from my grandfather:

to polly: "at this new school you attend, do they properly honor you?"

about parfaits: "no thank you. i'm not sure i trust granola."

"if i weren't born mormon or had never joined the mormon church, i'd be an alcoholic. because i like drinks just so much...not milk or water but sodas and juice"

"descartes was eating a parfait in a restaurant. the waitress came by and asked if he would like some more to which he replied, 'i think not' and then he vanished."

about the over-the-top musical number my grandmother is having her grandchildren perform at her church: "mary (my grandmother), no one will know if we just play the cd and mouth the words. and we'll sound much better."

ode to you...most recent favorite coat of mine. as i learned of your most likely demise today i proceeded to place my repressed frustration of recent events (insert knee injury) into my reaction. this in no way diminishes my love for you and sadness at our relationship's end.

you were bought for my trip to chicago and served that purpose magnificently. you were warm on the really cold mornings. you were long enough to provide more modesty when i neglected to change after morning intensives and wore you over bike shorts and a tank top. i could easily leave my purse behind as your 4 roomy pockets held my keys, wallet, cellphone, camera, carmex and hair things. your hood covered up my ridiculous mulan hair and protected it from rain.

i grew close to you in chicago and embraced those memories as our relationship continued in slc. you endured the haunted corn maze...in fact numerous times as silly boys tried to scare me you held on to me close :) we continued to endure sans purse as i fully utilized the additional 2 pockets i discovered had never been unstitched. you provided additional coverage when i felt self conscious in my astro pants. always an easy pick on fall/winterish mornings because of your length, warmth and hood. you stuck with me on one of our final outings...the infamous adventure club trip where i took a fall.

dearest coat, who knew your demise would be at the hands of my pie baking grandmother and hot hot temperatures of her laundering.

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adventure in eureka

so. i tore my acl. on my left knee. funny story.

we started a group called the adventure club. we go on adventures. it's kind of awesome. well our first major adventure club activity was to drive down to eureka, ut and explore the abandoned mining towns.

well it was a really cold and windy day (a huge storm was coming in that night). at one point i was climbing on top of these cement wall type things...and goofing around...when a gust of wind came and blew me off. so as to not land in a pile of rubble, i propelled myself towards a cement area, that's safer right?

i tried to land on my feet which caused my left knee to buckle and collapse. ick.

so two of my guy friends were on the other side of the wall and saw me go down. i eventually got up and realized i couldn't put any weight on my knee (which was scary since every time i dislocated my knee before, i could at least hobble on it). so one of the guys very chivalrously carried me back to the car.

i felt a wee bit ridiculous about getting hurt and really wanted to stop for some liquid nirvana so we continued the adventure as planned and stopped at art city trolley.

i confided in the girls that my knee was swelling something awful and we decided to ditch the boys and head to the emergency room. b the w, if it isn't a true emergency the er is quite a waste of time, they recommended i see an orthopedic surgeon on monday.

so unable to walk, nycole really rescued me. she procured a cane; drove my car for me from eureka, to the er, to our place; helped me pack for thanksgiving in washougal; drove me to ward council and my grandparents; and walked next to me everywhere so i wouldn't slip on the snow or ice.

so on monday, my mom took me to an orthopedic surgeon who confirmed that yes, i had torn my acl. i was quite immobile and uncomfortable so he volunteered to drain my knee...60 cc's. it did make me much more comfortable.

it's been a week of ice and advil and i'm finally starting to feel more confident walking...hurrah!!

i will most likely need repair surgery sometime in january.

anyway, my knee saga continues :)

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since my family's untimely departure from texas i have begun to love tv shows filmed in texas. the good guys being one of them :) love the accents, love the dallas skyline, love the 'stache.

"let's go bust some punks!"

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:)

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trying to look on the brightside of life. and drinking all my water and juice out of an ikea wine glass (alex style :)

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feeling this way more and more.

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one of my favorite things about grey's anatomy (still a guilty pleasure...except i don't really feel guilty about it) is how often christina's character dances away.

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mmm...oreos.

so i kind of moved and no longer have daily internet access...for now. and i kind of love it. instead of surfing blogs/facebook/watching hulu/etc. i read before i go to bed. i turn on the lamp next to my bed and read. what a novel idea yeah? (he he he...)

AND i'm looking forward to a party tonight, fall favorites, which is guaranteed to include cupcakes (nycole style) and homemade mac n cheese. meaning extra cheesey creaminess goodness. harry potter premiere!! i'm also looking forward to thanksgiving (reinsert lamia, the jacksons, and washington family into my life...fyi i'm not including the dog here). shopping with polly at h&m, she came up with this idea :) football games! not watching but playing!! oh and i'm loving the all christmas music radio station. brilliant.

two gifts wrapped...about a bazillion (it seems) to go. never fear. i found an awesome idea for nephew yesterday. it has me pretty excited :)

and i'm getting my hair cut (finally) friday morning. nycole hooked me up with the hair dresser/cutter/whatevs and we had a fun chat on the phone, after i drastically told her, "i have very thin hair."

i'm getting so close to balancing in forearm balance and handstand. it's a constant check of:

1. push through the ball of the foot, spread the toes

2. tuck tailbone (which once you get upside down all directions get mixed up...kind of hard)

3. pull in abdominals/use core!

