what to wear part 2

wore my mechanic suit to baby ballet yesterday but no one really noticed b/c all of the attention was (as it should be) on the babies, who yes, were supercute + all, but i was sad that they were all princesses of some kind (damn you, disney! damn you to HECK!). except one girl, who was "a cat named stripey". i love that she named her cat costume, which did indeed have stripes. of the boys, my fave was a smurf (in full blue-face + removable foam nose that didn't have a chance of staying on).

i've decided the best halloween costume of all time would be pittsburgh steeler troy polamalu. although this photo shows his face (kind of), when you watch him on TV you mostly see him from behind as he hurls himself at opposing players. troy is very good at his job.


all i'd need is a steelers helmut attached to a whole lotta hair, a #43 jersey + some pads. if i start prepping now, i might be ready for next year's baby ballet. 

what to wear

i love dressing up any day of the year except for halloween, which requires a *costume* that others can easily recognize. i don't do costumes so well- i just pile on my favorite shiny + fluffy clothes. i'll wear my cape out to dinner, just cuz. but the pressure of coming up with a costume that's clever + non-gendered AND that makes sense to ppl besides me can be overwhelming.


this year i need possibly three costumes for halloween. 1 for the baby ballet class that i play piano at; 2 for the school day; and 3 for trick-or-treating w/my friend's kids later that night. each occasion has it's own challenges. last year i was a zombie mechanic, which i really liked, but i don't want to freak out the the babies at ballet. (last week we went around the circle + everyone said what they were going to be: princess, mermaid, katy perry, cheerleader, and then me: "mechanic"). for the school day, i need something that's not too distracting. and then when i go out later that night, i'll be w/a 2-year-old dressed as red riding hood + her little brother as a wolf, so i'm gonna be upstaged no matter what. 


halloween brings up a lot of gender issues for me (i cringe at all the adult costumes that have the word "sexy" in the title). i know a lot of girls will be wearing costumes involving skirts or dresses (see above baby ballet discussion), so i feel like i should make an extra effort to dress up as something not conventionally "girly" (and here i have issues w/costumes involving skirts being considered girly). hence the mechanic (plus the jumpsuit is super comfortable). on the other hand, there's no shame in wearing skirts, no matter your gender, right? witches are a great example of strong female characters. so is carmen sandiego, but i don't think any of the kids would get it, plus i don't have a red trench.


anyways, this is what's keeping me up at night this week. i'll probably be a non-zombie mechanic for baby ballet; a strong female witch for school; and an oakland A's fan for t-or-treating (green/yellow wig, A's jacket, glove). i'll take suggestions. meanwhile, here's a link to the best costume EVER:


bumblebee transforming costume

OOJ: volcano tart

burro alley cafe in santa fe calls it a volcano tart, but i call it the best life has to offer: a cone of chocolate mousse, topped w/chocolate shavings, hiding strawberries, dark chocolate, + almond paste in a pastry tart. here's a helpful cross-section photo:

OOJ: SNOW!! and aspens

on sunday we found snow in the sangre de cristo mountains east of santa fe. it's been so long since i've felt that crunchy-slushy texture under my feet; all i could do was spin + spin + spin for sheer joy.

and oh yeah, there were aspens too, which is what we'd gone to the mountains for in the first place. i am aspen-ignorant, but i liked how they smelled like birches + were turning color. i miss the reds + oranges of new england maples this time of year, but these guys weren't too shabby. 

i quickly stopped taking pics, b/c after all, how many times can you appreciate a photo of yellow trees? here's an aspen love collage:

TOD: Adele, "One and Only"

this song slays me, more by the gospel-styled blues piano + vocal melody than the lyrics (too optimistic for my taste). 


Adele, "One and Only"

i am so not in san francisco anymore

i live near downtown abq, but i work in schools located in "south valley", an area of abq which, according to wikipedia, has 1,323.3 ppl per square mile (the rest of abq has 3,010.7 ppl/sq. mi.; west hartford, CT has 2892.6 ppl/sq. mi.; sf has 17,160 ppl/sq. mi.). when i leave my urban neighborhood and cross into south valley, i feel like i'm entering a foreign country. my drive to work is lined with fenced fields holding in grazing horses. once i swore i saw a brown llama sitting serenely by himself in a sea of grass. i keep the windows rolled up when i'm driving to keep out all the dust that the trucks kick up. in other words, south valley feels like deep country to me.


here is the view from the end of the driveway of one of my schools. the school itself is the building in the distance.

on my way to work, i pass hand-lettered signs advertising ammo. i pass a trailer park. i pass a road called "gun club road". the other day i noticed this cluster of signs:

the signs on the ground are kinda hard to read, but they say (from front to back): alfalfa, straw, FEED, chicks, ice crushed block, frogs, crickets, pond turtles, baby turkeys, ducks, chicks, chukars (apparently it's a kind of bird- i had to google it), pheasants, guineas, rabbits, grass, hay, pigeon sale.

here's a goat i saw in the school parking lot:

i gotta say it was a good day

it's fall! my fave season. it's dropped down to the 60s during the day here in abq- feels just like san francisco, except not damp + foggy. in other words, everything fall is supposed to be: crisp, energizing... i'll stop before i start sounding like an ad for aftershave. found this (or it found me) in the post office parking lot just after the first official day of fall. surely it's a sign of good things to come.

this morning there was snow on the sandia mountains! seeing snow so close by makes me want to do a happy dance (which i did, to her majesty lady gaga's "born this way"). 

thanks, google images!

when i think about it, i don't know why i love fall so much. fall is the season of plants getting ready to die, animals prepping to hide out for months- it's a time for hunkering down + going underground. as much as i love running around in tank top + shorts all day, there's something soothing about wrapping myself in layers of cotton + wool + down: shirt, another shirt, sweater, hoodie, vest, scarf, hat. it's like nature telling me to put my head down on my desk  in a darkened classroom+ close my eyes to calm down after a wild + crazy recess. so i guess i'm looking forward to tucking my blankets in tight around me after a hard year + taking time to gather strength, to like myself again, to recognize the joy + beauty in what's around me + inside of me.

TOD: Method Man- World Gone Sour

check it out- method man (of wu tang clan and The Wire fame) raps about sour patch kids. that's it. fun for the whole family.


world gone sour

TOD: Afro Blue's cover of "American Boy"

NBC's "The Sing-Off" is crack for a music geek like me. i still can't believe a reality show about a cappella groups made it into a second season- a cappella can be so hard to relate to (think of the fictional Dalton Academy Warblers on Glee- God bless you, Criss Dalton/Blaine). i have to watch this show in private b/c to have anyone hear me scream "you call that a modulation?" and "is that all you could do with that chord!?!" is just terrible- terrible!- for my street cred.


but this week's version of Estelle's "American Boy" by Afro Blue of Howard University is so sick i'm willing to go public w/my addiction so you can hear this. if you can't listen to something w/o analyzing its harmonies, this'll keep you busy for a while.


Afro Blue's cover of "American Boy"