“Climb Every Mountain…”

Ah, yes. The opening lyrics to one of my favorite childhood movies, “The Sound of Music.” Maria begins by running through a high alpine meadow singing about how you have to keep searching, climbing mountains and fording streams, until you find your true purpose in life. It seems like I have been singing this song a lot lately at Rocky Mountain high.

Update: I’ve now hiked 5 Fourteeners! A personal statistic that I didn’t necessarily think I would have achieved this time last year. In looking back through the pictures I think it is simply amazing how similar yet at the same time different each peak is:

Gray's Peak Sept. 2010

Quandary Peak October 2010

Bierstadt Peak October 2010

Torrey's Peak July 2011

Mt. Elbert July 2011

As learned on Quandary Mountain, “there are no easy fourteeners”

Hiking is one of my favorite summertime Colorado activities. It provides a vast array of offerings to a person: a challenge, vigorous exercise, scenic alpine tundra landscapes, and an awesome sense of accomplishment. I would say it is a form of therapy, in fact.

Thesis Blues

When all this is over I’m going to make a lot of art again.

Dreaming

Similar to the dress in my dream

I’m not all that into dream interpretation, especially when the dreams are very strange, scary, or nonsensical. However, when I have that occasional pleasant dreamtime experience, I like to think it means something. I’m a forget the bad and remember the good type of person, I suppose. Last night I dreamt I was getting married. Out of all the weird dreams that I have on a weekly basis, I think the “wedding theme” dream is a first for me.

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 I was in the reception hall on the day of the wedding, prepping tables with my Mom and my cousin, Jamie, who in real life just got married in February (prepping tables in the venue is something I did at her wedding with her family).

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I felt so excited and happy.

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A number of very cool things happened in the dream: 1) The wedding was in Africa!  2) My wedding dress was white and reminiscent of a 1920′s flapper dress, lacy and with fringe (like the picture above) 3)My Mom handed me a white shawl with fringe and brightly colored delicate flower embroidery and said to me, “I found this in a shop and just picked it up because I thought you would like it” and I did! That is definitely something she would do and say in real-life.

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The activity in the dream involved me gathering together all my clothing and accessories to get ready to change. In my hand I held a pair of large tear-drop pearl earrings and they were clip-ons (alright, THAT is weird). When I commented on how weird it was that I was wearing clip-on earrings for my wedding my cousin said to me, “Oh, I wore those at my wedding too, they are great,” as if wearing clip-ons was something every bride did. I remember being so excited to get ready and wear my dress, and so happy to get married! I was just about to go into the changing room to get ready and then I woke up. Throughout the entire course of the dream I never knew who the groom was, but I remember feeling very content so he must have been a good one.

The Day Trader

Wise words from bluegrass band Hot Buttered Rum:

“Life is more than just a dream, it’s the gift for which we die
Life is flowing like a stream just don’t let it pass you by
When you wake up you will find, that you’ve been there all the time
Try to open up your mind, just remember to be kind

And open up your mind, just remember to be kind
And open up your mind, just remember

Drive fast fly high, look out the window as your world goes by
Stop frequently and mingle with the scenery

And in the end, did you make it rich or make a friend
And in the end, it’s not the buck you made but how you spend your time, so

Buy low sell high, just don’t let your life pass you by
While you are sitting there in front of your computer screen

And open up your mind, just remember to be kind
And open up your mind, just remember to be kind”

Burning Man Tickets

I just found out that Burning Man tickets are predicted to sell out this year, for the first time in its history! Good thing I got mine…

My Beautiful “Rites of Passage” Ticket for 2011

Untouchable Face

Excerpt from Ani D.’s song, Untouchable Face. Listened to it in the car on the way to work today, really like it. Maybe I like it now, rather than in the past, because I actually experienced a moment like this last week.

…..

I see you and I’m so perplexed
What was I thinking?
What will I think of next?
Where can I hide?
…
In the back room there’s a lamp
That hangs over the pool table
And when the fan is on, it swings
Gently side to side
…
There’s a changing constellation
Of balls as we are playing
I see orion and say nothing
The only thing I can think of saying
…is…

OK so I editted for content. Still a great song – Ani is so great at building a picture of a scene with her poetry.

Paper Tangos

I’ve been off and on reading a book for my thesis called Paper Tangos, by Julie Taylor. It is an innovative ethnohistorical reflexive work surrounding tango in Argentina. In other words…it is a book that not many people check out. Well, I found a little note inside, torn from the corner of a gray sheet of paper. I don’t know how long it has been in the book. On the little scrap of paper is a message:

“This is the girl I’m marrying.

This is the hard drive

This is the ocean.”

OK mystery writer, come out and make yourself known!

My photo of this is pretty pathetic, but you get the idea.

Our roots run deep.

Kaye and Kat Italian Tram 2005

Today. One day and one day only special. Kaye is in town! Celebrate friendship always!

Here Together

We sit here together

Counting the clouds as they roll across our faces

Like we are watching

Grains of sand dropping into a glass

One by one, we dismiss their passing

Each fleck a moment gone, gone, good bye.

~

Unsure of our path

Will we remember how we feel today?

When we are sitting under a different sky

Separated by countless clouds

Unable to revel in the subtle moments

Resting, in between our sighs.

~

For right now

You are my family, my strength.

Though uncertainty has made its mark on us

I know that I would never change

This time we have together

Sharing, loving, and laughing along our way.

[I wrote this for my best friends. I've been lucky enough to live with a handful of them this year and it has made me thankful for all the friends I've met along my journey through life.]

Devotion

I just finished reading Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom. For such a short and sweet read this book is incredibly powerful. One of the many meaningful messages the book gave me is expressed in Morrie’s statement from p. 127:

“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.“