eating a tangerine

Perth, part three

2009-11-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

I love Liv all the time...

But as I recall, she is most beautiful of all in the morning.

[Liv took that one.]

Daphne

2009-11-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

Perth, part two

2009-11-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

After a breakfast of yogurt and fresh berries at Emma and Reece's cottage, we headed to the Perth Zoo and met up with our beloved Amanda.

There were puns:

Leetle penguins:

Amusing signs:

Pretend animals to ride [credit to Emma for these pictures]:

And a few real animals.

I had a Mrs. Mac's pastie, which is very Australian, apparently, because Emma had to snap a picture of me eating it. :)

And I learned of the existence of a children's dessert called frog-in-a-pond. It's a chocolate frog in jello! Cute, no?

After that we drove to Fremantle to take in the markets. [Perthites? Is that what you call them?] Incense and dundee hats and candy. I returned to Liv's custody that evening.

I leave you with Emma's portrait of me:

Somewhat inspired by Wintergirls

2009-11-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Perth, part one: of bambolas and cupcakesniffers

2009-11-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Early Saturday morning my suitcase and I made our merry way back to Sydney Airport. On the train I made the acquaintance of two rather likeable Aussie boys, leftover from Friday night and still a little drunk. They asked me questions and told me very serious stories all the way to my stop, and one of them even broke out in "If You're Going to San Francisco" when he found out where I was from.

As I was disembarking, he asked, "So was it worth the sixteen dollars, this train ride?" I replied, "Oh yes, definitely."

Several hours later I landed in Perth, on the far side of Australia. I was greeted at the airport by LIV, one of my most favorite peoples on the whole internet, carrying refreshments and a sign with my name. She did not even abandon me when the airport security dog outed me for having contraband in my bag. (A tangerine peel from New South Wales, gasp!)

My gracious Perth beautifuls had already arranged way ahead of time who would watch me on which days. Saturday was a Liv Day.

After dropping off my suitcase at the House of Bambola, we trained it into the city. There we:

meandered 'round the shopping district;

dipped our feet in the Swan River;

rinsed them off in the bell tower/rocket ship moat;

dropped in on a friend of Liv's at his work;

and hunted down one Em at her work.

Look, Em made this sign. She really does have a thing for cupcakes!

And blew bubbles in the subway, of course.

As it was a hot day and I was itching to see the Indian Ocean, we went next to the beach. There, we:

stood in the waves for a while;

took some instant photos with my Diana;

encountered some teenyboppers;

and lolled around in the sun talking in that peculiar getting-to-know-you way of blogger friends who've known each other for ages but only just met.

It was wonderful.

On our way home (car full of wind and late sun and music...) we stopped by the apartment Liv owns but doesn't live in.

After a freshen-up at the House of Bambola, we went over to Em's gingerbread cottage of a house and I was handed off to the cupcakesniffer herself.

Preview:

Sydney, part five

2009-10-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

On my last full day in Sydney, I met up with local blogger Rachel of The Creamy Middles. She'd always seemed on her blog like someone I would want to know in person, AND she offered to show me around the city. Aside from her being cool and Sydney being cool, I'd been hit by jet lag and a little travel-loneliness that day (only the second day, and never again until the end, strange, I know), An afternoon of frolicking across a new part of Sydney with this lovely creative spirit was just what the doctor prescribed.

We had an afternoon picnic of delicious macarons at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair in the Botanic Gardens first. n.b. I always thought it was "macaroons" but apparently those are an entirely different beast. They came in attractive flavors like passion fruit, jasmine, and rose.

She told me about her adventuring in Italy earlier this year and played with my Diana. She was attacked by a magpie in the middle of explaining their belligerent tendencies to me, and told me to make sure I saw a galah while I was in Australia. [I did, when I was with my Perth beautifuls.]

We walked and walked around around the western side of the city. Woolamaloo, King's Cross, a little Paddington, some other names I can't remember now, and back to the city center.

She gave me the name of the beautiful purple-blossomed trees I'd seen around the city--jacaranda--and we played the accent/vocabulary game, and she assured me I didn't need to worry about looking first right, then left as I crossed streets, because nobody looks before crossing the street in Sydney. [Too much sky? That would be my explanation. In Australia, you must look up.]

She brought me to a park in her neighborhood where some clever knitters had clothed some of the tree branches, sculptures, bike racks, and sign posts in woolly sleeves.

And where there was a DANDELION FOUNTAIN. I shrieked a little when I figured it out.

She pointed to this apartment building. I like this name, she said. Me too.

And she showed me one of the fanciest (in a modern way) bathrooms I have ever seen. It was in an upscale shopping gallery. Very sleek. Very modern. Oui.

