bushels

I found this Wheat Necklace on Etsy. It came all the way from Italy and arrived just in time to brighten my cold, wet and dreary day. Thanks Mail delivery Person for being out in the hard packed snow, salt and bad drivers.

ode to joy

island life

The last time I was on an island it was Cuba. The night was hot and tropical and mysterious. Palm trees illuminated against the night sky left lingering shadows of strangers waiting for rides in the middle of nowhere.A cab buzzed me recklessly through the heavy black air, over Soviet built roads and past billboards of anti-American and pro Socialist propaganda and though the decrepit streets of Havana to my borrowed bedroom home.A bed with only a top sheet and 2 pillows, a tiny fridge and a window overlooking a roof top with a kept rooster would be by home for 2 weeks.

Tonight the island adventure is with air so crisp and puffs of breath that keep me an unwelcome company. Yellow street lights glare down on crunchy snow and make the trees pointy and stiff without their leaves. A bus dark with strangers keeping to themselves and glancing suspectantly at each other makes it's way along show homes and prefabricated siding with manicured trees and cascading rock landscaping services. Tonight my borrowed bedroom will be a ruffled and flowered with puffy blankets and meant for 2. But it's just me on the island.

a note ed

I've been wandering and rushing around these last few months in a navy blue haze. sometimes the light breaks though for a moment of a nice cerulean blue..maybe for a moment of robin egg blue. But, generally it feels blue and dark, this cloud I find coated upon my presence in life.

This mini grief I carry around in a rose colored handbag. Do you ever feel like you had a day in your 20's when you thought.. one day it will be better..then I will be happy.. one day, it will go away and it won't matter. and then one day you woke up and you realized that you had spent 20 years waiting for whatever it was to go away so you could start something that would feel meaningful and there it was, stuck to your shoe still.

This made me kick off my shoes and feel sunshine again.

catch me if you can

catch me if you can, originally uploaded by jill y.

guess where

IMGP5062.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

proof that aliens exist

a sketchy sketch

Couldn't retrieve chat history

On my way home, and half way up a hill in the rain, I suddenly discovered my front wheel had gone completely flat. Not a little bit flat. Completely flat. Not ride-able to the nearest gas station. Flat. Did I mention the prairies?

Morosely, I walked my bike down the hill. Rain dripping down my rain covered helmet. Drops of rain in attack mode against my rain repellent pants, making a slight headway into my shoe coverings and certainly dancing a dance upon the neck of my rain coat. Did I mention it was wet?

In the dark and oil slick wet street back to work, I passed 2 coworkers who barely recognized me in my repellent suit of armor. But we said our greetings and carried on.

forward 2 hours:

Me: Oh Kate. It got so much more worse

Kate: What happened???

Me: The keys to the van and my wallet were locked in my office. I thought I had the key. When it turned and broke off in the door, I suddenly realized it was my apt key I broke. Stuck at work in a wet suit- with a flat tire, no money and no apt key.

I did the obvious thing I could think of.

Kate: WHAT?!

Me: With some help, we got a hammer and screwdriver and attacked the lock until it was a wretched mess and then hacked away some more until we were able to get the door open.

Then I phoned my landlord and no one answered.

Kate: OH MY GOD

Me: I KNOW.

Kate: This is awful! Are you still at work??
Me: It's a bad b-movie without the soundtrack.

Kate: Where's your man friend?

Me: In the UK. He has my spare key.

Kate: Oh my......

Me: I spent about 40 minutes me surfing the web, going through friends in my head that would put me up and alternating between a hotel room and sleeping at work.

Kate: Are you just going to keep trying the landlord?

Me: No, it's OK. I'm home now.

Kate: Oh you are? Oooooh, ok good. Good grief Jill!!!

Me: But I got home to find that my boyfriend's vehicle, that he co-shares with another friend, happens to be off insurance and is parked out front in a "street cleaning zone" and bound to be towed if not moved.

Kate: Aaaaaahahhahaa

Me: It's comedy of errors.

dreaming of days gone

IMGP2318.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

I may be wrong..

