One more day up in the canyon.

"I always heard the best delies are in the lower east side, and theres a store that sells nothing but gourmet homemade pickles, too."  

"Sweet! I love homemade pickles. Lets go there for lunch!"

"Nah, I never could find it."

"Why don't you just Google it?"

"Because there is absolutely no way I'm going to Google 'pickle store'."

I think, of all the gazillions of pictures I have, this one sums up Peter and La Sha the best.

So much is going on right now, I don't even know where to begin.

Ironically, right now I have more blog posts than ever, yet am posting at almost my slowest rate ever.

I am a busy and excruciatingly tired lady.

In a couple of weeks there'll probably be a blogsplosion of wordiness.

I've been working on a series of essays that I'm tentatively calling "Things I Swore I'd Never Blog About". Tantalizing, n'est pas?

Also, I've pretty much finished up the Fierce Flora series. Unfortunately, plastic wrap and cardboard is safely secured around all the vines and blossoms, and they probably won't be making their debut for a few weeks.

I've got lots of NYC pictures dragging along too, that I'll get to posting sometime. Though I could be living in Timbuktu by the time I feel caught up.

 Caught up- isn't that a nice thought.  

 Speaking of feelings and not-sureness, I've been ultra-contemplative lately and I can't quiet put my finger on how I feel about NYC. It's a place I simultaneously never want to spend another day in and that I never want to leave. There's a mixture of regret when thinking of it in the rearview and joy in looking ahead. It's a place that has so much more to offer a creative young lady than anywhere else on this planet, and I can't help but feel like I never made the most of it. Surviving takes so much effort that looking up and making the most of the opportunities that may be waiting for you seems like an option best put off till tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Was a big break waiting for me, but I was just too busy, too tired, too frazzled to notice? I'll never know- that's the stinger on the hornet of regret.  

The only thing to do is to look ahead, because I have no doubt that what waits in the future is more amazing than everything in the past.

 Even though it's September, there's an air of New Years Eve hanging around. The Christmas-esque frenzy of deciding what I really want (to keep, to do) is over and now I can enjoy a couple days merriment. Starting over (yet again)- I want this year to be full of intention (even if it isn't really a new year). And like on the precipice of every New Year, resolutions abound:

Be more focused.

Live more simply.

Work less.

Ignore everything and everyone that adds stress.

But more than anything- to just SLOOOW DOWN.

I have so much to not do, and I can't wait till I can get started not doing it. Until then, I just have to make it through this long faux December.

 

"... a lot of oysters, but no pearls."

Yep, that pretty much sums up my NYC experience.

Job security

Job security:

I haz it.

 Bet these guys don't hang around your workplace.

God bless the guys (and sometimes gals who defend us (Americans, New Yorkers) from the crazies who'd love to do us in.

Evening Govna!

As our time in New York comes to an end I'm trying to fit in as much fun as possible (on my oh so very rare days off). 

So Doctor A and I hopped on the ferry to Governor's Island to enjoy a free show featuring my fave singer (you know who she is- re: previous post!)

 (I just noticed that the guy standing up in the middle of this picture is Josh Kaufman- click to enlarge!)

Unfortunately, the island's website is very misleading about the availability of food there. The only thing open when we got there was one lone food cart that turned out to be mostly a mirage- nothing the kindly lady had left to proffer even remotely registered as food- there is not enough Pepto Bismal in the world to entice me to eat jerk chicken from a cart. 

So we roamed the place for a while like a couple of hungry dogs, until finally giving up and trudging into the music venue- where, Heaven be praised, we got friendly like with a couple delicious right off the grill burgers and all was well with the world again.

We found a primo supreemo spot amongst the electric palm trees over looking pretty little Gotham and got ready for the show, which did not disappoint! (Except that Dawn And The Hound's set was much too short.)  They did play "Straight Lines", though, which pretty much made my century.

 (Cutest concert outfit ever! Where do you even find something so awesome?)

And, oh, Justin Townes Earle! Lord how I love his music. However, I've got to say- this was the first time I heard him live and there is just something strongly disingenuous about his onstage persona. 

Unfortunately by the time Mr Ritter took the stage I wasn't feeling so hot and we decided that since we both had to work in the morning we might as well set sail for home.

 Post Edit: One thing that I absolutely adore about the quirky Dr Ackerman is that whenever we're going to the beach, instead of wearing a t-shirt or other casual wear, he dons khaki cargos and a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Best outfit ever. (Does it remind you of Ethan Crane? It reminds me of Ethan Crane, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that ever watched that show.) 

You can stand me up at the gates of Hell, but I won't back down

From Young Folks:

"It doesn't matter where we're going.

