Photos from the Slurp n' Burp

She's got everything she needs she's an Artist she don't look back...

I painted yesterday and it felt really good. I had been feeling the urge come on and keep seeing this bird that I wanted to paint. I am a bit stuck lately, I have a lot of work to do and today is going to be the day. It has already been fairly productive. Starting with last Friday everything got crazy and I am now sorted... I think. Friday was a big crazy night as was Saturday, I actually had 7 guys calling me and texting me at one time and the problem was that there was only one I liked. The funny thing is most were drunk and I was the person the decided to call. Great, wonderful I guess that is how it goes. The only sober one was the guy I have been spending time with, the one that decided Monday night that we should just be friends. Isn't it just the worst when you are having fun with someone and they say that and all you have to say is OK. You can't argue with what they are saying because you know how true it is. Maybe that is actually the best way for it to happen. He made me then listen to a song that made me laugh... Popular by Nada Surf... listen to it if you never have and you too will be laughing by the end. So I think I have possibly made a male friend down here. I know that sounds crazy but as many male friends as I have always had and I don't really have any down here. I guess that is small town living, so many of the guys are married or paired up with someone and they really don't have time to hang out with girls. If they go out it is with the guys. I miss that. Now my new friend Rodney (ex-paramour) is actually gone on the road a lot for work so he won't be here too often but when ever he is we can hang out. Last night we were talking about how funny life is, yes we still talk, and he said what happened to the girl that would lie in the grass and stare at the stars while she was on the phone. He reminded me that I was an artist and that if I didn't get that out of me it was going to paralyze me. It was nice to be reminded. The other part of the story is that I received the most awful letter from a guy I dated in High School. I haven't dated or seen him in over 13 years but after I got divorced he contacted me and we have been friends ever since. I am not sure what I did to incite him but I did and he said some very hurtful things and somethings that were totally inaccurate. He called drunk and slurring on Saturday night and I asked him to call me the next day that I was out right then and needed to go. The next morning I woke to an e-mail that he had written while still drunk and now mad. Funny that once you hit send you can't take things back. I told him I took the letter to say that our friendship was over and that I agreed. I also suggested that he cut down on his alcohol intake. Hmmm... Never a dull moment down here. So I am still working 6 jobs, rotating between trucking, leasing, working in a store, substitute teaching, taking photos of children and graphic design. I just got asked to do another job for the Ransome Center and I am very excited. I keep depositing my checks and saving for my trip this summer. I am about to but my ticket to Israel and I bought an international phone card to call my friend in Australia but I have to wait until this evening as they are 14 hours ahead of me time wise. Everything is coming together nicely. It is another beautiful day here in TPH, tonight is bunko... woo hoo...

Eating Sushi and Riding on a Harley

Well it is official, I have now ridden on a Harley Davidson and I did it sans helmet, against my better judgment. I was out with a friend and after our sushi dinner he insisted that I ride on his new bike that he had just gotten out of the shop... Once upon a time in Mexico I wrecked on a motorcycle and although I had always loved them (long story) and prayed to the church of the Kawasaki I promised myself I would never ride again. It wasn't so much the speed we were going or the donkey we hit and killed or that it happened on a dark road in the middle of nowhere, Mexico, it was the idea that had we taken a spill, which we didn't, I probably would have been in a bad way. Forward 18 years later... I rode another one and once again in a foreign country or rather in Guatemala. It was because I was very tired and hiking in the mountains and I figured I would rather wreck on a motorcycle, which I didn't, than walk at 10, 000 elevation. My thighs still hurt when I think about how nervous I was riding that day. Now I have been baptized, I have made it to the Harley level, and I have to admit I liked it. I liked watching the shadows it cast on the sides of buildings and on the road as I passed street lamps. I liked the black on black leather flames on the leather seat. I thought about Easy Rider, Motorcycle Diaries and Neil Young's song Unknown Legend - the steel and chrome she rides colliding with the very air she breaths. I thought about rallies and girls in chaps and Sturgis and beer and tattoos... My friend told me it was vintage and that everything 30 years and older is considered so, I guess that makes me vintage too. So when do I get to go on another ride.....

Photos from Paige & Ben's Sip n' See