like gravy, down to the last drop, i keep mopping it up

hello again!
today is a lovely day and i am taking a short break from watering all the flowers and green things to write this and have a drink of water.

i've just decided to sell at something called the albany flea, and i am quite excited for my new adventure! i'm not sure why i am so add when it comes to doing stuff, but it certainly keeps things interesting. i came home today from my favorite church thrift store with a bag of loot for 9 bucks which includes (finally!) THE exact version of guess who i played when i was young. now i have 3 versions! necessary? not in the slightest. awesome? well, yes. obviously. tons of shirts and other junk, that isn't really junk. i'm sure you understand.

tonight i am going to see steve earle (!) with clare. i can't imagine what it will be like. justin (his son) is opening for him, so its a family affair. AND its at the egg!

tomorrow i am going to check out the spaces for this flea market and maybe go to a few yard sales and then take my dad out to dinner at the fountain for an early birthday celebration. hopefully my brother can get it together enough to make it.

what else? i started taking pictures of shoes and bags for etsy, hopefully i can have that up an running by the time i come back from new york next weekend. should i be a dental hygienist or what? can you guys just tell me what to do? should i get a kitten? should i name her dolly? can i get a witness?

time to get back to work. i'll be seein you guys real soon. let me leave you with a picture of my uncle in his ferrari:




adios!

the great albany bowl-crawl part 6 - green island lanes

well hullo!

i'm back again with another installment of the bowl crawl. this week took us a bit north of albany to a town-village amalgam known as green island. though it hasn't been a real island since the 60's, green island is the smallest town (by area) in all of new york state! WOW!

i met christine around 8:30, so i was able to shoot an dusky ominous exterior shot:






went inside and got shoes ($1), and were put on lane 7. walked to the bar and got a coors light (shut up) ($2.75). checked out the snack bar, which unfortunately, was closed, but they have whole pizzas! took a while to find good bowling balls, the selection of 8-9 lb balls was really sort of pitiful, and the ball i did find really ripped off my finger nails, but that is a horse of another color entirely.

on to the games! i think we may have been out of practice. or maybe we were nervous because the men in the bar were cheering for us when we got spares. or maybe the bowling balls weren't right. but the air blower for drying off your hands was really strong (A+) and the lanes were in great shape and had really nice early 80's type of graphics overhead. here are some interior shots and a shot of the great bar which was really open and nice.







okay and like i said, we had an off night with our scores. but we may become pros very soon! (more on this after i show you the scores)





whatever. i won both games. okay so somewhere in there we started talking with tom walsh jr. the owner of green island lanes, and two other bowling alleys around town as well! we were talking about our bowling mission and how many places we've been and which ones are our favorites and what kind of things we like about bowling, because he wanted to know about 'occasional bowlers' he ended up giving us so many bowling tips and showing us how the pros bowl. he also said he would give us a free lesson, and gave us his card so we can call him before we go to one of his other lanes and he can be there to give us tips. he is also going to read this so i am trying to be as inoffensive as possible. not that there was anything to be offensive about, but you know what i mean.....

tom giving christine some hands on tips:




okay so now the best part. we were really chatting with tom about bowling and meeting his buddies and all of that, and then i mentioned how much i loved the shoes i had received from them that evening, and he said "you can take them" TAKE THEM!!!

I AM NOW THE PROUD OWNER OF THE BEST AND MOST COMFORTABLE BOWLING SHOES OF ALL TIME.



i am so happy! they live in my car now so that i am ready for whenever i might feel like bowling. ha! when i went up to the counter to pay for our games ($3 each) i told the counter guy "he said i could have these shoes" and he goes "pfft, yeah right" and some other guy said "no really, he did" and then i walked out with them! thanks tom! we can't wait to become pro bowlers!

score:
price: 4
equipment: 3
snack bar: 2.5
bar bar: 4
character: 4
overall: 3.5


see you next time!

there's a stream running over on distant shores

like a tree ability will bloom and grow

ohhhh i loved this when i was wee.

i remember the stupid things, the mood rings, the bracelets and the beads

ohhhh there are too many things and too little time!

