goodbye, hello

Goodbye 2009:

I am motherless: nothing much else to say here.

I am loved: unconditionally, wholly, and by so many amazing people.

I am amazed: by my life, this world, my garden, Wyoming, my friends and family who stand by me patiently, kindly, lovingly, proudly, sadly.

I am employed: awkwardly, sometimes painfully, but thankfully employed.

I am blessed: with my fortune, my trials and tribulations, my 'learning moments', my continued ability to be intrigued, to strive, to fail and to get up and start again, and to love and be loved despite all of that.

Hello 2010:

May I continue learning, discovering, striving, failing, beginning again, loving, laughing, and crying, and being ok with all of that and more.

Bring it on: I am still standing, never alone, but always mindful that this life - and all that it holds - is transient. Every moment counts, let us begin again.

Wishing you all peace and contentment in the new year.

xoxo

cw

Wide open spaces

Another long lag in my posting - we've been drinking up the big sky and frozen landscapes of Wyoming and Montana the past 10 days, unclenching our 'city minds' for at least a short while.

Today we point the car west, and start the long drive home to Seattle. It's been a great trip, we saw all of Bob's family and they are doing well.

Here's a shot of Bob and his mom and dad:

And here's a taste of what we get to see along our usual road trip route:

If you know nothing of WY, check out Gretel Erlich and Annie Proulx...I'm reading Fine Just the Way It Is right now - pretty awesome.

Sunny & Frozen

Sorry for the lag in posting, it's the season when time seems to accelerate: lists grow longer, days grow shorter.

We've been having a deep freeze here in the PNW, but with it has come brilliant sunny days - a true gift for Seattle's SADD-afflicted citizens. If you've never heard of Cliff Mass, and are curious about our weather and its vagaries, check out his blog from time to time - he's a true weather wonk, and sheds some light on the difficulties of predicting the weather in this region. He also posts some great charts, graphs, and photos from time to time!

Bob and I are hurtling towards our departure for WY (which boasted the nation's lowest temperature yesterday @ -29F in Farson!!). We're driving to see the folks, planning to stop in Jackson on the way and spend a night or two, hopefully will get a chance to go on a ranger-guided snowshoe excursion in Teton Nat'l Park if they get some snow.

Work has been busy for us both, and we're looking forward to getting our cards and packages shipped out, the car packed and pointed east. We depart Friday, if all goes well.

Thankful

We head to the San Juan Islands tomorrow morning (early!) to spend Thanksgiving with friends. The rest of the sibs will gather in NC and we'll pass the phone around as is the long distance tradition. Wish I could be there with them, but will be surrounded by people I love nonetheless, and counting my many blessings.

Happy T-Day!

Music Documentaries

So, part of the reason I've been goaded into having a 'blog' (despite the persistent feeling that I don't have much to say worth reading) is because of the impromptu, late night conversations that start innocently enough with a recounting of what I did over the weekend and quickly spin into lengthy recommendations of movies that must be seen, books that ought to be read, music that really should be listened to, food that begs to be eaten...

This weekend we bought Leonard Cohen's newly released Live at the Isle of Wight (1970) cd/dvd - it blew our minds (audio and concert footage dvd), and put me to thinking about some of the amazing concert films and music documentaries we've seen in the past few years. I sent a brief list to a co-worker, and so in the spirit of 1 Trinity, here is my inaugural blog list:

Music Documentaries/Concert Films That I Love - A Sampling

I'm Your Man

Festival Express

Tom Dowd and the Language of Music

Fearless Freaks

Some Kind of Monster

The Last Waltz

Be Here to Love Me

Heartworn Highways

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

It's quite late, so I'll leave it at that.

The Fun Theory

Yes! More of this sort of thing, please...

Local radio

Sometimes there's a particular show on your local station that really brings it home - a shining example of why the independents [record store/radio station/coffee shop/farmers market/insert your favorite local-indie business genre here] are so essential, so precious - real humans, living their life out there in all its messy glory and misery, showing us we're not the only ones.

