grazi

thanks for:

dinner al fresco.  lula knows how to make things more fun and more beautiful.

1. lula, who volunteered to make dinner tonight and served it to us on the patio in a cooling breeze. she cooked, set the table, and started the dinner conversation.

lula's goat cheese, avocado, and black bean tacos.

2. my neighborhood, as safe as mayberry circa 1950. the city of provo, also as wholesome as mayberry.  when i told the kids' summer camp director thank you for making it so fun, he responded, "it's my goal to give the kids the best summer of their lives."  my kids have had great, affordable, enriching summer programs run by the city of provo.  i can't stop raving about the city of provo's parks and recreation department.

neighbor boy's a gourmet ice-cream maker.

3. this mountain.

when i'm sad, i look up.

4. myrtle's willow tree.  i love the beautiful white trunk.

my rad 92 year-old neighbor's willow tree.

5. the apricots our neighbors always share with us, and the whole neighborhood.

i can't wait until these are ripe.

6. dinner conversation with moses, "if i were making dinner for cecily, i would make her a big piece of meat since she loves all meat except for rotting flesh."

blackberries ripening.

i look forward each day to ingrid's sartorial concoctions & thrift store finds.

7. ingrid's outfits and hairstyles. cecily's smile.

i adore this girl.  the end.

8. christian's willingness to help me feel better when i freak out (like taking the kids to d.i. to buy "back up bathing suits" so i can stop dramatically losing my shiz when i can't find their suits). & my kids, who know to just laugh at me when i freak like that. & how to make me laugh at myself through my tears.

this kid is quite the entrepeneur. & his dad's a famous chocolatier.

9. my neighbor boy's homemade ice cream stand.  tonight's flavor: malted milk.  past favorite flavors:  fresh mint, sour cream strawberry, cinnamon.

lula's very resourceful & started an herb garden in a cardboard box.

10. lula's suggestions for making life more beautiful: this kitchen door herb  garden in a cardboard box, tonight's after dinner luxury stroll, her adorable home made peanut butter cups, ripening blackberries.

bare bones & parking lot chic

muse music in provo=totally rad & what we used to call punk back in the day for it's minimalist bare bones vibe

one of the cool things about living in provo is how unexploited it is.  whereas in julie's town (which is truly my favorite town in the world--look at the amazing things she gets to do/the amazing fashion she sees in just one day in this post alone), every last inch has already been discovered, gentrified, and jacked through the roof, provo has plenty of space,  and it's cheap.  so what provo artists might miss from a super energetic art scene, we might be able to gain in contemplative space, an unhurried pace, and lack of interruption.

while i do think we need to make the effort get out and about to the bigger cities to guard against isolation and unexamined provincialism, i find living here to be akin to a lifetime artist retreat because of the amount of uninterrupted meditative space the open and relaxed and beautiful environment fosters.

tonight for instance, which is date night even for married couples here in utah valley, for mere pennies, c. and i went to yoga and ate hot dogs and chili cheese fries at tommy's burger.  this bare-bones shack of a restaurant is a provo institution that's been around for decades.  it's new york tiny inside and a one-dude operation (always the same dude).  only about six people at a time can squeeze in to order at the counter, and all eating takes place in a big, empty parking lot full of chipped fire-engine red picnic tables.  unless you want to eat standing up whilst reading today's usa today open under two banks of plexiglass on the wall of the building so you can move from left to right and read the entire paper while consuming a bacon burger or a chili dog, standing up, at a twelve-inch wide red counter. (also, in between the two banks of news papers is a wall-mounted paper towel dispenser like you'd find in a restroom instead of a napkin dispenser.  so by the time the chili's dripping down your arm and you're almost to the sports section, you can grab a paper towel.  how efficient!  how industrial!  love it!)

notice the newspapers, changed daily, on the side of the building

tonight we sat in early evening sun and sweet little breeze, at about 75 degrees, and looked at the beautiful mountains, which is the other thing about this place:  whatever parking lot you're in has the such astoundingly magnificent views of the mountains that you feel like you're living in a resort.

last night we played at muse music with lalage. muse is another example of the kind of unexploited  resource a burgeoning (or even more established) artist might find in provo.

what i love about muse is this:  total bare bones, totally cheap, and totally accessible.  their menu of services includes a six dollar cover charge for four bands, a 25-dollar-an-hour recording studio (would anyone do anything in nyc for 25 bucks an hour, julie?), and 2 bucks for a cup of tea or hot chocolate.

so there it is.

two more reasons for people in a tight place, artists in a tight place, girls in a tight place, to dig downtown provo.

