Orange Sacs?

Yesterday at the market I was browsing the fruit juices, and another foreigner walked up and grabbed this orange drink and said "this is the best one" so I thought ok, I'll give it a try. Then I looked at the label and saw "WITH ORANGE SACS" ???



This morning I popped it open, still curious as to what orange sacs really are, and took a sip. Ah ha! It's like drinking a can of diced up tangerines, so delish.

Nepal, a few photos

I have been in Kathmandu, Nepal for 2 days now and have ventured out walking around the city quite a bit, but keep forgetting to take pictures. I guess it's not so much forgetting to take the photos as much as it is trying to pay attention while walking in traffic (very few sidewalks exist), dodging zigzaggy cars and motorcycles, and trying to get un-lost in the spaghetti maze of un-mapped streets.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizorbeth/tags/nepal20112012/

I am really enjoying it here so far. I am in the main part of Kathmandu called Thamel and it's always very alive and buzzing and moving. And honking.

There's lots of spitting in public, and I learned yesterday that apparently there is a law stating that you can't spit in public. But it seems most people aren't too concerned with that law. Men, women and children constantly spitting. Losing valuable fluids! So not only am I concentrating on dodging the motorcycles, the spit as well. Makes for an interesting and very alert walk.

So, Monday I saw a monkey on a rooftop, Tuesday I saw a cow in the intersection, and today I saw an ant on a windowsill and a pigeon on a ledge...decidedly less exciting animal life in the city by the day. But I hear there's an elephant nearby.

The food here is so delicious and I'm excited to try some of the restaurants locals have been suggesting. I am enrolled in a TEFL course, a 4-week intensive course learning how to teach English as a foreign language, and it begins Monday. So I have the next few days to keep venturing out to see, hear, feel, smell and taste the city. Will be posting more photos soon.

Namaste  (I love how most people say this upon greeting and parting. The vibe here is pretty darn cool.)

We Nepalis

I walked past a book store today and decided to turn around and go back to check it out. I asked if they had any poetry books and the man didn't speak English but he had a sidekick who spoke pretty good English, so he helped me. He took me to the bookstore next door, explaining that they probably had a better selection. So the man behind the counter tosses a book out onto the counter saying I should buy it. It's called The Lunatic and Other Poems, by Laxmi Prasad Devkota. The man helping me explained that it is a very good book by a very important man in Nepal's history who helped found the university in Kathmandu and helped keep the Nepali written language alive in schools. The book itself has each poem in Nepali on one page and the English translation on the next. And it is translated by the author, which is a huge bonus. The man helping me flipped open the book to his favorite poem and explained why he loves it. I am only two days into Nepal and am really enjoying the people here. I also want to learn a bit of the language, both conversation and written, and downloaded a Nepali/English dictionary and phrase book before I arrived. So this book is perfect because it has both, and I can look between the two languages and try to figure it out with the resources I have. I paid my 150 rupees ($1.75) and went on my way. I stopped at a cafe for lunch and started to read the poetry while having some darn good coffee. Here is the first poem of the book, and so lovely...

We Nepalis

1)

We are the children of Aurora,

Offspring of Asia's reawakened age,

Sons of the Himalayas, we crave

To climb the peaks wreathed with the golden rays.

2)

We are the products of the Buddha's soil,

The honey-sweet playmates of Janaki,

                              the flower of our earth.

We are the refulgence of the fingers of Araniko,

And the ripe harvest of Prithvinarayana.

3)

We are the golden dreams of Tribhuvana,

We are Mahendra's garden rich in flowering shrubs,

We are the rivals of the tiger,

And the sentinels of democracy.

4)

We are the still, small voice of humanity's dove

With the Danphe's prismatic plumes of fancy,

We are the scented breath of the Himalayan flowers that grow

Out of the dust of the sages that lie in their long silence.

5)

We are the songsters of the luxuriant wilds

That trill and warble love upon the leafy boughs of the world,

We are the mountain temples of humanity,

We are the pilots of perpetual peace.

6)

We are the liberal liquefaction of the Himalayas,

Snow-breasts that nourish the life of India in a network of

                         serpentine rills.

We are the prophetic angels of the east

That dwell in the dominion of the first sun-beam.

