jettisoning and the wall that will never be

It seems I was storing quite a bit of stuff at Granny's house, so because we had driven to Iowa, my mom and I went through it and packed up six boxes for me to take home with us.  It's truly amazing the amount of insignificant rubbish I thought important enough to save at some point.

Once we got home I decided to clean out the basement to organize and eliminate more of my meaningless possessions.  It feels SOOOOO good to be rid of so much stuff that was cluttering my life.  Just because it wasn't in clear view, does not mean that it wasn't cluttering my mind/life.  It was very freeing to take account and reorganize. 

BEFORE:  

AFTER:

That's it!  And the top bin is still empty.  About a third of the boxes in the before picture are empty, but still, it's incredible to me to see how much condensing and discarding was possible. I even got all of our Christmas decorations/ornaments into the green containers.  One container is Gabe's memorabilia, and the other four are mine.  Disproportionate, I know, but still worlds better than before.

Here are the after pictures of a white wall I painted in one of our school's girls' bathrooms just before going to Iowa.  I spent five hours creating a mural I thought girls would really enjoy. Our school beautification committee wanted to brighten up the bathrooms, among other things. The principal agreed to pay me to come in and do some painting.  But thanks to district policies this is now the before picture to a newly painted white wall.  Just like every other wall in our building.  Five hours for nothing.  Kids will never even know this was here.  Bummer, huh?

things you shouldn't do when you can't see:

I got my hair cut like three weeks ago?  I've told a few of you this story already, so feel free to skip today's post.  

I'd been growing my hair out for awhile and finally decided it was just too stringy and frustrating to continue, so the decision to actually pay another person to cut it was made.  

I walked into a semi-stylish salon I'd passed countless times.  I walked in, asked if I could make an appointment and the lady said she could cut my hair immediately.  (Clearly because my hair was looking that desperate.)  I followed her across the salon to her own private hair-cutting room.  I thought, "Wow, she must be advanced or something to have her own room."   So I explain what I have in mind and her cell phone rings.  She tells me she has to take it, whatever, I'm not in any hurry.  She talks for a good three minutes, while I sit and peruse the room. There are photographs of quilts stuck to the mirror in front of me, an enormous quilt hanging on the wall behind me, a few framed pictures of different cats on the table to my right, and a few other less memorable things cluttering the space around me.  She finally ends the call and explains that she'd had a bunch of cancellations for the day and had called  many of her other clients to see if they would come in for a trim, that call had been one of them returning her call.  I asked her if she had made the quilts.  YES!  Followed by a good ten minute explanation of her hopes of bartering the one behind me with the owners of a cabin in the mountains she wants to stay at off and on for life.  She gives me the first business card of the day--related to her quilting.

Hair-cutting finally commences.  She tells me how it's so hard to meet good men at her age (late 40's?), so she's begun internet dating.  This led to quite a few stories of "interesting" men, as well as interesting stories about strange men.  

A half an hour later, she's stopped to answer her phone about three more times and I'm left to look at myself in the mirror fully aware of the a-w-f-u-l haircut I'm being given.  She dries and styles and I say it's not quite what I was going for, so she happily re-wets my hair and gives it another go.  

It's at about this point she decides to mention she recently had unsuccessful lasix surgery on her eyes and really can't see very well.

Oh.

Kind of wish I'd know this an hour ago.

I pay someone to cut my hair like once every two years.  Of course I happen to get the woman who CAN'T SEE.

At this point I start making excuses for her, like how my hair has all of these cowlicks that make it difficult to cut. Blah. Blah. Blah.  Why do I do this?  The woman admitted she can't see. How is this my fault?

I start pointing out uneven places and making suggestions.  She started following my directions and three dry-style-rewet-dry-style-rewets later, I had a haircut that I really like.  

At some point she stopped again to "introduce" me to her cats.  A couple of minutes of learning about their different personalities and quirks, she resumes the haircut.

Before I left she shuffled through a drawer and pulled out three more business cards for her mani-pedi services, chair massage services and something else.  Then I followed her out to the front desk.  

She told the lady what to charge and chatted me up for a couple of minutes while the transaction was going through.  Then she thanked me for my patience (this was nearly two hours after I'd walked in the door), gave me a big hug, tilted her head and said, "Thanks, Amber."

Ohhhhhhh, you're so welcome.  I tipped her very well because A) I'm not sure how much longer this career choice will sustain her, and B) Amber will never be going there for a haircut again.

mr. max

Well, Marla and Melissa, here is your old house.  You can't quite tell from this picture, but the entire (facing) right side of the front yard is completely covered in hosta plants.  Sorry about the quality, I was trying to be very covert as we drove by at dusk in the hopes of not being noticed.  Lots of great memories in this yard and house.

