After dark

"While everyone's asleep, I claim that time for me, and it's too dark to be mowin' that lawn" Trout Fishing in America

This is how I felt last night. I finally got Jake to bed. He is a little night owl. I finished folding his laundry. I did the dishes and picked up the house. Got all the beasties fed and decided to take some time for me.

Had a long hot shower, put on comfy pj's and grabbed a blanket to take outside. I thought about sitting on the porch but I wanted to see the stars. I spread the blanket out and lay down to look at the night sky. The breeze was steady so I fanned my hair out to dry. I brought some tunes but thought I would listen to night noises first.

It was a matter of minutes before I saw the shooting star. It moved slowly and left a long bright tail across the sky above me. I have to say that when I walk in the evenings, I usually am pretty lucky and see at least one shooting star a week. I wondered if this was a remnant of the meteor shower we were supposed to have had that morning.

As the wind moved through the trees, I saw brighter stars peeking through the branches of the crape myrtle tree. Feeling to lazy to move my whole body, I stretched my neck to see if they were a part of a larger constellation.

The horses were in the pasture close by. I could not see them but I heard the ripping of the grass as they ate. The occasional snort as they moved around each other. It was peaceful, soothing...I wondered what would happen if I just fell asleep out here on my fuzzy blanket. Would ants crawl over me and wake me in a stinging frenzy? Would deer sniff me wondering what was in the way of their midnight snack? I left the dogs inside for my own sanity. Daisy's high pitched bark is enough to disturb the peace of a deaf opossum 2 blocks away. Gatsby simply likes to chase and destroy if I am about to prove he is useful. There would be no dogs to chase away any curious wildlife that came to investigate.

I noticed my hair drying in soft waves. I thought about how good laundry smells after being dried on the line. I wondered if the night breeze would give me and my pj's a fresh outside smell. I stretched my arms high above my head and took in the night air. The ear buds went in and I listened to tunes softly so I could still hear the tree frogs and crickets.

This was better than meditation. Actually, it was a sort of meditation except that my mind was not empty of thought. Thoughts were racing through my brain, skipping like stones over the water, from subject to subject. I let it go for a bit then quieted my internal conversation down to concentrate on my body. I noticed how sore I was from my workout that day, noticed I had no more pain from Dewey running me over months ago, noticed the stress holder behind my shoulder blade needed a release. STRETCH, legs, feet, arms, back, abs.....

It was getting late. Time for bed. No computer, no tv, just bed.

must blog

My horse got sick, my hard drive died, had to cut the front 40, had to cut the back 40, had to write the longest run on sentence ever.......

okay crappy excuses for no blog in awhile but I have one coming for real, yes I do, honestly.

My introduction to video

I have been shooting video for fun at home for about a year or two. Nothing spectacular, just using a Sony Handycam. I rarely produce the video, just sort of leave it on the mini disc for future .....or well, I don't know, future archives?

When my friend Rupert suggested that I come out to shoot video for a story the paper is doing on him, his wife and autistic son, I brought it to the boss. I wanted ownership of this story in some way because I had been pitching it since October 2008. When the documentary about taking his family to see shamans in Mongolia was chosen for Sundance and then our own SXSW film fest, suddenly there was some interest. http://www.horseboymovie.com/

I have known Rupert and Kristin for awhile from their pre-kid days. I loved talking to Rupert because of his love and knowledge of horses. We would begin a horse discussion at a party and our spouses would drift away bored with our enthusiasm and subject matter.

I met Rowan, their son when he was two and not diagnosed with autism. He was a cute energetic boy then. Someone was always chasing him. After he was diagnosed, we lost touch until last year when I got his email from a mutual friend. I wanted to talk horses with him and found out so much more about what he and his family were up to.

Their story was written about in the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/books/15horse.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

The Statesman will have a wonderful Pat Beach story coming out soon. I got to shoot the video. I shot 20 minutes of footage that I will need to whittle down to 2 minutes. I hope I can do it. The raw footage looked decent for a first try.

I got to the New Trails Center and there was no one in site. I pulled around back and met Christine who is Rowan's home school teacher and occupant to the house at the center. There were horses milling around the back and very soon a carload of children arrived ready to play with Rowan and have lessons on the horses. They played with the bunnies and goats, jumped on the trampoline and climbed the mulberry tree searching for ripe berries. I was getting good B-roll but also getting annoyed that the main interviews were not there yet.

Christine rounded up the horses, and got a student mounted. She needed to get the loose horses put away, but was having trouble with a newly gelded horse who was running around like crazy because he was separated from his friend. I helped her catch him and was walking him cross the paddock when the gang finally showed up. Must have been a sight to see me in my skirt and keds, walking a spirited horse across the paddock.

Finally I could get some footage with Rupert and Kristin. Unfortunately it was 5pm and I needed to get my kiddo from daycare by 6pm. I was 45 minutes away from town and it was rush hour. I would have to call the cavalry. My neighbor Karen came to the rescue, got Jake and took him to her house. No more distractions or outside responsibilities.

Got my interviews, Kristin's better than Rupert's because of the location, got footage of Rupert and Rowan riding and finished up. Rupert had been trying to instruct me on some horse moves via email so he told me to get my own camera and he would show me what he was talking about. I got another 20 min of video of him showing me how to teach my horse to bow and how to teach a horse the Spanish Walk. I thought that was a decent bonus and made up for them being so late.

