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October 27, 2009

the 90's called, they want their blog post back

I recently went looking for a bit of arcane web bits and found half my life tucked away in a corner of the internet.

Let's look at some of my web doings - c. late 90's At the time I had just purchased my first (and only, so far) house, tended towards going to Paris a couple times a year, and had recently gone to Istanbul and Helsinki.

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Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.
-Charles Dickens

I ramble a lot about travel. Travel is life blood, but behind the willingness and psychic ability to travel is a very distinct sense of home. I could never take off on a whim, I don't think, unless there was something to return to. I suppose, if I didn't feel grounded, I would probably still take that trip but I wouldn't be back here writing about it. I would stay gone, probably looking for someplace which did fit the bill of 'home'. I suppose it's a bit Dorothy-like to get sentimental about it -- and generally I don't know if I would -- but I am on the verge of buying my first house and for me at least there is an incredible amount of fear (egad the prices!) and excitement. But it also makes you look pretty hard at what you need to feel that you have a home. I sat down with a real estate agent and had to do a pretty clear-cut list of priorities so she'd know what I wanted. What they don't tell you is that it sort of helps, but in the end, first time home buying is as much an emotional decision as any relationship.

And buying as a single person feels a little like bungee jumping. I don't have a ton of money, I am just taking what I have and seeing where it will take me. And it's certainly not into the huge loft space overlooking my 5 acres. It's a tiny house in an older neighborhood. I hope that one day I will be able to spend some years in France, maybe in the hills near where Chagall lived and created his masterpiece windows and where Matisse designed one of the most lovely churches I have ever seen. But very likely I will visit those places and not live there.


The latest issue of Architectural Digest has some really great retrospective sections. There are pages of quotes from writers on their sense of home with some ranging into their sense of self/being. It's really not as pretentious as it sounds. There are also some charming pictures of artists. The photos of Calder, Chagall, and Frankenthaler are my favorites. They are photos which are so charming, and have a nice sense of person and place about them. Art and books are good company, and while they don't rub your back, or go to movies with you, there is a certain sense of continuity that they provide which I enjoy.

And I think what makes home an actively good entity for me is my friends and animals. Having people sit around the kitchen, or reading with cats on my lap watching the fish swim is pretty ideal.

One of the biggest surprises about travel for me is that it is possible to find home, small pieces of it, elsewhere. Not everywhere, but there are places. I didn't find home in London, but certainly in the south of France, in a small country bed and breakfast the room was home. The furniture was sparse but solid, the bed was like my grandmother's, the linens were linen, and tucked away in that place, there was no need to be anywhere else in the world. There was something similar in Istanbul. Even in the heat of the summer in a very different world from the one I am used to, after meeting up with friends (and after traveling halfway around the world alone) and sitting on the balcony drinking warm beer and looking out at the Bosphorus, it was home. The feeling extended into even the weirdest parts of that trip. As sappy as it sounds, as long as you are living in the moment, home can travel with you to some extent.


"I think maybe the dream house idea was the last unrealistic fantasy I gave up. The dream career, the dream husband, the dream children, all turned out to be specifically themselves, often wonderful, sometimes maddening, always real. No dream I ever had when I was young of my future family was nearly as interesting as they have turned out to be. Now here I live where I've ended up, down in the valley rather than up on the mountaintop, on three acres rather than thirty, surrounded by furniture rather than "pieces", listening to the forced air blow through the pipes rather than feeling the radiance shine up through my feet. One dog is sacked out on the carpet, the other is coming in through the sliding door from the deck. It's Sunday, and things could be a lot tidier around here. I know that when I get up and go into the kitchen, teens foraging for breakfast will have left every cabinet door open. All of this is thoroughly real and thoroughly OK. The fact is that the house where these moments come together is the best dream of all, the one you never knew you were going to have.
-- Jane Smiley from Dream House

August 04, 2006

Story 3 of 3, not *really* sure where 2 went.

There *was* a story number 2. I had plans. Now, some weeks later, that has apparently been overridden, or more likely, abducted. But I remember number 3, for the rest of my life I will remember number3.

The story is PROOF OF ALIENS

We recently decided to get the trim on the house painted. B. knew a guy through work, so that's who we hired. Like all contractors he has disappeared 3/4 of the way through, but I've also found that to be a requirement of being a contractor. I digress.

One weekend he was here painting (a lovely Benjamin Moore shade of olive-y sage green). And we were talking in the yard. We were talking about where we had lived, how we ended up doing what we are doing. I made some comment like "yeah, where are the time machines when you need them".

He became animated, he said, BUT THERE ARE TIME MACHINES! "You know how people see UFOs? Those aren't flying saucers, or spaceships, they are time machines coming back from the future. The aliens are just people from the future. I've been abducted more times that I can count. Yeah, they take you, then poke you and prod you and stroke you (his words), and then they put you back".

I decided to play along. "Really, that's crazy, but how do you know?"

Mr Painter continues "Oh, I'm positive of it, and the thing that gives them away? They don't know how zippers work. When they put your clothes back on they never know how to zip up pants. I can't TELL you how many times I've been walking around and found my fly down. Those motherfuckers abducted me again."

You see why this story stuck.

June 28, 2006

What I do at work.


I took those foam things (there were many in a hallway) and hoarded them into someone else's office. All day I've been saying "don't throw those away! I HAVE A PLAN!!!!"

This is, apparently, what I get for being crazy having a plan. (They also work as pants, shirts and furniture in addition to hats).

June 02, 2006

that time of the year


i had the most lovely birthday weekend. So nice that there's always a holiday for my birthday. mostly pretty low key, but some visiting (with n8w and his lovely wife), some yard work, some lounging. took a little road trip (the photo was on the ferry), which of course involved yarn (yay! i've finally been to churchmouse on bainbridge), on the day itself, and went to fabulous soul food with the ever most fabulous and wonderful man that i get to live with, and ms. masie plum drinkwater and her hubbo.

lately just crazy busy and haven't managed to be witty here.

more wit soon.

