Thursday, November 22, 2007

mom sets it straight

"My cats are not fat"
-Mom, Thanksgiving 2007.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Week of living


Last week I made some granola with fresh blueberries (I burnt it a bit) . . . anyway, Oey decided to carve into it with his hands. Seriously, he devoured all that was left. The kid loves to eat.

We've been active. Our weather has been incredible for November, almost like spring. It looks like starting tomorrow we'll be getting our first real cold front and the first true taste of the winter to come here in Utah. Saturday was Jarom's birthday. We went to this place called Kangaroo Zoo--a huge warehouse filled with bouncehouses in American Fork. Amy's friend Michelle came with her kids and all children had a wild bounce-filled time. We splurged and ordered Domino's (delivery), and Jarom opened his gifts there. He kept asking after they were all opened, "Are you sure there's no more gifts, Mom?"


Jarom in action

Bella in action

Oey about to be clobbered

Birthday boy and pizza

Opening Nana's gift (he loves it, of course!)

We came home to rest for a bit and let Jarom play his new Leapster (like a Gameboy, except somewhat educational). Needless to say he loves it. Then I took him out a little bit later, on a "special date," to go bowling. Out of all of his date options, bowling easily won out. He always wants to go. So I brought two Virgil's cream sodas and we went and got a lane. The bumpers came up for his turn (so no gutter balls), and he didn't like this. He said, "I don't want those things. I want to bowl like you." We did great. I somehow got three strikes during my game. He bought a pack of Skittles from the vending machine with his own birthday quarters, and afterwards we went to Baskin Robbins to get him a free one-scoop birthday ice cream cone. Then we went home and all of us went over to Barnes and Noble to browse and read and pick up a Beatles piano/guitar book for Amy and I.


Bowling pro

I've been wanting to hike up to the big letter Y on the mountain with Amy and the kids, because it's easy enough for the kids to do it but high up enough to be beautiful. Our weather's been awesome so we did it Sunday afternoon. It was perfect out; we got to see the bright white moon against a brilliant blue backdrop, and watched the sun lazily drift down behind Utah Lake and the eastern mountains.


Everyone's a Y

See, I said it was perfect

Taking a break (Bella requested plenty of them)

I thought this nest shot was nice

A nice Mexican family was sitting up here. He was from Mexico City. I talked with him a bit in Spanish (struggled through it--have to practice more), and he took our picture.

The kids sitting on the Y

Tonight I told Jarom and Bella the story of early settlers in America, and a bit about the fate of the Indians. His response to me was, "That's not nice, Dad. We should share the earth with the Indians."

Watch these as Jarom bowls and Bella plays.



WELL, well, well

I'm well. It's been one crazy week. Matt and I have started dating again- not really, just feels like it. We have been staying up all night talking, crying and laughing our hearts out. We really did stay up All night one time. The other nights were more like 3 or 4 in the morning. I had a nervous break down last week and quit my job- never to go back. And as some of you know chopped my hair off. I think I only did that because I didn't sleep the night before. I was just so mad that I couldn't get all my fuzzes and frizz to calm down. Two weeks ago I got to go visit Glory in Austin. Highlights of it were - two stepping, tubing, kayaking, yoga, eating, singing around the piano to the beatles, running around the lake and watching the sun rise. Eating my nephew and nieces halloween candy. I saved the best for last. I was only there for two and a half days. The first night there Jenny, Glory and I walked 6th street. And every few steps were offered a free drink. I got to see this girl dancing and rubbing her butt against the window- I was secretly waiting for her to rub on it too hard. I know- I'm soo mean. I really couldn't help think it though. I really wanted to go into that bar. It was bumping- for reals. But my sisters wanted something a little more high end. We let jenny pick it, because we really didn't care. Jenny swears Glory and I were drunk. We were acting gay so the guys would leave us alone. And by the way- did you know? they have a mall sized health food store. It was cool. Again- I'm well- now. By and by I come. xoxo


Glory and her friend said we would ONLY run five miles. I was so dying and happy to finally have the car back in view only for them to look at their and watch and say, we still have 15 mintues, lets do two more. I almost cried but was out of breath to do any of those heaving sobs.



This is mike- the two stepping king.