i have been coming to grips with this asthma thing and trying to come up with some alternatives to regular medication - which has NASTY side effects, no matter which one. i took one pill last week of something called singulair and then came home and did some reading about it and found a slew of nasty nasty side effects which i am not willing to deal with on any level WHAT-SO-EVER. so! i've been doing a bit of research and decided maybe i need more vitamin d3. not only am i a vegetarian, but i haven't consumed meat in over fifteen years and i don't believe i spend enough time in the sun to absorb the recommended amount of d. it helps with a great and many things including: bone health, calcium utilization, cardiovascular and lung health. HOORAY! a 30 day supply of a 100% whole food version of D-3 was onsale at the co-op, so i am going to try and see how that works. i am also on a yeast cleanse (sort of) and i think that is maybe helping? so that's that, and i am feeling pretty empowered about my own health, and thats a nice feeling. reading all the side effects of that pill really opened my eyes, once and, hopefully, for all, to not taking a back seat in one of the few things in this world i have control over, my own body! okay end of that.

let's get to some pictures!

so this past weekend was tulip fest, and i hadn't attended in probably close to 10 years. i was happy to have stephanie come up and share the whole thing with me, plus THIRD EYE BLIND performed! so let's cut to the chase.



stephen jenkins was wearing a top hat! we were so ecstatic, i can't even explain it. we made our way into the "pit" and started screaming our heads off. it was excellent, and at one point we both looked at each other and said "i'm crying" it really doesn't get any better.





it started pouring rain (as soon as semi-charmed life was over) so we headed home in the car with my mom (throwback!) and got here to find we couldn't even get down the driveway because a giant tree had fallen down across the driveway and taken down a power line! adventure! we risked our lives to run across the wet grass and duck under a live wire and then stephanie got a call from rob that he was in the driveway! ooooops! so we had a guest. i found some candles. whatever. this story is boring. anyways louie and amber came up for the bonfire i was having, and luckily it stopped raining by the time it was fire time. here are some choice shots from that.









a bunch of people were able to come over for the fire, despite the crazy tree issue. oh and also i had a baby duck for about 24 hours, but we've taken him to a lady who raises ducks and had a bunch of babies. i think i am going to visit him sometime this week to make sure he's doing okay. first i named him duckie, but then i decided his name was marvin, marvin gaye. he was a peach and he could melt a giant ogre with one flash of his eye. get a load of this heartbreaker:





gahhh i can't even take it! he is killing me softly! peep peep!

what else? oh! mother's day! yes, i have a mom, she is mostly like me but teensy! i also have a brother! did you even know that? he's sort of like a non-brother, but i guess its better than nothing.



i also ate ice cream sundaes with christine at my old haunt, tastee freez



so! there you have it!
the week is almost fini and i get paid tomorrow! weeee! friday i want to go to a bag sale and saturday there are a few sales i am interested in. i'm hoping to get in the kayak on friday when it is supposed to be near 80 degrees! let the browning begin! sunday christine and i are hoping to get down the the city in an actual car! monday we are going to a show on a boat! tuesday delta spirit is playing at valentines, and the wheel is turning once again. all my little seedies are green and growing. i have never known something so (almost) instantly gratifying as growing little seedies. i have dirt under my nails always.

okay lovies, i'm off. please send me a little bit of luck that the first patient tomorrow doesn't toss his cookies again! adiossss!

the great albany bowl-crawl part 5 - spare time latham

well boys and girls, its that time again, BOWLING TIME!

so we missed last week because christine is going to be a lawyer and make a lot of money, but this week we made up for it by having about 100 times more people than normal at our bowl night!

i showed up first because the others were running a bit late, i knew right were spare time was because i often shop at the salvation army right down the street. it looks fairly generic and not too exciting from the outside:






spare time is a chain, so i had my reservations about it, but i was bowling with my friend clare and her family and they live right down the street, and it was probably the only way to have them come.
the inside of this place looks like being inside a video game! i was really surprised at how 80s future this place looked, plus it has TWO sets of lanes, one on each side of the place. the set up was definitely newer, but it wasn't as awful as i thought it would be. dare i say, i kind of even liked it!





got my shoes which were VELCRO (that's new for me) and cost $3 (which is also new for me because it is A LOT). got our lane-16-and headed out to find the perfect bowling ball. there were a plethora of 8-10 pounders, which i attribute to this place being very family oriented, and not so much for older people or leagues.



christine showed up and then the lanusse family also showed up with friends in tow, we needed two lanes! christine and i got beer from the bar ($3) and i asked the counter guy if there were free refills and winked at him and he said "sure, just don't tell anyone" SWEET.

