We head down the mountain today after six days of Colorado-like weather and scenery. @priyamaine brought this Paulo Coelho post about normalcy to my attention on Twitter and I think it's perfect fodder for thought until you hear from me again. Click here to check it out.
After T$ and I fueled up this morning with iced cafe mochas, we hit two thrift shops that netted a new-to-me pair of shorts, a shirt for our nephew and this cookbook all for a whopping $6.
We celebrated with the best Mexican food I've had since Colorado at Los Amigos in Pinetop Lakeside. And a downpour.
Eat.
Play.
Read.
Swim.
Walk.
Run.
Tweet.
Life
is
good.
At least 93 advocates in 23 states are raising awareness of dogs that spend their lives chained, tethered, or penned in a narrow space by allowing themselves to be shackled by the neck for several hours. Click here for more information.
I have a sure-fire way to save airports a ton of money:
turn down the air conditioning.
There is a happy medium between petri dishes and meat lockers.
Texas uses third-grade reading scores to determine how many prison cells it will build.
Today is the last day of work before vacation.
I love and loathe these days. I scramble to tie everything up then bound out the door to Alice Cooper's "School's Out For Summer."
Yeah, I really love that last part.
Not you. Me.
Life's thresholds should come with markers of some kind.
For example, wedding invitations up to this point have come from friends getting married. New to us is the wedding invitation from a parent of someone getting married. I've found it tad disorienting.
Yeah, yeah. We invited family friends to our wedding. But those were older people.
Anyone else been having It's A Wonderful Life moments lately? You know, moments where you see how your presence has made an impact on those around you? How the small things you do are big things to others?
The concept isn't new to me. It is, after all, the sentiment behind our This Is How I Change The World products. What is new is that it's coming at me like camera flashes in a darkened room.
Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan.
I have a tiny notebook where I write things I want. More than a year ago I wrote "20-20 vision without surgery or contacts." A pretty tall order for someone who has worn glasses since first grade and requires high-indexing so the lenses don't look like the Coke bottles they are.
Thirteen days ago I had an eye exam with a new eye doctor which prompted my pupils being dilated a week later. The difference between the test results and my current prescription is so significant that I cannot make the change all at once. I have to step myself down to lower-power lenses for two months until I can tolerate my actual prescription.
Now, I'm not saying this is a result of writing my desire in a tiny notebook.
I'm just saying that I wrote it down.
One of the things I love most about my dad is that he shows up. He shows up in my office, in the park during lunch, on my blog. He even reads my Twitter feed.
He tells me that he loves me. He hugs me hello and goodbye.
My dad and mom come to my art shows and openings just as they used to attend my athletic events.
This afternoon we're celebrating my dad with plates piled high with fried clams and french fries because being there is the best gift of all.
Easy actually does do it.
I judge myself by the length of my to-do lists.
I make them long, detailed and slightly mundane.
I take enormous pride in crossing things off said lists.
Until yesterday.
I judge myself by the length of my to-do lists.
I make them short or not at all.
Picked up this David Allyn mug at Eli Phant during First Friday.
Twitter is a game-changer. No longer is news controlled by those with the power and money to own it. The result is fascinating.
It's also addicting. This picture of the streets of Iran is from a Tweet yesterday when I struggled to pull myself away from the surreal events that resulted from their recent election.
Click here then enter #iranelection in the search box to see what I'm talking about and what's going on.
This week's game night was held yesterday afternoon at the arcade in Old Orchard Beach. I Skeeballed a 350 using a new reverse-spin technique and took home the trophy. We pooled our tickets for a pirate bank that will be the base of the pirate snowglobe we got last. Leftover tickets resulted in eight little plastic lobsters that are going to be transformed into the Game Night Tiara.
T$ was going to get a deep-fried Twinkie and a corn dog but thankfully got annoyed that it was taking so long and got a DQ Blizzard instead.
A good night all around.
Preble Street has launched a new campaign Home For Good which involves three videos with Maine's female leadership standing up to end homelessness for women in Maine.
To watch the videos, click here.
To do more, click here.
Today from 8:30 a.m to 5 p.m. I'll be participating in a little experiment. I've made a list and checked my Perfectionist at the would-be-if-there-was-one cubicle door. My intent is to complete drafts of the big things I've been procrastinating and plow through the little things I've transformed into big things. The purpose of this experiment is to see just how much I can accomplish when I get out of my own way.
My Perfectionist wants you to know that her services are available to you today at no charge. No task is too menial... she'll complicate it completely regardless.
LOVED this.
It was like watching Luke Wilson playing Henry Poole playing T$.
Easily one of my top five favorites.
Time cannot be constant because
Saturday and Sunday go
WAY faster than
Monday and Tuesday.
