esprit de l'escalier

Happy Burns Night

(This cat has nothing to do with the rest of this post, I just thought I'd include a photo. He's my friend Ginny's cat. I visited with them in DC last weekend. They deserve their own post, but I haven't had time to write one yet.)

My parents' house is full of guests (though they have all rather scattered at the moment). My brother and his girlfriend are here, as are 3 friends from Chicago, and another pair of friends and their family. I've been helping my mother put things up and found myself with a damp rag, dusting. There is a story about me helping get the house ready for a party when I was just a toddler - about three years old. Everyone was cleaning and I grabbed a rag and started dusting. Apparently some habits die hard.

We are all gathering for our annual Burns Night party tonight. As always, we are worried too many people will come. This party takes on its own life. Last year some people showed up who we didn't know, friends of friends, and one of them presented my parents with a hand drawn, large portrait of Robert Burns. With random guests like that, we can hardly complain.

I need to go back to getting ready. Have a wonderful weekend!

Hi Esther

I got a new lens for my digital camera today and took a couple of photos of my friend Esther. She just freshened up her hair color. Doesn't it look good? (Of course I post the giggling photo instead of the more serious one. Could be worse.) My dye project, for weaving class, did not turn out so well. Hopefully my instructor and I will be able to re-dye things and get a better result.

This weekend I'm headed to DC to celebrate my friend Ginny's birthday (we're going on a hike and then out for drinks). I used to go to DC every MLK weekend and help her celebrate, but since I moved back to Ohio, that habit dropped off. And it's the Inauguration! Oh, and I'm going to take some engagement photos for my dear friends Bertie and Clay. I'm nervous and excited about that. I hope I get some good photos! We are in agreement to not get too cutesy. I did buy a reflector, though. I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it without an assistant though. I feel a little like I'm jumping in the deep end, but it's with two people I adore, I think it will be fine.

I'm currently watching the Daily Show and journalist Bob Schieffer just came on. It has been a while since I have seen someone look so excited to be anywhere. Adorable. Giant grin. Hilarious anecdote about the first inauguration he covered. Oh, it just veered and got super serious about gun control. (If I was ever on the Daily Show, I think my grin would give his grin a run for its money.) Good night folks!

Oh Thursday, where have you gone

I'm taking weaving again. It started Tuesday, but I was in again tonight to dye some fabric pieces I'm going to use in my project. (I'm making a rag rug for my parents. I have some blue fingers to prove it.) I thought that I wasn't going to be very long. I got there at five and didn't leave until the Cultural Arts Center closed at ten. I really should have known better. I left my fabric sitting in dye. Hopefully I'll like the colors when I go back to clean them.

I need to remember the following, so as to survive my weaving class. One: I need to bring a proper dinner or I will eat too many of the sweets that are always lying around. Two: I need to bring my water bottle to class. The weaving studio sucks the moisture out of you. Three: I need to remember not to stick my hands into water with either soda ash, dye, or both. The soda ash dries out my skin and the dye changes its color.

I had a quick dinner when I got home of an apple sliced and smeared with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. And a mug of chamomile full of honey, followed by a shot of apple cider vinegar. I have been keeping a cold at bay, but I'm sure that the temperature fluctuations this weekend will lose me the ground I've gained on it.

I need to be up early tomorrow morning for a conference, which I am not looking forward to, as waking up continues to be hard. (I am okay with the cold, but miss the morning sun.) I should have gone to bed an hour ago when I got home. Where does the day go? Anyway, hello! Sorry it's been a week. I just got some film back from the holidays. I'll share some photos soon.

Thoughts on wet hair in winter

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Do you think that I was foolish enough to get rid of my flannel sheets? This is a question I'm pondering, because I can't find my set and not having them sort of ruins the cuddly plan I had for my night. It started this morning, around 7 am, when my alarm clock went off. I looked at my phone for the temperature, which said 10 degrees.

Now, I had had fair warning of a cold morning, because at midnight I got a text from my landlord telling me to drip my faucets to prevent freezing. But at 7, when I should have been getting up and showered, it seemed a bit much. Immediately I ruled out a shower. The thought of having wet hair as I drove to work (drove because wet hair means no walking) seemed just too much. Instead I hit snooze and rolled over and wished I could sleep through the day.

This leads me to now. Sitting on my couch, wet hair, blanketed, wondering where my flannel sheets have gone off to. My idea was that I'd come home from dinner, throw my flannel sheets in the dryer, hop in the shower, and then have one blissed out sleep. Part of this is just not meant to be. I am thankful for all the things that have gone right in that sentence, but a flannel sheeted warmth coccoon is not in my cards tonight.

Hello hello

Good grief. It has been two months since I last visited this space. I didn't mean to step back for so long, but here we are, at the beginning of the new year. I'm writing from my friend Natasha's apartment. The new year has started off sunny here, and I am happy to be amongst some dear friends. Yesterday I drove from Erie, PA where I was visiting with some dear old friends, Mariah and Matt, who just had a baby. Mariah and I were talking about how we make sacrifices to spend time with the people who are important to us, because, as she said, isn't that what life is about? The moments that make life worth living are the ones we spend surrounded with the people we love. I think it was appropriate to be reminded of that at the start of a new year.

I found 2012 to be long, full of ups and downs, and I'm excited to start 2013. There are many things I am looking forward to and I'm optimistic for a good year. I hope to be in this space more. I hope to be writing and sharing photos and doing more creating in this coming year. I will share more of my adventures. I hope you share yours with me too.

These photos are a little old. Actually, they were taken soon after my last blog post. My friends Elaine and George and their growing family visited and this is from a hike we took with the littles and some friends of mine.

I wish you all the best in 2013!