If you don't read Rachel's blog, you should start now with this post. I think if you like me, you will like her, because she is definitely a kindred spirit.

Rachel - thank you again for the nicest afternoon. If/when I move to Sydney, you will be the first person I tell.

Sydney in photos, part four (the greenest part)

2009-10-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

Sydney at night (in photos, part three)

2009-10-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sydney in photos, part two

2009-10-27T03:30:00.000-07:00

Sydney in photos, part one

2009-10-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Because Summermoon has a webcam

2009-10-21T20:07:00.001-07:00

Not today, but sometime soon

2009-10-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

I will tell you about Sydney.

I will tell you about Em, Amanda, Liv, Rachel, Shannon, and Steph.

And maybe a little about Perth.

I'm sitting on Em's kitchen counter with my laptop eating tiny pink and white marshmallows, and she's making cupcakes.

I have been tripping over the sidewalk inordinately often. Jet lag?

1. Kindred spirits are to be found.
2. Don't forget who they are when you've found them.
3. Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Queensland.

Read in September

2009-10-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

1. Suite Scarlett, by Maureen Johnson
A fun YA read. Setting the story in a family-owned hotel in Manhattan and throwing in lots of acting-world details made it for me. Also, the character of Mrs. Amberson.

2. Braless in Wonderland, by Debbie Reed Fischer
Tries to give a feminist spin to the plain-Jane-gone-fashion-model story. It didn't work for me at all. I did finish it, though.

3. Shooting Back, by Jim Hubbard
If you know the documentary Born Into Brothels, this book is the result of a similar project. It's a collection of photographs taken by homeless and similarly at-risk children in Washington, D.C., and it blew me away.

4. The Center of Winter, by Marya Hornbacher
The story of a family tragedy in the northern Midwest, told in turn by each member. Pretty good. Hornbacher has a wonderful prose style, but I got hung up on a bit on her dialogue and scene-making in this. It's her first work of fiction, and it felt like it.

5. Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Strange and poignant. It's about modern-day eastern Europe and old eastern Europe and people whose family members survived the Holocaust. Though it is by no means all serious or all sad, it kind of broke my heart. Content-wise, I would recommend it for older teens and up.

6. Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw
You know this story; it's the play that the musical My Fair Lady is based on. Short and witty, with great characterization and interesting social commentary.

Not-forgetting

2009-10-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

^Ellie took that one?

My astronaut sister left today

2009-10-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

How long does missing last? I don't remember.

I ride the streetcar in a trance of ache and music. Taking up my usual two seats. Wondering as usual when I will find the psychopath who needs only that to push them over the edge.

The air is autumn, even though we are by the sea in California where you'd think nothing ever changes. It's as thin and golden as I remember it being in the Midwest. Long late cool sun. San Francisco can be paralyzing, because even when I want to leave I don't see how I can, could, because there's never forgetting how it is here and how it is here it never is elsewhere.

The flicker of light against a stranger's face as he lights his cigarette. When I glance down the street we are crossing and see a woman fighting in the wind with the fabric of her wrap. How I don't want to talk to people who don't believe in that elephant we are talking around. These are the kinds of things I notice today, after you are gone.

A show of hands, please

2009-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

If you would like a postcard from Australia, I would love to send you one while I am there.

Just let me know with a comment, or email me at wie.ein.lied at gmail dot com.

Mwah!

I have so much to do, but somehow I'm living more slowly and sweetly.

2009-10-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

I leave for Australia in six days.

My anthropology class is coming to an end, and I'm working on a short final paper. I'm hoping that once my course load drops down to three classes, I'll finally catch up in Web Development.

Ellie and I are going to the zoo today to see the flamingos and ride the old carousel and eat cotton candy. She's going home on Saturday.

And I'm blogging about nothing, just because I have a few minutes on the computer in which to blog, and I miss it. I'm reading your blogs, just so you know, even though I'm not commenting much.

Prescription

2009-09-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

A bowl of cereal, an email from a friend, and some archived posts on another friend's blog. May all mornings be this humbling and inspiring. Today I'm relearning like a child how life keeps happening even where I am not. Thank God, I am never allowed to go too long before something pulls me back out of myself again, reminds me how to look outward.

Ich bin nicht bereit es so zu sehen
und anders zu verstehen als
dass die Wände, wenn sie näher kommen
für mich bedeuten dass ich wachse
bis ich sie sprenge, aus ihrer Enge mich befrei'

I'm not ready to see it that way
and to understand it differently than
that the walls, when they come nearer,
mean for me that I am growing
until I break them open, free myself from their narrowness

- Klee

Rehearsal for a very small tea party

2009-09-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

Things that are making me happy

2009-09-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

- My neighbors appear to have moved their wireless router because I can no longer ~~jack~~ access their internet from my bedroom. Which means way less time on the computer, and I have to be more creative with my time. I wouldn't have made my room internet-less by choice, but it's a definite win.

