Hold Dear

Number 52

52. I love you because you introduced me to Thai food.

The first night Glen and I met he took me out for Thai food. I had never had it before and I was confounded at how amazing it was. It was like I was tasting food for the first time. We had Pad Thai, Pork Satay with peanut sauce and Mee Krob. That first night I met Glen was a lot of "firsts." But out of all the firsts, the best one was that it was the first time I met the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

I dreamt I found money. Shiny money. Quarters and nickels and dimes. It made me happy.

Hope you have a happy, shiny today.

This Cat!

Atticus is my buddy. He loves me and I love him. Can you blame me?

Holy Crap That's Pink!

Friday was the 100th Anniversary of The Standard Insurance Company. To celebrate, they served cake and gave everyone a rose. Pretty cool, huh? One of the cakes that was being served was this pink thing. It was a thing of beauty. So pink! I had my camera at work and so I took a piece of cake back to my desk just so I could take a picture for my blog! I didn't have much trouble finding someone to eat it once I'd taken my picture.

I had my camera at work so I could take a picture to commemorate the first meeting of a new group I joined. It is called SMASH. Secret Mutual Admiration Society Hostesses. So far it's just me and my friend Heidi. No point to our club except to get together and get SMASHed which is NOT what you think! :-) The point is to positivetly encourage each other in our endeavors. I just adore Heidi...she is a GREAT friend! She is always very encouraging and just always makes me feel good about myself in ALL my roles...mother, wife, artist, etc. We had a bite to eat (thanks for the almond butter and apricot jelly sandwich Heidi!!!) and some wine at Heidi's apartment and then went to the Art House in Portland to scrapbook. Heidi lives right around the corner from the Art House. I mean literally around the corner! It was a very fun night!!!

A toast to getting SMASHed!

Hope you have a wonderful week! I love you!!!

The Whole Bowl

Had me a very yummy lunch. One of the (many!) nice things about working downtown Portland is the food carts. Some are bad but most of very good!!! The Whole Bowl is brown rice, black beans, avocado, cilantro, black olives and this amazing stuff called Tali Sauce. It's this lemony-garlic kind of green goddess non-dairy stuff. So much yum! They also carry Buddha Bakery vegan cookies and goodies.

Sun is out today. Darn cold out but so nice to feel the sunshine on my shoulders!

Oh I brought in my digital camera to take pictures of my scrapping adventures tonight. I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Talk to you soon!

I Heart Thursdays!

Not sure why...but I love me some Thursday. Think I've talked about that before. Today is a good one though. Nothing huge going on...but just happy. Work is really very busy but I'm feeling I've got a handle on things right now. I am working on two projects with some high visibility. Eeeekkk! Havin' to send out communication to all employees in my division branch which is 400+ peeps! It's okay though...I know most of these people! :-) I've worked at The Standard for more than 12 years now so that is such a fun thing.

I have a test in Math tonight. Happy about that. I've studied and I know the material so hopin' for some good results. Last quiz I got 16/15. I missed one problem but since I tried to work the extra credit, the teacher gave me points so my grade was still better than 100%. The teacher always calls me 'Miss Geller'...it's kinda cute but I'm not sure if it's because I'm the oldest student in the class or if he just doesn't remember my name.

And tomorrow night I'm going to go do some scrapbookin' at Art House with my friend Heidi. Happy about that!

I'm off now...want to try to get to the campus early because I just read last night that in the art gallery is a show by a collage artist. That's all I know so I've got to go check it out!

Blog ya later!

Happy President's Day...

Here's something I'm diggin'. This site called www.snapshirts.com  makes t-shirts with words pulled right off your website. I just thought it was cool to see all the words that are meaningful to me.

So we've watched a few movies lately...last night we watched Beautiful Mind. I'd seen it before but I wanted Glen to watch it. It is SO good. Probably one of my favorites. Saturday night we watched Broken Flowers with Bill Murray. I liked it. Very quirky. And then earlier in the week I finally watched Elizabethtown. I liked it pretty good. The road trip is definitely the best part of the movie. Just makes you realize it's the little details of life that make it meaningful. Simple, silly things. And I think I totally got it. I say that because Friday night we were downtown - we went to see Al Franken at the Schnitz with a bunch of friends (SO funny!) - and it was SO COLD. With the windchill it had to have been something like 10 degrees. Anyways, we were walking from Mayas Tacqueria (yummy veg burritos!) to The Heathman for a pre-Al drink and we were all just screaming from the cold. And it occurred to me - this is probably the coldest I have ever been! So I just opened up my arms and let the cold wind embrace me and I yelled "This is what it feels to be alive!" I know that just sounds crazy but it seriously changed the experience of how freakin' cold it was. It was FUN! Fortunately, no one else in our party was into 'being alive' as much as I was and I was hurried along into a nice warm booth at The Heathman where I promptly ordered a Drambuie. Hmmm....life is good!

So last night was another installment in '52 Reasons Why I Love You' series. Last night's episode was:

47. I love you because you do your own laundry.

Glen has always done his own laundry. He is seriously a modern man. He cooks dinner, does dishes, does housework, cleans the catboxes, AND he knows all about electricity, plumbing, cars's, etc. As I type right now, he is out back using a borrowed chipper. So needless to say, he does yardwork too! I tell's ya...he's a good guy and I am a VERY lucky woman to have met him. Good thing he married me almost 22 years ago. He's smart too! :-)

Love you...hope you have a happy President's Day!

