Work then Play: the Final Weeks of Summer

 After work, I got kid #1 to go down to the East River Park Amphitheater where Two Boots Pizza was celebrating their 25th anniversary.  Just the usual stilt walkers, giant puppets, live bands, and free pizza (albeit pizza slivers).  Again, another beautiful late afternoon was handed to us like a gift.

Afterwards, we saw another installment of In & Around C, this time a mixed jazz ensemble, that kid #1 only let me stay at for five minutes--maybe six.

I thought I'd throw this in--Stella and I having farmer's market pizza in Union Square Park after gathering a ridiculous amount of school supplies.

Also, today at work, I ran into one of my favorite writers.  More on this tomorrow.

(It's Still) Summer Soundtrack (Thoreau's the only American here)

Nothing much to report except that I started reading Walden today in preparation for my vacation in the New England woods.

One thing though: I'm excited that The Darkness has a new record (which got a terrific review in a recent Mojo).  Summer's not over yet!

Here they are covering Radiohead, metal head style:

Also, today would have been Joe Strummer's 60th birthday. Here's one of his best song's ever. (My kid's preK teacher, taught this song to the class, accompanying them on his acoustic guitar)

And 32 years ago this summer, ACDC's post Bon Scott record Back in Black was released.  I remember kids blasting that record from vans pulled up into Mormon Church parking lots.  Just one more song before going inside to the church dance.

Thoreau's the only American on my soundtrack. What's been on your summer soundtrack, Lara?

the rubble of our feast

hoagies, potato salad, crudite, chocolate chip cookies

trying to get every last drop of summer.

one more day until school starts for me and the two small children.

tree climbing at huber grove.

looking at this list, i have yet to:  1) hike timp, 2) take a road trip to southern utah, 3) buy a new pioneer bonnet, and 4) serve a fancy italian backyard dinner with candles.

today we had a picnic.  i wanted to go to southfork, but christian suggested huber grove in midway, and i'm so glad we went.  we haven't been this summer, and i had forgotten how cool it is.

the creamery.  snake creek ran through the cellar, keeping the dairy cool.  it's built of pot rock, volcanic rock prevalent in midway.

huber grove is a homestead from the 1800's built by mormon swiss immigrants.  the homestead is filled with fruit trees, aspen trees, a cottage and a pot rock creamery, and snake creek runs through the property.

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best of all, the homestead is covered in little plaques with excerpts from huber's journals and poems he wrote.  and quotes like this, that casually suggest a dramatic and amazing lifetime: "when huber was in vienna, he spent evenings at the vienna opera, when he was not imprisoned for his faith."

or this:

bees!

moses and i walked the little trail near the creek, dense with horsetail, and read up on the flora and fauna of the homestead, courtesy of the wasatch state park.  moses asked me afterwards if i had enjoyed our "naturous" walk.  ingrid wrote down quotes from the plaques in her journal and read snippets of the poems in german to us.

moses' ninja pose on "naturous" walk.

lula climbed a tree.

we ate.  we showed anna from cambridge a beloved place of ours.  since my mom grew up in midway, it has a special pull for me, and for the kids, who've spent many summers and vacations there.

anna from cambridge.

every time we have a picnic, i think of c. thomas asplund's beautiful poem, seasonings.  christian's father was such an amazing poet, and he didn't have time to write nearly enough poems in his foreshortened life.

II

The smallness of it all makes one wonder;

the sitting on a smooth bank

in the river smell and sun

and ants and grass

tickling up the sleeve.

The dry kiss

and the moist kiss.

The baby reeling through the grass on reckless legs

and you

stretching, head back amid the rubble of our feast,

reaching beyond me for the tiny sun

blink

                        you are gone with the flick of an eye

                                    blink

            gone are the empty cartons of a summer day

                        blink

            gone is the shameless sun.

