Remembering...

My grandfather passed away last December on the fourteenth. Christmas, I think, was his favorite time of year.  He'd upwrap presents and give them the obligatory look-over, and then get back to what he really loved--watching the rest of us and setting the scene in his big, beautiful home.

So, here's to my grandpa:  the complicated, sylish, bigger-than-life rascal.  We miss you.

They Canceled Christmas

Actually, it was just the last day of school before Christmas Break. The day of our annual Christmas Party. When, traditionally, I wear these:








We were supposed to arrive, overly excited, chomping at the bit for ridiculosity. A few of us would take a test (hopefully not two tests! Oh, procrastination!). Then we would change into our snow clothes, go to the field and zoom down the hills on our lime green brand new saucer sled... I'm guessing everyone bought the same color as me because, honestly, why would you choose any other color?

Then we would grow numb with cold and exhaustion and trudge back up to the school. We would change our clothes and toss them around to dry and it would look like someone's hall closet exploded. We would sip hot chocolate and apple cider and eat junk until noon when we would watch the younger grades' Christmas play... They've worked so hard and now it's been canceled twice!

After this, the pizza would arrive and, again, we would eat junk. By this time we will all be feeling giddy/nauseous from high fructose corn syrup poisoning. A few of us would compete in wrapping-paper-tube-fencing. Gifts, cards and love would be exchanged. I would haul my frozen-solid Christmas turkey home and thaw it in the passenger side floorboard of my car, as is my custom, since there is no room in my freezer for it.





That's how it went in my head, anyway.

Sick Day

Well, it appears I have succumbed to the constant germ-barraging. Here's to CoCo Wheats, finishing this traumatic book (if she doesn't get out of all that trouble soon, I'm going to pitch it. seriously. can't take much more), and getting some online work done. (Hel-lo, Apartment Therapy...)

.Black.Friday.

To celebrate this weird cultural phenom that is competitive shopping stuffed up the rump of a turkey called materialism, I have assimilated an xmas list of my own gimme-gimme's:

• This bento box

• Ikea pendant lamp (design!)

• cases and cases of Limonata

• a pack that fits my back

• a fox jam print

Peace on Earth, goodwill to consumers.

A Field Trip

Went to the Oil and Gas Museum today. Loved it. But there was one room that really stole my heart. A weird and slightly creepy room.



Old worn wood smell. Oily cast iron. Flaking tin ceilings.




Lovely, lovely apothecary shelves. And tell me with complete honesty you've never wanted to glide on one of those rolling ladders before. You can't.

And there was a romantic/industrial skylight. I spent much more time in this room than the others...especially the creepy basement. Horror movie stuff down there. Definite "vibes".




It was a grand time. You should go. Oh, yeah, we learned a lot, too. Of course!

On the Way Home

I took the scenic route.

The conference finished up just before noon, and I was at loose ends. Too late for church. Husfriend at work. Was trying to avoid the horrific situation at in the basement.

So I decided to take the back way home. The WayBack way. I drove Rt. 33 and Rt. 14 back to Parkersawfulburg. You know, I didn't get carsick at all until I was in the dairy section of WalMart. Hm.

Aaanyway, it was great. I drove my little car around those turns and listened to my music and smiled the whole time. So beautiful.

I saw a sign for "Historic Buffalo Log Church" and thought, hey, that's for me. I turned onto a one-lane patchwork paved road and looked around.

A house.

I decided I would go a mile and if I didn't see it, I'd turn back. At one mile, there was an old couple (yes, they were actually old, not relatively old, and I'm only mentioning it because they passed me later in a flurry of gravel) unloading their four-wheeler and strapping on their helmets (so cute). The gentleman told me it was three miles ahead, which was confirmed by the sign he pointed to that read: Buffalo Church 3 miles.

Let me tell you. Just after that sign, the road turned to gravel and got steep. Not Dolly Sods steep or Pickens steep, but, yeah, it was intense. There were cows. There were bulls. And calves. In the woods. It was so dappled and lovely, even with storm clouds threatening. You should have seen it.