These Are the Days That Must Happen to You

Here was the 52 Reasons ribbon that Glen pulled out of the jar last night:

5. I love you because you are a strong, loving father to our daughter.

Ironic that he would pull this one since we're going through a bit a rough patch right now with Miranda. Everything is fine except we are having to witness her struggle as she tries to find her place. Last night was another night spent laying in bed past 2:00 am just worrying about her. Gawd I don't want to be like that! But my mind just won't let go! It won't disengage! I just get all worked up because I remember when I was 19, I was working full-time, had a car, and had my own apartment. Miranda isn't doing any of that. Did we miss teaching her that after high school is the rest of your life? Maybe we did teach her that and it's just too overwhelming. Seems like her existence is one foot out the door and one foot in. I know she wants to be independent but it's just happening in slow motion. She is restless and as a result, she is hardly ever home.

When Miranda is home and participating in our 'family,' things are wonderful. She has an INCREDIBLE mind! The level and intensity of our conversations are so beautiful. I am often just in awe of her spirit and passion. She reads SO MANY fabulous books and is always giving me reading recommendations. Just read Weetzie Bat by Francesa Lia Block and am currently reading Junky by William S. Burroughs (I know they're taking away from Narnia and all my others but these are library books). I just love talking with her. Gives me such hope that when we are both 'adults,' (meaning when she's out in the world on her own) things are going to be GREAT between us!

I do take consolation that if taking the time now means that she'll find her happy place, then it is time well spent. I know that although I was 100% independent when I was 19, it is only just now at age 46 that I am realizing my full potential.

I will just continue to be supportive and will try not to worry myself out of sleep. :-) Thanks for listening.

Love you like I'm lovin' life!

PS. the title of this post is a quote from Walt Whitman.

It's Flippin' Friday!

I sure hope whereever you are, it is as gorgeous outside as it is here in Portland, Oregon. The sun is out, the wind is blowing, yeah, sure it's cold but oh Lordy the sun is out! LOVE that it is sunny on a Friday. Not sure what the weather is supposed to like this weekend. Scratch that...I just checked weather.com and the rest of the is going to be dry but cloudy. Better enjoy today!

I bought the new issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine Wednesday night and had a chance to pour over it last night. EEEEeeeeeee! I just love all the color!!!! I have got to get me a subscription...I just love all the scrapbooking celebrities in that one! Donna Downey, Cathy Zielske, and Tara Whitney are my favs right now. I could just meditate on their layouts for hours!

Also bought Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth. I've looked through this book before but must not have been ready for it because it never really grabbed me. But last night I was reading through it and whoo-wee!...I was just SO INSPIRED to ART (art as a verb!) I MUST make sure I get me some studio time this weekend!

I've got a lot of math homework this weekend so I better not sleep in too late! Oh quick update, I got a quiz back that I took last week...42 and out 42! Yay! And also got back some homework -- 20 out of 20...oh yeah! I'm having fun with math...who knew such a thing could happen in this time space continum????!!! Who know's maybe I'll do some work on Fermat's Last Theorem this weekend just to keep me sharp! :-)

Tonight Glen and I are going to our friend Mike and Leah's house for a Pampered Chef party. Always fun and knowing Mike and Leah, there will be lots to eat and drink. Although if Glen wants to drink, I won't be drinking. I have made the decision to cut back on my drinking and definitely not drink at all if I'm going to be doing any driving. Now mind you, I am not a big drinker to begin with so I'll be going from 5 drinks a month to ... 3? But I've just noticed lately that even after one drink, I feel impaired. Not sure if this is something new or if I'm just hyper-aware. Regardless, it's just not that big of a deal for me to not drink and if something were to happen... that would be a big deal.

So here's wishing you a very safe, sunny and funny weekend!

Okay so this blog is part artsy, part catsy. This little Atticus cat of ours (okay...technically MIRANDA's) is just so incredibly cute! Just about everything he does makes me either laugh or go 'aaaahhh!' So pardon me while I post another picture of him. This one is of him sitting in the official 'kitty' basket in my studio. The little guy knows where his bread is buttered (funny thing, he actually LIKES buttered toast!)

Meowsie la vista!

Rescued!

This is Ana and her new dog Jack.

Ana works at Cooper Mountain dog kennel in Hazeldale (right outside of Aloha) and a few dogs rescued from Hurricana Katrina landed at their kennel. Well, wouldn't you know it, Ana has been wanting a dog and when she and Jack met, it was love at first sight. The fun fun fun thing is Ana is JUST NOW moving into a house with some friends and so she can actually have a dog....it was meant to be! This girl is SO dedicated to her job and animals. She gets up at 5:00 AM to catch a bus to make a three hour commute to be at work at the kennel at 8:00 AM. For those of you who don't know who Ana is, she is Miranda's best friend and Glen and I absolutely ADORE her. She is a true friend to the entire family Geller!

Thanks for tuning in to the Price is Right ladies and gentlemen. Be sure to spay and neuter your pets! Thank you! Goodnight!