Life, lately

I am happy.  The weather is getting better, and there's sunshine outside... I forget, every year, that winter ends, that spring always comes. 

Lately, I find myself regularly wanting to share funny stories or little anecdotes with my office-mate at work, but then I realize they're probably only funny to me and my husband.  So I don't share several things; instead, I keep them with me and they make me smile and my insides feel warm and swollen in a good way.

Photos of my grandparents.  I love their goofy grins in the second photo.

I love my dog.  I think I love him more every day.  He has brought me such happiness, and I love his company.  He tries very hard to be a lap dog, but he's not particularly good at it.  He also enjoys getting drinks from the tub faucet, which is charming.  He almost always wags his tail, and he puts himself in his cage when he thinks we're mad at him.  He has whiskers JUST long enough, and his fur is so soft.  He naps by me.  He licks my face.  He's a good dog.

I love my husband, too, but I don't want to tell you everything about him because he wouldn't like that, and I'm not particularly mushy about him except to myself.  He makes me laugh all the time, laugh in the sort of way that is explosive or a "burst laugh" as he calls it.  I think this laugh is embarrassing, but he says he likes it.  Nobody else makes me consistently laugh like he does.  Sometimes I laugh really hard at things he says to me when it's just us, but get embarrassed when he says the same things to other people, but he never cares.  Nobody else is willing to be so silly and crazy with me.  Sometimes, I'll say something I think is incredibly outlandish, and he will, without any hesitation, top what I just said, easily.  It drives me crazy, but it also impresses me--his wit is quick.  (Except that I never win our bizarro what-if situations...it's a regular game we play.)  He's good at making dinner for us, but bad at cleaning it up.  He likes dumb shows on TV, but some good ones, too.  He likes to talk about moving to Nevada because he knows it bugs me.  He's my biggest supporter and compliments me a lot about things like my outfits or my hairdo.  He loves our dog and tries to teach him new tricks all the time.  Ok, yep, I just love him.  That was mushy.  But I didn't tell you everything about him, just a little.

Life is good in the sort of way that makes you want to take off your clothes and play with your brother and sister in a lake.  If you were a kid, that is.

Anyway, life is good and I am happy.  I have a lot of things going on right now, lots of changes and new ideas, but it's good.  So good that I just can't keep it to myself.



What's good for you lately?

Spring makes the world happy

Soon, the trees will be blooming.

We picked up our cruiser bikes last Friday night and since, I've been on five bike rides.  Today, Bagheera pulled me over with a big CRASHBANG because he had to go poop.

That little dog is strong.

Anyway, I didn't care so much except that my bike now makes weird noises, probably because of the basket and the way it's hooked on, but oh well.

The next-door neighbors were out back when I went to unlock my bike before we left.  Bagheera went to visit them and generally put his paws on them while wagging his tail so hard his entire back half swayed from side to side.  She (the neighbor) said (after I told her it might be an interesting ride with a leashed dog), good luck!  When I came back, she said, you made it!  And I said, yes, but he pulled me over once, and now my bike makes noises.

Isn't life so silly sometimes. 

Also, the neighbors are really very nice, and I don't know why, but I haven't really bothered before.  So maybe I'll make some new friends.  But they're neater than me, and I can tell because they were doing laundry today--I haven't done mine in over a week and my bedroom's messy.

Huh.

I just finished looking through over 1,000 of my grandpa's negatives which my uncle scanned last summer.  I think I'll share more because they make me so happy, and this is my blog, and I like posting that which makes me happy.

Full circle

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. I was watching Amelie at my parents' house the other day, and this quote, as always, really stuck out to me.

"Life's funny. To a kid, time always drags. Suddenly you're fifty. All that's left of your childhood... fits in a rusty little box."

The other day, I was searching for my tools to attend my ceramics class (more on that later), and searching through my things, I found a box that I'm guessing was supposed to be a time capsule for myself, wrapped in silver paper. The things I wrote were funny--I described each member of my family, and I was surprised at how flat their descriptions were on paper. I guess it wasn't surprising that my descriptions didn't really justify how each of them really are; they're special in their own ways, with their quirks and private stories, the things that make our relationships in relation to one another different than it is to another person. Coming across old things is hard for me, mostly because I have a hard time getting rid of old things. I have a difficult time deciding what's important, what my kids will be delighted to see, and that which is simply, unfortunately, junk.

ANYway, I quickly put the box back in my special box, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I need to go look at it again. It's sort of funny how there are pockets to life, things we store away and forget about, when at the time, it was such a HUGE thing. For example, my mom used to work at the hospital. I volunteered at the gift shop and sometimes just visited her there, and there was a specific bathroom I'd always use. For some reason, this bathroom was really ominous to me, and after watching one of the Scream movies, I was always a little afraid there'd be a serial killer in the next stall. This was a habit that really only showed itself in this particular restroom, and I almost always peeked at the floor under the door to be sure there weren't feet there, or catalog the fact that someone else was in there, just to be sure.

To tell you the truth, I don't think about middle school that often. But, you know what? When I was there, that's all I thought about. It's interesting how diverse life is and how quickly it goes by, though like the quote above, time used to drag. I don't think about a lot of things that were so important to me at one time. I don't see members of my family, my friends, or my life the same way I used to, and in some ways it's good, but most of all, it's nice to be able to remember what I thought then. I'm sure this time in my life will file away in one of my pocket memories soon enough.

And you know what? I don't want to forget my life. That's probably why I write and photograph lots of things. Because my memory isn't as good as it once was. Even if you don't care about my life, I do. So there it is. I want to remember all this goodness. It seems like I've been thinking about not wasting my time while I'm young a lot lately. I still need to work on that.

I'm sorry this is all so random. I hope you get what I mean anyway.

I want to share some more of my grandpa's photos with you. I love them all so much.

Also: I've been building my portfolio for my website. I am so excited about it, and I've felt so much joy photographing lately that I feel as though my heart's going to burst out of my chest. I love it. I really love it. I'll have to show you some of the photos--but not today.

Last thing: the photos I selected were Earl Green, and Pool 1. Wish me luck!