This is my ice cream shop where I got a mix of pumpkin and mexican vanilla ice cream. And got photo booth pictures with me, glory, my mom and little teddy (dollys baby)

A Myspace Blog: hope it's not offensive

My Insane and Beautiful Family: From LDS to LSD (read mikie's below after this)

This blog could go on a thousand million trillion pages. And I gots lots to do today. But let's say this: I am very excited this is a holiday week and for once I get to see all FOUR of my siblings and my PARENTS all in the same day. Some people hate getting together for the holidays. I mean, secretly, the family thing to them is a bore. But for me, whom once was a terrible teenage party pooper, the more time I spend with our wild, OPEN-MINDED, ridiculous, beautiful talented family, the more I love being alive. I am priveleged and specially lucky to be a kid of our kind, because we have some serious freaking spirit.

Spirit! Like team-spirit kind of spirit. We all grew up Mormon, as I have ranted before, and though I ain't so fond of the whole religious fixings of that particular organization anymore, I am so glad I grew up with the closest most sweet compassionate family ever. But what's even RADDEST about our family, is that though we all grew up Mormon, we have gone on to become OURSELVES. We may not be so religious these days, but we damn well believe in being good and kind to others (especially the underdogs) - and we have grown out of the green jello and gossipy Sundays into green other kinds of lives filled with fresh vegetables (the vegetarians some of us now are), sushi, musical instruments, songwriting, books, paints, gardens, cats, art, movies, acting (mr. miguel), insanity, and sharing our good lives through our bizarre family blog. Even though Mom and Dad got a divorce a few years back (thank god! we should all say) they are better friends now than they ever were because Mom finally could go and find her own world of books and cats and little finches and truly be herself. And Dad has learned to love cats too, and feeds the wild ones, and it seems he treasures his children and Mom and all the things we are and we love more than ever now.

That's what makes my family so special. We started out compassionate and interesting, but we didn't just stop there. We have grown and grown and grown as people, improving our lives and our kindnesses and our thoughtfulness and ESPECIALLY by following our true-est hearts. We have gone from meat and potato rednecks to polar bear loving vegetarian fools. Our parents have seen us smoke, drink, and have listened to all the "sins" and they don' t give a hoot anymore. It took some hard work (by me!) in the beginning to get them to lighten up, but now they even shop at Trader Joes. Mom likes coffee and we can say "fuck" in front of her without feeling like we have betrayed God! We drink soy milk. I am telling you, these are not the ways our very traditional little family grew up. We would have scorned soy milk and organic thinking. Even Matt, our Mormon bro with the three genius childrens, uses organic EVERYTHING, and is the kind of guy who is openminded enough to talk with his peers in pubs and discuss the politics of nature, the physics of everything, the make-up of our government, with anyone he deems somewhat interesting and knowledgable. And open-mindedness is intelligent, my friends....

Sometimes, I have gotten sad that, like some of the talented folks here in Nevada City, I did not grow up with my dad recording music or my mom painting or making sculptures and feeding me organic bean sprouts and chanting pretty hippy lullabies to me. I have pondered what my own children will be like, as they will have such cutesy little luxuries. I have seen those children whom I know now in this city exude a confidence like I have never known. It is rock solid, it came with the way the grew up around a consciousness of the globe and all the people and food and cultures on it, it came through their hippy parents doing whatever the hell they wanted to. My parents weren't like that. My mom did what she thought society needed her to do, what she was "allowed" to do, what was "right" and "good" within her religion. She fiercely fought with my Dad to get us piano lessons and to get us learning other instruments, and to give Mikie the chance to become an actor in theater at a very young age. She did those things because those parts of her never got to. And so, besides a few lessons and the daydreams of our mother, we never grew up with the artsy fartsy shit, we had casseroles and Spam sometimes and dinner around a table, and read from scriptures on holidays and had to wear skirts that weren't short and go to church every Sunday, and many other church activites. I was wrought with guilt just for growing boobs in the first place.... And despite all of this uncomfortable time of my life, and despite short bouts of jealousy I get for my extra talented, talented, practically famous, artist friends who are children of artists here, I am so very very grateful to have lived a life of duality. A life that began with much strictness, but lots of love, (yet a very narrowminded view of the whole world) and I have gotten to WITNESS the growth and change of all my family as we have discovered our true hearts and the depths of culture and consciousness, and magic in our lives. I have gotten to see the growth unfold within us all, especially within Dad who is now so patient witnessing all of our new strange foods, the garden burger bonanzas, and our talents, and our defiant spirits and our non conformant selves. And I actually feel more priveleged than the artist kids for this witness of change, and this wisdom. Because my kids will just have it, the easy life. And that's WONDERFUL. But I had to work for it! I had to convince my parents that other countries had real people in them, and that Americans weren't the only kids in the world. I had to preach vegetarianism when I was one, (Heather did most of that though) and they thought I was insane. I had to deal with Dad's outbursts about me "living in sin" with boyfriends. But now, he could care less for such labels of life. My parents are such wise and wonderful and real changed happier people. I have worked and worked to see these changes, and my efforts paid off! To me, that is the greatest privelege in the world. I don't mean to sound braggy! I just was so unaccepted by my family for a while there, but now they could care less about anything except us being together. I think it's alot closer to unconditional love now. And though my confidence as a teenager didn't start out at 100%, I just don't care. I have a large dose of humility integrated into my soul, and it can be very hard sometimes, but that's OK, it's probably good for me.

