Found on the Interwebs, A Series of Tubes

Am I the only chick that thinks Jeremy Sisto is the hottest thing since Hot Things?  I would totally bang him blind but he's married.  Speaking of, why do people do that in this day and age?*  What's up with that?

Texts from Hillary.  Potentially very funny site.

Yo, Is This Racist?  This site makes me laugh out loud at least once a day.   Yo - thanks.

Don't have a vagina unless you can afford it.

Conversations overheard, and hilariously illustrated, from a comic book store in Boston.

I hope everyone appreciates Bruce McGill.  Started out as "D-Day" in "Animal House", was in "Legally Blonde 2", and continues to be an excellent character actor on "Rizzoli and Isles".  He's also not hard on the eyes if you like rugged bearded men in their fifties.  Like I do.

I know the young people are into the Zach Galifianakis movies (none of which I have seen [Sorry Zach, since I'm sure you are part of the 40-ish number of people who read this site])  but he is hands-down brilliant as the host of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, via Funny or Die.

Everyone have a great weekend - it's a sunny, brilliant spring day here in the Emerald City.  Hope it's the same where you are.



* Not that I have a problem with married people.  Some of my best friends are married.

Watching Time

My front porch faces west, to the Olympic Peninsula.  I can see the Brothers of Hurricane Ridge and every night since I've been home I've been struck with the opal skies of the sunset.  Two nights ago there were horsetail clouds (look it up) and they were pink, gold; arching up like orcas and their little ones under them.

Summer sunsets here last hours - as I write now, at 8:30, the sky is still thick with color.

Being a bit of a fucked-up photog with a medically established lack of frontal-lobe memory ability an art director sort, I've wanted to shoot everything possible to REMEMBER IT.

But you know what?

There is little you can cling to, believing you can make today your own personal  tomorrow.  No matter how many pictures you take, thinking that will enable you to hold your world tight...well you just can't.  And trying can take away what's been right handed to you.

So.

Give, and give more.  Appreciate all the friends that put up with you (and they do - have you been an ass lately?  I know I have been).

Say Thank You for all the love and kindness offered you.

I don't care what the lyrics profess, the sun may not come out tomorrow.

But it may - and be grateful as you watch the sunset.

Welcome to my Gracious Home.

Jesus H. Christ on a cracker.  What a mess.

 I think this is the kitchen.

I'm prepping for painting so it looks extry unkempt. 

Check the ancient electronics.  

My friend Burns suggested, for accuracy, 

I have them carbon-dated.

The cats, Noah and Mister Smith*, have been a big o pain in the arse.  It's not like they haven't lived here before, and they have four times the space they did in DC, yet SOMEONE...is marking their territory.  And they are both neutered!  Gah!

I cannot stand, CANNOT STAND any smells in my house so I'm going round sniffing for cat scents.  I'm so adamant about smelliness I will go outside in snow and rain to smoke.

Not that I smoke, mind you, but if I did - I'd go outside in the snow and rain to do so (Hi Mom and Dad!).

 

That portrait you've read so much about.

But it is so great to be back home.  Yes, I am broke and Comcast sucks and Seattle mass transit is non-existent, but...lord I'm happy to be here, to be loved.  Color me a wimp, but I needs my friends.

Smith sez, it don't suck here.

Please come visit soon. I really want to share my nice little house, my wonderful friends, my beautiful city.

After I find the coffee pot and the toilet paper.

*Real names.  They don't care.

Seasonal Buddhism

One thing I will miss about DC is its four seasons.  Who knew there could be four?  After living in LA, Texas and Seattle, I find this novel.

Yes Manhattan has four seasons, but you don't want to live through them.  Ah, the aroma of hot urine that heralds the New York summer!

Last week the cicadas starting singing in the season.  Although there are no more spent robins' eggs to be found, the birds are bickering over whether a second clutch of chicks is worth the effort.

The garden next to my building is flourishing, the tomatoes growing rosy, the little cherry tomatoes already ripe.  I spied a chipmunk on his back legs, inspecting a particularly fruitful cherry tomato plant.  

Deciding on his vegetable prey, he leapt up and grabbed it.  Hanging and kicking, he twisted around crazily until the vine gave up.  He then scampered to a nearby picnic table, jumped up on the bench and had his lunch.

Watching the change of seasons brings home many Buddhist teachings, one being the folly of attachment.

On one level this is a fairly straightforward concept - attachment to inanimate objects that have no real value.  Your car, the Crackberry, even the treasures you've brought home from adventures abroad.

On another, attachment can be folly when it is centered on time or place.  Although cliche, it is true that there is no constant but change.

Relationships come and go, Love waxes and wanes.  The tides come in, the tides go out.  But recognizing, internalizing, that life is fluid can be very liberating.  You may be having the best years of your life but I promise you, you will have dark years.  Just as, when your world is clouded with doubt and loss, there will be joy.

I've done some selfish things lately, and the move home will be difficult, so my heart is more troubled than I'd like.  I hope I will be forgiven for my selfishness, and the difficulties will sort out.

This summer has brought me winter days in many ways, but I know spring will come.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Mister Smith contemplates the trip back to Seattle:

I've moved about 15 times - big moves, transcon, internationally, etc.  If you include the usual shifts between apartments and houses and such, maybe 35?

I have it down to an art, which is not to say it is not a pain in the ass.

I wish DC had worked out better - of course I am so hard on myself anything less than Brilliant Success falls under I Suck.

But I did have two good jobs and more importantly, I made friends.  The Greek of Falls Church and Laura Walker: Girl Detective.  I also became much closer to my friend Chippy, the sister I never had.

And Now for Something Completely Different, 
a Tune from The Clash:




To Berens, Heather and Summer:  Can I sing this at the next Throwin' Goat?  I really want to belt out the line,

You're happy when I'm on my knees!

Does that require any explanation?  No, no it does not.