Thanks for the fish

for the soul. So is red wine, baby. Can I get a whoo whoo!? I know… such a white girl. Yeah, you can’t keep me down. Break my heart, steal my money, whatever.. just leave me my wine and music. J’s not home, which is good as I’m sporadically yelling obscenities at the wall. The cats look concerned. I”m going to get started on my book momentarily, but I’m downloading some really cool things:

 1) Regina Spektor… awesome!!! Sort of a perkier Patty G. And she’s russian, and I’ve got a soft spot for those commie bastards. They’re just brooding. They could be honorary members of my family. My family claims to be german, but I gotta think there’s some ruskie blood in there somewhere. 

2) I’m gonna check this guy out… Sufjan Stevens. I’ll let you know. He’s supposed to be the new generations bob dylan. We’ll see about that. Nobody can top bob. He’s just so damn cool.

Man. I subscribe to Smithsonian magazine. Every now and then I actually get around to reading it. And it’s so good! This month is called “37 under 36: America’s young innovators.” Oh boy do I feel like a freaking loser. sigh… Man, I gotta do somethign with my life. Oh yeah… actions dear. Ok, I gotta go do something now.  

that was the most frustrating concert experience of my life. I love ryan adams, but I’m pissed off. I don’t know what kind of Jim Morrison bullshit that was. Not to meniton the assholes in front of me who were dancing like the white kids they were. What the fuck? He was amazing for aobut the 2 songs he did… in between getting pissed off about the sound and then running off stage never to return. I feel bad for the suckers behind me who drove 8 hours from canada to see this bullshit. Fucking diva. OH well… I’m going to bed and will hope to god that no matter how brilliant I am (and I’m pretty damn brililant) that I’ll never have an ego as big as that. Amen. Blessed be. Fuck off.

September 21. You know what that is? The Autumnal Equinox of course. I just recently learned the difference between the equinox and the solstice. The equinoxes are in the spring and fall and represent when there is an equal amount of light and dark. The solstices are in the summer and winter and represent the most amount of daylight and the most amount of darkness. Last year the equinox was on a Thursday. This year, I will be packing for my vacation to see the biggest trees in the world! Equally exciting and impressive, I’m sure… ? I’m looking forward to it at any rate. 

Going to see Ryan Adams tonight. I’m glad I got the tickets. I’m not sure what to expect but I have a feeling he’s going to be really good. He’s got something, that kid. Hee… I love patronizing people younger than me. : ) That’s one benefit of getting older. I read today that it makes the most evolutionary sense to be in a May/December type relationship, as opposed to being with someone your own age. I guess within the course of my own lifetime it doesn’t make much difference, but over the course of time, that would help both sexes live longer. I’m a little fuzzy on how. I once dated a guy 12 years older than me. I don’t think mating with him would have been good for the gene pool in any way imaginable  Unfortunately for the future of humankind, he did end up procreating (and with someone equally crazy… at least my genes would have cancelled out some of the bad genes). But I digress.

Guess that’s all I got. : )

because then I can totally poop away one whole day and not feel at all guilty about. So poop it away I did, and it was fabulous! But first things first… Willie. He’s the man. This was my very first country and western concert and it was up in Augusta, which actually isn’t very far from us, but in some ways is sort of a world away. If you look at a map, you would think that Augusta is still pretty far south, but in Maine, Augusta is sort of the border of the hinterland. It starts getting a little weird up there. But anyway… great people watching.

The concert started with ray price, who I’d never heard of before. The guy (like much of the audience) was 80 something years old, but man, he could still belt out the tunes. What a voice! …wait, to be continued… must make dinner!

Ok…. back. Then Merle Haggard came on. I thought he was a bit boring. Then Willie. He is just so cool. Such a stage presence and the crowd just ate him up (including me). I have his live album from Austin City Limits and he played a lot of the same songs. But he had a sense of humor and he just rocked. Unfortunately he didn’t come on till 10:30 and frankly, that’s already past my bedtime, so when he was still playing at 11:40, I pulled the plug and went home. He’s already played my favorites (whiskey river, blue eyes cryin in the rain, always on my mind), so we hit the road. We brought my father in law and he was a riot as always. He got shhed twice by the lady in front of us and he had two ladies giggling the whole night. Piece of work!

So anyway, it was a lot of fun. I’ve seen another legend. Now if Dolly Pardon would come up here, I’d be all set. I love her!

