heathervescent

Clothing-"optional" Swap

I am in need of something more powerful than the all-mighty Naked Lady Party. Returning from the open desert full of exploded propane tanks, burned out tired and ancient mine shafts (that entropy ate for lunch over the past 4 decades) I have decided I have too much stuff.

Add to that I prefer clothing swaps to garage sales and finding renewed life for my stuff in my friends house - I am having a massive "clothing-optional" swap.

What the ef is a clothing swap aka a Naked Lady Party?

It's where you go through your closet (all of them or even your house) and pull out the stuff you don't wear, don't want, thought you would wear, that stuff you will never fit into, that belt from an x-boyfriend, that bracelet from the x-friend who stabbed you in the back, those random shoes left at your house after your barely rememberable (although memorable) party last year.... etc.

You get it. The stuff that still have life in it, and someone to love it, but it's not you. Your love for it is dead. But, you're guilt-tripped by the eco-friendly world we live in and can't just throw it in the dumpster. And you could take it to the Salvation Army (or Out of the Closet or the Women's shelter) but, it's just been sitting in the trunk of your car for three weeks already.

Jeeze. I have a lot of baggage.

And it can be yours. I already have 6 bags of stuff, including some stupid books from the web 1.0 era (um, webeconomics anyone? Does anyone remember 1:1 marketing?), three sheets to the wind (and an amazing amount of flannel pillowcases, I can only imagine are from my bay area days that have not yet made it to the camping gear). Amazing beauty products that promise to turn you into a supermodel in 5 days (but I got bored of them after the first night). Random burning man costumes and true vintage 70s Polynesian dresses. Let's not even get started on my random box of electronics, wires, old phones, usb hello kitty dancing delight.

OK. So you may not be interested in any of this stuff. But in the small chance that you are interested, I will sell it to you for the amazing price of .... FREE. Just show up. I'll tell you a story about it and maybe you'll give it a new life. Or maybe you'll just take it to the desert and put it out of it's misery.

If you would like to add any of your stuff to the free swap, bring it - but be sure to take it home if no-one else does. (Or maybe we can organize a mass Out of the Closet run afterwards.)

The bottom line:
Optional: Bring shit to swap. (And bring a bag)
Required: Take something cool home!
Optional (but preferred): Bring a drink (cocktail or not) or snack to share.

Sunday, January 10th, 2010!

Ladies only until from 12-2.

Guys come on by after 2pm until about 4pm.

Details and RSVP here.

Roses for Gloria

Spring has sprung at the Future. Moki and I walk through the tall grass in the canyon. I watch the hawks in the sky. I see buds break into bloom on the trees. And I remember a year ago. The walks in the canyon with Gloria, our conversations, planning of projects both for the house, for our writing and livelihood. Most walks these days are alone - just the Moki dog and myself. Sam comes along sometimes if he has time before heading to work. I walk the same streets, climb the big stairs and remember how winded I used to get. I drag the Moki dog on long walks in the canyon. It's a give and take between exercise and sniff time.

Gloria and I used to often talk about the ways we'd improve the Future. Mosaic, murals, painting, planting, fountains, the tree house. Some of the projects we've completed (some mosaicing and painting) others are still to be done, like the mural on our wall. And then there are the ongoing projects, like the garden. A few weeks before she left for Italy, we spend a day or so cleaning the yard and doing some small planting. I have big plans for the gardens this year. (Shady terrace garden, front garden, side down garden.) And I've been trying to wait for Gloria to return before I start. But she is needed for more and more time, even though, I know that she would return in a heartbeat if she could.

Yesterday I could wait no longer. I've been mapping out the garden with ferns, Calla lillies, roses, purple daisies. I stopped by Home Depot yesterday and picked out a conservative (by my standards) number of plants. Three rose bushes, some Calla lillies, my absolute favorite tree ferns that I have fantasied about for years, sage and some other flowers.

They sky looked ominous, so Moki and I got right down to work. Plants were unloaded, gloves donned and garden tools plucked. We dug, plowed, furrowed and planted, pressed and gave the new plants a quick drink, before the sky opened up started to rain.

