gusts of birds.

farmington bay, december 3, 2011

American Kestrel
Pie-billed Grebe
White-faced Ibis
Golden Eagle
Northern Pintail
Northern Harrier
Marsh Wren
California Gull
Canvasback
American Coot
American White Pelican
Willet
Northern Shoveler
Lesser Yellowlegs
American Wigeon

a beautiful day with a dear friend.

sloping.

i downhill skied for the first time today. i fell, i cried, i swore. i had a patient teacher. it was fun and i can't wait to do it again.

that's why you always leave a note.

the last few weeks are blurry whirly. i should write in a journal. or on this blog.

terrariyums.

reading about seasonal affective disorder will cause you to have it. if you are careful, then you didn't read the preceding sentence, out of preventative principle.

whatever, i have a load of a list of things that are going to keep me from getting the wintertime blues.

building a terrarium with caitie is on the list, as is a thanksgiving land art project with amy.

if i posted the whole list here i would be embarrassed. no. i'll do it, for the record.

in no particular order:

watercolors, learn to knit, knit a big blanket, crochet the ongoing blanket, cook soups, quiche, tarts, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, birding, wishes project, thanksgiving art with amy, seattle, yoga, gym, homemade yogurt, honey, movies, madmen, the wire, breaking bad, tim and eric, duck club, the cabin, hot springs--diamond fork and meadow, yurt, lots of yoga, craft niche, cookies!, strength training, terrariums with caitie, succulent garden, cooking class, opera, ballet, telemark skiing (jord's going to teach me!!), hiking up neff's to find moss.

i'll add to this.

happening.

pardon me for seeming sowft.

i found this in the dustbin of blog drafts.

dear miss caitie,

you may not recall my gorgan(zola), but i met you at the snarly cocktail party given by our ripe friend, spencer. we had a hipstery talk about brazen mustachios dot coms, and i was impressed by your arabic conversation and your grasp of the manufactured situation. also, i was very much attracted by your oily eyes, your dusty little chin, and your racy teeth. if you'll pardon me for seeming sowft, i was fascinated by your blue walk and by your gregarious figure.

i hope i made a demonstrative impression, and that we can get together for a nice arbiter next week.

mysteriously yours,

tyler

to love the west

i've created another internet diversion!

this time, it highlights things to be loved about the west, especially my home state, utah.

here it is:

heartwest

no more pharting around.

most of last week sucked. i was too busy to be happy.

points of brightness, of course, were my boy, my family, my friends and zim.

pharts.

lest i only write when i'm happy, today sucks.

you win some, you don't win some.

i just got an empty, sealed classic series wrapper.

the new natural history museum of utah

you will learn. you will have fun. you will find something new to love about utah.

i am thrilled to be involved in the opening phase of nhmu. we're creating some kick-butt programs for y'all.

dust bunnies and pollen pee-wees

allergies are killing me.

fortunately i can go to intermountain allergy to see what is driving my histamines crazy.

unfortunately i can't do anything about it, except surrender more of my sense of smell to 6-hour (24-hour? yeah right?) allergy relief medication.

all is full of.

one thing i love about salt lake is that there is a sort of urgency that comes at the end of summer.



after yoga, jord and I headed to the avenues street fair. so many friends at the fair! alex p. was there with healutah, andrea s. was selling handmade rugs, nhmu people were spreading the news about the new museum, meaghan was manning the utah clean energy booth, and brittany and marcus, gavin, aaron and whitney were selling terrariums (the purple thumb), collages, papercrafts, buttons, magnets and cassette tapes (with walkmens). i bought black rose post earrings and a dinosaur bib from vintagefern. jord congratulated me for wearing 3-d earrings. we snacked on kettle corn and i got a porcelain peace magnet because i saved the magnets from crashing to the ground.

we headed to the grateful tomato garden (wasatch community garden) before our 12pm volunteering commitment. jord and i volunteered on the garden winter staff and it was nice to see how the garden has grown. the line for crumb-brothers-bread-fresh-garden-pesto-uber-fresh-heirloom-tomato sandwiches was long but moving quickly.

so many tomatoes of all sorts. i ate so many tomatoes. i was a slicer, so i noshed quite a bit. my favorites were the yellowy-pink-orangey ones. we went home with two bags of tomatoes and about a pound of sliced ones. jord bought some honey off a local dude. also, in between the plant sale and the free plants for volunteers, we ended up with sage, arugula and a mystery plant (dun dun DUN).

