christmas morning 2008

My first white Christmas ever. Christmas morning, I woke up in the motorhome in the driveway where we sleep in this cozy cave, twisted the blind open, and, literally, screamed at the sight of the silent whiteness floating down. It’s snowing on Christmas! Ahhhh! That’s how MB was awakened on Christmas morning — by my piercing snow scream. Poor man.

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Me, MB, and sister-in-law Z out in the snow Christmas morning, ASAP after breakfast. Brother M is taking the photo and, most likely, plotting how to get his unsuspecting So Cal sister-in-law to walk under a snowy tree again while he shakes the branches. Honestly, he’s a terrible pest and I long to beat him to a pulp but the man is made of iron. Freak. I borrow that huge poofy turquoise coat from my mother-in-law every year because, uhm, I live in San Diego and I don’t own a coat. I am not kidding.

Please note my awesome black beanie and how I only come up to MB’s shoulders. And he’s not even standing up straight. He’s a giant. Freak.

Oh, and yes. Sunglasses. Automatic for me. I own sunglasses — currently, these ugly ones — but I do not own a coat.

Freak.

things are getting hairy

I am officially a mop. A Sasquatch. Cousin Itt.

S’true. S’not attractive either.

But you know what? I figure in these dicey uncertain times, more and more people will follow my lead and choose to appear dangerous and feral as a form of self-defense. I mean, who’s gonna try to grab you and eat you if you look like a mangy demented troll? So, it’s the smart choice, the forward-thinking choice. In other words, it’s all good, as the kind of people I can’t stand always say.

Please allow me to document my complete break with the grooming norms of modern society with my uber-cruppy cell phone which apparently takes only one size of photo: unnervingly large. So if gigantic images of wild woolly mammoths unhinge or demoralize you, well, you’ve been warned.

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I, uhm … feel a little lost …. maybe a little vulnerable …. about my encroaching Cousin Itt-ness. I mean, it’s deforestation in rapid reverse. (So then, would that be “reforestation,” Trace?) As a matter of fact, The Hundred Acre Wood atop my head has been officially declared “environmentally friendly” by the EPA, The Sierra Club, and Leonardo Di Caprio. While I could not give one tiny rat’s bottom what the EPA and The Sierra Club think of me and my home-grown nature preserve, Leo’s good opinion means a lot to me. It does. He’s the king of the world, you know, and that must always give a girl pause. And, now that I think of it, Obama, I think I deserve some kind of tax rebate for growing my Sherwood Forest thusly and decreasing my carbon footprint and saving the planet and blahdie blahdie blah.

Or you may send me a puppy.

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The dementia of the Sasquatch.

“Well, helloo, Clarice.”

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Oh, you poor hairy girl. I know what you’re trying to do here — trying to cover up what’s really going on. It goes way beyond the whole Forbidden Forest dealio you’ve got going on atop thee olde noggin. What you and I both know, little yeti, is that you made a horrifying attempt at deforestation the other day and chopped your bangs to smithereens and you now look like it’s picture day at Sasquatch Elementary. It’s bad. Your very own Beloved has been reduced to nervously and repeatedly uttering, “ohh, you’re … darling” — most likely to keep himself from swooning with laughter and you from slitting your remarkably hairless wrists. All too soon, he will start gently reminding you, “Heey …. don’t you like hats?” and you will fall dead on the spot. So go ahead. Smush those reckless tangles around your head all you want. I see what’s really poking out there. Foghorn Leghorn. Tsk, tsk, I say, I say.

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The smushy cover-up continues, unabated and embarrassing. This is even worse. Scraps of bangs shoot straight out of my head whilst I try to look coy. Gah. What a wiener. I am a’quiver with self-loathing.

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See? See?? The little tuft of banglet to the right?? Dangling like a loose shingle several feet above my eyebrow?? I did that. I DID that. AGGHHHH!!! The massive hair carnage lying limp on my bathroom counter could have combed-over many a naked skull, but, no, I threw it away. Selfish Sasquatch.

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Losing touch with reality. Hair tightening its hairy grip. Calling to me. Becoming one with hair. Becoming nothing but hair. I am lost to me.

