Road trip, again

“Okay, butterfly woman, let’s go.”

“Just a second – I’m holding a box of dogs.”

I made it home to Houston on Saturday afternoon, and delighted in my new home Saturday night and all yesterday.

I haven’t even unpacked everything, and I still love it… I even stayed up until two AM last night unpacking boxes, because I was so happy about where I now lived that I wanted to get things set up as soon as possible.

Tonight, I am back to an odd sleeping situation, sharing a sort of shack-like room – an average-sized room that stands alone in someone’s backyard – with my aunt, a family girlfriend, and a box of puppies, all in what feels like the middle of nowhere (aka Oklahoma).

(No offense to Oklahoma here – it just feels like the middle of nowhere to me, quite similarly to how I say that the college I attended is ‘in the middle of nowhere north Texas, almost to Oklahoma’.)

What a January if absurdities and adventures, eh?

P.S. I saw a super Texas Chevy truck yesterday, while out riding my bicycle (looking for Target, and taking about an hour to go the estimated 16 minutes that Google Maps thought it would take me), that had a vanity license plate with “NHL EH” on it, and then two hockey stickers on the back window. ❤

Post-a-day 2019

Shaving

Oh, what a thing, shaving…

You know, it usually takes me two to three days to shave my legs effectively.

The first day happens when I 1) have decided to shave and 2) have remembered actually to bring my razor to the shower with me.

You see, I keep all of my things out of the shower, so that everything stays clean… I was already looking for a solution better than having to keep the water really low, so that it wouldn’t splash and get anything else wet while I showered, when I read Marie Kondo’s fabulous recommendation of just removing everything after each shower…, and I accepted.

Therefore, I must remember to bring a razor with me to the shower before I am in the shower and washing my body, suddenly recalling that I had intended to shave three days ago already…

So, that’s the first day of actual shaving – if we counted all the days I forget to bring the razor, we could get into months of waiting around, so we’re going with the days on which I actually do the shaving.

Now, I typically shower before bed.

I also typically have lower lighting on in the evenings and at night, as a sort of preparation for bed, allowing my eyes and mind and body to calm down in the lower, softer lighting that would be terrible for daytime hours but that is perfect for bed preparation.

Therefore, when I finish shaving the first day (night, really), what looks like a job well done, I can usually expect not to be so.

And so, the following day, in daylight (or, at least, daylight lighting), I examine my legs – it originally was on accident, and still usually is, but I occasionally remember and check intentionally – and almost always find hairs here and there, and occasionally even a whole chunk or strip of missed hair.

Oops… oh, well… I’ll fix it tonight.

And so, remembering where the missed areas and spots were, and also doing a bit of a close-up look under the lights before I get into the even darker shower, I shave a second night.

That’s the second day.

Usually, at this point, I’ve gotten all the hairs off my legs.

However, there are the occasions where I have yet again missed a hair or fifty.

And so, on the third day, upon discovering the again-missed hairs, I typically go directly to a razor and dry – extremely carefully, of course! – shave those missing hairs in the good lighting.

Thus concludes my monthly or quarterly or, on extremely rare occasions, weekly leg shave.

If I ever have forgotten too many days in a row, and I have an event that night or the next morning, the whole thing happens in fast forward: jump straight back into the shower (if I’m even showering, and not just shaving my legs directly from the side of the tub), and then do the cautious dry shave for the final stragglers I notice while dressing.

So, in a sense, shaving is quite the event in my life. 😛

Therefore, if I shave for you, you can know that you are really important in some way. 😉

Post-a-day 2019

Road trips

If you ever have the chance to road trip across Nevada and Southern California, do it.

Those orange and brown and beautiful mountains and plains surrounding the roads the entire way through are tremendous and awe-inspiring.

This photo was from a brief time that the mountains surrounded us at a distance… the rest of the time, we were in their midst, going up and down a thousand or so feet every few minutes (not elaborating on that either, because there were somewhat regular signs showing the altitude).

It was meditative in and of itself, it was just so yes for life.