we got back to the apartment just as a big storm was rolling in. it was lovely. i put my honey in the honey jar and tried it with peanut butter and a cracker. so yum.

when the rain dissipated we went back to the street fair, where i bought a cross-stitch of (gasp!) an owl from whitney. jord bought several pieces of paper art (including a righteous eagle with fish prey), a couple buttons and a cassette tape from gav. we bolth wanted to buy a terrarium, but we're going to wait and make one with brit. down the street, there was a house filled with estate-sale items. i bought a small wooden jewelry box and a ladybug clip. tricia and her kids were there, and we talked about amy and todd.

when we got home, i pulled out the pastry dough i had made friday and beat the hell out of it. i used julia child's recipe. (i was going to make a "quick and easy" crust, but then decided if i was going to do it, i was going to do it right). i partially baked the crust and then poured the quiche lorraine (with added mushrooms) filling into the crust. it smelled like heaven was baking in the oven.

we ate the quiche for dinner. it was SO GOOD. i thought i was going to screw up julia's recipe, but i channeled her life force and BOOM. deliriously good quiche. also deliriously fattening and rich quiche. grum a yum.

thusly, we took zig for a night hike up in the foothills. we saw several ghostly nighthawks on the way up. the temperature was perfect and the city below was glimmering. on the way down we spotted a big buck and a doe. zig phreeked out and flew after them. it's a strange dog that's scared of a breeze but will charge animals five times his size.

then, this morning, we went to city creek for a run. we saw a hairy woodpecker. the end.

i don't know why i felt i needed to outline this weekend. it was just perfect. and now i'm sitting with the brlack cat. he makes me so happy.

what makes the classic series so classic?

courage. it doesn't get better than this. it just doesn't.

i got two classic series nobjules in one wrapper!!

buy them here:
http://www.southeastmarket.com/

(such a great little market. the grocers are friendly and helpful.)

ciruela

hard word to say, or hardest word to say?

it's funny when you find yourself.

homegrown tomatoes

the jaune flammes are rapturously good.

jord and i are volunteering at the annual tomato sandwich party and plant sale at the grateful tomato garden (800 south 600 east, slc) for wasatch community gardens, september 10, 11am-2pm.

it is FREE, and you should COME.

more info:
http://wasatchgardens.org/event/tomato-sandwich-party-and-fall-plant-sale/9/10/11

hummingbirds make zim tired.

moments ago, there was a veritable cloud of hummingbirds outside this fifth-story window.

maybe not a cloud. maybe more like 10 birds or so, but.

i stuck my head out the window to de-brownleaf the basil plant on the fire escape. this plant is finally doing a little better.

as i was doing this, a hummingbird flitted around the feeder, which was roughly ten inches or so from my head. i held still to see if he would land for a sip. land, he did. i got to see his tiny green head up close, his thin little tongue lick the last droplet of sugar water from his thin little beak, his beak open to make a peep, the vibration of his wings.

very pretty at dusk this late summer night.

rugged individual

i wish i could have seen pink floyd on the great salt lake. i love his story. he lived at tracy aviary but escaped to the shores of the gsl in 1988. he thrived on the brine shrimp, as evidenced by his strikingly deep pink color. he hasn't been heard of since the migration of 2005.

so it's storming on the lake
little waves our bodies break

http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2004/UtahsPinkFloyd.htm

cancel out.

is there a problem with running three miles while thinking about making quiche?

surprises are best.

don't want to jinx it, but every day in september has been a lovely surprise.

happy september first. september 1.

beautiful, simple day.

compliment to healing?

i ate homegrown strawberries at the christophers' on sunday. which adds the opposite of insult to the opposite of injury.

come do yoga with me in the avenues

i laughed out loud (yes, LOL'd) yesterday during savasana. yoga makes me so relaxed and happy that i often go weird/beautiful/happy places when i'm in corpse pose.

if you're wondering, i was thinking about puppies when i laughed. puppies, playing and biting one another's ears.

too much.

is good.

crying wolf (or great pyrenees)

i was walking home from campus two days ago, talking to jord on the phone. up ahead of me, i saw an old man with the frluffiest gigantic white dog on a leash, walking toward me. as we got close, the man quietly said, "help." i put the phone down and asked if he needed help.

he said, "no, i was just kidding."

i patted the dog on the head. he told me it was a great pyrenees.

i looked up

at the gym, and sex and the city was on one of the tvs. the characters were in the hotel we stayed in. i recognized it by the lemony glowing facade, the electronic music and the textured walls of the elevator.

well, i'm hip.

