Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ten again and again and...

Seems the older we get the more we
find ways to revert back to our
childhood selves...
(and if we do? Lucky us, lucky everyone)

Reminded recently, of this
when reading my friend Jodi's blog
"License to fly"
(It is a must read, really...
(I am such a fan and her humorous
storytelling inspires me to step it up.)

Seems she loves Halloween...
always has, even when she dressed up
on "dress up day" and no one else in her class did.
Ouch!

So she stated, she is going around town in a
her big black witch hat...
and a laminated mock up
of a license "to fly" complete with a
picture of her in her hat...
some are entertained
and some are not!

I will come back to this...

When the hula hoop came back into my life!
loved it...we were using it as a
paddling warm up...
but it was always bumping along
where it didn't belong...
like down around my ankles.

Had a department store version,
of it in my backyard for occasional use
you know the one with the marble sound,
which actually seemed to
throw me off rather then help,
then the hoop suffered, as most things,
do in the desert " of heat stroke,"
and it cracked in half...

When an old classmate
saw some pics on Facebook
of my attempts to hoop recently,
she sent me a link
to Hoopnotica and all the wonders
that are possible
of hula hooping as adult, is discovered!

I directly, ordered a portable one...
and where are you going to take it?"
a friend asked me
"EVERYWHERE!"
And I am!

It is the cadillac of hula hoops,
truly...one spin and I was hooked...
(if I am your friend...
YOU, are probably getting one for your birthday
or PHD graduation, Valentines or whatever!)

Although, I am not sure yet...
but hoping,
if you are over fifty like me,
and like wine, like me
it might even hoop off
that little "wine belly.

A recent book by Jodi Picoult had
a character that was a writer...
she wrote all over her pants...
this intrigued me and had a
slight familiarity to it...
So I did it as well,
added color to "my pants with words"
and there it was
I was ten again...
(not sure why I am always ten,
and not any other age in these stories?
hmmm??)

Ten, and in one of my many tree houses in 1969
with torn sheets and colored marker ed
hand written words on
everything...curtains, pillows,
probably even the T shirts I wore
all with the famous classic cliche's
of the 60's like peace symbols,
"make love, not war"
(at ten, what did could that even mean?)
and "if you love something blah blah, set it be free
blah blah,"
not really a fan of that one!

At fifty,...I wrote more current
profound things like
"be the sky and
beauty attracts beauty"

Anyways, I hope to run into Jodi
somewhere like Safeway,
with her hat on,
(and the bubble wand holster
she promised to create)
and I will have my "wordy pants" on,
my portable hula hoop over my shoulder
and we will look at one another
with a smirk of familiarity
and "high five" our kid selves
satisfied not to be
the only one
living it large and strange in Havasu!

And may be,
there is a clothing line
in the future for us
called..."When We Were Ten"
and we will wear witch hats
all year long and pants with words!

And why not!??

Pam
Piper Rain

http://creagerstudios.blogspot.com/2009/10/heyshes-got-licence-to-fly.html
http://www.hoopnotica.com/


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Waz up 123

Yes,
My feet HAD to be marked
sad, but true...

All my social moments now?
Are about this dance,
learning it, practicing it,
talking about it...
and we have a new language,
to go with it
"waz up 123,
shake-it-and-a-uppa,
roar turn roar turn,
and rock on rock on rock on,"
We fall asleep to them
wake up to them..
(standing in the post office line,
mumbling them,
feet even moving a bit)
and my dogs and cats
have been coerced into participating
when my "feet marking" friends
aren't available...
It seems...I am certifiably?
Thrilled!

We practice and practice
and practice...
in the driveway
(this dance requires a lot of room)
following the only one
who really knows all the moves
and well...
when it is clear I am a liability,
always going the wrong way,
the sharpie comes out.
(Should have been two L's)

Didn't we all have things that
growing up,
we really wanted
to believe we could do
and probably tried
and it turned out so wrong
that even tho the embarrassment
didn't kill us,
we wished in that moment,
it had
and thats what is remembered
in every cell of our being...?

