Okay, I get that I *may* be going a little overboard with photos of the flowers, but dammit, they’re so pretty, and I fully plan on coming back to these photos when the next ice storm traps me in my house for a week, and if you’re honest with yourself, you do too.
| Daily Photo | Comments (3) |
Well, okay. I grew the tomatoes and the basil that are in it. The spinach, onion, and cheese are all grocery store, baby. But damn, it was delicious. I was re-planting some potted basil last night, putting it in the ground as it had outgrown its container, and some of the plants didn’t come up with enough root to go back down. So, I took them inside, rinsed them off, and added them to this bowl. It totally made the dinner. Add a little low-fat bleu cheese dressing and voila!
| Growing, Daily Photo | Comments (2) |
This lily blooms every year during Pride Week. It’s one of my favorites in the entire yard, and as a bonus, it’s attracted a whole host of bees to pollinate my garden for me. So not only does it give a burst of life and color during one of the most fun weeks of the year, it’s going to make sure that, come the end of July, I’ve got full, ripe cantaloupes for breakfast every morning. Yay!
| Daily Photo | Comments (0) |
This is Pride Week in Oklahoma City. Friday night Brian and I will be celebrating the release of our friend K.C.’s new live record at The Blue Door, and you should all come join us. We were there for the taping of this album earlier this year, and I can tell you firsthand that these are some of the best performances she’s ever given. That girl’s hitting her creative stride in a whole new way; the record and the show are going to be off the hook.
Afterward we’re hitting the bars to dance and party our tails off in solidarity with all of California’s brand-newlyweds.
We’re taking next Monday & Tuesday off work to party a little extra and to make sure we’re good and ready to get our groove on at the True Colors Tour stop in Oklahoma City on Monday night. Five hours of music and fun featuring Cyndi Lauper, The B-52’s, Margaret Cho, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Andy Bell and Carson Kressly.
For the unaware, Cyndi Lauper has released a fantastic new album titled Bring Ya To The Brink, and it’s one of the best, most fun albums I’ve purchased in awhile. It makes me want to shake every part of my body, hard. Here’s a video clip of the album’s first single, "Into The Nightlife." If this doesn’t perk up your spirits and make you want to dance, there might be very little hope for you:
| Heaux-Meaux, iPod | Comments (1) |
There’s nowhere I’d rather be in June than Oklahoma. The clear skies and almost-nightly thunderstorms give rise to some of the most beautiful sights and fascinating weather in the entire world.
| Daily Photo | Comments (2) |
This summer, the second weekend in August, is my ten-year high school reunion. I’m pretty sure I’m not quite ready; I haven’t become the successful best-selling author I’d planned to be by 25 - not to mention 28, which I will be soon - and as a result, my plan to walk away from high school the day after graduation, leave Oklahoma forever and never look back, then return triumphantly ten years later with a bestseller and a movie deal seems to be stalled, slightly.
I was never one of those people who was too good for high school, who thought himself too cool to be there or to care. I enjoyed going to football games and pep rallies, to a degree. I had friends in every group - the library nerds, the popular kids, the drama weirdos, the Jesus freaks - and like to think that people more or less liked me. Like anyone I look back at my tastes in fashion and music in those days and cringe, but I also have a lot of good memories. I cruised around listening to mix tapes, fought with teachers who resented me for correcting them, and was threatened on no fewer than three occasions to be denied a diploma. I skipped class on occasion, and took school trips. They tell me I was in Key Club, but I seem to have blocked out those memories. I can only imagine what they contain.
But I was an adolescent, a member of Generation Y, a group of people born in the late 70’s and early 80’s whose teenage dramas were writ large and were the stuff of lame-ass popular culture, who have largely spent this decade drinking away the feelings they had to endure in teenagedom. I went to high school during the tenure of My So-Called Life after all, and as a result participated in more than my share of lame-ass dramas that, to this day, seem reluctant to completely play themselves out. As much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, the simple fact is that, a decade or more later, feelings remain hurt, pride remains wounded, and I’m a little irritated with myself that I didn’t go ahead and win American Idol when I had the time, just to, you know, show … them … or something.
But even as I write this, even as I mull over my decision as to whether or not to attend the reunion - see, I know I’ll end up going - I realize something very, very important: I really, really have nothing to prove. This just hit me, just now as I was typing. I’m happy, I’m healthy, and I have a great guy and a great life that I love. I’m flush with neither wealth nor writing success, but I am not those things anyway; I learned that a long time ago. And as for the people that I haven’t seen in over a decade, the people I, for some reason, have yet to forgive or let go of, well, okay. I’m going to leave those people be, and look forward instead to reintroducing myself to the people I liked and with whom I’ve lost touch. I’m eager to find out who’s got a family, who’s moved, who’s stayed, who’s gay, who’s gotten fat, who’s happy, and who, like me, are doing pretty great but still not finished becoming.
So, if you’re part of the Westmoore Class of 1998, I hope I’ll see you there, no matter what happened way back when or in the intervening years. I say we put on some Smash Mouth and dance the drama away.
| This I Believe | Comments (4) |
This morning I was able to add a handful of my own, freshly-picked blueberries to my smoothie. They were delicious and big and juicy, and I TOTALLY GREW THEM!
| Growing, Daily Photo | Comments (3) |
Can you find Sam in the photos below?
Okay, that last one was a gimme. But still. That dog’s a chameleon, sometimes. Or, at least, not remotely interested in having his photo taken.
| Sam Fridays | Comments (3) |
Ever since the Oklahoma Gazette joined/formed Tierra Media Group it seems their fortunes have been rising; chief among the signs is the fact that Oklahoma City residents can now see commercials for the paper on their local stations. Three weeks ago my byline was on the cover of this paper, and now, after seeing this commercial, I could not be prouder either of myself or of the publication I’ve been reading since high school and am so proud to occasionally work for:
| videos, Writer | Comments (1) |
These are my favorite lilies in our backyard, and the time of year that they bloom out is my favorite time. It signals that summer is, truly, here.
| Daily Photo | Comments (0) |