I Heart the Beach

My dog beach days with my canine pal are sadly numbered. We had a particularly great one yesterday though, and hopefully, we can sneak in a couple more in the next few weeks. I was a little, okay more than a little, hung over after a quick jaunt out to Joshua Tree Sunday night for W&L’s Halloween party, and almost settled for a nap instead of making the effort to go to dog beach. I’m so glad we did! I just always feel better after an afternoon out there. What am I going to do when my pal moves away? Sad.

The tide was really low yesterday. Lower than I’ve ever seen it at this particular beach and we always go at about the same time of the day. It made for an awesome rock and shell graveyard though at the bottom (or is that the top) of the beach where the surf is usually crashing. Maybe it’s because there was a full moon last night? Just as long as it wasn’t a sign that a tsunami is next.

It's Official

I’m a Californian. Experienced my first earthquake yesterday! October 28, 2012 at 8:25 a.m., 3.9 on the Richter scale. I honestly thought it was a really big truck driving down the alley underneath my bedroom window. I have a ceramic glove form that sits on my dresser. I hang my necklaces on it. It rattled for a minute or so.

It was a good starter earthquake, I think.

It's All In A Word

Drove from the Valley to Venice Beach yesterday morning and avoided using a single freeway. I am what you might call, surface road girl! I don't mind the freeways, honestly. I mean, yeah, they're super congested and it's a total drag sometimes, but I've found that I'm pretty comfortable on them after all. Confusing numbers, breakneck speeds, winding roadways, and all. I just like the surface roads. I feel more connected to the city or something. LA is s...p...r...a...w...l...i...n...g, so knowing which neighborhood is where and how to navigate through them to get to wherever you need to be is, well, kind of essential.

Yesterday's drive was particularly nice though. Most of my time was spent on the really beautiful section of Topanga Canyon Boulevard that winds, and I mean winds, through that gorgeous canyon and bottoms out right smack dab into the Pacific Ocean. Honestly, you exit the canyon and the ocean, in all its glory, is quite suddenly twenty feet in front of you. It's a stunningly abrupt and stunningly gorgeous moment. Hang a right, and you're headed for Malibu and all points north. I was headed south through Pacific Palisades, home to what has to be the most expensive trailer park known to man-kind, then Santa Monica, and finally into Venice. Had coffee with a new friend and lunch with an old one, and then drove back exactly the way I had gotten there just so I could enjoy that canyon one more time and take some photos.

I was so taken with the Topanga landscape that I decided a hike there was exactly what I needed today. Fresh air, long walk, clear my head. Or more precisely, get out of my head. This year, I've had a sort of 'meditation word' I guess is the best phrase for it, "unfolding". Simply a word I've been repeating to myself to keep all the madness and changes in perspective. Helps me to remember all things are fluid and evolving, nothing is certain. This past week and a half though, my meditation word had morphed, much to my dismay, into something much less affirmative, "unraveling". I had seemingly lost my badass mojo. There were a couple of events that started the spool spinning of course, but really it's been mostly just me, spending too much time in my head. And not writing about it! I've felt a sort of responsibility to keep, what I had come to be afraid was an illusion, going. Not to admit in writing that I was feeling anxious and unsettled and frankly, sad. It's amazing what a little fresh air, a long walk, and a chat with a friend can do. "Think" with your heart, my friends. It's a much more accurate tool than the computer in your skull.*


*With thanks to my always insightful and almost always calm friend.

That's Punny

Today, I remembered to stop, and smell the buffalo.

Topanga Canyon roadside art

The Perfect Job

It was a beeyouteefull day at the dog beach today. Cloudy. Has been for days, but still a big blue sky and the water felt warm. I guess because the air was a little chilly, and by chilly I mean 67ish degrees, but I was sporting my jean jacket so that means chilly. It was kind of an odd day too though. They’re doing some beach erosion work. Necessary I guess, but lots of heavy, noisy machinery is not really what you’re looking for at the beach. Last week when my pal and I were there, we were talking to a surfer dude, his dog’s name was Marley, didn’t get the surfer dude’s name. Unfortunately. Marley’s dad was telling us the sand level on the beach is lower than they want and they were bringing sand in from other areas and dumping it onto this beach. Or something like that – Surfrider Foundation and erosion and this huge ship the four of us sat and watched maneuver really closely to shore and gathering and dumping and the San Diego bay sand was gross so they were finding new sand and I gotta be honest, he kind of lost me. It’s not that Marley’s dad or the subject was uninteresting, but when I’m sitting on the beach, looking out at the waves and the sky and the birds and the dogs and the surfers, it’s hard for me to keep my mind from wandering. Really wish I had paid closer attention though. A. It would have been much more polite. And B. I would have known what they were doing today!

We also saw two dead seagulls washed up in the surf today. Now, I think seeing one is a pretty unique thing to see, but two? Two seems almost ominous. I didn’t get a photo of either of the dead seagulls. Unfortunately. Wanted to, but my pal kind of wanted to eat them, so I steered clear. I did, however, find the most beautiful shell. There aren’t a lot of shells at the dog beach, almost none actually. Lots of rocks, and I love me some rocks! But just a smattering of mostly broken, mostly average, mostly not interesting enough to bend down and wash off and stick in your pocket type of shells. This one though, caught my eye.

Some seaweed caught my eye too. There’s a lot of seaweed on the west coast, most of it brown and sort of slimy. And when it’s low tide, it’s my pal’s most favorite thing to stop and sniff and pee on. It can sometimes take us fifteen minutes to walk ten feet. This bunch was different though, like a mermaid’s wedding bouquet.

So, what career can I have where I spend all day walking on the beach, playing with the dog, chatting with surfers, taking photos, and collecting rocks? Cause that sounds like a great job to me.

Lost In Transition

Spent this perfectly lazy, rainy day on the sofa with my canine pal, watching movies.

Upside: spent this perfectly lazy, rainy day on the sofa with my pal, watching movies.

Downside: much too much time to think.

And we all know what happens when you have too much time to think. You spend all that time thinking.

Absolutely no good can come of that. Trust me.


“I have to be leaving…but I won’t let that come between us, okay?”

Motel...Yes No

Found myself a little slice of the Big Apple right in downtown LA this afternoon. Pumpkin and I and my canine pal hit up the bi-annual Artwalk at The Brewery Artist Lofts in Lincoln Heights. Really exceptionally cool place, and the Artwalk was a blast, and packed! So much fun wandering in and out of the different studios, everything from hand-painted silk scarves (if I was currently employed, I might own one of those right now) to Steampunk sculpture and rock iconography paintings (would definitely own one of those), and from photography and jewelry to cooking classes. The whole vibe of the event, not to mention the lofts themselves, are so reminiscent of New York City, it made me nostalgic for the eleven years I spent there. So, it was quite the coincidence I got an email with a photo today from my two bff's, K and Bec, who are enjoying themselves a little NYC getaway this weekend. I miss New York. And I miss my girls!

So, here's the plan: rent a loft in The Brewery, which allows me the luxury to spend my time writing some things, and I don't know making cigar box guitars, or taking some photos, or building things with power tools, and then sell these things to pay for the loft in The Brewery which then allows me the luxury to spend my time doing all those things some more. It's a good plan, right?

Out to the universe it goes. Motel...Yes!

artwork by Robert Morgan