september days - cooler is better

my favorite month has almost come and gone and i find myself hoping to not notice as we transition in october. maybe it'll just feel like a 60-day long september. the air is dry, chilled, not exactly crisp yet, but cool. and the sunlight is lower in the sky and makes all the 'about to be' fall colors so brilliant. i even had to put on a scarf and fleece vest to bike in today. no socks yet, but what self-respecting cold weather fan would be wearing socks in september. i mean that is absolutely december, snowy weather, winter attire. altho, i did hear on CNN this morning that colorado had a first snow fall last night and robin meade was nutty enough to say, better them than us! girl you should step outside the studio today and see the glory of a fine fall day. cooler is better.

showing my colors

no its not a sports team, and i cant be thrown out of bars or schools for wearing it, but it is my true color. its my obama trek bike! the one i ride to work every day. look at that beautiful sticker that just happens to match the color of my bike. yep, i was always on the blue team but after the DNC last week i'm estatic to be on the team. i've been doing my part, helping register folks to vote in my neighborhood, phone banking, attending community meetings, supporting the campaign. and voting of course. and it all feels refreshing, empowering and just great. i'm just giddy at the hope of having great leadership with vision and real heart lead our country and turn it around for the future. edits: whaddya know? turns out there's more folks out there like me: www.bikeobama.com
lets face it, i mean i'm educated, i have a job, reasonable mortgage, health insurance, car is paid off, but there are days when i'm just this side of the line of failing and losing it all. i'm smart, successful, and i'm middle class and the low side of that too boot which is fine by me. i dont need much more than i have right now in life (okay maybe unlimited access to a mountain cabin). but the point is, i know many others who squeak by like this too. and do i think for a minute that mccain is gonna catch me when i fall? or catch my single mom friends when they fall? or truly take care of my mom in retirement? or provide a way for my young nieces and nephews to get to college? or for that matter even make me feel like i'm a fellow human being (who's not rich) but i matter. no. i dont. will obama? yes. and do i wanna hitch my cart to that wagon of hope, vision, change for the future? yes, i care about my fellow man and our planet and our future b/c thats how i roll. those are my true colors, if ya didnt know it before, ya know it now!

huckleberry season in idaho panhandle

the whole time i was there i never saw one, but i was looking up on trees and not down at ground cover where they supposedly are found. nonetheless, i tried them every which way. huckleberry colada, wine, lemon drop, ice cream, vinaigrette, cobbler, marinated flank steak, lemonade. i have a feeling i'll be having them again b/c mom asked me to bring home scone and muffin mix. until yesterday at my local farmer's market i was convinced that a huckleberry is just a blueberry in the northwest b/c the color is the same, taste similar, no seeds, and again i never saw one. i figured they just didnt know out there. but a couple of friendly foresters from montana, transplanted to athens, overheard me tell the fresh juice guy that i'd take a pint of blueberry lemonade and hope it tasted like huckleberry. they proceeded to tell me how much bears love 'em and how they saw plenty working the forests out there. so they do exist AND they are very much like a blueberry. aha!

plant a legacy

summer means reunion time and i went to my first college reunion evah up in the mountains. 25 years for my class, so thats a pretty big one, not that many of us showed or planned to. mostly i went b/c cathy cox was inaugurated as the college's new president. i shook her hand and told her i'd be up to work for in a couple years.
the best part was just being in the mountains again. ahhhhhhhhh, how they center me and just make the world seem friendly and embracing. they call it the enchanted valley and they arent kidding. my college friend's mom went to homecoming lunch with me b/c she lives nearby on a fabulous mountain farm. she's in love with the mountains too. all in all i saw 10-12 classmates, two of whom i'd known since second grade. (rena, i can finally rival you in knowing someone today that i've known since grade school.) funny part was, sure i knew them in college, and i forgot i knew them in high school but a recent browsing of those annuals reminded me, but i totally forgot until i saw them today, that i'd also known them since well, forever. thank goodness you all have better memory banks than i. so this homecoming thing, nah, it wasnt so bad, lunch was good, people are doing well, i'll have a new job in a few years that'll take me back to the hills of young harris college where i belong and i got a plant to take home to boot. 'twas a great day in the mountains.

goslabi!