And so while other people groan about the holidays and family "obligations", I will be dancing the insane dance with my family and some blasting song in the living room.

What's with Lists?

Seriously. I have a list of things it seems EVERY day. New things. Some of them get done, others fall disregarded by the wayside, littering the roads of my somewhat-clean recent past. It's funny, once you're out of school things suddenly begin to occur in lists, prioritized. Always the 1st is the most important, biggest and most daunting thing you need to get done, and it goes from there. By the number 8 or 9, you find yourself wracking your brain for more and more things you know you should get finished. Soon you've got a 15-long list of stuff, the last 3 or 4 being totally unnaccomplishable, and probably the final a joke like "marry Natalie Portman" or a cliffhanger like "go to Walmart to get." Right now my list consists of a variety of BIG things like CarSmog, Registration, FixCar, PayBill, BuyLaptop, GetPaycheck, NewBrakes, until finally I'm overwhelmed with how expensive it's all winding up to be! So instead, I wittle down my savings on RoadTrips, like the one documented in this video:

Sunday, November 18, 2007

country life for me


moving is fun!








darin got me an autoharp!
i'm gonna be a country singer!





















it's been birthday time, study time, and moving time.

my birthday was lovely. i got my cute new red coat from mom, my purple Kone vac from dad, and my beautiful new autoharp from darin which i am excited to take time to learn to play. i envision singing along like june carter cash in a pretty little dress and coiffed hair. I also gave my walt whitman presentation in one of my graduate seminars; i had been really nervous but it went well and i got compliments about it in the next class meeting too! the night of my birthday i went out to dinner at baja fresh with dad and grandma georgie.

today i have my last shift at work...everyone keeps trying to make me feel bad because i'm leaving but my heart is still rejoicing, so i know it's right.

mom has been moving in this weekend and there is a festive feeling in the air. i think living together is going to be very fun. everyone come gather here and let's make a fairytale holiday season!

we now have cable - first time ever in mine and darin's living-together life. i'm kind of nervous about losing darin to the ever-absorbing presence of basketball games, discovery channel, history channel, etc. but i have to admit it is kind of cozy and nice to have tv. we can watch the parade on thanksgiving morning!

i am full of brimming over hope and enthusiasm for life right now and i can't wait for us all to be together and talk about everything.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

heather deary

Top 10 things or so that come to mind when I think of Heather.
1.) cheerful, with a beautiful winsome smile.
2.) sun worshiper
3.) Turquoise
4.) earrings and long necklaces with colorful beads
5.) sun dresses and flip flops
6.) loves cats
7.) smart
8.) loves babies !
9.) yoga
10.) I love to be around her - I feel as if I'm not alone on this one.

I want to make her a birthday card- bella
she likes a pink purse and a purple purse and doggies
Bella would also like to give you a glass slipper for your birthday.

planting seeds, jumping on a trampoline, the trampoline is broken though- Jarom
I like going to the store with heather. I want to give heather a paper airplane for her birthday.

I asked Oey what he wanted to say and he just smiled. Which translates: Heather loves me and I love her.

