Of High Flyers and Clouds

It is well within the '09 Hurricane season and I am longing to be a stormchaser. Longing, I tell you! I have the attention span of a doorstop.

We watched the long-delayed Space Shuttle launch last night in the middle of the street, wearing our pajamas (such as they were) and I was so happy to see a clear night. The shuttle was a small burning gash above the tall pines across the street. People were carelessly driving by, unaware (despite my motioning skyward) that history was blinking at us. It actually was a beautiful sight--the separation of booster and shuttle was clearly visible--finally winking out after a "go go go!" prayer. There won't be many more opportunities ...

I remember the first shuttle landing so well. Chris was training as an Air Force Pilot at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Tx. I was in our apartment in town watching the tv by myself, when I heard the mailman out in the hallway stuffing the boxes. The shuttle was starting a descent, shadowed by T-38s (which Chris would later instruct in) and I didn't want to spend the big moment alone. I ran out to get the mailman and told him he HAD to come and see this and he ran back with me moments before it landed. I think I was holding my breath the whole time. It was a beautiful sigh of relief and wonder. The mailman stood, shook my hand, and thanked me for making him come watch. What a world. I am still starry-eyed.

And speaking of High Flyers, here is a tour-de-force ( so happy to use that phrase in a sentence!) by the amazing Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane. Keep asking questions, my friends, and Feed Your You Know What!

Saving My Nuts!

Back from the abyss. Time to take stock of what I have accumulated and look for some new goals. Renewing my adherence to the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle, I promise to get my self back on the Path. Don't we all feel like this little guy from time to time? Since I have been resting and have a license to take it easy, there is a new priority of how busy I need to be. I can just say no as well as anyone else. And it gives me more time for my investigations!

Note to M. Obama: Establish a group to work on the New American Renaissance, which will encourage artists and industry to work hand in hand in creating useful, well-made, form following function, practical, products that will stand the test of time and not be considered disposable, as so much out at the big box stores is. And make it here! from American resources! By American Hands! In a new craftmanship that will rival the early Craftman's/Frank LLoyd Wright movement. Breathe. Discuss.

Just finished Dolores Stewart Riccio's "Divine Circle of Ladies Playing with Fire." Yummy. It's a series, start from the beginning!

Much anticipated movies to come for Moi:

District 9

The Fourth Kind

Johnny Depp as Tonto in The Lone Ranger

HP and the You Know What

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Childhood's End

Rendezvous With Rama.......

kinda itchy to start something....

Rainy Roads

Sitting in the car listening to the slap and dash of the window wipers, I was tempted to roll down the windows and inhale that hot wet pavement aroma so typical in the Florida summers. Traffic was moving in it's usual uneven rhythm when I became aware that the song in my head matched the beat of the wipers. Then it seemed as if there was a pattern to the dance, all in the sweep of Miss Whitney Houston's voice. Not being much of a multi-tasker, it was everything I could do to find the volume button on the radio and try to read the station numbers. She soared and swung and the dashboard would have filled with fireworks if it was possible.

I was in the moment with her, and then it became the moment you have when a great song is on the radio and you need to turn the key in the ignition to off. So upon arriving home, I looked up Miss Diva and imported her so that I would never lose that song again. Here is a version she did at an awards ceremony in Africa. She just owns the room.

Just got my personally designed Keds from Zazzle this week, and am I happy over the way they turned out! Mermaids will be on my next design, since I also have a Bee version out there. I am impressed with the amazing variety of things you can print on! All suggestions welcome.

Tonight I will start reading Dolores Stewart Riccio's latest Circle book, and hopefully finish Frank Scully's classic "Behind the Flying Saucers". Scully wrote it in 1950, and tho it has been attacked as a hoax and debunkers have a field day with it, it remains as fresh today as when it came out. Surely Scully's name was borrowed for the X-files....

Do I sound ridiculously upbeat? Or is it true that my balloon never lands...one day I will wake up buried from the neck down on a beach filled with crabs and the tide coming in...this lovely life of mine being but a dream. But in the meantime, life is beautiful, except when it's not....

Look to the Skies!

Change the World

What's that I hear? You want to save the world? Make it worth saving first! One volunteer moment at a time. Baby steps, my homepeeps, baby steps. We can all do something better.

So tomorrow night is the reception at the Rising Sun Cafe in B-ville, and I will publicly unveil my "Backstage Pass." Done. On to tomatoes and tornados....a new weather theme for my cycle.

Ahhhhhhh. I could sleep for a month if the dogs didn't need to go out so much. Miss Bandit is not feeling well so keeping an eye on her yardly habits is fun in the dark. Where are the fireflies this year? I have been looking for ufos and the northern lights, but alas, only little piles in the yard have been found underfoot.

Dad and Momita will be coming down for a few months so lucky me! Get the sisters together! Wish the kids were here... Sky mentioned a possible visit in Florida at some point. Chris is having a wedding soon. Congrats to him for graduating as a Martial Arts Instructor for the Marines! Good stuff.