This morning, the roses had moist droplets on barely opened petals. I can't wait for the sun to come out, dry off the rain and warm them. And I hope they are in full bloom to greet Gloria when she finally walks through the gate.

back in my lair

The home network has been down for a couple weeks due to networking issues. The Mac was having trouble talking to the router and G and I have been taking turns buddy breathing off the ethernet connection. Deadlines and travel have post-poned me getting technical, but yesterday I took the plunge. I can usually get myself out of a technical bind, knowing just enough to get into some hot water, but Mac network preference setting was unknown to me. My networking experience has been only on the PC platform. How do I do ipconfig on a Mac? After a few hours, some tech support and hard resetting the router, I got the network back up. Wifi network is back in the ether.

This means I'm back in my office lair. A cozy room in the house under the front door, half-way under ground. It has most of my favorite things, toys, clothes, computer equipment, files, shoes. It's my den. My secret hideaway in my house. It feels good to be back in here.

what the construction worker say...

Since we moved into the Future a few months ago, the streets have been filled with construction workers. They are generally pretty nice, but create a huge racket and block the streets and generally make it impossible to relax. The future is full of dust, noise and orange suits. Most mornings I tease the backhoe loader guy to let me drive it. I haven't really been serious (nor really had the time).

But this morning's quote takes the cake. I'm telling them to do a lot of work (because I am tired of waking up every morning to rumbling metal plates) and one guy responses:

"We always do a lot of work, even if we're doing the wrong thing."

I just laughed and got in my car.

termites, construction, paint - oh my!

It's been an house busy weekend and still doesn't end. This weekend consisted of moving furniture, lots of quality time on LA freeways (more on that later), home construction, planning for painting, cleaning, messing it all up again, etc.

Today - Monday - Gloria and I have more stuff going on. She's at the house dealing the painters and our construction guy - who is really nice and does good work, but can't keep an appointment time for his life. Here's what she sent me earlier today.

I am completely impressed with both of us. We are about to go crazy insane and yet, no fight between us, no harsh or bad words. We're working together, knowing we're stressed yet not taking it out on each other - which is an amazing situation in itself. We are kick-ass women. ;)

Anyway, we've decided that new and current boyfriends will have to pass the Heather and Gloria Future home test. Which basically means they must be handy and be available to help us with manly home improvement. Like pulling down the tree, digging a hole for the fountain, painting the eaves, drywalling the garage, building shelves, etc. We have a whole list of projects for your potentials. But stay potentials for the time being.

In the meantime, enjoy the show that is our life! It just doesn't stop!

-------

12.10 p.m., phone call.
-Gloria, this is Ray. I'm so sorry, I was so tired last night and I overslept. is it ok if I come now?
-Sure, but come soon because the painters are waiting for you.
-I'll be there immediately.

12.40 p.m. The painters have just finished priming the three rooms. Now, they open the gallon of yellow paint and try a strip on the wall. Only, it's not the right yellow! One of them has to go back to the paint shop and return it, bring the right one back. No trace of Ray, the never-on-time handyman.

1.10 p.m. A never seen before guy shows up, and says "Ray sent me. What should I do?" This really starts to look interesting.

1.11 p.m. ray show up. two minutes after he takes his place "at work,",
-Gloria-he hollers from the stairway-do you have some plastic I can put on the floor for not making it dirty?-
-Sure, here's the plastic--aren't handymen supposed to carry that? well, whatever!

1.13 p.m,. -Gloria, i forgot some...
--I swear, at this point I don't even know what's the other piece he
needs to go get disappearing again--.

1.14 p.m  Now it's Melissa.
-Gloria, since it's now obvious I won't be able to paint the bathroom too today, can I come back tomorrow?-
-Wow. Not really, I just set two appointments tomorrow and I need to do a bunch of writing as well. Could you come eventually on Thursday?-

As soon as I say that, I think about how disappointed my roommate would be if her bathroom can't get done asap. Plus, Melissa is just hinting that she might not be don with the living room as well by tonight. Plus more, didn't I just set also the cleaning people plus the termites inspection, all on Thursday to keep my precious sanctuary on tracks? So:

-Well, Melissa, if you could be here tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Deal. Melissa will be here tomorrow. I'll just have to get the hell away from here and stay away until
they're done before going totally nuts.

Meanwhile, I am also thinking to book a suite in a nice (and expensive, and clean) hotel for me and
Heather so that all these people who need to work at our house on their own time don't get too disturbed by our presence and needs. As and added advantage, I might even get some work done at the hotel, without anybody hollering to me or asking me this and that every five minutes.

1.25 p.m. You know what? Now that everybody's here, I'm going to get out for a walk with my dog. Not very productive but surely stress-relieving. I'm sure they will survive without my reassuring and soothing --for their stress--presence.