Lookin' in the Sun For Another Overload

Here is the top of a door at McBride Hall.

So, I don't have a lot to blog about. This weekend, I decided I'd try to be healthier in general in a lot of different ways. I wanted to slow things down, and relax and try to get more sleep. I also thought I'd try to be more physically healthy, by eating better and getting more exercise. So, what this means is that I am boring as hell right now.

Like last night, the girls were in and out of my house briefly, and so I spent most of the night listening to music by myself and making potato leek soup and hummus. Bo-Riiiiing! (well, too read about, but wonderfully relaxing to do) Then today I brought my camera to work and was all ready, but never saw the unicyclist. Damn.

The most exciting thing I've done in a couple of days took place this evening when I walked to the Co-op to buy some really good bread to go with the soup and hummus, and took a detour through this alley to see what was behind some of the downtown buildings. No, I didn't uncover a hidden city of gnomes or anything, but I've lived in this town on and off for 25 years and never explored this area before.

I decided to look up during my tour and this is what I saw. A broken window.

These duct looking things. I think you know how much I like to take pictures of weird industrial looking shit. This little section of alley was like a back lot, exposing all the tubes and wires of the quaint downtown facades. It was so cool.

Don't you think this frantic mess of wires has to be violating about a million different city codes?

So, that ends my dorky back alley tour of Iowa City. Come back tomorrow, when I photograph underneath railroad bridges...Just kidding. I don't think I want to make a huge effort to go trolling for hobos right now, since my goal was to try and be more healthy.

Coming From Uranus to Check My Style

Here are some photos I took of my favorite art - low art at the Picador (Gabe's for all you ex-pats) beer garden.

Oh, kids. I can't even begin to express how tired I am. I've been doing the sleep-deprivation thing again. The only good thing about it, is that after a couple of days, I get kind of goofy and high from it. I sit at my desk and amuse myself by all the bizarre thoughts that come through my scary brain. It's like taking acid, but legal and I don't have that weird scalp tingling thing either.

I really love that they were smart enough to have someone (does anyone out there know who painted these?) paint the walls instead of collecting stupid drunk graffiti.

Thank the good lord that tomorrow is my last day of work this week. I wish I could spend the four days off resting and relaxing, but I have some miles to drive and some relatives to spend time with before I sleep. Here's how it's looking:

Tomorrow night, I'll just go running and then go to a store to get something for my cousin's kid's birthday. I have no other plans, except for that cleaning for an hour gig I'm still trying with varying rates of success. Yesterday, I got home from work and the city was out on the street working on the pipes. We were without water for most of the night, so I said screw it, and played video games instead. Oops

Thursday, the girls and I will head to Ottumwa to see the family. We'll drive back that evening, and depending on how I feel, I may stop by my friend K.'s Thanksgiving party. She said she would love me to come and bring some estrogen to what she is sure will be one big, testosterone filled, sausage fest

Friday will be my "get my shit together" day. I realize how delusional I'm being here. I really need a "get my shit together' century, and even that would only be a nice start. Anyway, I'm giving myself a day, and we'll see how that goes. Oh yeah, I would be VERY surprised if there was any Christmas shopping going on in my world.

Saturday my siblings should converge on my house for our annual Christmas celebration a month early. I'm sure there will be some eating and some opening of gifts involved, and then whenever they all leave, there might also be some hunting down of the remote control from wherever my three year old niece put it or where my sister hid it from said niece.

Saturday night is the annual Wanksgiving thing at the Picador. FMDM's band is playing and DJ said she was going to be there with some folks too. Mr. B. still says he's planning on showing up for it. I'm just going and having a good time no matter who shows or doesn't.

Hopefully, Sunday will be a day of rest for me. I will surely need it. Okay, lay down your holiday or resting and relaxing plans in the comments

The Cold Comfort of the In Between

Here is a photo of a truck that drove down Iowa Avenue one day. I think it's very Iowan, don't you?

