well i don't have any words of art wisdom today.little tired from dog sitting to tell you the truth. i was so worried about doing a good job
or someone trying to get into my friends beach apartment...that i had anxiety dreams for 2 hours before i could really fall asleep. but there was a beautiful moment while walking Bo, the dog, yellow lab of comfy friendliness...SORRY no pics of Bo....that everything felt really sublime. hours later i realize everything feels sublime in the morning cause you aren't getting enough oxygen to your head to really compute everything.So backing up the weekend. busy i don't remember all i did....oh it comes back. we are starting the public practice 2010 collaborative...still to be named....and it is EXCITING....more later when we have our public branding more in place. ;)

SO sometimes you do things for love. sometimes you travel all the way to west hollywood on two buses in scorching heat...when you haven't eaten enough to feel close to someone far away. you know i worry...i worry i worry that my family in Minnesota and abroad think i don't care about them or think of them. i don't always do everything right...i forget aunt and uncles' birthdays...i come home as much as i can but it is hard to show appreciation from a distance...so I trekked to west hollywood...cause i miss my sister...BAD. I was sweating bullets surrounded by well balanced elder women...sweating more than me in one case....taking in an amazing folk dance concert based on a wedding....i was there cause one of the dances was Uzbek and Megan just went to a Uzbek wedding in K-stan...I mean i love dance and I was there for that...I love dance for the channeling of spirit...for the way you let go and let things flow...as the Uzbek dance started I knew I was there for Meg to in some weird way be closer to her and I teared up...cause it did make me feel closer to her...as I imagined her at the wedding of her host sisters just two weeks ago. how we show love is so strange. we see the movies...we read the books...where you wonder why people do what they do. the actions they decide to take. it is very hard to show love to someone when they are around---So we make up rituals of solitude that relate back to that love. strange. we all do it. i took a photo of an old old truck thinking of my dad. i listen to this or that song to remember a friend or an old flame.....

these are my thoughts for the day as I sit cross eyed in front of the computer alone.

7-11-10

Wow, what a week! Week number one of my job completed! It has been a good week…great week really. The adrenelaine that is connected to a new job is intense. I woke up early every morning. Grumpy but awake. Waking up not of my own free will is very hard for me. I know boo hoo but I am adjusting to a very set schedule whereas Grad school was hurry up and then wait. Grad school was RUSH RUSH RUSH. Now in my fellow ship there is a bit more time to pay attention to detail. There is time to ask questions more than in Grad School. I learned a lot this first week. From condition reports to honorarium forms, I enjoy jumping right in. All the people I work with are really fabulous! I will next learn about the more PR side and purchasing side of things. I CAN’T WAIT to be involved with the woman’s house exhibit that is coming up in 2011!

As for life outside work, I GOT ANEW BIKE! (I will insert a pic soon). I love her. Her name is Maggie Maude she is the most amazing color and a Raliegh beach cruiser. My Dad sent her to me. What a lucky daughter I am! AND I learned how to put together a bike cause it came in parts! So I learned a lot about bikes already. I haven’t taken her on a big trek yet. But I hope to go to the farmers market every Sunday with her.

I am really glad I like my new job, but my mind and body are in transition because of the shift. I think I am so good at change but it really stresses me out. So I am trying to find ways to stay balanced and grounded. Change really shakes up my body, I get tense and I grit my teeth. So I am trying to take it easy and not be too hard on myself.

But of course I also want to pack in A LOT of things during the weekend!

Friday I met with Christine Suarez about our dance collaboration! I am REALLY excited. We are both on the same wavelength on many points about performance. I am REALLY excited to start rehearsals for our piece together.

Saturday was the day I put together Maggie Maude. I also got some books from the library’s booksale area! What a great thing! Then Andy and I went to the premiere screening of “Night Sky” which I was a dancer in!!!! what fun it was to see Alison O’Daniel’s film. It was gorgeous and cosmic and of course I liked seeing myself in it! I will attach the link to the trailer. AND my dress was in it too on the partner I danced with (I was in the lesbian couple of the movie). Alison wanted me with this dreamy tall African America guy who is deaf but the deaf actors wanted to stay together…which I get. And Xio my partner rocked and we had fun dancing together. So Xio wore my patterned dress from England…so whenever I saw it I thought of the life that dress has had.

Andy was so sweet for going with me as he had had a long day. And then on the way back to the car we ran into like 6 PEOPLE!!! It was hilarious…then we got a little lost going home and past the spot where he and I had changed his truck tire last summer…it was really weird and reminded me of the movie we had just watched! Life was telling us something..i have no idea what…but andy and I do love to get lost in LA together!

