Thursday, April 12, 2012

Summertime.

10 things I am excited for this summer:

1...I am extremely excited for my garden. I got a sunburn on Monday from working on it all afternoon! There is a website I discovered called smartgardener.com that plans your whole garden for you. It tells you each and every step of the way what you need to do to make your garden the best. It even knows where you live. I cannot wait for the satisfaction of growing my very own food. We will have fresh eggs and garden delights daily! I sure hope that the largest apricot tree ever, AKA the one living in my backyard, gets apricots this year. I was so depressed last summer when I received none. Chase even gifted me a food dehydrator this past Christmas so I could make candies. I wish I wish!

2...The lake. Any lake will do. I live in the water in the summertimes and I can't wait to take our jet ski and the dogs and just go. The water is warm and the sun makes me snoozy.

3...Riding my bike. I love my blue bike, and even though it is hard to ride everywhere because Cedar City is the city of subtle hills, I can't wait. It's fun and exercise at the same time. I can ride it to work, because I live close to it, and I even bought a basket last summer for groceries. The basket detaches and goes in the store with me. It's quite freeing to not need a car.

4...Building a swing bed. I found it online and I am determined to do it. Look how amazing this looks.
Of course, not so elaborate. I think I will use a shipping palate and a thinner mattress. I will hang it from my giant apricot tree and take naps and read books and let the sun make me sleepy and warm. Sigh.

5...Making popsicles and ice cream and summer treats. We used to do this when I was a kid and I loved it. So much summertime.

6...Hiking in the local waterfalls. I have never done this, even though I have lived here for years now, and I so badly want to do it this summer. Nothing sounds nicer than a cool waterfall mist while I hike barefoot over sun-baked stones with warm sun on my face. That feels like free just thinking about it.

7...Roadtripping to Oregon with my family. We travel to a ranch in Oregon every year for the 4th of July. It is a huge farm that we can camp and play at. There is a lake and a zipline, and I get to spend a lot of time with my family and my husband, just doing nothing. It is a 14-hour drive but it is worth it! The food is amazing and the games even more so. And then we sit around the campfire and bullshit. I love stories.

8...Disneyland. This won't be until the end of the summer, and maybe even September, but I cannot wait. We have never been with TJ and Wendy and we want to go so badly. They love it as much as we do and so I know it will be amazing! Maybe for our anniversary. Joint anniversaries.

9...The smell of cut grass. Blossoming flowers. Lua chasing bugs in the lawn.

10...Our one and only newlywed summer. I want to make it memorable.

Monday, April 9, 2012

29.

Chase had a birthday.

I love his birthday so much! I just want to do all of his favorite things. It was hard with the show still going on, but we pulled it off. I made him homemade Haven doughnuts for breakfast, since he has been obsessing over Lins' doughnuts lately...I got chocolate sauce and made whipped cream cheese to put on top. I made them in a cast iron skillet and it turned out so nice! He loved having homemade coffee and doughnuts for breakfast.

After that, I sent him shooting with TJ so I could get some more stuff done. I wanted to make him from-scratch, red velvet, ice cream cupcakes, and red velvet cake pops with purple chocolate for the shell. It took a while but it worked out! Instead of red coloring though I used green, since that is his favorite color.

The ice cream cupcakes were so easy! I just only filled half of the cupcake liner, baked them, then put softened ice cream inside once they were cooled and refroze them! So easy. And not a $35 ice cream cake.

He wanted to go to Sweet Basil (local Thai restaurant) for dinner. I had to run an errand before hand so that I could get his (drum roll) trampoline! That's right, I bought my now-29-year-old husband a trampoline for his birthday. And a Great Wave t-shirt to boot. He loved it. TJ and Wendy got him a 10-seat poker table and Natalie got him some balloons. He loved those too!

After the Vagina Monologues were over, we went over to Penrod's to have the treats I made. He had a good look on his face when I gave them to him, so I think he liked them too. I was so happy that he was happy on his birthday. I love him so much, and it still amazes me that after such a long time, I can still get butterflies. I always thought that those only happened at the beginning, like with other boys I had dated. But Chase isn't like other boys.

Next year is a big birthday!

Let's make a thing out of it, yeah?

Vagina.

I love vaginas.

Well, let me just say that I love and support women. I got to experience The Vagina Monologues from a completely different perspective this year than I have in years past. The first time I attended Chase took me. I know, sounds strange, right? But he is a vagina warrior in every sense of the word. I attended each year after. This is my 5th year of vagina empowerment.

