Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

An Egret and a Turtle


Blount Cultural Park, Montgomery, Alabama, 8/26/2011

GL, 8/28/2011. Prevail.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Thursday, August 18, 2011

August 17, 2011, journal entry, I Am Reminding Myself that It Is Still Summer

Five miles.

I am cold. I leave at six this morning for my run, and I am not convinced it isn’t Fall. I rub the goose pimples on my arms under my pumpkin-colored long-sleeve Coolmax shirt (though I still wear my purple running skirt).The slant of Sun also says Fall, when light begins bowing to dark. I suddenly don't have the energy for this morning run. I am not ready for the chill because August’s heat has just barely emerged. The Wheel of Seasons can’t have revolved this quickly because, in fact, the path through Hazel's Creek hasn’t yet dried, my running shoe sucked ankle deep in mud. Don’t get me wrong...I am looking forward to the Autumnal Equinox (how can I top last year’s Goddessfest with my Tattered Wings tattoo?! AND I have ideas for the third tattoo I shall get during next year’s Spring Equinox celebration…suh-WEET!).

But I suddenly realize, as I pull my foot from sticky mud with a slight sob, that I haven't seen the red-winged blackbirds in Hazel's Creek lately. Nor have I seen the orangy robins lately, those robins who arrived in February. I also notice the honking Vs of Canada geese that have begun to fly the skyways, and young eaglets and osprey fledge, practicing their wings.

I'm not gonna go far, I encourage myself. The 10K I’ve signed up to race this October (my first race since figuring out my hamstring/back problem) will sport colder, chillier air than this, its air crisp like Fall apple slices. I also remind myself that I always warm up and have regretted a run only a handful of times, so I wrap my hands in my sleeves and continue running, mud flakes sloughing off my shoe much like how the late Summer days slough off bits of light. I decide to remember the day is predicted to be in the 80's and that I shall visit the farmers' market today though I usually go Thursdays and Saturdays. The market always makes me feel wickedly wicked happy with their bounty of Summer harvest and jovial warm air, the companionship always and always boosting my mood.

So this year, Summer has been running…no…sprinting away from me, but I’m not gonna think about that now. I am wickedly glad I when I finish my run and wickedly enjoy the farmers’ market…and, of course tonight, there is always the sky blue pool.

{Wickedly wicked happy sigh.}

~

Things that Remind Me It Is Still Summer…and Make Me Wickedly Happy

The farmers’ market and its array of colorful bounty. And the fact that I still have just over two months left of the market’s season! Today, I am ALL about the market…

~Yellow and orange watermelons. Totally worth the serious seed extraction effort.

~Green tomatoes I cook into fried green tomatoes…I think the southern girl is comin’ out in me…

~Orange raspberries from Mushroom Farmer Mo and orangy tomatoes. I’m tellin’ ya, once you’ve had a wicked fresh tomato from the farmers’ market, regular supermarket tomatoes just don’t cut it.

~Figuring out how to cook with tomatillos…I have absolutely no idea what I’m gonna do but I am wickedly excited about it.

~Same thing with the baby artichokes. I had absolutely no idea that artichokes are in the thistle family…I LIKE thistles and the thought of them and purply thistles makes me wickedly happy.

~A basket of cherry tomatoes that I typically don’t buy because I always feel like I am biting into a bug…kinda like raisins…but these…oh my goddess, these are red, yellow, purple, orange, white…WHITE and PURPLE tomatoes! So wickedly worth the slicing effort!

~The wooden coins of the farmers’ market.

~Today in 1907, Seattle’s Pike Place Market opened and is the oldest continuously operating farmer's market in the United States.

Huckleberry’s Natural Market’s wine steward Drew who can hold a wine glass with his cheek and who loves Wicked and Lady GaGa as much as I do (we think we were sisters in a previous life).

Fabulous sundresses and sushi with the Goddesses, dining outside.

Summer buggy beetly bugs.

The MOON! I just simply don’t know why I go loonier than a loon over the Moon in late Summer…oh, wait…yeah, I know why! Cuz I can actually see her! Cloudiness lingered way too long and seriously overstayed its welcome this Summer. Ugh!

Definitely and absolutely, water slides…to infinity and beyond!

And running…remembering that YES! I am running again, running alongside Summer as she runs into Autumn…and that makes me totally and wickedly wicked happy.