Today we went out to an island and looked for (and found) more sea glass. Then we went to TJ Maxx.. I looked for handbags, but didn’t buy anything.. then on to Borders. Ended up in the “metaphysical” section looking at books about Wicca and green men. : ) Love it! Then found a book about animal symbolism or something.. .still trying to interpret my owl dream. One of the explanations in this book was that owls are a symbol of the feminine and the moon.. .which brings me back to needing more feminine influence in my life. I think I’ll buy a book about wicca, just since I’ve always been kind of interested in it. Next I’ll be running naked round the pine trees! whoo hoo! Hey, there’s a reason a city girl like me ended up in rural Maine. I think I just need to keep going down the course I’ve unconsciously thrown myself on. Oh, life is so much fun. : )

Well, tonight we’re going out to grab a beer with one of J’s friends. Usually we hang out with the entire pack of guys who all went to school together. Z is a really quiet guy and I feel like he sort of gets lost in the shuffle, so I’m looking forward to being able to just talk to him.

Going to see Willie tonight! I see a prime excuse to wear my cowboy boots! whoo hoo! They don’t get a lot of use to be honest. Listening to a little Willie to get in the mood. He’s so good. : ) I don’t think most people have a clue. He’s got some great songs. 

Went for my run/walk tonight so I just squeaked by with my 2 days this week. It was raining but as I was driving home I saw Blondie out there and thought “if she can do it, I can do it! Go Blondie!” I’ve eaten horribly the last few days. We went to a greasy spoon (actually the blue spoon) for a team lunch and I got a BLT that looked and tasted like it was deep fried in butter. Yum!! But not the healthiest thing. I’ve got to start doing better. Work is still awkward, but life goes on.

I’ve made some real progress on my book. I’ve got my characters, some possible settings, and a sort of general theme. Now all I need is a plot! It will be some sort of a journey/adventure/mission/mystery type thing, but I need to find a reason why the people are on the mission and what they’re looking for, etc. Oh, that’s called a quest! ha ha. Going to work on a mind map this weekend and see what I come up with. Then when I come up with something decent, i’m going to look through all my “how to write a novel” books and see if I should finetune it in any particular direction. 2008 will be the year! yeah yeah… I know… 2007 was supposed to be the year. But, it’s kind of like quitting smoking… you keep trying and eventually you succeed.

Football season starts Thursday! Go skins! I haven’t followed the preseason at all, but I’m doing fantasy football so I need to start paying attention. It’s a good distraction so I don’t notice that summer’s over. Though I love the fall anyway. It’s crisp and cool and full of possibilities (must be from memories of a new school year). … .. la dee da… to all the girls I’ve loved before…. la dee da… Love this song! Willie’s like me… always falling in love. If you look, you’ll notice he has a new wife about every decade. I don’t do that. But then I’m only 33. And I think I got it right the first time. : ) But I still fall in love daily.

Well my father in law wants us to come down for a drink… the Willie concert was his birthday present (my idea!) so we’re heading off soon. Looking forward to 3 days off of book planning, gardening, reading, and sleeping in. And NO HOUSE GUESTS!  

 

tonight. I was driving back from Augusta at dusk with a clear blue sky and a big full moon and my Ryan Adams blasting on the radio… pretty sweet. : ) Speaking of which, Ryan Adams is comign to Portland and I wasn’t going to go because J didn’t seem too thrilled about it. We’ve had a pretty busy summer and I think he’s tired of going to see all my favorite musicians, so I let it go. Then today I was sitting at work thinking about how I almost went up to the top of the world trade center in July 2001 and the line was kind of long and I didn’t feel like waiting… There’s just no excuse to put things off that you really want to do, so I bought tickets. His new album is really great. 

Went out to eat and was determined to stick to my diet. Then I saw the crab cakes with garlic mashed potatoes… and the homemade whole wheat breat… then I naively asked what the soup of the day was… potato leek? umm, my favorite, yeah bring that too. hmm pomegranite cosmo, that sounds good. Blueberry lemon cake… yum. capuccino? Yeah, what the hell. I feel like I’m going to explode. And I have my weigh in on wednesday. i suppose I could just starve myself tomorrow. That always ends well. Oh well… it was a nice dinner… a nice night. No regrets. Though i do sort of regret not getting the dark gingerbread cake… hmmmmmm…

My dad seems to be recovering. They’re looking at more houses and I hope they find something.

Did I already talk about my plans for San Francisco? If I already did, then you’re probably already used to me repeating myself a million times… So I booked an Alcatraz tour, and we’re going to a ghost tour. We did one of those in Bath, England, on our honeymoon and it was a highlight of the trip (and the rest of the trip was pretty damn good too!). It’s fun to get out into a city at night and hear about the history and folklore and get a little scared too. Then we’re meeting J’s cousin for dinner one night. Other than that, not much planned.  

