Norte-Oeste

My three weeks in the States went far too quickly. I loved seeing the people and places that are important to me, regret not seeing more and doing more, and I'm a little sad that I missed a few people I'd really hoped to see. This year's homecoming surprised and confused me. I really miss my close family and friends, but I can't stand some of the little things about not being in the big city and I missed the freedom and flexibility of my life in Madrid. How do you compromise between the people you love and the lifestyle that makes you happy? When you throw in opportunities and jobs and the lust for travel... the decisions get even more frustrating. The longer I'm away, the harder it gets.

Lanny Little, painter extraordinare, with Olivia, dog extraordinaire. We had a lovely lunch date in his new gallery, The Little Gallery. Check out his beautiful paintings at lannylittle.com.

Katy chows down on some yummy peas from the garden while we listen to some bluegrass in Elizabeth Park with Mom and Dad.

Tacoma Town

Tacoma sunset on a lovely walk with Molly.

This painting took a few years to paint and now resides with my favorite Feider.

Duck at Whatcom Falls Park.

Yay! Nathan in Bellingham! Nathan and I hadn't seen each other in two years. What a guy to come all the way to Bellingham from Missoula. We had a lovely walk in Whatcom Falls Park.

Whatcom Falls Park.

Whatcom Falls.

Oh, Leavenworth

This particular mountain range resembles a woman lying asleep on her back. They call it the Sleeping Lady. I have always thought it would be fun to climb her nose. Every year my extended family has a group campout on the Icicle River. We float the river on tubes and rafts, swim, cook, eat, play cards, and have a fantastic duck race. Each morning this year I ran to the Sleeping Lady Lodge and met mom and dad (who'd come on their bikes) for a cup of coffee and a snack. What a decadent life!

Terry (left) and Matt (right) paddleboard through some gentle rapids. I took my turn later that day and was happy that my clumsiness did not result in a crash and fall.

Gannon watches his dad paddleboard.

Campfire. I love camping.

Gnome bowling.

My aunts are incredibly sentimental about their childhood trips out to "The Camp" (a riverside summer place where my great grandmother and great aunt WeeWee would host the family back in Iowa). This cement chicken used to belong to Great Grandma Ada and is heavy. Each year it is underfoot because it is always placed by the inner-tubes and the faucet and I end up bruised and ornery with each encounter. I escaped with intact toes this year, a major triumph. I am learning, slowly.

Beauty Parlor time.

Greta let me play with her fantastic hair. Four french braids later....

Gorgeous Greta.

Jaden decides to try rubber duck as a new treat. It's even vegetarian! Jaden let me hang out with him a lot at the campout. He's the first baby that I've been able to hang out with almost weekly from the time he was born. It broke my heart a little to say good-bye.

The Robertsons relaxing in the shade. I'm really going to miss riding the bus to school with Joey, keeping Melissa company while she cooks us dinner, our chats out on the terrace, and all the little cousin things we shared. Love you guys!

The Forslunds hide from the rain. It rained two of the days of the campout, which has never happened before. I have to admit, I enjoyed the rain. But it would have been nice to have had more time on the river.

Becker is ready to float the river.

Poppa and Uncle Timmy enjoying the great outdoors.

Some of my favorite people: Eric, Isla, Mr. Potato Head, Greta, Jaden, Mrs. Potato Head, Baby Potato Head, and poor chewed on Bubby Potato Head.

Kate joins in the fun. Yay!

Eric and Jaden go for a walk.

Happy Birthday Claire (and because you're da mamma, Aunt Carol too)!

Back in Bham....

Sarah's Tiger Face.

My Tiger Face.

Mark's Tiger Face.

Jack's Tiger Face.

Jack is turning 15 this week. That makes me feel old.

Sarah's Ready!

The girls go for a ride.

On to Orcas Island...

Mom and I took a trip out to Orcas Island to visit some friends and family. The woman in the middle is the owner of this 1947 (?) Ford, Margie Watts. Beside her are the brothers that restored the car into working condition.

Margie is an amazing woman in many, many ways. I spent my childhood skipping up to her cabin in Olga, chatting her ears off, practicing on her piano, and playing with her grandchildren. It was at her house that I learned how to chop firewood, build a fire in a real wood-burning stove, how to cook clams and salmon, and found my love of old books. When we moved to Bellingham (where she lives permanently), she and her husband, Arthur, adopted my family with open hearts. In high school I remember dropping by their house with my brother to eat fresh baked cookies, drink instant iced tea, and watch the boats on the bay. I cannot describe how much I love Margie Watts and her family.