But I think everyone I know has a ball of string and therefore needs a Victorian String Holder, just because it's so pretty.



And affordable available right here in Vancouver at Lee Valley

I LOVE this hat

It's from this Etsy site. By the way, my head size is medium and I like it in Eggplant, Black linen, and Black and White herringbone.

I think it would go really great with my new necklace.

chainlink

Take the day off and be gay.

Go shopping

Have a cute overload.

away

IMGP2252.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

just in case you forgot...

no milk for you

I'm excited about the new Sean Penn movie about Harvey Milk.



I know there's a bunch of people out there that may see this and I think you should pass this on.

Please do not go see Milk at a Cinemark Theatre. You can go to this website and type in your city to find the theatre to avoid spending a single dollar at. Go by a quart of milk instead and make hot chocky at home and wait for the video.

"The CEO of Cinemark, Alan Stock, donated $9,999 to the Yes on 8Campaign, but will now profit from showing MILK in his theaters."

So, you know.. look for your local Indie theatre or wait for it to come out on video cause it's wrong to deny a human being the right to marry based on their race, age, religion or sexual orientation.

on the list

Thanksgiving Day Parade, originally uploaded by t_a_i_s.

On year, I would like to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NY first hand. This shit is trippy.

for sale in Havana

flower cart, originally uploaded by jill y.

guess what??

IMGP4893, originally uploaded by jill y.

go boom

Shelley came to my door this morning. We normally meet in the park.

"I wiped out."

"Oh my god, are you OK?"

"Ya. everything is fine. It's slippery in some spots. Wear your rain coat. If you fall, you'll slide instead of fleece hitting the pavement."

I just looked at her grimly.

We spent the morning commute talking about wipeouts and injuries. All la-de-da. And then just before going down a hill, and around a roundabout, my rear wheel slide out under me and down I went.

PS. I always wear a helmet and gloves.

I don't menstruate, so I don't know how I could smell like I'm menstruating.

Michael, Rene and I went to see Synecdoche, New York tonight. It's the new Phillip Seymour Hoffman movie.

All I can say is the movie is a meta film rife with sub plots, surrealism, and double meanings. I'm not even to sure i can summarize this movie..

Death of a Salesman and the redundant and meaningless themes of Willy Loman fly overhead in wafts while Caden, played by Hoffman disintegrates slowly both physically and emotionally as he looses his wife (who leaves him for the fame of her microscopic art in Berlin) and launches into a grand production of the mundane by creating a life size version of New York inside a warehouse, with a cast of hundreds, instructed to play their roles based on slips of paper he gives them. Symbolic geatures of dopplegangers, the microscopic art he peers at with magnifying lenses and the overwhelming production of his larger than life play remind us that life is not all that it seems to be or is exactly as mundane as we feared.

Synecdoche (pronounced "si-nek-duh-kee", meaning "simultaneous understanding")

is a figure of speech in which:
* a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing, or
* a term denoting a thing (a "whole") is used to refer to part of it, or
* a term denoting a specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class, or
* a term denoting a general class of thing is used to refer to a smaller, more specific class, or
* a term denoting a material is used to refer to an object composed of that material.
"http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/o_synecdoche_my_synecdoche.html"

Go see it.

the crawl update

I don't know why I torture myself with the Crawl. I go every year to find myself wandering into studios, to quickly spin on my heels. I know what I like and it's often not abstract, garish, or $2000. And if it's not for the bad art, it's the crowds of people and ones who linger in the entrance ways of studios that make me want to body slam my way out.

No seriously. I'm picky. I like simple things. Things that have a lot of negative space. Things with sinewy lines.

I'm not in the market for beautiful wood furniture or paintings 8 feet tall. I saw some beautiful things though but why torture myself with long gazing admirings? And when I did, it was sold!

What I do really enjoy is seeing the personal objects and presence in the studios. I gaze over them. The items pinned to the walls for inspiration, the paint splattered floors and old thrift store furniture, the notes. When I go into the live/work studios of the ARC, I coyly look at the items pinned to the refrigerators, look at the beds and contemplate opening the cupboards under the guise of "looking for art".