so we started our games, me, christine and clare on one lane, and sean, chuck, sue, and connor on the other. here's a cute action shot of sean helping connor with the ball ramp. it was his first time bowling and he LOVED it! i would say his favorite part was the ball return, he kept making a "pllp" noise with his tongue when the ball would pop out.



this is what i look like when i get a snowman!



so clare, despite saying he never bowls, was actually an excellent bowler, and christine bowled like she had actually never bowled before and didn't even know what bowling was. here are the scores:





the second game everyones name had to start with c. and i won! well, to be fair, i don't know what the guy called cbre got in the end because i had to speed off to make it home for idol and i still missed the first 2 performances (if kris allen doesn't get voted off i will be LIVID)

here's a picture of parker before i get to the scores:



score:
price: 2
equipment: 4
snack bar: 3
bar bar: 2
character: 3
overall: 2.8

til next time, happy bowling!

turn around our back on each other

OH MY GOD

if not THE greatest experience of my life, certainly in the top 10.




more to come...

well i was green and eager

its been just over a year since i first set off on my great adventure on wheels. a year is a very concrete and digestible measuring unit for time. i'd love to be able to quantify my change in the same way i can quantify the passage of time. what would my measuring units be? patience, surely. serenity? happiness? satisfaction? clarity? they wax and wane. i would love to be able to tell you all, to tell myself, truly and surely "_____ happened!" i would love to be able to fill in the blank and shout the resulting sentence to the heavens. problem is, i don't know exactly what happened, i just know something happened.

i could sit here (lay, rather) and write sentence after sentence of small ways i feel i am different. but these, in my mind, don't amount to the same feeling as when i say "it has been just over one year..." and that is what i am looking for. that feeling. that substance.

now it is late and books and bed are calling. before i go, i will have you realize, i do understand that while i am not able to write or measure a weighty change, it does not mean that one has not taken place.

when you're lucid you're the sweetest thing

a few snaps of my new hair for all y'all:











today was sleeping late, prairie dress dressing, radio station talking, marigold planting, seed spreading, sunshine soaking. tonight is a great hot shower and the may day house clean extravaganza. tomorrow is a rise early, country drive, antique fair kinda day. i hope the rain waters my flowers and then the sun shines bright and strong and makes everything grow good and green. i also hope i find a dress form at the fair tomorrow, and other treasures too, obv.

still working on my shaved ice techniques. i need to get on making some kind of syrup. my dad has already volunteered to be my guinea pig, so i just need to start concocting some actual flavors. any suggestions?

times a'wastin'! see y'all next time.

the great albany bowl-crawl part 4 - del lanes

the crawl continues!
christine was in miami for over a week, so we had to pause our adventure times, but now we are BACK IN ACTION!

tonight we continued the crawl at our old haunt, del lanes, in delmar, our HOMETOWN. this is the alley we both basically learned to bowl at, so we have sentimental feelings for this place. that being said, i will try to set those feelings aside and rate this place fair and square.

that being said, i have an EXCELLENT story about the following picture. when i was in 11th grade i decided to throw a "punk" show, and del lanes was my venue. i called this event (cleverly) "punk rock bowling" and it was a complete success. i had local bands play, and there were so many people there that the owner of this bowling alley gave me some money at the end (which wasn't part of the deal, and i think he gave me like $100 bucks) anyways, someone climbed the building and stole the bowling pin that was cut in half and mounted after the bowling ball in the sign below. that was TEN YEARS AGO. they still haven't replaced it? fine by me, i get to tell an excellent story about it.



we picked del lanes because they had an awesome deal: dollar shoes, dollar games, dollar sodas, dollar pizza slices. sweet!



ball selection was great and they had a plethora of 8-10 pounders. i went to the bar and got a giant blue moon for $4.75. all was set. we began our battle.



the lanes were packed, so i was a bit distracted, plus they were bumping some r+b hits which really had a negative effect on my game.

here are the scores:







so christine basically kicked my butt the entire time, save for the third game where we TIED! which is really pretty incredible. second game c got her highest score EVER. congrats christine! very impressive!







here's the snack bar, which was way more depressing than i remember it being. we didn't order any snacks so i can't really talk much about the quality.



all in all, not too shabby of a night, and it cost us $4 each! can't beat that!

price: 5
equipment: 4
snack bar: 2
bar bar: 3
character: 3
overall: 3.4