It doesn't matter what we do.

We'll just stick around

and see this life through." I think that may be my favorite cover ever.

Nope actually, this song is:

-----------------post edit-------------------------

My senior class voted Tom Petty's "Free Falling" to be the graduation song. awesome. Btw, the vids posted above aren't much for the watching, but the tunes are sweeeeet.

less is more

I want one of those big gold necklaces that are popular with Latina chicks, but instead of spelling out my name I want it to read

"I'm aware you have an opinion

but I'm not interested in hearing it."

I don't know if the flea market jeweler will be able to fit all that in though, so maybe I should just get one that says "hush!".

Hmmm, my latina-jewlery-advice-dodging plan smacks of bad attitude, so maybe I should just stick with my old aversion tactic that's as follows; anytime someone starts in on me for something random, or goes on unwarranted advice tirades, or is really negative, or just makes me uncomfortable in any way, I try to find something (positive) about them to talk about. It works. every time. because the only thing obnoxioius people love more than giving someone a hard time is talking about themselves.

"You shouldn't eat dried pineapple- they preserve it with sulphur dioxide, you know. I only buy organic. You should shop at WholeFoods. "

"WOW you shop at WholeFoods, you must live in town, I bet you love living in the center of everything, how's your parking situation?".

Obnoxious tirade ended and further food snobbery averted.

(Sulphur dioxide is completely harmless and naturally occurring btw.)

Do you know what else annoys me and drives me crazy and thrills me and gives me absolute peace? painting. Here's a new one. I'm not sure how she fits into the "Fierce Flora" theme. Meticulous flora, studious flora, somber flora- any would be more appropriate I think.

You probably can't tell, but it's a close up of a Peony- my absolute favorite of all flowers.

They are such silly flowers- big round blossoms on skinny stalks you soak in warm water to open. A sensible flower would die in warm water, but peonies just blossom and smell like heaven.

Where you gonna go with a heart that gone?

I've been sorting my Earthly possessions into three categories:

Boxes= keep

(Favorite clothes, expensive art supplies- liquefied pumice ain't cheap ya know- finished paintings, books I could read more than once, and doodles from my doctor.)

Garbage bags= throw away

(Failed art projects, things I always said I'd fix but I know deep down I won't, shoes I loved the soles right off of, a million miscellaneous things I gathered as art supplies but which now must return to their true identity as garbage- broken calculators I'm talking to you- and clothes simultaneously luxuriously comfortable yet so ugly a hobo would be embarrassed to be seen in public in them- Legends of the Confederacy t-shirt, that means you

 Bags with a ribbon tied on= give away

(Books I bought that never quite made it into my heart- don't worry Watership Down, you're safe-a warm but ugggly man's wool coat I got at a flea market before I got my down-filled LL Bean dream, extra sunglasses,  clothes that are too small, too trendy, too uncomfortable, or "unlucky"- if I have a really bad day in a particular shirt I will almost never wear it again- weird, I know, but that's how it's been since middle school. Maybe for someone else, my cute cable knit tan sweater won't be such a bane.) 

Purging my possessions always takes me back to the other times I've been through this- in distant places, basements, foreign countries, trying to convince myself I won't miss my junk, like I won't miss the friends I've made or the family members left behind, like I won't miss my favorite local restaurants, and all the other things you take for granted when you live someplace long enough to get comfortable. Orthodox Jewish little boys on skateboards, there are none of you anywhere else I've lived. Doorman who is crazy about Radar, who ALWAYS asks if it's OK to pet him even though we see you every single day, it cracks me up how you always want to hug my white dog even though you wear a solid black suit and end up covered  in dog hair- I would take you with us. But I can't; you and the kosher deli and the hipster Brooklynites will all be staying here in NYC.

with one third of my stuff.

If this song doesn't get your feet stomping, then you're probably a robot, which is also cool. 

**********************Post Edit*************************************

Holy run-on-sentences Batman! I think I must be channeling Jack Kerouac.

I get points for using public transportation, right?

"Karate Kid, A-Team the movie, Robocop Reborn, The Tron movie; what next, Captain Planet The Movie?"

"Wouldn't be the worst callback film."

"Actually, I loved that show! I reeeeaaalllly wanted to be a planeteer, and save dolphins and stuff."

"Funny, cause you're the one that leaves all the lights on and runs the shower for half an hour before getting in.

I guess you kind of took that whole planeteer thing in the opposite direction, huh?"  

 

I was looking for the Captain Planet theme song- what I found was chilling evidence of how the Gulf oil spill really happened.

Also, I never realized that Whoopi Goldberg was Gaia.