[love is more thicker than forget]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/11427

aboved. totally aboved.

the events of the week

have left me emotionally (and physically) exhausted.

for dickie.

Richard Feynman, Gell-Mann's chief competitor for the title of the World's Smartest Man but a stranger to pretension, once encountered Gell-Mann in the hall outside their offices at Caltech and asked him where he had been on a recent trip; "Moon-TRAY-ALGH!" Gell-Mann responded in a French accent so thick that he sounded as if he were strangling. Feynman -- who, like Gell-Mann, was born in New York City -- had no idea what he was talking about. "Don't you think," he asked Gell-Mann, when at length he had ascertained that Gell-Mann was saying "Montreal," "that the purpose of language is communication?"

stolen from http://kottke.org/11/07/kwha-sohn-or-crah-sont

everyday i'm away from you shakes

birthday celebration at the museum
followed by mrowing zim
followed by yoga with friends
followed by feeding dickie
followed by a run
followed by friends
and now a firework show.

but one someone is missing.

one day i will find the right words, and they will be simple.

jack kerouac in dharma bums

i forgot to tell y'all

about the visit we made to reptile rescue. truth is, it wasn't just reptiles. it was every reptile you could think of (monitor lizard, anaconda, boa constrictor, python, rattlesnake, tortoise, bearded dragon, alligator, red-eared slider, etc, etc), amphibians out the yin and the yang (spade-foot toad, chorus frog, salamander, etc, etc) a bird that had a loud mouth, raccoon, coyote, silver fox, red fox, skunk (i pet a baby skunk. bucket list: complete), four rottweilers ready to destroy ("he's only bit four people this year," he says as he shows us a half-inch-deep gash on his left ring finger), a pit-lab ("he won't let anyone within three feet of me"), a room we didn't get to see ("the master bedroom is my venomous room") with tarantulas, scorpions and other delightsome creatures, and on and on.

this dude rescues animals on his own dime. he's a badass.

my birthday was pretty pretty cool.

i love my friends.

he's gonna be pissed when he finds out i blogged this.

sometimes zim will meow and meow as loud as he can and then whiz in the bathtub. i can't explain this behavior.

(right now he's angry at yarn)

even though i feel a little gross from eating TOO MANY COOKIES

i feel on top of the world.

the sky is overcast and a cool breeze is coming through the open windows.
salt lake city is sparkling.
zim is brlack and soft and a genius of cuddles.

and i have the best friends and family in the universe and whatever lays beyond it.

poetry from the bus

DE-TOUR (sing-song voice)
detour, detour
take the detour
we can squeeze through.
you can start thinking skinny thoughts NOW.

i feel one million happy and lucky right now.

gentle kitten soul

i'm trying to make his life comfortable while he's around.

my guts are loved.

can you get to that?

running this time of day

my muscles are warm and pliant from yoga
the air is cool and energizing
someone is barbecuing chicken and it smells like maupiti
all the dogs are taking their owners for walks
olympus is inviting
the golden spruce shines in the alpenglow
the stench of brakes rises off of i-80
my kitten greets me on the front lawn
mosquitoes attempt to bite my shoulders

alan rogers, university of utah

"All scientists are skeptics if they’re any good, but they’re not stubborn about it," he said in a statement. "In science, you have to be able to change your mind when confronted with evidence. It seems to me that learning that skill is important, not only for scientists, but for everybody. It makes us better citizens."

another one from the bus

an exchange between two men, one exiting the bus at the front, and one seated at the back:

front: what and red bull?

back: what? (pulling out earbuds)

front: red bull and what was it?

back: oh, eh, cocktail sauce.

life is such a dark, dreamy thing.

from die antwoord's tribute to leon botha.

"free"

holocene

and at once i knew, i was not magnificent.

the stories and chaos coyote.

i'm looking forward to the navajo basket exhibit that will open in the natural history museum of utah fall 2012. the stories of these baskets and the people who create them are fascinating.

the art, the craft, the time, the dedication, the taboo, the tension, the renaissance.

the above basket was woven by elsie holiday and is available at the twin rocks trading post.

i love the stories so! one i particularly like is "coyote placing the stars." from indigenouspeople.net:

Coyote is just being coyote when he sees the Creator placing the stars in the sky from a bag in a very orderly manner. Coyote asks if he can help and the Creator lets coyote place stars in the sky reminding him to be sure and put the stars up in an orderly manner. Coyote does it correctly, but, as is his nature, coyote becomes impatient and throws the whole bag of stars into the sky distributing the stars helter skelter. The Creator scolds him for his carelessness and for the mess he made. Coyote leaves with his tail between his legs. Soon, however, Coyote goes back to being a coyote, only after that he howls at night when he sees the mess he made with the stars.

i might identify with Coyote.

jonathan franzen says:

you have to love before you can be relentless.

red and white

it settled onto my wrist like an old friend, as if it knew it by memory.

wish it weren't so.

gil scott heron will be missed.

for the record.

this is the first weekend in a good while that i haven't been out of town, busy with events or some combination of the two. it's strange to be able to sit and read with zim curled up next to me. it's cold and rainy. it's quiet, as my roommates all headed out for the weekend. frankly, it's a little unsettling.

it's that unsettlement that leads me to remember the last little while.

highlights of the last two months (in chronological order?):

sitting between jord and pm at bolero with sinfonietta and chaconne by ballet west.
crocheting with the lake bonneville coral reef project
moscow mules at bar x with the best of companies
seeing press plush at garfo and meeting the talented cara
shopping for amy at the blue boutique
hiking to the highest point of antelope island, frary peak, with two darlings
amy and todd's graduation
eating with mom, dad, jason and brandy
amy's bridal shower(s)
an epic easter egg hunt at the christopher's
amy and todd's wedding (to eachother)
brunch of said wedding replete with bird nests
poetry share at the salt lake city library
finding kolaches at johnny kolache
being in vernal with jord
sage grouse lek
watching georges st. pierre beat the crud out of the other guy
burrowing owls
hanging out with dora, talking about the gsl for traveling treasures
my graduation (technically a walk, as i won't be finished until early fall)
pat's barbecue with my family
wasatch community garden plant sale
EH potluck
little fat boy being towed by jord's truck from downtown
little fat boy being fixed without another costly repair
sundancing into the darkness with beth
my juicy knee
making and eating rolled tacos with the best caitie in the world
dissecting a cockroach
experimenting with saltwatercoloring
eating pakistani food and worrying about the rapture at living traditions festival
amy and todd's reception (seeing so many friends)
eating at the wild grape with jord
hiking the in the foothills with jord and zig, balsam root and astragalus lighting the way
taking in the lilacs
drinking a boba tea with pm
dreaming with brooke about loving the west
running 7 miles up city creek
bluegrass and pizza with the spensor and the tracy
nate's birthday dinner at bayleaf
running 9 miles with two lovely gals
so much good yoga!

and so many secret highlights.
maybe i need a journal.

this rain is making me nervous.

anxious and excited about the future.

i find it comforting knowing that no one reads this blog.

to love.

grand (iose).

http://www.jimdenevan.com/

i belong as a black atom

No sólo son míos la piel venenosa del cobre
o el salitre extendido como estatua yacente y nevada,
sino la viña, el cerezo premiado por la primavera,

son míos, y yo pertenezco como átomo negro
a las áridas tierras y a la luz del otoño en las uvas,
a esta patria metálica elevada por torres de nieve.

from Cien sonetos de amor, LXIII, Pablo Neruda
full poem here

where do you want to walk to?
where do you want to walk to?
where do you want to walk to?
where do you want to walk to?

burly=

beautiful + gnarly.

thank you, yoga teacher and the urban dictionary.

this is neither the end nor the beginning of the world.

i like it, i do.

what a lady!

above and beyond.

i am so thrilled with the prospect of this:

http://www.newportfolkfest.net/

thank you jord. you are the BEST.

so happy, i'm singing la la la

oh, pokey!

most beautiful weekend, for all reasons.

western meadowlark
mallard
common raven
red-tailed hawk
american kestrel
european starling
horned lark
turkey vulture
mountain bluebird
spotted towhee
barn swallow
brown-headed cowbird
red-winged blackbird
norther harrier
norther flicker
american robin
mourning dove

all of which i am very excited about! but my mind was blown by:

white-faced ibis (large shiny flock in a farmer's field)
osprey (carrying a large fish)
burrowing owls (!!!) (my first sighting!)
sage grouse (lek with around 100 males doing their mating display. the sound echoed over the clearing, and we watched just as the sun rose. such a beautiful moment!)

among other things.

happy birthday mom!

amy is always right. always.

instructions:

watch this,
the mountain

but mute it and listen to this:
like spinning plates

dedicated to pm, who reminds me regularly that i am stardust.

being forever/in the pre-trembling of a house that falls.

last night beth and i attended a poetry reading.

this was my favorite:

Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight, by Galway Kinnell

souvenir

i'm wearing the socks i wore at Actun Tunuchil Muknal.

i like that my best souvenir from our trip to belize is a dirty pair of socks.

the revolution will not be live-blogged.

started the day with a wedding, a family, a lovely girl in a lovely dress.

continued the day with yoga, yerba mate and a new bombilla.

ended the day with desert plans.

yes, i took this quiz.

and yes, the results are correct.