Then the church at the top, on a ridge.







I need to find that man and ask why the Log Church wasn't made of logs, but that's another post.

There was this:



There was a huge spider. Yes, I left the door open a crack.



This:


Oh, yes, they did...

And this:


The event was already past, but, look, it says they need donations. So help out, if you feel inclined.

And to cap it all off, I saw a scarlet tanager. Excellent drive.

Back Home...for a While

So, is it just me, or does the basement drain back up with sewage only on the night before dayshift/fun things out of town (say, Writers Conferences)?

Oy giminee cricket for the love of goodness vey!?!!

But that's fixed. Still cleaning...but it's fixed.

So, the Conference, right? Waaaaay too much to talk about, as usual, but I'll hit on some highlights:

- the lovely and talented Renee Nicholson and Natalie Sypolt, back again with writaliciousness. Scored three workshops.

- always love a workshop with El Presidente Eric Fritzius. Podcasting this time...

- discussion panel called "The Appalachian Inquisition" with Irene McKinney, Denise Giardina, Daniel Boyd, Norman Jordan, Gretchen Moran Laskas (love her!), and Tim Noland. Does an authentic Appalachian voice exist? Is Appalachia a myth? Hmmm...

- pitch session with an honest-to-goodness, award-winning agent...! Hyperventilated. I'll let you know.

- got to catch up with the incredible Granny Sue Holstein

- laughed at the banquet with my table of friends until we nearly shot tea from our nostrils.


Sigh. And now, it's over for another year. I dearly love the WVW Conference...

The Conference!

Getting ready to go the West Virginia Writers Conference! Yessss!

And this year I have a lot of excitement scheduled.

But I'll tell about that later...

1.) When do you feel happiest?

When I'm outside.

2.) How do you take care of yourself?

Go to bed on time (or early?!)

3.) Are you internally (by yourself) or externally (by others) motivated?

Internally. If the external pressures me too much, I retreat inside or run off. But I push myself harder than external influences most of the time, anyway, so...

4.) What do you do for fun?

See blog title.

5.) What intimidates you?

People. And paperwork.

That morning...

¹⁵Jesus spoke to her, "Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?"

She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, "Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him."

¹⁶Jesus said, "Mary."

And, just like that, He calls our names and we suddenly recognize the One we've been looking for all along...

...And our dead hopes come back to vibrant life, better than we ever could have imagined.

Happy Easter!

Staff Work Day

...on April Fools' Day. Uh-oh. Nervous.

I made a little playlist for the occasion.

Aneurhythms

Obsessed with this song right now.

And this one, too.

Thanks, Alicia.

Have a sweet weekend!


**UPDATE**
Hey, remember Savage Garden? Hahahaha, they just popped up on my Pandora station. Soooo huge with this song when I was gearing up to graduate high-school. I'll just thumbs-down them now...

Slow Down

So I have this book, and this book, and I'm attempting to do periodization as a training program this year. I did it, somewhat loosely, last year, and thought it was pretty great, so I'm trying to stick to it a little more closely this year.

The thing with this program, though, is that for the first three months of the year, you go slow. It's counter-intuitive. And sometimes it's hard to go slow.

I think, a lot of times, in this society/culture, we want to go fast. We feel the need to go fast right now. If I don't hurry up then __________ will happen, and this will mess everything up/put me at a severe disadvantage/be the end of the world. There's so much pressure to do as much as you can, as fast as you can, as long as you can.




But in periodization, you learn that training too hard, too fast will limit you in the long run. Oops... It kind of puts a ceiling on your performance. You end up hurting yourself.

The thing that takes so long is building aerobic capacity, and your ability to, mm, process oxygen more efficiently. You have to give your body time to build more of the tiniest blood vessels, capillaries. So all this is going on while you're pacing yourself at this slow, steady rate. Invisible. But it's happening. You end up getting more out of each breath you take.

And I was thinking that it's the same, spiritually. We want to rush results. We want growth now. We try to force it.


We get burnt out.


Sometimes the fastest way is to go slow.

Snow Day...again

Just signed up for an e-course I've been eyeing for a while. Excited! Nervous!




