music & motions

Sometimes listening to music, I can see the lyrics in feelings while physically feeling the melody in a rush like lying in an inner tube in a river. Is this a false synethsesia? It can be overwhelming the in the car, and I wake up when I get there. The bands whose music causes this most seem to be the Verve, Youth Group, Elbow, and some Ryan Adams.

It's a beautiful escape.

fury and fire

Quite a weekend I had. I left work early on Friday, went for a short run, then met Sara Sitter (late, of course) at Mabel's to help her knit. I bought a ball of yarn to make a hat with earflaps, and read how to do it in book with gorgeous projects: Handknit Holidays.

When the knitting shop closed, I went home and got dressed up for Aspen's rock & roll birthday party. Most of the people there were in rock costumes, although some had backstage passes. We played lots of Guitar Hero and had a great time.

Saturday morning I went with Abby to the Fix It Fair, where we sat through classes on composting, naturescaping, and pruning trees. I didn't learn much new, but it was a neat event and very well attended. Gotta love a town where so many people are really excited to learn how to make a worm bin and reduce electricity consumption.

I spent most of the afternoon working on the hallway project, which is basically just painting the downstairs hallway. That makes it sound so simple, but it involved puttying holes and dents in the walls, sanding and cleaning all surfaces, two layers of paint on the ceiling and top trim, cleaning up the light fixture and getting a more appropriate bulb, three coats of paint on the walls, two coats of paint on the trim (lots of trim in a hall with four doorways), removing three layers of wallpaper in the built-in linen closet, putting shellac primer on the bare plaster that was underneath the wallpaper in the closet, two coats of paint on the plaster, two coats of paint on the shelves and closet trim, new hinges and handles for the door and drawers, and a new plate for the light switch.

I am waiting for the handles and hinges to arrive in the mail, and I have one more coat of trim all the way around. Given how tiny this hallway is and how long it's taken me, I'm pretty worried about the rest of the house. I don't think there's wallpaper anywhere else in the house, but if there is I'm drywalling over that shit.

We went to the roller derby exhibition, where we met up with Geoff and Lena. After roller derby we went to an indy hip hop show, and then went home and played some Guitar Hero. We had to skip a cool goth party because of an earlier evening incident which caused my fury.

Sunday I went for a run in Forest Park, we went out for brunch at Equinox, walked down N Mississippi, shopped at my guilty shopping secret store, went for sushi with Erik's family at Saburo, Portland's best known sushi place, and watched Quadrophenia on the Hummer of televisions. In my own living room. I also made the first fire in our fireplace to test its draft. It worked, so we are able to go ahead and get it fixed up for use.

sprung

Oh cruel Nature, today it smells like spring. The air is warmed by sun, and green leaves have woken up. It will only be for this week, but it's enough to perk up Portlanders.

This morning fog was so heavy where I work that there was an infinity effect on the lake. I wish I had my camera for it. Later, when the fog lifted, Cory showed me the drifted ice that's still clinging to the shadier parts of the lake. The ice had the exact square shapes of the lake's concrete borders, and it looked like a lesson in plate techtonics

I rushed home for a chimney repair estimate, and while I waited for the guy to show up I did some yard work. It was glorious.

hibernation

I am listless these days. By "these days," I guess I mean the last two weeks or so.

Although I'm not a particularly social person, I forever have plans. Try a new bar, go for a run, see a show, check out a new art exhibit, take a class. I really let everything drop this week when I decided to putter around house projects instead of taking a day trip to the coast last weekend (and then painful big-box store shopping intervened). Then stomach flu laid me low on Monday's bonus-holiday. Portland's Blizzard 2007 struck on Tuesday, and now it seems there's no going back.

I am down to zero and I don't want to move. Sure, there's the sick factor, but if that one excuse takes the blame, then you don't know me. I like to do things (although not necessary finish them). Am I hibernating?

electronic mail

I got an email from someone named Greasepaint O. Hyperventilates. I'm rather curious what he or she has to say.

ramble

I'm trying to fit new things in for the new year, while it's fresh and I can slip them into my routine. It sounds boring to have a routine, but all of the things I am stuffing in there are ever-changing, exciting things. I swear. It's the process of getting around to them and making sure they happen, the magic of success, that's boring.

One of my new routines is trying a new bar, restaurant, or drinking establishment each week. Ted, Erik, and I had a successful bar night about a year ago, which lasted for many months. Once you miss a few, though, the event dies a quick death. Last night I arranged to check out the Victory, a new bar in my neighborhood, with Ted, John, Julie, Erik, Aspen, and Mae. The bar was so new that it still smells of paint and service is a confused mess, but we had a good time. This year my bar nights will reach out and include more people.

Another routine I'm trying to recapture is running more often. I have prided myself on not caring about weight in the stereotypical girly way, but my eating habits sure haven't changed since running a marathon at the begining of October, and my running has seriously declined. I may have put on only five pounds or so, but when my favorite clothes from ten years ago start getting tight, it's time to fix the situation.

I realize the above does not count as an exciting and new routine, but I have more fitness-related goals for the year including taking swim lessons-- something I've only had once in my life, in fourth grade. It's a step towards completing a triathlon.

I'm also trying to draw once a day, and resume and complete house projects. It's a lot to fit in, so I have to be more disciplined. That's the boring and tough part, so it's not one of my resolutions for the year, just hidden amongst them.

the strange magnet

I wanted to write about a few strange things I saw last weekend, but of the three or so I can only remember one. As I finished my run last Friday evening, I saw two dark animal shapes on the sidewalk a few houses up from mine. A black and white medium-hair cat and a large pitch black rabbit, of almost equal size, appeared to be hanging out together.

I couldn't quite believe that one wasn't trying to chase the other, so I stopped to watch for a bit. The rabbit would hop over to the cat, which would stay still, crouching, or move quickly a little ways away. Then the rabbit would stay still and the cat would sneak closer, as cats do. After observing this for some time, I moved closer, trying to coax one of them into letting me pet it.

I knew that the house we were all in front of had once had two black rabbits in its large, chain-link-fenced front yard, and that one of them had escaped. As I got closer, the cat and rabbit ran under a parked car together. I walked on home and got Erik to come see the animals, but when we returned there were only a few people out, calling for the rabbit. I did see a dead squirrel on the sidewalk that I hadn't noticed before, right where both animals had been circling. Was the squirrel part of their crew?

the new year in eights

It must have been Friday night that I awoke in the dark, thought for some time, then finally went back to sleep. Whatever the moment it came to me, I had a big realization. The eights of my life have been life-changing years.

When I was eight years old, in third grade, I had transferred to public school from Catholic school. My wonderful teacher, with whom I still communicate, helped instill in me a deep love of reading and writing. I read the Hobbit for the first time. I first pondered the existential question "Why" and experienced my first depression.

When I was 18 I visited Portland for the first time, where I skied my first west coast (ie real) mountain, met a beautiful German boy, and experienced the best of the city with my dear friend Grace. I went on a magical spring break trip to San Francisco which included the Peacock Suite at the Red Victorian, a near-death experience riding horses at Half Moon Bay, and Big Sur. I took a trip across the country by answering a newspaper want ad, lived in an abandoned bed-sit in Haight-Ashbury for two weeks, took the Greyhound to Salt Lake City to try to pursue a connection, Greyhounded on to Chicago where wonderful Julie welcomed me home, Greyhounded again down to visit a high school sweetheart in the Great Smokies of Tennessee, decided to study abroad the next year, and finally, met my future husband.

I can think of no two years more formative to my self. And so I am finally excited for this year, for 2007.