last night's sunset

on this morning's hike

Hard to believe this is a 15 minute drive from my house
and, that this is the 2nd largest city in the country
and, that I saw only 4 other people
in the 3 hours I hiked around the Santa Monica Mountains

It rained
In fact, it STORMED last night,
thunder/lightning
brought out all the snails
and I thought how amazing it is to see shells
up in the mountains

the sky was moving
like time-lapse photography
a pin hole of sun would wink on something
and dance it with color

It smelled like incense minus the smoke
that woody sweet mellow of autumn
an oxidation of what was once bright,
a lushness settling into iron, umber and sage

and during the show ...
it rained again.
and because I was up so high
I was in the middle of the clouds...
and my feet have never been muddier

on the drive home from work

HER: Hey, how was that dance class?
ME: I didn't really like my outfit.

Spend a night with an owl and you'll see more blood than sleep.

-Bill Callahan

overhead in Marina Del Rey

guy yelling into his cell phone:

"What are you?----Stupid?
I mean, jesus christ, this isn't rocket surgery!"

good riddance barbara bush

Ten years ago I went to visit my Dad in Florida. We had been in the habit of seeing each other only once a year for over a decade, so visits were familiarly awkward.

His house had a pool and I grabbed my bikini and went for a swim. Later that day it was announced that we would be going "swimsuit shopping".

We went to 3 different stores and I tried on 15 suits at each...all one-pieces. Fine, I thought, there are plenty of sylish one-pieces. And yes, it's very wierd modeling swimsuits for your estranged father and stepmother...suit after suit rejected with no explanation.

And then, over the door, my stepmother slings IT---the suit I would eventually refer to as Barbara Bush...a black speedo tank. The most unflattering and unstylish thing a girl could wear, cleavage obscuring and stumpy-leg making. I stepped out and my Dad says, "That's it! A complete CLASSIC! It doesn't get any more chic and simple!"

and I have worn no other suit in the state of Florida since.

Even though worn only 6 or 7 times, it had become the victim of disintegration.. resulting in something far more obscene than the bikini of 1997.

I took one more symbolic swim and then gave it a burial at sea.

My dad had no recollection of the swimsuit's origin.

Florida. Fantastic skies.
The clouds looked like a lamb's coat on the descent from the plane
Fitting, some sacrificial lamby reasons for the trip...

and the common good was ensured...

I call do-over

Day started with getting a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.
$93, huh?
But I'm only endangering myself...
Why I gotta pay you clowns?

Then a $3 coffee drink,
sat it on the car and watched it swan dive to the pavement.

worth the wait

PLUS

EQUALS

this morning's walk

"The whale, like all things that are mighty wears a false brow to the common world. For I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull whoever you are."

-Herman Melville
MOBY DICK, or The Whale

walking am/pm

keep the brown betty

Mom: Hi honey. Listen, I'm getting rid of a few things. Do you want me to keep the Brown Betty tea set?

Me: The what?

Mom: The Brown Betty tea set. It was Nan's, no wait it was Aunt DeeDee's. Oh no I think it was Tante Margaret's. Maybe she gave it to Dee Dee. Yes, that's right.

Me: Oh Mom, no thanks.

Mom: Are you sure? It's quite attractive.

Me: Mom, it's just nothing I really want or need.

Mom: But it's an antique, it may be worth something.

Me: Well if you think you can get something for it I am encouraging you to sell it.

Mom: I don't think we should sell it. It's so unusual.

Me: I really don't want it.

Mom: It's old, now if Daddy was 73 and she was 30 years older, that makes it very old.

Me: Huh? If Daddy was 73?

Mom: That's how old he was when he died.

Me: And that's how your figuring out how old it is?

Mom: Well Tante Margaret was 30 years older than him.

Me: (5 seconds of silence) Mom, I really don't want the tea set. You can keep it for yourself if you'd like.

Mom: No, no I don't want it.

Me: Ok, let's just get rid of it.

Mom: But you might change your mind later.

Me: MOM, I don't want it. I dont use tea sets!

Mom: But you could put it on a bookshelf and tell stories about it when people come over.

Me: I could, but I don't think that's a reason to keep something.

Mom: Well, you think about it. I'll just hold on to it in case.

the skin of the ocean

covers God?

Civic Pride

In my alley...

call me ishmael

"Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnifient parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces--though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment."

today at the park

4 hours on a sheet in the grass,
a crow sat in the tree above me and watched other crows
an Irish guy shooting hoops by himself
I noticed that guys will just walk up to other guys if they have a basketball
over the course of an hour 3 different guys stopped to play a round with him
one man was just out walking his Golden Retriever
he tied the dog to a fence while he played
the dog barked the entire time
a squirrel stole my danish
A guy in a lawn chair in the middle of the baseball field was throwing a ball to himself
later he danced when led zepplin came on his portable radio
triplets on bicycles all wearing the same little dress, one wore jeans underneath
the ice cream truck came around twice.