            Suddenly my child stands before the tiny sun

            a giant shadow before the tiny sun

            and I can see that in his reeling quest for age

                                    he has stolen my years

                                    and shatters in the prism of  my tears

                                    and with the tiny river I am young no more.

overwhelmed list

bottom half of new profile picture.  i love that c. still wears creepers and slim pants after all these years.

i was feeling uber-overwhelmed this week on account of next week, when all hell breaks loose in my life.  julie wisely told me i could only put three things on my list today.  i took her advice and had a simple list:  1) yoga, 2)  syllabi creation, and 3) composing an email i've been procrastinating.  i did all three things, plus a few fun, non-stressful things.

i'm learning that it's smart to DO LESS when you're overwhelmed.  because then you realize you really don't have to get everything done.  it won't kill you.  & you might even learn to cut out some extra crap on your agenda that you really don't need.

here's my friday list:

1) wrote morning pages on back porch, eating my favorite childhood breakfast:  a toasted cheese sandwich broiled until bubbly and brown, topped with tomato, mayo, salt & pepper.

2) wrote procrastinated email while chatting online with julie, sitting on back porch, noticing that it's already cooling off and the trees on the mountains are showing glimmers of reds and golds.  also sent procrastinated email.

3) wrote syllabi and schedules for both sections of the writing classes i'm teaching this fall.  also, lesson plan and handouts for first day of said classes.  ALSO labeled file folders for those classes and put everything in my briefcase.  i'm totally ready for tuesday.

4) yoga.  rad and raucous kirtan singing happening in the adjacent room made the practice kind of special and a little extra fun today.

5) changed profile picture.

6) got salted caramel ice cream cone from neighbor boy's ice cream stand.

7) grocery shopping.  then, my favorite moment of the day: passing a dude on a motorcycle wearing a batman mask and headgear, cape flying behind him.  he looked so good i almost screamed.  also, at smith's i spotted the chihuahua ingrid thinks i need being carried by an adorable young woman.  ingrid said i can have her as long as i buy her matching yoga pants with me and name her "chanel."  i promise i will.

8) unpacked groceries and made nachos.  got into nightgown while ingrid quipped, "i see there's to be nothing in between yoga pants time and nightgown time today."  can't get away with anything around that girl.  about to watch ru paul's drag race, since christian's away camping and all.

plenty season

i dig ingrid's orange lipstick with the vintage '70's maxi my friend alice made & wore in the actual '70's.   it has tiny buttons all the way down the back and butterfly sleeves.

the produce is so abundant that i was hard-pressed to use it all before it languished.

baba ganoush, salad and lula's green goddess dressing.

there were aubergines, two big ones, so i made grilled eggplant and baba ganoush.

there were avocadoes about to die, so lula made a green goddess dressing to go with our salad of greens, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

taylor makes a beautiful plate

the requisite famous utah peaches and corn, which a person feels desperate to gorge on before they're gone.

utah peaches & corn are legendary

& a half-gallon of cream to be used (i've been making ice cream like crazy this week).

honey vanilla ice cream.  i have a crush on my new ice cream maker.

fingerling potatoes to be roasted.

adorable baby potatoes

salmon and steak on sale, but so many vegetarians.  we grilled it yesterday and served it cold with the salad, which was nice on such a hot day.

a crush on the grill, too.

i love sunday here, with all the dresses, the roses, the after-dinner bike ride to my favorite spot on locust lane, to an empty field where the buildings clear out and you can see the valley lighting to the west and the mountains to the east.

and a crush on sunday dinner.

it's the sweet spot of the world.  the navel of the world.

the sweet spot of dinner--grilled peaches & homemade ice cream.

today was the day i knew summer would wane.

how much longer?

today i felt like i dropped into the sweet spot of the season,

the sweet spot of summer.

& like it couldn't get any better.

lift ride and back to school outfits

a few more hikes, a few more swims

here in utah we get out of school right after memorial day and go back mid-august.

it feels like the summer's winding down, though we still have a good month of heat, corn, peaches & tomatoes.

i'm itching to get back to a schedule, to poetry workshop and live college teaching, to kids in school all day, to sweaters and tights.