We all love and miss you Heather. We live in a little fairytale over here with princess bella, prince derek(jarom) snow white or prince charming (matt) and I'm either some kind of princess or fairy some times even ursula. So from us to you. We hope all your dreams come true.

Birthday Stories

New Beginnings. This, is the story of a girl, who became a women. In this story is three things: light and darkness, heaven and the devil himself, and demons and magic . It is about the coming of age of Cheryl, and how she reaches, into her sole, and discovers real life cherubs, fluttering in her thoughts. Cherubs, and shewill never be thsame, again
.


Anyway, that was for the book I am writing about Heather.
SO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!! Here's to you performing beautifully well in your presentation today you're giving in the cafeteria. Er, I mean, in your grad school seminars.

I think the time has come again for ALL of us to do something for Heather on her birthday.
Here's your mission:

Write a brief excerpt from the story YOU would write about Heather.
Make it poetic, charming, daring suspenseful, exciting, or just stupid. Ok? Here goes mine!

Sipping on soda in Del Taco one afternoon, Heather was quietly preparing for the presentation she had to give for one of her classes the next day. Walt Whitman quotes chiming through her thoughts, she hardly noticed Ian McKellan, dressed in full Gandalf garb, sitting down at the table just behind her, his staff leaning carefully against the plastic finish of the bright green seats. Heather concentrated on her work was digging at a veggie works burrito with a fork. Gandalf behind her had just gotten his fries, and began making small hobbit houses out of the sauce packets, unwrapping his burrito. Gandalf looked down at his meal, content and peacefully ready to begin eating.
Mikie walks in, his teeth and conversation chattering at the speed of a talking doll wired with the wrong batteries.
"Hi Mikie"
"Hi heATHER gues WhAT Candice THIS and candice THAT and LA THIS and auditions that and joey and stan and stoey and monkey poop what are you doing later why not when" he drinks some soda, and continues.

Meanwhile mom, dad, Jarom, Bella and Stormy show up. Mom is pushing a shopping cart filled with Jarom, Bella and toys! The wheels screeching around the bends of Chevron and mom comes at high speeds into the Del Taco eatery. Dad, at 7 feet tall, walks with strut and a wild smile, on his telephone to an AT&T operator "THANK YOU what was your name again Miss? Oh thank you Deborah, and what was your middle name? Ah thank our Deborah Sarah..." etc. Stormy comes in behind dad, also 7 feet tall and walking on his hind legs, speaking clear english with a brittish accent. The two towering males turn the corner inside Chevron to join the little group of family.
Before long, the talk with Heather and the gang has erupted into a full on Ultimate Fighting Championship brawl, with Stormy and Bella fighting in the ring as all the family cheers them on. Matt and Amy have showed up, as well as Adie and Art, and Stoey and Jan who have somehow merged their bodies into one strange-looking human. Bella does a roundhouse kick and brings Stormy to the ground. Then she leaps high up into the aid and lands on his belly with such force that it knocks the wind out of him, and he is beaten. The family CHEERS!

Suddenly bolts of lightning struck all around, and the restaurant went pitch black. Everybody goes silent.

In the dark nothing can be heard but the sounds of people breathing. stormy meows. Then a soft-spoken old man's voice touches the air, quiet, precise, and distinctly brittish,

"Excuse me, but no one gives a f*ck about your family"

And as the lights come back up, Gandalf's hunched back, tall hat and walking stick can be seen outside the windows of Del Taco, as he makes way to a parked Ford Escort next to the propane tanks.

The End


I know my past and present are all screwed up. I have some editing to do.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

1200 miles of Fall for Mikie

Driving down the 205, Sho' Nuff



Warner Bros Studios, oh sweet Los Angeles.

...
Who're these kids?






Merry Christmas Trees




No more Office for a while



Please enjoy this.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Our fall

In the midst of a flurry of posts, I finally am exposing some of our Halloween and fallish photos.


