Now My House Is Full

Excellent party on Friday, though a couple of key players, like Rodney, were absent. Much fun and an interesting group of people now that all the borders have mostly independent social circles. Not independent enough to be completely drama-free, but as close as I can imagine getting for a while. We picked up a temporary roommate, Dustin, as the party as well. He's crashing on our couch and doing some work for John's dad before resuming his travels, either here in Bham, or elsewhere.

I had to make some tough, sad decisions last week. I did my best and I think everything's ok, but it wasn't much fun. I've had a lot of amazing awesomeness going on, too, though. I'm dead tired and overstimulated, but happy and confident. I'm going back up to Greensboro at the end of the month to see Tim. I'll be driving up from ATL with Faith, and then flying back after a few days. Also, I just realized that I'm supposed to have some pieces in a CBHL art show this weekend, so I'm going to go work on that.

Game on.

The Perfect Storm

I'm sometimes amazed at what pops up as autofill options when I start to type things into various fields. People have clearly been doing very weird thing with this laptop while I'm asleep. Anyway, I know it's been a while. I dropped out of life for a few weeks. I don't feel too bad, since it appears that everyone else is taking a beginning-of-the-summer break as well. There's been an absolute drought of blog and lj posts.

This week I went to the grocery store for the first time in two months. The break was the result of travel combined with an unwillingness/inability to provide myself with the necessities of life. It felt pretty amazing to finally step into a Publix and buy produce. There are beautiful fresh flowers all over the house and everyone is getting their stuff settled and arranged. The combo of exams, shifting roommates, and multiple vacations left the School looking like a bit of a wreck for a while. I think it created a negative feedback loop with my life. We're finally ready to let people back into the house, though, so we're having a house re-warming party on Friday. It'll be nice to have a house full of half-drunk, happy friends again.

The weather is nice and hot now, and my little garden is growing fast. My trips to Maine, North Carolina, and Florida were all super rad, if exhausting. My only really complaint is that my heart is like gasoline and I've encountered too many matches in my travels. Portland is definitely my favorite of the places I visited, in terms of the actual city. It was so awesome and super important to see Maggie after such a stressful few weeks at the end of April. West Palm Beach was lovely and lazy. North Carolina was emotional and amazing. I've seen so many people that I care about...Maggie, Keith, Chris, Tim, Kaylan, Faith, Lis, Devender, Sarah, Kenny, Adam, Ty, Greg. It's overwhelming in the most wikkid of ways. I'm back in town for at least a little while, though, and glad to be slightly more settled.

Summer school has started and my Indian cinema class is rad so far. The first movie we watched, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was totally epic, fascinating, hilarious, etc. A serious, all-out Bollywood blockbuster. It seems like the summer term will be chill and fun. I need to kick things into gear with Napoleon, though. I've been distracted of late and spend most of my time putting off the things on my to do list rather than getting things done as usual. Things are turning around, though, and I'm sure I'll settle into something more calm soon. In the meantime, though, I'm having fun feeling like at an extended slumber party.

Holy Cow! I'm Famous! (but not really)

I've been really needing some good news, to put it lightly, and it looks like today was the day. Lunch with Evan in the park, which was really nice, and got me in a much better mood. Then when I got home I had a letter from the chair of the department notifying me of a sweet little scholarship. Joy came over and we went to group meditation. It was so good to see her, especially since I've been in a state of utter despair for the last little bit, and really have hardly wanted to leave my bed. But the absolute best news has to be that Napoleon was featured on Apartment Therapy!!!!!! I am so totally stoked and can't even believe it!

I have a lot of things to get done this week before I spend a whole bunch of time out of town. I'm finishing up the binding on Mark's quilt, so I'll have photos of that soon. I'm trying to crank out some Pillow Monsters to take to Tuscaloosa before I leave, as well. Friday evening I'm headed to Atlanta from whence I'll fly to Palm Beach on Saturday. Back to Birmingham via Atlanta on Tuesday, and then I head to NC on Thursday for a visit with my friends and family.

Greg went back to New Orleans yesterday morning after a long weekend visit. We got a private yoga session from Jasper on Friday afternoon, and spent all day Saturday at the last day of my class at the Shambhala Center. Greg was pumped about both activities, which is rad, and a little unexpected, honestly. The all-day session was good for me, too, though it was sometimes frustrating and definitely left me drained. We got a good nap in and dinner at Chez Lulu before the Red Mountain Family Band played at Greencup on Saturday night. Two Tears and Dan Sartain (the bands we opened for) were a lot of fun, as was the afterparty at AC Temple, despite the fact that many a man went shirtless (Why, boys? Why?), and Firewater Charlie nearly fell backwards off the porch.