(do you remember, julie, the seventeen back to school issue?  i was always sad that we wore shorts to school in az. for months, and it was almost never cold enough for a preppy wool sweater.)

so, although i'm starting to look forward to fall, my favorite season, and i'm loving the back-to-school outfit videos cecily has been working on,  i'm also trying to embrace summer and not end it before it's over, if you know what i mean.  trying to fit in the outdoor movies and theatre, a little more pool time, a picnic and a hike or two.

tonight we took the sundance moonlight chair lift ride for our date night.  it's only held a couple of nights a month in the summer when the moon is full. sundance is so beautiful.  i think it's the most beautiful of the utah resorts.

(i had to close my eyes going down on the lift on the super steep part, & also, to block out the envy, when i saw the sundance screenwriting lab residents with their lanyards allowing them entrance into certain areas "not open to the public"--why was i not one of them? what was going on in those off-limits areas?)

i'm also trying to plan my own first day of school outfit.  it's a little trickier than it once was.

what's everyone wearing this year?

i have no idea!

julie turley, what will the trends be in nyc?

Ersatz Cafe Review

I actually have no idea what to post right now.

It's been a sweaty day wherein not much got done.

There has been much interacting with screens.

Right now, the offspring are throwing a ball in our small living area.

Earlier, I wrote something in a place I love to go to, so that was good.  This place, Prima (by Prune), has become my favorite writing place during the week--big open tables, hardly anyone there, good drink, decent although limited pastries, good music, a friendly bearded guy running the counter--he brought me water when I didn't even ask for it.

They clear all of this stuff for the morn/afternoon computer users.

Afterwards, S and I walked over to Soho to retrieve my bike.  On the way back we got some groceries and ran into an old friend who invited to dinner!

We really needed to be saved from ourselves.

fully

don't you love camp jewelry?

i got really scared about a year ago that i would die before my life was fully lived.

so this is what the "saying yes" to stuff thing is all about.

today i chaperoned some kids at a day camp for much of the day.  i was bummed at missing so much work time, and SUPER bummed that i had to wear jeans and a t-shirt (i found some snakeskin jeggings and lula loaned me her beloved chewbaca tee, so it worked out okay, but not good enough for a blog pic, my kids informed me.)

canoeing skillz

up in the canyon, i watched the campers scream and play and delight in dumb little games and camp songs and the antics of cute the teen counselors, and tried not to worry about all the work waiting for me at home.

why is recreation so hard?  or is it just me?

i also hung out and chatted with the three other chaperones, really cool women from my neighborhood who i could talk to several times a week, but i don't.  i get so thickly wrapped up in cotton worries and stop getting out, emotionally and physically.

i really enjoyed getting to know these women better.  so why not do it more often?

a year ago i made the decision  to live more fully in the world.  i've made some progress in this direction, but there's a long, long way to go

and hopefully

i'll get there before i die. . . .

saturday summer swag

i finished grading a grueling set of midterms this morning, then

we rode the lift at sundance while eating portabello wraps & seven layer bars & root beer from the deli, then

we met ingrid at her fabulous job at outdoor adventure, then

we rode tubes down the provo river, a thunderstorm ahead and blue skies behind, and then

we came home to the locust salon where we heard t.j. borden, a cellist from buffalo and

christian

and steve and

saw some girls in dresses.

today was the first time in seven weeks that i totally, totally forgot to write my morning pages.  it kind of seemed like a good thing.

today was perfect summer,

perfect.

pioneer peach: make the air with music ring

break out the bonnets!

a 24th of july festivity:

i have a bushel of peaches

&

2 dozen ears of corn ($3.50/doz.).

summer is real!

we broke out our bonnets

miss provo was eating pie, but i got this shot of her attendants.