Relaxing in our leaves

Fall biker

Arrrrr says she

Daytime costumes

Running for the first run of trick-or-treating

Nighttime trick-or-treating -- note Jarom's Link costume

Walking the hard road

Lollipop giant

We share our candy with everyone

Angels, wheels, valleys and smoke, 19th floor Disney Channel

Howdy touts.
I'm sitting here upstairs in a "house" at Warner Brothers studios. It's lights-off in here because, well literally, nobody's home. None of the television shows are running - they've literally halted production. (In case you don't already know, there is one massive strike going down surrounding the entertainment industry in LA, the Writer's Guild of America). This building I'm in is used as the writers' headquarters for the show Bing Bang Theory. Nikki is a personal assistant to the writers here, so she gets me on the lot to come visit. And literally, it's almost riot-like outside so NOBODY is around the studio lots. SO, let me just declare that I'm using the Big Bang Theory computers to write you guys, so this message should have a golden lining.
Anyway, I'm in LA. This city is so darn interesting and terrible all at once! But I think I'm figuring it out. It's a matter of where you place yourself, and more importantly, talking to people rather than judging based on appearances alone. The people here at the only substance, in all this muck it's the liquid life of the individual that keeps madness at bay here. And so, I'm a bit lucky to get to spend time in the best parts of this place, on a television studio lot and at a house in Griffith Park.
Around noon this morning I was on the 19th floor of the Disney Channel building, standing in a deafeningly quiet lobby, with glittering framed Disney posters on the walls, blank walls, cameras in the corners of hallways and did I mention how silent it was up in there? Well, except for me and the three or four other boys doing callback auditions for this Disney spot role I was there for. Then I met some important people, talked to a camera, and now I'm contemplating driving back to Placerville up 395. ciao

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

sweet fall blessings


mom as a gypsy
for halloween


















darin with his cupcakes addie made him



















the little girlie kitty,
carolina-lulu
(OWLEY)


















addie with
grabby-tail



















addie in her pretty kitchen

darin turned 30 on sunday! we frolicked with addie and artie in grass valley and fell in love with that town as always and determined that one day we should probably just get our booties over there where we belong. where there are vegetarian options and smiling eccentrics all over the place, and musical instruments and old old theaters and earth-friendly shops and thoughts and cozy coffeeshop bookstores with dusty books like golden treasures and organic treats and mountains and rivers and haunted houses.

i have good news for any of you who don't know: i put in my notice at mel's and novemeber 18 will be my last day and ever since i made this declaration i've been walking on air! i have gotten several little signs from the universe that it was meant to be and i have never been happier about thanksgiving because for once i can do whatever i want that weekend! we can go to the parade, i can walk down to the "festival of lights," i can bake and shop and go to apple hill and write in my journal and take a blustery walk and do whatever i want!

by the way, and this is important: darin is playing music with scott sowa and jacob at the cozmic cafe the night after thanksgiving and EVERYONE IS INVITED. matt and amy if it is at all possible to schedule that in, i think even the kids would have fun. the venue will be noisy and rambunctious and i think they'd fit in. we can dance together! of course there will be drinking but we'll keep em safe! mikie, joey, stan, mom, dad, addie, art, you are all invited and let's have fun!

in case anyone is worried or wondering about how i'll be making money, here's the scoop. i have a tiny bit saved up (couple hundred) plus i have some financial aid that we are planning on using to buy a new computer (matt i need your tips badly!) and hopefully there will be some extra from that. i plan to take the CBEST on december 1 and that means if i pass it i can start substituting in january. i may get some work on campus doing outreach stuff. lastly, i will sell stuff on ebay. plus my sweet husband and sweet momma both live with me and i get to feel babied and protected by them for a little while so i can focus on school...my dream come true.

so anyone with ideas, inspirations, love-full-hearts, adventure plans, grandiose schemes, rock-n-rolls, rolypolies, jolliness, holiness, thoughts, hopes, and dreams let me know and we'll all work together and have thrills and jolts of blessings and bliss in our souls!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

halloweener

hello weener.

so sounds like everyone had a real nice halloween. adie you guys look pretty freaky and rad as those skeletons. ive done a few fun things of late, the last two days or so, so i shall recount for all those interested:

the other nite, i think tuesday nite, after the crazy earthquake scare, which really did freak me out (and sounds like it freaked mikie out even worse), i only thought of ultimate destruction. for some reason i just knew i was going to have to flee town. i first grabbed eddy, who was cemented to a pillow, and was ready to run barefoot with my boy under my arm. but fortunately that was not the case, and my rickety peeling-paint house still stands. but how much longer?
anyways, after that, later on that nite, me and stanley and our friend christina walked to mikie and candices place and we all took off, after sampling their amazing baked pumpkin seeds, in mikies car to the gymnastics gym where candice works. the place is just a giant playground. they have two trampolines, one that is long like you can run on it, the other normal size. there are tons of bars at different heights, balance beams, those weird horse things, lots of pads, mats, and even a foam pit. springboards, big mirrors, all kinds of craziness. so we jumped around there for a couple hours, from about 10:30 to midnite or so. it was great.
then we went to beckmanns and snagged some good free bread to sustain me another week or two. then i went home. it was a good nite.

