no boys allowed in the room!!!!

What really brings me a lot of ***joy*** lately, and I'm sure everyone knows –– cacti/succulents...here is some of my backyard container garden:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/2014-05-26062140.jpg

I picked a few up a Costco (of all places) on a whim and got o*b*s*e*s*s*e*d learning about them, identifying them, looking at photos of them, and caring for them!

1. They are SURVIVORS and kind of a cool, inspirational model for how to live?
2. They are beautiful/machine-elf-weird and surprising, and it is FUN to watch things grow!
3. They are so biologically and reproductively different than animals or even other plants; learning about them is a constant source of fascination.
4. Riding my bike around Tucson, I see everyone's gardens, or overgrown desert patches, in a totally different way! It is like peeking over the hill into a valley of new information to explore. Knowing that's all ahead is very exciting, It makes me wonder what other things are all around me, now ignored, that will someday be a passion and make me see the world yet again anew. It makes me optimistic!

WOW! What an amazing plant collection / backyard space. That is really beautiful, and that space would make me happy.

Yeah I love to grill up a dinner, have a beer or two, tend to my plants, watch the sunset, play some music...always a perfect evening.

Beautiful! Also inspirational! I have some pots on our deck that I plan your standard assortment of sun annuals in every year (just got them done this weekend) and your garden makes me want to do more. I love it and all your cacti. Yay for happy places!

We have a substantial succ collection too - it has lasted several years.now, while the decorative grasses and ferns I recently planted have all died and the veg patch is looking pitiful.

For lunch, I just stir-fried beans that we harvested in the Community Garden yesterday. They tasted so ... like, I never knew beans could taste that strongly *beany*. That was a nice feeling of pride and "yeah! we did this!" Listening to music and eating home-grown beans.

Those beans got their carbon...FROM THE AIR! THEY ARE MADE OF AIR.

Oh btw guys I have a special corner garden that is a sacred datura, a morning glory, a few trichocereus pachanoi cacti...just sitting around getting all shamanic behind my clothesline. I would never eat them, it's just a dumb joke with myself.

They are made from DIRT and AIR and yet they taste of OM NOM NOM NOM. How can this be. How.

My favorite Instagram photos are of potted plants. Make me happy, your photo makes me happy!

yall give me joy.

The idea of decoupling guilt from pleasure, and just going "you know what? pleasure is really fucking nice. Might as well enjoy it."

i actually laughed out loud with happiness reading this post! thank you.

For the cherub with his flaming
sword is hereby commanded to leave
his guard at [the] tree of life, and
when he does, the whole creation will
be consumed and appear infinite and
holy, whereas it now appears finite
and corrupt.

This will come to pass by an im-
provement of sensual enjoyment.

Those who restrain desire, do so
because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained; and the restrainer or
reason usurps its place and governs
the unwilling.

And being restrained, it by degrees
becomes passive, till it is only the
shadow of desire.

Those are just some words I live by.

IN OTHER NEWS, recent yucky news events are on my mind. I listened to The Anthology of American Folk Music, vol. 1, while cooking up a big-ass meal of arepas & fixins for company. All the songs about women and the bad ends they meet, and their strength and hardships in courting, were really cathartic for me. I heard them all in a different and moving way – when I was 17 and first got obsessed w/those albums, it was "dude these songs are so DARK, they're all about MURDER and shit, also they're OLD." When I listened to it last night, the stories they told seemed real! I could totally envision like a movie in my mind their lives and woes!

It was jarring to hear this refrain, "all the girls wouldn't have him":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOVcN23-3ek

But it lost its "yucky news resonance" because the guy is a figure of fun. Also yuck at "jumped Jim Crow."

"Willie Moore," always a favorite, stood out, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2wMe8s9mCc

Lots of time devoted to Annie, the person who took her life only named in initials – I thought, that's how the levels of attention should be balanced in these affairs.

Those who restrain desire, do so
because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained; and the restrainer or
reason usurps its place and governs
the unwilling.

And being restrained, it by degrees
becomes passive, till it is only the
shadow of desire.

This just made me so sad because it's kind of how I feel about everything in life at the moment.

But then again, I also feel kinda like disconnect from desire is a very powerful philosophy and not really wanting anything is a state of power, and resists the control that would be exerted over you by people who want to enslave you with desire.

But desire for what is the question. Desire as in lust? Desire as in cupidity and greed? Desire as in wanting consumer goods and ~lifestyle products~? Desire to experience the sensory joy of eating a damn ice cream?

Dark old folk music and the like can be a v v positive experience, though, because so many of the things one thinks of as being ~modern complaints~ about the difficulty of human relationships turn out to date back to the beginning of time. So there's a comfort that you're not alone, even if there's no comfort in how shit things have been for so long.

i made arepas for my speech class! also grim folk songs are always going to feel like home. also three cheers for pleasure and sensualism beyond the bedroom.

