Talk, Talk, Talk

I really like my new boyfriend. A lot. And I've written about him a bit, but he's very private and later I've taken down posts that I've written about him, because I worry that he will see them and feel embarrassed. So, I'm going to try to tone down the my boyfriend, my boyfriend stuff, even though I'll be thinking it. :)

Here are a few photos that I took while camping and bear hunting last weekend...

We are sticking close to home this weekend, for Bay's baby shower. I'm very excited to see my sister, sister-in-law, and nieces again. My good friend, Leah, is giving Bay the shower.  We sure are lucky to have Leah.

Tired and Fighting a Cold

I had a hard time getting up this morning. I can feel a cold trying to catch me and that made it hard to sleep. Plus, my neighbor was screaming last night. Sometimes she sounds so mad. It makes me sad, because she seems like a good person and I worry about her little boy.

I used to worry that she was getting hurt, but it's never anything like "No!" or "You are hurting me!" It's more like she's really, really upset. I saw her today and she wouldn't make eye contact with me. I wonder if she's embarrassed?

I hope it's quiet tonight. We could probably both use the rest.

The Things That I Remember

I was talking to an old friend tonight. He told me that he had a crush on me back in high school. He said that he liked "my attitude." I can remember moving a lot in high school. So much of it was almost physically painful for me, being shy, feeling that I did not fit anywhere. Apparently, I was good at hiding this.

When I try to picture it, me walking the halls, this boy seeing me the way he did.... Well, it would have been nice knowing that at the time. Not easy for kids to share feelings like that though. It was nice to hear it today. He gave me a compliment the other day, said he liked my picture on Facebook. It was nice to hear that, too. I've felt invisible for awhile.

I really enjoy talking to old friends. I love the shared history, going through the list of memories, Hey, I don't remember that? Do you remember this?? We all hold onto different things. So many of my memories are tied to a boy.

There's a whole lot that I let go of, just can't recall, and I think it's because of other crap that was going on at the time. Things were challenging when I was a kid and even when they were quiet, I did my best to screw them up on my own.

I wonder what my kids are going to hold onto? I bet it will be things like camping at the beach. I know they both tell funny Uncle Matt stories - Bay is partial to his "My Humps" performance. Maybe some creek stories will be in there....... I know they are going to have lots of Kitty memories. She's a funny girl.

Okay, I'm off to bed.

Sarah and Basketball

There's an intersection about a half mile from my house where the birds hang out. They sit on the wires, then will all of a sudden fly off in a group, quickly switch directions - it's like they get some sort of signal, then swoop, swooping, swooping, then switch again, and finally land. How do the birds know when to change direction?

It's pretty cool and fairly entertaining, which is good, because I end up waiting for the light at this intersection frequently. It's on the way to Greg's house, among other places. I drive back and forth between our house and Greg's house about 12 times a day. Or at least 4. It feels like 12, though. Yesterday, Max and I took Sarah to basketball practice. She belongs to a team that is from the Notre Dame Catholic school. The school is blocks from downtown, near the college - California State University Chico. It's an older part of town. The trees are full and stately. The sun was setting in the distance and I tried to catch it here.

This tree is located in the parking lot. It is HUGE. That's my little white van right next to it. You can see Haley running on the left. She is on Sarah's team and like Sarah, she's not a student at Notre Dame. She goes to our school. She is a really good player - very aggressive and fast. I see Sarah watching her on the court. Sarah is not aggressive. She is good at shooting, but stealing the ball, getting in someone's face, that does not come naturally to her. She'll learn in time.

Today was the first official game and I forgot my memory card. No game photos!!! I was so mad. The game was exciting and the light in there was really good. Oh well. Next time.

For now I'll show you what I got from practice yesterday. Max and I waited in the van, but I walked her to the door and flashed the coach. Sorry coach. Earlier today I took a photo at the Farmer's Market and there's a lady pointing at me in one of the shots. I imagine she's saying, "Hey look, that woman is taking our picture." Or possibly, "Hey look at that gorgeous woman taking our picture. Aren't we lucky?" I'm a dreamer, you know.