& went to the pioneer day extravaganza at veteran's park.

re-enactor in the sons of utah pioneer village.

our friend anna from cambridge, ma., who's been living in slc for one month,

anna from cambridge sharing her views on pioneer day, freedom & the first amendment

was approached by a news anchorish woman:

"i noticed your cute dress.  will you answer some questions for me?"

anna was interviewed on camera.  what does pioneer day mean to her?  what does freedom mean to her?  what rights does the first amendment protect?

anna passed with flying colors.

jacob, world class hoop dancer.

we watched jacob do the hoop dance.  we've been watching him progress in his skills since he was about five.  he's now one of the top dancers in the world.

heritage coffins

i loved this heritage coffin-making booth,

and of course we had to have a navajo taco.

navajo tacos are traditional on pioneer day.

currently, a dozen ears of corn are shucked and waiting to be grilled eaten with the shallot thyme butter i made sunday, and a peach pie is cooling on the counter.  the watermelon is sliced and chilling in the fridge.

peach pie cooling for tonight's pioneer day barbeque.

i only wish julie was here to celebrate one of my favorite holidays of the year.

the beehive is the beloved state symbol.

here's our classic mormon pioneer song.  i get teary every time i sing it.

bonnets at my barbeque

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell -
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!

We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away, in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints, will be blessed.
We'll make the air, with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell -
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell-
All is well! All is well!

a break/through?

ingrid's key lime pie, garnished by anna

i was lamenting to julie about last week's boredom.  no drilling company, shakespeare in the parking lot, no plethora of coffee shops, no unbelievable numbers of creative music concerts or experimental theatre festivals here, like julie turley has in just a ten block radius from her apartment.

but then i somehow got to a place where i could chill and enjoy what i have right now a little better and have had a fantastic weekend so far.

we spent the day up in woodland, utah with my cousin brent touring his farm, where last year they won first place in the world cheese competition for their smoked cheddar.  we canoed, collected eggs, rode the atvs and ate a ton of fantastic & truly artisinal cheeses.  i'll write in more detail about that later.

steven's scarf as tie look at provo bicycle collective

last night was a cool evening at the provo bicycle collective, followed by ingrid's amazing key lime pie.

tonight lalage plays in salt lake city.  wish julie turley could be there.

tomorrow is ingrid's birthday, and there's so much crazy baking going on at our house.  lula just made meringues, ingrid has half-made a coconut creme pie, and she requested some lemon curd strawberry cupcakes for her 20th birthday tomorrow.  i'm not sure what those cupcakes will entail exactly, but i'll figure it out.  ingrid told me last night, that, as she only has six weeks left with a kitchen before returning to bryn mawr,  she has decided to carpe diem, or as she sad it, "carpe kitchen."  thus her baking mania was born.  which is cool with me.  a little messy and a little pricey, but fun.  and pretty, and delicious.

so, more details to come.  i've had an unexpectedly busy weekend.

pie queen & french salad

ingrid baking in pearls, frilly apron, and heels.

something about this heat & this boredom--the midsummer stall--has made us run for the kitchen.  it's nonsense.  we should be lazing by a stream in the mountains.

she's so careful about the directions, which is why she excels as our resident pastry chef.

yesterday ingrid constructed a coconut key lime pie that we'll eat tonight, post lalage's provo bicycle collective gig (come if you're in town!)

lula's famous deviled eggs.

for dinner i made a french salad.  i don't know why it is thusly named. my mom invented it, and it's sort of a green salad/crudite hybrid.  mine had a little more antipasti on it than usual, but it needs to always contain greens, radishes, and deviled eggs.  when it's not too hot, i like to roast vegetables, too. then a vinaigrette (and we serve some creamery ranch also, for the, ahem, kids.)

i love these colors so much that i'm posting twice.

okay.  i'm posting early and with brevity on account of the gig.  and the pie.  and the rain.  and trying to squeeze in a yoga class so i'll be all breath and calm for the weekend.

coconut key lime pie in process.  completed pie photo tomorrow, perhaps