7)

We are the partners of this round home, this terrestrial sphere,

Partaking of a single plate.

We are the worshippers of self-sacrifice,

We are the citizens of the world.

-- Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Over the course of the day I read more of his poems and read about his life in more detail online, and I can't wait to find more of his writings. Such a beautiful, passionate writer.

http://www.weallnepali.com/sahitya-sumana/laxmi-prasad-devkota-laksmi-prasada-devakota

Spain

A few miscellaneous Spain photos from the week of December 19-25th, 2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizorbeth/tags/spain2011/

Malaga, Spain

December 23, 2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizorbeth/tags/malaga2011/

Cordoba, Spain

December 21-23, 2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizorbeth/tags/cordoba2011/

Barcelona, Spain

December 19, 2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizorbeth/tags/barcelona2011/

Kills me every time

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fragments

I stood behind you in line today, contemplating the back of your head and the curlicue at the nape of your neck, and it struck me that I know a piece of you, now, here in this moment, that you do not even know. This fragment of you is mine, this moment a page in your book, and I am the main character. How many pages are there like this one, pages of you that you have not read? Maybe you jogged down a busy sidewalk and ten pairs of eyes observed you in a flash. And all you know are the lampposts stringing ahead of you.

Camping in Fraser, CO

Drove to the mountains this past weekend to go camping just past Winter Park in Fraser. It was a foggy, gloomy, rainy Saturday...

And a bare bones campground...

Got a new tent for my birthday this year, and I love it, so easy to put up. It started to rain as I was setting up, so then I climbed inside and took a 4-hour afternoon nap, aahhh...

Sunday morning. Woke up with ice on the tent. The outer shell was frozen stiff. brr!

And totally unrelated...Mindy attacking Mac with love...

When spacetime gets foamy

The auction at the end of the universe is where all of the defective black holes are being sold to the lowest bidder.

I finally love Mondays

On Monday nights I go from work to poetry class, and then from poetry class to harmonica class. Favorite day of the week.

Tonight in harmonica class we learned Not Fade Away by Buddy Holly...

He made us play AND sing. And he convinced us that anyone can sing despite what we've been told since childhood. He also said that teaching a beginner harmonica class is like creating the universe. (I couldn't wait for his explanation on this one!) "because it's creating order out of chaos." I died a little laughing, because we all certainly sound like chaos right now. And tonight we also learned some basic blues riffs. I love the instructor so so so much. He is just the most genuinely genuine person I think I've ever met. And his deep, southern twangy voice just makes me want to curl up inside of it and backstroke through some cotton balls while eating buttery grits.

CuddleBunnies!

I died 1,000 times in a row when I walked into the room and saw them like this.

Today probably never happened

09152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201120111509092011151520110909152011201109151509201201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109091520112011091515092011201115090920111515201109152011

Some photos and such

Driving home from the airport Sunday, I saw a pretty amazing sunset over the Rockies...

Tonight Mindy passed out on her favorite blankie...

Crazy cat lady...

Adorable BFFs...

My favorite neighborhood characters

These guys got painted over with plain 'ol mailbox blue yet again...and a few weeks later they returned...

And they applied too much pressure and ripped the page

It feels like someone is trying to erase my head with a big pink eraser, starting at the temples.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A bit played out

Radiant remorse,
A matter of course.

Crossing the Rubicon, event horizon,
        fait accompli...

Searching for a new story in the demon transcripts, of slum ruckus and
       fainting dainties.

The uncivil bellboys at unbent hour,
luckstruck providence rise to power.

Whimper

Ginsberg saw the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…

We have seen the best minds of our generation quarantined to retail registers and fast-food fryers.

Ice cream shoppe

Today I saw a beard, a thick, bushy beard, and immediately thought of how much I would like to crawl inside of it and build a nest. But then it seemed so cliche, to build a nest in a beard. I bet there are tens of poems about building nests in beards. So maybe I would build something else in his beard...and besides, I bet he's tired of people wanting to build nests in there. All the mud and twigs and whatnot. I would go to the city and request a permit to build an ice cream shoppe. I think he would really like an ice cream shoppe in his beard, especially on blistering hot summer days. It's too bad though that his beard is probably already zoned for nests. I would have to submit an application for rezoning the residential area as commercial space. And I would probably have to get all of his neighbors to sign a petition saying it's ok. I wonder what his neighbors would think if I presented them a petition that says "PETITION TO REZONE BEARD AS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY" … I bet they would sign it in a heartbeat when they learned that an ice cream shoppe will be right next door. Where I live now there's an ice cream shoppe that is so incredibly popular that there is always a line out the door and around the block. I think the beard ice cream shoppe will be just as popular. I hope he won't be annoyed at all of the traffic.