Torchwood: Children of Earth knocked me out. Best ever of the series, just fantastic writing and an all out thriller. Finished "The Physick Book of Deliveranse Dane" well done. It will be a happy Halloween this year with all the reading I have lined up. Spooky stuff.

la la la.... me.

All Good Things

Don't complete that sentence. I have had a great week, (knocking on wood) filled with kid's activities and painting stuff. This was the Children's Advocacy Center Art Camp week, and as the first to do the roundup, comic book art was on the agenda. I think for the most part they Got it! I would have been happy to share my intimate knowledge of the lives of superheroes all day, but trying to get them to contain stories into 3 separate rectangles was the deed of the day. My theory was : panel 1 contains something that has Happened.

panel 2 contains hmm, should I tell someone about it?

panel 3 contains I am telling someone.

Well, getting the darlings to conceive of a happening was tricky. Miss Jennifer, the therapist, had been discussing when it is a good time to trust your instinct (in not so many words) and go to a person of trust. She referred to good secrets (surprise parties) and bad secrets (bullying) as examples. Still in a quandary to think of an example, I said "What if a ufo landed next door. Would you want to tell someone about it or would you keep it a secret?" Obviously there is a rash of abductions going on around here because everybody had a story! It was so funny, and so amazing to see their wheels turning. Creative, spontaneous, shy, stuff. I am humbled by them. And grateful to have had Lynne and Evie standing by to pitch in where needed.

Lynne's day was yesterday. Awesome! A natural at getting their attention (which is half the battle) and a great organized presentation. We all had fun with her project. It is a cryin' shame that art has been eliminated from some schools here. The arts community has offered to present some options in the past, but nothing solid has come of it. Yet.

Weeki Wachee will be hanging my latest piece, an acrylic painting, called "Backstage Pass." It will go in the banquet room, thank you very much! and I am so honored and pleased and Thrilled to be in the park. Oh yeah, and ARTIST IN REZ! Yep. good week.

To top off the celebration, Rhonda and I ate a ton of candy at the premiere of Harry Potter this afternoon. We have more in common every day... Love of all things Harry, being one of them, and this one was too short for me...I think I would like to re-edit the film, personally, since there was less dialogue than I would have liked. but the effects were interesting and the casting of the Tom Riddles was perfect. November 2010 for the next one is way too long.

Life is good....still the luckiest person on Earth!

Just Around the Corner

It's just past the 4th of July, and I can sniff the beginnings of hurricanes and marching bands practicing for the fall. I have a personal request for you high school band people out there--I want to hear a version of Kelly Clarkson's " Walkaway" from a marching band on a grassy field on a warm autumn afternoon. With all the pings and heavy beats. I dare ya.

I'm finishing up a new piece, called "Backstage Pass" which may define my slightly fantastic yet colorful way of looking at underwater scenery. Just can't take the world close up. More on that soon, I will be getting prints of this one...

Ok, I'm just gonna say it. Sometimes being a military mom sucks. All the parades and the fireworks and nobody's at the table this Sunday night. Don't know if I will get to see them before the end of the year, or next year or ever. I just ache to hold them and smell their necks and run my hands over their hair. And to see them come home from work still in their uniforms tired and frustrated and proud and hungry.

I am missing my sons and daughters a whole lot. Just makes me busier. which is good, but I would trade in my brushes for an afternoon with the gang around the table..... with all the dogs, past and present. With the stormy season coming I think back on a night in Denver when Johnny Depp's "Sleepy Hollow" was on. It was raining and windy, the downdrafts were chilling through the open windows. We watched Christopher Walken ride his horse into the tree trunk and I wanted the night to go on forever. Of course, Chris and Sky probably don't remember that night, preoccupied with other things going on, but I am so glad to have had real Halloween weather and really cool kids to eat popcorn and scarify with. Life has gotten scary for real now. Wish I could eat popcorn with them now...

Hmm lotta this is about eating. hmmmm

Further Adventures!

Exciting news, People of the Spring! Manysisters is on the way to earning her tail! I went down to find out about scuba classes and get a time for possible snorkeling, when the divemaster at Weeki said how 'bout now? and I said yes! (having all my gear with me just in case, and no, I wasn't wearing flippers in the park) So I went fresh from my snorkel initiation from my husband, Chris, an aquaman from the Miami days, and happily walked the plank into the DEEP HOLE!!!!! It was gorgeous! So refreshing! COLD. and clear, so clear....the second picture is the edge of the mermaid stage. It is kinda hard for me to hold a camera still, so bear with me until I get it figured out. Lotsa material for art work! Okay, so now I have to get a great bathing suit and work on diving with the snorkel. Allen, the dive guy, may be giving Chris and I some scuba lessons in the near future. At 57 I am finding a whole new world. Right down the street! It was so beautiful, so natural, All I kept thinking was why hadn't I done this before?!

Calm down and breathe...