I love the way it looks inside an old gym. All that gleaming wood. The gym from today had alligators hanging from the ceiling supports. Sarah loved that. It's a new gym - only 10 years old - and it's the school where Sarah will attend jr high in a couple of years.

Here's my beautiful b-baller dribbling in to practice. I'm very proud of her. She is such a bold kid. I wish I was more like that.

No Luck With Updates This Week

I've tried to update a few times this week, but for some reason my photos would not upload, so I skipped it. Sarah and I took some pictures while on a bike ride the other day. I will post them tomorrow.

For now, Sarah is shown above, right beside the bike path and an actual Fall-looking tree. Woohoo- Fall!! It's still very warm here, was 92 today, but that's a whole lot better than 102. :D

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

It's hot here, in Chico, California. I took these photos outside on my patio and around my apartments. It's 105 F. Ouch. Hot. It's been so hot at school, that the kids hang out anywhere they can find shade - along the edges of the building, under the trees out in the field - and I keep my spray bottle filled with water. Their faces get red and I don't want anyone getting sick from the heat.

There are a ton of spider webs on my patio. I tried to capture them, but they aren't easy to see in this light. Most are Daddy Longlegs, but I've found black widows out here, too. I take everything off the patio a couple of times a year, spray it all down with the hose. I think it's about that time again.

August is a crispy time of year. I'm so looking forward to the Fall. October is my favorite month of the year. It's getting closer. :D
See the cracks? It's like this all over. I don't know if it's just another California earth shifting thing or if we've got some sort of sink hole situation going on. I watched this show once that explained that sink holes can be from construction - they clear the land, bury the trees, when the trees rot and break down, the ground sinks. I wonder if that is what is going on here? My apartment has weird cracks in the exterior walls, the front door fits oddly and has been adjusted twice, and all of our bedroom doors are off a bit. Bay's is way off, but she's got this door slamming problem and the whole doorway is screwed up.
This is a Valley Oak tree. Can you see my black flip flop? I put it next to the tree so that you could get an idea of how big it is. These are really gorgeous trees. The branches sometimes curve all the way to the ground. Where I grew up, we had little oak trees, nothing like these. That's my upstairs neighbor going by on the motorcycle. He's a nice kid with a big surround-sound issue. It's annoying, at times, but I prefer it to the neighbor who had the big barfing off the 2nd story into my plants problem. Yuck.

This is the second version of this post. The first one disappeared when I lost my connection. I lost track of how many times that happened today. Really, really, really a pain in the ass. The other verson was funny and entertaining - you would have been surprised by my incredible insights. I'm serious.

Ruby Tuesday - My Japanese Maple

I've had a little Japanese Maple tree for a few years. It's about 5'6" at the highest point - was about 1 ft when Mom gave it to me. It's a lovely little tree, as Japanese Maples always are, but it usually looks pretty sad by this time of the year. My apartment gets the late afternoon sun and it's stuck out there. I've tried to shield it by sticking other plants around and in front of it, but it's pretty much a loosing battle.

Happily, I noticed some new growth on it this weekend. That's when I took these. The pretty red leaves, I thought they'd be a good choice for Ruby Tuesday.

A Duraflex and an Argoflex

A few months ago, I found some photos done Through the Viewfinder. I thought they were gorgeous and different and just ........wow. I wanted to try it myself, so yesterday Sarah and I went out on a search through the local "treasure" stores and I found two box-type cameras that I could use for the process.

Just looking down into these cameras gives me this silly sort of thrill. The picture looks so silvered and it's hard to explain if you haven't actually looked into one yourself. They remind me of an old mirror that has had part of the back scratched away.

The cameras were really inexpensive - I don't know if either of them work, you just use them for the lens - but they are so cool-looking. I'm going to have them as part of my decor when I'm not using them.

Sarah loved the treasure shops. She is fascinated with old equipment - especially typewriters. She told me a story yesterday and it went something like this....... when she was in the first grade and changing in her teacher's office for the Halloween parade, she saw an old typewriter and she admitted to me, "I might have maybe touched a key or two." I love that idea, that she was so fascinated by the typewriter, that she was tempted to touch it.

