beautiful, funny, sad & true

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In response to a couple of questions I’ve gotten about the lake picture, that’s York Lake, up in Washington, on the way to Mount St. Helens. It’s really more of a ‘reservoir’ than a lake, cause it’s man-made, from all the dams. Quite frankly, I think the picture makes it look more beautiful than it really is. In person, it’s not very ‘exciting’ as far as lakes go, so it took a while to frame a nice picture. There’s an abandoned boat ramp section, which I imagine is usually underwater, and that’s where I walked to get that shot. Where I WANTED to go, but couldn’t get there because of the way the lake is shaped, is a little further down, where there was an exposed bit of the lake bed with rows of tree stumps sticking up. Really stark and beautiful. Alas.

Not the most exciting trip I’ve ever taken, by the way. The views from the road are really tantalizing, but there are hardly any places to pull over and get down to the lakes you pass along the way. I kept wanting to get out and look around, but the road’s so narrow and windy that stopping is impossible. There are only a handful of places that are worth stopping at, let alone taking pictures, and they’re mostly man-made anyway, so I wouldn’t really recommend this as a day trip. I ended up coming up and over the hill (where there’s still plenty of snow) through the little town of Carson, and back up the Columbia Gorge. Yawn.

Oh well, that’s the spirit of exploration, eh? If I’d never done it, I wouldn’t know. Now I know. And sure; I’ve had plenty of exciting trips, like the little island and lighthouse trip. They can’t all be that successful. And I can’t complain too much, because I did get a couple good pics to show for this trip. But overall. . .enh.

Making sushi was a blast, though. First time Kelly or I had ever done that.

Five months. As of yesterday, that’s how long Kelly and I have been together. It feels like much longer than that, in a good way, but it also feels like no time has passed, because there are still so many things that we haven’t done yet, and places we haven’t gone yet. It’s a really good feeling.

We decided to go out and celebrate, so naturally we chose karaoke. And yes, we had a blast. My new favorite song to sing is “I Touch Myself” by the DiVinyls.

One girl was the embodiment of Olivia Newton John. She sang one of the songs from “Grease”, and the theme song from “Xanadu”, and both times, you would have sworn Olivia was there singing. It was uncanny. And speaking of Olivia, when I was a little kid, I used to think that she and Elton John were married. I’m not sure when it was that I found out that she was Australian and Elton was English, not to mention that Elton was–and still is–much too gay to be interested in Olivia.

Tonight is Susie Blue’s birthday, so Kelly and I and a whole bunch of other people are going to the Speakeasy to celebrate. Tomorrow, which is Saint Patrick’s Day, Kelly’s aunt is making sushi, and we’re going to go over and ‘help’. The Plan for later in the evening is to go see the Upright Citizens Brigade perform in one of their rare touring perfomances. Hopefully the show doesn’t sell out, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it will. Then again, maybe everyone will be out at Irish pubs and not give two blarneys about UCB, so we’ll have the place to ourselves. That’s what I like to think is going to happen.

I’ve been having the urge lately to go on another day trip/photo expedition, so I may do that on Sunday. It’s been a few weeks now. Yeah, I know, I did go to Cathedral Park a couple of weeks ago, but I have a hard time calling that an ‘expedition’, since it’s right here in town.

Alyssa comes back from Fiji on Sunday. Can’t wait to find out all about how THAT went.

Yesterday ended up better than it started. After going to the Gap, Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, Buffalo Exchange (both locations in town) and Red Light, I did find some cool clothes. Not as many as you’d think, considering all the places I went, but I ended up with some cool green pants from Urban, a long-sleeved black T-shirt from Buffalo, and a really great blue-with-brown-pinstripes button-up shirt from AmEagle. There were a couple other places that I intended to go, but by that time I was starving and out of energy. Came home, ate dinner, and hung out with Susan for a little while, until she left to go see the Pete Krebs Trio.

And speaking of the PK3, this morning I had the opportunity to play accordion with them on a few songs for their upcoming CD. What better way to triumph over a gloomy Saturday than to spend Sunday in the recording studio playing gypsy jazz with some of the best musicians in town? Pretty decent way to spend the day, I have to say.

At one point, KeithTheBassPlayer and I went out to get lunch for everyone, and run an errand to the plumbing place so he could order some new fixtures and stuff for his house. In the middle of the store, they had a full hot tub on display. We were cracking ourselves up imagining that after a particularly stressful day, all these big tough plumber guys would say something to the effect of, “We work hard; we play hard!” strip off and start splashing around in the tub together. Then suddenly they realize, “Hey, wait a minute. We’re all MEN!”, stop for an uncomfortable moment, and then burst out laughing. “Yeah. We’re ALL men.” Then it gets kinda quiet again. “Yup. . .we suuuure are. Men.”

Anyway.

Then we went and got some really frickin’ amazing burritos from. . .uh. . .Super Torta. (? I think that’s it.) I could only eat half of mine, which means that I still have the other half for another time. Woo hoo!

Kelly’s coming back from Seattle pretty soon. I’ll get to meet her long-time friend Barb also, which I’m really looking forward to. Should be a good night.

My favorite record store is Everyday Music. We went there last night, and I found Ali G, the new Menomena CD, and an anime DVD called “Grave of the Fireflies”, which promises to be beautiful and tragic. I’ll letcha know.