I do. I honestly prefer the voyeuristic aspects to the Crawl more than the art.

BUT: I did find 2 somethings wonderful.

I found a beautiful black wool shawl with woven flowers of pinks and blues with vibrant shades of green leaves. It reminded me of a painting I have.

I found a website and was drawn to the images of one photographer. When I found the studio, the image was for sale and I bought it. It's the image of birds on the 1st page of the website for Clayton Cooper. I should have bought the old abandoned farmhouse shot as well.

What would you imagine?

IMGP2367.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

learning to Crawl

Today is the East Vancouver Culture Crawl. The weekend when all the artists studios are opened to the public and you wander around looking at what they make and forraging at the bowls of licorice and chocolate, chips and carafes of hot cider.

It almost always rains being as it's held in late November and it's cold. So it's good to have a plan.

One thing is for sure is I'm headed to the Arc for this photographer

Me and Whylie back in the day

for the Prairies

once upon a time

deitrus, originally uploaded by jill y.

I took my uncle Wiley for a drive in the countryside he grew up in. I saw something out in a treeline that caught my eye. As I am prone to do, I took off in search of the photo, leaving my Grandmother and her brother in the car.

As they are prone to do- they worried and strained in sight to make sure I didn't get caught in a coyote trap or something.

I snapped this photo.

Last night, Wiley died. He was 91. I liked to go visit him because he had a mischievous smile, wore plaid farmer shirts and suspenders, smelled old and reminded me of a black and white photo from the 30's. He was a charmer, a kind soul, and a helpful hand.

When I was small, we would visit his farm, down the road, from my grandmothers. His wife was a singer and would sit at the piano. They had kittens or some other kind of small farm animal that appeals to children. I distinctly remember sitting on some carpeted stairs trying to keep a kitten or two hostage with me, while I escaped the towering figures of the adults in the house.

Good bye Wiley. I'm sorry we won't have any more opportunities to go for a drive in the countryside.

xoJill

My Root Canal- the saga continues

That big long white line in the middle of my tooth- that's all fake. It's filling baby. As in drill that root out and fill 'er up with something else.

Fascinated- aren't you?

just in case

In case you missed the awesomeness of Baked Raspberry French Toast that I enjoyed at a recent stay at Penelope's B& B in Maple Ridge (courtesy of my mom and with my sister).. I found the recipe. I wouldn't dare not make this, unless you're a vegan.

Makes: 2 servings
– 4 slices day-old Italian bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
– 1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries
– 2 oz. cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
– 3 eggs
– 1 cup milk
– 1 Tbsp maple syrup
– 1/4 tsp poppy seeds

The night before: Grease two 8-ounce ramekins or large muffin tins. Line bottom half of tins with bread cubes. Cover with raspberries or blueberries and cream cheese cubes and top with remaining bread. Mix eggs, milk and syrup and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Pour mixture over bread, cover and let soak overnight in refrigerator.

In the morning: Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until puffy and golden. Remove French toast from ramekins and top with Berry Compote or Lemon Sauce (see recipes below).

Berry Compote

– zest and juice of 1 lemon
– 1 Tbsp water
– 4 cups fresh or frozen berries
– 1 Tbsp maple syrup
– 1/8 tsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat until berries begin to break down and sauce starts to thicken. Serve over French toast.

Lemon Sauce

– 1 egg
– 3/4 cup sugar
– 4 Tbsp lemon juice
– zest of 1 large lemon
– 1 Tbsp butter

Whisk together first four ingredients and cook over low heat, stirring constantly. After sauce begins to thicken, stir in butter just to combine. Serve warm over French toast as an alternative to the berry compote.

did I miss a day

Of my Nablopomo challenge?

I went out of town.

My mom came to town and with my sister, we drove out to Kilby. It was pretty interesting but we got there about 10 minutes before it closed. Next time I'll know how far it actually is from Vancouver.


View Larger Map

We stayed in a really sweet B&B in Maple Ridge where we had bread pudding french toast for breakfast with raspberries and lemon sauce (which I got to take the rest home) and with a little googling.. I found the recipe.