Damn, but it's hard to blog on Friday night. Even when I don't go out. Really, all I want to do is, lounge around and stare at stuff. I'm glad I'm not going out, or would be the boringest person at the bar. Which may not be any different than any other night I go out, but I'm usually a little less brain dead on Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night...I think I might just go out after all tomorrow. K. wanted me to go to the Mill and see some people we know play music. I told her I was broke, so I.M. told me she'd see if she could get me on the guest list. Then my friend Sara invited me to a party on Iowa Avenue where they are supposedly making pitchers of mojitos and mint juleps. I have a feeling it could be full of artsy grad students, but that would be interesting too.

Okay, kids. That's all I can do tonight. RAWK!

I'mma Do the Things That I Wanna Do

Here are some miscellaneous photos I had leftover from the last couple of weeks. They're of Iowa City. Shocker.

Tonight was one of those where I hit the ground running after work. I ran my four mile route because I was pressed for time. I made dinner, we ate, then we went shopping for last minute Halloween costume accessories. I got Stinky to her babysitting gig at 7:30 and Coadster back home. Whew!

Finally, I stopped by my friend A.'s BBQ around eight. His friend, who's first initial is also A., was visiting, so he had some folks over to eat. I heard about it at the last minute, and I had the girls, so I was only able to do a drive-by. When I got there, everyone was on the deck drinking wine, eating and hanging out by the fire. It was very nice. My friends K. and I.M. were there as well as some people I had met at the hippie music fest this Summer. I only stayed for about a half hour and I didn't eat or drink, but I did really enjoy the conversation. It was perfect, because right when people were getting ready to take their show on the road to the bars downtown, was also right when I was ready to go home.

I love the plastic flowers decorating the milk crate on this bike.

So, Halloween...I'm not quite sure what I'm doing for that. I'm going to try to remember my camera tomorrow so I can take pics of costume wearers about town. At work every year we have a cookies and cider day, where people either make baked goods or throw down some money for hot apple cider, so I'm sure I'll need some insulin by the end of the day.

Here is a guy on a little machine that takes him up and down so he can wash the public library windows.

Now, for Halloween evening. Honestly, I'm not sure what the hell I'm doing. I know a guy who's having a party, and some other friends are going to the Mill. There are a bunch of local bands who are impersonating more famous bands. Ed Gray and another guy are going to do covers by The Replacements and I can't remember what other bands are doing which other covers, but it sounds pretty cool.

My other option is that, since my girls will both be gone at their various social activities, I could stay home and have the whole place to myself. I might play a video game or two and sit down on my couch with a cheap bottle of Chiraz I have and drink some wine and watch movies. Doesn't that sound nice? Yeah, I thought so too.

Here's a guy reading a book on a bench by my office.

At this moment, I'm not committing to anything. My plan is to get home from work, go on a nice long run, stop by my friend K.'s house and drop off some food I made, and see how I feel. I like this conundrum. I have three really wonderful options and I'm sure I won't have any regrets with whichever one I chose.

How about you guys? Do you have amazing options for the holiday? Will you be out and about or relaxing with a bottle of wine?

As Now Can't Reveal the Mystery of Tomorrow

Here is some stencil type graffiti I found on my lunch a week or so ago. Most of it was on the wall in the alley off of the Ped Mall on the side where Rocky Roccoco's used to be when I was in college.

Well, kids. I stayed home because I was sick and snotty and gross. Hot, huh? I didn't think so. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I don't think my co-workers want me to come in and infect them and have to listen to me whine and then find me passed-out at my desk.

Anyway, I'm going to wienie out of a real blog post and just put up the list of songs I put on the 70's'ish soul CD I made for my friend K. this weekend. From around 1969 until 1971 or 72 I think, I lived in a very urban area of Phoenix. Hanging out around the Boys Club and at some of my friend's houses, I heard a lot of the soul and R and B stuff of the time and loved it. Of course, I was still in Arizona and was also exposed to tons of country and singer songwriter stuff of the time, in other words, I come by my bizarre musical tastes honestly.

Okay, here's the list and if it doesn't make you want to grow out your fro and buy a Dashiki, than I guess I didn't do my job:

Here is a stencil of George W. with old gum stuck on him and a smiley face drawn in chalk on his shoulder.

1.) "That Lady" (part 1 and 2) - The Isley Brothers. As far as I'm concerned, the Isley Brothers are perfect and that's why I put two of their songs on here.

