Tag: random

Legacy Writing 365:268

Lynne’s sister Liz was a scientist. Her interests were many and varied; she once took a trip to the Galapagos Islands as scientists and naturalists are wont to do. She loved entomology and could often be found at night chasing down insects and moths. She was my go-to person for a long time on questions relating to all kinds of science and medicine. She was a gifted teacher whose enthusiasm was informative and inspiring.

After she died, when Lynne and I were going through her things and trying to figure out what to keep, what should be thrown away, what needed to be donated or returned to friends, I plucked this book off a shelf.

“Can I have this? Please? Huh? Can I have it? Is that okay? I want it. Do you mind?” I babbled, as if there were a pack of Petrologist Wolves outside Liz’s rural Pennsylvania door howling, “We must get our paws on that 1992 Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals RIGHT NOW, whatever the cost! With it, we can rule the planet!”

Lynne said something like, “Calm down. Take it.”

I think of Liz every time I consult this field guide, which is often, because I love rocks and crystals. I love their composition and their age and their sources. I know I’d be bored if I tried to study rocks in a classroom, but still, I’m a rock fangirl.

Along with their science, I also love the metaphysical qualities that have come to be attributed to stones and crystals through their centuries of use in healing, transmitting energy, and adorning us in worship, war, and fashion (if you are Vogue editor Anna Wintour, those last three are the same).

I have a ton of books on crystals, but I find that these are the ones I consult over and over–authored by another scientist known only as Melody.

If you look hard at the illustration on the book in the upper left, you can spot a wolf.

SEE?!? I knew it.

Six Things

  1. The last time I went to the post office, I had a package from Rob, also known as The Smiling Bagel. I call him St. Louis’s goodwill ambassador, because his blog always makes me want to visit that city. He sent me some bottle caps for my ongoing art series. I haven’t painted in a while. Maybe this is the nudge I needed. It wasn’t until I photographed the bottle caps and uploaded the picture that I became aware of….
  2. A tiny wrapped package of pressed pennies from the St. Louis Zoo featuring a train, a hippo, a peacock, and a butterfly. See what I mean about how he promotes his home city? He remembered that I like to collect pressed pennies from tourist attractions, and now I have four new ones. Thank you so much, Rob–for the bottle caps and the pressed pennies!
  3. In going through some old pictures, I found this photo of my mother’s desk. I think Laura and Jess got that desk. The four paintings on the top are four of my One Word Art paintings that she once picked out for either her birthday or Christmas. They were the four that spoke to her, she said. Rather than reclaiming them, I believe I sent them with a box of stuff to Daniel. I’d forgotten them until I saw this photo. I believe they are, left to right, “Trust,” “Surrender,” “Plant,” and “Learn.”
  4. I’m reading Karl Soehnlein’s novel Robin and Ruby.
    I wanted to photograph one of Barnaby’s bigger-than-your-head salads to show you how enormous it is. I usually get a dinner, the next day’s lunch, and maybe a third small salad out of one of these. The salad is excellent, but their ranch dressing is THE BEST. It’s great for dipping fries in, too.
  5. When Jim was here, one afternoon we went to the Menil Collection and the Cy Twombly Gallery. I have to go back to the Menil soon. The next day, we hit up the Museum of Fine Arts, the Lawndale Art Center, and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. The last is where Jim got me into trouble when he posed for me–it was like the dozenth photo I’d taken, but only when Jim got all goofy were we told, “You can’t take photos of the art here!” Oops. I’d like to say I feel remorse, but I don’t (and I didn’t use a flash). I do recommend that particular exhibit: INTERSTITIAL SPACES: JULIA BARELLO & BEVERLY PENN. It’s there until September 1.
  6. I finally persuaded myself to download Instagram to my iPhone. That’s my first photo: Pixie and Penny all bored, watching out the window for something exciting like a squirrel to appear. I don’t know how much I’ll use Instagram–I have two other photo apps on my phone that I never use. I need to feel the heft of a camera in my hands. But at least now I can look at other people’s Instagram galleries, and some of their pictures are beautiful and creative.

I was not compensated by any businesses, artists, or products mentioned in this post other than sales of my own art work.

Button Sunday

My lens cap fell behind my desk Friday night. It seemed like as good a time as any to pull the desk away from the wall and attack dust bunnies with the Dyson. Thereupon was found: one Corona bottle cap, four beads that vanished when I was sewing for Project Runway challenges, the plastic tip of one used lancet, one small nail, enough dog hair to make a chihuahua, and this:


I have no idea where it came from or how long it’s been behind the desk. But here is wisdom indeed: If you’re able to love, you’re lovable.

And that pink elephant looks a heck of a lot better than the ones I’ve drawn in the game Draw Something.

Rock the Drop!

Thanks to my writing partner Timothy Forry doing this and linking to it on Twitter, I learned about Rock the Drop! On April 12, in honor of Support Teen Literature Day, anyone can participate by printing out a bookplate and leaving it with a young adult book in a public place.

I haven’t had a cartridge in my color printer in forever, so I sort of enhanced my black-and-white bookplate.