then wednesday i had work off, and the day was mine. so i recorded a song at my house (which is on my myspace page called "magic bus day" if anyone wants to listen to it) and went for a slow peaceful bikeride along the ocean cliffs to this beach called natural bridges on the other end of town. i narcissistically listened and relistened to my song on my ipod to make sure i was ok with the end product, laying in the early-setting-sun-sand with my shirt off, looking at the sky, the sun gleaming whitely bright off the ocean. it was kind of cold but felt so good. then i read some of bluebeard by kurt vonnegut, stuck around about an hour just enjoying the sun and sounds and sand. it was grand. then i got on my bike and rode on mission (highway 1) to the new leaf and bought some potatoes and a zucchini and a root beer, sat on the metal chairs outside the store and drank my rootbeer and drew pictures of the bottle and wrote. it was a very pleasant day.
when i came home i made some dinner with potatoes, yellow and green peppers, white onion, mushrooms, zucchini, and tomato fried up inolive oil with black beans on top. it was prime.
then it was halloween, at nite time, so very close to time to go out. oh yea i forgot to mention that the previous nite when we were at the gym candice got me and stanley some leotards, black with silver sequined upper chests and arms, ridiculous, that were made for 11 or 12 year old girls. we wore those for halloween. they exposed quite a bit. you can only imagine. i thought it was fine and i wasnt too worried about getting lots of crap from people because its santa cruz, people are always scantily clad on halloween.
not this year. especially no guys. we were the only males downtown dressed even remotely this scarcely. it was crazy. ive never been called a fag in all seriousness by so many people in one nite. we also got pleasant comments. in fact almost every single person we passed made some sort of remark or comment in some way. it was weird getting lots of attention like that, but pretty fun. downtown was crazy, hundreds and hundreds of people, and, ridiculously, almost an equal number of cops (exaggeration) standing around with big folded forearms looking all badass and serious. then we went down, stan and me and joe and niles, to this house near downtown where our roommates justin and garretts band was playing. it was in a basement and everyone was wasted and dancing and it was great fun. but about 20 or 25 minutes in, who else shows up BUT THE COPS! hooray for the protectors and servers who do great deeds for society by breaking up a BASEMENT SHOW on HALLOWEEN! way to go guys. doin good things for society. i just feel so SAFE when i see cops, dont YOU!@>!?>!>!:?>!?!@>!@>!
lots of anger here.
anways, after that we strolled thru downtown again, following this random guy named trevor who was carrying a boombox on his shoulder and was wearing a wig and smiling a lot and being generally really crazy (later on we found out why) and we danced all drunkenly down the street gaining even more looks and remarks and pictures being taken of us then before. ive never done anything like this really, gone out into a public place and made a spectacle of me. i guess thats just what halloween does.
anyways, then we realized how wasted we truly were, and our friends party up near our house ALSO got broken up by cops, so we sprinted home. SPRINTED thru throngs of people downtown. even more remarks. it was awesome. i was just waiting to get stabbed.
then i went to bed. today i feel terrible, but im happy about life in all its maniac madness.
did you guys all have a fun last two days?

Hallowink!

We were skeletons! What were you? Please show pics everybeatty! I had to work in my skeleton costume but Art got to pass out treats! There weren't a ton of kids, but enough. I made him take pictures since I missed it! And a little video. Please show a video of Bella, Jarom and Oey! I won 2nd place at work for the costume contest! After work, we went to a concert and had a tiny dance party at St. Joseph's, the old orphanage and Catholic church in town. It was fun. I love Halloween being on a Wednesday, so it lasts from last weekend into this next one! I love you all! Me in my skulleton outfit! Art was my skulleton pal! I love the word skeleton. Or skulleton.