[Go ahead and say it, I know, "hopeless romantic," but you have to admit - that is really good.]

I have a library in my office desk drawer.  I kid you not.  Monday, I read Outliers on the bus.  The same Tueday morning.  By lunch, I pulled it out of my purse and dropped it in my drawer... every few ounces helps when you're running around Seattle.  Monday evening, I had no book to read on my way home.  Dangit, left in the drawer.  Tuesday morning, faced with the prospect of another bookless-bus-ride, I stared at my bookshelf.  A Movable Feast was dropped into the bag, and off I went.  But lunchtime, it joined the first book in the drawer. And that evening, once again I forgot, and faced another bookless commute. 

This morning, I was late because of all the books and journals/ magazines I kept dropping in and pulling back out of my purse.  In the end, Visioneering joined the others in the drawer.  My drawer is full and getting tricky to close. Not to mention, I'm going to need to figure out how to transfer these back home in phases.

Most of you are thinking "WHAT?" ...but one of you is terrified.  

And for that one sheep... I will post.  

And for the rest of the sheep, I simply apologize, but the joy of having a blog is in the fact that one day you might feel like posting pictures of robots, and you can.  And you can. 

Definitely that cool.

Me and HP at the gym. 

What have you learned lately?

Yesterday I learned what a "glulam" is.  And how to format a "gutter" in Microsoft Word.  I'd like to learn something new every day - truly learn.  Small or big.  Grow. Change.  Advance.  Improve my skill.  Specialize.

Because one day, I'd like to be a specialist at something I love.  Know all about it, everything.  Be a resource. 

If it's been a while since you've learned something new... A few interesting lectures are coming up in Seattle.  Because my dad will probably panic about my posting these, I will hereby give the disclaimer to any and all potential stalkers that I do not necessarily have any plans to attend any of these.  That said, they look cool and I really wanted to share them.  So should any of these topics tickle your fancy, please go and enjoy a free lecture. 


Historic Seattle event on Dard Hunter

Image courtesy of Pomegranate Communications [enlarge]Lawrence Kreisman of Historic Seattle will give a free lecture about his new book entitled “Dard Hunter: The Graphic Works” at 7 p.m. April 18 at Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave.

Hunter was a designer, craftsman, printer, typographer and paper maker who explored new ideas and adapted avant-garde German and Austrian Secession concepts into graphic design.
A book signing will follow the lecture, with some proceeds benefitting Historic Seattle.

----

The History of Seattle Architecture
1880-2000s: Two Lectures by Professor Jeffrey Karl Ochsner
Co-sponsored by The Seattle Public Library
The two lectures will provide an overview of 130 years of Seattle's architectural history, beginning about 1880 (when the city's population was only 3500 people) and extending to the present day. The lectures will address broad architectural and urban developments, a range of building types and stylistic directions, and the major architects who shaped the architecture of the city and region. Each lecture will run about 90 minutes allowing time at the end for questions.
Jeffrey Karl Ochsner FAIA has taught at the University of Washington for over 22 years. He is the author, co-author or editor of three books and numerous articles addressing Seattle's architectural and urban history.

Professor Ochsner's books will be available for sale from Elliott Bay Book Company and he will stay after his lecture to autograph them.

Upcoming Event Dates

Saturday, April 14, 1-3pm Part I, 1880s-1930s

Saturday, April 21, 1-3pm Part II, 1940s-2000s

Location: Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Central Library, 4th & Madison Entrance

Cost: FREE. No registration required.

Tip: These lectures are very popular. Please plan to arrive early to ensure

Feed your art

beauty

&passion

in nature

&culture

in people

&places

stories

&faces

paintings

&poems

and lost shoelaces.

Esther was talking at lunch about this book she's reading.  She was sharing about the artist and 'stealing' and what not.  It is always a tricky subject for artists... none of us are autonomous in art.  Yet, how and where and to what degree do we knowingly permit the art of others to influence our own?  I tend to hate copying.  And being copied, for the sake of copying.  I love seeing people do things that they thought up themselves, or that naturally flow out of their personal taste and interests, not as a product of mass media and fashion.

