I Am This Woman

Cake is a wee knitted elephant who has come from Kentucky to Texas, and will be travelling with us to Africa. Here is a failed passport photo (apparently, profile shots are not ok).

When he’s done with us in South Africa, he will be headed to destination top secret for further adventures.

His hosts will be photographing him and taking him to great places, and then sending him on his way. Our hope is that he will circumnavigate the globe. If he has enough pages in his passport, that is.

There have been many many blog ideas come and go in the past few days. I cannot spend the time to do justice to any of them. I’m leaving for Africa on Monday, and my experience with international travel is that, despite global economy, it is unlikely that a Walgreen’s will be on every corner. Plus if there is a “chemist shop” or “Apotheke” or “medisyne,” things will cost a gazillion poker chips and I’ll only have the blue ones and not the required red ones. So if I want a band-aid, it’s good to have one on hand. We are also taking an emergency jar of peanut butter. If all else fails, there is some kind of bread wherever we might be stranded, or we can eat it with our fingers.

So here are those blog ideas, in raw kernel form, for the silo:
I Am This Dog: a little spiel about Lucy and how she’s fitting in. How she’s not anything like Sasha Queen of Dogs, who had a great sense of humor but was a bit standoffish. No, Lucy is more like the Elizabeth during the reign of Bloody Mary, all obsequy, compliance and sweetness, with hidden fire. However, she, like Sasha, will lick up the bathwater on the edge of the tub, and then proceed to dry your arm off as well.

Ruby Red: the magic of clicking with creative people when there are just enough ruby red martinis in the room. I attended a mediabistro.com networking party, and found immediate creative juice with people who work in my field, though not in my industry. It was quite fun, and I have some new contacts to develop as I proceed into my freelance career. (Ruby red martini = vodka and ruby red grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed, shaken and strained with a cherry.)

RTFM: I succumbed to reading the manual for my new cell phone. It’s not that I have teh dumb, it’s just that some engineer somewhere makes the decision of where to put things in the menus, and it’s NOT INTUITIVE. Please please have the person who writes the manual also help out with these menu decisions? KTHXBAI.

Hide the Stash: (No, not THAT kind of stash.) My yarn stash has been dominating the bedroom for quite some time. It’s calling to me, tempting me to start new projects, acquire new product, seek new patterns. ENOUGH. I call a HALT. The stash will be lovingly organized and labeled in bins, tucked into closets and drawers, and the works in progress will be at hand for those moments of knitting enjoyment. I run the stash, and don’t you skeins forget it!

There might be another blog post before departure, but with the list of things to do growing and things not getting crossed off, my attention must be elsewhere. I may or may not have connectivity on the journey. Either one will be good. And yes, there will be perhaps 500 to 1000 photos, if I know myself. Might even take a film camera to give the lad something to do with his hands.

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At last, the long awaited for post about the birthday card project!

I received about 70 cards. I say “about” because I collected 65 by June 17 (the cutoff date), but there were a few stragglers around 4 or 5 or 6 in number, and some of my close friends sent cards to the house (with prezzies!) and also cards to the PO Box. I also got a wonderful e-card from a dear friend that made us laugh, so I’m counting that too.

Here’s the breakdown (I had a more formal one, but lost it in the shuffle).

13 cards came to my PO Box from one person - that’s the record.

I got multiple cards from 6 different people, which amounted to nearly 25 cards total.

The cards from farthest away were from Rome, Italy. Five total, from one person.

One of my favorites is a collaged card from a cousin that I’ve never met. I’ll be blogging that one in a separate entry. But most of all, I loved each card, spending a moment with each and every person who took time to affix a stamp, write something thoughtful and pop it in the mail.

In this electronic age, there is a special kind of electricity in the thing itself. Without getting too far gone into the writing of Walter Benjamin (but I might in the future), to have something to hold and carry around, to see the squiggle of the pen, even if it is on a mass-produced postcard or birthday card is quite wonderful.

One friend recycled junk mail for her card, another crossed out the “Love, Grandma” and added “+46″ to the “Happy 4th Birthday.” Made me laugh! Sweet and funny, and the epitome of tacky too!

Another friend sent a datebook for 2008 from an insurance company, with one or two entries whited-out in February and March. LOL!

All in all, it was a pleasure to drive to the PO and check my mail. I selected three cards at random, and have a little package to put in the mail tomorrow. No, I’m not saying who to… you’ll just have to wait and see. But seriously, if you put your address on the envelope, you can expect something from me. Maybe a postcard!

As a parting shot, here is a card that made me laugh out loud, for real (not LOL) when I opened it. (I have the audio for it too, yes it’s one of those musical cards - but I don’t know quite how to link it here yet. Learning all the time…)

It’s Your Birthday - Please Act Accordionly.

People often talk about the leap of faith, and act like it is a deliberate act. What I am finding is that one realizes that one has leapt after the fact, in mid-leap when you discover there is air between you and solid ground. Sometimes it’s an airy floaty feeling. Sometimes it’s a sinking “oh shit” feeling. But the most important part of it is not the feeling after the leap, but the feelings right before that next step. And the next step. Those two things in combination - the feeling, or intention, behind the step and the step itself – determine whether or not you float and fly, or plummet and think “oh shit.” (more…)