The Big Country

I'm getting very excited to go back to Portland. Living on Vashon is definitely fun, but also a very mellow, and I feel like I'm at a retreat every day. I'm excited to drive down to Portland with my mom and sister. And I'm excited to return to my normal level of over-stimulation. And as soon I get there, I'm sure I'll miss the peace, quite, and carefree island life.

Here are a list of my favorite names (taken from my sticky notes):

Ida/ Ioda       Titus

Diderot          Xerxes

Appoline

Agamemnon    Tempelton

Pascal            Pluto

Lolita             Cosmo

Quentin          Hidlegard   

Basil              

Desmond

Fanny/ Ernest

My parents would have named me Cosmo if I'd been born a boy.

I've still been dreaming a lot. But the images are less exciting visually. Like, the other night it was just a dream where I was serving beer at the Red Bike to D Ku and Jensen, and I'd just had a baby and I was carrying it around but dropping stuff all the time... very weird.

Or I had one where I went to Santi's Bar Mitzvah.
Or where William and I were in a dance concert together. I might paint that one though, so I'll save it.

I love Vashon, but I'm excited to get back to the land of irritating college students.

Raining Rainbow Pepper

Dream Installment #5: The Raining Rainbow Pepper

The same night I dreamt about the conspiracy theorist, I had a dream in which I was a young boy, probably 8 or 9, showing my bride-to-be the ways of the world. We were living in the same run down part of the city that all my dreams took place in that night, and our house was just a rickety structure built off of the street over a huge canyon. I climbed out onto a piece of scaffolding with her, to look out over the beautiful view.  I wasn't scared of the drop, but she was. Above us floated a huge bell pepper.

We sat there, watching the giant pepper as it changed from being completely green, to being a bluish- purple, and then to red. As it changed, powdery liquid color dripped onto us. "You see, it's real color is red," I explained to my fiancée. As soon as it turned red, the green powder magnetically flew to it out of the air, coating it again.

As we climbed back into the house, my fiancée  slipped and almost fell. I tried to save her, but almost made her loose her grip because I got distracted looking at the sunset. Finally we both got back into the house, but she was mad at how careless I'd been, and I realized how badly she needed to eat.

Being Eaten by a Giant Squid: An Instructional Video

Dream Installment #4-- Being Eaten by a Giant Squid

This dream had several parts to it. On one hand, I was indeed being eaten by a squid, on the other, I was watching myself be eaten as a part of an instructional video on how to escape the belly of the beast.

Generally, I would hear or see a part of the instructional video, then relive the same event less successfully or with different obstacles. This is Part 1: Entering the Belly of the Beast.

Toy Story 4

Dream Installment #3: Toy Story 4

The house is flooding! I, a rubber bouncy ball, headed up to the attic through the decorative octagonal window at the top of the house to save the trapped toys. The flood waters were rushing from all directions bellow me as I balanced on some scaffolding to look down on all my friends bellow. "Don't forget to save my cowboy hat," Alex shouted up at me! All of the "zen" toys, the stress balls and meditation themed mellow toys had been put into storage and I fought the flood waters to get through the attic door where they were boxed up.  What I discovered when I arrived, was surprising and sad: the toys of the attic had gone cannibalistic and were eating each other. The only toys that made it out with me back to the window were two tennis balls. They wore long black coats with red trim to indicate their belonging to the cannibalistic cult. 

When we got back to the window, we realized the only way down was to jump. "Just dive," shouted the toys below, so I did. I plunged into the two foot deep floodwaters below and hit the ground with a thud. "I'm just not bouncy enough to dive in this shallow of water." I thought to myself. I looked down to see that I'd scraped my elbows. 


The tennis balls jumped after me, bouncing off the ground and soaring high into the air, looking over the roof of the house. While they bounced, I warned the other toys of their cannibalism. We all ordered pho to celebrate our escape and to satiate the hunger of the tennis balls. 

In James Franco's Car

Dream Installment #2: In James Franco's Car

I'm back at dance rehearsal in the Vashon Island High School Theatre.  My dad and our family friend Doh swing by and we start walking down the highway in search of mushrooms and booze. As we walk down the road in the hot sun, a small, rickety, clown-like car pulls up with James Franco in the driver's seat. "Hey, do you guys wanna ride?" Somehow we all pile in, Dad and Doh in the back seat, myself and some cute boy sitting on my lap in shotgun. "Hey, I'm headed down to Portland to get some good weed. Is that chill?" asks Franco. My Dad and Doh are already lighting up in the back seat, and despite my requests to get back to dance rehearsal, we're on our way to Portland.

After a couple seconds in the car, we're all drunk and high. Without warning, the boy in my lap opens the door and begins to vomit. Rubbing his back as he pukes, I whisper sweet, comforting nothings into his ear. He sits back up and I hug him close. The door shuts. "That was really impressive. You didn't get any vomit on the car. Good Job." I say. James Franco turns to me, furious, "How could you puke in my car? You couldn't even tell me to pull over?" he yells. "No sorry, that was me," says the cute boy on my lap. He saved my from the wrath of James Franco.

