What's Up with Me

There is a long story about how I found myself going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of malaise. The Drink Me/Eat Me solution got me over a big hump but then it may have been the cause of my downward spiral. Only time will tell. But for now I am enjoying feeling a little bit more purpose driven and clear headed. If you know me and want to know the story, give me a call. It is only recently that I have been able to talk about what began on March 20, 2003 and I'm not quite ready to broadcast it out on the worldwide web for anyone to read. But just to put any inquiring minds to rest this wasn't an addiction problem. What I find the most unbelievable is that it has been almost a decade.
This morning, my day off, I picked up my computer and camera to head downsatirs to the Madison Clubhouse to use the WiFi and download photos from my camera. As I left I checked on Sash and Meez to tell them I was leaving. Here they are...

Ok, so I didn't get around to making my bed this morning. I need to de-fur it later and change sheets. The boy-cats spend so much time on my bed that about once a week, I realize it is time to de-fur when all I breathe in is cat hair when I lay down.
I also need to clean all the bird seed and bird poop off my balcony. Grrr. The other day I was buying cat food and birdseed at Target, the guy asked if I had a lot of pets, I responded two cats, he returned "Oh, I see that is wild bird seed." I said, "Yeah, that's entertainment for the cats." He looked at me wide eyed and said "Now, I'm scared." I realized how that sounded and not wanting to remain a sadist in his eyes, I let him know that there was a window between the cats and the birds. Here are the Sash and Meez at their bird watching stations.

Usually Sasha is on the floor behind the blind and Misha is often on the back of the sofa looking through the space between the blinds. They chatter and occassionally rush the window when it just gets to be TOO MUCH. The other day, everytime I said something to Sasha about the birds, he chattered his response. It was really funny.
Yes, I know...sigh...this is one of the reasons, I have opted not to procreate.
So I come downstairs to download my photos onto my computer and realize that I left the tansfer cable upstairs, I trudge back upstairs, retrieve the cable, come downstairs, hook up the cable and realize that yesterday when I was messing with SD cards, I mixed them up and got the wrong card back into the wrong cameral. I mutter to myself and decide to make these photos work. So if some of the photos are radom that is because this is ultimately not the entry I planned to write.
My friend Paul came back at the end of last year. He was staying down in Venice Beach. I went down several weekends to catch up with him. We would take long walks--up to ten miles--on the beach. Here is a photo that I really really like that I took on one of our walks. I really like the incongrous-ness of the guys walking in their wetsuits with the industrial plant in the backgroud.

This would be part of the My LA series. Next month, I am having two photographers in the 3rd Friday Art Reception that I do at the library. I am thinking about adding some of my photos to round out the program. I am operating with the notation that if you take a million pictures the odds are in your favor that at least a few are notable. All my images are raw. I know that a good picture could be made much better with proper processing, but that isn't my baliwick and I am just as pleased to deal with the raw images. I have several photos over the years that I am attached to and have long planned to get them enlarged and framed, so this might be the imputus to make that little nagging concept into reality. I need to get a neg/slide converter to get the digital image on many of my photos. I also perfer matte processing so I need to locate a photography that will print them out matte for me.
Looking through the photos on this card, I found a photo of my Chili King Crown that I made last year for the 2nd Annual Chili Cookoff. The first crown I created with a styrofoam wreath, covered in ribbons and wire with Chili spelled out in beaded wire. The winner that year had longer hair and he kind of looked like Jesus with his crown of thorns. Head shake here at the memory. So last year, I think i improved on the concept.

And here is me wearing the crown along with an apron that I was able to secure for the people who entered into the cookoff. I entered my Home On the Range chili which is made with buffalo and venison.

I didn't win.
Last year there was stiff competetition between the defending champion with his Texas Chili and Broken Arrow Chili named after the city in Oklahoma. I got a real kick that this was a competion between the two states I most identify with. Last year Oklahoma edged out Texas.
The Chili contest is a lot of fun and has become the end of our Summer Reading Program. I have been trying to establish some traditions at the library. Right now, we have the Chili Cookoff, the Mother Daughter Teas in the Spring and Winter, and this year I plan to have another Community Art Contest. We are also going to give Dog Dayz a go in June this year. Our reference librarian came up with the concept as a response to all those people who ask me what I have for fathers and sons or single mothers with sons. Dog Dayz which is still in the concept stage would feature a variety of hot dogs and maybe a project for the father/son teams complete. Right now, I am thinking Lego's where they have 45 minutes to build their project and then we vote on the best project.
I think that in order for libraries to remain relevant and funded they need to have traditions that bring the community together. With 4-5 different traditions to punctaute the year the library can unite a fairly wide range of community interests. From the library staff perspective it gives us a natural flow to the year. From the community's point of view it gives them something to anticipate and look forward to. Right now, I am thinking about the Mother's Day Mother/Daughter Tea and the community is beginning to ask about when the sign up for the tea will begin.