4. wrapped shoulders, push into the floor and essentially grow

it's exciting. if you haven't tried a handstand in awhile i highly recommend it. i like to do them against the wall a couple times a day.

as i was driving down the freeway passing a huge overhanging green sign about a million birds took flight. it was an awesome sight of the black birds against a blue sky with the green sign hanging out.

and the leaves have turned that awesome yellow color which makes me want to paint everything merigold yellow.

p.s. i'm not sure where i found the picture documenting two chocolate chip cookies with nutella in the middle but the author is definitely genius...like einstein genius.

one bonus to colder weather.

my feet turn to chucks for the winter :)

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i love red and orange poppies. i remember them from california when i was growing up. but i experienced a resurgence in spring of 2005 when i lived in the suburbs of paris. you'd see the poppies riding the train across the countryside, my daily ride into paris, and in the artwork. lams gave me a photograph with beautiful contrast, a gorgeous blue sky and poppies (even more dramatic than the one above).

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i had a chance to assist my forrest teacher brande yesterday for one of her classes. she had wrist surgery earlier this week and couldn't do hands on adjustments very well so i got to! the exhilaration or high you get from teaching and assisting in classes is amazing. at the end of the class when everyone is laying in savasana you can see their energy pulsing and filling the room.

i saw on facebook last night that they cancelled all forrest yoga classes at centered city yoga due to a lack of attendance. i know i'm a wee bit ridiculous but this made me really sad :( a good forrest yoga class leaves you feeling so powerful and connected. bronwen, who was teaching there would frequently sing during savasana, make jokes about elvis and would ask me how i was doing twice when she knew i wasn't quite telling the truth.

i stopped by my grandparents house to visit on tuesday which happened to be election night. they were set up with peanut m&ms, popcorn, rootbeer, chips, all for watching the results. and they were SO excited.

now my grandfather fell down the stairs about 2 months ago and broke his pelvis and collar bone. he spent almost a month in an assisted living center doing physical therapy etc. so when i saw him up and walking around i told him that he looked great. he responded, "i'm still not doing too well." then leaned in and whispered with a smile, "i'm trying to avoid the obnoxious tasks!"

my grandmother tends to boss him around, "father get this, father do that, etc." well we watched the elections for about 10 minutes when my grandmother brought out a king size quilt (she makes one for each of her grandchildren when they get married...she has over 75). she sets it on the table and then says, "father, come take out the basting stitches." he slowly gets up out of his lazy boy, sits down at the table and begins to slowly pull out threads with a sewing pin.

i come over and help and we talk about my family, etc. at one point i can tell he is frustrated with this menial task and yells out, "i bet stan doesn't have to pull out basting stitches!!!" (stan is my dad and his son).

my grandmother ignores the statement and says, "we can eat dinner as soon as you're done pulling out your basting stitches" (her pronoun selection is fantastic).

my grandfather continues to make comments every 5 minutes or so:

"i didn't sign up for this slave labor!"

"why couldn't you have done the stitches in red so someone can actually see them!"

after she makes another comment on his holding up dinner, "we could eat on the floor like indigenous people!"

my grandfather's comments are in good fun...he typically looks at me with a sly grin on his face afterwards. one of my favorites of the night however was about the musical number my grandmother is planning.

she has invited all of her children and grandchildren to sing a musical number at her church the day after christmas. there will be a harp, 2 cellos, 3 violins and a flute. she has burned the music divided up into parts on cd, organized practice times which start this weekend, etc. so it is quite the production. well, as i'm obligingly listening to the cd and singing along with my grandmother (she has turned off the election results for the time being) my grandfather says,

"i think you should just play the cd instead. tell all the grandkids to mouth the words. no one will know the difference. in fact it will probably sound better!"

again i turn around to see him chuckling and smiling as if to congratulate himself on what a good joke.

my grandmother and grandfather are quite the pair.

flamingos

i kind of love this.

the countdown to christmas has begun!!! which means i'm trolling diy sites for christmas present ideas (etsy i'm looking at you). just in case i do decide to use something, i'm not going to post about it here...yet. but i did discover a site the other day that was way cool awesome. 20x200.com

(limited edition prints x low prices) + the internet = art for everyone

i've definitely found some i love:

photograph of an art deco swimming pool. love the style of art nouveau/art deco. it all started (for me) with hector guimard in paris.

now this is said to be a birch forest. i look at it and see quaking aspens. which i love. which turn a fantastic yellow in the fall. a color which my grandfather said i could have. he gave it to me.

p.s. reading the artists description of the birch forest again, she talked about incorporating avocado coloring into the painting. avocados totally fall in the love column for me. and now i'm realizing unconsciously when i generated a random blog template with colors...i have an avocado themed blog. cheers :)