This is the store that my uncle Pat owns and that my mom managed for eight summers. I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood that don't include my time at the Olga Store. During the school year I'd pine for Orcas and Olga. I loved the freedom, the beauty, and the responsibility that I was given while my family and I worked the store. We were allowed to be playful children, and yet at the same time, we were given opportunities and responsibilities that most children don't experience until they've grown up. I still miss working at the Store.

More pictures of the Ford.

This was Ellen's car in High School. Neat fact: Ellen and I went to the same high school. (Margie's daughter.)

Rachel is an amazing Pug Mom, artist, teacher, and friend. (Margie's grand-daughter)

This is the notoriously gorgeous sunset at Uncle Mike's place. Uncle Mike manages Smuggler's Villa Resort on Orcas and we spent so much time haunting the resort that it feels like another home. Mike and Aunt Susan are very generous and I loved growing up with their family and eventually working at the resort as well. When Mom and I visited this summer, my cousin Kate and her family were visiting and it was lovely to meet the adorable Isobel.

Cousin Matt's boat.

Isla is a tiger!

Isobel is a little shy at first, but she warmed up after I made a game of putting toys on my head and having them drop on the floor. Somehow that was hilarious.

Bellingham one last weekend....

Beautiful Boulevard Park.

Katy is a tiger.

Mom's cookin' the dogs.

Emily and Molly come visit!

Can you hold this for me?

Amigas.

Bellingham, City of Subdued Excitement.

Pride Madrid

Pride Weekend in Madrid kicked off with a packed parade. Gran Via was swimming with crowds of rainbow colored revelers and folks sporting World Cup Spain gear. Drum corps, drag queens, and group after group of civil rights activists danced down the street. Signs protesting the church's prejudice of the LGBT community and flags of the different regions of spain coupled with the rainbow flags flying high. It was a good deal of fun, whole families coming out to support the gay community and show a little bit of red and yellow for the big game later.

My camera is broken still. The lens is slow, often doesn't focus, and makes a horrible scratching noise whenever I try to zoom in or out. Therefore, getting the queens' faces was extraordinarily difficult. However, I did manage to get a few.

This little girl and I made friends. She'd give me the biggest smiles and watch my LCD screen as I took pictures above the crowd.

There were a ton of "triangle men" at Pride. These guys are so built on top that they're shaped like triangles. It was a total beef-cake festival and kind of adorable to see all the beefy couples walking down the street taking pictures with the queens.

People from the balconies above the street would dump buckets of water on the crowd below to cool everyone off. It was rather pretty to see the sparkling showers fly several stories down to soak the sweating people below.

Camino a mi casa

As I stumbled home last night, a street performer got off the train right ahead of me. He's one of the "statues" who pose on street corners, startling onlookers when someone drops a coin into their can. He was dressed as a street cleaner: old-timey hat, jacket, and broom. All were painted with a green-gold effect to look like oxidized copper. His dapper clothes and jaunty walk made me smile.

Following him out of the metro I heard him huming, "Hmmmm! HmmHmm! Hmmm!" as he cheerfully bounced along. His gait was unhurried, yet I still had trouble keeping up with him. I bustled behind him, curious.

His pants, so full of paint, were creased and stiff. His arms were swinging like a toy soldier from Babes in Toyland, and the hair peeking out from under his hat was coppery orange. The "Hmm Hmmm Hmm!" was cheerful as ever. As I kept step behind him, I watched the faces of the people strolling in the other direction. As they passed the green man, their faces lit up with cozy smiles and giggles. Heads turned, surprised and happy. Wave after wave of happiness crashed up against the green man as he swam upstream on calle San Bernardo.

A little girl holding her father's hand stopped by the shoe store to admire the green street cleaner as he hummed and tapped his broom while he sauntered past. I skipped a step or two to keep up with him. But as I reached the corner, the light turned and I had to stop and watch as he turned down another street and disappeared.