After a while of driving, we arrive at a truck stop. A woman comes out from the camping shelter, sees the car and begins to yell at James Franco. "How could you just leave me in charge of this stupid, ramshackle shit hole of a truck stop?! James, you think I give a shit about your truck stop? And you brought friends? I hope you guys don't trust him. He's a piece of shit boss!" We see her room, a beautifully sparse meditative room. Then we all pile back in the car, Franco's friend too, and head back to Vashon.

Spreading Malcontent

I've been having at least one vivid dream a night recently, which I've been recording in a long email draft to myself. I'm also trying to work on an insert for Rebecca's zine. So, I decided to combine those two projects. Here's the first attempt:

The other night, coming out of a series of dreams which took place in the dirty streets of a cobble-stoned city, I became a conspiracy theorist. I was a haggard young man, staking out a popular passageway of the marketplace.
"Soon, it'll all go to hell," I warned! "There won't be democracies, or capitalism. Ha! No, you want representation? You want food? You want medicine or education?! Well, everything will be black market! Thats right!! Ha! The black market will supersede all other powers, governments, and institutions. It won't be pretty, no, it won't be pretty!" Leaning over, hoisting a huge basket of rice onto my back, I waved one hand wildly and trudged back and forth, demonstrating the weight, the burden we would all carry for powers that be in the black market.

I was also the the little boy that watched the fool spewing nonsense about the black market. I just rolled my eyes.

In other news:
I've continued to cook a lot. I've made:
-Fennel Ice Cream; recipe courtesy of Jen's fabulous food blog! I think I would cut the sugar just a tad so my mom would want to eat it (she's sensitive to sugar), but my dad and I have serious sweet teeth, so we were happy as clams!
-Rustic Deep Dish Apple Pie-- not my best pie, but I was trying a weird Joy of Cooking recipe
-Fetta Herb Stuffed Homemade Pasta with a fried tomato topping. I've made this twice now. The first time the stuffing was too salty, so I cut the feta with more cream cheese and sour cream the second time. My sister agreed with me and said it was much improved. I also learned the first time that it's important to seed tomatoes if you want to cook them so they keep their shape and not have them turn into a sauce.
-Onion Mushroom Garlic Hamburgers for Maia and Dad
-Cheesy Rice with Egg whites and Greens (AKA everything we have laying around...)
-Baked Salmon Four Ways
     -Black bean, mushroom, and green onion topping
     -Orange, lemon, rosemary, and white onion topping (w/ salt, pepper, and butter)
     -Lemon, green onion, and white onion topping (w/ salt, pepper, and butter)
     -White onions, green onions, oregano, and mushrooms topping (w/ salt, pepper, and butter)

Home Sweet Home

I've left the Giant Peach for good.

I'm bored at home.

I've gone on some runs. (Two, to be precise.)
Both of them for 2.5 miles. The first one took 30minutes. The next day I went for the second run, but half way through I got a terrible stomach ache and I walked the rest of the way home. That said, the first half of the run went really quickly and I think it would have been an improvement from the previous day, so in total I only took 45minutes. Now, to some this may seem like a long time for a 2.5 mile walk/run. I was extremely proud. Here is selection of my post-run photos after my first run:

update: My physical therapist has told me not to run again. Otherwise I'll throw out my back again.

Please note my squirt t-shirt. My dad saw it and went, "Did you steal that from me? Because, Squirt is my favorite soda. I want a Squirt t-shirt!" I laughed. I felt kind of self conscious wearing it around Vashon. Anyway, I hope you can sense my pride and intense feeling of accomplishment. I celebrated by eating a bowl of creme brulee with Maia that we'd made the day before. Speaking of which, I've become a master chef:

Chicken Sausage Noodle casserole
Cilantro Pesto Feta Pasta Fry
Fresh Garden Salad
Udon Noodles with Spicy Curry and Black Bean Broth (I actually hated this, but my dad liked it... so, at your own risk, really)
Creme Brulee
Mago Lime Sorbet
Crepes with Jam (I actually haven't made the crepe batter or the jam recently, but my dad makes the batter, I fry it and put jam in it. I recommend it, but I can't really give any more instruction than that.)
Garden Burrito with Tofu (this is a fancy name I've given to a burrito with no bean and whatever is in the fridge and some lettuce from the garden...)
Simple Bruschetta
Simone's Famous French Toast!!! (haha)

Maybe future blog posts will hold more exciting news (like pictures from dance concerts!) but these days my life has been filled with contemplative cleaning and song writing about feelings towards lemon creme pies and my incredible twerking skills.



So, that's a fun vid i found of myself. I was showing off my sick outfit.