I used the cameras to take her picture yesterday. She was pissed. I don't know how I'm going to get her to let me keep practicing on her.

This was one of the first images that I took with the TTV. It's the trees out front, up through the branches, which is something that I enjoy shooting. I'm not sure why. I do it over and over.
I'm not sure which camera takes better pictures yet. I still need to figure out a better box for the camera to fit into - you shoot down the box, with the duraflex at the bottom of the box. When I get that right, then I can figure it out.

There are some huge fires in my area. The wind kept the smoke away, but made the fires really hard to contain. They had to evacuate some areas - down in the canyon where my friend Tony's family lives, up in Paradise, where Steve's dad lives. The fire burned out by my college - the campus is in large part a wildlife preserve.

This morning the wind died down and I woke up to a smokey smell in my room. Sarah just came in from playing on the patio and she smells of it. Strong of it. The people in Paradise are being allowed back into their homes. I can't imagine what these people have gone through in the past 36 hours. I feel very lucky.

In this picture, you have no clue that there's any smoke, but a little to the left, there's a huge plume of it.

Here's my son, Max, taking a nap. He lies on this big pillow called a Cloud Nine. His head is to the right, but it's hard to see.
I'm taking off now. It's time to give him his before bed medicine. Take care.

Peeking Around the Patio

Today was the second day in a row that I talked to a loan-person about my financial situation. I want to buy a house. It's exhausting to think about how much money I don't have and how much debt I do.

I needed a break, so I grabbed my camera and went out to the patio to peek around.
I have so many blossoms on my lemon tree. It's very exciting. Last year I had a whole ONE lemon on the tree. I don't know why it's so healthy this year, but I'm glad that it is. I love lemons. When I was a kid, I used to eat them, not squeeze them on something, but eat the pieces like an orange. This was well before I met a Meyer lemon - those, no problem - but old school tart-y lemons, well I'm not sure what I was trying to prove.
Nobody uses the turtle sandbox anymore. :( I can remember the day Bay got it from Mom. It was her third birthday and her dad brought her home all caked up. I bathed her, cleaned the frosting out of her hair, and the fun began. My brother-in-law was supposed to be delivering the sandbox, but for some reason he decided to go by the Ford store and buy a truck first. He's had a lot of trucks over the years. Another funny day for truck-buying, the day he and Robin moved out of Chico. They bought a new truck on their way out of town.

When I bought my van, my sister talked me through it. I'd call her and she'd say, wait, let me look up those numbers....... and she'd give me the blue book on my little Saturn or the van that I wanted to buy. It helped to have her there on my phone. She knows a lot about purchasing vehicles. I do not, although I do know about a bit about dating a car-man, as S is one. His advice - don't let me (him) talk you into anything. Too late.

Sometime during Max's first year, the seed for this tree landed in a hanging pot of Petunias. It sprouted and I moved it from pot to pot as it grew. It's Max's tree. It sits outside the living room window - right on the other side of the wall from where he lays. I like to keep Max and his tree close. They belong together and some day when I buy a house, I'd like to plant the tree into the ground. Or maybe just a larger pot, but the point is that this tree means a lot to me.
I like to put goofy things around my garden. I have pieces of windchime stuck up with nails - mostly stars, suns, and moons. I found the little Eiffel Tower below outside stuck in the dirt. I stepped on something and it hurt my foot. When I dug around to see what it was, I found this broken tower. I washed it up and it's been in my garden ever since. My friend, Heather, visited the real Eiffel Tower last year. She took pictures of it and told about how it made her feel very emotional to be standing right there by it. I can only imagine how it must have felt - it's such a familiar image and I'm sure it's massive.

I like to put rubber lizards and spiders and frogs in among the plants. We used to take this huge rubber spider and hide it in the house to scare each other. I don't know where it is now, but I think I'm going to look for it, so I can hide it in Bailey's bed. She'll love it.

That Petunia turned out pretty, I think.