We drove my mom to the Abbotsford International Airport and learned all about clepsydres, where one of the few is on display. Odd.

knit or crotchet me

You know you want to. Think of it as a pillow. I'll think of it as a possible Christmas present.



Of if you can't bear the thought of my kindergarten school portrait etched in embroidery floss, you can make your own.

I think my friend Christine gave me an award- I'm a bit befuddled. But I'll accept it and the meme. This blogging everyday business is not easy!!

If there's any 2 blogs I have time to read lately.. It's Lisa and Bess. Both witty, funny unique, creative and somewhat bizarre in the best way possible.

7 things I did before

1. Lived in Alberta
2. went to university
3. was single
4. drove a 69 Valiant
5. worked in a deli
6. travelled to Cuba
7. smoked cigarettes

7 things I do now

1. Live in Vancouver
2. Ride a bike

3. stay in a relationship
4. manage a Customer Service Dept
5. take photographs
6. eat semi-breakfast regularly

7. brush my teeth every night

7 things I want to do

1. Loose weight 

2. have a show of my photos
3. visit a hammam
4. buy a vintage Vespa
5. work or live in a hostel again
6. find a work/life balance
7. stop battling myself

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. creativity
2. kindness
3. grace
4. intelligence
5. compassion
6. lanky, baby
7. the ability to make me laugh

7 Favorite Foods

1. porridge
2. dinner at my mother's kitchen table
3. my grandmother's bread
4. red lentil curry vegetable soup
5. beef stew
6. creme brulee
7. lemon tarts

7 things I Say Most Often

1. Thanks, dear
2. Hi, how are you?
3. I don't know
4. OK
5. You must be joking
6. sweet dreams
7. see ya

people laying around in the sun in Brussels

IMGP5398, originally uploaded by jill y.

buz, bex and but for Bess

This is my friend Bess. She normally looks like this, but sometimes she looks like this too.

Lately I don't see much of Bess, because she up and moved across the planet.

She took her beautiful little baby, of course, with her.

She calls her baby Bub and her husband Bun and when she see this.. she'll maybe answer my question..

Is she Bug, Bum or Busted?

(PS. miss you Bess.)

I had something really smart and witty to say today- some reflection of profound thought. Then I went and hald a carafe of red wine with my fella and I don't remember a thing.

Jill

the next contestants on Dancing with the Stars

whaddyaknow

MIRABILIA REPORT
(Mirabilia n. events that inspire wonder, marvelous phenomena, small miracles, beguiling ephemera, inexplicable joys, changes that inspire quiet awe, eccentric enchantments, unplanned jubilations, sudden deliverance from boring evils; from the Latin mirabilia, "marvels.")

* The National Center for Atmospheric Research reports that the average cloud is the same weight as 100 elephants.

* The seeds of some trees are so tightly compacted within their protective covering that only the intense heat of a forest fire can free them, allowing them to sprout.

* Thirty-eight percent of North America is wilderness.

* Anthropologists say that in every culture in history, children have played the game hide and seek.



* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.

* A seven-year-old Minnesota boy received patent number 6,368,227 for a new method of swinging on a swing.

* As it thrusts itself into our Milky Way Galaxy, the dwarf galaxy Sagittarius is unraveling, releasing a thick stream of dark matter that is flowing right through the Earth.

* A chemist in Australia finally succeeded in mixing oil and water.

* Except among birds and land mammals, the females of most species are bigger than the males.

* The South African version of TV's Sesame Street has an AIDS-positive Muppet named Kami.

* The sky not only isn't falling--it's rising. The top of the troposphere, the atmosphere's lowest layer, is slowly ascending.

* To make a pound of honey, bees have to gather nectar from about two million flowers. To produce a single pound of the spice saffron, humans have to handpick and process 80,000 flowers. In delivering the single survivor necessary to fertilize an ovum, a man releases 500 million sperm.

* Some Christians really do love their enemies, as Jesus recommended.

* Kind people are more likely than mean people to yawn when someone near them does.

* There are always so many fragments of spider legs floating in the air that you are constantly inhaling them wherever you go.