They changed my life! I came to love my woman self and my own vagina by listening to these accounts of other women that a woman named Eve Ensler interviewed.

If you ever have a chance to see them, then please do. It is one of the things I look forward to every year. I promise that they are not over-feministic and anti-men. They are just facts.

Wendy directed them, and we got to perform them this past weekend for 3 nights in a row. I loved every minute of it. I have never been in a play before! I have never acted. I enjoyed it!
There are many that are different, but I got to do one called "What if I Told You I Didn't Have a Vagina?"
It is a beautiful poem written for the women in the DR of the Congo. They are being systematically raped every day over MINERALS. Can you believe it? We have damn good lives here in the US. The stories are horrific. I won't repeat them here.

The Vagina Monologues are close to my heart. It's a cause I can get behind. I got to experience love and hatred and longing and fullness all within one and a half hours. It is, sincerely, life-altering.

To understand, read about the women, and even support this cause, please go to http://www.vday.org/

It will truly change your life. Watch the monologues!

VAGINA!

What a wonderful life.

Yet again, I need to write more. I have so many things on my mind! I should write more often so that I don't have so many things I need to spill out of my mouthbrain.

Chase and I went to LA. It was as fun as going to a big city is when you are a small-town-lover.  Which is not very much. But I do love to roadtrip with Chase. We talk a lot. It's nice.  We bought delicious hand made doughnuts at Randy's Doughnuts when Chase accidentally drove all the way to Inglewood. ! Oops. Turns out that Tupac wasn't 100% right about that town.

We visited friends, Tilt and Tiffany Mills, and got to see some great improv at iO West.  I saw Angela Kinsey (Angela from The Office) do live improv! What?! Famous by proximity. And a once in a lifetime opportunity/moment. I also got to talk to James Grace, who is amazing as well. Not a  celebrity, except in the improv world. He remembered Chase.

What I got from our trip to LA was that I want to do more music. I don't care if it is at a coffee shop or just in my library at home. I love to make it, and sing it, and cover songs that I love. And create. I want to create. Music is my only way. That and photography. But I feel that my photo identity is lost in this digital world where every other person I know has a photography "business". And then I just seem hipster when I tell people that I started photography around the age of 15. I did it before it was cool, man. How annoying am I?

I can't paint or draw or sculpt or construct. I guess anything is art. Eye of the beholder, right?

While I was in LA, on April Fools' Day, my Great Grandmother turned 90. NINETY. She still gets on the floor and plays with the grandkids. It's unbelievable. I want that.

We drove to Vegas from LA and went to dinner the night before we were to return home. We went to Bahama Breeze, which is a restaurant that my family and I used to go to when we would go school shopping. I like it because it's off of the strip, so you get a good experience. It's a Jamaican restaurant and I love it! We had such a good time. There was a funny and strange waiter next to us, and Chase and I couldn't help but laugh. We liked him, his enthusiasm, and his tiny, red, braided pony tail. What a cool guy.  After dinner, we wanted some delicious dessert. We went to Serendipity 3 and ordered the Strawberry Fields Forever. It's the best strawberry ice cream ever, with the best piece of cheesecake ever, with real whipped cream and strawberries on top. It's the best ever. EVER. Get it next time you go.

I do have photos of all of these things, but I never post them. One day, I will just post them all and then you guys will read it and laugh, and say "I remember her telling me about that! Oh, memories."

I want to say a sad thought that I had. We were walking through Ceasars Palace to get to Serendipity 3 and Chase wanted to stop and watch the roulette tables briefly. While he did, I couldn't help but watch the dancers they have in cages in the middle of the casino. I just remember their faces. So devoid of emotion. Just doing a job. I did not like it. I hope that they are choosing to do that, and not just doing it for money. There is lots of money, and it's not worth that. The saddest part was when the dancer stepped out of the cage, away from the pole, and onto a tiny stage. She wiggled around briefly, and then, so nonchalantly, did a triple coupe pirouette. She is a real, trained, professional dancer. It made me ache FOR her. I hope she likes her job.

Chase and I were SO happy to be back in our little home, in our own podunk town, with our dogs, our roommate, and our chickens. It was a relief to breathe country air. I never thought I would say that.

I love adventure, but LA is simply just not.