It's all GOOD LIFE

The sign on the door read "We will be closed for Christmas this Friday, Dec. 25" and that's when I realized that we wouldn't be sending out cards on time again this year. I knew Christmas was coming up pretty soon but I thought I had another week. If we were going to visit Dad in Arizona for Christmas, I'd better make a few phone calls. The only two seats USAirways had available were first class on Christmas day. I bought them Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas.

Dad's 'house' sits among 1,200 other houses that look exactly like his. Each 300 square foot unit rests five feet from the its neighbor. The name of the resort is 'Good LIfe'. It was sixty degrees and sunny. The locals were freezing in their parkas but I was hot. For 2 !/2 days we hiked in the desert, walked Rocky (Dad's dog), played computer card games, walked Rocky, watched TV, and walked Rocky. Shopping was everywhere. I'm supposed to hate shopping but after being able to get my Mac fixed 5 minutes from Good LIfe, I've had to re-think my dogma. I know I'd probably get sick of having everything I need a short bike ride away but after 6 months in Metaline Falls and the nearest 2 x 4 being 60 miles down the road, maybe not.

The morning we flew back to Washington, I was sitting in one of the resort hot tubs. The residents taking the water aerobics class in the pool next to me were bouncing up and down while singing 'I've Been Working On The Railroad' and 'Let Me Call You Sweetheart.' It was 'Let Me Call You Sweetheart' that was looping in my head like a nightmare the rest of the day.


Holiday Photos...
DC Auto and Secondhand, Metaline Falls' newest retailer, offered gift wrapping for the holidays.

The lone Christmas wreath spanning the town's Main Street broke in half around Thanksgiving and never got fixed.

Elves in lieu of a manger scene.

Rest assured that Max has a good home when we can't bring him with us. He lives with Drew and Katie when we're in school etc. He still likes us better, we think?

Vince loves the scarf (so do I) I got from my brother Dale's family...(Brenda, Tashauna and Dale).


Non-photo news...
Vin just finished installing the home theatre system. Seven speaker surround with a Panasonic pt-ae4000 HD projector (whatever) and a 120 inch screen. It doubles as a stereo...with really good sound. Glen Gould's piano and humming is in here with us right now. OK, with that all done, maybe we'll hook up the water.

Hair For Sale

Last Friday, I donated my hair. I think that may have even counted as doing something for someone beside myself??
Nelson's 'Locks of Love' festival was on Saturday and they were looking for ponytails that were at least 8" long. I'd been wanting to find a good home for mine and finally found a salon that was hip to the 'walk-in' concept.

"if I just cut off your pony-tail, it's free," she told me.
I wanted a reason to pay her, "Well I need my bangs cut too."
"Bangs are free."
"What else is free?"
"There are mints on the counter."
That's some business model.
I had decided to grow my hair in order to donate it and decided at about 4" that I wouldn't be doing it again. Life is too short. IF I took the time to brush it, it would take half an hour which is a really significant part of my day.....so I just didn't bother. Living in a tent and having a sensitive scalp were good reasons to ignore it. One day I had it washed, combed and braided at 'Chris Cuts' in Metaling Falls. She yanked for about 55 minutes, which wasn't fun for either of us, but I walked out with a braid that lasted over 2 weeks. I tried to schedule another painful braid but Chris wouldn't return my calls.

School.
Guess who finished their screenwriting exam first yesterday? It was close between Rob and me but I edged him out mostly because he wasn't racing and I was closer to the professor's desk. The editing mid-term was today. I got creamed. FInished last by 2 seconds. Guess editing is not my event.

This film program is going to make a man out of me. I just finished my first day of shooting and I feel like I just finished the Hawaii Ironman. The learning curve I was so proud of is leveling out. I'm worried that it may even be upside down. Vince was theoretically my assistant although an observer would have been sure it was the other way around. Thankfully his learning curve is as steep as ever. Anyway. I now have 4 hours of footage ending with a 3 tiered organic polka dotted birthday cake. "I'll find my story in the editing bay" as they say in the business.

I fell asleep during the Film Studies lecture again this week. Front row. Lights on. I fought it as long as I could but in the end my head was bobbing as helplessly as last week.

More.
We got the sweetest little refrigerator today. I'll look better without the protective blue plastic.

Max has diarrhea :(

Just Another Day Again

Newport is the Pend Oreille County seat and where you go to pick up your building permits. So. We drove the sixty miles to Newport this morning thinking we'd be driving back to our tent with our permit but instead we drove back with a new bath towel and a new broom. Even though it was nice to bring home the towel and the broom we would rather have brought home a building permit. So far it's been pretty easy to substitute a t-shirt for a towel and ignore the dirt and dog hair but there is no substitute for a building permit. Maybe Friday.

To me our little house is so simple and sweet but to the permitting office it's one big heavy gray area that keeps sinking to the bottom of the pile on the inspector's desk. It sort of reminded me of when we applied for a credit line during our VOmax years because I'd read somewhere that if you were a business you had to have a credit line. Since we didn't owe any money there was no formula that we could be plugged into and we were never able to get a credit line which was fine because we never needed one. Anyway. We got our plans back with sloppy red letters screaming we needed several pages stamped by an engineer. We found an engineer in our new phonebook who said that, based on the phone conversation we were having, it sounded like we'd be able to walk over and wait while he looked the plans over, approved and stamped them. We hung up and walked to the engineers office with bounces in our steps. We shook hands and confidently handed him our plans. I watched the color drain from his lips as he slowly and noisily turned from one page of the plan to the next. I'd been sure after seeing his office full of books, diplomas and charts with numbers he'd be able to plug our plans into some sort of calculator but instead he asked us if we could come back day after tomorrow. Shoot.

I guess we can wait until Friday. The electric company might come then too so it could be a really big day.

I look forward to bed under the down comforter covering a pad on the floor of the tent. Forty-four degrees should feel uncomfortable to me right now but I love the way it feels. Digesting the sesame broccoli brown rice and tofu cooked in a wok over a Coleman stove with light from the full moon supplemented by a lantern I feel really really alive. Who wouldn't be totally content being me right now? Probably most people.