* "The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand 100 miles," says science writer James Trefil.

* Because half of the world's vanilla crop is grown in Madagascar, the whole island smells like vanilla ice cream.

* Your body contains so much iron that you could make a spike out of it, and that spike would be strong enough to hold you up.

* In his book *The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead,* physicist Frank J. Tipler offers what he says is scientific proof that every human being who has ever lived will be resurrected from the dead at the end of time.

* In the Ukraine you can buy Fat in Chocolate, a food with a layer of dark chocolate covering a chunk of pork fat.

* Robust singing skill is correlated with a strong immune system in songbirds. Male birds with the most extensive repertoire of tunes also have the largest spleens, a key measure of immune system health.

* Bali has 80,000 temples.

* Romanian physicists created gaseous globes of plasma that grew, reproduced, and communicated with each other, thereby fulfilling the definition for life.

* In an apparent attempt to raise their volume above the prevailing human din, some nightingales in big cities have learned to unleash 95-decibel songs, matching the loudness of a chainsaw.

* There is a statistically significant probability of world-class athletes and military leaders being born when Mars is rising in the sky.

* Some piranhas are vegetarians.

* In the pueblos of New Mexico, bricks still measure 33 by 15 by 10 centimeters, proportions that almost exactly match those of the bricks used to build Egypt's Temple of Hatshepsut 3,500 years ago.

* Childbirth is often joyful even though it's painful.

* In hopes of calming flustered lawbreakers, Japanese cops have substituted the sound of church bells for sirens on police cars.

* Scientists believe they'll be able to figure out why cancer cells are virtually immortal, and then apply the secret to keeping normal cells alive much longer, thereby dramatically expanding the human life span.

* Clown fish can alter their gender as their social status rises.

* When she is born, a baby girl has all the ova she will ever have.

* Bluebirds cannot see the color blue.

* Gregorian chants can cure dyslexia.

* Bob Hope donated half a million jokes to the Library of Congress.

* Bees perform a valuable service for the flowers from which they steal.
* "Leafing through Forbes or Fortune [magazine]s is like reading the operating manual of a strangely sanctimonious pirate ship," wrote Adam Gopnik in *The New Yorker.*

* Revlon makes 177 different shades of lipstick.

* Your tongue is the strongest muscle in your body.

* The most frequently shoplifted book in America is the Bible.


From this site

keep falling on my head

on a rainy night coming down Victoria Drive, originally uploaded by jill y.

Dear Vancouver,

This whole business of being in a rain forest- you take this too seriously. It doesn't make sense- you know- you've set up a coffee shop or restaurant every 10 feet with a patio. Sure, sure I get it. You don't get those ass biting cold blasts from the north like Alberta and so you figure people will enjoy those patios. But can we just think about this for a second.

You rain. Alot. You set up patios everywhere and have no awnings to protect people from the rain. You don't sell umbrellas unless they fit in a small handbag, are ridiculously ugly and black. The only awnings you have created are huge glass overhanging ceilings on cement sidewalks downtown.

I think someone forgot to tell you that you're also on a major plate shifting fault line and we're scheduled in the next 1000 years to have a massive earthquake. Thanks for all the glass. It's really pretty. Especially when it rains.

Can you just let up for a moment so we can enjoy it before it all comes crashing down?

Thanks.
Jill

drill baby, drill

I thought I had chipped the enamel on my tooth drinking nut smoothies or something. All of a sudden I had searing pain in a tooth one day. The next day it didn't really get better and it was getting uncomfortable. So, I did the most natural thing to do, I bought myself dinner and drank my tea with a straw, avoiding "the sensitive area".

Well, today it was a bit much when just mentioning I had a tooth ache made me cry. I know I'm a bit stressed out right now, but that wasn't a reaction I was expecting. I phoned my dentist and managed to get in right away.

They did a few tests with liquid ice and warm water and concluded the root of my tooth was dead. It's dead they said. The tooth has died. There was a death on my body and I didn't even know! Tears erupted again. I thought I would be taking the tooth home in a tiny matchbox coffin. My fingers felt numb and I wondered where I would get a tiny shovel and how I would carve a tiny cross.