Church is cancelled again this morning for snow. All this snow, and I can't find a sled. Wal-Mart has the sand shovels and beach blankets out, but no sleds. I guess the boogie board might work; not as if it's getting much use these days.




Guess I should organize my work space in preparation for the e-course. Clear off a spot. Stare at the walls, hoping they will tell me what color paint they want. Later I will roast a chicken.




So that's our lazy Sunday.

As Far As Days Go...

...this one was not-so-great. Not a "bad day", as in a series of annoying things, one right after the other. I would say it was a "hard day". Therefore, I'm going to my happy place:

**Where do you go when you need to detach and escape?

Bad Day

see title.

~~.G.R.I.M.M.~~

So, I move in cycles. Right now, I'm in a Grimm's Fairy Tales whirl. Probably has a little to do with the fire in the woods, and the images that came with it...

I'm reading the Tales to my high schoolers, and they've been aghast:

"Are you serious?"
"What?!"
"Did they not think it was strange that there was a cake house that didn't have birds all over it?!"
"How did Rapunzel eat?"
"No way, that guy couldn't shoot a fly's eye at two miles!"
"Eeeew, what kind of mother tells her daughter to cut off her toe for a man??"
"What kind of witch puts a spell on him that he's a frog until someone tries to kill him?"
"Don't these people have ladders?"

I have, too. I don't think I've ever read "King Thrushbeard" before. I love that story. It reminds me of our Prince. You should read it.

Help!

Yeah, so, I missed the sale. Yeah.

Road Ride x 2

I went on two--TWO!--road rides this weekend. Greedy? Perhaps. Selfish? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.



I was so happy yesterday. If Chris Carmichael showed up (but why would he show up? I don't know; it's a hypothetical. Focus.), I think I would've smooched him. On his face. That's how happy. I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm pretty excited about the upcoming year of cycling. 'Cuz it's only February, dude. Two rides. In two days. Mmm-hmm.

And the sun! The sun was so bright on Friday, I had a semi-permanent wrinkle between my eyebrows. Also, I couldn't look directly at my safety shirt. For obvious reasons. Hey. It's saved my life, probably a hundred times. At least. Don't hate.


I think there are so many little things that make riding at this time of year so lovely. For one, it's nice to not be all slimy and hallucinating from the 90% humidity. And to be able to breath. Gee, that's nice.


On the other hand, with the leaves off the trees and with me wearing my slightly garish safety shirt, it's a little challenging to find good spots for a bathroom break. TMI? Tough, that's the hard truth. Which has me wondering: I know how the male pro-cyclists relieve themselves on long rides, but, uhm, what about the female pros? Anyone know this? I'm a little afraid to research it.

February has been my second-favorite month (it's so hard to pick!) for some years now. There are all these small, subtle, almost-sneaky changes happening for Spring. The sun tilts differently. Birds start singing differently. I think it even smells different. And no one seems to love it but me. Sad. I think it is so dynamic and exciting, with this electric undercurrent buzzing and humming away.

And, you don't have to mow the grass.

Still

I'm thankful for my husband. When I whine that I have no sled, he doesn't tell me to grow up or warn that I'll get hurt. He only reminds me we don't have a hill :)

Took Slarty for a walk tonight as it was getting dark. (Does it ever get dark when there's snow on?) We went to the next neighborhood, a"holler". We heard voices and noticed there were some people high on one hillside, burning a bonfire. With the backdrop of bare trees, the gray light, the white snow, the fire all above us, I was quite struck. It reminded me of this story I read on Granny Sue's blog. I wanted to hike up there and see if February was sitting on the highest perch. It was a very Grimm's-Fairy-Tales sort of a walk.

{{FIVE}} Things for Fun...

5 Things I Am Looking Forward To:

watching pro-cycling on tv (at someone else's house since i don't get the ONE channel that airs it), the day when i come home and the house is COLORFUL and peaceful, finishing this book, vacation in the wild west, the ways the Lord is working in my life and my friends' lives right now...pretty awesome and humbling :)

5 Things I Did Yesterday:
browsed the blogs, made pancakes, sorted through the dissheveled stack of printed-out recipes I've been collecting for the past five years or so (yes! I did it!), watched the horrifying wipeouts on the olympic coverage--gah!, went for a walk with slarty.... And that's pretty much all I did yesterday; five things!

