Feeling Better About the Dems

Okay so I am feeling slightly better about the Dems this morning. I listened to various speakers at the convention last night and I am glad to see they are ramping it up a bit, we have moved away from the warm fuzzy (sort of at least, we had to get over Joe Biden's early life crisis of losing his wife and 2 children) and are moving on to vitriol which I believe is where we should be. Madelaine Allbright was great, she is so smart and articulate. Nancy Pelosi's bra strap was showing so I couldn't really concentrate on what she was saying. Fortunately I only heard Bill Clintons speech in the car and did not have to suffer the effects of watching him speak with the requisite cuts over to Hill looking adoringly on. I kept wondering if they stay in the same hotel suite for these outings or if Bill gets a room in the basement so the trollips and high rollers can come and go with impunity. He was pretty good, and should use his last shreds of credibility for the good of the party. He is still a great speaker. Beau Bidon was a bit stiff, I am sure it was nerves and Joe Biden was of course himself. The last little bit where they were all standing on the stage and Jo had his arm around one of female teenage grandchildren, he lent over and gave her a really deliberate kiss on the lips which seemed sort of creepy and out of place. All that family stuff at the end always feels so forced. I switched the channel before the closing prayer and ended the night with a crass episode of the Family Guy. Ah America and it's rich pageantry. Go Dems!

What I want Hillary to say tonight...

She should tell these lackluster Democrats to kick some Republican ass. After last nights speech, I care less about Michelle Obama's heartwarming love for husband (of course she loves him, she's giving up her life for his career) and more about which strategies we the people need to employ to get the vote out, get Democrats voting and Republicans switching sides. Oh yeah, and Hillary should suggest that everyone stop praying at the convention. And last but not least she has to explain to her dogmatic supporters not to vote for McCain, it makes no sense. Vote for change, not for spite.

Safe Passage 05

The day before you died when we went to see your doctor, he asked you a few questions mostly about the Methadone you were taking. It was a liquid and I gave you about 10ml. per day, I gave it to you in the morning before a warm, soothing protein shake. It helped to keep you from feeling nauseous once the drugs kicked in. Your doctor decided to switch you to Morphine because we felt we needed more on hand and the Methadone was hard to get. We had to go to Canada to get it and you didn't like the clinic. I think you felt people thought you were an addict, there was no easy way to tell you had cancer beyond the fact you were very thin. You don't like the Morphine, it makes you constipated and I worry that eventually you won't be able to swallow the hard pills. It doesn't occur to me that I can crush them up in jam as you did when I was small, before I could swallow an aspirin.

After the trip to the doctor I got the large morphine prescription filled via the Pharmacy in Campbell River. The bag of pills rode across on the ferry with the crew. Back at your house we watched "Cold Comfort Farm" but you were sleepy and uninterested. I call Catriona from the extension downstairs and let her know what is going on. Before bed I try to write a letter on your behalf, to a friend from college in Scotland. It's March 2nd and your Christmas letters remain unanswered.

Business Communications

Don't you wish that some of your personal communications could be as clear and direct as the ones you have with your business associates? Phone rings. Client says hi. You say hi. Client makes request. You say yes. Client says thanks. You both hang-up and go back to what you were doing before the phone rang. You think nothing of it.

Twilight

Summer is winding down and I am making friends with the idea of fall. I've given summer a solid effort and have reaped the rewards of a light work schedule and endless warm days. I can feel September nearing, my senses are sharpening with the crisping of the air. It's not completely cool yet but I can feel the odd patch of cooler air as I stand picking and eating ripe blackberries in the yard. While I am sad to see summer end I am also ready to get back to work. I have been drifting happily but now the directionless nature of my days is getting to me. I need a few deadlines to snap me out of my lazy state of mind.

They will come soon enough, school will start and we'll put our beach towels away for another year. It's been a really good summer.

My Girlhood

I digress.

I'm feeling slightly fragile at the moment and it's my own fault. Try as I may to pin it on say, my beloved husband. I have been slack about nurturing my girlhood and while I like to feel I am above all this stuff, I am not. I want to feel attractive and well put together, everyone does. We all have beautiful fashionable friends to whom we compare ourselves and it is never good. I spent the night in Seattle this week with such a friend and I came away feeling really shabby and unkempt. My girlhood is easily wounded (isn't everyones). I see now why I have been feeling so needy. I need a haircut, a pedicure and perhaps some other unspeakable but effective beauty treatments. I will feel new and shiny again, like a good luck penny. It seems so superficial but it's really true, we feel better when we honor our girlhood a little bit. When we feel better about ourselves we attract more attention which is what girlhood is all about.

