The 12 Days of Paramore

On the first day of Christmas, Emma wore a Paramore t-shirt. Then she did it again for the next 2 days. I know that doesn't quite add up to 12 days, but I'm an English teacher, so it's pretty close.

Sister love. They are usually fighting.

Below, earrings made in Taos, NM.

***
...and just for the record, Tula and the cat hang like this all the time. Cat falls asleep there. Weird.

My dream room...

...is in a bus. Like this. Just me. Until I miss everyone. Or just for hiding out.

Why I come home

A peek into the corners of my world

My new-to-me sister, Sally.

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally with Emma and Tula

Above: Sally

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally, a serious shopper

Above: Our cousin Sarah, who is staying with Sally in the city for a while, my mom, Sal's dog, Oscar (yes, he's wearing an elf outfit), and Emma, at Sally's apt.

Above: Tula and Maren

So, this is hard to explain. I have a sister, two of them actually, who I didn't meet until 10 years ago. I was adopted at birth and had no idea they existed. I only knew I was born in Florida and that my birth mother was a teenager when she had me.

Then, to make a long story short, when the internet was still newish, I found a website that connected adoptees with their birth parents. On a whim, I tried it. A few weeks later, my birth mother, Tina, signed in as well. I got the trippiest phone call of my life.

"Hello, we think we've found your birth mother." Knock me over with a feather.

Even weirder, I was in NYC visiting my mom at the time and as it happened, so were my sisters Sally and Erika. We met. We had fun. I fell in love with them, but not without a bit of sadness: they were so bonded.

Erika is my half-sister. After Tina gave me up, she found another guy (my birth father was floating around, following the Grateful Dead or something) and had Erika (my half-sister). A few years later, she hooked back up with my birth father and had Sally (my full sister).

Erika is somewhere, not really in touch with me or Sally, but I hope she'll find her way back to us, or at least to Sally.

Sally and I have a connection. We are alike in so many ways (she's 11 years younger than me, btw). I adore her. I wont go into her life too much, because that's private, but suffice it to say, her life was much harder than mine.

An extra bonus: her daughter, Maren, and my younger daughter, Tula, are the same age. Cousins. They love playing together.

I can't wait to see her again.

Been awhile...I've missed you.

My mom's place on Amsterdam and 97th (above and below)

Below picture, from left to right: my brother, my mom, my daughter, my cousin Steph, my cousin Larry's boyfriend Tony (Larry is in Europe performing for several months)




Emma and Larry's Tony (below)

Me and my Tony (below)

Me mum (below)

So, a little late here, I know. But I thought I'd share some Thanksgiving pics anyway, even though it's already Hanukkah, heading into Christmas.

We went to my mom's in NYC for the holiday. My goal was simply to see the windows at Lord & Taylor's and Macy's. I ended up doing neither. But it's all good. I got to see my sister, Sally (that's a story I'll tell in the next post), went to the circus, did tons of shopping, and spent nice time chillin at my mom's awesome apartment.

We watched the parade on TV, but Emma and my mom went to see the floats being blown up the night before, which they do near the Museum of Natural History.

Oh, and on a side note, today i was leaving the bank machine at the college near my house and one of the campus police was leading a young man out of the building in handcuffs. I ran back to hold the door for them because I was really nosy and wanted to hear their conversation. Instead, I only heard the guy who was getting arrested look at me kindly and thank me for holding the door.

Totally unexpected kindness.

Tofurkey

Back in a week or so with photos from Thanksgiving with my family in NYC. Have a great holiday!

Hell Hath No Fury

So my hair was awesome this morning.

Then, the wind and sleet happened. Of course I waited until today to fill my gas tank, even though I've been on 1/4 for several days (i have a short commute). Today, I was on fumes.
To the gas station we went on the way to school, me and my Em. It was raining lightly, just a sweet drizzle. The wind was holding off, maybe 10 mph.

But gosh darn if the sleet didnt start whipping around in sudden 40 mph winds the split second I got out of my car to pump gas.

There I stood, pathetically shivering and desperately blocking my mascara from Mother Nature's really bad sense of humor (she was jealous of my hair, I'm sure). Emma stood making a concerned sad face from inside my warm, seat-heated car.

Finally, I gave up with a half-filled tank. I'll wait until we have a tornado or something to fill it up all the way.

Off to school we went, Emma looking picture perfect. Me looking like a wet, drooling, demented monster.

But my outfit was cute (even though it wasn't fully dry until 2nd period).

*Watch your back, Mother Nature. Watch your back.*

FCKH8!

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?

Emma wore her FCKH8 shirt to school today, loud and clear. She was ready to explain to anyone of authority what the shirt meant, what it meant to her, and why she thinks it's appropriate. Just in case, she brought an extra shirt; we agreed this morning that if anyone was truly offended by the shirt (because it really looks like the F-word), she would change. Her intent was not to offend, but to bring awareness to gay rights.

Well, she made it through the day, attracting lots of attention, thus giving her many opportunities to spread her message. Only one teacher was concerned about the shirt's appropriateness, but didn't fuss about it. I did, toward the end of the day, send out an email to Emma's teachers and some of the others who might come in contact with her explaining why I allowed her to wear the shirt (oh, did I mention I got a FCKH8 hoodie for myself? And no, I would not ever wear it to work. It's a little different for me) and they were really supportive of her.

Have I mentioned how amazing my girl is?

Art!...through the eyes of a teenager.