5 Things I Wish I Could do:
(((is this including 'cure cancer' and 'end famine' etc or are we talking .... what? that's the problem with me and these question-answer things. I always need clarification. Of course, that's the problem with me and people, too, hahaha... That's not funny, I guess... Okay, back to the questions)))

stop talking when i should (see above paragraph), keep a straight face when i should, keep in touch by snail mail with my pen-pal(s), be neat, use coupons with sophisticated ease

5 Places I’d Like to Travel To:
charleston, sc, new zealand, japan, nepal, new mexico

5 Cute things I've found online lately:

cool table, the best baby (or grownup) afghan I have ever seen, braided headband tutorial, new lisa leonard necklace,
nice bag

Snow & Redecorating

We are on another snow day (yesssss!). I just love the peaceful mornings moving at my own pace. I am not a morning person but I do love mornings. I just need to creep along at my slug's pace, absorbing coffee, until eleven or so. Then I'm good.



Anyhow, one of the hardware mega-giants is having a paint sale. Now, those of you who know me are probably aware of how I detest the rose-patterned wall paper in my kitchen/dining room/bike shop. Sigh. For seven years I have detested it. Where does the time go? This is way over-due.

The problem is, I have such a hard time deciding what color to go with. If it's taken this long to paint the first time, how long will it take to re-paint??

But the sale..... I have to act fast. The room faces eastish. The so-called experts recommend a warm-toned hue.

source

I've been thinking about this color on some or all the walls of our living room since an impromptu drive to the ocean a couple of Aprils ago. Have you been to the Eastern Shore in April? When the skies are gray, the wisteria blooming in the crowns of the tallest trees, the sand glowing, somehow, the water this color? Well, you should.

source

so, after two days of mulling and slugging around, that's what I got, yo. I know. This is why it's taking seven years. Sigh. The journey, the journey, I'm enjoying the journey.

Me 'n' my furfriend are going out into the snow for a bit, now. Ciao.

Happy Valentines Day!

2010

Oh, hello. So it's a totally anti-climactic New Year. I know it's supposed to be a Big One, new decade and all. Whatever. Perhaps after last years' high drama, this one just couldn't compete. It's the first New Year since Grandpa's passing a couple of weeks ago; I'm sure that's giving our family the ho-hums, with the memorial service looming sometime in the coming days.

Also, I spent the evening at home with Slarty. As in, by ourselves. The neighborhood kids are teenagers now, in skinny jeans, and waaay to cool to ring our doorbell at midnight to wish as a happy one. I had a couple of offers but still opted to stay in. If this happens again--Husbfriend working--I think I will have me own little shindig. (Does 'shindig' mean dance? 'Cuz I don't think we should dance, necessarily. If it means dance, then pretend I said 'soiree'.)

I did, however, sneak off to my friend's salon and get a fabulous new 'do. Those of you who have had to deal with my un-fabulous old 'do, conscientiously avoiding direct eye contact with it--Rejoice! Sorry it's taken so long! So great to have a buddy whom I fully trust with my lackluster locks. Thanks, Karen!

You know how I feel about resolutions...Okay, I'll tell you anyway. Impossible. Reckless. Doomed to failure. Impractical. I feel especially vehement about them, probably, because of all the retro-learning/conditioning I've had to do in the course of my adult (ha!) life. I'm a messy, a schizo, a flake, and ashamed of it no longer. I know that I--and others like me--have to carefully and gradually plan these changes. No such thing as magic. So New Years' resolutions scream, "Bad idea!" at me.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I love January (and I do love January) is because it's such a fresh, clean beginning. (That's what I kind of like about Mondays, too. I know. Hiss. I like House and Castle, too, though.)

So maybe I will make a little list of non-resolutions for 2010. Okay? Okay.