Omar Little... As one of Baltimore's most notorious stick-up artists, Omar Little brings another element to the game: the hunt. With his long duster, battle armor and the sweep of his shotgun, he adds an additional element of risk for Baltimore's dealers. Uncomfortable with profanity and careful to rob only dealers and others in the game who can have no complaint to police, Omar shows particular pride when taking off the stronger organizations.

remember this.

i am so happy.

swans

my!

beautiful (mostly bird) fotos from around the state of utah.

brother.

happy birthday jason!

we all have our pet ideas:

zim: second law of thermodynamics
dickie: string theory
andrea: occam's razor

i love working at the museum!!

we are all nerds.

a short joke from the bus

as told by a couple of fourteen-year-old boys:

q: what's worse than finding a worm in your apple?

a: finding an apple in your worm.

ponder that.

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

 wealth distribution and america's weird priorities:

article here

(thanks for the heads up, jordan)

featherful

white pelican
red-winged blackbird
yellow-headed blackbird
western meadowlark
mallard
canvasback
northern shoveler
american coot
great blue heron (with babies!)
pied-billed grebe
canada goose
nothern harrier
american avocet
black-necked stilt
bufflehead
killdeer
cinnamon teal
california gull
american robin
american kestrel

a hairy woodpecker and a turkey vulture at the garden,

and a mourning dove sits outside my window cooing.

such a great morning with the birds.

the eyes

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees.

Marcel Proust
Remembrance of Things Past

sleepstate

i've been working on the old laptop the whole afternoon (hence the blog overactivity).

zim is here by my side, sleeping.

he twitches and growls in his dreams.

facebook miracles.

now i know.

and now it all makes perfect sense.

sugar and salt. salt and sugar.



enjoy!

imperfect.

i only played one april fool's prank this year.

bon hiver.

i love this kind of crap.

http://www.sembeo.com/media/Matrix.swf

today in nirvana

warm homemade granola and greek yogurt.

The Tallest Man On Earth - Where Do My Bluebird Fly (Live on KEXP)

to make myself laugh at a later date.

ptarmigan'd!
i woke up in the lion's mane . . .
mom!
tacopelli
sage grouse
don't drop that egg! there's a baby in there!
joe biden.

a cold day in the garden

and you're trying to sew together the pieces of your heart.

yoga
friendship
birthday party
frog feeding
granola
zim

wishing on spring.

and i see losing love
is like a window in your heart

this week in silence.

the shrike.

vernal equinox.

i'm balancing.

one related to the one before. thanks amy.

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something everyday. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.



Elizabeth Bishop

dickie is a yogi

at this moment he lowers himself into plank pose.

was born to

let it go


let it go--the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise--let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go--the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers--you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go--the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things--let all go
dear
so comes love



E. E. Cummings

neither here nor there.

listen.

today, i love you, but you aren't so kind to me always.

dad's birthday (it's muslim for Insha'Allah)
international womens' day (revolt)
mardi gras (i ate a donut that looked just like a simpson's donut)
the little fat boy (is a sad young thing)
a friend pulls through (if a year had a million days, i'd thank you every one)
mozzarella (and cherry tomatoes)
lake salt great (two friends remind me what i love)
snow (we don't know who to believe)

(no subject)

where'd you went to?

Mavis Staples + Jeff Tweedy - "You Are Not Alone" Acoustic

woke up with this in my head.

open up.

thanks jord.

in the great salt lake.

Plunging confidently into the midst of the grand uproar you are hugged and welcomed, and swim without effort, rocking and heaving up and down, in delightful rhythm, while the winds sing in chorus and the cool, fragrant brine searches every fiber of your body.

John Muir

curious about delicious food.

we are in the process of revamping the curious blog into a seriously curious about food blog.

if you read spooky and peek-a-boo, and would like to contribute to the food blog, let me know.

http://curiousquestionsforum.blogspot.com/

also obsessed with this.

Two Dancers II // Wild Beasts

home.