There comes a time in the summer where everything is exactly right. The weather cools off, you have parties to go to but not too many that you have to turn down a lot of them, and you've got a routine that you can rearrange at the spur of the moment when something fun comes up.

That's me, right now.

It was beastly hot for a while there, and working out was a real push. But I got through it, and I feel like I'm in better shape now because of it. I've also taken up running lately, and my big accomplishment was to run all the way through Batelle last night.

Which is about a third of a mile. I used to think that was a long way and now I'm like, "I am SUCH a piker." I run to the big rock on the other side, turn around, and then walk/run back. My next goal is to be able to run to the rock and back without stopping.

I started running because, lovely as Curves is, I don't feel like I'm really increasing my cardio capacity by very much. So I'm starting to work up to being able to run a 5k. My goal is to be able to run a 5k race sometime next summer. If I keep running through the winter, I think I'll be able to do it.

After being able to run both ways through Batelle, I'm going to switch to running on the Burke-Gilman trail for a while, and after that I'm going to need to find something with, yes, hills. And other such varied terrain.

Of course, I look like a big dork, this girl sweating and huffing and puffing her way down the road. However? Not my problem. I am getting my exercise, damnit, and I won't let looking like a dork get in the way of that.

Darnit.

And now...the section of the entry you've all been waiting for...new pictures!

Cosmos in my back bed, courtesy the neighbors.

Mambo lives next door. So does her sister Tango.

All of the rest are from Laura's birthday dinner last weekend.

The view from the restaurant, which is on Alki.

The place is called Mamey's. It's Cuban and oh so yummy!

Graham looks mysterious.

The group! Also, another shot of the group.

Jen, wondering where dinner is.

The other end of the table.

Me, looking at the menu.

Me and Jadine! I like sitting next to Jadine.

Laura looks adoringly at Greg.

A nice picture of Laura.

And my pictures from my morning in Vancouver on Monday:

The alley by Murchie's, on Robson.

Infinity.

Bark, on a tree. I took several and this one turned out the best.

And I was bored going across the border.

After several days of feeling cranky because I've gone cold turkey on caffeine again, I seem to have gotten all cleared up and happy again. Yesterday, I went to Tillicum Village since his dad had given him a gift certificate and it sounded like fun.

We started out in the morning on a boat, and took a little tour of the south end of Puget Sound. We went through a salmon fishing ground and then to Blake Island State Park.

They gave us lunch (mmmm on alder-smoked salmon! And the bread was DIVINE. I only had a little, but I'm glad I did.) and then we settled in to watch a demonstration of Northwest tribal dance.

The narration was a little over-the-top, but I have to say that it was honestly worth both that and the two children I was seated between who were talking/whining to their parents the entire time to see the mask dance at the end. Now, i've seen recordings of mask dances before, but this was the first time I'd seen one in person, and it was amazing. I completely forgot that there were people under the masks, and believed, for the five or so minutes that the dance lasted, that those were really the bird spirits dancing in front of us.

After the performance, we wandered around Blake Island for a while, and then took a boat home.

We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out and talking, and then we had dinner and I took him home. It was a long but very fun day, and I need to send his dad a thank-you note.

Now is beginning the fall towards the equinox, where things start happening faster than I can keep up with them. Between the people I'm seeing, and the parties that are planned, and my folks being here for Labor Day (meep!), and then my birthday in September...

My life looks as if it's going to be busy until at least mid-September, and then things should start to cool off as we get towards the end of October. And then they heat up again as we accelerate towards New Year's, and then I fall off the map entirely for a month or two.

You know, I really like this. I'm in one of those places where I am truly content with my lot.

navigation

The body is a compass.
The head points out the stars, the feet
indicate the direction of the core.
The left hand, water; the right, fire.

The body knows which way to go in the wilderness.
Downstream.
The body follows water.

The body doesn't need to know where
north is; south-by-southwest is only the road
to the next cornfield in the stillness of summer.
The body points out better directions.
It is a master of living reckoning.

The body keeps a map in its skin
inked in scars
stretch marks
moles
bruises

the body navigates by landmark
and magnetic personalities.

The body is a bone sextant
sinew muscle nerve cartilage
measured in years, not degrees
in miles and miles of featureless water

of the fish that surface silver by the boat

and the wind ceaselessly stroking the waves.

August 5th, 2003

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