Of course it made them late to whatever they had going on next, but I suspect life will be like that for them for awhile as they enjoy success from the movie and book.

I hope to volunteer at New Trails with Bailey and start teaching again. I am not sure where I will find the time, but I am sure Jake would love to play out there once in awhile. I'll post the video link when it is done, all 2 minutes of it.

Easter Weekend

Why is it so hard to get into a groove of something you know you ought to be doing but cannot seem to get started. So many examples come to mind: cleaning the house regularly, flossing, eating right, hanging up what you have just taken off....my thing is church.

Religious holidays always remind me of this. I grew up Methodist. It was a great loving church with a kind minister and a friendly congregation. I felt at home there. I did Bible school in the summer, was active in youth group, sang in the choir when I had time and even felt comfortable enough to disagree with the pastor on the theme of a youth service. Clowns..yuck, I boycotted the service when I normally would have had a solo and been a strong presence in the service.

To tell the truth I miss church. THAT kind of church. I am not comfortable with the mega church my parents go to. I want hymnals not lyrics projected on the wall and a rock band.

I want structure. I want a sermon that means something to me. I want to shake the pastors hand as I leave and say, "thanks, that sermon spoke to me". I want my son to have a strong moral base learning the stories of the Bible from someone other than me.

So what is stopping me? Getting out of bed and dressed Sunday morning, going by myself is not really appealing, and then of course the search for a church that is close yet fits my comfort level.

I honesty feel hypocritical celebrating these religious holidays, Christmas included, with out a church service being a part of everything. We should have gone to church before brunch.

All in all, it was a swell weekend spent with friends, alas not blood family, as they are to far away. We shared our friend's family and they made of feel like one of them. Two Easter egg hunts, one pinata bashing (not very Christian to bash a bunny for candy), egg dying, cascarone breaking and a very grumpy child who no doubt OD'd on sugar made for a fun, busy weekend. I should have squished church in there somehow, but maybe with all the love and sharing that was happening, God (or whatever higher power you believe in) will forgive us. In my church growing up, he would have.

Zooma half marathon

I think the Zooma was a success. It was well organized from the neighborhood's point of view. Cones, port o potties and water all out early. Relatively easy to get in and out of the 'hood.

We did not leave. I was up at 6:45 finishing up the muffins and getting the cooler filled up. The table and chairs were out by 7:30am. The house is about 250 feet from the street so it is not like we can just bound out the door and watch runners.

We gathered about 7:45 and shortly there after the first male runner came through. Since it was a woman's race, I decided to cheer him on but not take a pic. I hung my signs for Pam and Joshunda, hoping I would see them. I should have found the pro camera to make decent pics but it is really hard to hold that and a drink.

There were just a few of us, at first, cheering the runners. Then our crowd grew. The runners were fun, laughed at our mimosas, thanked us for coming out to cheer and wondered if we had any breakfast to spare. The horses were in rare form dancing and chasing around the pasture. One runner commented that they were a nice thing to watch to keep her mind off the nasty hill in front of our house.

Pam saw me and shouted out. I missed the pic but got her on the way up the hill. I got pics of Joshunda going down the hill and up the hill. She looked great in both. You would never know that the hill was so bad at the way Pam and Joshunda looked in the uphill pics. There was a man dressed as a woman, funny. All in all it was a big crowd. I really to think our cheering made a difference on the uphill part. We got lots of smiles and folks chatting back to us.

Good job Zooma! I hope the spa incentives we wonderful at the finish line and that everyone enjoyed running through our neck of the woods....er.. well.. hills.

The neighborhood inconvenience

This Saturday we have a woman's half marathon coming through the neighborhood. It turns around in our neighborhood, so technically it comes through twice. Our comings and going are going to be impacted from 7am until 11am. We are a neighborhood of early risers, get things done kind of people, so I suspect this inconvenience may have made some folks angry.

We are also a neighborhood of opportunists. Since the run comes by our house twice, I suggested everyone come on over about 8am and we will cheer and have breakfast. We also don't miss too many opportunities to have a social nip here and there so I am thinking mimosas will be on the menu. Something decadent about drinking mimosas, eating muffins and watching folks run but what the hell!

My co-worker Pam is running. Her running pals ditched her so she is solo. I am going to make a sign for her, tell everyone about her and she is going to get the BEST cheering section. A neighbor is also running it. We will make her a sign too and she will get cheered. She may stop and have a drink though. Who could blame her? Our house is also on a killer hill so the runners will need that extra encouragement on the way up and out of the neighborhood.

I love the idea of the neighbors hanging out on the front lawn, the kids playing everywhere and runners going by, thinking our neighborhood would be so fun to live in. It really is the best.

Somehow this also reminds me of college. We had "wake-ups" where we would get doughnuts and beer, bring keg to a fraternity and wake up the house at 6am. Beer and doughnuts...mmmmmmm. Now that we have grown up, we are mimosas and pastries. Not too different. Then, we cheered for the drunk guys who decided to take their clothes off and run around naked....now we will cheer suitably dressed motivated runners. Seems more respectable somehow.