That said....I decided to try a little stealing. The problem with that is, very often the original is still far better. 

I guess my hair was better for trying.  I'd tried doing a couple other creative things, but when they all fell apart (literally) and the clock was five past when I should be leaving... I decided to attempt what I'd seen and admired.  Why not?

You wanna know what gets me on Facebook  FAST? 

Kimberly Keith mentioned you in a comment.



Kimberly wrote: "My sister needs to marry this dude (@Katrina Hope)"

If you have a sister... and if she's anything like mine, you know that on the right day that post could have been written anywhere... on anyone's wall.  This is the sister who decided I needed to marry a guy at her church in Tennessee.  She conspired with his cousin (who was her friend... I'll give her that), started stalking his blog and Facebook - sending me photos and updates.  And had never talked to the guy in person.  Seriously!  A year or more and her first real conversation with him was when I came to visit when he walked up outside after church.  I wanted to tell him right there "My sisters been stalking you for a year." But somehow, I felt his cousin had already been planting her own thoughts in the situation as well.  So yes, when I wake up to this email, I'm quick to check what she is up to. 

Kimmers, Love you. Mean it. :)

New York Times article on the trend in office spaces.... I would not mind working in the new Gates Foundation building.  Not one bit.

...The building was designed by NBBJ, a 700-employee architecture firm whose largest operation is in Seattle. The structure is a culmination of ideas about the 21st-century workplace that NBBJ has been exploring in corporate office designs worldwide, including its own offices here.

These are the main concepts: Buzz — conversational noise and commotion — is good. Private offices and expressions of hierarchy are of debatable value. Less space per worker may be inevitable for cost-effectiveness, but it can enhance the working environment, not degrade it. Daylight, lots of it, is indispensable. Chance encounters yield creative energy. And mobility is essential.

This isn’t a suddenly exploding trend. NBBJ’s research has found that two-thirds of American office space is now configured in some sort of open arrangement. But even as these designs save employers space and money, they can make office workers feel like so many cattle. So how to humanize the setting?

SEATTLE serves as a test tube because of several converging factors: There’s a lot of money here to experiment with projects. The work force is relatively young and open to innovation. And the local culture places a high value on informality, autonomy and egalitarianism. People will put in long hours under high pressure if they feel respected, but they won’t tolerate being treated like Dilberts...

[ Go read the whole article and look at the amazing photos here. Seriously]

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold. 

— Zelda Fitzgerald

. 

I wonder how many people I have looked at all my life and never seen. 

— John Steinbeck, East Of Eden

. 

Seattle's DJC today told me a little something that made me smile - it might make you smile too.  The foundation is getting laid! :)

Manson Construction Co. is laying the foundation for a 175-foot-tall Ferris wheel that will sit at the end of Pier 57 on the Seattle waterfront.



The contractor has been working since January, driving 53 150-foot-long steel piles into the bottom of Elliott Bay. The 36-inch-diameter piles are being filled with concrete, and construction of the cap beams, which lay across the piles, is under way.

Manson project manager Simon Johnston said about three to four weeks of foundation work remain. An erection company will begin setting up the Ferris wheel in early May.

The wheel is manufactured by Chance Morgan of Wichita, Kan. Great Western Pacific, which owns the pier, is paying for the project.

Great Western Vice President Kyle Griffith told the DJC in 2010 that the wheel will help attract customers to waterfront businesses while the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Elliott Bay seawall projects are under way.

The Ferris wheel will have 42 gondolas with heating and air conditioning. The Associated Press reports that the wheel will extend 40 feet from the end of Pier 57, so riders on that side will be suspended over Elliott Bay.

Hal Griffith, the owner of Great Western Pacific, told KING-TV the Ferris wheel should be spinning this June.

