Category: Life – It doesn’t live itself

Weekend Coffee Share #10

~ Sahara ~ 4 Comments

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If we were having coffee, our greeting hug would be long. Its been about a month since we’ve seen each other, and had the holidays and a lot of life in that time.

We’re meeting in a different place-an almost quintessential Seattle coffeehouse, in an A-frame with fresh flowers peeking out of odd corners and colorful art of winter animals-and we’re torn with the desire to look around and take in the environment.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that the trip home wasn’t as relaxing as I had hoped, and I’m happy to be back in my own place. Things were tense with my own family, and you raise an eyebrow to hear that. Your mother? you guess, and I happily tell you that she and I seem to be back on track right now.  No, its someone else, and it was just tense. There was even one time I was afraid some of the trouble would be directed at my Wee One, so my mama hackles were up. I just hate when people are dicks, I say. Why do people have to be fucking dicks? You laugh at me in sympathy.

There was also that flooding and snow in the Midwest, which jacked up my flights and added to the already stressful prospect of flying with the baby. When we were with Cohiba’s family, though, he and I got to go out alone a few times, and that was nice. But I’m glad to be home and back to my routine with the Wee One. I didn’t even realize that we were so much in a routine until we got out of it.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I got together with couch surfers! I haven’t seen these guys in so long. One of them is living in London, another lives in Costa Rica, another is recently married and pregnant, another just got back from living in Colorado, and another is getting treated for testicular cancer. Life, you know? But I was looking around the table and reflecting on the stories and memories I have with them all. Going home is good for that.

A couple at the table next to us is playing a tabletop game and they shuffle their deck of cards for the 10th time. Her hair and makeup are really well done, and we wonder if its a date.

If we were having coffee, we would talk about our upcoming plans for the year.  Not quite resolutions, but having the holidays behind us gives us the chance to think about the future without getting overwhelmed by immediate requirements. I plan to play the Seattle tourist, I say, and mention that I already went to the Seattle Art Museum to see a special Impressionism exhibit. I took the Week One because I know how important these next few years are to her neural development. I want to give her the best chance I can.10404183_10207177316942771_5304723161811167534_n

I’m planning to take her to a skiing lodge tomorrow.  I mean, Cohiba is going skiing with friends, and I’m going with them with the Wee One.  They just had a baby as well, and I’ll watch them both.  I have absolutely no desire to ski – Cohiba has tried! – but I want to see our friends and the mountains and, who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind.

But I don’t think so.

 

 

 

 

Travels with Textiles

~ Sahara ~ Leave a comment

At the Ren Fair, my character spins yarns – either stories, real wool carding and spinning, or knitting.

We encounter and enter our richest, most humanly defining experiences by way of a tear in the fabric of things, because we are running late, or because we recognize, across a crowded room, a face whose lack of perfection allows a unique light to shine through and to stir us with uncommon wonder. – Eugene Kennedy

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This was my garb the first year. The chemise and bodice were linen and heavier than I thought they would be.

Doing this allowed me to travel back in time, figuratively, and imagine if that were my daily life. I could feel the linen on my shoulders and scratch my neck, and smell the dank tufts of sheep’s wool.

Travel theme chosen by Where’s My Backpack?

Weekend Coffee Share #9

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If we were having coffee, you would be late and practically pushed in the door from the strength of the wind behind you. Is the wind always this strong in the winter? I ask you, and you shake your head and keep walking to the counter.  You return with a croissant and coffee, and talk a bit about Christmas shopping. I’m preparing to travel, I tell you, so I haven’t been making many purchases – I’ll have to fly with it all!

I’m going to be on the road for a couple of weeks, and I’m going to miss Washington. You aren’t planning to leave the region, maybe go to Oregon, because a lot of people who live here are from Oregon. That is only one place on my list of places to visit while I live out here, I tell you, and you invite me for a visit with your family anytime. I want to go to Montana, Northern California and retrace steps I took in high school to the northwestern point on Washington and Tatoosh island.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about being a Seattle tourist and going to Pike Place Market. It was a lot of fun and not as far or hard to get to as I thought it would be.  Perhaps I am used to Mid-Western distances, but it used to take me 30ish minutes to drive to work every morning (and then a half hour back, or, if I took the bus, a 30 minute walk to and from the bus stop, plus an hour to the city), so driving 30 minutes to the Market or 20 minutes to story time in another town is nothing. Even with the horrible traffic – and it really does suck – its not that bad.

