That's Why I'm Easy

I'm easy like a Sunday Morning .... went around opening all the curtains in the house. Felt kinda like Miss Judy Garland in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis (directed by Vincent Minelli whom she later married)...when she flits daintily around the house, singing a lovely song, only she's turning out the lights. But you get the picture...as a matter of fact, i started taking pictures as i always have my favourite camera ever(better than polaroid?yep) at the ready. Digital affords me such immediacy, and choice and clickety options.... Ahhhhh technology. Now i can invite you in the house for a little visit and a peek at the curtains. Wooo hooo.
so here's the curtains in the living room

The dining room.

i left Happy's curtains alone cuz she's still sleeping.

I left G.'s curtains alone as it has craftily turned into the explosive

artsie fartsies in there. I opened my curtains and please don't be afraid in my room, the snakes aren't real but just driftwood and manzanita roots i've dyed green or painted to look poisonous. Oh & check it out: i got windows outside my windows. i took the picture from a funky vantage point....
Which brings me to: the inside of the Very First Arched Bookshelf I ever built so that it sits In the wall. Oh how i cried that night, like a big baby because my dad stood me up, my brothers wouldn't help me and i thought i didn't know how. Waaa waaa...I Wanted an arched bookshelf before i could finish this wall. So i made myself do it all by myself. It was the coolest experience. Very gratifying. This is the veiw from inside that shelf:

And here's who hangs out in there.

Hope your Sunday is wholly gratifying and that you find it easy!

this is changa/construction monkey(when the peluda/hair part was blonde) in the arched frame jobbbie - pre-pop-pops when her bigger kids were small-ish and she was pretty pleased.

and these are my prettiest girlies

I gotta be the Luckiest Mother on the Planet! My life is So Sweet, it really is. Sometimes i get scared that something bad

is going to happen. I worry too much. I couldn't get ahold of one of my kids and i thought the worst. I gotta Stop doing that.

I gotta trust in the Good Things. In the future good things, In the good things that have already happened. In the good things that are happening Right Now. Pop-pops went to bed relatively early and i have been surfin the net....enjoying my Saturday Night....I ate the cream cheese topping off of two slices of carrot cake my mom brought home from the church bake sale. I combed out all the scary-ass snarls in my hair. I feeeeel Good. So tell me, if you will: Whatta you got that's good/what makes You the Luckiest Mother on the Planet?

Meanwhile Back in San Francisco

G. Lives on top of a steeeeep climb.

G. is always rushed and G. is pressed for time.

G. he Loves his mother, wears his heart upon his sleeve

G. bought her a train Ticket, couldn't wait for her to leave.

Heee heeee(just kidding!) although we did Bug the Shit out of him. G. is holding up a Brand Spankin' New Adult pass (he turned 18 during our visit!) And in his defense for wanting to get rid of us: we bug. We leave leggos Everywhere. We make a Lot of late night noise. We have problems with bedtime...Big meltdownz. Scream crying. G. got used to the quiet studio apartment life. And there was little brother Crying all loud & obnoxious for No reason, making a mess and having huge fits of babyrage during Delicious lunches we couldn't enjoy because Pop-pops prefers to chase the birds. And when the hill got too steep for me with the strollie and i had to take a break or two or three....G. kept at a brisk trudge wanted to push the strollie his own self so we could climb those steep ass five fucking blocks of calf muscle Work-a Mama Out OMG this UPhill climp to his studio....... - we kinda got into it about the big damn hurry he's in. But then he came home from his second shift [at work across the city], flew in the door with a "Lucy I'm Home!" and everything was Alright with the world. I love him so.

And he really was happy to have us visit. We got along just like old times so it really was Nice & Easy to get down & enjoy each other's company. Oh, I was Sooo Happy to see him. It is just amazing to me that he is so fucking determined/diligent/smart and he wants to accomplish So Much. Oh i got lucky, having him for a son.

In Honor of Veteran's Day

a rainbow from my own backyard, yesterday in Nipomo, California
HOME
speaking of which & how there's no place like it:

LET's Bring them HOME, already!