Then I left it with Maureen Johnson‘s novel The Bermudez Triangle on a bench at Houston’s University of St. Thomas. College freshmen and sophomores are still teens! In any case, I haven’t been a young adult in a long time, but I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Maureen Johnson. In fact, it was hard to give this one up because I haven’t read it. To reward myself, I think I’m downloading it to my Nook later.

Randomness

Some random things to show I don’t live completely in the past.

Writers.

Recently, Tim and I attended Michael Thomas Ford’s signing at Murder By The Book. MTF looks very solemn in this photo, as he was listening to a question from a reader. But there were a lot of laughs at the event, because he’s a funny man. He was there to promote the third in his Jane series: Jane Bites Back, Jane Goes Batty, and Jane Vows Vengeance.

Current-day Jane Austen as a vampire whose nemesis is the undead Charlotte Brontë; who finds love and unusual potential mother-in-law conflict in upstate New York; and who can talk to three-legged chihuahuas and ghosts: What’s not to love?

Aesthetics.
Coke introduced the white polar bear can to raise awareness of the threat to the polar bear and its habitat due to climate change. In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, Coke committed three million dollars to the campaign. Consumers reacted poorly to the Coke can, either because of their devotion to the color red or because they confused the white can with Diet Coke’s silver can. Coke stopped production of the white polar bear can and now shows the bears on the traditional red can. I’ll bite my tongue on all the things I could say about this–except to note that I loved the white can.

Art.

We had an honest to goodness Craft Night last week! Lindsey and I both painted. I’d vowed that when Project Runway All Stars ends, I’d return to working on the Bottle Caps and Friends series.
I hope to hang it somewhere this year.

Adorability.
Last October, I spied this tiny Starbucks cup at Target and shot it (left). As adorable as I found the shot-glass sized cup, there was no point in sharing the photo because of the lack of scale. Then on a recent drive-through, I was given a little sample of Starbucks cherry pie in one of the shot-glass cups. Notice how the logo has changed in the interim, with the Starbucks name vanishing to leave only the mermaid.

Family. Our nephew Aaron is visiting for a few days. On Monday, he, Tim, and I went to Houston Camera Co/op so Tim could look at external flashes; Aaron could look at potential new cameras (he’s going Canon, because that’s what he’s learning on, and Canons still make me drool, even though I’m a Nikon owner); and I could learn what to do about the smudge that I keep having to photoshop out of all my pictures. The REALLY helpful gentleman (pictured with Aaron, beyond Tim in this photo) who assisted me has SOLVED MY PROBLEM by showing me how to get to the innards of my camera (if ONLY I’d read the manual–bad tech writer!) and delicately clean away the smudge. This will save me a lot of time with my photos, so I’m quite happy.

Home. I saw a photo online of a grouping of globes displayed in a home. I liked it, but I have only one globe. I moved it from my office to my living room and added some of my crystal balls, my Manhattan snow globe, Tom’s childhood marbles, and other globe-shaped items next to it. There are twinkly lights there, too, so the crystals glisten at night.

Friends. In addition to being my nephew Josh’s birthday, March 12 is my late friend Tim R’s birthday. We dropped by the cemetery to leave wind chimes on his crape myrtle. I wonder if they’ll still be there the next time I visit? I say that not because people steal things, the way they stole from my parents’ gravesite. The other things left over the years are all still there. I just don’t know if it’s too big to be allowed to hang from the tree. We’ll see!

…and toes

Be sweet to your feet on Valentine’s Day.

I started with a soak in my Dr. Scholl’s Foot Bath Massager. Heated water and gentle vibration to relax the feet. While I was soaking, I was nearing the end of Dean James’s latest Cat in the Stacks Mystery, File M for Murder (written under the name Miranda James). I picked this up the other day when I went to an event at Murder By The Book, where Dean, Avery Aames, Melissa Bourbon Ramirez, and Kate Carlisle were signing their new books.


Dean/Miranda with Daryl/Avery.


Melissa/Misa and Kate.

Check out their sites and read their books if you enjoy a mystery.

Now, back to me. Here are some UNSPONSORED products I used to indulge myself in a pedicure.


Heel to Toe’s Rejuvenating Spa Foot Soak added to the foot bath. A foot massage with Diabeti Derm’s Foot Rejuvenating Cream. (You can see a little corner of a Whitman’s Sampler ad in the photo. Have a piece of chocolate while you soak if you’re into that sort of thing!) Finally, a coat of Sinful Colors’ Tokyo Pearl, then a light coat of OPI’s Gold Shatter, and a top coat of Sally Hansen’s Super Shine.


Happy toes!

Hope you’ll do something nice for yourself today, too. And while you’re at it, check out Rex’s feet.

Happy Valentine’s Day

In honor of the day, I painted my fingernails with a coat of OPI’s “Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It” over a base coat of OPI’s Peru-B-Ruby. This is not the norm, because I usually keep my nails cut very short and unpolished. I buy polishes because I love to get or give myself pedicures and paint my toenails. However, I seem to always end up with the same colors. So the Miss Piggy polish, along with some gold and green glittery polishes, are my attempt at variety.

The painted fingernails will last about two days before I succumb to frenzied cleaning and clipping. Maybe the green will make an appearance on March 17.