have ____, will travel.

Have love, will travel.
Have laptop, will travel. [Not absolutely necessary.]
Have camera, will travel. [Absolutely necessary ... might even need to buy a better camera.]
Have money, will travel. [This one might be the deal-breaker ...]

I'm itching to travel. And I have an endless list of places I want to go. Anyone wanna come with?

golly!

I have so many books to read and so much knitting to do! I keep getting new books and adding them to my list to read:

• Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Girl Who Played With Fire
• Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
• Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
• The Botany of Desire
• The Color Purple

I won't list the things I need to knit. On principle. If you know me, you know what I'll be knitting. 

Good thing I have a day of travel ahead of me! I have some work to do!

rain, rain, sun, rain.

In Oregon, as I've been told for however long, it rains during the winter. Sometimes there's snow. But mostly, just rain. And they talk about "dry spells" on the weather ... days without rain. The rest of the days, presumably "normal winter days" are rainy.

We arrived in Oregon on Friday evening and it was raining. It rained on Saturday (while we ran around the cemetery looking for our great grandparents' graves, and while we waiting outside to get our Voodoo Doughnuts) and it rained on Sunday (while we ran into the church for Grandpa's memorial service). Yesterday it was sunny and lovely! We went for a walk. Today it rained. I'm growing accustomed to the rain, but I miss the snow in New England! I brought my new winter boots with me out here ... and I must say I'm very glad that I did! They're water proof and they make me happier to go out in the rain!

So here we go, out in the rain, to go to Grandma's quilt group meeting! I'm bringing my knitting with me ... she said sometimes they just sit around and knit. At the quilt group meeting. What can I say, sounds like my cup of tea!

I'm realizing that with the proper attitude and clothing to wear it's making the rain entirely bearable!!! And Grandma and I just laugh and run through the rain to the car. Yahoo!!!

Grandpa

My grandpa passed away last night. Donald Porter Mitchell. He passed peacefully in his sleep, just as he wanted. We used to sit on the couch when I was little with my toy tape player and microphone and play airplane. You were the captain of our flight and made all of the announcements. I was always your copilot. I still collect stamps for you. It's hard for me to throw them away. We used to sit with you and look through your stamp collection. Today is for celebrating life and remembering the good times. Rest in peace grandpa. I love you!

The man loved to laugh! And it was infectious.

Grandpa's model face. 

Family.

yoga: my drug of choice.

I guess I can't go on without saying that coffee is also my drug of choice. But today, yoga was it for me. Drug of choice, therapy, sanity-saver, pain relief, and so many things un-named. Now that I've moved it was time to find a space for doing yoga. At my old place I had space on the floor in my room. Not so much the case anymore. But now that the living room has been rearranged, a new yogaspace has been opened up to me. Yogaspace: a place in which to do yoga esp. a flat, hard surface without distractions, and ideally with some privacy. So that's what I did this afternoon.

Now I'm embarking on the (my dad will like this) pilgrimage-of-sorts to find a new place to take yoga classes. I have a few places that I'm going to check out, and I can't say that I've actually gotten off my tush to go check them out, but maybe I'll do that later this week. My body has been so out of yoga-shape lately since I've been waiting until a space was cleared that it's nice to know that there are some possibilities out there for classes to attend. And they're not that far away either!

... I left and had dinner while I was in the middle of this post and now I've forgotten exactly where I was going with this ... at any rate:

As I was saying, yoga is my drug of choice. It's amazing what it does for me. It loosens me up, it relaxes me, it helps me to be centered and balanced, it helps me stay calm, it helps my body feel better, it makes me feel healthier. I could go on and on. At any rate, bodies are pretty important things to keep healthy!

Before I ramble on about this any longer ...

"I am convinced that life in a physical body is meant to be an ecstatic experience." - Shakti Gawain 

Thirty-One Main

The restaurant we were going to go to this evening was closed ... unexpectedly so. So we walked down the street and tried a new place! Thirty-One Main in Ayer, MA. It's a classy little place with a nice looking bar, cloth napkins, waiters dressed in all black, big windows to the street outside, low-key enough that jeans are totally okay, relatively dim lighting, but not so dark that you can't see your food! It was great! I had the Feta, Spinach pizza with Sliced Fresh Tomatoes, Greek Olives, Onion, and some Monterey Jack cheese. I had it without the olives, because they're not my favorite, and it was fantastic! The pizza crust seemed to be freshly made in-house and the toppings together were incredible. Savory, delicious, juicy but not dripping, cheesy, but not too cheesy, and the toppings stayed on instead of all falling off with one bite. It was wonderful. It's not the cheapest of places, but it's possible to get in and out without making too much of a dent in the funds and still having a great meal. Yay for new restaurants. Click here to check out their website, menu, and the upcoming gigs!

f*** you and f*** her too.

Ain't that some shit. 

New Year's Resolutions 2011

1. Leave the country. (Read: include some other country in my travels for this year ... at least Canada.)
2. Keep doing yoga, and do more of it!
3. Get outside and go hiking more often.
4. Read more books.
5. Spend more time on adventures and doing new things.

Some of these are somewhat vague and leave room for interpretation. That's the general idea. Cheers to a great beginning of a new year!

Happy 2011!!!