remember

Is this already a classic?

when you're just that cool, the story of three young women plus one old woman

During your first practice you just nodded when you needed a player to do something.

You overcame your fear at such a young age.

You run as if someone is chasing you. But you're smiling.

You try to take it all in and spit it all out.


Today I am grateful to be among those just that cool.

playlist

"As for the album title, it's meant to evoke a sense of wonder, of contemplation. A "faller" is someone who fells trees, and in this case that person is blind to his/her own actions and those of the world. The spectral cover photo, by Scott McCormick, is open to interpretation, too: Either those trees are engulfed in flames or sunlight is pouring through them. It's up to you."  Here

Dear Writer, I like your writing.

lumineers

Dear photographer, I like your photo.

There are so many and she is not sure she is right. If she was, she wouldn't go. He played the piano, and she waited. But for what nobody knew.


Today I am grateful for struggle, uncertainty, opportunity, the challenges which answer the question only you could ask. I am grateful to get to know a young lady, to try and get a calendar right, to see a band play live.

Good cake.

when you first hear the waterfall

Six months in the forest of hike twenty miles to the next shelter or build your own.

Dear photographer, I like your photo.

Bugs, rain, a tent coffin, eyes open, ears open, watch your step. There's a sign. Oh please let it be that we're coming up on a town. A bed. A shower. A place to dry our shoes.


Today I am grateful for a town, a bed, a shower, a place to dry my shoes.


You would not be listening to music but if you were, you would be listening to this.

there's a science to walking through windows

My relationship with things in the form of what do you give yourself to outside of work. More work but what is this work and the test of something in this stage of still possibly nothing is we have a choice or I have a choice and you. what would you do?

1. Quit. This can one of those remember when I was crazy and we planned this whole thing or at least the beginning of it.

2. Ask. Do you guys want to do this? How stupid am I to dream up something I'm not all that good at?

3. But. Can't we do anything? Isn't that what we said?

4. Can I get good at video? There has to be a test Sunday afternoon.

5. Schedule the video.

6. Create it.

7. Edit it.

8. Babysit.

9. Find a cake. Make it. Deliver.

10. Video, first draft due 7:00 p.m. Sunday night.


Today I am grateful for a list and a new kinda to me couch and music.

day one

I received my first text today. Actually he was the fifth but that text was the absolute only reason to fall in love with a cellular apparatus.

And is that what we all say at the beginning of an addiction?

Once upon a time, two weeks ago, I lived a good life with no known communication issues.
Now I plead that I'll hear his voice at least once a week.

Though they spell it wrong, it's only about five hours away, and YETI sold me before the cell phone company did.

Today I am grateful for a text and the ability to take obvious gallery quality photos.

First LIVE selfie

grateful for the quiet

Sometimes it just all goes too fast.

WhiteyFord

It was his writing. The sound, the smirk, the laugh. The perfect relationship would have been to never have met. He wasn't near as cute as he thought he was, but cute is not the last man on earth.

He was an admitted liar but those were just stories he'd say. Just to see how far he could take me.

Sometimes I'm glad he's gone because he always wanted to be legendary.
Now he seems even more that way.


Today I am grateful for legendary characters in stories told over a picnic table.


The secret of a legend is on the playlist.

Bessie is a superstar

Good video.

the recipe you don't need

Five to six packed tablespoon fulls of orange zest. Half a cup of freshly squeezed orange. No need for product placement. Cake flour with the bird on the box, three whole knife edged in your favorite measuring cup. You're going to add four eggs, one at a time with just a touch of the white discarded on the last one. And vanilla. What is our obsession with vanilla? It's in the drizzle as well. Three tablespoons was too much.

Today I am grateful to have shared the first cut with him, to listen as he ate it and rated it. He's not a good judge. He loves every one. But I tear it apart down to the is this a good crumb.

Nope. But this is. I am grateful for it, too.

I thought I saw him yesterday right before I sped away. Why am I so ridiculous? Or reeediculous, as Adam would say. He would also consider this song a reeediculous playlist choice.

video note

Woodstomp

I left so much off of it. But you can't get everything. And for what's left, they'll need to ask.
Or just do it themselves.


Handing a project to someone, a group, goes against every selfish breath I take.


Today I am grateful for what photography still teaches me.


Music is kind and generous by Natalie Merchant.

world's best siblings

He said they won and I said the reason was obvious.
The girl ruined it though I did see a glimpse of us.


Today I am grateful for great Hindu proverbs.

particular day of the week or Friday's poetry

It makes no sense.
If I do love what I do,
and I do,
why do I get so excited about a particular day of the week?