March 12, 2006

plague of frogs and milky pork butt

the management has been going on about his (pork) butt, and sent examples of other people cooking their butts similarly. so, as i type this, my butt is braising in milk.

i'll stop with that now. but it's true that this recipe has been an ongoing topic around the ranch, and also that i currenty am attempting it, the crockpot is doing it's slow-cooker thing.

and in ongoing whining, or pending lack thereof, i promise to not whine about my backpain anymore if this effin' cough would go away! jaysus. it's really a horrid cough up your lungs and shake the windows kind of thing. i feel good oher than the perpetual near-puking coughing. i will be good. please g*d. granted pork with milk is about as un-kosher as you get, although i've never been jewish. and i'm not much of anything, and i don't believe in G-g*d. so that's probably not going to work, but i'll throw it out there. please just make the frogs go away.

it's a gorgeous day and i'm watching it from inside. bleh. bleh.

February 18, 2006

mmrrmm hellllllooooooooooo

time, the universe, reactions, and particularly knitting tend to slow down when combined with prescription narcotics.

i didn't really want vicodin proper, i kind of liked the vicodin-lite that b. had left over from something else. it really helped with the pain, but didn't make me loopy. or, as sis-in-law would say, it wouldn't send me on a vi-cation. so i asked the doctor (via the phone in rx line) for just enough vico-lite to last until tuesday when i have my appointment, at which point we could discuss pain management further. it's somewhat of a crap shoot on whether or not you get your prescription called in when you call the doc on a friday, but they did call it in. b. was nice enough to go pick it up today. he looked at it when he got home and said "uh, you didn't get the fakey vicodin". ruh-roh. i was almost as concerned about too much as too little. i get tired of being in a vico-haze. but, as it happens, that's where i'll be. probably just as well at least for the weekend. i need to be able to walk come monday.
the beginnings of baby blue jeans from knitty
i've cast on for the baby blu jeans which are perfectly easy and i don't mind the denim yarn nearly as much as i thought i would. i have to say, i may take the route that many i know have gone - only knit baby stuff! it's so much faster! you can finish projects in a weekend instead of a month and a half.

so, i recline, knit a little, nap a little. i did get up long enough to make coffee, do dishes and vaccuum (which was the absolute limit to uptime), here at chez talkingcrow, it's mostly naps with buck. i will now cave into a foggy nap for a little while.

February 16, 2006

ow ow ow

my back is killing me. i look like i'm 80 when i walk. crap. historically this would be time for MRI and surgery, but i'm hoping to skip that fun because they said if they had to do surgery again it wouldn't be the easy kind. need to find a physical therapist. and probably do the MRI anyway. feh.

in other news... well, there really is no other news. i need to finish some knitting ASAP, and will provide pics soon, but i'm kind of groggy and work is busy. work, for those of you following along is great. i like this gig, like the team, etc etc. although we're moving offices soon and given the way things go i'll probably still have 2 officemates in a tiny room only i probably won't be able to see outside across the hall. but the first lesson here a long time ago was not to worry about offices. it will always change again soon.

p.s. buck is hanging in there, doing just fine with his new look and pierced ear.


February 05, 2006

sock goes driving


so in honor of the first day of sunshine in more than a life time in seattle we went for a drive. to look at property. on the islands. i have this ongoing fantasy of having waterfront property in the outskirts of seattle. today we drove out to a rural island and tried to find a llisting i saw online - 2.5 acres, 165' of waterfront. the reality was we didn't find it, and we slogged through ankle deep icewater probably across the road from the actual property only to figure out we really weren't in the right place. but it's a quiet and peaceful island with no businesses. that's kind of cool.

the sock went too. it sat with the GPS for awhile. one day it will be whole.

we got to the superbowl party after a) it was over and b) everyone was totally trashed. sometimes it is sort of entertaining to be the sober one. sometimes.



we saw the poster king


we went to jay ryan's show a couple of weeks ago. although we missed l'anniqua and company (but did catch up with them at sushi) we did hear his talk about his book and the slide show of silk screeny goodness.

we had every intention of doing our own art for this wall, but alas...



November 09, 2005

details of a life

Grace is gone. Work is changing. Although working for a dotcom does have its moments...

This morning:
MrBoss: Fuck you!
Me: and Fuck you!
Mrboss: why do you have on fuck me shoes?
Me: dude, just a different pair of shoes today. they're just boots.
Followed by Mrboss IM'ing me links to all the porny books he could find on Amazon. And yet another conversation focused things to do to one's ass. And ponies. It's really not a bad place. That was a good day. Hey I got to ride the Segway around. (for those of you freaking out, don't. it's really fine.) However, I'm leaving that for another scheduled appointment. And soon I will not be working two jobs. That will be nice too.


Listening:
Citizen Cope, The Clarence Greenwood Recordings
Crystal Method, Tweekend
Clem Snide

Reading (read: when i'm in the tub i get to glance at):
Tell me Why
Knitting for Anarchists
Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work

October 26, 2005

if he'd get home we could open the damned things


ipod
Originally uploaded by talkingcrow.
just got a pair of 60 gig video ipods today via fedex.

that was the splurge. the rest of the silly class action money goes to more responsible things.

and i'm so NOT impressed with the PC version of setting up an airport express. the only word in my head is motherfucker. it's a lovely thing once done, but i'm just short of breaking things. with a hammer.

in other news, hopefully the bathroom will be done very soon. otherwise the house and party guests are going to have to pee in the basement like the rest of us.