I feel like I need to check of an amazing box on my to-do life experiences list, but I never even knew it was a box to have in the first place! 😛

And I might have already said all of this, but it was worth sharing again, because I can’t get over how beautiful it was… even on the airport tram (and unnecessary and unhelpful trip) today during my layover in Vegas, the surrounding mountains were breathtaking and made me want to figure out when I would be back (even though I don’t really care about the regular Vegas attractions).

Post-a-day 2019

Accents

It takes the smallest of things sometimes to shoot us into a mood or an attitude.

This time, it was an accent that shook me down.

This evening, the comedy station was playing, and an Australian comedian spoke for a couple minutes or so.

Only halfway through his couple hundred seconds, I was pulled helplessly and hopelessly into a desperate desire to be around a specific friend of mine, who is Australian.

I have multiple Australians in my friend store, one could say, but this one in particular shot to the top of my mind, wrenching my stomachs into an empty ache of longing just to hang out with and chat nonsense with this particular friend.

Crazy sometimes how these things happen, isn’t it?

Post-a-day 2019

LA Times

Tonight, I drove through Beverly Hills, saw the Beverly Wilshire (but no bus stop!), visited Rodeo Drive, and drove on Mulholland Drive.

Earlier today, I saw the building for the LA Times, and nerded out at the fact that I do their crossword puzzle.

And then, this afternoon, I walked on the beach and felt the cold California Coast water (Beach Boys inspired that desire, though I’ve done it once before already).

My SoCal dreams have been just about satisfied. 😛

Post-a-day 2019

Vegas

Last night, …… yeah…. it was really good, and I think I just want to dwell on it myself for a while longer, before I actually share anything about it… it was that good.

You know those times?

Yeah… good, aren’t they? 🙂

P.S. I found the humor of the irony as I just titled this post, after having written it… What happens in Vegas, right? 😛

Post-a-day 2019

Pillow talk

Visiting with a friend from the circus, who has taken a temporary break from circusing, and is working as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, I look up with surprise and delight as he says,”…but right now, I am working a lot…, because, you know, I am Chinese….”

And we break into silent, deep laughter at the honesty and truth of the statement.

Cross-cultural interactions are great 😛

Post-a-day 2019

Miley on my mind

My brain all this afternoon:

…..
Here I am for the first time
Look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign
This is all so crazy
Everybody seems so famous

Na-na na-na na-na naaa-na
na-na naaaa na-na turned on the radio
And a Britney song was on
And a Britney song was on
And a Britney song was on

So I put my hands up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflies fly away
Noddin’ my head like, yeah
Movin’ my hips like, yeah
I got my hands up,
They’re playin’ my song
You know I’m gonna be okay
Yeah, it’s a party in the USA
Yeah it’s a party in the USA

This morning, we visited the site of the first McDonald’s location, from before it was fully franchised and all that jazz… a site that was apparently also visited by Miley Cyrus not so long ago.

This afternoon, we swung by and somewhat spontaneously picked up a beloved friend of mine from dance, whom I hadn’t seen in five or so years, and journeyed to the Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign.
It was still really far away…, but cool to see and read, nonetheless… I’ll have to find a way to get up close to it one day (slash figure out if I care enough to do so in the first place).
Then we went to a drive-in theatre…, which really wasn’t Miley Cyrus at all, I suppose…, but the movies were all about fulfilling one’s dreams by being in touch with what’s really on the inside and by just going for it, and “The Climb” is all about that kind of idea, too, so that counts enough.
I still found myself singing about the Hollywood sign when we got home just now, so I think I can safely say hat it was a very Miley Cyrus day today. 😛
Post-a-day 2018

I will hike 500 mi….

Today, we went walking and hiking and jogging through a web of trails just near where my friend will be living these next three months.

At first, I was worried about any jogging, because we don’t have hills in Houston, but California clearly has mountains and lots of ups and downs…, but I didn’t try any running until I was well warmed up, and that turned out to be perfect.

We had intended to go on what my friend kept calling ‘a quick three-mile’ hike/walk, but, with little signage and our playing around with photos, our quick three miles turned into four miles and just over two hours.

Fortunately, it was beautiful, what with the misty mountains in the distance and the gorgeous hills and little valleys all around us, and we had a wonderful time, embracing the change in scheduling.

Post-a-day 2019