beautiful, funny, sad & true

Yesterday I was still feeling the effects of the cold or whatever that I had on the weekend, and my head still felt all spacy, so I called in sick to work and went back to sleep for a few more hours. When I awoke, the weather was so warm and beautiful that I decided that I needed to get out of the house, no matter what. Saturday had been really rainy and beautiful, so I’d stayed in bed most of the day and started reading “Catcher in the Rye.” I threw the book in my bag, went and ate miso soup and a little bit of sushi at Sushiland, then drove to Mt. Tabor to read for a while.

Maija came and met me up there after her yoga class was over, and we sat and talked and walked and talked and swang (swung? swinged?) and talked and then got hungry, so we went to Thanh Thao. It was too stuffy in there, and we still wanted to enjoy the day outside, so we drove over to Laurelhurst Park and talked while we ate by the duck pond. By this time, the sun was starting to go down, so when a particularly ‘glowy’ tree caught our eyes, we went over and took about a million pictures of it. Most of mine were terrible, but here are a couple of okay ones of the tree, and also one of a good-sized spider we saw when we first entered the park.

When the sun went down, it started to get a little chilly, and after three days cooped up in my apartment, I started to feel a little bit run down after all that walking. So we said good night and headed home.

I got home just in time for a phone call from Joan, who was on her way over to bring back the “Jesus Camp” DVD. We ended up watching the whole thing, with the director’s commentary turned on. What a great movie. Joan comes from a conservative Christian family–in Kansas, no less!–so it hit especially close to home for her.

After it was over, Joan went home, while I folded my laundry and started to settle in for the night, when I got a phone call from my friend Madeleine up in Seattle. We talked about relationships and our generation and commitment (or lack thereof) that we’ve experienced in our own lives and our friends’ lives. It was fantastic, and completely invigorating. It was also 11:45 at night by then, so I started to fade out. As soon as I hung up the phone, I saw that there was a text message from Joan saying, “Still up?” so I called her back and we ended up talking for over an hour.

What a long and amazing day it was. Here’s to many more like that.

Here’s a video of the seagull that followed J and me all the way from the north end of Cannon Beach clear down to Haystack Rock. The white one wasn’t far behind him, either. When the brown one finally gave up on us and flew away, the white one stayed behind to make sure we weren’t holding out a secret food stash for him.

Ah, nature.

Sarah

Shelby

Drew Shoals Collective

me, Bud, Will

Shelly, Adam

Haystack Rock

Joan and friend

Haystack Rock & bonfire pit

This guy followed us all the way up the beach.

niiiice viiieeeewwww

birthday boy

Joan

beautiful lights

water, candles

Pretty dang good birthday.

On Saturday afternoon, I was at Old Town Music picking up some cables and other stuff, I saw a little red guitar that I completely fell in love with at first sight. It’s a Hofner Colorama; a new-and-improved version of a 1960’s classic.

(Hofner, incidentally, is the company that made Paul McCartney’s famous violin bass.)

Here’s what my guitar looks like, although the picture doesn’t do it justice. The abalone inlays on the neck and headstock are beautiful in real life, and I imagine they’ll look especially striking under bright stage lights.

I didn’t have time to try it out on Saturday, so I went home and read about them online instead. They’re a real bargain. They’re made in China, but they use name brand American-made tuners and Gibson pickups (Isn’t this entry fascinating?), so the guitar sounds great and even stays in tune. The red-with-abalone-inlays is the collectible model, too. I went back Sunday afternoon, tried it out, loved it, and bought it. I’d be kicking myself for a long time if I hadn’t.

I’ll probably need to upgrade the wiring and various electronic parts–that’s where they skimped on the quality–but it’s certainly good enough to use as is, and you’re sure to see it if you come see me play with Stephanie. Love it love it love it.

Happy early birthday to me!

Here are a few pictures from the play reading the other night.

The guy with the beard is the playwright.
The guy with the accordion and no beard is me.

This is Todd Sabel, the director. In the world of The Theatah, however, he’s known as T. Austin Sabel.

These readings are great fun, and I’m tremendously honored to have the privilege of attending them. Thank you, Todd, for giving me the opportunity!