The bus! The BUS! The bus the bus the bus: San Francisco Style

So this time around, we had the most interesting dramatic gut wrenchingly frightful and injurious (poor Pop-pops lost the first layer of skin on both sides of his ring finger to the fuckin cup holder [on the Amtrak bus] that pinched, bruised then trapped as we tried to pull the lil digit Out and the piece of shit cupholder fucking collapsed right on his hand as he screamed us into a vortex of sssshhh sssh ssshhhh...cried himself to sleepiness) transportation situations. The most trippy bus rides. Ever in our lives. 2 of them. A close third was the last one we took w/G to the Amtrak station on the Embarcadero. A 45 minute ride all the way across San Francisco on Mission St. The Munni bus is loooong and crushingly crowded at 7am, especially when the unregulated back bus door opens for people who don't have to pay. It's Impossible to get to the front/busdriver/till with the people packed in like pickles, (the kosher dill spear kind). Nobody's there to tell these picklepacked busriders that it Is Very unsafe to be smashing us into one another or to be in the little stairwall to the door w/one's Face smooshed against the glass. Crazy overwhelmingly crowded and Fun! G. & I stood facing each other while balancing Pop-pops perched on his folded up strollie, it was exciting and i was thoroughly enjoying myself. Only a littly panicky when we were getting Shoved towards the window. That's when the nice woman let us sit as she had to work her way against the herd of incoming non-paying backdoor people. And we, too, were a dollar fifty richer free-riders cuz we had done the same thing; but Not to not pay as i had my paper dollar & fitty sense All ready. You have to put the dollar bill in the bus money taker like it's a change making machine - all flat/face up and put the coins in a seperate slot. While holding a squirmy two yr old and managing a heavy stroller, as the bus takes off, it's quite a balancing feat. G., Pop-pops and I almost didn't take the oh so crowded bus thinking we could wait for the next one because this one was oh so crowded. Then we looked at the time and realized we'd miss the Train Home (hello!) so we had no choice. We were standing in front of the back doors when we realized this - So thru the back doors we went. Getting from point A to point B in San Francisco is a wild ride. Although if you ask G., he says the thrill for him is gone.

This is what the Munni bus looks like on the inside, right after the mass exodus (people move in herds) and before this trio of free-riders got out. To catch the bus to catch the train.
Here's the second of the jacked up busrides:

the one i mentioned earlier w/the heinous cupholder incident: OMG. Very nearly at the end of That busride; I was seriously scared for our lives when we went down the Cuesta Grade. Scare the piss outta you steep and winding. When you start out so High Up it feels like you are careeeeening down down down also twisting and turning and Braking - - - as close as possible to the futile little posts on the side of this Mountainous road - that goes on and on...and these Stupid little 2 feet high posts are the only thing seperating the Bus the bus the bus the bus THE BUS! (Pop-pops still Sings that) from sheer cliff and a possible downward nosediving Death. The busdriver would get to going too fast and have to break hard enuf that i had to hold on to Pop-pops, who could sense my terror and started to kick & squirm, tried everything in his power to get away from me so he could stand up and play with the damn cupholder he just almost lost his finger to. He was agitated as All at once the bus got very quiet - all you could hear was him screeching/me fussing with him...the energy was palpably fearful. Hushed and alert. The bus The Bus! was going too damn fast. My stomache started to hurt and i just wanted the ride to be over, already. Stop the Bus I wanna Get OFF!

(left to right: ghastly squooshed lil digit THE BuS! sidewayz the bus right side up)

I was never so happy to see flat freeway and San Luis Obispo! We were almost home. And...you know, there's no place like home...there's No Place like Home.

Oh the THINGS i could post. About San Francisco and my Joy joy and The Drama and the Horrible Mean Meltdowns of the Terrible Twosies when the Pawn

Gets Overcrowded on the bus and some nice little woman of color gets up a few stops before her stop so the lil long haired commuter and I can have her side seat then has to stand hovering over us smiling as she hangs on to the pole with the black strap above our heads before she disappears into the herd of people gettin thru the back doors For Free....

My words and feeelingz are all in a jumble because i experienced such Cosmic Joy, man. And also the hills and my emotional rollercoaster that i was on were fucking steep & heartpoundingly STEEP. I admire the 18 & overness of my Big Son G. Sooooo much OH! my heart could just BURST. So I gotta

re-assemble myself back here in Nipomo and i'll let this Photobooth strip of pictures speak for themselves. I apologize for the unsightly baggage under my eyes but i stayed up all night High on Life and my boys were sleeping so sweetly and just getting to hug and kiss and watch them and i'm kinda proud of the bags under my eyes just a little....i'll be back with more hopefully unjumbliness Later.

