i blog. sort of.

i blog. sort of.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

zee twelve days, at last

On zee twelfth day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me,
twelve trillion snowflakes,


Eleven ancient arrowheads,


ten pulpy oranges,


nine wrapped-up boxes,


eight birds a-singing,


seven vintage Santas,


six favorite cookbooks,


five lego minions,


four kaomoji,


three stuffed friends, 


two heart-shaped stones,


and my photo from Goblin Valley!


*whew*  I almost did not survive that ....

Thursday, December 18, 2014

zee ninth day ...


On zee ninth day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me
nine wrapped up boxes ...


One of zee lights on the tree just went berserk.  I must be away and repair it ...

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

eighth day drama


On zee eighth day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me,
eight birds a singing,

....zhere is no time for zee rest.  But it plays out below, so Zut!  It is all there.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

zee wretched seventh day

On zee seventh day of Christmas zee owner gave to me,
seven vintage Santas


six favorite cookbooks


five lego minions


four kaomoji


three stuffed friends


two heart-shaped stones


and my photo in Goblin Valley!



Gah!  I see why zee owner is ripping out her hair over zis!  Not only must we count to twelve, we must do it creatively!  Zut!

Monday, December 15, 2014

Zut! Zis is exhausting to zee core of my soul

On zee sixth day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me,
six favorite cookbooks
 

five lego minions


four kaomoji


three stuffed friends


two heart-shaped stones


and my photo in Goblin Valley!


Sunday, December 14, 2014

Zee Twelve Days of Stealth: day five

On zee fifth day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me,
five lego minions


four kaomoji


three stuffed friends


two heart-shaped stones


and my picture in Goblin Valley!


Saturday, December 13, 2014

it is zee fourth day of Christmas on 12.13.14!!!

On zee fourth day of Christmas zee owner gave to me
four kaomoji,


three stuffed friends


two heart-shaped stones


and my photo in Goblin Valley



Zut!  Zees project, she is a lot of work, and I am only on zee number four.  Gah!

Friday, December 12, 2014

zee third day

On zee third day of Christmas, zee owner gave to me,
three stuffed friends,

two heart-shaped stones


and my photo in Goblin Valley


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Zee second day of Christmas

On zee second day of Christmas zee owner gave to me
two heart-shaped stones

... and my photo in Goblin Valley


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Zee twelve days of Stealth


On zee first day of Christmas my owner gave to me,
my photo in Goblin Valley.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

I am a bad, bad, bad, bad blogger .....




my first painting, ever
I am a bad, bad, bad, bad blogger.  It’s not that I don’t want to blog … I do.  Blogging is my virtual journal, and I like looking back over my posts and thinking oh yeah!  I remember why I wrote that! (Shocking, I know, that there are actual reasons behind some of the stuff I write).

No.  I’m a bad blogger because if my life were a package of birthday candles, said candles would be chopped into little pieces and burning at every end.  Here, in a round-about sort of way, is what I mean.

A long time ago, before I became a mommy, I was a graphic designer.  I worked for the licensing industry because I didn’t much like graphic design, but that’s a different story than the one I’m telling here.  For the licensing industry I designed stuff like wall paper and fabrics and poster art for Mervyns and Target and life was good.  Then, parenthood descended.

I’ll say here and now that I had planned for parenthood (well, I thought I’d planned for it, but once you’re in it you realize parenthood CANNOT BE PLANNED FOR).  But in the beginning, before this epiphany had struck, I figured I would just continue working from home and being a designer and my darling daughter would play at my feet and all would be well.  My darling daughter had other ideas, the primary one being that art took all my attention from more important things, meaning HER.

To placate my little baby and my inner 'mommy,' I abandoned art for things like play dates and volunteering in my daughter’s classes and running her around to various activities like swimming and dance and for a while, ice skating.  She hated every sport she tried, but again, that’s another story altogether.

Then, the economy crashed.

I blame big business and corporate greed for the fact that after eight years of being a stay-at-home mom, where I could give three hours a day to writing and the rest of my time to domestic hard labor, I had to rejoin the workforce.

To make a REALLY long story sort of short, I’ll confess that because I had let my graphic skills lag, I couldn’t go back into design.  I no longer owned a mac, the god-computer of the design world.  I hadn’t used photoshop for five years.  I didn’t know illustrator.  I couldn’t design a website and didn’t know html.  The grass was wet, the sun was in my eyes and someone had moved my cheese.  So I chose a job that would at least keep me busy, let me get benefits for only six hours a day, and would never require that I work from home, thus leaving me free to parent and write.  Going in, it seemed do-able.

I’d been working said day-job for about a year when I became quite depressed.  I blamed big business and corporate greed, yes, but after pondering whether a four story jump would kill or just maim, I had to blame myself, because I had allowed myself to fall into the nasty rut of feeling sorry for my lot in life.  I wrote a little book on self-healing to help myself feel better, published it for three days, had one sale, took it down because I didn’t want my whining quite that well documented and though I couldn’t believe I wanted to jump back into art, signed up for a photoshop class.

That class oiled my rusty skills, to be sure.  I can design great book covers for my own books.  But it also taught me that I will never, and I mean NEVER compete in the current graphic world.  I’m a hands-on artist.  Not a teckkie.  So when the photoshop class began the section on illustrator and I began feeling like I was trapped in a maddeningly alternate universe, I dropped out of the class and began to paint.  Not that I had ever painted a picture in my life.