Favorite time of day

My favorite time of day is quiet morning in Autumn when I light a stick of sandalwood and place it in the window slightly open and sit knees to chest watching how the cool breeze dances with the smoke, never repeating the same steps.

Midnight over my bones

Whitman's slow-moving and black lines creep endlessly through my body. I feel them tickling my skeleton. Because that's all there is between my bones and skin, just these moving lines, moving, moving. Except they're not black right now. They might be a dark purple, like midnight. Midnight moves over my bones, and now it feels softer and doesn't tickle so much. It feels like clouds moving in front of the moon somewhere deep in there. I look down at the bare skin of my chest and see the glow fade and become brighter as midnight is moving.

Say this out loud really fast over and over

ping pong teeter totter loopty loo curlicue jim jam flim flam

Syntax

Rupture words, the blowing thought essence! Trying do would distort, or mere do ever dandelion... You speaking it subtle; have exaggerate feeling too secret. For to would its words like vibrations you as if on a like. And describe by it.

Somehow they get into these situations

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Labor Day Weekend

My friend Benny was in town from LA for the holiday weekend, and here are a couple of pics from the Denver Botanic Gardens...

And here are my fluffy love muffins all cuddled up in their favorite blanket...

Although Mac isn't making a face that says, hey, this is my favorite blanket...

From light to dark

illuminated eyebeams

bridging the vast

expanse of dreams

a world unsurpassed

of surreal crimson clouds

or full dewy moon

a blanket of frost shrouds

the skeletal womb

589 - The first thought of the day.

"The best way to begin each day well is to think upon awakening whether we could not give at least one person pleasure on this day. If this practice could be accepted as a substitute for the religious habit of prayer, our fellow men would benefit by this change." Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human.

Adoration personified

Adoration contentedly peers outward from a corner. Adoration eats hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, tenderly peeling and discarding the shell, rinsing the egg free of debris before gently taking the first anticipated bite. Adoration reaches out slowly without expectation of touch. Adoration smiles warmly at wide eyes. Adoration rides his bicycle carefree through quiet neighborhood streets, widely swerving from side to side, sometimes raising hands overhead feeling the breeze rush through her fingers. Adoration is an ice cream cone on a warm afternoon when she softly drips down the hand of her beholder.

I think I broke something

I have never broken a bone,
so I don't know what that feels like,
or how annoying it is to have to shower with a plastic bag over my arm.
A sharp, sometimes blinding pain. Tears.
What is it, six to eight weeks in a cast?
Moving on…

I have stubbed my toes countless times,
to the point where most of them are now crooked and slightly lumpy.
One of them doesn't really bend any longer.
Very unattractive.
A wince. Sharp inhale.
Disappointment.

A fun and inspiring project

Created my own Word Bowl...



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Weirdos

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Q&A

When I read the poetry of others and a line leaps from the page and shakes me by the shoulders, I always wonder...

what question did she ask herself to write such a fiercely exquisite reply?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I just had a cute-induced heart attack

Word Bowl

Tonight in the writing class we did a fun thing where we passed around a bowl of cut-out words and phrases, and we grabbed a pinch full and laid them out in front of us. Then we spread them out and arranged them and wrote a poem using all, some or one of the words in about 10 minutes.


Pennies and chewing gum
line the driveway of your childhood home.
You stand there frozen
in a time when red hots were icy
on a sharp inhale,
your cheshire cat grin shimmering.
Wispy courage,
"They're coming." he said.
So your teeth sink in and
you will taste it...
and were you very sorry to come away?
"I'm youth, I'm joy."
A pearl eraser
skims lightly at the surface.

True Cat Lady Style

When I come home and enter my apartment, I'm usually thinking about nothing specific, nothing too exciting, no grand plans for the evening, just ready to unwind with my kittens. And for some reason when I open the door and see those two cute little fuzzbuckets with their cute little fuzz faces, weird things come out of my mouth, so I'm going to start documenting them. Here's how I greeted them yesterday...