Introducing....MAX!  On our last night in Iowa we drove to Iowa City to stay with my good good old friend Jessica and her husband Eric and five month old Max.  I cried a little when I saw him for the first time.  It's just so cool to meet the child of a friend you've had since third grade.  He is absolutely delightful and so easy to smile.  He has big brown eyes and a sweet little personality.  You love him immediately.

Here is Jessica in the background explaining to Gabe and I her immense fear of "cougars"---or in Colorado, we would say mountain lions.  It's funny...because she lives in Iowa...but she read that one was seen across the western Iowa border a few years ago.  I don't want to mock her, because I'm much more likely to be attacked by a mountain lion being that I live in Colorado. That would be a really unfortunate "I told you so."

Once again, the brilliance of our camera shines through.  Who need clarity in a picture, give me a blurred image anyday.

Krissi, if you're reading this, will you please email me the Iowa pictures from your camera?  I'm sure you got some great ones.  Especially from Frank's party.  

More tomorrow!

granny's garden

The thing I love most about the midwest is by far the woods.  My friends Jessica and Frindee and I used to spend the summers (and part of every other season) exploring the creeks ("creeking") and ravines that made up the woods behind each of our three houses.  We would regularly see deer, wild turkeys, and owls in our back yard and I loved this.  Now when I go back for visits, I love being in Granny's woods, and in her massive garden that wraps itself around the back, side and up across the front of her house.  Here is the walkway out the back of the house, toward the pergola:

From under the pergola looking up the side of the house:

We both look a little confused, I'm not sure why. And I will note that the large stump-like looking hand on Gabe's left shoulder is actually a bloom on a bush behind us, not an appendage of mine:

Up the path between the tiered gardens and the side of the house.

Mom, my little Granny and I.  Humidity does curly things to my hair (and we need a new camera that can take a non-blurry photo indoors, clearly not happening with our current camera).  It was wonderful to be with them:

I copied some great black and white photos from my Granny's college days, and then ended up copying a bunch from when my Dad was a kid, too.  I'll post some sometime, I think they're pretty cool.   More from Iowa '08 tomorrow :)

Iowa '08 tour, first installment

Good morning!  I've slept and now have time and energy to post the first installment of the Iowa '08 tour.  I took the largest amount of photos at "pool, castle and train day" so I've decided to show you that day first, with more to follow in the next day or two.

Here is the front of the home of  the parents of the good friend of my aunt Krissi.

Allow me to introduce you to my fantastic cousin, Emma.  She'll make more appearances in the photos to come.  She's hilarious and just graduated high school and I think she's great.

This is the door to the two apartments above the garages.  I liked it, so here it is:

An outside shot of those apartments:

The pool (which I did not swim in, because I didn't remember to bring my suit, and also I don't really do pools/swimming very often). Most of the day the pool was FILLED with kids, I'm not sure how I managed to get a photo of it almost empty.

One of two gazebos around their lake, along with the miniature train track the circles the lake and leads through the castle (which you'll see very shortly):

Back of the home and pool cabana (and Gabe and Abby--more of her to come):

This is my sweet sweet cousin Zachary, who is turning into a star golfer:

This is Zachary's little sister Lauren who is already very much her own person in the first grade.  Poor Lauren accidentally burned her upper lip while she was inspecting a pizza cooker in the cabana.    Such a pretty little girlie :)

"Is this heaven?"  --No.  It's WAY  to freakishly hot and humid.  But it is pretty.

(This was a reference to the movie Field of Dreams for those of you not familiar with the quote every Iowan knows:  Is this heaven?  No, it's Iowa.  I love my home state, don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty sure no one has ever actually mistaken it for heaven.  I could be mistaken.)

Emma and Abby with the castle's (more on the castle later) fireman poll:
Hiking along the track:

Where the train track ultimately leads, a gazebo with a slightly altered American Gothic mermaid and farmer eerily hanging out in this remote gazebo.  And here we also find Abby guarding (?) them with a small branch (Not her last encounter with a branch, as you'll soon see).  Emma and Abby are sisters.  Abby is starting high school this year.  This girl will certainly keep you laughing.  Love her.

Here we find Abby on the ground laughing hysterically promptly after she ran, jumped, grabbed onto the branch you now see lying next to her, hung momentarily and then plummeted to the ground branch and all.  I laughed more than I have in a LONG time.  Thanks for that perfectly constructed moment of funny, Abby.