Happy Monday Morning.

Hope you find yourself in good company...

I know you all want another picture of my poor little blue toe right now, but too bad.  You're not going to get it.

This little piggy went to market, This little piggy stayed at home, This little piggy had roast beef, This little piggy had none. And this little piggy went... "Wee wee wee" all the way home...

According to this site, the first publication date of this nursery rhyme was 1728.  That's simply publication.  I took a couple classes on Folklore, and I must say it's highly amazing and interesting how fairytales and folklore get passed from generation to generation in different cultures.

Completely random post?   I know.

Have a favorite fairytale, folk song or story?   Any that you grew up with your parents or even grandparents telling you?   I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I’m one of them.
— Ray Bradbury

About this time of year everything begins to change about "coming home."

The car may be in the drive, but the house is empty.  I walk in the front door and can smell it - the back yard.  The kitchen door is open, the heat from mom's tea garden (our "beer garden") pouring into the kitchen like her tea into a porcelain cup.  The afternoon sun sneaks in through the lace curtains.  This is my home in the summer.  A peak down that dark stairway shows you the back door is wide open - always is.  Mom's hands are buried deep in dirt somewhere.  Dinner won't be ready until 9pm - or much later, once the sun has gone down and she's remembered herself.  By then, the frogs have come out.  I don't always remember there being so many frogs at night, it seems to have happened over the past few years.  Two nights ago I stood at my door and just listened.  It's spring and even the ponds have remembered how to sing. Me and the stars, we listened.

The job of a main character is not to be perfect.  It is not to handle everything as you would, think as you would, process as you would, or choose as you would.  In fact, the power of fiction is more in the capacity of the main character to choose other than you - be other than you - and for you to learn to deal with it, learn from it and grow from it.  It is called empathy.  Connect.  And learn to connect even when the other is not you.  Hopefully you find them engaging, hopefully they arouse your respect at moments, your heart perhaps even.... but their job is not to be your perfect.  So don't judge a book based on whether or not you wanted to teach the main character.  Perhaps their purpose was to teach you, or make you realize you think you know better and have a terrible tendency toward pride. You walked away judging the book, but it'd already judged you.

That said, I feel better. 

6/25

.

Breakfast,

for the days you want dessert... at 9am.

Thank you Specialtys.

I just want to come alive.
Explode.
Ignite.
Set something in motion.
Trip a wire.
Light a fire. 

Burn all the crap.
Find the fuse.
And do the thing I think "living" was actually meant to be.

How are those for some verbs? 

.

Cute, right?

It just keeps getting better. ;)

Oh hey,

5/25

*last week, I finally put Gulliver's Travels behind me.  Learned a lot.  But didn't love it.

I plan on purchasing these immediately. 

New iphone and laptop cases.  How cute are these?!

by

Byrd & Bell



What an unbelievable dream?! 
This year I will ride on a sailboat. 
But someday, I will lounge in the sunshine with my love and play chess and sip cold beverages on a sailboat for hours. 

I wouldn't mind if that sailboat was ours.  :)  Or if that someday were soon.

;)

I got cleated in the first few minutes of last night's game.  I've been cleated plenty of times before, but the extra weight and strength of guys make this a bit of a new experience.  He dove in for the ball, and instead got my foot.  I'm starting to think I might need to get that little chubby blue toe an x-ray, but I'm on a more recent streak to not waste money and medical bills seem to be the fastest way to throw your money away on nothing!  At least he apologized after. : / 

Despite the foot - and the final score -  I had a great time playing last night.  Sometimes you're on and some nights you're off.  Last night, I felt pretty on.  I'm out of shape and found myself exhausted when I should be finishing, but I also was loving feeding balls through to the guys.  And I'm happy to say Erik finally put one of them away (finally! :P).