regroup and recover. i guess i'm good at that b/c saturday was a new day scarlet! yep met a friend downtown for an evening of supporting a great local cause - Darius Goes West - know about it! went to the film screening, the most awarded at film festivals in 2007, then hopped across 2 streets to the nappy roots hip hop show at farm255. had a very summah time cocktail. cucumber cosmo. it was basically a cosmopolitan with fresh pulverized cuke in it. very refreshing. the crowd was huge and a bit overwhelming after a few hours so we hid out at flicker for some quiet time and somehow i found myself biking home at 130am! gee willickers, i didnt even know i could still stay up that late. good practice though for my vacation to idaho that starts sunday. my aunt says the summer sun is up at 530am and down at 1030p. midnight actually sneaks up on ya.
btw, goslabi is so hilarious but only the dvd does it justice. so...know about it.

yesterday's horoscope

Today's Full Moon falls in your 4th House of Foundations, motivating you to get to the bottom of an issue that's been bothering you recently. It may be scary to share your concerns with anyone else, yet you may discover that it's not nearly as bad as you expected once you get it out into the open. Don't put off an important discussion; it can change things for you in a positive way faster than you think.

i put it off...and now i regret it. i get to think about how much work stinks for the whole weekend. instead, i wrote it all down and dealt with it. thank you moon goddess.

strike out

feelin kinda july '05 here. no dates, no prospects. kinda pathetic. lemme lay it out for ya. its friday night, nice summer evening. folks are sitting outside in the cafes, braves are playing, (i think) and its the slow pace that we know as 'summer' down here where its hot.
phone call #1, which is really an email: hey xxx, stop surfing dating sites, turn off the tv and bike downtown to meet me for dinner and drinks. nada.
phone call #2, which is really a text: hey xxx, is 2nite the night u r gonna meet me at our local neighborhood bar and watch the braves and drink $1 beer? nada.
phone call #3, which is also a text: if i come up for homecoming next weekend r u gonna be around for a dayhike with the dogs? nada.
drop in #4, which is really a bike by on the way home: knock knock, u home? my beer buddy, handsome, bachelor, single-dad, neighbor guy? nada. nice plants.
idea #5, hmmm, a really frank, direct appeal to a former lover...nah better not.
oh i almost forgot subtle phone call pre #1, yesterday, which was actually a fb post to a guy who always answers: hey you up for some music saturday? nada
so we're talking more than a strike out here, i mean 5 swings? okay i get it, finally. go home and walk your dog and find a movie on or read a book. good thing i went to the library this week.
*sigh*

friendly fourth frivolity

ever have one of those moments where all is right with the world and your spirit is overflowing from 'clean livin' (as dickie used to say)? a bunch of great friends came over for the 4th and i'm writing to try to capture that feeling of not so much throwing a great party but just being at one. i live 5 blocks from the park so everyone could walk to fireworks and i have a huge fenced in shady yard. of course what made it great was the people who came. i may not have even had that many people here at one time since i bought the house. ~20 folks i've known for 20+ years in this great town and a few i've just met all stopped by with a cooler full of tasty refreshments, a dish, and a blanket to carry to the park for firework viewing. some just grabbed the hood of a nearby truck, a la lanie. even the mosquitoes seemed to cooperate, mostly. i'm sure the buckets of citronella, incense coils, cutter wipes and spray helped keep the bocce ball tournament going longer. and the picnic table proved to be the perfect size to hold all the goodness folks cooked up, lots of it from their own gardens. yum yum. i'm still enjoying brent's cabbage au gratin and i imagine everyone is trying to re-concoct shannon's cumin-laced guacamole. we had 2 huge afternoon thunderstorms break around 2pm and 4pm that looked daunting and threw down a few limbs off my huge backyard trees, but all in all it just cooled things off and after a quick toweling of the deck, it was a fine spot to spend the evening. i'm still enjoying the gorgeous sunflowers cindy brought and wondering what i'm to do with a case of sorta cold leftover cans of beer. everyone drinks tasty microbrews (we even have 3-4 breweries in town copper creek, terrapin, trapeze) so the kind soul who donated a just-in-case of bud musta been thinking about sunday beer reserves or something. this is still the bible belt afterall, and you cant buy it on sunday. maybe i should invite landscapers over to tidy up my stormy trees and pay them in beer!

ride at night....

although i almost fell off my bike of heat stroke today, i still say ride. check out this time-lapse video in hanoi of this busy intersection that hundreds of autos, scooters, bikes, rickshaws all pass thru with no traffic signals. maybe just ride at nite tho...i mean presumably its cooler.