(i made a chicken thing to go on the arepas, didn't just fling them around like little frisbees)

Today I am mostly vacillating back and forth between "looking at pictures of beautiful men makes me happy" and "looking at pictures of beautiful men creates expectations which can never be fulfilled and makes me unhappy" and feeling weird and guilty about desire.

I have new PC speakers which is making my music sound 3000% better and also there are three peelies on them which I will resist peeling for as long as I can

I have no interest in beautiful men. I do have any interest in beautiful women, though.

It's complicated.

I tried on everything at Uniqlo and now I have like 200% more body positivity work to do. Fucking store.

Ugh god. I hear you so hard on that. I think I need to be sedated to go through fitting room anxiety anymore. It's always such a horrible experience.

Shopping is the worst.

Uniqlo has really good men's socks, just fyi.

I bought some of those silver oxfords at Target for $8.96 yesterday (70% off!) and that was ok, but nothing ever fits me so yeah, shopping suuuuuuux

Target's boot cut (not skinny) jeans are actually pretty flattering and comfortable

I got some great jeans there too! They're high rise, hit directly at ankle which is like a miracle for me.

ooh that's good to know.

i have made the mistake (twice) of buying skinny jeans in my size at target -- and it gave me great sympathy for teenage girls

I have pretty much decided that the only jeans I will wear from now on are these elastic waist jeggings (they are denim, though, not like knit or anything so they look like jeans) because they are super comfortable and look reasonable on me. Hopefully when skinny jeans become hopelessly outdated, this company will make the same pants in straight leg or boot cut or sneaker bottom or clog fray or sandal peg whatever exciting thing comes next w/r/t the width of jeans cuffs. But even if they don't, fuck it I am a 41 year old midwestern mother* who cares if my jeans are stylist.

*I made Velveeta and Rotel tomato cheese dip last weekend, even. OWNING IT.

carl who makes your jeggings?

American somethingorother? Rag? I got them at Macy's, then liked them so much I went back and bought three more pairs when they went on sale. Like I could tell you where to find them in the Chicago State Street Macy's but I can't remember the brand name. I'll confirm when I get home, though.

I do have to take the waist in but I have to do that with all of my pants so I don't hold that against them.

Uniqlo just have really crazy sizing, IIRC. (I haven't shopped there in years, but even when I was thinner, I always took a size larger than I took at any other shop. And this is with UK sizing running smaller then US sizing, as well!)

I p much don't bother buying trousers or jeans anywhere else except Marks & Sparks any more. I get really happy when I shop there and have to ask the assistant "these are too big, please could you fetch me a smaller size?" (Also, they do the best skinny ties. I really appreciate that they do most colour ties in like 3 different widths: Kipper, Office Worker, Mod.)

I think Macy's sells a brand called American Rag. I have a bag by them - maybe that's it?

I am pretty sure that's it, yeah. I don't see them on Macy's website, though. :( I must have bought them all.

I am a big fan of target's denizen skinnies. I wish they were high waisted but the petite length is just right on me. They dont stretch out, either.

Uniqlo is momentarily forgiven because I bought three awesome dresses and a tube skirt. VERY CONFUSINGLY I need a Small in all their knit dresses but BARELY fit into their largest pant size and that's only by dint of hiking those stovepipes up my thigh meat one leg at a time.

Have already tried on with all my jewelry and shoe options. Very excited to always look awesome this summer!

omg I just looked at the site

DID YOU GET A STRIPED DRESS?

No! Two of the 3 dresses I bought aren't even shown on their site anymore, they must have cycled them out already? But I went for the Cache-Coeur drape dress, which is better looking on. Our Brooklyn store didn't have any of the print or sundress styles in.

I got a pretty skip from there, in a weird mauve color, but it's unwearable because it rides up to my boobs in 5 mins!

Slip not skip

Listen tho, silver oxfords are NIRVANA. Inspired choice, LL.

I have my first (of three) "perfect fit skirt" sewing classes this weekend! We make a muslin pattern from scratch to our measurements.

Today I go shopping for the fabric. So Many Choices.

(Aside to Kinder: I did get what you were saying, and I appreciate it, and thanks.)

My grandma is dying. She's been in decline for a while. My mom has a pragmatic, tough attitude about her family members dying. It's unusual, but I'm fine with it. Here's how the call went the other day.

MOM: Hey, you made it! The school year's over.
ME: Hooray!
HER: I don't want to keep you too long. I just thought I'd let you know, grandma's not talking anymore, and things are getting worse. The next time I call it'll be to let you know she's dying.
[I offer my condolences, say I hope it's quick and easy for her...not totally sure how to react because she doesn't sound sad at all but otoh I know that's not her style...blah blah blah...]
MOM: I don't want you to think I would be acting this way if you were dying. I'm glad you're still alive!
ME: I promise to stay that way as long as I can.
HER: *rioutous, sustained laugher* ...oh, kid, you crack me up!

So, that's how I found out my grandma's dying!