Three kittens are still mewing away in some remote room of the house, and poor Theresa is working herself ragged keeping them fed, clean, and warm. Kitten poop is not awesome, I'll tell you that much. Hayley has been making the sort of dinners I wish I still made, but don't have the energy for. Jennifer is working mad overtime and planning on moving her stuff in this weekend.

For entertainment and distraction, I still can't beat Avatar, but I've also been reading Gone with the Wind (my first time reading it, though it's one of my favorite movies) and When Things Fall Apart (Pema Chodron). Sleeping is up toward the top of my list, too.

bebés preciosos

The kitten zombie routine is setting in: wake up and respond to the cries, prep and warm the formula, heat the water bottles, prepare the temp bed, bathe, stimulate bowels, bathe, dry, bottle feed, repeat, repeat, clean main bed, wash soiled bed laundry, and finally, put kitties back to bed.
The vet told me today that it is kitten season and "god sent these kittens to you for a reason". WTF???

Left snuggler: Greedy Girl
Center stripy: Gray Greedy Boy, Squealer. Squelch
Right longhair: Girl Girl, Baby Bit

Anyone looking to adopt a kitten out there?

Substitute Baby Mama

So, Melissa's visit to the vet resulted in homes for only three of the six kittens. The other three are awaiting rescue. They were treated for fleas at the veterinarian's office and later given baths by Melissa and I. They look effing adorable, but this is only while they sleep. I am finishing their third feeding, which averages around 2 hours of wailing/screeching/squirming/clawing/suckling/climbing/crying/pushing/nibbling....
Help. Please. Someone.

Melt My Metal Heart

I came downstairs to fetch the compressed air and overheard the mewing of kittens from under our house. Just to be sure, I walked outside to take a look. Eureka! In an overgrown patch of blackberry brambles I found a nest of teeny-tiny and very hungry babies. I could not help myself, their eyes had just started opening and they were crying, so I crawled in and plucked them. Melissa came over and we searched for an animal shelter that would take six kittens--she just left to take them to a veterinarian in Homewood.

Uploading in Order to Free Space on My Mental Flashdrive

Hectic,hectic,lazy,lazy,lazy. I'm coping by making too many plans and offering favors to other people that I don't always have time for. Schoolwise I'm a wreck until Monday, and personally I have a million and one things to do before I leave for Maine on Thursday, which I'm totally impatient for anyway.

Greg and I are talking every morning, making plans for the day, helping each other out. He's going to visit after I get back from Maine, and come to the last day of my class at the Shambhala Center. Ty is supposed to be coming through town around then, too, which is great, since I always tell him he's my personal bodhisattva. Also, Jasper is going to give Evan, Greg, and me a private yoga lesson. Yay! I'm always so happy when someone starts doing yoga, or even does a couple of classes, because it's so totally awesome for mind and body, but it takes actually doing it to realize how great it is.

I'm going up to North Carolina at the end of the month, too, for a good visit with my college friends and my fam. It seems like a lot of people have been having a rough time lately (to say the least, in some cases), but I'm so glad that Guilford left us with an amazing, loving support system. When I was there it often felt too small, especially since we were young and prone to making many mistakes, but in the end I guess the drama left us all closer and wiser.

I've renewed my efforts to be mindful (read: present) in the last couple of weeks, which has in turn made me think a lot (is that irony?) about the very fine point that is the gap between opposing forces. In a lot of aspects of my life, my goal is to exist in that gap, but it's difficult to find. How do you locate prudence between unneccessary risk and overworrying, the point of being between ignoring and clinging, or forgiveness between anger and exposure to more emotional harm? Its like the gap you look for in meditation, where your inner dialogue stops for just a moment, and that doesn't happen very often for me. I guess right now I'm just glad that I'm looking for it, and that I've become honest enough with myself that I sometimes get close.

Enough personal journey stuff, though. As soon as my last exam is over on Monday afternoon, I'm going to make a whole mess of pillow monsters and bring them to Tuscaloosa to put in a friend's shop. Then when I return to Birmingham it's t-shirt printing time like a mofo. Stay tuned for greeting and news from Portland, ME.

oh, p.s., Red Mountain Family Band and Beaux Animaux played last night with Neeta (sp??), Kirby Russell, and Important Eagle. Way fun. RMFB shows are greatly improved by a reasonable number of mics. BA ruled, per usual, and have several new fans after last night. They're patiently awaiting final cuts from their recording sesh. Gonna be so rad.

Currently reading: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
Currently recommending: A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield (a great book with a really unfortunate title and jacket design); The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (if you want to know a little about the basics of meditation); drinking lots of water; red Civic hatchbacks; Brass Bed from Lafayette, LA; summer in Birmingham, AL; awesome friends