Everything I Like Causes Cancer: May 2010

5/25/2010

It could be worse; you could be BUTT GREASE.

Posted by Gwen | Labels: Perspective

5/21/2010

My head, it spins.

Posted by Gwen | Labels: I feel sick AND happy.

I have a wonderful life: amazing friends (real and cyber), a stable job that I love, a beautiful home, and hobbies that keep me busy and happy. I'm lucky and I know it. The only thing missing from my wonderful life list is a significant other, a best friend I can smooch on. A week ago I was fine with that; I enjoyed being alone and, for the most part, was grateful to not have the complications that come with a relationship.

A week ago I also went on a first date that blew me away. We connected on many levels, discovered we have many similar interests and priorities, and he's cute as a bug in a rug. Okay fine, he's hot. And chivalrous and romantic. And masculine and artistic. I was so comfortable with him that all of my usual anxiety and guardedness melted away. I was on cloud nine. I was weightless and joyful and excited.

And then I received a message from him on Saturday night, calling from a local hospital. On his way home from our date he lost control of his vehicle, rolled it several times and literally crushed his left arm and hand. In the past week he's undergone three surgeries to put his arm and hand back together. And yet, despite the fact that our first date almost killed him, he still wanted to see me. So I went to the hospital. Every day this week. Because he asked me to come back every time I went and it felt right.

To say this is an interesting dating situation is an understatement. I mean, he's been in his underwear and an adjustable bed on our dates numbered two through five. I've already met 75% of his family and helped him do things that are generally considered taboo in the first week of dating. (Out of the gutter, pervs, I'm talking about washing his hair and being present for medical discussions about private bodily functions.)

Here's where it gets tricky for me: I'm a person who needs a playbook. I get anxious when I don't know what's going to happen. I need a plan. I need to know what to expect. And guess what? There's no playbook for this situation. He will probably go home tomorrow. Home for him is an hour away, in another state. Where do we go from here? Do we go back to the regular dating playbook? How will his recovery affect our ability to see each other?

Having tasted the sweet nectar of companionship I'm not sure I want to go back to my quiet life of solitude. Sure, it's easier and certainly less dramatic, but it doesn't have any kissing or holding hands or googly eyes. The logical part of my brain knows that the best course of action in a uncertain situation is to sit back, see how things play out and react accordingly, but the part of my brain that has been saturated with serotonin is spinning.

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5/04/2010

Music and social media have the power to heal.

Posted by Gwen | Labels: Help Me Save The World, Life is crap without music

If you don't already know that Tennessee is suffering a major, devastating flood, you live under a rock. Suffice it to say that it's bad and thousands of people are displaced. We won't go into the details of how or why God is mad at them (I kid! I kid!) but what we can talk about is how to help.

A dear friend of mine runs/manages/programs/generally works at a radio station in Tennessee called JACK-FM (96.3 on the dial). Since 6 am this morning they've been hosting a Request-A-Thon to raise money for families affected by the flood. It's entirely legit and from what I read HERE, the money will go to The Red Cross.

Anyway, for a mere $25 donation you can make a song request and help flood victims. How fun is that? All you have to do is call the Request-A-Thon hotline at 615-737-9696. I mean, really, you were probably going to donate anyway so you might as well get a song request, too. (BTW, they will take ANY donation, it just takes $25 to get a request. You should call even if all you can afford right now is $5 or $10.)

For my part, I requested Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy. I thought the lyrics were appropriate:

Dear Mr. Fantasy, play us a tune,

Something to make us all happy.

Do anything, take us out of this gloom.

Sing a song, play guitar,

Make it snappy.

So what are you doing still reading this?! Go! Call! Let's show Tennessee that the rest of the nation/world loves and supports them. If all of this isn't enough, think of the bourbon and whiskey made in Tennessee. You want to help keep the whiskey river flowing, right? RIGHT?

I have to go, my song is next! GO! CALL!

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5/02/2010

A Life in Pictures and Bullets

Posted by Gwen | Labels: Oh the things I do, Oh the things I see, The Garden 2010

Two weeks.

It's been two weeks since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry.

Wait, wait, wait . . . that's not what I'm trying to say. Those aren't even the right lyrics to the song. I got distracted again.

SQUIRREL!

My point was this: I have yet again abandoned this site for real living. Not reporting on living but actually doing it. A lot of it. So much living, in fact, that I'm reduced to summing it up in pictures and bullets . . .

I saw the play Outlying Islands with our Culture Club (a.k.a. my bestie Leslie). It was okay. Heavy on metaphor with an odd ending we've not been able to understand since viewing it. That said, I'm glad we were adventurous and saw something that doesn't often make the St. Louis theater circuit, like say A Doll's House or The Importance of Being Ernest.
I toured the first Frank Lloyd Wright house built in Missouri with ttmac and The Carpenter. My favorite period in American history and my favorite style of architecture is Arts and Crafts. I love the aesthetic, I love the philosophy and, as such, I love Frank Lloyd Wright. Yes, he was difficult. Yes, he was foolish with money and women. But damn that man knew how to design amazingly beautiful structures. The house we saw is a Usonian built for a local man and his wife. There are only TWO right angles in the entire house! Wright designed the house using only equilateral parallelograms and hexagons, EVEN IN THE DRAWERS:

And the furniture:

The guest bed.

The dining/living area.

All of the 60/120 degree angles throughout the house give it a sense of motion, almost like you're on a ship:

All of the interior lines continue to the exterior, AND THEY ALL LINE UP.

I could go on for days about this house. This topic probably should have been its own post but who knows when I'll be back here. Just one more picture, because I was mesmerized by this roof line:

Do you see how far that sharp, sharp roof line juts out, creating the sense of motion?

Take a closer look: THERE ARE NO EXTERNAL SUPPORTS! None. It's all done with framing. FLW tickles my brain.

I visited my High School Bestie and her two boys, went to my first estate auction, and had coffee with cows:

I was awed by sunsets like this:

I made sure to look up when I took walks:

NO Ball Playing IN THIS . . . tree?

I played with my food:

You gonna eat that pickle?

I built a Kat Phort and filled it with catnip:

NO GIRLZ!

I had a night out on the town with the girls that, for a couple days, made me regret nights out on the town with the girls:

I witnessed a turtle orgy:

Brown chicken, brown turtle.

And I gardened. Oh boy, have I done some gardening. Since we last discussed the garden I've re-vamped almost every inch of it. I installed new solar lights along the walk, I thinned and transplanted hostas to create the border of the new bed, I moved almost every plant that already existed, I gave away a bunch of plants and added some new (more interesting) plants, I rearranged the patio furniture, I tended the seedlings . . .

This is what success looks like.

. . . I started potting the containers . . .

Oooooh! Pretty!

This is what "welcome to my home" looks like.

. . . and I added some new architectural features like this one:

Now I just need to find some whimsical fairy statues to sprinkle around the beds. More shopping! Yay!

And finally . . . it's been about a month since I published the "Early Spring" photo overview of the garden so let's do our first comparison:

April 6, 2010

May 1, 2010

This is what progress looks like.

One more week and the whole place is going to EXPLODE in blooms. You should come over. We'll make a fire in the fire pit and talk about how awesome I am at creating beautiful spaces. Fine. We can talk about you, too. Sheesh.

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