legwear:  first half of the day=nightgown legs, second half=yoga pants

looking forward:  to 80 degrees tomorrow/ spring cleaning and taking a bunch of stuff to DI


inspiration:  cool parking lots


p.s.--GITP supports pete ashdown!

ego work assessment

a student's awesome outfit/every day dressing/i LUV red shoes

following julie's example, i went back to january's initial posts to get a handle on where i am in working on the stuff i set out to do at the year's start.  the first thing that struck me was this:  julie's street fashion photos rock!  if you haven't read the whole blog, scroll through the photos and you'll be really inspired to get your game on in your daily dressing.  (i happen to think every day dressing is important and can make your life a lot more beautiful, no matter what your circumstance.)

the second thing was this:  i've written a lot about ego, and that seems to be the emerging theme of this year.  how much do i do things in order to fufill certain egoistic expectations and how much do i do things because they're good and true?  i set out to make this year about the latter thing.  not so sure which is dominating in the battle between a life that is lived for the wrong reasons and an authentically lived life.  i'm on day two of my fast, and it feels great.  i started it for twin reasons, one of them egoistic and one of them in an attempt to be a better, kinder, more humble person, more in tune with the beauty and goodness in the world.  both reasons are still there, coexisting fairly well, i must say.

i wonder how often other people think about the situation in which we humans find ourselves, trying to sort through seeming contradictions between motivation and action--how one can be bad and one can be good, both at the same time.

but here's what i set down in january:

1) something meaningful to write about everyday:  this has actually come to pass.  writing something every day has made the day more meaningful.  julie and i have both managed to post something every single day of 2012 so far.

2) every day beauty: the blog has been a sort of gratitude journal, and it's helped me realize, like ayun halliday said in her guest post on monday, that i have nothing at all to complain about.  it's made me more observant of, say,
the awesome outfits my students wear every day,
the daffodils under my window surrounded by snow,
the AMAZING mountains my home snuggles up against,
the fleetingly beautiful holes in my seven-year old's smile,
& the more than bountiful circumstances i was born to.

those are the important items from my list.  i feel good about that, and inspired to keep consciously working, at least until the summer equinox!

legwear:  sweats.  but i'm about to change into argyle knee socks.

looking forward: to folded laundry, graded midterms

inspiration:  gratitude enhanced by hunger

p.s. i'm reading rebecca lindenberg's column this week on mormon-belt food.  loved her post on funeral potatoes and community.  that tension again between belonging and outsiderness that may or may not be adequately smoothed over by the balm of creamy condensed soups.  i happen to live in the heart of the heart of zion, and this tension exists every day, many times a day.

list of spring: e.e. cummings--goblin valley--the anti-sonnet

we go to goblin valley every winter when it's just about spring

i'm in list mode.

lists seem very spring-like to me, when sustained thought becomes suddenly

uncontrollably

difficult,

and the schizophrenia of the season is reflected in the skipping from thought to thought, the move from thick grey tights covered in over the knee stockings and boots (what i wore last night to a friend's snowy cabin in provo canyon)

to bare legs and a skirt (what i wore yesterday afternoon)

to tights and sandals and a dress (what i wore to church this morning)

within one twenty four hour period--

here are ten things that mean spring's coming in utah:

1)  a day trip to goblin valley

2) teaching my two-week locavore cooking class at walden--here's a post from our blog from march 2010

3) e.e. cummings ((the very anti-sonnet of him))

(speaking of sonnets, read this hilarious onion article on the n.e.a.'s funding of the 1.3 million dollar sonnet)

4) eggs, asparagus, and strawberries

5) planning our annual spring break trip to visit my peeps in arizona

6) last year i planted a garden for the first time--so maybe gardening will become a permanent feature of spring? i'm not so good at this, but maybe i'll become?

7) writing more--i get feverish with ideas this time of year

8) sandals--i start looking at sandals obsessively--my favorite footwear--so glad we can wear them with tights these days--a perfect hybrid of seasons--and the girls in locavore always start busting them out during our two-week march inter-session--

9) snowy mountains/sunny valley--i love a sunny day over a white mountain

10) shedding punctuation--trying to avoid the closure of the period in favor of the freedom of the dickinsonian dash, the cummingsesque airy spaces -- the freedom of the bare leg at last--

                    --something like     

                                                  this    cummings   here:

[in Just-]

[in Just-]

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

legwear:  charcoal tights, black wedge sandals

inspirations:  dashes and air

looking forward:  after church road trip to some small utah town