2.) "Spanish Harlem" - Aretha Franklin. I love "Chain of Fools" too, but it's so overplayed lately.

3.) "Hello Stranger" - Barbara Lewis. Most people know this song, but can't remember which one it is. It's the one with the hook that goes, "...It seems like a mighty long time..." Coadster turned me on to this song and I'm so glad she did.

4.) "Fingertips Pt 2" - Stevie Wonder. This was one of his early big hits. I love it and Stevie is the only other artist who is on here twice.

5.) "Them Changes" - Buddy Miles. I need more of his stuff in my collection. He does an amazing cover of Neil Young's "Down by the River".

6.) "Oh Girl" - The Chi-Lites.

7.) "Superfly" - Curtis Mayfield. If I remember correctly, FMDM has a Blacksploitation soundtrack CD that I may have to try and borrow...Fair warning, FMDM.

Here is some kind of bumble bee looking creature and some letters I can't read underneath.

8.) "September" - Earth Wind and Fire. I can't remember if I've told you guys that I have theme songs for each of my girls or not, but I do. I actually have theme songs for most people I know. Anyway, Coadster's is Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Stinky's is "September", because it's her birth month and it was my favorite song in 8th grade. I sang them to the girls all the time when they were babies and they both love their songs to this day. Thank god my girls are as dorky as I am.

9.) "Ooh Child" - The Five Stairsteps.

10.) "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - Gil Scott Heron. Whatever happened to Gil Scott Heron, anyway?

11.) "It's Your Thing" - The Isley Brothers. I really wish they wouldn't use some of my favorite songs in Burger King ads. I don't want to have to picture that creepy King guy whenever I listen to them.

12.) "the Girl Can't Help It" - Little Richard.

13.) "Got to Give it Up" pt 1 - Marvin Gaye. There are some disco songs I can't stand and some I really love. Guess which one this is?

Here is a tall dark stencil guy with a three pronged yellow penis and is that a bucket for a head?

14.) "Fire" - The Ohio Players. When I was younger there was this rumor going around that a girl got killed in the studio when this song was being recorded and you can hear her scream in the background. I think it was later disproved as an urban legend. *Thanks to DMarks for the correction. The song was actually, "Love Rollercoaster". Oops. It seems I may have killed more brain cells in my lifetime than I thought*.

15.) "A Change is Gonna Come" - Sam Cooke. When I first worked at the Mill, there were a lot of older hippie types leftover from the 60's. One of them was a waitress named Cindy. She was the biggest Zappa and Captain Beefheart fan I've ever met and she had thousands of albums. Once she let me come over and pick out five albums that she would tape for me. It was overwhelming, but one of the albums I chose was Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits and it was awesome.

16.) "Respect Yourself" - The Staple Singers.

17.) "As" - Stevie Wonder. This is one of the best corny love songs ever in the world. It makes up for 500 "I Just Called to Say I Love You's".

18.) "Early in the Morning" - The Gap Band. I was a little worried this might be too cheesy for K., but she assured me she not only loved The Gap Band, but this was one of her favorite songs of theirs. I knew we were friends for a reason.

19.) "Jimmy Mack" - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

20.) "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Sylvester. Yes, more disco. Deal with it.

Okay. I have to go take some cold medicine and sleep even more. Later for you.

There's No Time for Her to be Afraid

Here is some more low art for you. I found all this stuff on Saturday when I was driving home from the mall. I went back the next day and shot a bunch of pics. I just remember three years ago when I photographed the girls in front of a really cool graffiti face that was cleaned up in less than a week. I wasn't about to take any chances.

Today was a particularly long day. Yesterday I had my annual and then today I had to go get my mammogram. If you'll recall, last year I had a bad one of those. So, they made me come back every six months to monitor the badness. What was at first a possible tumor, became a calcification. The rename didn't do a lot to assuage my fears. I didn't sleep all that well last night. Luckily, my appointment was first thing this morning, so I could get it over with. After they took a million different views, and a doctor studied them, he called me into a room and said that the calcification had suddenly started to dissolve. Hmmm. I mean, it's great news, but it seems kind of odd. Anyway, what it means for me, is that I can sleep a lot easier tonight - which is good, because I'm exhausted. Oh yeah, don't forget it's breast cancer awareness month. Timely, isn't it?

