you are

you are the glistening dew on flowers blossom
the branched birds songs perched high
the soft touch of grass under feet
the wetness between my thighs

the cottony sunset pink orange and blue
the sugar of the maple tree
the neck kissing breeze summer spent
the ink in pens of poetry

ice cream in summer

the problem with ice cream on a 93 degree day is that you are so busy chasing the melting driplets that its difficult to enjoy the taste.

summer update

vermont is beautiful. beautiful and balmy! its been in the 90s the last couple days. whoa, hot. we're trying to keep cool with slow walks to the ice cream stand, yummy and super cheap ice cream, fans, and afternoons at emerson falls.

you may not believe this but there are leeches here in vermont. yes, leeches. i haven't actually seen one with my own eyes, but i did have an encounter with one two days ago. daniel and i were ready to head home and as i was brushing the water off my legs i felt something slimey on the back on my right thigh. daniel confirmed it was a leech and grabbed a handful of rocks and sand to scrub the bugger off. it took three tries before the leech let go. of course, we were too busy inspecting each other for additional leeches for me to get a look at the parasitic fellow that momentarily sucked my leg. but i bet i'll have other chances to see one.

ive been piling on the sunscreen and mosquito repellant. so far ive got a great tan on my arms and shoulders, and only have had about 4 mosquito bites. not bad for two weeks in vermont.

daniel leaves tomorrow for 8 weeks. i shall miss him dearly. but i think we will both benefit from time apart. time apart fosters growth and those pesky feelings of missing someone which are said to make the heart grow fonder. im asking him to take our journal with him first. then i'll take it for a bit at the end of july before sending it back to him.

we'll be living with liora in jp next year. most of my things are already there, living in her closet, so my moving is mostly done. daniel will have lots of things to move over after he returns from work. we're both excited to live with liora. daniel is excited that he'll get to see sarah a lot. he loves sarah and liora so much.

im thinking of taking ceramics in the fall and perhaps doing some temping. i'll need to give more thought to what i want my days and weeks to look like. i do know i want to have a bit of money saved when daniel graduates next spring. we'd both like to do some traveling, and of course living abroad. mexico is still in the cards.

the great leech exfoliation of 2005

93 degrees makes for tough walking weather in st. jay. it also makes for great adventures in aquatic frolicking.

after a day of walking about town, dripping with sweat and stopping all along the way for short rests, db and i paused at home for nearly two hours, desperately trying to cool and keep our heads straight. when we could no longer bear the heat, we packed up our swim gear and headed straight for emerson falls.

we've been to emerson falls several times. just down stream from a very small damn, emerson falls is a half man, half nature created area where spots of water cascade over rocks and into small pools of refreshing water. its beautiful, local, fairly safe, and family friendly. the best part is we almost always have the place to ourselves bar the baby trout and salmon trying trying in vain to make it up stream.

as usual, we climbed down the rocks and settled into our prefered location next to the biggest fall and deepest hole of water. its nearly the best spot and hardly big enough to share with strangers, so folks are often disheartened to find that its taken by us early birds.

after securing our spot, we were pleased to find the sun had warmed the water enough for comfort, yet the fresh flow from above kept it refreshingly cool. db and i frolicked in the water, basking in the sun and enjoying cool breezes. we took turns balancing on large rocks underneath, flailing ourselves about, and wandering here and there. fun times were had and before we knew it we were ready to head home for dinner.

as i stood and began to wipe the water and general river debri from my legs, i felt something slimey on my rear right thigh. figuring it was a bit of algae or some other slimey bit of nature, i wiped at it again. pesky slime. i wiped again. it wasn't budging, so i grabbed the slippery thing and pulled slightly. still there. giving it one last try i pulled again before pointing to my posterior and asking db "is this a leech?"

"yes," he replied. i love his honesty.

"are you kidding? omg, don't let me see it. how do we get it off?"

as though he removed leeches from legs for a living, db calmly grabbed a handful of small rocks, dirt and sand. "wait," i said. "what's going to happen?" i needed to understand the process of leech removal. i needed to know if it was going to hurt or if i could expect the leech to retaliate. i needed to know if i was going to die.

db explained he would scrub the leech with his handful of rocks, causing the leech enough discomfort to pry its lips off me and fall into yonder water. "okay," i said. it made perfect sense and sounded like i would not require surgery. with my permission indicated, db began the process of scrubbing my leeched thigh with the rocks. i was pleased that it felt no different than exfoliating - i could handle exfoliation... but could the leech? it took three tries to convince the leech to let go, but the heroic db was determined to save me... and save me, he did.

with the leech off my leg, i looked at the water, wanting to rinse but afraid of a repeat. i looked at db. he looked at me. "i don't want to go in." he understood. alas, i knew it had to be done, so i went in anyway and rinsed the rocks and leech germs from my leg. db and i engaged in some co-inspecting, just to be sure there weren't any other leechy fellows hiding on us, and were satisfied we were leech-free. we headed home, still leary of ghost-leeches*, for a anti-bacterial shower and a lovely dinner of chicken tikka masala.

