the perfect kind of day.
in Loved Ones, photography, Thoughts and Feelings
as Adorable, beach, boogie boarding, Britain, Canada, head dance, hunt, jenna, Monica Promenade, monkey, mountain, mountain lions, North Carolina, sand, t mountain, twin babies
I was running by myself this morning.
You know, in the mountains.
And I passed that sign again–the one about the mountain lions that hunt in the area. Okay, so it didn’t say hunt, but that was the point. And then I read that you shouldn’t hike alone and I thought, Ohhhhh shoot. Cause I was totally alone.
And then I abruptly turned around and headed back to my family’s house. Where there aren’t mountain lions and where I am not alone. But I didn’t get there before every little squirrel that happened by scared me, cause I was sure that it was something not nearly so innocuous.
I usually pride myself on not feeling very afraid of nature, but it seems you hear enough about the folk singer getting eaten by coyotes in Canada and the little twin babies getting mauled by a fox in Britain and the lady getting struck by lightening and killed in North Carolina, and suddenly my imagination goes a little wild when I’m by myself and outside.
Not head dance wild, but wild, nonetheless.
Anyway.
Today was the kind of day that is gonna make me sleep and sleep right well tonight.
We went to the beach and the weather! oh, it was divine. The sun was not shy at all and there was a slight breeze and enough warm sand to keep you from being cold. Especially when a small boy accidentally dumps a whole shovel-full of sand right on your head. Just like you are simply the beach and a little bit more sand moved around when there’s already tons there is no big deal. But instead you are a person and now your scalp is covered in enough sand to make you wonder if you should perhaps suggest that some people park their umbrella right here, right on your noggin, should the beach get too crowded.
But really, it was just funny. And gave me even more incentive to get in that water. Which I did, along with my boogie-boarding peers, Jase and Lyric.
And man, was it fun.
And man, does a wetsuit really make a difference in terms of actually being able to stay and enjoy the ocean cause look! my teeth aren’t chattering and oh! I can feel my legs and haven’t yet lost a toe from frostbite.
We caught some glorious waves and were not caught by any glorious sharks, so win win.
For us, though. Probably not the sharks.
And then we went riding around on bikes, which was, in plain old English, a blast.
Except for the part when a lot of people around here see the words BIKE PATH and, though they have no bike at all, proceed to stroll on it. Luckily Jenna was with us and she has no problem at all with reminding them of the meaning of those two words; that there’s a lot of beach all around that is perfectly useful for walking on, whereas bikes really cannot ride on the sand, so please–MOVE.
But really, it was lovely.
And you’re probably thinking, whoa! that sounds like an amazing day. The only thing that could make it any better is a monkey…
And you’re right.
Which is why, upon my brother’s urging (and funding, I may add), I decided to shake a monkey’s hand on the Santa Monica Promenade. Again. I had already done this magical thing once before, but when it comes to shaking this monkey’s hand–once is never enough.
Trust me.
But don’t take my word for it–take a look for yourself.
*and please pay no mind to the fact that I am dressed like a wannabe ninja, thankyouverymuch.
**and please DO pay mind to the fact that the monkey tips his hat after he shakes my hand. Adorable.
a graduate and a tassel.
in Funny Stuff, Loved Ones, photography, Thoughts and Feelings
as accoutrements, button, cap, cap and gown, dance, fellow graduates, God, head dance, Jase, Jason, mad props, Miss America, today
Yay for my brother Jase!
Now, there are a lot of reasons to cheer for him, but today we cheer because he graduated with his master’s degree in screenwriting from UCLA.
He wore a cap and gown and everything. But let me say that those things are tricky. Especially when you get a cap that is defunct.
But I should back up.
It’s just a little while before Jase has to meet all his fellow graduates and we are hanging out at his school. He decides he should be a little ahead of the game and put on his accoutrements, pulling on the cap first. And as soon as he puts it on, he wants to showcase how snugly it fits.
So he proceeds to do a pretty wild head dance with the cap in place. He swings his head from one side to the other, neck oscillating like he might not actually have any vertebrae in there at all. He finishes with a flourish and we give him mad props–how could you not, after a performance like that?
And then he tries to put on the tassel.
Uh-oh, because the button is totally missing. There is a little screw, but it’s very short and the tassel won’t stay put without the button to keep it there. Which is when my mom starts doubting the wisdom of the dance he just performed. She even mentions that it was quite wild, and starts to suspect that the nature of his flailing sent the button somewhere far far away, much like the galaxy where star wars is.
So we all start to look for that button, and being a little bit devilish, I jump on the bandwagon and talk about that dance really being just way too wild, that surely a button would have no chance against those moves.
Jason is saying that he thinks the button was never there in the first place, but really, it’s hard to tell because well, that dance. I suppose that will be one of the questions we ask God at the end of time (whatever that means): Oh hi, God! thanks for peanut butter and I always suspected animals could talk but just chose to keep that a secret and wow! the way you made it so that we are all eternal must speak volumes about how you love us, wanting us to stay around forever and all–but what I really want to say is: what’s the story with the button?
And I will pray pray pray that God mentions Jason’s wild head dance and how no button could stay put with that going on.
Oh, that would be glorious. Angels would sing. Or maybe laugh. And I would probably do both.
But the button never did materialize. However, we ran into a pal of his who happened to have a safety pin on hand and I don’t wanna brag or nothing, but I did manage to jerry-rig it so that the pin kept the tassel in place and nobody was none the wiser for it.
Then we tried to put on his Miss America type sash thing and that was a bit of a disaster because by the end, it looked a little ripped in the back and something was hanging oddly down his back like a deflated water balloon.
Oops.
We were laughing and he was like great and luckily, a friend of his helped him get all put together. Apparently they saw him before he walked and was like, Excuse me, you need help. Not like a question, but a statement of fact. So by the time he did walk, he looked pretty darn good.
See?
And here we all are, so proud of the guy!
I just wish everyone who is so proud of Jase could have been here today, too–cause there are lots more where that comes from.
