Pilgrimadge West ... Chapter 2

Well, I got here on Saturday night. I stopped and ate a tuna sandwich in Van Buren and stuck my feet in the river. It was beautiful. Gas ranged from 3.99 in NC to 3.63 in Springfield, MO. The river in my hometown is almost the highest I've ever seen it and very muddy. I don't know if kayaking will be safe or not on the creeks. I plan to head to Van Buren to kayak the Current and hang with my friend, Liz, after the 4th. Maybe I'll get out on the creek before I go.

My Grandpa is much better, thank all the gods and goddesses! He is back to being ornery. He'll stay in the nursing home until the infection is gone though.

I am sitting at the pool at my Grandma's trying to work on the book I'm writing. It's too hot to sit and write.

Did I ever mention the "prodigal child" to any of you? A psychologist friend of mine told me that the prodigal child is a child that is sort of encouraged/urged/forced by the family to go away and become "something," then when they return home, they should fix everything. Interesting.... I would say that prodigal child probably pisses everyone off when s/he tries to do that even though that is what the family thought they wanted in the first place. Sigh....

My pilgrimadge west... chapter 1b

Had a great day with Sue, Claire and Pam. Who knew there was such a place as Ellendale's. Fabulous!!!

My pilgrimadge west....chapter 1a

Well, what can you say about good friends?! First, you don't really fully appreciate people until you are away from them. Thanks to all who came out for sushi, what a great time! I was SO glad to see everyone! Do those people at Koto know what business I bring them once a year?????

So here's how the universe works. After sushi, Pam, Morgan, Jerry and I went to a little club called the Family Wash. The front man for the band was a guy I used to know when I was 15 - Soup Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. He's from sw MO. Weird, huh?

And let me just say this to those that know who they are: People have to be responsible for themselves. We can't fix anyone or be responsible for any adult but ourselves... We just have to decide if we want to continue to have a relationship with people that we don't agree with....ohmmmm....the master has spoken...

The next day Ginny and I went to Vol State to view "the portrait" and the auditorium. The auditorium had been destroyed by a tornado when I was there. It is looking very good (as long as you like blue). Lots of weaknesses have been fixed. Hope the work that goes on that stage suits it. What can I say about the portrait of Hitl...Dubyah? VSCC's illustrious president has had a GIANT portrait of himself, not the president that the building is named after, mind you, but himself, hung (no pun here, maybe he's compensating for something, usually men that want to surround themselves with "big" things are...) in the great hall of the admin building to the rumored price tag of $8000. He's missing an arm and looks like a fricking dork. Further, it looks like someone tried to claw it out of its frame...oh my kingdom for a Sharpie...

I am so proud of Sue and her work! Wowee... The Frist shebang was fabulous, as well as the before and after parties... For those not in Nashville, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is a fabulous museum and my friend, Sue Mulcahy, is featured in a counterpoint exhibit to the "Color Field" exhibit. She is one of four artists from the Southeast that work in black and white. Interestingly, one of the artists is from USC upstate. I introduced myself last night - she knows Donna Goodman (SC folk). There is nothing on the web about the b&w exhibit yet because last night was a preview, but there my be in the future. And, of course, Sue's work was my favorite!

So today I'm off to Nashvegas to spend some time with Sue and Pam... Who knows what we'll get into...well, you will if you read my next post in a few days...

My pilgrimadge west... preface

It's raining today. First time in a month (thank the goddess!). Housesitters are lined up. The cat is acting very strange. I guess he knows something is up. He will barely let me touch him. He is going to stay here with the housesitters. First time I haven't taken him with me in the summer. He gets carsick so I have to drug him, bites any vet that boards him, and throws litter around any person's house that we stay with. I give up.

I'll be starting out Tuesday morning... My grandfather (who really raised me) is ill and so I'll be heading out on the big trek west to MO. I was planning to go anyway, but my trip will be a little different now. It's complicated, but I sort of dread parts of it (more juicy stories about that later). I plan to take many side trips once I stay in MO for a while. Who knows, I may be coming to your door...

I'm bringing: the boat, my backpack, a tent, my guitar, ipod (although I think I'm going to get one of those iTouch things and I just got Jakob Dylan's new album - woweee), computer with book chapters that need to be finished (sigh), a million books to read, and my savings account to pay for gas :-).

I am looking very forward to my first stop, Gallatin/Nashvegas TN. I will be happy to see all my old friends there... Sushi at Koto's, art at the Frist, and who knows what else! Stay tuned for each new chapter...

Swamp Paddling

See the pictures to the side? Jacob and I paddled in Sparkleberry Swamp. Wowee, what a weird and wonderful world. Gorgeous! When they say black water, they are not kidding. I felt like I was in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There was even a shack we happened upon. We went with a paddling group. I would never go alone as I would have gotten lost in the first 10 minutes. It really all looks the same in places - cypress and more cypress. But the water lilies were beautiful. I did get to see an alligator, but it was dead. Probably safer. I hope to do more of this. It ain't a running TN, MO or Ark river, but it was very cool!

From the men's room at the Science Fiction Museum, Seattle.

Gas prices and my bike

So I bought a used bike from a local shop. Great deal, not pretty, but the best bike I've ever owned. It's a women's Giant. I've ridden to work (18 miles roundtrip) this week three days in a row. I'm proud of me! And it's a great ride (it's flat here in SC). But Florence, SC is not what you would call "bike-friendly." First, I have to ride on the shoulder of a very busy road (the ONLY road to the beach) because there are no bike lanes in Florence. It's OK because there is a very wide shoulder (most of the way). However, the shoulders are in various stages of disrepair. So today, as I gently swerved to miss a crack in the pavement-- I'm not kidding, I swerved maybe a foot on a five foot shoulder-- a woman in a mini van with a couple of kids just fell on her horn. Sigh. Nice role model...oh yeah, and her mini van had one of those "fish" on it. Jesus loves me too! From my house to the big beach road, I have to drive through a kind of dicey part of town. I'd never go through there after dark. I was asking a male bike rider about that part of town and told him that I was a little uncomfortable. He sort of admonished (maybe it was just his British accent) me and said, "They are just poor...,not bad." I said, "And how many times have you been called: honey, honeybaby, sweetheart, sweetthing, wooo-hoooo mama...??? It happens to me almost every day." You would think with these ungodly gas prices, things would change. So every time I'm flipped off by a person that obviously is compensating for something by driving one of those gigantic obscenities, I think, maybe they just paid $150 for a tank of gas and are taking it out on us poor peddlers.... "Stupid is as stupid does..."

As much as I HATE those #*@$%# plastic bags...

This is what doing art is about. That moment/thing/happening between the artist and the spectator--that joy in doing/seeing the work. The bear inflates as the subway passes under.

Funny - thanks Tiger....

Some more woo woo....

Woweee...check out this video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229