It is hardly even April, and my mom has added two new gardens to the yard.  What's next?  I'm sure the pond will be experiencing its annual upgrade soon. ;) 

Okay.  Here it is.  The weekend before last, I found my dream apartment.  For a fantastic price.  Exposed brick wall, hardwood floors, cool big arched window, bathroom, loft above living room, WITH a bedroom, parking spaces, kitchen, and even w/d in unit.  It was in Fremont, and $1000/month.  Are you thinking what I should have been?  Yep.  Scam.  It was.  Unfortunately, I was totally taken in.  There photos and it all looked so legit.  They didn't even give me all of those incredible details right away, it sort of turned into something unreal over a couple days. And they'd been emailing with me setting up a time to come see the space and all.  It was the grace of God that I happened to google the address and specifics when I heard I didn't get it.  I just wanted to know the name of the complex so I could keep an eye out for future openings. 

And what pulled up - a Fraud Warning from Craigslist.  Awesome.  I spent a few hours on Wednesday cancelling credit cards, placing fraud warnings on my credit reports and getting over the fact that my dream apartment didn't actually exist - at least not for a price I could afford.  All that hit on the day before a huge proposal was due at work too.  It made for one very long week. 

Thursday, while walking across downtown to deliver that proposal, I was nearly  hit by a car in a crosswalk.  I saw it coming out of the corner of my eye and JUMPED forward.  The car came so close I could have easily reached out and touched it as it flew by.  She slammed on her breaks and looked back at me - it clearly crossing her face what was crossing my mind - I was almost just dead.  Really.  I walked two blocks to my sister's lobby and burst into sobs as I tried to tell her what happened.  I don't sob people!  It was just too much to happen on day after another. 

So, a week later and I'm really dreaming about moving out.  But also a bit gun shy.  Feel free to keep an eye and ear out for me -  something fantastic in Fremont or Capitol Hill areas.  A studio or one bedroom.  Wood floors.  Dream apartment would include brick, and great windows.  Send them my way people.  You know, if you want. ;)  

"Most people spend their lives doing activities with poor posture that rounds their lower back. They sit, stand, walk, and exercise round-shouldered and round-backed. This shortens chest and shoulder muscles in front, and over stretches and weakens your back. Like squeezing a water balloon in front, when you round forward, it squeezes the front of your discs between your back bones (vertebrae) above and below the disc." [source]

hunch much?

I have terrible posture. 

 Which only makes certain things worse... in both appearance, and in pain. 

Grrrrrrrrrr.

For years I've had doctors and physical therapists telling me to stretch out my muscles across my chest, pull back my shoulders, stand up straight.  And somehow, I've never been able to improve that darn posture. It's SUCH A BAD HABIT!! Between that, and the odd way I stand... I'm sure that's half of why my back is a mess.  I'm totally going to be that annoying mom constantly telling her kids to stand up straight - and put their shoulders back! Kristin is always accrediting it to me being anxious - it's really just a bad habit.

PS - these are two of my "other big sisters"  - Natalie & Krista - they've been huge influences in my life. 

They were part of Kristin's MC class - Natalie lived with us, and she introduced me to Yeats, Eliot, and bought me my first Shakespeare's Sonnets. She sipped tea and talked to me about literature and mean boys, and taught me how to throw a soft ball. She loved musicals, writing, and me. And she helped me make it through a very tough year - and discover a lot of parts of who I am called to be. Krista has been one of Kristin's best friends for the past decade, and naturally she's been around a lot. Anyone who's met her knows how sweet and wonderful she is. My dad calls her his "Flower Child." She brings out the carefree, kind, loving, slightly-hippy side of me. The girl who loves to dance and be silly and not brush her hair. (Okay, Kristin brings all that out too.) She let's me mix-match my clothes, colors, polish, style and emotions. She's so accepting and sees the beauty that others want to sweeply quick into orderly piles. Like my two blood big sisters, these two women have been huge in giving me space to grow into who I am. They've shown me examples of different qualities I love and want to resemble, they've defended me, and reminded me that I'm something special, in the way only big sisters can. I loved getting to be at each of their weddings. And I loved getting time with them both while in Cali last month. Every so often you need those times with people who've watched you grow up, who know what you've always been about, and who love you from that core.  