My the dentist reassured me that no- I could keep my dead tooth where it was and they were simply going to drill to inner core, wash out the dead nerve, put a little medicine in there and filler up again. Then, they said the 2 words no one ever wants to hear:

Root canal

It actually wasn't so bad. They dumped a truckload lot of freezing in there. Right now my left nostril is completely numb. I didn't feel a thing. I hummed along to the drill and gurgled incohesive words and tried to make eye contact with my teeth surgeons.

Then I did the most appropriate thing. I went and bought all soft foods. Perogies, Corn Chowder, arrowroot crackers and....
..ice cream.

it takes a village

IMGP2431.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

Snapped in Greenwich Village. Michael and I popped in to buy a pack of Nat Sherman's for a friend of his.

Of this kooky little shop- there is an interesting fact to point out:

laid permanently in in the sidewalk (you can just make out the point of the plaque right at the door) is a marker that reads:

"Property of the Hess Estate
which has never been dedicated for public purposes"

"There used to be a five-story residential building on Christopher Street called the Voorhis. It was condemned in the 1910s to make way for the IRT subway. However, the Voorhis' owner, David Hess, refused to surrender this small plot to the city to become part of 7th Avenue South's new sidewalk. The Hesses created this mosaic to let everyone know of their small (VERY small) victory against the city.

Village Cigars moved to its present corner site in 1922, and bought the 500-square inch property from the Hesses for $1,000. The mosaic has stayed put."

and the envelope says...

You're the next contestant on the crazy train.

And that's what can happen in life and it can come cleverly disguised as a piece of mail.

One minute it's a simple brown envelope. Flat. Crisp. Punctual in it's neatly typed address label. Stamped.

The next it's a can of whoop-ass crazy with a jagged torn metal cuff and some sort of halitosis of the brain inside.

That.is.all.I.will.ever.say.

I have a little white cat who long ago became accustomed to having 24hr access to the outdoors. When I moved to my new apartment I had to construct Ruby's ability to get in and out through a small window 5 ft off the ground. So a little ramp was constructed and the window remained open.

In all effort to be more energy efficient, my landlord constructed a window to fit in the window. A frame fitted with plastic sheeting and a little cardboard door- just slightly bigger than Ruby's head. So, sometimes, you can hear her scratching on the ramp and then her little pink nose pushed the cardboard door and her little head emerges.



Funnier still is when the last thing you see is the last of her one leg as she makes her way down the ramp immediately on the other side.

It's that time of year again...

...when I agree to post everyday in the month of November. This should be interesting given that I have been prone to uninspired and somewhat angry inner thoughts lately. These have been systematically kept off my blog in the past, due to the fact that the very nature of this portal- as indicated by the title- is to post the things that need more kisses (or praise, or exposure..).

Mmmn.. maybe I just answered my own conundrum.

Onwards.. to National Blog Posting Month. Who's with me?

hello- my name is jack

hello- my name is jack, originally uploaded by jill y.

busy bees

Ya- I don't have too much to say right now. I'm kind of busy and not feeling creative. Today might have gone the way that many before it had.. off to work, solve problems, work late, come home, make dinner or order in, retreat to beautiful flannel sheets, and the biggest puffiest feather duvet I could buy covered in flannel. Get cat to purr in the crook of my arm. Fall asleep.

But tonight is different..back in May I decided to buy a ticket to the Madonna concert. I almost forgot about it and now I'm running late.. but tonight is different than the last few.


I'll fill you in later...

on green, originally uploaded by jill y.

guess where

guess where, originally uploaded by jill y.

Janis Joplin's Bathtub

Janis Joplin's Bathtub, originally uploaded by jill y.

Did I ever tell you about the time I talked my way in to the house Janis Joplin owned when she died? No? Maybe I'll tell you that story tomorrow.

{72/365} love in silly places, originally uploaded by happygirltc.

You know when all things seem to happen at once and there is almost no time to get anything done lest of all hire someone to help you.. there really is only one thing to do and that's..