Hanoi crazy night traffic from v!Nc3sl4s on Vimeo.

athfest 08

i know, i know, if you're not from here and don't know what this is already, it sounds like a gathering of folks who speak with a lisp or a festival honoring those who are often tongue-tied. well it's neither. athfest is athens' annual music festival which includes 200 artists and musicians performing downtown in one 3-day weekend. it spills over several blocks and all the clubs/restaurants open their doors to acts as well. $15 bucks gets you a wristband for the whole event. although i love the free outdoor stages its stinking hot here in late june so someone got wise and hooked up the mister lines and loads of sorbet vendors doesnt hurt. so at some point, the wristband pays for itself in other ways b/c you can go in for some A/C, more civilized bathrooms, and a cold beverage that's actually cold. there's a huge communal beer tent, so as to contain alcohol and keep it off the streets which is illegal here. several of my friends play, watch, listen, and just hang out. its a fun annual event here in a-town. and believe it or not we actually hear lots of new music...even in this town where folks think you've heard it all. peace.

girlz recharge

took a week off last week and went up to DC to reconnect with old friends, see dad for father's day and just be in a place i love. it was a fantastic week and i returned very zen, chilled, and recharged and that on top of a couple of days in the 90s heatwise. numerous events popped up to make fun treks to: lawn seats for REM at merriweather post pavilion w/rena & pat;
a DC united home match against NY redbulls where dad scored VW-sponsored box seats complete with free bratwurst, german beer, and VW sponsor seats to watch the 4 to 1 spanking; a second concert (boz scaggs, you know it: ledo missed the boat that day he left the shack...) at the other outdoor pavilion wolftrap for father's day preceeded by a brunch at the capitol hill institution and kay's favorite tunnicliff's; and touring the, well i'm gonna call it tim russert's, Newseum during the adjacent pride festival. note: 4 hours isnt enough time to see it all.
so when i arrived i bought a $10 metro card and put my urban bag on and hit the streets. one particularly hot day i even wore my camelbak until john reminded me they have running water most everywhere now. indeed they did, even when i stayed on capitol hill in my friend's lovely basement apartment. about town, i refamiliarized myself with walks to eastern market and introduced new DC'ites nash and tom to it, union station, barracks row, and cleveland and woodley parks. i met up with an old friend and neighbor vas, and later pat, in my old hood and was delighted to recognize most businesses along the pedestrian villagey strip and could almost step right back into my former life. indeed i even walked up to my former residence, knocked on the door, and gave my landlord a big hug and a how've you been porch sitting session ensued. most all my girlz are moms now so i also met a few kids, dogs, and spouses this visit. all in all, it was a great week. i hope you all get one soon.

today's horoscope

You are moving out of your comfort zone and reaching toward a new way of expressing your creativity. You may not be clear about where you are going, but you are still ready to head on out. Don't start your new venture quietly. Turn it into a party and invite the best people you know. The bigger the splash today, the better the show will be in a few months.
amen!

naming my hound dog

he was living next door just on the other side of the fence, but tall enough so i could reach over and pet him. he had to be the softest dog ever. so i petted him and talked to him for a few days. i knew i loved big ole hounds after sean found boss (a great dane/hound mix) in tahoe and he came to live with us and go everywhere we did. he's still the best dog ever.
so finally the neighbor appears at the fence one day and says, you know i'm fostering him right? well, that was all it took. i knew in my heart in that moment that he would come live on the other side of the fence soon. for a few days i hid my excitement so as not to upset my boyfriend and his current dog. but then aubrey indicated what an awesome dog he thought the brown dog in arva's yard was. so i wrote a note and left it on her front door that we wanted him. then i endured the numerous non-stop phone calls and personality of the very pushy dog rescue lady (who only wants to find good homes for pets i know), filled out the applications, and opened the fence gate and invited him over. actually we did a test run a few days earlier to see how our pups played together and they got along famously from the first moment.

they are both brown and white, but in opposite places and he's tall and she's short, he's a boy and she's a girl, so they are sort of negatives of each other.

after a few days, we reached the 'what do we name him?' stage, i wont even say what silly name the rescue folks had given him. it was clear he needed to be named for his color, reddish-brown, the color of tea in the south flanked with freckled white legs. for a few days i mulled over boring brown derivatives and then switched tactics to naming him based on his personality. he was so laid back and easy going, and just lumbered around like your best friend in summers after school was out, who was always up for anything and everybody wanted him along b/c he was so easy to get along with. charlie or eddie or henry came to mind. so we thought, yeah charlie, its fun to walk out in the yard and say hey charlie, come on in. but the first time we tried it, he was interested in a squirrel or something so we had to call him a couple of times and like all parents who call out both your names when they really mean it and want you to come, we found ourselves saying charlie, charlie brown! yeah, charlie brown, that's it. so his name is charlie brown and it really suits him. yesterday he tolerated all the toddlers in the park hugging on him and of course, they loved his name. its one month ago today that he came to live with us and we are the lucky ones. you're the best charlie brown!
addendum: at one years old and change, we cant leave old shoes lying about, but if we do at least we get to say good grief charlie brown.