Ooh! But I saw one of the tent cities I’d heard about! I tell you, and you make a face of confusion. It seems that the city of Seattle actually allows homeless people to build up “tent cities” to live in.  St. Louis doesn’t officially permit tent cities, though they line the river bank, particularly on the south side of the city. I remember visiting a few of them on the north side, about where they want to build the new football stadium right now. My agency had a Mobile Outreach team and I went with them to visit some of the folks living in the tents.  We brought boxes of sandwiches and bottles of water, and checked in with people. A few people asked specific questions about vet representatives or clothing giveaways. They were working on getting their lives back together, though they were living off the grid.

If we were having coffee, we would each comment on how much we’ll miss meeting over the next few weeks and wonder if we could Skype? Or just text messages. This makes me think of a conversation I had with some friends last night. Some of us were in St. Louis, I was in Seattle, another one of us was in Costa Rica, and the other was in London. It was so cool for all of us to be chatting together in real time.

We’re going to meet for Sunday brunch after Christmas. We all used to be travel buddies, traveling together or visiting people and places based on each other’s recommendation. Now two of us are married, two are living abroad, and I have the Wee One. Oh, the places we’ve gone! It’ll be fun.

We part, eager to return with stories and insights.

 

 

 

 

Weekend Coffee Share #8

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If we were having coffee, you wouldn’t have sat down before you asked me about the craft fair I did on Thursday. Oh Lord, I begin. What an experience. In your haste, you drop a large bit of coffee cake on your lap and have to run over to get a napkin. But you gesture for me to keep going, and I tell you about how small I felt when I first got there.

The tables were all the same size, but they were all decorated and looked huge. There were displays with cloths hanging off of them, and arrangements set up in the front of the tables. I just had a small selection of crocheted coffee sleeves with a few fingerless gloves. I did have a sign I drew and looks pretty cool, and you say something encouraging to that and ask if I sold anything. I sold enough to make up the price of the table and $5 more.  That’s a good thing! you say encouragingly, and ask me if I’m going to do another one. I’m not sure, I say, though I learned a lot in this experience, so if I do, I’ll be better prepared.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the girl who was at the table next to me, Rachel – really cool with awesome hair. It was a little dreaded and went down to her waist. She was easy to talk to and invited me to another fair she’s hosting at her ballet studio next weekend.

She had a number of different items she was selling, not just one thing, which gave me the idea that I could sell an assortment of things I made. Are there other things you want to make? You ask me. I talk about the sign I had made; I had included some Zendoodle-inspired drawings around the letters, and I had been thinking about doing some drawings to sell. I told Rachel as much, and she suggested drawing them on cards to sell so then people can either buy them to give or to frame. You agree that was very cool of her. I ordered some plain cards on Amazon that night.  You’ll have to make me something! you insist, and I promise I will.

Oh, and another thing! I tell you that an article I wrote for SheKnows was run, and that was exciting. Now I have earned the Experts Among Us badge on my blog. 🙂 It was a week of doing new things, and its good.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the playdate I had at my house yesterday. I have friends in Washington! I say excitedly. And our apartment is so clean. Not only did I vacuum, Cohiba and I got things really cleaned and thing put in places, so kind of organized.  It’ll look better once we get the furniture we’re planning to get (once the reimbursement check comes from the move) but it is so much better.I also went to a holiday thing with some other mom friends, and went into the trenches with them as one of the babies threw up on her mom. We all worked together to clean up our friend and monitor the other babies – it was fun.

This was a wonderful week of new things, and its good.

 

 

Amist I Bovvered?

~ Sahara ~ Leave a comment

I’m a little sad tonight and I wasn’t able to write earlier, and I’m marathoning Doctor Who on Netflix. So to give us something to cheer up, I’m sharing this skit from Comic Relief between Catherine Tate and David Tennant:

“Bite me alien boi!”

I love these two together.