Feeling Strong Now!

Can you hear the theme from Rocky? Oh, yeah. See me running up the steps, towel around my neck. (Here's a confession: sometimes when I'm in the bathroom, brushing my teeth or washing my face, and one of the cats comes in to see what I'm doing, I'll drape the hand towel around their neck and sing the Rocky song to them. They hate this. They hate being draped with towels and will slouch out of the room, looking all skulk-y and making me laugh, which makes them flatten their ears back and hunt for the number for the SPCA.)

OK. So anyway. I feel better. I actually Took. A. Nap. Which I never do, as you know. But I felt so lousy, so unlike myself, that there was nothing else for it. I didn't sleep a lot, but I lay perfectly still, perfectly relaxed, and breathed for an hour. It was meditating while lying down. I got up and still felt crummy and didn't even really want to go to Starbucks, as I felt as if I might cry at any moment and was as tired as if I'd climbed many mountain ranges since getting out of bed. But we went, and Gabriel and The Wonder Gays (isn't that just the BEST name for a band?) all showed up and forced us at gunpoint to go out to eat with them, whereupon Gabriel and David did Bollywood interpretations of their favorite film genres, complete with much table dancing (not to be confused with lap dancing, which is a whole nother genre entirely, let me tell you), and made me laugh a LOT. And so, while still a little peckish and possible prodromal, as in getting-sick-tomorrow, I'm much happier. Still living in the Former House of Joy, now, temporarily (we hope) known as The House of Sadness and Gloom (the cats everywhere are continuously singing the blues, at top volume, so that you can't go anywhere without hearing them begging to be set free), but not having to lie down quite so often.

So I thought I'd show you some photos, since you've been so patient and all. Here are some Portland Photos for Your Viewing Enjoyment.

Oh! Before we left, my friend Julia came over and brought us this Protective Voodoo Doll and Flowers and then did a spell on our neighbors' house, which was very cool. I tried not to interrupt her while she did whatever-she-did. She's very cool that way. I once made her a voodoo doll--I think what we did is a secret, so I don't go into detail. Very cool, though. Julia is one of The World's Coolest People.

Here's My New Best Friend, YoLisaLisa, who's just fabulous in every way. We wanted to bring her home with us, but there's the problematic issues of The Husband and The Son. Gabriel and The Wonder Gays have fallen in love with her photo and are fighting over who gets to adopt her, claiming that The EGE and I have enough children, what with three of them and Sarah.

Here's Dale, another dear friend we get to see far too infrequently. We met her at Artfest and got to hang out with her there the next year and then hadn't seen her again until the signing in Fort Worth and again in Portland and so are feeling very lucky, having seen her twice in a matter of months. She's so cool. Send good thoughts her way, as she's facing shoulder surgery between now and Artfest, and we want her to heal rapidly so she can get back to making wonderful art, especially her jewelry!
Here's The EGE in front of a shop in Alberta Street, which explains the hair, of course. Alberta Street was cool--we took the free shuttle to Collage, a fantastic little art store PACKED with cool stuff--they and some other stores arranged the shuttle for Art and Soul attendees, absolutely free. Great people, good vibes.



And The EGE in front of Voodoo Donuts, which I told about earlier.



And with his Voodoo Donut Hand of Happiness (and Sugar). It was filled with Raspberry Blood, which he loved. Creepy husband! Don't bite me!


They had cool sidewalk stuff on Alberta Street. I loved this so much.

A cool sushi bar, where the conveyor belt carried the various dishes around and around, and you could pick them off and eat what you wanted. Very cool. We do not eat sushi and always do this thing when we see it: our friend Jenny Chang, who owns a Chinese buffet, loves sushi dearly and loves it even more when the entrees are STILL ALIVE (aieeeeeee!) and wave their tentacles at her as she lifts them to her mouth. We shudder whenever she tells us this, needless to say. And shudder again whenever we see or hear or think of "sushi." And do this little thing with our fingers making tentacles in front of our faces. Shudder.

There are some more photos on The EGE's camera, I think. But it's almost midnight, and I think I need a lot more rest, so I'm off to bed. Again.