I desire one of these lovely posters/ tshirts/ bags/ whatever but they don't ship to Canada. Must find another way..Heidi.. may be this is the thing you can help me get from the UK.

update: I have the shirt ordered!! YA

and here's the history behind...

"a bird in the hand"

"a bird in the hand", originally uploaded by jill y.

For Friday

where ever you go- there you are.

In March, on a Wednesday, I found I was going to Tokyo on Friday- for a week. I stayed in a remarkable hotel styled after the hip era of the 1970's except with rice paper screens and toilets that cleaned up up after. I found charming little sun powered bobble head dolls and had to buy another piece of luggage to being 10 of them back because they were 5 bucks each. I also bought a vintage kimono on the street. Tokyo was cool.

In May, I took off for Toronto and caught up with a dear old rocker friend, Gene, for a few drinks and laughs before I took off for Havana with a 2am arrival. The tropical air engulfed me and under mild intoxication from crushed mint and rum- Cuba and I had a 2 week love affair and I visited 10 different and crazy places.

A week after coming home from Cuba, I was whisked off to the tropical paradise of Scottsdale Arizona to entertain the masses with my funny jokes and fresh face mask making. The hotel was brilliant. Like an oasis.

In July, I was packed again and headed for London, where I was met at the airport by my old friend Heidi. We stopped talking to one another nearly 15 years earlier and pretty much picked up just about where we left off but better. I met her charming partner Matt and their happy little baby- Indie. We spent the day in the park eating cheese, fruit and drinking ciders. So perfect.

Then for the next 5 days, I lived in the Selsdon Park Compound where I partook in team building exercises, dressed up like Tippy Hedren from The Birds complete with fake blood and a million tiny birds, engaged in vegan cuisine, lead discussions on Motivation, and conducted a presentation in front of the leaders of the 5 global Lush Manufacturing Companies. Then I had summarize the NA Manu meeting in front of all of global Lush. I like to say I was motivated by fear.
I did manage to sneak away in London and find a 300 year old cheese shop. Nuff said.

On the heels of London, I flew to Edmonton to meet with my bike and do a little trail riding for old time's sake. I met up with old friends Pete, Vince, Tracy, Sean, Sherry, Sandy, Elizabeth, Alf, Evan, and anybody else I could happen to find. A little Folk Fest action happened (along with Heritage Days and Fort Edmonton). Took a drive down into the country and saw my mom and grandmother. Always perfect.

In September, it was time to pack my bags again for a whirlwind trip to NYC where in a flurry activity the Christmas Lush lineup was set up and presented to the NY Press. I got to be demo girl extraordinaire and make my favorite product ever- Angels on Bare Skin and talk it up and give it away to gate crashing editors. Then we tore it all down in one night and I walked away from the Hudson Hotel and headed for the Chelsea.

And for 2 glorious nights, Michael and I stayed in the historic Chelsea Hotel, in a room with a balcony and regretfully- no ghosts. We made friends with the cafe around the corner and wandered aimlessly through the West Village, Greenwich, Soho and Central Park and did nothing.

And there it is- my year of wanderlust and wonderful opportunity. Lest I forget how fortunate I have been this year.

I stumbled upon this Etsy seller. This bag is so gorgeous I half wonder if I could commission a similar one with something similar to my wheat and rose tattoo?? So pretty..

from the archives..

True stuff folks, from the archives of Time Magazine...

Monday, Feb. 11, 1929

Ring

At Saint-Brieux, France, one Victor Rousoult was walking along the docks where he worked, when a dangling hook caught in the ring on his finger. The derrick from which the hook dangled hoisted ring, finger and Rousoult 100 feet into the air. Comrades saw, shouted. The derrick lowered Rousoult to the ground. When he was within a few feet of landing, his finger tore off.

Aged

Near Cairo, Egypt, last week, the police commandant discovered, living alone in a six-foot shack, an Arab who said he was born at the opening of the American Revolution (153 years ago) and who remembered the massacre of the Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali in 1811.