I much prefer graffiti pictures to words, unless it says something really prophetic.

Oh, did I mention that I'm all randomy again tonight? Or did I not need to, because I already said how tired I was? Anyway, while I was walking to my doctor's appointment in the rain yesterday, some stupid asshole sped up and drove really fast into a puddle in the curb and splashed filthy street water all over me and laughed as he drove away. It reminded me of reading The Grapes of Wrath in high school and my lit teacher talking about the turtle scene at the beginning of the novel. I can still hear her saying, "There are some people who will swerve to miss you, and others will swerve in order to hit you." Ain't it the truth.

Look. How festive - spray paint balloons on a retaining wall.

Right after my appointment, I had to go to a meeting to learn the new computer system they're loading next Monday. Because I was late, the only seat was by one of my bosses and my favorite IT guy. Man, I thought I had ADD, but these guys were even worse than me. The IT guy can not still still for two seconds and he sings songs to every sentence anyone says just like I do too. When the speaker was talking about rolling all the changes in on Monday, he started singing, "Monday, Monday" and when he kept making the same mistake, he went right into, "Oops, I Did it Again". It was just another example of how adorable it is when I do all those dumb things, and how annoying it is when everyone else does them.

I particularly like the old-fashioned boom box. Oh, 1984, I miss you so. Where the hell did I put my breaking board?

Tonight was supper club night. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Coralville. At first, I thought about laming out, because I was so tired and hung-over from all that unnecessary stress, but then I made myself go anyway. I'm so glad I did. Our little group is so awesome. Everyone is so funny and nice and full of witty repartee. It was exactly what I needed.

Here are some E's painted under the Hope signs. That reminds me, I need to go vote early for Obama at the library this week.

After eight days in a row and about 50 miles, I finally took yesterday off from running. I cleaned my kitchen and did a few loads of laundry instead, which was not half as much fun and didn't include any kind of endorphin rush whatsoever. Seriously, why even do it then, right?

This is the messy blue paint leftover from the graffiti. It seems a little excessive, doesn't it?

I got a Facebook profile recently. Earlier in the Summer when I was trying to find my old California friends, some people suggested looking them up on Facebook.They all had really common names and I didn't know where they lived anymore, so it was almost impossible. I use my real name on Facebook, which isn't all that common and I figure, if any of my friends are looking for me, I won't be that hard to find. Facebook seems a lot less creepy than Myspace. I've only had one friend request from a guy I didn't know and didn't have any friends in common. I told my daughters that I would understand if they didn't want to be my friend on it. Coadster added me right away, but Stinky didn't want to. I put up a bunch of really cute baby pictures of the girls and then tagged Coadster in all of them. After Stinky saw that, she said, "See? That's exactly why I didn't want to be your friend." What? What?!

Finally, here is a whole box full of graffiti. Somebody must really like elephants.

I think I'm going to make Thanksgiving dinner a month early this Sunday. The girls and I have all been craving it. I'll just have to get creative with the leftovers and make some turkey soup or maybe some turkey enchiladas and then some turkey cheese cake served up with some turkey ice cream. Mmmm.

And I See Losing Love is Like a Window in Your Heart

Today on my blog I'm fulfilling two assignments and posting some more recycled photos. The first one is the Saturday Scavenger Hunt. Mrs. Big Hairy Woman chose the word, which, not surprisingly, was hairy. There's a lot you can do with that, but I'm taking it literally. I've used this pic before, but nothing illustrates the extent of my hairy issues at such an early age like it. So, here's my family looking like its own version of the Village People when we lived in Phoenix, before the Village People existed. I'm the five year old white girl with dreadlocks, wearing the blue and white cowgirl outfit (probably for the fourth day in a row). See why my roommate in college diagnosed me with acute hair phobia? I'm sure I'd be tidy and well-adjusted, if only I had nice straight hair that didn't get all frizzy and messy looking.

Here's my oldest sister with one of my parents artsy/beatnicky friends in Chicago in the sixties.