mine and gabriel's music

thanks to the other blogs i read, i found this cool mixed tape site and made one for my old friend gabe, whom i credit with exploring and building my musical tastes after college. if you want to make some of your own, as it says below it's mixwit. i warn you the site is addictive, you'll see.

maplover's road map

next destination: triangle of couer d'alene, idaho; bend, oregon; banff, canada later this summer. and next year i'm thinking croatia, or bhutan, or amsterdam. odd assortment perhaps, but recent reading has reminded me of places that were worthy of moving up the list. "Fly Solo, The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone" by Teresa Rodriguez Williamson rated places according to a unique scale she created called CAWS celebre. CAWS assesses these 4 criteria: culture, activity level, weather, social scene. give it a try.

fun dog days at work

yes, its true, i know the identity of spike, but i'm sworn to secrecy. i've seen him at georgia basketball games and witnessed his accidental deflation, the quick switch in front of fans where he inverts inside the costume and walks on his head, and a mean half-court and at times backwards shot. yep. but on this day he simply stopped in the ILA office while making his rounds and showed us some dawg love. we got a few ear wags and head butts. go spike!

georgia's aquarium

we wrapped up athens' elementary school spring break in atlanta at the aquarium just as all of atlanta-area schools got out for spring break. luckily there are lots of fish to go around. chris and the kids got up close with the fish while deedee and i rested on the benches. they have plenty of places to sit/rest all throughout and especially in the ocean voyage back room where they have a whale shark feeding show.
you need at least 4 hours to get through all of it, which includes a snack at the cafe, and then contrary to the safety rules posted everywhere i recommend blinders for the gift shop conveniently placed between you and the outside world.
luckily you can pose with deepo, the mascot modeled after the orange garibaldi fish, just before running the gauntlet. and for those of you who arent sure your little girls like fish, dont worry, they have pink ones!

egg drop

back in my day, the Easter bunny came while you were sleeping and left eggs hidden in the yard and perhaps a basket filled with some candy to use for collecting those in the yard. nowadays a giant bird, also known as a helicopter, flies over a huge neighborhood park and drops prize-filled eggs where hordes of kids are waiting to collect them. a local church and radio station sponsored it and the turnout was much larger than they expected. luckily we live nearby and got in line early and got in. it was crazy and the kids only managed to find a few eggs although over 20,000 were dropped. it was a frenzy to say the least. Madison came in second in musical chairs and nick won a widdle waddle race, it was a fun, family-oriented Easter event.

good luck masquerading as bad

at first it was startling, but then later it was more like divine intervention. aubrey sends this pix message and i rush home from work to meet the tree guy, the firemen, the electric powermen and my brother to survey the damage. he calls a tree surgeon who cuts the tree off the house within hours; then the power guys hooks our lines back up and we are back in business. within a week, though something is amiss with our water bill and we wonder if the tree falling ruptured a line. a useless assessment later from a plumber, my brother finds the small problem and repairs it. within the month, my fabulous homeowners plan sends an assessor and settles the claim and i get a new roof, new trees, new plumbing and i'm feeling pretty lucky.

vintage holidays

we do not have hording disease, we are not packrats here. nope. for every new item we bring in, an old or used one goes out. afterall, we (that's 2 of us and a dog) live in a cottage that's less than 900 sq.ft. we even subscribe to cottage living magazine for tips on how to do it well. this week our alumni association hosted a food drive in conjunction with the local holiday parade and we dropped off a bin full of cans. finally! room in the pantry for stuff we actually eat. last weekend we cleaned out the shed, and loaded the pickup truck with gems destined for a yard sale. finally! there was room to fit the no longer used, yet vintage, couch in storage. alas we did pull out a vintage aqua-green, formica dinette set to donate though. its seen better days and someone will restore it, just not us. my neighbor who runs a consignment store has promised to give it to a new family in town. aubrey must have been inspired by all the vintage things moving about because he went directly to ebay and secured a vintage aluminum xmas tree with rotating base and multi-colored spot light. its lovely and we wrapped it in an aqua-green vintage fabric in honor of the departing dinette set. i was also lucky enough to find a few early gifts for myself at the indie craft-a-ganza downtown last weekend. a lovely barrette, victorian bears for mom and connie, and the most fabulous ring. yes these are are vintage holidays.