I entered my one-and-only painting into a juried art show and was … amazingly … selected.  I couldn’t believe it and at the same time, deep down inside I felt that if my work hadn’t been selected I would have been royally pissed.  I mean, I’ve been an artist all my life.  Who cares that I had never painted a painting?
There was a four-month wait before the show opened, so I painted a second painting and entered it into a second show and what do you know.  I got in again.  Feeling positively cheeky, I entered a ‘call for entries’ for a local gallery and was rewarded with a one-woman-show.  That happened last month, BTW.  I’m now committed to painting thirty-five paintings by next July, three of which are done.

Complicating my fledgling art career and my day job is my writing habit.  I refuse to let it go.  I am working on two of the COOLEST stories my brain has ever conjured.  I can’t just abandon them … that would just be wrong.  I walk to my day job thinking about my stories and walk home from my day job thinking about my stories then write for 60 furious minutes because that’s all I’ve got.  I have to spend the rest of my ‘free’ time (ha) painting, mothering, cooking, cleaning and painting.  Meanwhile, my stories won’t let me sleep at night.  I’d get a script for Ambien but then I’d have migraines.

If all that isn’t enough to turn anyone into a bad blogger, let me add the pending layer of doom.  I mean, holiday stress.  Here, in the fabulous Morrison household, we use the holidays for extra-curricular.  We escape, taking Stealth Panda, and go on road trips: the Grand Canyon, Sonora Desert Museum, California … you name it.  But this year we opted to stay in town for Thanksgiving (because we’ve blitzed the last five straight and feel a wee bit guilty) and therefore will attend (and cook for) family dinners on both sides of the fence.  

Don’t get me started on Christmas ….

By now you’re likely clawing the screen in hopes that I will draw this blogging tome to a close, so let me say I seriously appreciate that you, gentle reader, have stuck through this with me.  I love to blog and will continue.  Sometime soon.  Stay tuned . . . .

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Our family's Veteran

circa 1940
This is my father-in-law.  He joined the navy in the early years of WWII and was assigned to work state-side (in meteorology).  We still have the white shirt he's wearing in this picture.  Time in the service inspired many things for him: after the war he fulfilled his dream of a higher education (he became a mining engineer), and learned to fly.  He joined the civil air patrol and served for years in search and rescue.

My father-in-law was lucky.  His time spent serving our country was recognized and applauded ... which sadly, has not always been our country's reaction toward the many who served in the wars following. 

When I think of Veteran's Day I don't think of politics.  I don't think of my own feelings about any given action or war.  I dwell on my father-in-law's conviction that to make a world without war we must all participate in society and do our very best ... and thinking of him, I renew my own commitment to do my part.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

the world's mood-swing

cool clouds
Thank you, Google, for fixing access to blogspot.  Now I can ramble on about having a cloud thing.  When I dig through old photos (and yes, I have a lot from childhood that are actually printed out on photo paper by places like Costco and Albertson's) there are countless cloud pics.  More than of people, actually.  I'm not quite sure what that says about me (or if it says anything at all).  All I know is for as long as I can remember, I've loved clouds.

Clouds are the world's mood-swing.  I love what they do with the place.  Light and puffy or dark and twisted, they are always interesting.  This particular bank fascinated me because it stretched along the freeway for miles--all the way from Malad to Pocatello Idaho.  Should you not know, that is a serious stretch, my friends.

Naturally, Stealth was super-angry that I failed to include him in this pic.  It's right up his alley, so to speak.  Attention-hog that he is, he's got to know that I can't possibly include him in everything.  The planet would grow weary of him for sure. 

Thursday, October 30, 2014

happy halloween!

a neighborhood swing demon
Swing demons are big in our neighborhood this year.  Must be because Costco had skeletons on sale in September . . . . but what ever the reason, people have definitely gotten creative!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Jackson's cemetery

old stone, Jackson cemetery
Even before I jumped from the silver Tundra I could hear them--ravens, cawing from perches high in the pines.  The trees dot the hillside in a patternless scatter, growing thicker as the hill climbs to meet forest.  From the undergrowth, the sounds of chuckers rise to mingle with the raven's chilling cries.

I immediately thought of Poe.

Jackson's cemetery is like none I've seen.  Overgrown, and with headstones planted during the wild west, it invites exploration.  Most of its residents are laid to rest within defined plots outlined by stone or brick or old rod-iron fencing.  And the plots don't disappoint; most have an eerie, human-length hump of weed covered dirt rising from their center.

a plot among the pines
 There are many old ranchers buried in the cemetery, and many who fought during World War I and II.  You can't step three feet in any direction without meeting up with a headstone or burial plot, but the cemetery doesn't feel creepy.  Something about the uniqueness of each grave invites attention; the owner's personality and style seem to hang in the air.  And the day I visited was perfect: an awesome mix of pleasant shade and sun and autumn grass. 

a tombstone sculpture
The cemetery reflects one of the things I love most about Jackson Hole: it's intriguing blend of beautiful land, unique residents and art.  Jackson proper is terribly touristy, yes, but it sits in perhaps the most beautiful valley in the world.  The Tetons border the west and a broad elk preserve skirts the east.  Driving between the two will take you from Jackson to the east entrance of Yellowstone and along the way, there are buffalo, elk, moose, deer and the occasional bear.

a cemetery resident's view--distant Tetons on the horizon
The cemetery is no stranger to wildlife, as the various forms of *ahem* scat and pellets will attest.  Though I wouldn't want to wander about the place at night (the unpredictable plots would have their way with you, for sure), Jackson's cemetery was well worth the visit--especially on a warm sunny day in October.

cemetery residents, resting in peace