Here’s my current ryan adams favorite…”I taught myself how to grow old” 

Poor little rose, beaten by the rain
In the wind in the gale, thunder and the hail
Sometimes I feel like I’m going insane
Without the numbness or the pain so intense to feel
Especially now it added up through the years
And I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
Now I’m crooked on the outside, and the inside’s broke

Most of the time I got nothing to say
When I do it’s nothing and nobody’s there to listen anyway
I know I’m probably better off this way
I just listen to the voices on the TV ’til I’m tired
My eyes grow heavy and I fade away

‘Cause I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
‘Til I was crooked on the outside
I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
‘Til I was crooked on the outside, inside’s caved
Crooked on the outside, inside’s caved
Crooked on the outside, inside’s caved
I taught myself how to grow old

It’s just too darn hot! And muggy. : I~ It feels like we’re already at the tail end of summer…almost August. Every year it gets to this time and the gardens just get out of control. My only goal this year was to keep up with the weeds, but it’s just not happening. Besides, there are other things I’d rather be doing. But I did do a little bit of weeding today and I ordered some metal plant labels so I’ve been working on getting those in (rather than wait till everything dies back and I forget where/what everything is). Deadheaded my roses today. My climbing rose bolted up trying to get out of the shade of the now gigantic butterfly bush. I should move it but I think I’m already at the mental stage where I’m preparing for fall… putting compost down, mulching, cutting stuff back, covering stuff up (not doing all that stuff.. just thinking about it). This year I’ll do it right!

Lots of tomatoes on the vines in the veggie garden, but none ready… not even the early girls, which seems odd. Lots of eggplants, some cucumbers, some squash. Just put in some bean and lettuce seeds. Hopefully the beans will make it in time (been meaning to do it for a month or two…finally got around to it).

Painted the porch door today. Tomorrow I need to get paint for the trim and do that. Oh, guess I should’ve left all the supplies out. doh.

Finished Harry Potter on Wednesday and Labyrinth today. Loved HP. Been dreaming about it every since. Liked Labyrinth a lot. Next, I’m on to The Power of Coincidence.

Looked at some kayaks at Dick’s today. Signed us up for another class at Beans. It’s not cheap, but I finally found a hobby we’re both excited about, so can’t let the momentum fade. Every time we go by any water (which is pretty often) we look at each other and say “we could go kayaking there!” Expensive hobby, but what the hell. I’m in the prime of my life. Might as well enjoy it while I can!

Bought my Willie Nelson tickets today. Ok… question… you’ve heard of “road rage”..what’s the word for when you go to websites that suck and you can’t do what you’re trying to do? Discuss amongst yourselves… well whatever it’s called, I had it this morning. Every site I went to sucked. Ticketmaster, beans, comcast. For god’s sake people, hire someone who knows what they’re doing. grrr… temper temper.. i know.  

Went to a lobster bake in Bremen yesterday. Don’t like lobster. : ( 

Well, there’s the update. Shit! It can’t really be Monday already tomorrow, can it?  

today. I get the feeling that when I’m old and decrepit I’ll look back at this time in my life as the happiest. I’ve never been happier. What did I do today? I cleaned up, did some swiffer meditation, weeded the weed garden. Then we went to brunswick and found the eagle’s nest. I saw the eagle fly to the nest. : ) Then I saw it up in the tree, and found the nest, collected some feathers, saw it fly away, and then saw a juvenile in the nest. Here’s a picture.

  It’s hard to see. I had the wrong lens on the camera. But if you look at the pine tree and where it meets the blue sky and the other tree, you can see the head. It’s not white yet. : ) It was pretty sweet. Then I went to borders to get harry potter. They didn’t give me my free poster adn I forgot, so I had to go back and ask for it. I’m on page 130 already. It’s good! I’ll refrain from waxing eloquent about HP, as much as I’d like to. well, ok, just a little. J asked why it’s so popular, and I think it’s not so much the plot (as good as it is…with the whole good vs. evil thing), but mostly the characters and the setting. I could live in that world with those people and be happy. I know… loser! 

I can hear fireworks going off at Richmond days. Gerry is disturbed. Then… I laid on the couch and had my bogle chardonnay (very nice for a white wine…oaky… I’ve given up red because it hurts my sinuses… as much as I love it) and read HP. Couldn’t be a happier girl. Then looked at the window and thought I saw Eddie, my long lost grouse..but it was a turkey - along with about 20 (literally!) baby turkeys!