In the village of Latti in the Caucasian mountains, last fortnight, Henri Barbusse, French author, discovered a peasant named Nikolai Andreyevich Shapkofski who has a social insurance card showing that he is 146 years old and entitled to draw a pension of 50 rubles ($27.50) a month. Peasant Shapkofski has only one tooth left and therefore does not eat as heartily as he did a few years ago. But he still drinks plenty of wine. His last child, a daughter, was born when he was 120 years old.

Near Siler City, N. C., last fortnight, a woman reporter interviewed "Uncle" Ance Watson, 112, onetime slave, and his son, 75. Said Watson Sr.: "If my Missus didn't go to Heaven, den Heaven is sho scarce of white folks."

In Rochelle, Va., Mrs. Elizabeth Davis, 93, was cutting, last week, her third set of natural teeth.

Latchkey

In Willesden, England. Magistrate Lloyd Williams upheld the right of a father to take away the latchkey of a daughter who stayed out after 10 p. m.

Well.. whatyaknow..

don't forget to send a thank you note to life

The annual celebration of Thanksgiving came and went and mostly I was thankful for an extra day off but then I kind of gave it some thought.

So.. in no particular order, thanks for:

• Parents that were/are pretty decent human beings who made sure I had a clean bed, breakfast lunch and dinner and new clothes and school supplies every Sept.
• Family of amazing character on both sides behind them.
• A farm in my childhood.
  
• my beloved maternal grandfather. I've missed you terribly for 33 years.
  
• family pet cats. Duchess and Ming
• My maternal grandmother who taught me to bake bread, crotchet, knit, embroider, sew and raised my lovely mother- among other things
  
• My mother who always maintained it was better to be my parent than my friend. Now she is my best friend.
• My sister who gives me pillows that say, "I'm smiling because you are my sister and laughing because there is nothing you can do about it."
  
• My father for giving me my intellect and stubbornness and maybe some "issues" but I'd be nowhere without them or at least not wonderful me.
  
• my job for it's flexibility, challenges, frustrations and opportunities
• cheese- the first time I ever felt passionate about anything
• hostels- the first time I felt really truly happy was when I lived in one for a month.
  
• my beautiful Michael and for the last 5 years. I always suspected love could be so effortless and simple.
• the boyfriends of the past for I see now that it isn't supposed to be a struggle.
• old blues music you make me feel calm
• white sneakers, Levi's and white t-shirt- you are my uniform
• wheat and wild roses- you are my preferred landscape
• health- without you I'd be sick and sick sucks
• clinical depression- you taught me to be less hard on myself and to try and eat my greens. I love how you slink around in the background waiting to pounce again. You're so playful in your darkness, you funny thing you.
  
• Jon Penner, Sandy Smith, Rob Grant, Sue Foley- you 4 made up some of the best times in my 20's. They were roaring thanks to you.
  
• photography- I always wanted to draw or paint pictures. Thanks for filling in the blanks,
• mashed potatoes, butter and gravy.
• art nouveau
• Cuba- I loved you
• Scotland- you're hot
• my cool landlord's who care more about a community in the house than making a buck
• Ruby- the playful white cat that sleeps in the nook of my arm at night
• bird song and prancing squirrels
• bike riding
• friends in Edmonton- Tracy, Vince, Evan, Alf, everyone- you make coming home worth it
• friends in far away places- Bess, Heidi, Tim- you make getting out of dodge a possibility
• my blog. you need a revamp but without you, where would all this stuff go???
  

just because..

janis jOplin, originally uploaded by PinCheCha_Sk8.

dinner time

I'm burnt out. Sold. Done. You know the drill- nothing to say and I don't feel like cooking- except this... Western Spaghetti.



Stop Motion Spaghetti Cooking - Watch more free videos

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, you were talking so brave and so sweet, giving me head on the unmade bed, while the limousines wait in the street.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel, you were talking so brave and so sweet, giving me head on the unmade bed, while the limousines wait in the street., originally uploaded by jill y.

5 friends

I remember you well at the...

IMGP2316.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

You can see the rest of my photos from the historic Chelsea Hotel here.

power walk to Central Park-Upper Westside, NYC

IMGP2376.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.