Today I am grateful for a particular day of the week.

And a call.
Calls are great.

Playlist.

playlist

the miseducation of Lauryn Hill

apathy or bye, bye, everyone. we're taking a shortcut

There is this scared of your light theory. but then there's this one kid, or two, or three who don't seem to be. And they interest you, right? I think they're supposed to.

They are the Peppa pigs of the world.

"George, look at all the tiny bubbles."

There are a million kids I absolutely adore. The guy I hadn't talked to since Saturday (break my heart) is me at age a short and long time ago. but no, he's better than I ever was. Or sitting across a table from a kid who you were when you were trying to impress a math teacher. I understand, man or you who never stops trying to shoot a ball in a hoop.


Today I am grateful to not be lazy on one little thing in my life. (trying to see the world the way you see it).

and this is why I asked or drama queen or yeah, both

Jamie Winton

It's a story I've asked him to write. Word count is the enemy of the mind but a necessary one that both saves you and destroys you at the same time.

What is it about? Your experience here? What you have found out there?

How do I know I'm right?
Because I can't wait to read it.


Now I'm in search of interns.

No money.
Frustration.

Four.

The posters go up today, and he gets one.


Today I am grateful for the fear and the hope in creating the I don't know how it will turn out.
I am also grateful for the guy who taught me that.


Music because it's Tuesday.

play after a rainy cold front and tomato sandwich

Two phone calls and a shared document.
Questions that need answers for which I need if we are going to do this.

Are we doing this?

Yes.

It's been a week since the last of the seven emails of which I was beginning to embarrass them.

So,


tonight I come here first.

then I go there.



Today I am grateful for bacon, a tomato, white bread, extra sharp cheddar cheese grated super thin, very little salt, large black pepper flakes, Blue Plate, and zesty italian dressing.

magic words

Cue the music

Rain. Cold front.


Today I am grateful for people who talk about the weather.

the secret playlist

The photos today will be of a more personal nature. A scheduled renovation of measurement, putting holes in walls, and hanging picture frames and diplomas and there's a lot of stuff to place in a small room.

He's coming to help. And I hope she does too. I think I'm in charge of tools and that one note I will place on the ceiling. It won't say:

I am nervous for you today. And being nervous is so stupid.
What do you want? Ask for it.
I want everyone to succeed in all their greatest dreams (of good).
I want us to be where we are needed.
I want diplomas and awards and trophies to line our walls to the ceilings.
I want to see smiles on kids' faces.
I want to laugh with my kid.
I want to be exactly how I'm supposed to be.
And I don't want to miss anything.

Today I am grateful for a list.





Playlist: Jack for Jack.

day one of I need to come here or the dear diary of an addict

I could stop. It'd take me a minute. I would miss it. I would tell myself that I needed it but I've gone without before. Still, was it that much fun? Yeah, it was great but then so is this. Now I need to come here. Just like I need to go to bed.

Today I am grateful for all the stories, for how I'll never catch up, and how much I'd hate it if I did.



Of course Van is on the playlist.

no need to name drop

If only I had been better. If only he would come.

Surely, I learned.
599 emails unread, and I'm just waiting for 600.


Today I am grateful for lessons and time to study and hope. Sweet, sweet, heart pleading hope.

living like it's the last or you like digging holes in water

(Insert cool photo here ((there were so many))

I always act like I'm living as if there's only today but I secretly plan that there's a future. It could all go away but if I lived that way it would sure to. The dulce de leche was a success, and my yard was mowed when I came home to it. But before then the sound filled the room and even earlier I was surrounded by people I admire for what they do.

I don't care what you call it or where it is or who that may be. In the most selfish, taking as much of it in as I can, I'm falling in love all over again and again and I'm scared to stop and ask.

but here I did.


Today I am grateful for a last or a first or maybe I'll get there or here before the day's end.
Or maybe I'll be so lucky as to have another one.

playlist on repeat

the

Today I am grateful for the argument, the good report, the review, the performance, the safe drive home, the exhaustion.

Here's to now.

general rule, playlist

fancy oven

It's easier to make than it is to say.


Today I am grateful for the familiar push and pull, let go and allow to be.



Eddie started singing when I sifted the flour into the bowl.

when playlist mixes with videolist

Mickey Smith on Ben Howard.

little bird has a sister

She asks, "Do you still love your daughter?"

She answers, "Yes."

I peek around the corner, look at her, smile and say, "You know I was listening to that. I wanted to hear what she said."

She laughs.