hooray for db, my brave and enduring knight in shining trunks!
thank you sweetie :)


*ghost-leech: the feeling of having a leech on you someplace, but nothing is actually there.

overcast

its so warm and cozy
like the air is cuddling us
whispering soft sweet
breezes against our backs

summer plans

alrighty, things are moving forward.

im flying into seattle on the 4th of july for about 2.5 weeks of family and friend connection. i shall call my mom soon to let her know of my plans and am hoping she'll be around. if not, i'll ask friends to put me up.

before and after these dates, i shall be in vermont, staying with daniel's mom. i think it will be a great opportunity to get to know daniel's family more too. since they arent near boston ive only met them a couple times, mostly briefly. its important to me to be on good terms with everyone since past experience has taught me that relationships do not go smoothly when families do not like the girlfriend.

im also excited to explore a new area of the country, albeit via foot. plus daniel's mom is a knitter and id love to learn to knit. i'll also be painting, writing, and finally scanning all my millions of photos to burn them to disks. yay me!

i shall miss my sweet daniel while he is away. but we will send our book back and forth each week, and occassionally send email. until then, i shall enjoy all of our wonderful time together.

28 hours

can weekends be perfection? yes, yes they can.

daniel visited for about 28 hours on the hottest weekend yet. in that 28 hours we did plenty of walking about the city, plenty of kissing, and plenty of chatting. have i ever mentioned how amazing daniel is? he may just be the most amazing person ive ever met.

we started our wonderful weekend with dimsum in chinatown. it was marvelous, as china pearl always meets my expectations. we went back to my place so daniel could drop his things off and we could take several bags of donations to a drop off. then we hit jp licks for ice cream, where i rewarded daniel and liora for their help with the donating.

we headed back out into the city to walk around and seek out dinner, stopping here and there to delve deeper into our conversation about past experiences and of course for ridiculously wonderful public displays of affection. we finally made it to mass ave and ate at Bukhara, one of the best indian places in boston. next we had fresh squeezed lemonade at ERC near symphony and took the bus home, where we enjoyed our semi-private room for the rest of the night, aka the extra living room.

things are good. things are very very good.

big questions, little time

ive been thinking about boston and how much opportunity there is in the realm of art. this is quite an art mecca. ive also felt sad about leaving when i have a few good friends around. ironnically, daniel called a few days ago and told me he had decided to attend school this fall and finish up his last year. hmmm... no mexico?

we talked about it, and it seems the universe is telling me to stick around another year. although i have a feeling the universe will tell me to go to mexico for at least a month or two this winter, hehe.

so, we're talking and trying to figure out how to make the summer living situation accommodate our change of plans. daniel will be at camp, but ive no longer got an apartment. the possibilities are me staying in vermont with his mom, or going home to seattle and staying with my family. im up for either, although vermont sounds a bit more adventurous to me.

the plan for next year is to wait and see if a friend's roommate moves out in August... if so, we'll live with her (she says we're top on her list). if not, what will we do? will we live together? will we get our own places? can i afford to be here if im in my own place? will i go to art school?

wow, thats a lot of big questions. im gonna wait another month before i dig into some of those... for now, it seems the priority is figuring out if vermont is my summer destination or not so i can buy plane tickets to seattle. i will also continue weeding out my possessions till i have a manageable amount. and finally, i guess i might want to look into art school and get an application in if its something i decide i want. if i don't choose art school, id still like to take some painting classes.

moveaoke

my replacement moves in tomorrow morning. this means i need to have my stuff out of my/her room and into the living room by the time she gets here. its a lot of work.

how many times have i moved in the last 365 days? let us count the moves...

1. July 4th to fratville
2. August, back to Boylston
3. October 1, to Clearway
4. Jan 28, to Tower
5. Today, to the living room
6. by the 15th of June, to... idk

have already toted 7 bags of donations to the appropriate donation recepticles. have about 9 more bags ready to go. hope to move more from my "keep this" pile to my "donation" pile before i permanently move out.

LE is a saint... mhm, a SAINT! wait... is that legal to be a jewish saint? are saints just christian icons or do jews have saints too? too bad i already sold my complete idiots guide to jewish history and culture, coulda come in handy.

meanwhile, im keeping my complete idiots guide to buddhism... i have to be able to talk to db about his various courses in religion, esp since he has decided to return to school in the fall... boo.

oh right, LE. she's letting me store stuff in her gigantic closet. she has allotted me a 4'x4' space.i hope thats squared and not cubed... im planning to utilize the height. hehehe. i also gave her permission to use anything i store there. ie dresser, shelves, storage drawers, etc. i might just give her a cash tip too, but dont tell her!

oh yeah, queeraoke was FUN! i sang "i think we're alone now" by tiffany. i had a fantastic cheering section who, while i was on stage, was secretly placing bets on my age. the average guess was 23. hehe... um, add 5 onto that ladies. thats right, im a hot 28yr old chica.

kisses!