Emma and Abby and I sitting in front of the lake.  They are my honorary sisters.

The castle!  When you walk out to the gazebo behind the house and pool and begin following the train tracks, a few minutes later you come upon a guest house, then a train depot (miniature for kids--as is the train), a small play house, an old double decker bus planted in the ground with a slide out the back, a swing set...and a CASTLE!!!  It was like a kid sactuary. Totally secluded castle.  How cool would that have been as a kid?  The picture I posted a couple days ago of Madeline standing in front of the lion "stained-glass"/painted window was inside this castle.  The picture of Emma and Abby and the pole is inside this castle.  There is also a kid-sized spiral staircase inside and basically two wide open playrooms, one upstairs, one down.  The far left side of the castle is where the train goes through a tunnel out the back and winds around the rest of the land and lake to find the eery Mermaid and farmer couple. 

Here is a picture of the swings, the bus and the train depot:

This is my cousin Olivia who lives in Scotland standing in front of the giant rocking horse we found in the home's basement.  It was great to spend some time with her.  I haven't seen her since she was a baby.  She is such a sweet girl.

Lauren took our picture.  Thanks, Lauren!  

One last shot of the pool overlooking the lake.

we are home and Daly is psyched.

We are home safe and sound and tired.  I am planning on posting pictures and some stories tomorrow.  Not enough energy tonight.  Those of you that we saw this week, it was great spending time with you.  Those of you that we were away from this week, we look forward to seeing you soon!

woop

Scratch that!  I do like the picture, but it's not my cousin Olivia, it's another little girl named Madeline who was with us for part of this particular day.  That's still all for now...more to come soon :)

midwest sweet midwest

We are in Iowa visiting with friends and family.  We got here Wednesday evening and will be leaving the state on Tuesday morning. I have lots of stories and pictures, but not a lot of energy to share them, so that will have to wait until later.   I thought this picture of my cousin Olivia was cool, so I included one sneak-peak of our week.  Hope you're all doing well and I look forward to catching up on all the blogs when we get home!

it's a small world and other endless songs, such as...

The scary ice-cream truck turned onto our street just ahead of me on my way home today.  Do they put "large, hairy, creepy guy" on the qualifications listed for the job of ice-cream truck driver?  I have seen two men who fit that description perfectly driving ice-cream trucks in the past four days.  I noticed the words on the back of the truck as it abruptly stopped in front of me: Caution Children.  I believe what they mean is: Drivers, be cautious as there may be children in the road running to get ice-cream.  But don't you think the literal meaning is maybe more appropriate?  Caution Children, or Parents, Caution your children about mindlessly running toward the rusty truck with the skeezy driver and mind-numbingly incessant tune blaring out into the atmosphere in the hopes of getting ice-cream to eat.

details and the poison sun

In response to Melissa's comment:

The holy undies were actually one of multiple pairs in a bag.  We also were given a mucky old toilet rug, a litter box that was NOT cleaned out, a grocery bag full of cloth and mouse poo, a foot bath...I think that covers all of the worst donations.   That being said, with everything else that was donated, we raised over $2000!  It was a big success, and despite the hellish heat, we had a really fun time.

For our dinner party I made that honey-soy sauce baked chicken I mentioned a few weeks ago, a potato salad (red wine vinegar, olive oil, green onions, red onion, garlic, red pepper, dill, fresh Italian parsley, and potatoes), a lettuce salad with cranberries and toasted almonds and feta.  Delicious cherries, bagel crisps with hummus and pesto, and trail mix for appetizers.  Three different flavored cheesecake "bites" for dessert.  Thank you Sam's Club for the frozen cheesecake bites, hummus and pesto all already prepared.   I've come a long way from the first time I hosted--- I made sesame chicken and some other Chinese dishes and was still cooking/preparing two hours after everyone had arrived.  I spent most of the night in the kitchen frantically trying to get everyone fed.  THIS time I had everything ready and wrapped and refrigerated before anyone arrived.  The chicken was in the oven and everything was ready to eat within 15 minutes of people arriving.  MUCH MUCH less stress than a year ago, or whenever it was that we first hosted.  

I have covered all of our windows downstairs with sheets to block out even more light today. Gabe and I are holed up like a couple of vampires, prepared to sleep off and on for as much of the day as we can.  We're hoping to keep out as much sun and heat as possible, while simultaneously recovering from the hectic-ness that was this weekend (which was great, but now it's DOWN TIME).