A place for fellow ne'er do wells to converge in an orgy of laziness
and mindful mindlessness....oh, and watch cool videos
2/21/09: Snowboarders, skiers and skaters all harnessed the power of the wind this weekend at the 6th annual Kitestorm festival at Sand Bar State Park in Milton.
Featuring:
http://www.stormboarding.com/kitestorm2009.html
Music: Deep Soda, Pose Dead - Collected & Destroyed Vol. 2, "Spirit Flies Ahead"
http://www.myspace.com/deepsoda
Location: Sand Bar State Park, Milton Vermont
2/12/09: After school is heating up this winter at 242 Main where students play and compose music, form bands, and channel their inner rockstars.
Featuring: http://www.enjoyburlington.com/
Location: 242 Main, Burlington Vermont
Theroux paints a portrait of a man [Edward Gorey] who lived a fairly solitary existence by choice, friendly, generous, and apparently comfortable with strangers, but strongly preferring to be alone most of the time.1/3/09: Farmers markets are not just for summer anymore. Winter markets are sprouting up all over Vermont this year.
Stuck in VT
Today I trudged to my sister's house along un-plowed sidewalks lugging my sister's half of our CSA. Winter fought my every step, lashing angrily in my face, causing my clumsy feet to slip and slide beneath me, daring me to give up and return to the safety of home.
Refusing to relent, my feet continued to trudge along in slow motion through the heavy snow, as though encased in syrupy molasses. What is normally a 10 minute walk dragged into 30 minutes. Dark was falling and I was the only person silly enough to be out in the storm. I felt small and fragile next to the fury of winter.
I longed for Oakland and those endlessly sunny days, wearing shorts-n-flip flops, and easy unencumbered 80 mph movement from place to place.
Hours later I was shoveling my driveway for the 6th time this weekend (I am so not kidding, the snow has been relentless) and my cell rang. It was Jen Hing in Richmond, CA. We haven't talked in ages and I started laughing like an idiot. How did I end up here in the midst of a snowstorm fighting desperately to keep my driveway clear while Jen is across the country in the land that is forever sunny?
Life is funny that way. Who the hell knows where you will end up and why?
After a nice talk I went in to get cozy in my lovely and odd, old Vermont house. I am not really sure how I ended up back here in this winter wonderland but I do think I am supposed to be here. And having grown up with this relentless snow, there is a part of me that will always be enchanted and awed by it, despite its ferocity.
Maybe it is good to feel small and humble 10 months out of the year?
These are some photos of our snowy wonderland that I took two years ago when I was walking around in a state of confused shock. The blankets of snow comforted me then. It was a sure sign of beauty and goodness that I desperately needed at that dark time in my life.
And then came Stuck in Vermont and a warm home of my own strong enough to be battered by a winter thick with storms. In short, I am a very lucky and humble girl this winter holiday who needs to get outside to start shoveling again.
Organizations like Vermont Land Trust and
Vermonts Use Value Appraisal Program, also called Current Use, help family farmers like the Moffatts keep their land undeveloped and au natural for years to come.
Oh bloggy, I am so sorry for having forsaken you all these weeks. The lure of Facebook is so strong though. Why post here when I can post on FB and automatically reach out to hundreds of friends across the globe? My little online diary just pales by comparison, feign to deny it.
And to think that one year ago Facebook meant nothing to me. That status updates were not my hourly source of amusement. That I was not able to easily click on over to see photos of friend's of friends Halloweens and Thanksgivings.
Facebook is the brightly lit window on a cold winter's night that I love to peak into. Only I get to peak into windows across the world! Croatia, England, Denmark, Belgium and all over the USA - it is a Voyeur's Delight!
My old Stuck in VT blog got a face lift thanks to Don at 7 Days. For some reason people keep going to it despite its long ago retirement (turns up high in google searches for some reason or other) so we are resuscitating it. Happy days!
This weekend I learned that I need to buy some real boots. If I am going to live in VT, I need to be prepared. After a 5 hour shoot in the freezing cold (pics here), I was frozen through and through thanks to my stoopid fashion boots. This week, I search out some Mucks. It is time to embrace being a VTer, long underwear and all.
This girl just gets better and better with age. I love her all girl band and the dancing in Single Ladies is jaw dropping.
"If I'm working very hard, which is seldom, the last thing i want to do in order to relax is to be with people and babbling away and so forth. 
Whenever I go to Middlebury, I can't help but think about Nicholas Garza.
I wonder if in some alternate universe Nick is still alive and it is his sophomore year. And as I am going around interviewing kids at the Quidditch World Cup, he is there in the crowd somewhere having a good time with his friends. Laughing jauntily and eating a crepe, watching the matches from the sidelines, throwing out sarcastic remarks and strolling to the library later to study.
And the beauty of it would be that I would never know him. His name would not have been splashed all over the TV and internet. Nick would just be another intelligent, motivated Middlebury kid starting out on his life's adventure.
I prefer to imagine him there still, walking to classes, enjoying the change of seasons, DJing at the local radio station and entertaining others with his wit. In a way, a part of him will always remain at Middlebury, even if his body is gone.
Nick's memorial is 4pm, November 8th at Middlebury College. He is very loved and very missed.
Kat and I made the trek up to Montreal for Madonna on Thursday. In all of the many, many years that I have been listening to her, imitating her and shaking my butt to her music, I never once got around to seeing her live. WTF???
Luckily for me, I never throw ANYTHING away so it only took a little bit of digging to come up with my lace black cut off gloves (my sister got these for me in Paris when I was a freshly converted Madonna-phile), striped slutty mall dress (and yes, I can still cram into it), bright orange hair bow (the one they made fun of me for wearing to a Lamoille HS dance) and ripped up Sex Pistols t-shirt.
When she first came out on stage, my heart almost stopped. Then I recovered and danced the rest of the show which was a blur of colors, spectacle, poorly remixed old hits, crotch shots and a musty walk down memory lane.
That chick is 50. Seems like only yesterday I was mesmerized by her gyrating on Night Tracks and copying every move she made.
Love you Madge, more pics on Facebook.
