Home Sweet Home - Before Shots

Moving right along on this life journey thing. I bought a house back in December. Something I've been wanting to do as long as I can remember. It took a long time to settle the Road Home Grant paperwork, but it's mine now! I've got a ton of renovations to do, but hopefully, it'll look like new in the Fall. Here is a video of shots that we took when I first bought the place. 

Scary isn't it?

I like...

I've written before about the importance of knowing who I am and being able to clearly answer questions about what I like and what I do. It's an ever evolving process, but the changes that came in 2010 helped me to gather this bit of information.

I seek 

leading with a whole heart that I often fail to protect.

I stumble.

I drink cloudy beer.

I love dancing freely til 4am.

I'm ¼ Guatemalan and can barely spell Guatemalan.

I like family vacations and reliable friends.

I wear glasses.

I like laid back people with wit and flexible calendars.

I try to be everywhere.

I like brass bands, second lines and happy hours with free stuff. I like dark hair, interesting eyes and a smile that catches you off guard.

I like kissing and telling. 

I organize, prioritize and plan. 

I cherish moments of seclusion in a tiny corner of my world.

I like Jack Johnson on Sundays and the smell of Star Jasmine. I like to drive home in the sun from a distant place.

I like good witches, shoes, bright colors and feathers in my hair. 

I love costumes.

I like booty shakin beats and chick anthems with scorned lyrics. I like documentaries, mocumenteries and non-fiction. I like using unlikely thoughts to connect unlikely dots. I’ll take it smooth with a crunch.

I love improv.

I like self awareness and helping people. I like stretching my body and mind. 

I want to be wanted.

I like people who don’t talk too much. I loathe flakes.

I like fixing problems and timing things just right. I accept mistakes and won’t let others force me to sweat the small stuff.

I am over perfectionists.

I leave the engineering stuff to the engineers and the numbers to the mathematicians. I like to watch while you calculate.

I like organized chaos and simplicity in form. I like delicate details of true craftsmen. I like clever solutions and punch lines and games that I’m good at.

I. 

can. 

be. 

abrupt.

I like variety. 

I like expensive linens and breaking the ice. I like well seasoned creatures of the sea and soft smooth melted chocolate.

I accept payment in sincere laughs and back rubs. Jeff Buckley is my lullaby.

I like sensational productions and being in front of a crowd. I like walking in New York, grooving in Austin and holding hands in California. 

My heart is in New Orleans.

I change my mind.

You're Not Hungry

 

Sign from Etsy.

If you aren't hungry enough to eat grits, you aren't hungry.

When I was in college and lived alone, I lost weight by not keeping food in my apartment. I did keep grits around. I felt like if I wasn't hungry enough to eat grits, I wasn't hungry.

I was reminded of this when I came across this insightful blog that a guy created to list 1001 rules for his unborn son. I bet he's a chick magnet these days.

the blog - 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son See #402





 

Artist Goes Under

 At a point in my life when a day devoted to discovering artists and musicians on the internet is a rare and cherished occasion, I am happy to find small gems worthy of sharing with you. I stumbled upon Jason deCaires Taylor's sculptures on an interesting blog called The Jealous Curator. The great thing about blogs is that you can browse previously weeded through material that is handed to you, well formatted, on a click-able silver platter.

What I find interesting about Jason's work is the concrete sculptures themselves, life-like emotional representations of the human form and the obvious part of dropping these sculptures at the bottom of the ocean. This is where nature takes over; the sea creatures become the artists and 

magic happens. 

 I view the work, I read the history, and I figure out how it relates to me. How will it inspire me? In this case, it's the artist biography. An excerpt:

"Much of his childhood was spent on the coral reefs of Malaysia where he developed a profound love of the sea and a fascination with the natural world. This would later lead him to spend several years working as a scuba diving instructor in various parts of the globe, developing a strong interest in conservation, underwater naturalism and photography. His bond with the sea remains a constant throughout Taylor's life though other key influences are found far from the oceans. During his teenage years, work as a graffiti artist fired his interest in the relationship between art and the environment, fostering an ambition to produce art in public spaces and directing the focus of his formal art training. He graduated in 1998 from the London Institute of Arts, with a B.A. Honours in Sculpture and Ceramics. Later, experience in Canterbury Cathedral taught him traditional stone carving techniques whilst five years working in set design and concert installations exposed him to cranes, lifting, logistics and completing projects on a grand scale."