So, listen to John Richards (our morning DJ here in Seattle) whose show today is dedicated to everyone who has lost someone they love. His mom died 5 years ago today, and he spins the tunes that matter to him and shares his experience with the world. It's a deeply personal show - I'm crying as I listen, remembering a year ago in my own life, as my heart goes out to my brother's dear friend who lost her grandmother today.

Go to this link at KEXP, and under 'Listen By Show Time' and pick Friday 11/13/09, 6:00 am start time. I think they keep 2 weeks worth of shows up on the streaming archives, so there's a bit of time to check it out (they also post the playlist for the show on the site).

So much to be grateful for - imagine dealing with these things without music...Unfathomable.

Hang tough, Melissa.

This blogging thing...

So, I've got the day off and sit here listening to the Avett Brothers The Weight of Lies on KEXP. I'm not practiced at jotting off a note here and there to say hello to the world, but will keep after it and see if I've got anything to say that's worth the time it takes to type.

I've been lately consumed by knitting - took a class last winter and finally learned how to make something substantive out of a long piece of string. It's funny how you say I'm learning to knit and suddenly learn that most of your friends and acquaintances are avid knitters! So, we've got a small group that tries to gather once a month or so, and I've been learning my way around yarn overs, slipped stitches, binding off, and the various attributes of different yarns. It's the perfect activity for an agitated mind, which mine has certainly been on and off this past year. I love the focus it requires, and how tactile it is, and by the end of a little session of course there's a little something to show for your efforts - for example:

a little merino/angora scarf for Julio

another scarf from some handpainted homespun WY wool I picked up this summer

and another in-progress, I'm figuring out lace pattern stitches on this one

There you have it, my day has been spent at home puttering about, cleaning and knitting, pondering and planning. A very good day, indeed.

cw

I haven't forgotten...

This time I post from Seattle - fall is here indeed, just returned from a morning walk in the fog and am getting ready for work. I don't have a movie list this early in the day, although we did watch Brothers Bloom on DVD this weekend, and went to see A Serious Man in the theater. The former was fine, heavy-handed direction sadly diminished what could have been a much better film but I liked much about it. The latter is the latest from the brothers Coen, and is a lovely character piece about quiet lives of desperation circa 1960 Anywhere, USA suburbia - from the Jewish POV. Incredible acting, great scene setting. Love those boys. Oh- yes, we rented Land of the Lost (Bob picked it up to cheer me up while I nursed a cold - I have a little thing for Will Ferrel)...Have to say, I liked it quite a bit - key to enjoying this one: low expectations. Great set, makes me want to rent the original TV show and take a look (the Sleestaks always terrified me as a kid)...

All is well as we begin the end of 2009 here in the NW. I had a good visit home, and am perpetually grateful for my family and friends and all the love they've sent my way this past year. Lord knows how I would manage without them!

cw

november rain...

or should that be pain? 80s on Saturday, to say good bye to October, overnight tomorrow in low 30s. Fall, I take it, is here. Weeeeee....



good times, bu that tree went from lush yellow leaves to toothpick like in a night! I do love to wear layers, though.

Huh - what else should I talk about here -
10 things you didn't know about orgasms? Perhaps - Morgan thought it was a good link. Probably will change your views on the fun and excitement of pig farmers...

Well, I'm just posting to make sure we're not forgetting this wonderful place. Hopefully Blood has a movie review - me, I'm gonna try to make it through this weekend just like I made it through last weekend. wish me luck.

ciao,
+|s|+

Our day, Wednesday ...

Breakfast at the Triangle Coffee Shop. Coffee at Cafe Domenico. An afternoon at Carr Cemetery to mark the passage of a year since Mom died. Beers at Marcy Tavern. A couple of hours visiting Dad, spry and bright. Dinner at Burrito Jones. We're ok, it's strange to be here and so untethered, but ok.

Hello world...

Hey - we're gonna blog together .... I'll say things like "go see TED" ...

I'll say things like "Wow, why are PCs so lame?"

I'll send you to pics like this:



You won't hear from me for months on end...

but, if you put time in then over the months you'll get some good pics, some great movie recommendations (mostly documentaries!), and hopefully we'll have some fun.

yay!!!!!
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......

We have to go for now, there are only 7 meal opportunities left on this particular upstate visit, and time's a'wasting...