their very own favorites rather than relying on the gamble that they will like what we've selected (unless they happen to be a die-hard Civil War fan of course, then I've probably clued them onto a plethora of great dramas and documentaries).

Anyway, that was my good deed for the day, what was yours?

my heart is south

It's almost one year ago now that the 4 of us went to New Orleans to celebrate the beginning of my third decade. Those days I had a hummingbird trapped in my heart. I could feel the fluttering of his wings against the inside of my chest. His will to fly free was so strong that the rapid movement of his wings bruised my insides, only I wasn't aware at the time because with all his might he lifted me ever so slightly off the ground, my toes dangling like strings. All I noticed then was the fact that I was momentarily detached from the rest of the world, not tied down to the ground like the others.

Our last day there we stumbled upon this abandoned plantation about an hour East of the city. I tiptoed as we trespassed on the haunting property. Up the winding outside staircase. Along the creaky floorboards of the upper balcony. A man appeared out of nowhere startling me and I asked him what the rusty basin below was used for.

I made us turn the truck around to go back to this parking lot as well because it beckoned me for some reason. A faded hand painted sign. Just took this one picture of it then climbed back in and we were off.

Our view off the balcony of our hotel. The surreal mix of magic hour natural light and streetlight flourescents. I only want the south.

I want...

I've been browsing ebay for the past half a year for the perfect tintype of a civil war soldier, and this is the first image that has truly fit the bill for me:

night

Another film festival down in Big Sur. We sat cheek to cheek outside under a blanket with a warm wind at our faces, and thin red wine on our lips. Those black and white silent films did me right.

and day

This time 16 guests were staying at our friends place so we opted for the campgrounds and some privacy instead. They had us round Saturday morning for coffee and breakfast just the same. Tucked away high in the hills.



Back at the campground the redwoods loomed overhead. At night the full moon cast haunting shadows.



Snack. Sweet Lambic and tart cheese.



Spanish Manchego and soft Swedish cheese



In Italy I learned the true meaning of bitter sweet.



Silence.



I bought a black folding knife so I could whittle too.



There in my lap sit the 3 books I bought Friday evening at the library:
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Downstream by J.K. Huysmans
Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda [I am not a fan of poems, Neruda used to make me cringe, however I was drawn to him that night and the words I read made me gasp with longing.]

mischievous [abridged]

Took the old - rickity Italian cable car home down Market Street today. Had 3 plants on my lap and at my feet. Hid my face behind them. Small smiles. Saw mouths move as they looked at me and pointed at the deep violet orchid. "...beautiful" was the only lip-reading I could make out - the music was blaring in my ears. Banjo music of course.

I tapped my feet and the fern on my lap probably made an annoying sound to others. Actually, probably not. So many smiles, and strangers talking to me. I just decided to keep the edges of my mouth curled up the entire ride, and by the time we reached my stop it stayed there of it's own accord. The warm air hovered around my slow movement home. Today was my Friday. In one hour I will pick Hubbs up at the airport and tomorrow we will drive down to Big Sur and camp alone this time in the middle of the redwoods.

[Words can become easily misconstrued here, and as I feared they would - they did, so I took them down and put them away in hiding. I don't feel like explaining myself so I won't. This day I feel like taking them all away and I just might. Still pondering.]