Farewell, polite society …….

more from the bitchen rock combo

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My Beloved, keyboard player extraordinaire and garter-collecting lothario. I love the black shiny shirt and the wilty flower. Perfect attire when it’s hot enough that you need a fan. Hahaha. Note the elk head sprouting from MB’s head and the banner behind him clearly saying things like “God bless this” and “God bless that.” I imagine it does not say “God bless my garter-collecting lothario ways.” (He’s told me girls would give him these garters — that he did not pursue garterage; it was thrust upon him. Whatever, Peaches. I’m sorry you were so oppressed. Some have garterage thrust upon them. Boo hoo hoo.)

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Concert in the gym, obviously. MB has added a romantic candelabra to his repertoire. It’s killing me. I almost can’t look at this photo. It burns. Note Mr. Bluejeans. “I will now disregard you and turn my back on you whilst I jam. Please feel free to gander at my taut little bum.”

I have nothing to say about Sweatpants Boy. Ever.

wedding theme continues, ad nauseum, i’m sorry, etc.

I’ve posted this somewhere before, I think, but I took a crummy cell phone picture of it and so it looked really fuzzy. This was our wedding invitation. Yep. We were one of those couples: Here we are! Look at us! But, honestly, I pored over books and books of invitation samples with all the flowers and all the embossed this and engraved that and random bits of tissue paper thrown in and I just didn’t understand them, basically. I could not choose from the choices before me. So good ol’ C stepped up to the plate and said, “Let’s just go take some pictures of you guys.” I had to be convinced because I hate having my picture taken. I can relax more if I trust the person, but I generally don’t like it at all. Still, he talked us into it, took a bunch of black and whites, we liked this one, and that was the front of our invitation. We used a kind of rough paper with an off-white border around the photo and our names underneath it. Other than that, that’s it. No poems, no flowers, no embossing. Just the subtle timeless message: “Do you recognize these people? At all? No? Well, they’re getting married. Please know they had a traumatic row about whether or not to invite you and you almost didn’t make the cut. But, ta-da! Here’s your invitation, lucky duck! It’s only fair to say, though, that one of them might still be bitter and pouting about inviting you, so it would go a long way if you could give them a nice non-toastery gift and/or a wad of cash. (Just something for you to chew on there.) Also: Please excuse the bride-to-be; her head has been colonized by Tribbles. Also: Please appreciate the poetic intensity of the groom-to-be; he has paused pen in hand from his epic poem to be captured thusly. We look forward to your present.”

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o happy day!

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This picture from Thee Olde Wedding Daye never fails to kill me. First, of course, we’ve previously discussed everything wrong design-wise and common sense-wise with that day, all my regrets about puffy hair and puffy dresses and jaunty caps. Can we please just blame it on the 90’s so that I can absolve myself and move forward in life?

A little background to this photo: This is before the ceremony. Photos at my parents’ house. This is the backyard, by the pool. As a matter of fact, the little boy there, B, is standing on the diving rock at the edge of our pool, which is why my friend P, mom to all these kids, is holding his arm: to keep the poor boy — who I think has just realized he is the poofy reincarnation of Little Lord Fauntleroy — from throwing himself in the pool and ending his miniature dandified existence. Actually, B wasn’t even in the wedding (he was only 18 months old) and, in my defense — which is desperately needed here on something, anything — I had nothing to do with any part of his outfit. His cap was an extra, matching the ones his sisters wore and he kept pulling it on his head, refusing to take it off. I have NO idea where his giant velvet bow came from, but as I recall, P put it on him as more of a lark, a tension breaker. I mean, the entire day, we cracked up whenever we looked at the poor kid, all of us in happy giddy agreement that he looked utterly ridiculous. (Uhm, to paraphrase the Good Book: First remove the Ren Faire from your own eye, Trace, before you take the bit of poof from yon innocent toddler’s.) Sorry, B. Your mama threw your wee Huggied bottom under the bus and dressed you up out of love for me, I’m convinced, because whenever I looked at you, any nerves I felt just swept away in a flood of hysterical giggles. It was good useful medicine straight from Thee Olde Apothecarie’s Shoppe ’round the corner. (Sadly, it’s taken me many years to realize just HOW Renaissance Faire our wedding looked. It shames me deeply — given my utter contempt for all things Ren Faire. I think I thought I was being theatrical. And that I was. Lord.)