Ideas worth anything do not come from thin air. Most of the time great things come from passion and experience. A job as a scuba diving instructor doesn't commonly lead to large scale, sculptural artistry. I am invigorated as I look forward to the future. What part of my background will spring board into my prolific future? I suspect it's the part of my background that is the least likely influence. It won't be my design accreditation or degrees, it'll be the time I spent being dragged from antique shop to antique shop or the time I spent as a child around 18-wheelers and cement mixers. 

You never know.

What is appreciation?

A poem found on the Writer's Almanac

a great source for poetry daily 

Mammogram

by Jo McDougall

"They're benign," the radiologist says,
pointing to specks on the x ray
that look like dust motes
stopped cold in their dance.
His words take my spine like flame.
I suddenly love
the radiologist, the nurse, my paper gown,
the vapid print on the dressing room wall.
I pull on my radiant clothes.
I step out into the Hanging Gardens, the Taj Mahal,
the Niagara Falls of the parking lot. 

"Mammogram" by Jo McDougall, from Satisfied with Havoc. © Autumn House Press, 2004.

Brunch with the Twitter Bunch

Twitter helps you gravitate towards other people with similar interests. That's how I met a bunch of foodies. Keith and Lindsay have a blog called "A Couple Bites", and they were nice enough to invite a group of us over for brunch.

What I thought was going to be a simple brunch turned out to be a massive feast. The pictures below show you what happens when a bunch of New Orleans foodies are asked to bring a dish.

I was in charge of the cheese tray. Luckily I found these nifty label tags because I wasn't even quite sure what kind of cheese I had purchased.

The amount of prepared food was excessive, and the bar was just as stocked. Mimosas were flowing as well as Bloody Mary's, Irish Coffees and Screwdrivers.

My favorite must-go-back-for-seconds item was the baked french toast made by A Couple Bites. Keith and Lindsay pointed me to the recipe here.

photo from Food Network.com

The hosts made the best party favors - thin mint cookies, better than the Girl Scout version. They were nice enough to share their little party favor secret recipe with me.

A Couple Bites Simple Thin Mints

Ritz crackers dipped in Wilton's Chocolate Mint melting chocolate.  

Melt chocolate, dip, lay on parchment to get hard, enjoy!

One Year Update

10/4/10 was my NOLA Anniversary. One year ago, my dad and I packed up a U-haul with all of my possessions, and I moved home...terrified.

I worried about the slow pace of this city and returning to the high rates of crime, the high rates of births of my friend's babies, and the high rates of unemployment. 

Not only are these fears not as bad as I imagined, but they are overshadowed by the positive aspects of being home. Crime is still a major problem, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find nomads from California and elsewhere moving into low-income areas. These transplants are starting to add diversity to neighborhoods otherwise heavily segregated. I see some progress.

As for the babies, I was single for the first time in 10 years and felt that all my friends would be married and pregnant. A lot of them are, but I'm not so sure that I am envious. Being single is fun, and I am experiencing romance for the first time in my life. Besides, two of my closest friends are in NOLA and as single as ever.

Unemployment didn't last long either. I found a full time job with a stable company in less than three months.

So many changes... Our losing Saints won the Superbowl, and the city was never so alive. I lost weight, I gained more. I started drinking coffee daily, kicked the habit, and picked it up again more moderately. I discovered my passion for dancing and live music. I dated different types of guys from young and athletic to thoughtful and philosophical. I pay monthly taxes instead of drawing unemployment. I just bought a house - by myself. Who knew? New boys, new friends, quite a change after having been with the same boyfriend for over 5 years.

As we change, we expect others to stay the same, a disillusion that causes pain time and time again. Case in point, I recently emailed my ex-fiance to check in. I was utterly unprepared for the drastic update that I would receive. In less than a year of my moving out, he, well, let me just list his changes,

he is now married

he lives 3,000 miles away

he has a new job

he bought a house

he has a baby on the way

I guess I could have posted that back when I found out in August, but I needed time to wrap my head around it. I guess I have. And I guess he had a baby last month??? 

These days, people come to me for networking advice and dance party recommendations. I seek out new music. I am figuring out who I am and accepting faults as traits that make me unique. I feel appreciated and loved.

I live with my parents. I don't have to wash dishes. I don't have to pay rent. I nap. I read. I run for the first time in my life.

This new life thing ain't too shabby.

double rainbow i found on the way to work one day