- A tea party with my childhood tea set. [I have some more pictures from that which I will show you.]

- I'm thinking hard about returning to my old college. It's near Chicago and I did my freshman year and half of sophomore year there. It's just 2009 that I've been at home, first for some time off to sort myself out, and later taking community college classes online and working. I never thought I'd want to go back because I left on such a bad note, but the prospect is actually quite pleasing.

- Excellent mix CDs from excellent people.

- I cut my hair some more [stop, Holly, stop!] but it looks better now. So basically it takes me about seven weeks to give myself a haircut that I'm happy with.

- The preview for next week's Project Runway has Michael Kors in it! Yay for Michael being back! Finally!

- Jay McCarroll and Austin Scarlett (the designer, not my pet rat, although I love that one too). Yes, I'm watching season one again. But they're SO GREAT!

"I would just love to sort of set an example, for any dreamer, maybe not the most popular kid in school, or just anyone who's different, but who has a dream, to always stick to that dream, no matter how many times people tell you to walk a certain way, or talk a certain way, or act a certain way, dress a certain way, design a certain way. You can't listen to that, you have to be true to yourself. No matter what."
- Austin Scarlett

- Gala Darling's podcast series, Love & Sequins.

- Sociology of the family and anthropology and women's studies keep colliding with each other in the best ways. At times it's just like they're one big course.

- Pondering getting pierced with Ellie while she's here.

- I leave for Australia in seventeen days! EEPS!

I don't want to talk about what I'm missing (but I'll tell you, it's Iceland, snowfall at night, Berlin in August)

2009-09-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Please join me in raising your glasses to a new blogger

2009-09-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Is it not so much fun when someone you already know offline starts blogging? Really, one of my favorite happinesses.

I would like to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine, a Beatles-loving wilderness dancer woman from Ohio who I know from college. She's calling herself the Rogue Hobbit (highly fitting, for she is my compadre in all matters barefoot) and her blog Snapshots of a Young Soul. I don't know what's she's going to say, but I like it already from the taste I've had.

Here! Click HERE!

On the inside of the lids of your eyes

2009-09-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

"We could go in the morning."
"No."
"Perhaps it would be a good thing."
"No," he said. "My ghosts are not there."
(You have ghosts?)
(Of course I have ghosts.)
(What are your ghosts like?)
(They are on the inside of the lids of my eyes.)
(This is also where my ghosts reside.)
(You have ghosts?)
(Of course I have ghosts.)
(But you are a child.)
(I am not a child.)
(But you have not known love.)
(These are my ghosts, the spaces amid love.)

- from Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer

Things that are making me happy

2009-09-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

- Dancing and driving at the same time. Traffic jams are underrated, no?

- Fake mustaches, tinsel and otherwise.

- @yokoono

- The bank teller who said "Here you go, my friend," when she gave me my receipt.

- A late-morning smoothie date with a friend from high school.

- Amanda made me a package! AAHH! I can't wait to meet her and it'll be so great to gad about Perth with her!

- I have a major now. Anthropology! I decided this last Sunday. I was doing my anthro reading, and kept thinking, Okay, I could stop now, but not wanting to. So I just read the chapter straight through because I was enjoying it that much.

- One of my coworkers called me muffin.

- Mochi ice cream.

- Decorating my Firefox. [Search for Firefox Personas or AnyColor.]

- Online friends and meeting online friends. My dad said this one and I talk like we've known each other since we were six. [Really, we started talking in January and just met last week.]

- Catching up on my letters.

- Kanyegate spin-off jokes. People on the internet can be so clever.

- "'Cause if you knew the truth / you'd think I was crazy! / Think I was insane / 'cause I love you / simple and plain..."

Conclusion on ze summer goals

2009-09-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

- ~~read three plays by Shakespeare~~ [Othello, The Winter's Tale, and Much Ado About Nothing]

- ~~plan and save for a trip to take later this year~~ [Australia! One month!]

- ~~take a good portrait of a stranger with permission~~

- make vanilla frosting that is neither too thin nor too sweet

- ~~read one book in another language~~ [the German translation of The Horse and His Boy]

- ~~buy a waterproof camera and take some pictures underwater~~ [did so at the beach in Laguna at the beginning of August]

So the only one I didn't get to was the vanilla frosting challenge. But that was a conscious decision at the end, because I remembered that...I don't actually like frosting very much.