My other assignment was given to me by Dana at My Gorgeous Somewhere blog. As I'm sure I've said before, I don't really trust or understand poetry. I love it, but I have no idea what makes a poem good, I just know that imagery in certain poems, can make me want to write prose. I also feel a little betrayed by poetry. All that counting of syllables, is like math disguised as language and you know how much I hate math. It's also why poetry would be an excellent discipline for my messy, cluttered brain, if only I weren't so damn lazy.

I mentioned to Dana that reading her writing, makes me want to write and that was one of the biggest compliments I could ever give a writer. So, Dana being wonderfully Dana, gave me an assignment to write an American Sentence about whatever her poems inspired in me. If you are like I was, and don't know what an American Sentence is, you can go here. Basically, it was a form invented by Allen Ginsberg as an American answer to the haiku - a sentence made up of 17 syllables.

Here is a line that Dana wrote that made me think about the whole child/parent guilt thing:

We make coffee
for ourselves but
not for our children.

At first, I thought it sounded selfish, but then coffee isn't good for children, so then it seemed sensible, if not protective. It made me think about that weird parent guilt that you feel when you do something for yourself that doesn't include your children. Then I extended it to the guilt children(and when I say children, I mean me) feel about being a pain in the ass, and complicating their parents' lives. Since my mom didn't live long enough for me to thank her or make things up to her after I became an adult, I still have a lot of remorse.

Here is another recycled photo of my mom at a party before she had children.

So, here's my American Sentence:

My mom had more fun and nicer legs before I was born - is that my fault?

It Seems Like This Whole Town's Insane

This tag was from a wall by the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently done by a San Francisco native.

It's another one of my, "It's late and I'm tired posts". I worked on an old timey country/bluegrass CD for my friend K. tonight. I'll put the playlist up on the blog one of these days soon here. Even if you don't know a lot of bluegrass, there are also a few trucker hits and a cowboy song, and some of the blugress songs are covers of songs you might know. I had to import a lot of my bluegrass CD's and then I decided to load my iTunes up with some other CD's I had while I was at it. So, I kind of screwed myself over for blog time tonight.

This was a leftover wall painting from the Olympics. Coadster was obsessed with finding any remnants from the Salt Lake City Olympics while we were there.

Which means you all get a mostly photo post tonight and some random ramblings about whatever enters my pea sized brain. (I almost spelled: brian - just so you know what you're dealing with tonight)

I decided to dip into my vacation pics again and pull out any photos I could find of my favorite kind of art - low art. I'm still working on that one painting and it's supposed to be a bit murally, and comic booky and graffiti-like and since it has taken me two years to really get going on it, I've had plenty of time to collect photographic examples of what I'm going for.


This mural was a side part of the mural below this. It was so big that Stinky had to photograph it in parts.

The wedding date guy drunk texted me on Saturday night. I hadn't heard from him since the text non-break-up, so it was kind of surprising. The first text was long and similar to what someone might write in your yearbook your senior year in high school. He basically said that he was glad he got to know me and that he wanted me to be me (?) and that we had to stay friends. I was tempted to write back, "It was really fun sitting by you in study hall. Don't ever change. I hope we see each other at keggers at the Lagoons after graduation." But I was good. I knew he was drunk and just wanted attention from someone of the opposite sex. We've all been there. I texted something about having had a great Summer with him and that I would always be his friend. Which was all true.

This was the main part of the mural. There were all kinds of groovy famous people painted within this one and the girls tried to identify all of them. Yes, we are dorks. What's it to ya?

I'm going to try really hard to remember to bring my camera to work tomorrow. Today there was a group of god people holding these GIGANTIC signs about how we all suck and we're all sinners and blah, blah, blah. These particular zealots, all seemed to be very attractive college aged kids. So, I was walking across campus toward the bank to drop off the work deposit, when some young buck tried to hand me his pamphlet. I politely declined it. Then he said, "You need to repent, ma'am. You're hopelessly lost."

I wanted to say, "Listen Buster Brown. If you call me 'ma'am' one more time, I'll make you repent." But once again, I was good and kept it to myself. People who know me, will be shocked to learn that I do indeed have a filter. I just forget to use it most of the time.