Now about those expressions. To put it nicely, our wedding photographer was a complete wiener. A total jerk. I didn’t like him the moment I met him, but my choice was overruled on this. Because I knew I’d want other photos, candid photos, (back-up photos, basically) taken by someone I trusted, I asked P’s husband C to take black-and-white candids and that’s who caught this rather, shall we say, unguarded moment. Leave it to C. He never missed a beat. The “official” photographer is out of the frame here, but, trust me, he’s right there. He’s talking to us, bossing us in that chubby condescending way he had. The entire moment boils down to this: P and I are basically OVER him. Fed up. He has worn down our last decent nerve. I mean, the day hasn’t even STARTED yet — the guy hasn’t even realized his full buttmunch potential which happens hours from this moment — and I have that look on my face that no bride should ever wear on her wedding day. The homicidal look. The “I will CUT you” look. My entire facial musculature has gone utterly slack with distaste. The look in my eyes, though, seems quite toned, quite taut. Something inside me is about to pop and I don’t think it’s my heart bursting from everlasting love. No. I am on the verge of a thrombosis. P’s look is more subtle, slightly less deadly, but I know this look. This is her look that says, “I’m trying to be polite, but seriously, what the HELL. is WRONG. with YOU??” I like her look so much better than mine. This look on me is not a good look. Nothing good ever comes from this look. This is not the look of the joyful “I do”; this is the look of “I, Tracey, take you, photographer …. and cut you and kill you and put a nice stop payment on your big fat check, you horrendous bossy weenie!”

He is lucky he survived to boss and condescend again.

I owe it all to long and frequent swigs from Mine Secrett Flafke of Spiritts hidden in Mine Ev’r Poof’d Fleeves.

more “fantasticks” photos

Dreamer Luisa, caught up in romance, anywhere, everywhere, wanting “her bandit” (El Gallo) to whisk her away to see the world.

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Luisa:

“It’s a far better thing that I do now
Than I have ever done before!”
Isn’t that beautiful? That man was beheaded.

El Gallo:

I’m not surprised.

(Sorry to ruin the moment, but my hair is freakin’ ridiculous. And my comma eyebrows. That’s Leo as El Gallo. He was so OLD, like, 25.)

El Gallo sings of visions of the larger world, seducing her with glories, glossing over horrors. Luisa eats it up.

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I seem to see Venice
We’re on a lagoon
A gondolier’s crooning
A gondola tune
The air makes your hair billow blue in the moon

I could swoon!

You’re so blue in the moon!

El Gallo promises to run away with her. She asks for a kiss first and he kisses her on the eyes — her dream come true. (Sheesh, Luisa. Dream big, girl!)

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El Gallo:

One word, Luisa, listen:
I want to tell you this –
I promise to remember too
That one particular kiss
… And now hurry; we have a lifetime for kisses.

Luisa:

You’ll wait here?

El Gallo:

I promise.

(Liar! LIAR! Yeah, he’s not there when she gets back so she can learn, you know, a thing or two about the real world. As an aside: I’d forgotten what a great face old man Leo had. And huge hands! Good Lord. Also, I hated that blouse with a white-hot hate. It just fit weird. In the privacy of my dorm room, I sobbed heartfelt odes to my vanity about having to wear it. Good times. Good times.)

More Fantasticks posts here and here and here.

girl with red shoes

Me, 4 or 5 years old, in the park across the street from my childhood home. Blazing blue sky above me. Pink and yellow blooms trumpeting Spring behind me. But I am dressed for inclement weather, apparently. Or a random smattering of weather conditions: Lightweight cotton dress. Warm — and slimming! — black tights. Bright red Keds. And my blue corduroy jacket with the hood up. You know, in case there are thunder clouds a’brewin’ over yonder teeming hill.

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sunday afternoon, high sierra valley

(My cellphone always takes such dark pictures — drat!)

Anyhoo.

A pond near my in-laws’ house.
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I liked the etching from the ducks gliding across the pond.
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I wish you could see this place in person. Its stark late fall beauty always gets me. Mountains, white, pine, slate. Valleys, gold, brown, sage, russet, pink. Ponds, creeks everywhere. Even in people’s front yards. This place gets a hook in your heart, that’s for sure.