~











































~

GL, 8/17/2011. Prevail.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Full Grain Moon







(otherwise known as the Green Corn Moon and the Full Sturgeon Moon)

GL, 8/13/2011. Prevail.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

X


The Moon, 96% of full

GL, 8/11/2011. Prevail.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Luminosity


The Moon, 91% of full

GL, 8/10/2011. Prevail.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

65%


Approaching the full moon

GL, 8/7/2011. Prevail.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Trampoline Jumping for 40-Year-Old Women, the Saga Continues on Escalators, Elevators, and Stairs…in a 47 Floor Drop and an Eight Story Ascent

I bid you greetings, Earthlings and my trampoline jumping community, as I have safely returned from Atlanta, Georgia, by way of the wild terrain of escalators, elevators, and stairs and planes, trains, and automobiles!

Yes, the national Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf held its biennial conference in Atlanta this year, and I swear I have not encountered so many escalators, elevators, and stairs in my life as a Goddess! But do not worry as I did not let any fear or uncertainty become a barrier as I decided to approach the EEAS (pronounced in letters like Rachel Ray does with her EVOO...extra virgin olive oil... but meaning escalators, elevators, and stairs) in the same Goddessy manner that I approach my work on the trampoline. With BlackBerry and binoculars in hand, I boldly began to document this Escher-esque journey because I was sure that my Moth readers would and should feel, at least vicariously, the thrill I experienced over and over and over.

As I toured the city, as I am wont to do, I decided to let MARTA zoom me about. I thought it quite pleasant that Atlantians named their subway train system "Marta"...what a nice way to make a subway train feel more friendly!...PLUS the escalator down (and up) to (and from) the train was the longest I had ever seen thus far, and I needed several opportunities for photo ops. I also took time to document with my BlackBerry camera the more than twenty escalators in the Escher-esque hotel, the Marriot Marquis.

It is amazing how folks are more than willing to join in your adventure and are quick to offer tips and leads, cuz as I went through the hotel, shooting pictures with my BlackBerry camera, feeling my aura of spy-like international intrigue return as though I was shooting a laser gun in an episode of laser tag, I was told several times over that the CNN building right by my hotel had an eight-floor escalator just as I was also reminded at least twice of the musical stair video posted on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpUoA5slRX4. I knew right away in my golden gut, much like how I knew immediately that the grape-pop-scented t-shirt reminding me of the scratch-and-sniff stickers I adored as a girl at the World of Coca Cola's gift shop needed to be mine, that I needed to fit a trip there in my already busy schedule. I had to fit this reconnaissance mission in between workshops and visits to the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Aquarium with its moving sidewalk, Centennial Olympic Park, and the Margaret Mitchell Museum. And it didn't disappoint. The escalator, that is. The rush I felt in the two and a half minute, 205 feet long ascension of the world's longest free standing escalator was nothing short of breathless. And I made sure to snap pictures of each of the staircases as the tour group descended the eight stories.

In addition to all the Escher-esque escalators I filmed in the Marquis were the fabulous glass elevators, reported to be fast, that took riders up and down the 47 floors. How I longed to go to the top, feel dizzy and ditzy as I would look over the ledge, and then take the elevator down without the interruption of stops! And how fortunate was I when Goddess Nancy found out from those aforementioned advice givers that if you hold the "close door" and "floor-that-you-want" buttons down simultaneously, the elevator would not stop for any passengers on any floor. Once again, we summoned our Goddess courage and made our way to the 47th floor and peered over its ledge while we fought an ultra weird urge to drop our BlackBerries over the edge (that was really weird, wasn't it, Goddess Nancy? Still haven't figured out THAT one...).

ANYWAY. I parked myself on the floor of the glass elevator while Goddess Nancy manned the buttons, and down we went...for only a foot's distance 'til we got stuck (that feeling was really weird, too, wasn't it, Goddess Nancy? Although this one is easier to figure out why...). No worries at all, though, because after a minute or so, our elevator descended, and WOWZA! I thought that that eight floor escalator ride couldn't be topped, but I was WRONG with a capital W! This 46 ½ floor drop was insanely and wickedly exciting! And I was SOOOO in the moment that I didn't think to activate the video feature of my BlackBerry to capture the excitement of it all. No matter, cuz we were so completely breathless and in awe of our bravery when we arrived at the bottom that we knew in our Goddess guts that we needed to celebrate with sushi. So we did.

All in all, as I reflected on the whole trip while I was removing items from my ultra hefty suitcase before checking it in to bring it down from 58 pounds to 50 to avoid the 100 dollar surcharge (seriously, I know how to travel, but does a girl really need to bring 10 sundresses when she is gone only six days? Uh, YEAH!), and as I am preparing to file this report with The Moth, I knew and know that this was a successful and productive trip. And while I have no advice to offer specifically today, other than DO face an Escher-esque world with the grace and dignity and bravery worthy of a Goddess and DON’T let fear stop you in any of your Goddess endeavors, I DO invite you to sit back and enjoy the slide show.

































































GL, 8/3/2011. Prevail.