lipstick everywhere

all the lipsticks on the counter at a meet n' greet.

here's the array of lipwear in the house today.

sometimes i feel sorry for c., like today, when he heard about the levels of lipstick:  from mac to nars, from wet n' wild to revlon.  the consensus is that chanel is the best for high-end, e.l.f. for low.  revlon lip butters  for low but not rock bottom.

sometimes i feel sorry for boys who don't wear lipstick.  where's the fun in that?

sometimes i write poems about lipstick

four—the eternal nature of god

unborn, undying. . . i come into being through my own magic

*
a thousand hands
holding
a thousand tubes
of chanel red
no. 5
& 
painting the roses
for men 
to gaze upon—
the beautiful lips
of god
arrayed &
speaking at once

20 times around the sun

happy birthday, bingy

lots of people love ingrid because:  she's wise, she's courageous, she's funny, she bakes delicious treats, she stands up against oppression, and she wears great outfits.

the fates smiled on me when ingrid came into our home and blessed it with something i can only call magic.

whenever an acquaintance learns that i'm her mother, i hear the same thing,  "you're ingrid's mother?  i love ingrid!"  (i hear the same thing about ingrid's grandma, pat asplund, someone she bears more than a passing resemblance to.)

on her birthday, i want to celebrate some of the specific little magics she bestows on so many of us.  those of you who know her will understand what i'm talking about:

1)  why wear regular clothes when you could wear a sparkly party dress?

2)  why can't humans marry trees?

3)  when is it inappropriate to wear a tiara? never.

4)  why put dots on your "i's" when you could use hearts instead?

5)  why just take a candid shot when you could pose?

6)  why would anyone turn down a speaking engagement?

7)  why would anyone not join every club on campus?

8)   with what outfits should i not wear my doc martens?  none.

9)  why not stay up all night baking?

10)  why not dress like betty page when you're baking, even if you're all by your lonesome?

11)  when should you keep quiet about injustice?  never.

12)  why wear regular hair when you could make a party bun?

13)  why sleep?

14)  when should you not go skinny-dipping?  never.

15)  why not visit your professors' office hours every week?

16)  where should you leave lipstick kiss marks?  everywhere.

17)  who should i invite to my party?  everyone.  ev-REE-one.  i repeat:  include everyone, always.

18)  when should i get bummed out and despairing?  never.

19)  how good do science goggles and vintage maxi dresses look together?

20)  q:  how important are bees?  a:  bees are the foundational creature of the world.  pay attention to the hive, and the world will be okay.

i love my ingy.  happy birthday to my baby chick.

date night & a little kvetching

cocktail hour, provo style

today was a day where i really, really, really, really could have used a strong drink at the end of it all.  or, if i were a character on mad men, i would have started in drinking hardcore at work already.

but, like  a good mormon girl should, i opted instead for frozen yogurt hour,

the good, stiff tart variety, with c., for date night.  i got tart dragon fruit and plain tart while c. got lychee tart and plain tart.  i topped mine with lychee fruit, mochi, mango and yogurt chips.  c. used lychee fruit (lots--he loves it), blueberries, mochi, kiwi. strawberry, mango, and blackberries.  he's a food snob and won't touch the yogurt chips.  i love the cold waxy bitey swaggy mouth feel of the chips in the frozen yogurt, but in no other context.

(i think i'm coming down from the excitement and craziness of the last month, and was feeling really bummed out about the lack of life in provo parts today.  i made c. drive up and down center street tonight, hoping that some new sophisticated establishment had magically popped up while we were in nyc and seattle.  don't get me wrong, i love it here a lot ((i mean, you already know i also hate it here a lot)), but sometimes get bored with the lack of night life, &. . . . yeah.)

but here's what went wrong today:

1.  work.  ugh.  i won't share details, but i'm feeling discouraged about it and like i should make a change.

2.  shoulder.  double ugh.  had to leave yoga it was so bad.  i couldn't hold a downward dog or child's pose.  i couldn't even do my hair or put on my dress without a lot of pain.   i suppose i should have sat in meditation and breathed in yoga instead of following the class practice but

3.  forest fires are ablaze in utah and the air is horrible. i had a raging headache and kept sneezing my head off.

4.  found out some bad news about someone i love.

5.  neglected the children for the fifth day in a row this week.

6.  didn't get writing or submitting done today (yet!)

on  a more cheery note, some food and  things went right today, maybe even more goodies than baddies, (but most of the wrong happened in the second half of the day, so it's fresher on my mind).  here's the good stuff:

pedicures & lots of red

1. my brother dave is in town for the utah valley marathon.  we got pedicures together  (he didn't get red toes, though.)

2. after pedis, we went to communal for lunch, hands down my favorite restaurant in utah valley (it holds up super well next to james beard chef maria hines' restaurant golden beetle, where i ate last week in seattle--here's my first blog post and my second  blog post on golden beetle.  here's my blog post on the oyster bar the walrus and the carpenter.)  we sat at the bar of the open kitchen and watched chef justin do his thang.  i had the lucious grilled zucchini sandwich with housemade lemon ricotta and a fantastic spring salad with shaved fennel (fennel is the most glorious vegetable in the world to me right now.)  dave had a shrimp po boy.   c. shared my sandwich and had a cup of roasted pepper/tomato soup and we all had the sumptuous boulangere potatoes (dense little fingerling potatoes sauteed in some sort of veal/balsamic reduction with caramelized onions and housemade bacon.)  chef j. treated us to an array of sorbets, including our favorite, the blood orange and clove sorbet and the white peach/vanilla. 

3.  red.  i put new red sheets on the bed and found a perfect cheap red lipstick from maybelline today:  red revival.  it's the first really good non-designer lipstick i've ever found for myself.  not too orange, not too brown, not too purple, not too pink.  just right.  i got out my old red purse and a new coral red on my fingers and toes, wore my red sandals. 

4.  listening to white stripes right now with c., and one more episode of holmes on the dvr for tonight.

5.  borrowed a copy of the artist's way from diana at work today.  more on the significance of this later.

6. got out of the house today--went to work today which, although it was frustrating, at least got me out of my summer lack-of-schedule malaise.

7.  knowing that things will be better tomorrow--the air, my headache, the farmer's market, and my ability to be more present with the kids.

legwear:  bare, tipped with new red toes.

looking forward: to trying something new.

inspiration: shades of red.