Molly and Mark in Madrid

Molly and Mark stayed in Madrid for a little over a week. These pictures are from their first full day. (We were having too much fun to take pictures the rest of the week.) We had a lovely picnic in Retiro, one of my favorite parks. Cheese, figs, cherries, pastries, yummy bread--it was incredible. There isn't much in this world more lovely than Madrid in the springtime.

Lucifer--the fallen angel.

Yellow roses smell the best.

El Palacio Cristal.

I've been running in this park several times a week for the past month or so. It was strange to lay around on a blanket munching fancy cheese instead of wheezing my way through the crowded paths.

The rose garden was outstanding, as usual.

El lago.

Thanks for visiting, M&M! Come again soon!

Yo pinto por la primavera

I've been busy! These are some of the paintings I've been working on lately. With my internet broken, my phone broken, and new speakers to hook up to my computer, I have a feeling that this painting kick is only going to get better. This particular painting was a weekend project using a photograph I took of a little girl in Chefchauoen. I'm still working on it; something must be done with the background. This is my balcony, by the way. You can see some of the creative graphitti on the building below.

Tired of having a bunch of screaming faces in my apartment (flamenco portraits are not a cheery subject), I painted this one as a sort of joke. I need to play up the clownishness a bit more, but it's been fun to paint! Pouty lower lips are my new specialty.

I hated this painting until recently. It's been frustrating me since September or so, but with some rust orange and crazy greens, I'm beginning to like it a bit more. We'll see how much more it evolves when I get the original photograph (taken at a flamenco show last year) out to compare.

Lady Lancers

The Lady Lancers were a blast to watch at the ISSA tournament. Most of the girls had not grown up playing soccer and it was great to see how much they had learned in just a year or two. It made me miss playing and I'm trying to convince the ultimate frisbee crowd to switch over to soccer for a week or two. It could happen! The girls placed third in the tournament and we're all very proud. Some of my pictures have one of my favorite students in them. She had never played soccer before this year and scored two goals in the tournament. Go Team!

Cumpleaño

I have a love-hate relationship with my birthday.

I love my birthday: love the day, the fact that it's in spring, I love alliteration of the numbers in the date, I love being an Aries, I love the drives to the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon, the proximity to Easter.... I love how the day is all for me, how it somehow always ends up being sunshiny and everyone seems to be in a good mood. The entire day is supposed to be great and I can get away with anything, be completely self-indulgent.

I hate my birthday: I build it up way too much. I get really uncomfortable with too much attention. I hate opening presents in front of a crowd, I don't like the pressure of blowing out candles, and I never know what to do with myself when everyone is singing and staring at me. If I give a party for myself, I feel like I have to personally make sure that every guest is having a good time and if it feels awkward I start to panic. Because, of course, my birthday is supposed to be the best day of the year. Everything is magical on my birthday. And I feel like everyone's birthday should be monumental.

One year I tried to ignore my birthday. It was my freshmen year of college and Facebook didn't exist yet. No one would know if I didn't tell them. I looked forward to the day being blissfully perfect because I wasn't jacking up my expectations. Yeah, uh huh, right. I ended up crying in Red Square because I knew my brother was unhappy and he wouldn't tell me why because he didn't want to ruin my birthday. See why birthdays suck? Too much anticipation--even when you're trying not to expect anything.

However, now that we're in the crazy world of social networking and I live half a world away from family and my oldest (and arguably, best) friends, I struggle even more with my birthday. But do you know what the brilliant thing about my birthday yesterday? There was no cake, no candles, no song. Okay, so my students sang to me, but somehow when twelve year olds do it it's a little easier to stomach. And just about every one of my favorite Madrileños showed up to see me at my little casual gathering at the mercado. I have to admit, I still have this ex-geek fear that no one will show up to a party that I throw, and seeing all the people I admire come to honor me on my birthday.... Phew! What a joy.

Facebook surprised me. As much as I think its addictive qualities are mind-numbing, having so many people from so many crazy episodes of my past wish me a happy birthday made me feel so very loved--especially because I live far away from my roots. And I didn't have to shout to the world that my favorite holiday, the Me Day, was coming up. I had people stopping by my classroom to say Happy Birthday without any self-promotion. Thanks Facebook. You made my birthday a warm fuzzy ball of puppy love.

And yeah, thanks everybody on Facebook. From my mom to my brother's ex-best friend's older brother to my band-camp crush, ya'll made April 7th great.