The WBLM stage on the corner of Middle and Pearl will ensure that T$ and I have no peace and quiet from noon - 5 p.m.
We will, however, have fried dough, kettle corn and other assorted fair food.
(1936-2009)
I don't know about you but I could use a breather.
Follow me:
Breathe in through your nose
1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4
while keeping your shoulders down.
Now breathe out through your nose
4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
When my dad said he was letting someone use one of the family fields for an organic garden without any strings attached my first thought was to add strings.
Yesterday, a business opportunity I'm very interested in was followed by lengthy legalese that did not interest me at all. I''m sure it's a standard contract, but YUCK.
I get it, Dad. I get it.
Sometimes you ride up the hill.
Sometimes you ride down the hill.
Sometimes you are the hill.
Any questions?
I just finished Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food." I'm not much for spoilers but since he gave away the premise on the cover and I still read it, I'll pass it along:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I've read a lot of books about food and nutrition. If you read only one, pick this Pollan.
c l
i
c k
c
l i
c
k
fall
ing i
n
t
o place
just don't know
what it looks like
yet.
I spend 56 hours a week sleeping, 37.5 working for someone else, and 16 eating or preparing to eat. The rest (and most of my favorites) rank in the single digits.
Now, what am I going to do about that?
Re-entry has been a little challenging. Things are going along quite nicely but something internal is off. There's a pea in under one of my mattresses and I.hate.peas.
Today is United Way of Greater Portland's 17th annual Day of Caring. As you read these words, over 1,000 volunteers are en route or scattered around Greater Portland to paint, garden, clean, clear, pack and build.
Click here to find out where I am.
Once again, I had a slew of proconceived ideas of what I was going to accomplish on my four-day sabbatical.
Once again, they didn't pan out.
But what can prepare you for what you do not know?
And, honestly, how often does time stall so completely?
Chris Jordan's images help us wrap our collective heads around our crazy consumerism. His latest, Gyre, depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic which equals the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour.
Click here then enter Running the Numbers II and scroll down for increased detail. Hopefully, you won't see anything that once belonged to you.
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe issued a call for women to unite and commit to resolving conflicts peacefully instead of via military campaigns. This year, Maine Women's Fund re-issued her call. Watch it here.
I like the cover and I like the concepts but I do not like this book. It's been timely and helpful, though. And this, perhaps, is the best thing I've found in writing about meditation:
"The art of meditation is in the way you let go of your wander-thoughts and return to the mantra. Specifically, the art is in letting go of the wander-thoughts and returning to the mantra without giving yourself a hard time about wandering. It's common in the beginning stages of meditation to criticize yourself when your mind wanders, to think of meditation as a conflict between your mantra and your wander-thoughts. As your practice matures, though, you usually realize that criticizing yourself for yor mind's wandering is just another thought."
Take that, wander-thoughts.
13,500 people sang Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square on April 30 at 6 p.m. Everyone involved arrived thinking they could be T-Mobile dancing. Watch what happened here.
It has been FASCINATING to watch the same-sex marriage bill progress through the legislative process. I attended the public hearing, followed the audio stream of the Judiciary Committee and Senate, and watched the live video stream from the House floor yesterday as I followed it on Twitter (#marryme). It passed 89-57 without amendment.
After all of that, I can tell you one thing I know for sure: technology is rockin' amazing.
LD 1020 now returns to the Senate for final approval today then Governor Baldacci will determine if Maine is the fifth state to allow gay marriage. Let him know what you think by clicking here.
After a brief hiatus, I am here to report that I have returned to my month-naming ways and hereby declare this to be Micro May. I'm slowing down to focus on my form. Literally and figuratively.
So, if you see me walking really slow, doing standing push-ups against a wall, belly dancing in my chair or pausing before I respond, be patient with me.
Talking with women is like playing with nested Russian dolls.
Passions are uncovered rather than declared.
This movie is being shown Saturday at 1 p.m. at SPACE as part of Maine Women's Fund's 20th anniversary celebration. A Q&A with local artists will follow the screening from 3-4 p.m.
I will be one of those artists.
T$ proposed 13 years ago today at 6 p.m. MST. We celebrate this day as well as our anniversary because marking our formal commitment to each other is just as important as declaring our love in front of others.
This day also serves as a good reminder to me of how ordinary days can become extraordinary in a wink.
I'm hoping this piece will net some big money at The Refuge, a fundraiser for the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland on June 3. NE is lobbying hard to have it auctioned live (vs. silent auction).
Right Here Waiting is 6.5"x6.5" if you include the wire cage that wraps around the piece. For more infomation about the June 3 event, click here.
I'm willing to be a proxy if you cannot attend the event.
This is the first (but not last) episode I've seen of The Stuart Davis Show. The guy on the left reminds me so much of T$ because he always has an answer for everything.
Click here to watch.
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