More Photo Adventures

It's getting more difficult to find new things to photograph on my walks in the morning because I can only walk so many different directions from my house and then back in 30 minutes. Its a bit of an adventure of paying attention to my usual and well known surroundings in a different way. And being aware of the subtle differences in those surroundings. It is certainly a fun challenge!

I hope you enjoy what I've come up with!

"Abandoned Wonder"

June 25th 

"Field Lounging" 

June 26th

"Industrial Cycle"

June 28th

Morning Ride

June 30th

 "Park Bench Quickie"

July 1st

"Party Slippers"

 July 2nd

"Alley Shanty"

July 4th

My Week in Photo Adventures

More from my morning walks and a couple not from my walks. Enjoy!

"Beehive Truck"

June 16th

"Surprise Poppy"

June 17th

"Tree Fort"

 June 18th

"Forgotten Picnic Table"

June 19th

"Feet Hit Street"

June 20th

Where the best food comes from

June 21st

Ladira and the lovely sky

June 23rd

Adventure Selfie

June 23rd

Adventures in walking and photography

Every morning (almost) I walk my dog. Along the way there is always something interesting, pretty, odd, nostalgic (in my home town) or something that I deem photo worthy. So here is my last week-ish in morning walks. Enjoy!

June 4 Bellingham, Wa

 

"Neighbor Flowers"

June 5 Bellingham, Wa

"Shadows"

June 6 Bellingham, Wa

"Iron Adventist Fence"

June 9 Gladstone, OR

"Sunday Morning Church Sky"

June 9 Gladstone, OR

"Bridge Shadows"

June 10 Bellingham, WA

"On My Grind"

June 11 Bellingham, WA

"Nostalgic Phone Booth"

June 12 Bellingham, WA

"Unfinished Garage Door Drawing"

June 13 Bellingham, WA

Adventures on a San Juan Island tour with Skitnik

Hooo boy! It's been a while. Life has been cray-Z. Here is my attempt at keeping this post to one topic: TOUR!!!

That's right...I got to go on an amazing San Juan island tour with my band Skitnik. Have I mentioned how much I love Skitnik? Haha...I'll probably stop saying that one of these days, but today is not that day.

Thanks to the hard work and connections of a couple of my band mates, we were able to play three shows on three islands in three days and it was totally awesome!

Waiting for the Ferry

We had a little fun exploring during the wait..

Photo Courtesy: Michelle Bates

This trip however, did not start out totally awesome for me. I had some type of weird stomach thing going on (food poisoning?) and I threw up three times that morning before we even hit our first destination. 

Here we are playing on the ferry. That's me on accordion. Maybe you can tell by the look on my face that I'm not feeling in top shape. 

Photo Courtesy: Michelle Bates

On our way to Waldron Island, all of us plus a few more AND all of our gear, crammed onto this little boat. 

And here are my feet on the way to Waldron :)

I think this photo speaks for itself!

Photo Courtesy: Alex Larson

Our first destination was Waldron Island where we held a music workshop for the school there. There are 14 kids, grades K-8 (I think) in one school. This place is awesome! If I had to go to school all over again, this would be the place. I could go into why but I think that would be another blog post entirely. 

The first thing I saw as I walked into the school was this beauty! Upon which my band mate immediately placed our band sign.

Waldron Island is like stepping into the 1940's. Its a totally different world there. People are very much who they are. There is a totally different level of living and simplicity when there are no paved roads, everyone uses outhouses, only private boats can access it and well I could go on...these are really only the superficial differences about living on this island. There is a feeling there that I can't quite describe. Giving it my best shot: real, calm and slow. There is nowhere to get in a hurry there and there is only so much you can hide on an island of about 85 year-round inhabitants. And really, they just don't seem to fuck around while at the same time being totally welcoming and engaging. 

That evening we played a show in the school (which is the town's main gathering place) with the band Los Hermanos. It was absolutely lovely to play for 3/4 of the entire population and to be a part of giving them some entertainment that they don't often get. 

Here is the view from where I slept on Waldron. It is also very similar to the view from the outhouse. I can't think of a more lovely place to back one out!

Next up was Orcas Island. We arrived on Orcas with plenty of time to get a good soak in at the Doe Bay Resort before our performance. I was still not feeling really well and this was a splendid way to get some serious healing on. 

There are no pictures allowed at the clothing optional hot tubs and sauna but here are a couple from the cliff near by.

 Life is rough, I tell ya!

Our show that night was at the Odd Fellow's Hall. We (ahem) didn't do a very good job advertising this particular gig. We ended up playing for and a grand total of 20 (including the other band). Despite the small number, we spared no energy. We gave that tiny crowd all we had and by the end of the night, everyone was on their feet. The energy in the room was fantastic! 