Thanks Kristin for sharing your friends with your little sister, and your little sister with your friends. :)



Evidence.

There is someone for everyone.

I have wanted a chocolate lab foreeevvveeer.

Not really, but that is what my family would say out loud the moment I started to say this. And they'd do it with their best impression of me - in junior high. :P Speaking of Junior High, that's about when I decided I wanted a chocolate lab. ;) These little guys are the sweetest little things. And I might as well admit that there is probably some self-conceited bit involved when it comes to me loving their green eyes and dark brown hair. But labs in general are the most playful, loving, kind-hearted dogs I've ever met. I adore them. It doesn't help that every time I visit Kim & Jason in Nashville, I get cuddle and play time with Jeep & Seven - their two beautiful labs. And now, they're shopping for a chocolate one (CJ). Between that, and a recent happening that I might share with you all - which involved my dream apartment and the prospect of me being able to get a dog (a big dog even!), my hearts kind of set back on wanting a lab... today. I definitely had one of two dreams for this stage of my life: married. Or single, with a big dog that I went running with every morning.  Confession: I bought my car because I thought it would be awesome for a dog (and then maybe two kids). In fact, I nearly bought a dog gate for it, before I'd even purchased my car. I was in the middle of emailing back and forth with the owner on Craigslist and realized I was being a bit ridiculous. That was back in 06.  My parents are big pet people - they are just not big pet people. So yes, this dream has always included me moving out... somewhere they'd let me have a (big) dog.  :/ 

So in short, Kim, stop sending me pictures of these sweet things - you've got me googling images of them myself now!! :(

The concert photos below made me think of 10 Things I Hate About You, for some reason.  That was one of my favorite movies in high school.  In college, I wrote a final essay for my Senior Capstone Shakespeare class on the film as an adapatation of The Taming of the Shrew.  Turns out, it's brilliant.  After reading the play several times over, and watching every film adaptation I could find of it over the years, I discovered just how clever the writers of the film were being - the way they'd changed and graphed characters and plot, and why in relation to our culture.  I found clever hidden games they were playing, knowing 98% of their audience never would notice or care. 

All that said, it has me thinking of some of my favorite films over the years. 

Milo & Otis
Turner & Hooch
All Dogs Go To Heaven
The Little Princess
The Great Mouse Detective
The Secret Garden
E.T.
Beauty & The Beast
Aladdin
10 Things I Hate About You
Save The Last Dance
The Notebook
Garden State
Moulin Rouge

.... blanking on most.  What were yours...? The ones you'd watch over and over as a kid, or in highschool. I've made a point to buy most of mine over the past few years.

Shows I didn't love? The ones that when I'd walk into Elise's house and see her cuddled up on the couch with a bag of popcorn watching, I'd dart back out into the sunshine?  Anne of Green Gables and Polyanna.

PS - I'm pretty sure "Itchy" is the reason I still like stinky dogs - like I assume the worse they smell, the sweeter they must really be-  and "Charlie" is why I like trouble makers.  Dangit. 

Also, the most common thing I think I hear when falling in and out of dreams "You can never come back..."  and the line I've sung most times in my head out of nowhere, "Let's make music together.  Let's make sweet harmony." 

Childrens movies.  They can ruin you from the age of three.  Put you on the trajectory to "WEIRD". Watch out.

I think single people fall into thinking that they will suddenly become someone else when they meet the right person.  I've heard it a lot.  Like that person's very presence in your life will suddenly change who you are.  Yes, I am sure they will make you want to be better, they'll inspire you, make you love more and deeper... but you'll still be you.  The you you are today.  There isn't this person you are today and this magical creature you're transformed into when you meet the prince(ss).  If you want to behave a certain way when you meet that person, you'd better start today.  Habits you don't want to have? Start changing them now - because love doesn't magically break habits in seconds.  They are built over years, and they're broken over years. 