Today! I went to Chinatown for a Public School event (see I told you I packed it in cause I am working now!). first I met with Hataya and we had a meeting about our collective! We are getting reved up for 18^th Street Art night! I am SOOO excited for our karaoke performances and for eating Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches. It is my job to write up the scrolls for our performances…got to get on that this week! Then when we parted ways I watched this break dancers warm up for a competition it was AWESOME. And while I was watching latinos, Asians, white guys, black guys, one girl, one adorable tiny kid, and who ever was there break dance…I realized again why I love LA. I can stumble into Chinatown and there is everyone dancing to the beat on a Sunday afternoon all together. DJ mixing it up for us all to groove to…WOW…the wind would rush through the plaza and for a second we wouldn’t be sweating throughour tanktops…and I just had to sigh and say AHHHHHHHH….inside my head.

Then I went to Adam Overton’s experimental music class at the Public School. Which I enjoyed thouroughly through a allergy headache : (….Sun Ra was first up and his friend Steve led the class…I have to say I really liked hearing a chronological listen to Sun Ra! I also think that Sun Ra was HEAVY on the west African influence early on….i felt like I was in ghana while listening to Watusa..the second recording of it….Next was Albert Alyer…who if you don’t know him…check him out…though my head was really achy by then….I think he is worth some listening. I am not a huge fan of jazz or know that much about it…but I have heard Alyer’s stuff twice now…and I think it is unique. I like this misunderstood artist mystique…and what it leads artists to do. I wonder that if in alyer’s case the reason he turned to God was because he needed something or someone to understand what he was doing. Or like if he said his music was about God people wouldn’t give him such a hard time….the class is about spirituality and music. I missed the John Cage class with a zen focus. In two weeks is satanic and psychedelic music…which will be a trip! Just google The Public School and you can see all sorts of classes to take at this site.

OK OK its 940pm and I have got to break down and take something for my allergy headache and get some rest before I start another week.

Fourth of July

So I spent Fourth of July away from my homeland of Minnesota...and I must say there is nothing like a Lake Cabin Fourth of July and I did yearn for it. But I pulled my self together :) and got out there!
I spent a day being as lazy as possible on the 3rd and succeeded. Then andy called me up and said LETS GO! and there was only one thing to do....GO! And go we went. We tried to go see the Baths show at the Troubadour...but as we stood in line for tickets THREE people before us it was sold out. Disappointing but as Andy and I both said we have been talking about seeing live music for months...this was our first step to realizing it....so next time we will get in...probably still won't be on time but we will get in. :) INSTEAD we went to the Landmark and saw Toy Story 3...something we both wanted to see badly and in 3D and next week in LA it is going totally 2D except in far off theater. I thought it was a great plot and the cartoon was beautiful. I don't want to be a spoiler but there were some suspenseful parts...well played pixar.
As fourth of July proper started.....I got up early to get to the Farmers market on Grand View....WOWZERS what a great farmers market...a big organic section. It seemed like i spent a LOT of money but left with $20 in my pocket....In the pic there is tri colored organic green beans...yellow plums...white nectarines...yellow honey nectarines all organic...kale..two types of lettuce...organic strawberries..honey...half a loaf of rosemary bread...CHOCOLATE with salt and almonds...and blueberries and lavender...and one chocolate pastry to start my fourth! I don't know how that happened. I bought fancy things like gourmet chocolate and honey! All these gorgeous nectarines!! YUM....I love all the nectarines in Cali...yellow ones...white ones....ones that taste SUPER sweet...more mellow ones...yummies....so I made out with lots of organic produce and didn't feel like i had spent all my money on a head of lettuce. This farmers market had a great feel and I can walk there and then bus back.
After that I napped and then went to the beach with my friend Sally. We enjoyed my first in a long time sober Fourth of July. Which was amazing to do in the waves of drunks that were in Venice. We beached it. We had some hamburgers, fried zucchini, french fries....WOOOOO. Sally lives close to the beach so we went back to her house and watched Alice and Wonderland. Then we didn't brave the drunken crowds to get to the Marina where the fireworks but were able to watch from afar very clearly on a bridge in Venice. It was great. I didn't have to get stressed out by the crowd and saw my beloved fireworks....there was a heart shaped one...yup I am that sentimental to LOVE that they made a firework like a heart....the grande finale was AWESOME. I give the Marina an A- for firework display.....I keep comparing it to the Boston fireworks...it could be...COULD be...but I am not ready to commit to that.
So overall a great stress free Fourth of July. It felt great to laze around with my friend and we ended the night with another movie and a root beer float. :) Funny People...WATCH THIS FILM! Not only was it funny but it hit home a bit. There is this scene in the movie where Seth Rogan playing the moral up coming comedian gets in a fight with a girl for sleeping with his roommate like they are a couple while they hardly know each other. I can relate to Seth :) on that one. Sometimes we ask incredibly emotional things from strangers cause we want more from than or we see the potential to be happy with them. Of course I also related to Seth Rogan cause he is living in LA trying to make his dreams happen. his search for mentors and his ambition. i get all those things.
Overall a great weekend! Though I am sure I missed The Peacock, the christening of Uncle Joe's new pontoon, and some romping games of Pounce and Bananagrams. :( Next year....I am hoping to get home for all that fun!

LIFE! is good!

THIS IS WHERE I LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS ME LOOKING GOOFY on my first day of work!