Today I am grateful to share a laugh with little bird.

common core math for adults

1 guy featured, 15 - 20 for the sign, and 1,072 photos in 20 minutes. Pick at least 15 and send them. You neglected no telling how many. Too many but you must deliver those 3 articles with 300 names before 3 o'clock. And don't mess up because you need to read those two stories and send 14 photos to her mom.

And then that guy calls.
And you have you stopped counting laughs.?
No.
It's dark, our humor.

"Okay. Are you ready for business?"

"Yeah. Give it to me."

"Five emails, that's how many I've sent. Should I send another one?"

"I'm saying no on that one."

"But you didn't say what I wanted you to say."

The first laugh.


Today I am grateful for a kid who will always be a kid unapologetic for how we both turned out. It just wasn't always easy, but good math isn't.

stay or leave, playlist

Yesterday The National.
Today Dave Matthews.

Always grateful for music.

friday is lucky shirt day

it's like fall before the winter because they're leaving. those faces. is this crazy music festival just a self imposed distraction to it's getting that time of year?

possibly.

anything's possible which is why you fall in love with them.



today I am grateful for thousands of faces and hands and eyes and these people.



recommendation from someone who doesn't do it right, who fails every day, who gets up and does it again in the hope I can give back to a group of people who seem to give me everything:

fall madly in love every week.

playlist

here

it, notes

It wasn't a straight shot. It was making one commitment and sticking around to show up for only that. And it didn't turn out like anyone ever thought it would. But then again who had time to worry about how it would turn out since that one thing was all there was.
Until.
It became two.
Then three.

Today I am grateful for how showing up to that one thing which led to that next one until all of a sudden I'm on a short ladder and music is blaring and I don't even think about how I got here. there.

notes, playlist, he retired

Should you send the next email?

The last had a subject of sign and had the following letters put together to form words connected by dots and curves and lines of this could be amazing,

It read Como Opera Guild and whatever else I don't remember now but I am wondering if there is an old sign somewhere laying in a pile or hanging on someone's wall. Part of me would love to find it, place it somewhere near the music, but another part of me is okay if I don't. Though I say I am a writer, I don't even care to know the story of how a little rural Mississippi town came to claim an opera guild. It's just that I remember reading it as I drove by and thinking, "What?" Twenty years later I am less interested in the answer as I am exploring the question.

Do you need a free getaway to go and explore on your own before November? I want you to see this place. No obligation.

I say give him another twenty-four hours before the next assault. No email this morning. His only obligation is to give a one word answer no matter what that answer may be.

This morning's music is to that one guy who retired in December of 2016 and that old mercantile store was built for him way before I was born.

honoring injury

Her captivity is the result of an unfortunate turn of the knee. The story is pretty great of a woman putting herself in front of children but the irony is she doesn't get to see them anymore. Just for a short time. Just till after surgery.

"Whiskey?" I ask.

She laughs. "No, I'm fine. The doctor told me to double up on the pain meds."

"You'll end up on heroin by next week."

"I know. That's what I told Steve."

"A&M?"

"I'm trying to low carb it."

"What does that even mean?"

And there begins a series of this happened and can you believe this and yeah, I remember this and how in the world and no ellipses because a conversation filled with stories can go on forever but somebody has a picture to take.

What if your biggest daily challenge is to listen and talk with people you love every day and still complete projects?

Today I am grateful for my biggest daily challenge.

thebrooke

Remember this?
I don't really want to know because I am fearful that it's not but I definitely hope that her life is good.

como opera guild

Find one of the old signs or discover there is no remaining physical evidence to what you are sure happened.

Today I am grateful for a sign.

aesthetic

This guy + Como, don't you think?

I think.



Today I am grateful to be able to view the world through someone else's eyes.

must get ready but this

jazzy

It's gotta be somewhere.

cake day, notes, playlist, event code

A strawberry cobbler though after two pies and one intense cake we may be pushing the fruit to it's limits except that they will be gone soon. Not gone gone, but the ones down the road won't grow and strawberry cobbler it is with a side cake of german chocolate since we're a year past the teenager stage.

Today I am grateful for ingredients.

Now on to the notes.

1. Professional lighting.
2. One chair. (The one in the last photo?)
3. The lighting on the chair needs to be a soft, diffused, left above the lion from a blur of you almost know this place to a focus sharper than what I have here.
4. The music starts.
5. Chair without anyone in it.
6. Chair with someone in it.
7. Ease into it.
8. Tripod.
9. Single perspective.
10. You need some Tracy Chapman. Macy Gray coming in from the right.


Eddie Vedder? Could you even?
Who could do a Leonard Cohen cover?