Some Los Hermanos and juggling on Orcas Island.

That night we decided to round out the night with a little karaoke at the local dive bar. Skitnik is fortunate enough to have some pretty talented friends. One of those amazing people is JustinCredible! He often does a couple of acts to our music in the middle of our set. He decided that he wanted to do his sword swallowing act during karaoke. One of our friends sang "Fame" by David Bowie, and Justin did his thing!

After the crowd went wild and the song was over I quote the seemingly perma-drunk karaoke host, "That's not fair, not everyone has a fucking sword swallower with them." Haha...I love it when we steal the show!

Photo courtesy: Alex Larson

The last day of tour was on Lopez Island. We arrived on Lopez early enough to meet some great people who allowed us to essentially take over their cozy yet amazing house and rest for a bit. I don't have words to describe the absolute loveliness of not only this house and property but even more so the people that inhabit it. 

No words. But here are a few pics.

This. House!

Chillin' out and playing a few tunes.

Rj being silly out on the part of the property where they hold "Brew Fest"

Our show that night was at the grange hall. I have no idea where it was exactly but it seemed to be almost in the middle of nowhere. The middle of nowhere...amazing! 

We packed the house and made them dance until the walls were sweating! 

When we were packed and cleaned up several of us ended up on the front steps of the grange hall. As we were out there chatting and admiring the unpredicted clear skies and almost full moon, every time someone would step out of the building onto the steps, they would stop mid-sentence and comment on the moon. So much so that at some point, we all started howling at it. 

After the Lopez show we were blessed to get to hang out with Los Hermanos at one of the member's home. What started out (for me) as an excuse to get in a little more hot tub action (still not feeling too well), turned into an amazing evening of getting to know and connect with some pretty remarkable people. It was 2 am before I even dipped a toe into the hot tub. Again, words cannot describe how absolutely lovely these people are. No. Words. 

We went to their place for breakfast the following morning and I was able to take a few pics. 

Here is the backside of the house designed and built by it's inhabitants. 

Tour dog! She'll fetch all night...literally!

You cannot resist the rope swing...

The trip was wrapped up by a fitting 6 hour wait for the ferry home. It didn't matter because I was tired and in great company. 

Other than performing and traveling the highlight of this tour for me was meeting so many wonderful new people. Seeing how they live, using their outhouses and connecting with them over the food they prepared with love for their guests, most of whom they'd just met.

Being in the band is awesome...there are a lot of perks. Especially being a part of a large, close-knit one. People are so willing to help out the band. But what I love more is being a part of what the band has to offer in return. We bring our best to the table, to entertain you for an evening, to make you dance, to help you experience your life with a little more creativity, energy and joy you may not have had otherwise. 

I was sick all weekend and was forced to forgo experiencing some of the wondrous things the San Juan Islands have to offer in exchange to have the energy to give the audience what they came for, and then some. A lot of the time I felt like a nauseous lump, hardly able to stand for more than 5 minutes, let alone carry all of my gear from one place to the next. But when it came close to time to go on, the energy would come. I can honestly say that I don't know exactly from where. Somewhere beyond me,  because when we were performing no one (not even me) was able to tell that I had been feeling terrible for the entire day before the show. The music gods, the muse, the universe, whatever it was clearly wanted me to be "on"!

I love playing music and I love playing music with Skitnik. But this tour was so much more than that. We all got to know each other better as a band and as people. It was a great way to see how well we actually all work together. And yet again....no words to describe how amazing it is to create with these six incredible people. We have something that I can only best describe as magic and I absolutely cannot be in the presence of Skitnik and not feel like the luckiest girl on the planet! ...Seriously!

The Adventure that was February: music, curling, heartache, love, family, friends, stilt pants, stress and awesome

   That month....February, oh February you took me for quite the ride! The title doesn't even tell it all (but mostly I guess it kinda does).

   First off (I'm about to make myself sound like an idiot) when I changed the calendar at work from January to February, I was totally convinced that February was misspelled...where the hell did that "R" after the "B" come from? Does UPS know they misspelled it on their calendar? (this really happened by the way...I'm not so wet-brained anymore but sometimes I still think like one).

So here is my month summarized mostly in order.

Slight (ongoing) rawness in my heart:
   A relationship of sorts ending and the emotional stuff from that. New levels of awareness about myself and my patterns with men have been jogging around my head. Its good stuff and I appreciate the fact that I can be aware of these behaviors but it does add another layer of emo weirdness to my daily life while these new understandings emerge.

First project for my Action Heart Fashion business:
   My friend has hired me to make him stilting pants! When they're done, they'll kick all kinds of stilting ass!