Mine, was in high school,
when I got an invitation
to participate in a beauty pageant,
(few know this,)
think it was Betty Crocker thing,
and probably randomly
came from a box of cake mix!

Picture hippie jock introverted poet me?
in a pageant!!
I did it, for my mom
cause she wanted the beauty queen
kind of daughter and the not
the very strange one she ended up with.
ha
I had my hair permed which
turned out badly,
my eyebrows waxed
which also turned out badly,
My talent?
was reading a poem I wrote
to "Nadia's Theme" while surrounded
by all of my adolescent paintings,
also a distaster...

And we had to dance,
on stage, in front of thousands,
in heels and a long flowing dress
never did get the moves,
always going in the wrong direction
and was finally asked to just help
with "things" back stage!

Stuck to being my hippie jock self
after that!

This time I don't want to help back stage
I want to dance!!
And after last nights rehearsal
and a complete run thru
(this routine is 6 minutes long,
an eternity when trying
to remember what comes next)
I announced...
"okay, this is possible
won't be pretty, but it is possible."

On the way out the door
my "tattle tale friend" says ...
"at least you found a use
for those man hands of yours"
thanks...
I may have two left feet but
my hands make pretty
good zombie claws!

Gotta take the gifts
where ya can find them!
Pam






Monday, October 19, 2009

In search of Steffani

So my trip to Taos continues to
take on more layers
and chapters and levels
and magic...

Magic that brings together...
art, technology, communication
the past, the present,
artists now and then
and random gifts...

Two new books about Georgia,
are on their way to me...
it was after writing about
the spiral staircase to no where,
that this image
of her orange ladder
to no where...
a supposedly familar piece,
one I didn't know,
shows up in a magazine,
where I am staying...
so simple yet seems to say
"climb, believe,
imagine a way to the sky
see what happens."

Okay, it is final, I love Georgia!!
I am an official fan!

(refer to previous blogs to catch up)

So I also, felt inclined to find Steffani,
(now that I found Georgia)
the woman who wrote the Taos note.
I had dubbed her "note girl"
to friends and fans...
(sorry, Steffani, I am sure
your much more than that)

Being a fan of Facebook,
many (non-users) have asked "why?
I don't get it...who cares?"
But Facebook is magic...
a phenomenon...
it connects,
brings home long lost friends,
ones, who we used to sing
the Sound of Music with, in a cemetary,
or run miles, side by side with,
maybe even sat inside a hollowed out
wash machine in the rain,
(actually, I am still looking for "them")
and sometimes, those friends
we didn't know
we were missing or looking for
and then there are those we
have just begun to be inspired by!

I have learned that there
are portable hula hoops,
that an old boyfriend is famous
and still so sweet,
a collection of class reunion pics,
I missed
and wished I hadn't...
and someone who even
wanted to be like me in High School?
(OMG, have you seen my H.S pictures?)

and most significantly this...
I found a note in a tree
written by an artistic woman
teaching in Houston,
created for herself, to be inspired by
and return to...
a woman, also not a fan of Georgia,
until she read a book
(the one I ordered)
and found herself in Santa Fe/Taos
searching for Geogia O'Keefe
like me...

With Facebook, I sought to find her
and say thank you,
(intially, it was thru her student...thanks Ryan)
That I have...
and she is a kindred spirit,
one I expect and hope to know well.

Randomness, creativity,
and the internet met
one another tonight
and assisted in an exchange
of amazingness... how cool is that... really?

So do you have a story?
There has to be other's?
Who is your artistic hero?
I welcome your sharing...

and do you ever wonder...
would she...Georgia
have been on Facebook,
would DH Lawerence
have had time to blog,
would Vincent have stopped painting
long enough to have a website
and what if he had felt supported
by his fan page?
...well, that is a whole nother blog!

Thanks for reading!
Piper Rain