I pride myself on the fact that, despite my utterly frivolous ambitions, I do not have one magic gold plated and laminated bucket list. It is a list which grows and flourishes and even ebbs occasionally, when life and feelings change. Here is today's list: 1. Get my equine therapy certification. 2. Own a mobile business (food truck, art truck, music truck, what have you). 3. Write and publish a children's book. 4. Learn the guitar and write a song. 5. Pursue this mixed media art installation I've been tossing around in my head awhile. 6. Live in New York. 7. Re-discover my Spanish skills. 8. Create a night of art, food and music to give me and my girlfriends an excuse to wear/buy a cocktail dress. 9. Fix up a house worthy of someone's love and my wacky but heartfelt aesthetic. 10. Learn how to make my own green tea latte. 11. Live in Red Rock country someday. 12. Find a job that lights me. 13. Spend several weeks on an equine pilgrimage in Mongolia. 14. P

It's more than just Earth Day y'all. It's a very Happy "Bearth"Day to a one Mr. Russ.  to the man who never stops working- He can't even stop long enough for a wedding reception, he just shoveled straight through. to the man who has all the dance moves, and at least 1 beat ahead of the rest of us. to a man who has ridden the high seas.... and the tall ears. to a man whose fashion sense has been praised and admired by millions of other jealous men and women alike, and to the man to whom I owe my gratitude for my college education (and all the educations that came before it, too!) and all the other millions of things that he has provided for me, and now for Dan and I. Happy Birthday Daddy~love you.

Monday is a terrible day for a rock concert. I got to see one of my favorite bands play an amazing show, and I just...wasn't mentally present for it.  Usually I have all this time to relish it and bask in anticipation, thinking about all the songs I want to hear.  In the case of the utterly epic portland trip to see the Decemberists, I got to spend days thinking about it, and felt fully prepared for what would wash over me.  Attending Arcade Fire, I raced from work through the usual 5pm traffic crawl down I-15, changed out of my office clothes and raced from will call to the floor in a sweaty mind-numbed haze after a long day at work.  I was utterly non-present for the evening.  The stage was short and the crowd was tall, so I only caught tiny glimpses of the band. Mostly I closed my eyes and listened- to the people yell-talking right behind me about their boyfriends and their favorite food and what they should do after the show, as if the band they came to see was not onstage

This is from my Xanga Blog. in 2006. bahaha. I miss Xanga some days. I re-copied it here for you because it relates directly to the new post below this one.  I hope you enjoy both posts thoroughly. Me Gusta Comer Cosas Sin Ojos Currently Listening Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Walk the Plank It was a sunday, and the poor study abroad student was starving after a long morning of Catholic Mass and covert pastry ingestion, which as you know, only makes you more hungry for real food. She arrived home, but was not greeted by the usual thick aroma of Churizo or Pescado. She wondered why, and entered the kitchen. There was the family, ready to partake of the Sunday Comida. (translated for your benefit) "ahh, good afternoon! sit down sit down, we are ready to eat!" "oh good! what we eat?" (clearly this is how I would sound if literally translated) "Crab? Have you ever tried it?" "I don´t know what word you say, but

 I used to wake up every morning and look out the window at this: Oviedo, Spain.  I was fed 3 square meals a day. and then I fed myself a hearty few extras that included a chocolate cookie from the refridgerated vending machine at my language school (cold cookie=GENIUS), 2 scoops of ice cream at the park (which because of my terrible spanish I once accidentally ordered two cones with one flavor instead of one cone with two flavors. and yes, I ate them both) and then whatever pastry caught my fancy at the cookie shop off the corner of the main Catedral El Centro.  And my occasional break-in to the french bread drawer in the kitchen. So many carbs. Which is why I gained 15 pounds in 5 weeks. omg. look at that chubby happy girl.  I have no regrets. But really, my host mother fed me the most lovely meals.  such lovely lovely meals as seen in my original college blog.  I will copy and paste that one just so you can see it.  What I want to talk about, ever so briefly, is that fact that

1. La lee laaa, I never cooked my mediterranean masterpiece because when I left work, I remembered I had no wallet (It was in Dan's vehicle) and could not buy the ingredients.  I still have ambition to make food again someday. 2. Not today. Today I am going to volunteer at the National Ability Center for the Wounded Warriors program, because I've never done it, and it sounds wonderful.  I probably won't cook again until thursday. 3. I hope my peaches last until then. 4. Dan and I went to the Zoo during the blizzard yesterday, which was wonderful because there was no one else there except for another couple, whom we only bumped into once.  We both reached the sandcat exhibit at the same time, and all watched the sandcats watching the goldfish which had been put in their cage in a jar with the lid screwed on.  The girl of the other couple remarked that the sandcats were watching the goldfish the way we watched TV, we all laughed, and I was glad we were sharing the Zoo w