"Hi, kitten kaboodle!"

and the day before...

"Hi, kittastrophe!"

and today...

"Hi, kitty kitty bang bang!"

And I'm sharing this because I have no shame.

The importance of being, like, really earnest

I think once in a great, great while
We should look out toward the moon--
You know, the kind of moon that is huge and sits real low in the sky
All big and bright and kind of orangey...
And yell a big FUCK YOU, MOON
Really loud like
And just listen to how that sounds, lingering in the still night air

Random weekend photos

This was a pretty productive weekend. I bought these pieces on etsy awhile back and finally got around to hanging them yesterday. They look so tiny on my walls but I love them...



Close-up...



Birds in my bedroom...



Close-up...



Here's the artist's etsy site...
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ingridartstudio


I happened upon Mac and Mindy in the bathroom today, and the only thing that came to mind was, "My, they sure do grow up fast." :/




Remember these guys? http://shes-taking-notes.blogspot.com/2011/03/these-guys-live-near-my-home-in-denver.html

Well, recently they were removed or painted over with plain 'ol mailbox blue, and it was sad sad sad. And today as I was driving by, I saw that they had returned, better than ever...

Cutest fuzzbuckets ever

I got a delivery today, and the box is their favorite new toy. I couldn't possibly throw it away. Dangit.


They take turns being the kitten-in-box who pops out to scare the other one. And the kitten on the outside plays whack-a-mole. So cute!

Normal adult hobbies

I forget how we got on the subject, but my friend Jen and I last week were talking about robots.

I said to her, "I love robots" and she asked "Why?" and I said, "because they're cute and cuddly" and she said "No they're not, they're metal and rectangular!" So I said, "No, not the robots of the 21st century, they're more roundy" and so I drew one to prove it... And then she said, "That's not a robot, that's a monster!" bah.



I forget how this next part came about, but I then told her I would make her a robot. So yesterday I went to the hardware store, which I absolutely love to do anyway, and I picked up a full basket of robot-making supplies. The guy at the counter started ringing me up and I'm watching his face just sort of snickering on the inside because my basket of supplies screams "WTF?!" and his face becomes more and more puzzled and my inner giggles get bigger and bigger. He then says to me, "I've worked here a long time and this is by far the most random assortment of things I've ever seen."

Yes! I secretly high-5 myself in my head.

And I offered up no explanation. Because #1: He doesn't need to know that a grown adult woman is making a robot in her spare time, and #2: I don't need that kind of embarrassment.

I then went home, got out even more supplies from my toolbox and sewing box and art supply box and went to town making a robot. Here we go...















Jen came over to pick up her robot tonight and the look on her face when she first set eyes on him was priceless. Another inner high-5. I call him the Utilibot2000 because he has tons of usable supplies all over him. She went to an engineering school and says she will motorize him so that he'll be a fully functioning robot soon. Oh, and she named him Jonathan. Then she took him home, but first we buckled him safely in her backseat...



I secretly want to make more robots.

Time travel

I want to time travel to the 1960s and live in Bob Dylan's hair. I'd set up camp, lay out a tarp, and look up at the stars while listening to Visions of Johanna and a distant harmonica.

I'm pretty sure I'd be kept awake until the early morning hours by Bob's friends and the sounds of hey man and I dig it, and lots of long drags on short cigarettes.

And I'd stay awake just long enough to hear everyone leave, except Joan Baez...

as she ironically sang Bob to sleep with her version of Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oprah's makeup

@elizorbeth: I wonder what it would look like if you piled up all the makeup Oprah has ever worn.

@JenLuna: That's a very odd thing to wonder. I think u just earned yourself a weirdo point.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Where's your meow?

May as well change the name of this blog to CatBlog2011.

So there was this 'game' I used to play with DaisyCat called "Daisy, where are your arms?!"...

because she always looked like a Hover Cat (tm)...



And now I play a 'game' with Mac called, "Mac, where's your meow?"...

because when he opens his mouth to meow, nothing comes out...

This might be the cutest thing ever

Mindy has started giving Mac cat-baths, and it's ridiculously cute...