 Here is one part of the stilt pant legs, mid-project

Hosting a musical Valentine's event:
   I put on an open mic style tribute to heartbreak on Valentine's day at a local venue here called the Honeymoon. It was titled "It's Not Me, It's You". Several people signed up and performed all kinds of songs about heartache. It was great and according to the feedback, a fun time was had by all!

Me and my lovely friend Kerrie at "It's not me, it's you"

Kicking music practice up several notches:
   A friend of mine wanted me to perform a duet with him at the V-Day event so I had to learn a new song. Also my band Skitnik was preparing for two gigs within less than a week of each other while adding three new songs to our set list. This meant added rehearsals and upping my personal practice by several hours per week.

A new tattoo:
   Recent developments in my life caused me to up the ante on my self-love stuff and I decided to make that commitment to myself permanent and pretty!

Not bad for stick and poke

New software learned at work...and I don't even have a desk job:
   I had to shift my hours a bit and come in super early while juggling extra tasks in my regular life. I also have little interest in learning the software so my motivation for it was pretty minimal, which makes it all that much harder to care about....the rest of my life is so much cooler than e-commerce.

Curling (yes, curling!) in Seattle:
   For several years my brother Sterling has hosted an event for his birthday entitled "Curling With Sterling". We bundle up and head out to the Granite Curling Club and curl our brains out for four hours with family and friends. This year we met up before hand at my cousin's house for food and family mingling, so much fun! I love my family and pretty much every opportunity we have to get together, we do. Even if that means driving several hours there and back in one day, we do it! It's what we do for each other and to spend time together.

Ready to sweep!

A day with my Hetero life-mate:
   My dear, amazing friend who I haven't seen in five and a half years was going to be visiting the area for derby business. She wasn't able to come up to Bellingham on her one free day here so I drove to SeaTac, picked her up and we spent the day doing almost nothing. It was awesome! It felt like there hadn't been hardly any space of time since we had last seen each other. One of the many reasons why I love this woman so much...with her, I can just be. Its natural, easy, loving, silly and relaxing. We had nothing really on the agenda and the lovely Pacific Northwest weather was doing just that..raining. So we just were. One thing we did need to do was find a photo booth, it's one of the things we do when we get together. In search of one we found something better...The Medal Master! This bad boy etches your picture onto a little charm! We made three of them, one for each of us and one for my mom.

Love this woman!

Skitnik's biggest show yet:
   We got to open for March Fourth Marching Band at the Wild Buffalo! (technically this happened on March 1st but it wrapped up this month just perfectly so I'm adding it in).  If you haven't seen or heard of M4, check them out, they're awesome!! The whole band was super excited and honored to get to open for such an amazing act! They're a high energy, fabulously costumed dance band with stilt-walking and dancing performers. They tour constantly and have been going strong for ten years! Oh and did I mention they eye candy?! There's a little something for everyone to gaze at in that band! And we got to open for them in front of a sold out crowd! How awesome is that? I got to cross something off of my "bucket list" that I didn't know was on there...it's amazing how wonderful life can be! The greatest part about it for me was the fact that I get be a part of such awesomeness and magic with six other amazing people collectively doing something that we love, working hard together to keep it going strong and to keep it something that we all enjoy, love and care about. Have I mentioned how much I love Skitnik?

Having fun and making people dance!

Took some down time:
   I don't do this often. In fact I'm pretty horrible at it. I quite often only get downtime after I have run myself so hard for so long that my body no longer gives me the choice. But this month, especially in the last week, I allowed myself to not do shit. And by that I mean sitting and watching a movie in the evening. Which I did on more than one occasion this month. That alone is almost completely unheard of for me. Tonight, I plan on doing it again (can you say Harry Potter marathon?). Today, my intention was to get an espresso to go at the Black Drop Coffeehouse but I ended up taking a seat in the sun and just sitting. I did take a couple pictures (I can't help myself), otherwise I just sat and stared and watched other people enjoy the sun, just sitting. Crazy!

Sitting. Just. Sitting.

Life is good. There is a lot going on and it's all pretty much an awesome adventure in experience and learning how to do all the stuff I love without losing my mind or making myself sick.

Stay tuned for my next adventure...what will it be?


Adventure tip:

In the magical land of Seattle there is a place called Miner's Landing. Whilst my Hetero Life-Mate and I were searching high and low for a photo booth to cram ourselves into that was open before 4pm we were directed to the arcade where, you guessed it, they have a photo booth. Two of them actually. However...they have something even better than a photo booth that we believe we were divinely lead to and that was the Medal Master!  If you're ever near Pike Place Market wander on down to Pier 57 and get your face etched onto a little charm!