They ran off into the woods. Then later I went for a quick jog and a doe and fawn were crossing (in the same place! It’s a wildlife highway.) I don’t think they mind us too much. Here’s a hollyhock. 

Sideways…a little disappointed they are white. But pretty anyway.

Willie Nelson is coming to Augusta! I talked J into giving his dad tickets for his birthday. Me and him both love Willie. So the 3 of us are going. I can’t wait!

J said to me today “when are you going to sign us up for another kayaking class?” Yay! We have some things in common, but usually he just likes to sit in front of his computer (which is ok). But I’m glad I found something we can do together. So.. .guess I”ll get us started on the whole ll bean program…guess I”ll have to pay, but whatever. Today would’ve been a great day for kayaking. I love gardening, but it can be overwhelming sometimes. Sometimes it’s nice to get out and just explore.

Wow, we’re missing a lot of fun out there.. sounds like the grand finale! Judi brought me down some fig jelly since i’m always looking for it. We got a few sugar snap peas from the garden but apparently something ate all the plants. I haven’t gone to look at the garden at all. I’ve been neglecting the flowers too. Lost my pruners so can’t even deadhead my roses. My lavender is blooming. It smells so good! And my liatris. Do I have picture? Let’s see….

There we go. Aren’t they cool? : ) Well, happy Maine summer to you… It’s been awhile… 

Just got back from the half day kayaking trip. LOVED IT! It helped that it is the perfect day today… about 75 and breezy. We went out to casco bay and flub dubbed around some islands. It’s so gorgeous and peaceful and I love being on the water (when it’s calm, ha ha). J liked it too. We’re already planning our purchases. : ) I’d love to get a light kayak that I could easily plop on top of the scoobaru and just go somewhere close by. What a great way to spend a beautiful saturday in Maine. Yay!

The concert was interesting. The first 4 or 5 songs were really good. I can appreciate good musicianship even if I don’t particularly like the band. But then it got wicked boring. Had one Guiness. Sobriety continues! Well, you know… moderation or whatever you call it when you don’t get schnockered every night. hee hee.

I’m pooped! Too much sun. Now I am making attempt #2 at becoming a brunette, since the last one didn’t hold. This time I’m just doing it myself. I’m trying L’oreal couleur experte mutli-tonal in Caramel Glaze. For those who can’t figure that out… medium brown dye with harmonizing highlights. 6 minutes till rinse off!

Got a ferret catalog in the mail. They’re so cute!! But so much work. : ( And heartbreak. I sure do miss having those little fellers though.

Not much on the agenda for today… a see a nap in my future (late night last night, early morning tonight), some reading, should do some work in the garden… yeah… so, a nap. Hope you’re enjoying this beautiful beautiful day as much as I am. : )  

… or only? I can’t decide. The week’s been a blur and I haven’t gotten much sleep so I’m kind of an airhead. Saw Patty G. last night. : ) I love her. She’s so great. It was at a high school auditorium and general admission. We got there pretty early and got in line. Ended up about 5 rows back, front and center. It was perfect. She is just so great.

 

 

A guy opened for her named Scott Miller. He’s from the Shenandoah Valley . Chatty and funny. He had that self deprecating humor that I love. And I liked his stories about the south. I guess I’m still a southern girl at heart. His songs were funny and very down home. Sort of a cross between John Mellencamp, Appalachian music, and someone funny. One song was about making out in the back of a Chevy Citation. I had to tell J the story about this guy I dated who owned this total piece of shit citation.. it leaked fluid, spewed smoke, and he would always say with such earnest gusto “That car is a CHAMP! It’s a CHAMP!” When I got my first ever new new car, it was a stick shift and I didn’t know how to drive it. So he drove it home and I had to drive that piece of crap citation. I was pissed and made him go out immediately with me and teach me how to drive my car! Then his roommate Greg came with us as I was learning and he’d laugh and say things like “Funny how girls can’t drive” and it wasn’t to piss me off, it was just a naïve comment that he didn’t realize would make me mad. But of course it did. He didn’t have a lot of experience with women.

 

 

Anyway, the concert was a lot of fun. She packed a lot of songs in. Didn’t play Florida , which is my favorite, but she never does. Kind of an older crowd, fairly subdued. Had a different vibe than the Patty shows I’ve gone to in VA or DC. Could be because there was no alcohol for sale.

 

 

Tom seems happy to be home. It’s a cruel world out there, kid. Hunker down and enjoy the good life while it lasts!