Anywho, just a thought.  Stop thinking that when that person walks into your life - they'll somehow change you into who you've been dreaming of being.  They wont.  And there's a good chance, they won't even pay you a second glance - because they aren't looking for the frog that's been dreaming of being turned into a prince.  They're looking for a man (or woman).


You might not think you struggle with this at all - but if you take a better listen into your conversation, you'll probably be surprised to hear hints that it's made its way in to your thinking.  I don't know how or why, but we all seem to be plagued a bit with this concept that somehow when you meet that right person, everything changes - including you.  I'll go ahead and blame it on movies (Hollywood is a great scapegoat) - the bad boy suddenly meeting the right girl and changing his ways in 20 minutes. But, I think it's just as ingrained in some of our church relationship ideas (not as easy of a scapegoat, so I'm not going to sit and widdle through that one) - if you wait for the right person, everything will be perfect, including you.

What if you suddenly don't change?  What if you find yourself with the person of your dreams, and realizing you aren't the man or woman you'd always dreamed you'd be for them?  Instead, you're still a selfish, immature mess with eyes that wander and emotions that drive them?  I think that would be a certain sort of hell - to watch yourself fail the person you want more than anything to serve and love.

Anyways, my morning bus thoughts - dear God, change me now. 

A glimpse at last week:

It is past 9pm and I have nothing brilliant, witty or even melodramatic to say.  But because the prayer chain has been notified, I figure I better make a quick appearance.  Furthermore, I feel I should note that the little lines below were not the residue of a crying-hangover.... they were simply thoughts sparked by a song lyric I heard while at work.  It made me imagine for a moment if teardrops left stains.  That's all.  I've cried before.  Fact.

Life has been good.  Work has been kicking my butt.  Especially last week.  After a week of late nights at work and far too little sleep - I spent the weekend with still too little sleep, but catching up on all the fun time I missed earlier in the week.  By Sunday, I was completely spent and 8pm meant bed time.

So yes, these days I get up, go to work, spend all day at work and then come home from work.  I may go to the gym.  If I do, I do nothing else that night.  And Kim knows the sad truth of the  last time I chose "gym" for my one evening activity.

Not only that, but somehow I feel less creative than ever.  And what creativity I do have, I've been trying to be intentional about putting into some more directed and specific writing.  This girl has got to put something down on paper.  Real, touchable, finger-cuttable paper.  That's how I spend some of my lunch breaks lately - the ones I'm not meeting Kristin or Esther on. ;)

I must say, having both of them downtown for last minute happy hours, lunch dates, or "I need a coffee/ cookie now" moments have been such a fantastic blessing!  I cannot wait for this weather to hold out.  I worked through my lunch yesterday, and then looked out the window at 2 to discover the most beautiful blue skies.  I text Esther, "Coffee?" and to my great joy, she was free just then.  Having both already eaten, we grabbed coffee and wandered for a quick bit, just taking in that fantastic spring Seattle day.  I am definitely ready for more of those!

So this post was boring - an outline of "life lately", but I blame that mostly on all of you.  You see the down side of deciding that I don't want to waste people's lives with sharing boring bits of mine - is that some weeks, that leaves me with very little to share.  And the exciting bits come, and I'm too busy living those ones to share! :/

A fantastic part of my weekend was spending Sunday at the Family Fun Center - a group of us mid-twentie-somethings running around with the countless toddlers, taking over the laser tag, getting lapped at put-put, and trying not to ram the "Toddler on Board" go-carts.  I'm pretty sure it was my favorite way to celebrate a friend's birthday.  Happy Birthday Erik - thanks for letting us all celebrate your 23rd!

Between FFC, the incredible Lumineers concert Saturday with the Swaty girls, and an overall amazing weekend... it was probably one of my favorites in a long time.  The perfect mix of fun and relaxation.