Shit-kickers. A wedding story...

Ah yes, the cow-pie wedding. You’re intrigued, I can tell.

Cayle and Holly from Dolphin Divers got married last Saturday. And we were honored to have been invited! But before we could attend this event, logistics needed to be addressed. First up we needed a babysitter. But even more important to me was – what am I going to wear?! The wedding was in Napa at 5:00pm. But the note in the invitation said to arrive at 4:30 for a leisurely walk to the wedding site (cars available for those who do not wish to walk). Ok. I had questions. I gave Chris the job of calling and finding out exactly what the deal was (i.e. what should I wear?). At this point I’m starting to fret a bit. My closet is severely lacking in potential spring wedding wear. I have several skirts, but no tops to go with them. And what about shoes?

Chris finally gets back to me with the specifics: the wedding was not being held in a vineyard as you might assume. It’s in a cow pasture. And the wedding site is on a hill, up a gravel path. And the last pitch of that path is steep! Ok. Now my eye is twitching. I have to scale a small mountain during the hottest part of the day in nice clothes?! Do I need to bedazzle my Keens?! And what about the cows?! It was obvious I was going to have to go shopping.

So, I headed to the mall. Bought several tops to go with my several skirts – I like to have options. I figured I would wear my Keens or pink tennies (depending on which skirt I wore) for the hike and then change into nice sandals for the reception. And then it started to rain. And rain changes everything. Silk skirts? I don’t think so. Open toe sandals? Not so much. Fuck. Back to the mall. Were I found these:


Sharon did not believe I was going to wear these to a wedding. Even a wedding in a cow pasture. But I did! And they were a hit. Not only that, they were a necessity! I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just wet dirt we were truckin’ along in.

Here’s how things ended up- Due to the rain, the ceremony and reception were moved inside the barn. This was a working cattle ranch and the cows were in the next barn over. I waved and then plugged my nose. It poured on the drive there, but stopped when we arrived. Nice. So I ended up wearing the long silk wrap skirt over my jeans - because it was cold. I never took my jacket off so the worries over the top were for naught. And we had a great time! They had draped fabric and twinkle lights over the steer-showing pen and hung lights from the ceiling. There was a wooden dance floor in the middle of the barn surrounded by hay. The tables were around the perimeter in the hay. And it was actually quite lovely. Weddings are just happy ya know? Even if the ‘facilities’ only consisted of his and her port-a-johns.

There were only two things wrong with the evening: #1 – I got to shoot with Holger’s Nikon D200 {swoon} and #2 – we had to leave before they cut the cake!

Sure, we stopped and got shakes on the drive home to satisfy our missed dessert cravings, but how will I assuage the camera lust I now have? Cause oh baby, that camera felt good…

its like a Commandment or something...

President Obama didn't mention anything about not stealing in his speech right?

Cause I swiped this pic from Sweetney.com and I'm not sorry. Because it's too funny to not share. And I'm a small fish in this bloggy sea - more like a little tiny baby krill - so I don't think she'll notice. I would have asked, but she's a bit busy today with the all the happy happy joy joy dancing she's got going on. So, I'm just gonna spread the Miyagi-love on her behalf...

And my favorite Inauguration Tweet of the day from redwhiteandnews: "What would rock is if Carrie Fisher came out and put medals around Obama & Bidens necks while the Star Wars theme played."

Hell yes!

Lookin' good Billy Ray

So, here we are, 6 days into 2009 and I’ve got to tell you, I’m feeling pretty good.* I don’t want to jinx things, but since I’ve already declared ’09 to be the year of Health and Happiness, I’m going to go all out and be… happily optimistic. Down right cheery. Good things are happening. Yippy! Alright. Enough of that. Everything in moderation people.

This is the first time I’ve ever really been jazzed about a new year. The whole new year/resolution thing was never the big a deal for me. But having survived 2008, and on Chris’s prompting, I actually wrote out a list of goals for 2009. Top of the list were Health and Fitness goals. Easy. Easy to put on the list, not to accomplish. Although more yoga should not be a problem. The rest of the list was pretty much art related. It would be nice to start painting again. But I don’t worry about it. That’s one of those ‘it will happen when it happens’ zen things. In the mean time, I’ve got plenty to do with my cameras. I even have some design work to do. And over the weekend, Chris added another baby gate across the office/tv room so that the Tasmanian Devil we live with can no longer get to our desks! We may now be able to get some actual work done. That in itself is going to improve our lives 1000%. It’s going to be amazing.

Hmm, I’ve nowhere to go with all these positive thoughts and good vibes. This post is 2 days in the making now and it’s flopping around like a fish outta water. Lucky for us, the always loverly JulieT has tagged me with my very first meme. I am to name 6 things that make me happy. Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult right?! If I get hard pressed, I can always use Kyle and Erin for 2 of the 6. Ha! I know! That is really funny. And then I have to tag 6 other poor saps with the meme. Cause meme’s are the internet equivalent of chain-letters but without the “something bad will happen to you if you don’t” part. Cause if you don’t do it, I don’t care. God speed and more power to ya.

So, without further ado, 6 things that make me happy (in no particular order and not counting my family and friends who are a given right?):

1. Cheap film cameras – Santa brought me a Supersampler to keep my Holga company! I can’t wait to get the first roll developed and see what I’ve got. Experiment art at it finest baby.
2. Yoga – there must be more yoga. I’ve even been toying with the idea of teaching again. Maybe later in the year.
3. Getting things in the mail from friends – really is there anything better?!
4. Trees – being in the Redwoods, a forest, climbing a tree, or the shade of a really big tree on a summer day.
5. Books – and libraries! How am I ever going to have time to read all those books?
6. Paint in my fingernails - it’s been a while, but I dig the reminder that I have been doing something that I love. And the stained fingernails last longer than that smear of paint across my forehead.

There. That wasn’t so hard. In fact, that list has made me really happy! Especially thinking about the trees. I really need to get down to Big Sur one of these days. Get my big tree fix. Hmm, maybe the next long Santa Cruz weekend. But not this next weekend. Next weekend is all about the surfing. And the Supersampler!

Oh yeah, I need to pay the happiness forward. My super6 are:

Katie Jean
Mistress Potty Mouth
Nifty Images
Sain’t Christopher
Spa Diva
Slices of Stacy

Enjoy!

* Except when I go to sit down. Or walk down stairs. My thighs do not appreciate that particular range of motion after the lunges I did Sunday afternoon whilst strength training on the Wii Fit. The quads, they are a burnin’. Actually, I suspect many parts of my body are sore, but my brain can only process one set of signals at a time and the pain receptors from my legs have got the system all tied up right now! Bandwidth hogs.