Pop-pop's First Ride on a Train. Choooo chooooooo

All Abooooarrrd!!

So what - we only got to travel on the rails for 25 minutes out of our 6 hour trip. It was without incident and way more relaxed, as opposed to the other time spent on the damn bus the Bus! Amtrak is tricky that way (anyway, we prefer our genteeel country bus w/its absence of cupholders, and the bus driver Waits and even once helped me with the strollie and nobody is squishing nobody) It was a Very Nice 25 minutes train ride. Smooooth and flat, as we strolled up to the dining car and got a very Cold Water and a lovely Cookie to share with our little friends that made the trip with us.

Marshlands? We got everything on the central coast! Home again home again jiggity jig.

"OH YEahh!!! "

if you asked Pop-pops, "So, did you have a good time?" i think this look says it all.

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood

Ahwooooooooooo!!!

(Happy & her little boyfriend as a Very Scary Big Bad Wolf. He really wuz scarey. We had to hide the costume deeeep into the craftroom closet until it was time to put it on. It Creeeped me out.)

I mean: BaAaaa-aaaaaaa!

Happy's Pooofy skirt Provided By the psychic connection/gift i have @thrift stores & Nana's wizadry w/her sewing machine and some

curtains. We Totally forgot the foofy Frilly white apron! It got made outta last years Spanish Pirate laced shirt. It is spectacularly Girly and So pretty. I'll get her to put on the whole ensemble for a Happy Tuesday. I like to dress her up like she's a doll.

And she is! Plus she had a kick-ass Halloween.

We all did.Changapeluda masqueraded as:

Mommy Kitty/Hippyified Daycare Worker.

(okay so i just had time for a regular outfit and

i threw on whiskers & some cat ears of Happy's from years ago.)

WE GOT LOTSA CANDY! 2 seperate neighborhoods, as Happy skipped off up town w/her polite young Wolf. Me & Fireman Pop-pops hit the streets around here.

Down in the ghetto,

Where we got the special treatment from our closest neighbors: gourmet popcorn and hot chocolate (everyone else got suckers like you get at the bank)... We got: Pop-corn balls we can trust. Bubbles, the good kinda little baby chocolate hershey bars - 3 musketeers - snickers - milky way - the first to go. Mmmm hmmm. Nana. We got smarties and Pop-rocks (woo hoo) skittles galore, tiny skeletons and plastic snakes & spider rings.. I love trick or treating. Except i shoula left Zoe my Deeeety Dog.... i shoulda left her ass @ home. She tried to go Into people's houses and eat their small dogs. She was feelin Frisky & Her wanted her Own Trick or treatz.

DewBug Daycare's First Annual Halloween Soiree

Okay so the lil horsey was scared shitless of the skeleton decorations,

the Big Bird costume itched like a mother you know whatter (at the time of this photo poor Danielle was in the house dealing with a costume

melt-down), the bouncey house put toooo many limbs in very close contact with The Chomper, and Naptime was a no-go for some....I'd say it was a modest success. The hors-deurves were delish and the guests were (other than a few time-outs) Delightful.

1-2-3-4 Firetruck! Fireman Pop-pops to the rescue!!

We got on the bus 12 hours earlier and the bus driver had a plastic punkin fulla suckers! From that moment on - Pop-pops PARTy-Ed down! Trick or Treated, smelled his feet-ed Halloween

Bashery. Then, he KONked.

Happy Halloween, Heartful!

I call heeem Vladimeeer (in a really bad transylvanian accent)

it was craft-time (also CRAZY time) at Dbug Daycare...Pop-pops on my lap in full (weeeee! aaahhhk)reach of glue, feathers, gooooogly eyes, pooofy colorful balls, and other wonderful stuff. Danielle had two crafty little spillers on her lap and We Learned not to pour all the supplies out at once. Feathered mayhem. With it's eyes plucked out.
My own little creative crafter and I produced a little red nosed, funky fuzzy, inspired by you, dear Heartful -

black & turquoise feathered bat. Hah! Now he flies above our head on the way into our room. He's fully employed as a gatekeeper and dangling Welcome to the Jungle!