slow summer

it's been that feeling recently. i know when we start shooting, my life will explode, but right now i'm reveling in the pleasure it gives me. ch keeps talking about how other unimployed friends of ours need to get jobs for their mental health or money or whatever, and i keep counting myself in with them, because i feel like i don't have a job. i DO, but i don't FEEL like i'm working. i DID set my alarm yesterday morning. but for 10. so i wouldn't accidentally miss liz. we met at metropolis artisian coffee roasters. i walked there. in my sundress. with my rice bag. i sat outside at a table under an umbrella. i drank fruity herbal iced tea and ate a spinach feta pie for breakfast. liz brought scrabble, a deluxe edition with real wooden tiles and church pews. she didn't beat me by very much. we were both over 250. i had some good words- vim, ovoid, fife (using both fs already in place) she had some really wonderful ones- qualm, quiet (using the q in both directions), exhude. it was nice.

i came home, and practiced the fiddle. i've been trying to write down at least 1/2 a fiddle tune per practice session (and trying to practice at least every other day) because i hate listening to the tapes and playing by ear. it's much easier for me to read music. and it makes me feel really talented and musical to be able to go the other way, to take something i can play and write it down. i don't know if i'd take fiddle lessons again, beacause they didn't harp on me about posture or fingering or holding the bow write or anything, it was more about teaching tunes. i would want to take violin lessons so i can do it right. cause i can learn tunes on my own- that's my theory. to prove that, i'm learning one of my favourite irish tunes, i know it from nightengale's cd. i was SHOCKED, simply SHOCKED (did i blog about this already?) to realize while listening to it on my ipod one day that i can distinguish the A and B parts- i can hear the structure of fiddle tunes now aabb, aabb, change tunes, same pattern. so i guess that is one good thing fiddle lessons did for me. it's hard, learning from the mp3, listening to the same measure over and over again, trying to pick it out. but the tune is really familar and i've been taking it one measure at a time, and if i don't have it, i have somethign really close. i got the last bit of the b part today. i'm really really proud of myself. i want to play it for my mother.

after practicing the violin, i make lunch- boiled whole wheat pasta, chopped up the last of my fresh picks arugula, a tomato and some garlic, and mixed it all together with parmesan. i don't LIKE arugula, but i really don't HATE it either. it tasted good in this. after that, i started sewing. actually cutting. i got all the tube tops cut out, and the kimono sleeves. it was easy to do while listening to this american life. 81 words. good, good episode. it aired on mother's day and ch and i were trying to listen to it, but it kept buffering, so after i heard the podcast, i burnt a cd for ch so he can listen too. that evening, i took my chains and went upstairs to knock on my 3rd floor neighbor's door. he was home and let me climb out onto his balcony and hang chains for my plants. i was out of bagles and needed to go to the grocery store, and so i bought the aforementioned cherries and stuff, and talked to d, and ch, and a. i watered the garden, listened to pandora, serged my rectangles. i googled all the people in my crossword puzzle (i am so culturally illerate) and used the crossword dictionary for the ones i couldn't get. i cleared my hot spots, scooped the cat box, did the dishes. had a small bowl of ice cream. climbed into bed with my book. it really doesnt' get any better than this. i know it's the spring talking, that i feel this way every year, but i am so happy and greatful when it comes. i think being a perpetually sad person makes me really love and appreciate the joyous times. like i have a fear someday i will say boo hoo i'm always sad and miserable i never feel good. but i can always say, no, here are days, weeks at a time, when you were so happy you wanted to jump out of your skin, you were living a life you would be jelous of if anyone else were living it.

ok, there could be a LITTLE more joy in my life. if i could get this chair to stop smelling like smoke, my joy would have no end.