Miro
Warhol

Van Gogh

Kandinsky

***

So, i figured it was time for me (Emma) to finally write on this blog, I was thinking about what i wanted to do as i was setting one of Wassily Kandinsky's paintings as my desktop background. You can guess where I'm going with this. Yes, I am going to talk about art. My favorite art.

The first one is by Miro. He is probably my first favorite artist. I remember my grandpa (papa) David buying me his book when i was younger, even though he personally didn't like that kind of art. i like Miro's art because it's crazy, abstract, and you never get bored or run out of things to look at. I also like the idea of imperfection and drawing things you can't see unless you use your imagination.

The second one is Andy Warhol. My eighth-grade art teacher taught us about him and i instantly fell in love with his work. Unlike Miro's work however, Warhol's paintings are more exact. The soup cans he painted are all true to the original inspiration. I like his idea that anything and everything can be looked at as art.

The third one is none other than Vincent Van Gogh. I went to the MOMA where my grandmother works as a volunteer and saw "Starry Night." It is my favorite painting of his, but it's everyones favorite so i decided to post my second favorite. I'm not sure why i like him but I'll let you know when i figure it out.

Last, but obviously not in any way the least: Wassily Kandinsky. On my trip to Paris last year, with my wonderful grandmother, we went to the Centre Pompidou art museum. They had a huge exhibit on Kandinsky and it was marvelous! The painting above really caught my attention and I sat and stared at it for a good 10-15 minutes.

Art is something that has been with me since I was born. My grandfather being a fabulous artist he is, has inspired so much of my creativity and what I want to do with my life.

How is it that our brains don't explode?

These are the things I've thought about in the past 24-hour period: Michael Franti and Spearhead, buying a new house, keeping the old house, finishing my illustrations, my butt, my belly, my boobs, why the letter "b" starts all those words, my students and why they are: nice, mean, happy, sad, kind, cruel, generous, stingy, self-loathing, self-centered, self-adoring, violent, gentle, smart, not smart (but not stupid)...okay, pizza, fruit smoothies, Taos, the mountains, Kurt teaching 5th grade, Jeremy and how sweet he really is, Tula's fear of men, my bunny (Pickles), my debt, ebay, my writing, my salary, pink hair, Solar Fest, Great Blue Heron Festival, Starbucks, Vincent's long hair, why Tim died, Suzy on the same wavelength, Thanksgiving in NYC, the windows at Lord & Taylor, Emma's grades, what the hell is bologna, what the hell is baloney, Petunia Face is pregnant, Bold, Italic, Publish, Save, Draft, eenie, meenie, miney, moe, chest tattoos, the word "mostly", my car, Harry Potter, did John die?, I need a pink door, my dad, more Taos, more more Taos, my boss, my room, orange, red, gold, the smell of the air, 1985, thisthisthisandthatthatthat...

Veterans' Day

PEACE

On the long road you've got a long time to sing a simple song

Above: Prepping the stage for Spearhead

Michael!

Hear that?

It's the sound of sunshine. I've been a fan of Spearhead for around 14 years--since right after Emma was born. I was introduced to them by a boyfriend in Taos, and their albums Home and Chocolate Supa Highway quickly became favorites at the bar I owned there. "People in tha Middle" was practically always on repeat.

Years later, when the bar was sold and Emma and I relocated to Western NY, Stay Human was released and Emma, age 5, was smitten. We played it constantly. Soon after that arrived Everyone Deserves Music, and I was blindsided by the amazingness of it.

Songs from the Front Porch made me love Michael Franti even more--i could imagine sitting on the porch with him on a sunny summer afternoon, sipping lemonade, listening to him play his guitar. A whole fantasy world was borne from that album!

I didnt really connect with Love Kamikaze, but I still play it when I want to hear relaxing, chill, background music.

Yell Fire came into my life when I needed it most. I needed to hear someone else's frustration with the world and know that I wasn't alone. Michael is not afraid to speak out and I admire his self-confidence, total awareness, and deeply-rooted morals.

All Rebel Rockers and The Sound of Sunshine are Franti's poppy-happy records, and I love them. "Say Hey" put him on the charts, and at first I was resentful of the sudden outcropping of Spearhead fans (he's mine, I knew of him first, I pouted, annoyed that other people were claiming him now), but then I realized that we all deserve a little Franti in our lives.

Everyone deserves music.

Sweet music.

Where will Emma and Melissa be Monday night?!

HELL YES!!!

(I know the date's wrong--this is the show that was postponed)

HalloTeen!

Benita (front, above) and the gang: lots of boys dressed as girls.

Benita checking out her look (above)

I actually didnt get a shot of them when they were all duded up. But this is the pre-show in Emma's room.

Eggplant

Wow, we've been sick! I missed most of this week at work, and Tula got better then sick again. In between, husband was sick. He makes really gross noises when he's sick. Is that a guy thing?

These pics are from earlier in the week, the only day I was up for taking shots of Em's outfit. Again, it's a Yen-me-down: eggplant skirt worn by Emma as a dress, belted. She wears her Tom's shoes more than any other pair. They really need to make a winter boot! Tula joined her in some pics since she had kind of an eggplant thing going on, too.

On the day of this outfit, it was a sudden, weird 75 degrees out. Now, a few days later, it's in the 40s and I think it snowed a little overnight. That's what my weatherdude said, but there's nothing on the ground to prove it. By the way, I want to be a weatherchick. Doesn't it seem like a cool job? Also a CSI, but only if I can work with Warrick (before he died, obviously ;)