Garden Update

I feel the time is right to reveal what happened with the garden project from earlier in the spring. I think it is safe to say I have learned many things about my commitment to growing food. We had high hopes for an abundant garden where participants could drop over, plant a few seeds, pull a few weeds and in the course of time harvest a bit of veg. Seems good right?

In reality I could never make it to the farm more than twice in a week and often when I got there I was overwhelmed by what needed to be done and also not sure how to do things like mix soil, space seeds, run a rototiller. Pearl was not as stoked about the whole experience either so when we went to the farm we generally ended up visiting the river and throwing stones instead of doing actual farm work.

By June when it was still frigid out I swore I would always have a CSA share and try to support a farmer regardless of how many of the veggies languished in my fridge. Farming is fucking hard work. There is no disputing this. I planted 3 100ft rows of beets and it nearly killed my back. I see now that I put the micro seeds too close together and the beets are crowded.

Here's the catch. The fact that the beets are growing, and the fact that today we harvested carrots that Pearl planted draws me deeper into the whole process. We dropped those seeds into soil and they miraculously grew. I asked Pearl what she thought of the carrots she grew and she said they were the best she had tasted, and they are.

So here's the plan for next year. In February I will join a CSA, I am not sure who's yet, but someone from my immediate area. This will be a hedge against my tendency for laziness and over ambitious plans. I will also endeavor to grow some stuff BUT I will do it at my own place so I can tend the garden easily without having to make a trip in the car. I have berries, cherries and apples growing here and if I could grow a few things either in a garden or greenhouse that would be great. We'll see how it goes.

Because I'm a white person...

and it's friday night and I am listening to NPR while I work on my MacBook I heard about this awesome blog to help me laugh at myself.

Cleaning the Office

My days of summer slacking are coming slowly to a close, there is work to be done. As is often the case after a long period out of my office, it gets into a state that is not entirely conducive to much productivity. I am thinking in these terms because a) I have someone coming out in a few weeks who has never met me before and B) I have a considerable list of undone tasks. This is how the other shoe dropping feels. I do welcome these swift kicks, that force me to make sense of the residual crap build-up here in Rowanville. I make the cleaning an exercise, even though I feel completely guilty about doing it rather than working. But isn't cleaning, working? It's not exactly fun, it doesn't really rate as high as sailing for example. Somehow if it is not billable, it is not valid. In reality, the process of cleaning is necessary to re-prioritize, to view things with new eyes, to re-connect with what I was thinking about before the break. So I'll go at it hard, clean the whole place, make it shiny and then get down to work. It's like an investment in myself.

I'm moving out some painfully old technology. Apple Laserwriter Select 360. A ZIP DRIVE! ( I had to really yell that one) It's sad. Not quite sure what to do with the refuse just yet. This will be another of my Toward Zero Waste inquiries. I guess I can take it all to the Restore. Will ask around.

Watch out les dust bunnies!

Summer Must Do's

Everson Days Parade Spectators

We are back home now after 48 action packed hours away. It's amazing how much you can pack into two days if you are like me and have totally committed yourself to the pursuit of fun and happiness. I know I have mentioned often and at great length what a horrendous summer I had last year. Many things converged at once and together with shitty weather and a mysterious sinus condition these "things" conspired to strip me of my summer happiness. But not this year. We have sailed, we have cottaged, we have swum in a variety of bodies of water, we have picnic-ed with friends, we have attended parades, we have barbequed, we have been burned by the sun and stung by mad bees. We have said good bye to old friends and hello to new babies. We have had a few too many margueritas and have fallen asleep in the movies. We have eaten Nutella sandwiches. All in all it's been consistently excellent. Next on the list is camping, a trip to the fair and another few days vending at the market. Ahh the paradise that is these 8 weeks of Washington summer.

New Look

Okay, I think this will be my new look for awhile. Comment if you like or just keeping reading. In case anyone was feeling sorry for me that I didn't get my Vietnamese soup yesterday, I got some today and it was excellent. I got the number 22 at the firm behest of the owner. It was chicken and noodles. It was cool. It came in 3 pieces, a bowl of broth, a box of cooked noodles with the chicken and green onions, and a bag of bean sprouts and mint leaves. It also had a small container of hot sauce. It was delicious and a really good deal at $7. Mmmm. Finally I know what Pho Abbotsford #1 (oriental noodle house) is all about.

Under Construction

Mark just busted me on my no image in the header of my blog. He has this notion that because I make my living in the visual arts that perhaps my blog should be fancier. He is right of course and the fact that he was standing very near me as he said it has me convinced, so bear with me while I smarten it up.

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